I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
Oury Jalloh was burned alive in a German police cell while his hands and feet were cuffed to a bed. the cops claimed he had set himself on fire but offered no evidence. No one was convicted. It took 2 more violent deaths in the same police building (Hans-Jürgen Rose, died from internal injuries from blunt force impacts, Mario Bichtemann died from a skull fracture), before one cop had to pay a fine. No cop faced real consequences.
15-year-old Jerryson Noor was shot and killed by police in the Netherlands after being accused of trying to steal a bicycle. We was running from police and clearly posed no threat.
Independent forensic tests and later expert analysis commissioned by Jalloh’s family suggest it would have been very difficult for someone bound to ignite the mattress on their own and that fire accelerants such as petrol may have been involved.
A 2019 autopsy commissioned by the family also found fractures (broken rib, broken nose, skull base fracture) indicative of serious injuries before the fire — a point the courts did not allow as decisive evidence. (DW)
Between 2020 and 2022, thirteen EU countries reported a total of 488 deaths occurring in custody or during police operations. Despite international calls for transparent reporting on such fatalities, most European countries still do not meet UN standards for investigating these deaths, leaving persistent gaps in accountability and oversight. Inconsistencies and inadequacies in data availability further underscore the challenges in maintaining adequate transparency in law enforcement practices.
Deaths in custody and police operations
Between 2020 and 2022, thirteen EU countries reported a total of 488 deaths occurring in cus
Obviously, Derek has spent some time in minecraft between his recordings (i mean, literally the entire timespan between him writing the "At the crossroads, don't turn left" thing and december 31st must be. a lot.) We can see that he has a new book and quill that he has started writing in. Ergo, he was actively playing for who knows how long. This part isn't recorded
Meaning that there is, theoretically, a chance that the start of the recording isn't his first time exploring The King's Realm.
Think about it.
Derek must've been in the game for like, a month or something at this point. Possibly longer. While he does mention passing out, I do not think that someone who still needs food could pass out for a MONTH and stay alive (unless there is some King bs involved but I highly doubt that The King would choose to keep D3r alive, lmao.) And he writes his second book, which means he actively played and went around enough to aquire the materials for a book and quill. Meaning that he played. Actively.
(I actually took a look at SFAWTDE to see if he had the materials—and he doesn't! He only has two squid ink sacs, and that's about it.)
D3rlord3 says he wrote the book, uploaded the video, and then went back to those gates. Undeniably, he spent the past month in there.
I know that what I'm about to say is a bit of a stretch, but. What if. What if he had already explored some of The King's Realm, and THEN went back to the beginning when he realized Avery would follow him?
We know from the first entries of the second book he writes that he wasn't fully...sane when he first entered. He could've easily wandered around aimlessly for a while. The mountain puzzle isn't exactly the same level in terms of difficulty as, say, the lake puzzle. You could at the very least get past it if you had enough blocks to do so.
Being mentally unwell, I highly doubt he could focus on what Avery is up to at this point, so he might not have immediately went, "oh my god Avery is gonna do it oh no" and so might have focused on another agenda. Maybe focusing on getting better, maybe traveling The King's Realm.
While I don't think this is what happened, I wanted to say all this so that I could make a justification about something that bothered me:
Remember how I mentioned Fake Avery?
Fake Avery as a whole doesn't make sense as a trap to me, I'll be real. D3rlord3 knows all there is to know about Avery. This is, like, the worst way The King could have tried to divert D3r's attention.
So what if the Fake Avery trap was never meant for D3rlord?
Assuming that D3rlord3 had already travelled through this point, The King might've...done whatever he does to interact with the world and lay a trap for the next person who would cross the mountains. Maybe The King's Realm assumed that, D3rlord3, having already crossed the mountains, would move forward, so it just assumed the next player to move would be Avery.
In order for this to work, the Fake trap would have to be something more automated and adaptive. Obviously, Avery would immediately know that whatever is standing in front of him isn't him. So, I propose that the trap works like this:
Player crosses the mountains.
Send someone Player would trust, so that Player stops progressing beyond the mountains.
Fake!Player guides the Player to somewhere else.
I was then stuck thinking of why The King might use something like this on Avery (wouldn't it be better if he went further into It's Realm?) but then realized the answer might be super simple:
The King wanted to waste Avery's time, so that he could properly prepare himself for the merging.
We know that the King needed time to get himself together, so that he could merge with Avery. This is, probably the entire reason the church exists, and why The King didn't immediately merge with Avery upon his arrival.
The idea that The King wouldn't have multiple traps like this doesn't sit right with me. Cuz like. The vibes I got from this dude in SFAWDTE was that it enjoyed messing around with D3rlord3 and how paranoid he behaved. (Dunno if this is pop knowledge, but the grass block wasn't the only trap that was clearly set off. The block order in the dropper was wrong. I think the places of the glass and the wood planks were switched or something. This means that The King Knew that trap was there for it and decided to make it clear that it Knew. Being smart enough to place the blocks back in place, and it doesn't put them in the correct ones? That sounds like mocking to me. Here you tried to set a trap. Here, It figured it out, and set it up wrong. It knows that you know. It wants you to know that it knows you know.
There is a reason that "You can't outsmart it" line is in the book.)
The existence of this trap would mean that The King attempted to waste Avery's time more than once, and that makes more sense to me.
For many, many obvious reasons, a Fake D3rlord3 would have worked better than a Fake Avery. Avery doesn't know how D3rlord3 is supposed to behave. Avery is less paranoid than D3rlord3. Avery already looks up to D3rlord3. Avery would have followed a Fake D3rlord3 to wherever The Fake wanted to lead him. Tragic, but Avery would have fallen for the trap.
This would also mean that D3rlord3 saved Avery from falling into another trap.
whatever you do at the crossroads, keep moving forward.
web weave on sfawtde/dawtde by wifies, which WRECKED me </3 what to do when you find each other too late and lose each other too early, when saving him dooms him at the same time...
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credits:
asofterworld, #400 || destroying a world that doesn't exist || come home with me (reprise) - hadestown || @/kafk-a || destroying a world that doesn't exist || the worm king's lullaby || destroying a world that doesn't exist || @/starpeace || destroying a world that doesn't exist || @/pencap || destroying a world that doesn't exist || eurydice, sarah ruhl || inkpot gods, the amazing devil || orestes, euripides (tr. anne carson) || destroying a world that doesn't exist || orestes, euripides (tr. anne carson) || inkpot gods, the amazing devil || destroying a world that doesn't exist || little weirds, jenny slate || i do not love you except because i love you, pablo neruda || destroying a world that doesn't exist || asofterworld, #400 || destroying a world that doesn't exist
Silm time travel fixit fic where Curufin is spat out into his younger self fairly early in YoT, and when his efforts to solve the Noldor's political/ Melkor problems bear no fruit... he just fucks off to Alqualonde to apprentice as a ship-builder, because it's a concrete and fixable future problem.
Curufin is generally portrayed as one of the most unrepentant feanorion and kinslayer, which makes it fun to put him in a position to make changes
in part because he arguably did not see just how bad things could get! Like it makes kinda sense for him to focus on fixing Aqualonde, because that's the (ostensible) crux of the issue for both the Doom and the tense political situation with Doriath! I do think that without it, Thingol wouldn't think to meddle with the silmarils. (Personally I don't think he'd be much warmer to the Noldor, or more of an active participant in the war against Morgoth. It's hardly as if he invited anyone but the Arafinwions to visit before he found out, even when it would make political sense to treat directly with Maglor and/or Fingolfin. But there's a big gap between being self-serving and seeing your political neighbors as an active threat!)
2b. And I can see Preventing The Luthien Incident as a priority for him, because that's when he lost Celebrimbor. Like, it's a significant plot inflection point in terms of Doom, but I think it might be more visible and important to him as a huge negative turning point in his family life first, politics second, and then maybe he doesn't have a broad enough view to consider it the beginning of the end for the feanorians.
He's Daddy's Favorite, ostensibly, which in some ways makes it easier for him to find excuses that Feanor will accept.
Related to #3, I do think Feanor would be enthused to see his most craft-minded son taking a proactive interest in his desires to explore, and to leave Aman!
By the time Curufin died, he had spent hundreds of years as a grown-ass elf out from under his dad's shadow (as much as possible, given Feanor's long, LONG shadow across the whole legendarium). I think Curufin would be deeply frustrated at having Feanor checking his work again! Like he gets thrown back in time and suddenly understands why Maedhros and Maglor spent the Formenos years taking every possible opportunity for an out-of-town trip, and why Celegorm spent more time hunting than in the fortress.
5b. For bonus points: Feanor is excited/relieved to see Curufin striking out on his own more. He was worried that his favorite son lacked independence of spirit! He is unexpectedly very enthusiastic about Curufin's sudden interest in boats!
Curufin is the extremely noldor son of the most noldor guy. Let him build his way out of a problem!
6b. He will build himself into exciting new problems instead.
He spent the whole crossing after the Darkening miserably seasick, and wants a chance to get over that, because Pride.
(He wouldn't admit it under torture, but he'd rather not leave the Indision factions behind. In part because they're friends! And in part because he just knows that if Feanor had a chance for the worst of his grief to fade, he could have been a good king! He could!*)
Bonus: Finrod thinks that the boat thing is an excuse for Curufin to hang out with him more, and is very disgruntled to be ignored in favor of lectures on best methods to waterproof a hull.
Galadriel joins in to Spy On The Opposing Faction, and they develop an unexpectedly good-natured rivalry over who can develop the most efficient new innovations.
i do still think the funniest thing to ever happen in the tolkien fandom is that time the silmarillion ao3 tags got updated to sindarin names only and it accidentally recreated thingol’s quenya ban. and i don’t think we talk about it enough
svsss horror game au where shen yuan is first in line to buy the pidw-inspired rpg where you play as a wandering cultivator with amnesia, and are taken in by the cang qiong sect during the head disciple days of the last peak lord generation.
because pidw knows its audience, a large part of the marketing was focused on the romance and action aspect of the game, with additional lore from deleted novel scenes—how could shen yuan not buy this game? maybe the peak lords will finally be more than props in the background! the romance aspect seems to be at least somewhat tastefully done, if he can trust the leaks, with more emotional depth than fetish fulfillment (shen yuan swears that if there is even one unskippable cutscene of some peak lord's feet he's going to chuck his computer out the window).
shen yuan customizes his character, going all out on the clichés because why not, giving him white hair and peerless beauty and all the characteristics of an A+ wife (beauty is power in pidw), actually excited to play the game. the first part is standard, you wake up in a barn with amnesia, only a sword and some items to your name, and have to do some tutorial quests to get used to the game mechanics. it's simple enough. eventually, you end up in a village that shen yuan is certain is possessed, because all the NPC's act very unnatural and strange, and it's pretty unsettling. here, the player is supposed to meet the cang qiong head disciples on their own quest, who naturally think the player is the most interesting person they've ever seen, a super special cultivator, and will take him in because the player is the most coveted character in the universe (apart from luo binghe, that is).
of course, before shen yuan can get very far, he ends up being transmigrated into the game as his own character. it could be way worse: he's a cultivator, peerlessly beautiful, destined to be picked up by the most prestigious sect, and has his own protagonist halo of sorts. he's honestly pretty excited about this
until he finds out that the marketing heavily downplayed the horror elements of the game.
shen yuan is calmly eating a meal in an inn of the village, waiting for the next quest point to start, when suddenly,
[ system notification ]
"you are being observed"
observation level: ???
entity classification: unknown
engagement protocol: do not acknowledge
right after, the windows go dark, not closed or shuttered, dark, as if something large has just leaned against the side of the building. no one else acknowledges this.
shen yuan shakes it off. it's just a game, it's... ambiance, that's all. build up.
he walks through the streets of the town, using his low-level talismans to try and find traces of the entity he's supposed to defeat or uncover to complete the quest. he pauses beside a broken cart, one of its wheels is half-sunk in the mud. the system pings again.
[ system notification ]
"it's behind you."
note: do not turn around.
(option to suppress message: [ ] not recommended)
the street is utterly silent. a prickle begins at the base of his skull. something is there. some deep animalistic part of him is already screaming not to look.
it disappears. he earns 5 survival points. he hopes he won't have to earn any more.
later that night, shen yuan looks for shelter, finding an old shrine visible from the road, just at the side of town. he steps inside and sees old incense sticks, some forgotten offerings. it's simple, but dry. it will do.
he crosses the threshold—
[ mission triggered ]
mission objective: hide
time limit: unknown
condition to complete: remain unnoticed
footsteps crunch in the leaves outside. every nerve in him goes rigid—not human.
too heavy. uneven. it's coming.
shen yuan ducks behind the offering table, body pressed flat against the ground. he slows his breathing, barely daring to blink. a screen in his peripheral vision blinks to life.
[ environmental mechanic activated ]
microphone mode: ON
sound detection level: HIGH
a semi-transparent sound meter appears. with every shaky breath, the bar pulses red. shen yuan clamps his hands over his mouth.
something passes, just beyond the shrine's opening. large. the system does not count down. there is no timer. the floor boards moan faintly beneath a ponderous weight, something drags across the ground.
shen yuan forces his body still, trembling so hard it hurts his teeth.
it leaves. the system congratulates him for surviving. it doesn't tell him what he just survived.
it's a relief when the head disciples of cang qiong show up, and the story delves into romantic cliches and relationship prompts. he gets to see liu qingge shirtless. shen qingqiu is typical tsundere. yue qingyuan is the soft gentle type. shang qinghua acts... off. he isn't what shen yuan thought he would be, less cunningly charming, more, well. nervous. of all the head disciples, he's the only one who actually seems like he doesn't want shen yuan to be here, always looking around.
like he knows shen yuan didn't come alone.
more instances like this occur. one moment, he's farming reputation points and relationship points with the other characters, doing quests and gathering memory fragments that will help unlock the player's backstory, the next, the system seems determined to make the game hell.
it always comes out of nowhere
[ system update ]
"warning: your heartbeat has been logged by another entity."
would you like to mute heartbeat tracking?
[ ] yes
[ ] no
[ ] it's too late.
he can never figure out what's following him, what that creature from the village is, but it's always there. no one else seems to notice, not a single talisman or ward can stop or detect it.
it comes even when he's in bed, still faintly blushing from a wife-plot equivalent where he fell from a ladder and was caught in wei qingwei's arms. he got to pet the pangolins too!
he's just about to fall asleep when the system pings:
[ mission objective: survive until dawn ]
hint: do not scream
somewhere beneath the floorboards under his bed, something begins scraping. like claws trying to memorize the layout of the house from below. shen yuan doesn't dare move. sleep never comes that night.
*
he can farm intelligence points by attending classes, and being the monster and plant nerd he is, qian cao peak is his first choice (it's either that, being beat up by bai zhan disciples that aren't even liu qingge, or running into shen qingqiu).
in the middle of a lesson on demonic poisons, the system pings quietly
[ system message ]
"one of the bodies in the infirmary is not a body"
objective: don't lose sight of it
shen yuan turns his head, slowly, to the curtained recovery beds along the wall. the curtain on the last one is slightly open.
it wasn't before.
mu qingfang continues speaking. shen yuan doesn't dare to look away.
*
one day, the thing starts to catch up
[ mission failure ]
"the sound you made has been registered"
estimated proximity: 00:00:17
do you want to run?
[ ] yes (not recommended)
[ ] no (not recommended)
*
[ emergency notice ]
"you were seen"
objective: hide
time limit: expired
success rate: 2%.
do you want to proceed?
[ ] yes
[ ] yes
*
[ achievement unlocked: it found you anyway ]
*
anyway, can you tell i had fun with the horror prompts? ^_^
i just have sooooo many ideas for the player's backstory, where it seems the character is just a blank slate for the player to project themselves onto, but there is so much more to them than you think. im also having loads of fun with the creature that follows the player around, i love making it as disturbing as possible.
mild spoiler: the creature is real and connected to the player. other characters can't detect or interact with it, but it's slowly growing stronger. shang qinghua is, of course, airplane, and as he was directly involved with the production of this game, he knew that as soon as an OC showed up, that thing wouldn't be far behind.
also, i love the idea of shang qinghua being stuck in a dating simulator as one of the options to romance. now shang qinghua has to play along with his own cringy cliche meetcutes, like showing the player around, flirting with the player, and generally playing the role of suave administrator with a dark secret (he's terrible at it). he had to do the "there's an eyelash on your cheek allow me" move on the player (shen yuan), and almost cringed out of his own skin. though, shang qinghua is the only one who can properly emphasize with the player, because he actually knows what horrid creature is stuck to him and what kind of horror scenarios the player has to go through (accidental cumplane? it's more likely than you think).
it's a bit of a mindfuck too, because shang qinghua can't tell whether the player is also a transmigrator, a puppet controlled by someone from another dimension, or a fleshed out OC of the system. he's also not allowed to ask, so it remains ambiguous. until, of course, they find out they're transmigrators and shen yuan has to deal with the fact he almost romanced airplane.
shen yuan makes a joke about defeating the creature with the power of love. shang qinghua says he wished it was that easy.
can i just say that’s it’s understated about the water parallelisms in naming for shen qingqiu, luo binghe, and ming fan are??? like, shen qingqiu 沈清秋 obviously is a name loaded with symbolism and that his surname 沈 primarily meaning “liquid” or “to pour” but also that i could mean “to submerge” or “sinking” is like, beautifully symbolic.
evidently we all understand that luo binghe comes prepackaged with all of the luo river meaning. but for ming fan 明帆 to essentially boil down to “bright sail” is so cute?? while none of the characters in his name contain the water radical, that 帆 references a boat of all things is amazing with the context of the other two’s names. like, and let’s stretch our thinking just a bit, considering shen qingqiu could be said to be “drowning,” ming fan as a vessel or vehicle (i.e. boat), and luo binghe as the river—the metaphor comes together perfectly, does it not?
shen qingqiu poured a cup of tea onto baby binghe. he taught ming fan to mistreat his shidi and encouraged bullying, using him as a vehicle for his tormenting purposes. luo binghe sank the ship and drowned the man who steered the boat.
luo binghe is a character that makes me really uncomfortable, and him being in a relationship with shen yuan even more so, to the point where I just block people who actively post about the ship (especially in a positive light) since I can't selectively exclude tags here and want to trawl #svsss without cringing out of my skin. normally I would block you too.
however your posts are actually so fucking amusing and witty (and committed to never portraying luo binghe as capable of a healthy relationship) that I just can't bring myself to do it. I'd miss out on so many bangers 😔
congrats on the achievement of being funny enough not to block even though you post a ton about a ship that I can't stand!
