Posts made by AeriaNyx

@crawfish This makes me so intensely happy! I just adooooore it so freaking much!!

So, talked to the vet today. Have an appointment tomorrow at 10:45 to put our baby to sleep. I haven't cried this much in years. I've had an uncle and a cousin pass in the last 6 months, and this is killing me. My husband is beside himself too. I realized that like... we've had him 16.5 years, which is close to half my freaking life. Like, I've had this cat for the vast majority of my adult years. I laid in the bed next to him and just listened to him purr. I am going to miss that purr.

So, my beloved Stitch, who has been having problems, we thought, with his teeth, was discovered to have a tumor under his tongue today. I've been blessed with sixteen years with this adorable, loving, fluffmonster. He's been there for me any time I was sad or sick. He's given me years of feels and laughter and delight. We are probably going to put him down on Friday. My heart is completely broken.

@GreenFlashlight I've only seen the first two episodes thus far. The only penis I've seen was a literal snake. Not a snake's penis, but rather a dude that had a snake for a tallywhacker. Soooo. I'm not sure if that was the thing, but contextually I doubt it. When I get to the latest episode, I will be super disappointed if it goes that route, especially considering the tenor of things overall. We'll see!

So many things to mention! I get the biggest kick out of The Female from The Boys being the voice actor of Glimmer from She-Ra. This delights me so much.

She-Ra is freaking amazing.

What is REALLY baking my noodle at the moment though, is Lovecraft Country. Holeeeee shiiiiiit y'all. From the appalling horror that was/is the reality of being black in the United States to the WTF horror that randomly appears. It is great. Great in the way that it leaves you horrified on multiple levels.

Spur of the moment scenes with awesome people having a blast! This has been a stretch of good times. I've really been feeling much better.

When you feel like all your creativity has been dried up and then you stumble across an idea that shines so brightly that it motivates you to get things done just so you can do that inspiring thing. And then you do it and it is AMAZING and better yet, people ENJOY it!

I love writing things for people that delight them. I love being surrounded by other writers who enjoy the same. Arx has taught me so much.

I just found out my cat, Cricket, has cancer. It's a cytoma, rather than lymphoma, so it's like... the best worst case scenario? But my heart is breaking and I'm struggling. I'm struggling a lot. This feels... I don't even have the words.

I watch WAY too much YouTube. I am ok with this.

Good Mythical Morning + Good Mythical More - I love me some Rhett and Link, will never apologize
Mythical Kitchen - Josh is freaking hilarious and Nicole and Trevor are darling
Biographics - I have really gotten into this channel lately, but then I'm a total fool for history and biographies
Jamel aka Jamal - I don't know why I love reaction videos so much, but I really do. This guy is super positive and open, and he cried during Jeremy by Pearl Jam and just, yup. Sold.
Frog Leap Studios - I love me some metal covers and this guy is just amazing.
Kittisaurus - One of my cats watches this show intently. It is bizarre. She legit watches it. I love it. Plus my god, Lulu. Don't forget the subtitles unless you speak Korean. ETA: Thank you @Packrat ! WTF is wrong with people??
Film Joy or Movies with Mikey - Super insightful, lots of interesting takes on movies and the writing behind them.
Hot Ones - Love love love this show. Incredible interviews, funny premise.

I play Reigna (shocking!) and Alecstazi (Maybe surprising?)

When I am running a plot, I try to ensure that there is a variety of ways to contribute, specifically those who are less combat focused. Granted I tend towards a very 'I'll come up with it when it's happening' style of late, but it has been fairly effective in ensuring people don't get left out. If I see in the rolls that someone hasn't had a lot of success, I will often throw in a trap or a puzzle that allows them to contribute to the action in a noticeable way, to let them shine too. My style of STing has grown increasingly fast and loose, to the point that I really just come up with a general idea of what they are going to be doing and then let the players direct the action. This is really hard to do in scenes with 8 or more people, and it can end up meandering if I am not careful, but I find that people seem to be having a lot of fun, or are feeling like they are being effective. And really, as long as people are having fun? I did my job.

@Pandora That's not exactly what I meant. I meant more the vassal talks to the liege and is like 'Hey, heads up, I'm interested in working on elevating my House' the liege would be all 'Awesome, we can deal with that, ICly, full disclosure we'd be trying to keep your vassals under our umbrella, this is something we can work out, ICly, yeah?' 'Yeah, for sure, we can see how it plays out.' et fin.

@Pandora If there's no OOC communication, sure. But if people can be communicative OOCly about stuff, then there shouldn't be a problem.

@thesuntsar I said it's unlikely! Sheeeeesh.

Keep it up and you'll have a rebellion on your hands!

When Kael and I wrote House Keaton, we deliberately made it a county with the intention of growing it as far as we could. From day one, out of the gate, it was all about expansion. This had nothing at all to do with our IC lieges, and while our momentum stopped due to a bunch of IC stuff happening, it's still in the back of our minds to see if we can't go for duchy (Sorry @thesuntsar ), though K doesn't think we should as it isn't really realistic to think we could grow that much in such a short period of time, despite the fact that we're sitting on a veritable mountain of resources and our army is the same size as Laurent's.

I think @Tempest is right. If there is a solid RP relationship between liege and vassal houses, it DOES add a natural deterrent to pushing for elevation, since they would be close to their liege on a personal basis. What drives the desire to rise? Wealth/prestige? Wealth is kind of a red herring -- when a House is elevated their income doesn't really change just because they get a bump in title. When Keaton became a March, we did not gain 3 counties and 9 Baronies. We just had the 3 Baronies we had while being a County. So, in terms of pure power, there isn't really a big gain beyond the acclaim granted from the achievement and the shiny new title.

To directly address @wahoo's complaint about losing money -- that should serve as a reason to negotiate with your vassals. All of this is an opportunity to RP. Try to find something to offer them instead of being released from their vows. Or, like, make them jump through hoops to buy time to court their vassals, be they PC or NPC houses.

This is all, I guess PVP in the strictest sense, but so long as there is open communication on an OOC level and people are willing to work with one another there shouldn't be a problem. I think the biggest hurdle there is not communicating OOCly. There is a stigma, I think, to approaching someone and being like "Hey, this is my IC goal. I understand there may be IC consequences and I'd like to work with you to see what kind of story we can develop." But an approach like that requires trust (This person, thus notified of my intent is not going to do everything in their power to fuck up my plans) (This person is trying to screw/manipulate me into rolling over and giving them everything), the ability to compromise (No one is going to get everything their way), and desire to cooperate and build story together. I try to do these things every time I engage some one. I play to have fun, but I also play with the mindset that other people are trying to have fun too.

As in real life, if everyone took the time to treat people the way they would like to be treated and extended the basic trust that everyone else isn't a dick looking for an opportunity to fuck you over, I think we'd all be happier.

@Zobi Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes

@Macha Eminem - Without Me

I am not enjoying the task of giving my kitty subcutaneous fluids. He generally takes the first poke of the needle okay, but as he feels the water bolus starting to form, he gets super tense and jerks and I freak out that the needle is going to come out. It did once and shot saline all over the place. Funny, sorta. But his tension, it gets me.

I'm just bummed. It makes me sad. Blarghl.

This is one of my favorite games. The RPG is super fun too.

@Thenomain I always used to mix up Rip Taylor and Rip Torn. Unfortunately they both died this year.