theworldvsyoshiko

Chaos reigns as a bunch of medieval motherfuckers rush into the courtyard and start killing rabbits. It was like... 20 seconds from when they showed up to when they were inside the base, so there was no time to form an effective defense. Fortunately, a friendly caravan was lingering inside and immediately attacked them. It still ended up messy as hell.

Unfortunately:

You know, how 'bruise in the torso' is a well-known cause of death.

Revenge was swift.

Some kids get a sarcophagus that has like an Artful Arrangement of Gourds engraved on it or something. Not Rat though.

Rat gets a picture of herself fighting off an army of dragons.

It's a bit less dramatic when you know that the fight it's referencing here was against two house cats.

theworldvsyoshiko

Before the fight, a single enemy militor took a detour to smash Reedy's sarcophagus open, for no fucking apparent reason. So now Reedy's desiccated corpse is just kinda... laying in the yard for a while, because everybody had to go collapse in bed after staying up all night fighting.

theworldvsyoshiko

I had Yoshiko build his new sarcophagus and bury him in it, so she inscribed the art, and...

The art she put on his sarcophagus is a depiction of Poopy drawing the art on his first sarcophagus. This is how you know she's a master-level artist now.

theworldvsyoshiko

If you just wandered in here for some reason, I've been rambling about this for a while. The short version, though: I forgot to swap people around while I was setting up my initial colonists, so I accidentally started the game with a randomly-generated 13-year-old with almost no skills. She almost immediately picked up an ancient beer from the ground and chugged it, so needless to say, she immediately endeared herself to me.

Since this whole thing started happened by accident, I never documented the basic situation here, so might as well start with that.

Meet Yoshiko "Happy" Russell. She started as a solo mechanitor, which means that she installed a chip in her brain that allows her to control ~~robots~~ mechanoids, got discriminated against as a result, and decided to flee to the edge of known space to live by herself.

As if that wasn't bad enough, this is the backstory the game gave her:

Thanks to this, the game often displays her name as 'Happy, Pushover.'

She isn't good at anything except research. The only other thing she's competent at is shooting. She's not a horrible artist, but she's not good, either. I think she's only managed a single work with a quality above Poor.

She's also now 17 years old, because Rimworld accelerates aging for anyone under 20 to get them to adulthood faster. Going from 13 - 18 takes 2 actual years.

Also, if you are familiar with how Rimworld handles ages, you will notice that she's 3433 chronological years old (i.e. she was in cryosleep for millennia), which has to be one of the highest that I've seen. It's also confusing, because it's now the year 5501, which means that she was born in 2068. According to the fiction primer, humanity started spreading out from Earth around 2100. So this kid was, like, the first person off the planet. I'm gonna say that relativity bullshit is to blame.

She follows the Creticonian Creed, which came from the game's 'randomly generate a lightweight ideoligion and develop it through play' option. I added a couple of precepts to it before starting, and the result can basically be summarized as "it is a moral imperative to automate as much work as possible so I can spend more time on Space Reddit." This is a philosophy that makes her constantly a little bit happier because she has automated turrets outside her front door. The randomly-generated title for the leader is 'Great Great Automancer,' and they are entitled to wear a beret. Which is all to say that it sounds exactly like something that a 13-year-old who's too smart for her own good would come up with. I swear that apart from the tenets, I didn't touch any of this.

epebe

Rimworld - medicine

atreefullofstars

avelera

Sometimes in genre fiction stories, you’ve got magical characters talking about their magical lives in public or wearing their superhero costumes out in the regular world.

Often times, the magical characters feel they need to hide or whisper about things like magic or immortality or fighting demons or like pretend they’re going to a convention to explain their superhero costume.

These are often lovely and charming scenes but let me be clear:

Nobody in a major city would give a fuck.

Just as one example of many, I was literally in line for a book signing in NYC and a man walked by stark ass naked wearing only body paint and basically after the initial surprise, no one did or said anything about it.

The amount of crazy you encounter on any given day walking around a major city makes you basically immune to surprise or taking any kind of action about weird shit happening around you.

If I heard someone talking about their magical powers next to me at a cafe back when I lived in NYC, I’d assume either 1) they’re rehearsing for a play, 2) playing/discussing D&D, and/or most importantly 3) it’s none of my fucking business.

I’m always curious what exactly people think would actually happen in the real world if a supernatural or magical character was overheard by someone who wasn’t actively hunting them or who wished them harm.

If you overheard a time traveler or an immortal or magical person in general candidly speaking about their life at the table next to you, what would you actually do about it?

Would you call the police?

Tell the whole world you just sat next to a real magical person and your evidence is that you overheard their conversation?

Report them to their nemesis? How would you even find them??

Seriously, besides telling your friends about the weird conversation you overheard at lunch or the strange looking person you saw, what exactly would a normal person do even if they really did overhear someone like a time traveler speaking candidly about their travels for anyone to hear?

I ask because I see so many stories set in a superhero or urban fantasy setting worrying about being NOTICED. Noticed by WHO? With what result?? What do you actually worry is going to happen? What would any average person actually do besides shrug and go back to whatever they were doing?

I’d accept that maybe in a smaller town you could become a topic of conversation and even widespread notice.

But let me assure you, friends, in any major city, no one would fucking notice much less say anything about any level of weird shit they saw. The whole point of a big city is that everyone basically ignores the weird shit happening around them at any given point.

So let the fairies and ghosts and time travelers of your fantasy story relax. If they’re in a big city, they could literally fly around downtown with rainbows shooting out their ass and the only comment they’d probably get is from people wondering what movie is being filmed nearby.

moorishflower

If you would like to have your story set in a small town and STILL get away with saying or doing absolutely batshit things, make it a college town. If there is a college campus in that town, it doesn't matter what the population is. The residents will be inured to everything.

embervoices

It's quite possible random strangers won't care but specific groups do, and are blended in to the general population.

I do remember laughing my ass off at how obvious Vampire LARPers are in public (mind you, I am also a LARPer, and have played VtM and other WoD LARPs on city streets - this is not me shaming people having fun) because that Masquerade? Yeah, no, I can spot y'all blocks away, try again.

But I have also walked down the Las Vegas strip in full LARP gear and facepaint as a non-human character, and the most I got was people asking what show I was from.

That's why you have to ask why you are hiding, and from who, as well as how.

anastasiaoftheironwood

Especially in places like San Francisco, where there's always some festival/parade/demonstration happening, it really comes down to, "Will this interfere with my commute?"

If the answer is "no", it becomes something to share over dinner, once you've all talked about the stupid things that happened at work. "Yeah, I saw a couple people in Star Trek uniforms, walking up Sansome with someone who was cosplaying Gandalf, and they had the cutest little dog with them!"

Everyone will want to hear about the dog.

anotherdayforchaosfay

When I lived in Omaha, Nebraska, I regularly saw people in furry clothing (big furry community, many of whom work at the zoo), Renaissance faire costumes, VtM/WoD, and it was just a "okay, so there must be an event of some sort" then move on with my day.

Now I live just hours from Portland, Oregon, and when I've visited, I saw what some folks in small towns call weird. To me? Whatever. The college town nearby has some relatively strange stuff too. Saw a group in full Sailor Moon cosplay, speaking in character, and folks just kept on walking.

Now, when I lived in the rural region, most folks assumed the weird was caused by lack of regular human contact.

atreefullofstars

I wonder if repeated exposure to the SAME weird would become an issue? Like that clown thing a while back became news? If people were flying and farting rainbows REGULARLY it'd be harder to write it off as "people do weird shit" right? Then you'd wonder what that specific weird shit is about?

rukafais

butchdykekondraki

favourite selfship dynamic ever has GOT to be "this is an objectively evil character But What If I Was Their Favourite" . literally SO fucking real . and i AM their favourite . they told me so and they would never lie to me. sorry that they lied TO YOU but they wouldnt do that to me. im just built different

butchdykekondraki

YES this character sucks and YES theyre manipulative and a murderer and overall just not a good person. but im making them a home cooked meal. so. maybe thats a you problem

butchdykekondraki

i couldnt fix them BUT i can kiss them . maybe thatll calm them down

silcoitus

Oh? They manipulate you? And do all kinds of heinous things to you? Sounds like a skill issue. They got me breakfast in bed.

bittylildragon

This is just as much a power fantasy (the power to make even someone very evil and cruel be invested in you and your wellbeing) as wanting superpowers or wealth or political power

Also villains are often hot as hell, of COURSE people want to be their Special Someone

rukafais

its-ya-bo

“sex/romance/empathy makes us human,” they say. awful. pathetic. what makes us human is the urge to set things on fire

sullina

you’re actually correct!

Cooking is the one thing that only humans do and can be directly linked to the increase in our brain size

duckbunny

so you’re saying we should teach crows to cook

somecunttookmyurl

the-faultofdaedalus

I had a dream that the king and the queen of a small country had a daughter. They needed a son, a first-born son, so in secret, without telling anyone of their child’s gender, they travelled to the nearby woods that were rumoured to house a witch.

They made a deal with that witch. They wanted a son, and they got one. A son, one made out of clay and wood, flexible enough to grow but sturdy enough to withstand its destined path, enchanted to look like a human child. The witch asked for only one thing, and that was for their daughter.

They left the girl readily.

The witch raised her as her own, and called her Thyme. The princess grew up unknowing of her heritage, grew up calling the witch Mama, and the witch did her very best to earn that title.

She was taught magic, and how to forage in the woods, how to build sturdy wooden structures and how to make the most delicious stews. The girl had a good life, and the witch was pleased.

The girl grew into a woman, and learned more and more powerful magics, grew stronger from hauling wood and stones and animals to cook, grew smarter as the witch taught her more.

She learned to deal with the people in the villages nearby, learned how to brew remedies and medicines and how to treat illness and injury, and learned how to tell when someone was lying.

Every time the pair went into town, the people would remark at just how similar Thyme was to her mother.

(Thyme does not know who and what she is. She does not know that she was born a princess, that she was sold. She only knows that one night after her mother read her a story about princesses and dragons, her mother had asked her if she ever wanted to be a princess.)

((Thyme only knows that she very quickly answered no. She likes being a witch, thank you very much, she likes the power that comes with it and the way that she can look at things and know their true nature.))

The witch starts preparing the ritual early, starts collecting the necessities in the winter so they can be ready by the fall equinox. Her daughter helps, and does not ask what this is for, just knows that it is important.

The witch looks at Thyme, both their hands raised into the air over a complicated array of plants, tended carefully to grow into a circle, and says, sorry.

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