Random PIDW Monster
Aug. 21st, 2025 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetIDK if I'll ever put it in a fic or anything, but the words "Eight-Legged Spider Hawk" spontaneously generated themselves in my brain as I was preparing for my evening ablutions.
My first reaction to this thought was that Peerless Cucumber absolutely roasted Airplane in the comments when this monster made its debut, because he thought that "Eight-Legged" and "Spider" were redundant. Airplane retaliated by introducing Six-Legged and Ten-Legged Spider Hawks in the next chapter, including important distinctions between the species.
I don't know about the six- or ten-legged varieties, but here's the lore I came up with for the eight-legged ones:
The ten- and six-legged varieties probably have somewhat different venom or are more prized for their feathers or something.
My first reaction to this thought was that Peerless Cucumber absolutely roasted Airplane in the comments when this monster made its debut, because he thought that "Eight-Legged" and "Spider" were redundant. Airplane retaliated by introducing Six-Legged and Ten-Legged Spider Hawks in the next chapter, including important distinctions between the species.
I don't know about the six- or ten-legged varieties, but here's the lore I came up with for the eight-legged ones:
Appears very much like a very large spider with hawk's wings, it is often mistaken for one in flight or while hunting. Its movement on the ground, however, is unmistakable. These creatures line their nests with a particular type of silk that makes exquisite bondage rope.
The ten- and six-legged varieties probably have somewhat different venom or are more prized for their feathers or something.
Aaaaaahhhhh!
Aug. 20th, 2025 12:05 amsoc_puppetClasses start up again on Monday!
Okay, I'm cool, I'm good, I'm collected; I can do this.
Right now I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to me to start taking the bus to and from classes. There's a specific bus that goes from my hometown to the college campus I'm attending, a thirty minute drive away, and financially it might be a good idea overall. It's just that one of the classes I'm taking would have me out the door by 8:30 AM, and that's a smidge earlier than I like to get up these days 😅
Still, it's doable! The bus stop for the in town bus is under a block from my house, so it's not a particularly arduous walk—or at least it's not too much worse than just walking to where I've parked my car. It would be better for the environment and would save wear and tear on my (aging) vehicle. Even taking the bus three days a week might be good enough.
So my plan is, probably on Thursday and maybe on Friday as well, take the (free) in town bus to the interchange and then back home. If I really want to give a solid go of it, I'll also give the town-to-campus bus a try, but we'll see how I feel about spending $7 on that. I'll also want to start turning the lights out earlier, preferably tonight.
Fingers crossed for cheap textbooks and sparse homework!
Okay, I'm cool, I'm good, I'm collected; I can do this.
Right now I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to me to start taking the bus to and from classes. There's a specific bus that goes from my hometown to the college campus I'm attending, a thirty minute drive away, and financially it might be a good idea overall. It's just that one of the classes I'm taking would have me out the door by 8:30 AM, and that's a smidge earlier than I like to get up these days 😅
Still, it's doable! The bus stop for the in town bus is under a block from my house, so it's not a particularly arduous walk—or at least it's not too much worse than just walking to where I've parked my car. It would be better for the environment and would save wear and tear on my (aging) vehicle. Even taking the bus three days a week might be good enough.
So my plan is, probably on Thursday and maybe on Friday as well, take the (free) in town bus to the interchange and then back home. If I really want to give a solid go of it, I'll also give the town-to-campus bus a try, but we'll see how I feel about spending $7 on that. I'll also want to start turning the lights out earlier, preferably tonight.
Fingers crossed for cheap textbooks and sparse homework!
Fic: There's No Hippocratic Oath in Xianxia China
Aug. 16th, 2025 09:25 pmsoc_puppetFandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Summary: Shang Qinghua is in a meeting with Mu Qingfang about the innovative new peak first aid centers when they're interrupted by a disciple from the beast peak: Shen Yuan, an otherwise ordinary young man, has discovered yet another treatment for sex pollen that involves neither sex nor involvement with heavenly demons.
Mirrors: AO3 link
Wordcount: ~1900 words
Ships: None
Notes: Inspired by this post on Tumblr:![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
ceramicrambles:
Medical mystery Shen Yuan who literally every checkup has a new thing that should have killed him and Mu Qingfang is incredibly concerned
MQF: Shixiong, why is your blood purple?
SY: Oh right! it’s okay I was hit with the misty eyed-transfusion-curse-of-papapa pollen but I took the antidote so now I sprout a daisy every time I pee. It’s basically the closest thing to a cure haha and the only other treatment is heavenly demon blood so what are you gonna do, amirite?
MQF: what.
mikkeneko: mind you. I'm not saying Mu Qingfang is NOT concerned. But I also think that Known Mad Scientist Mu Qingfang would see an absolute golden opportunity in just following SQQ around with a notebook at this point Thanks to ceramicrambles for both the inspiration and beta reading!
Fic: ( There's No Hippocratic Oath in Xianxia China )
Summary: Shang Qinghua is in a meeting with Mu Qingfang about the innovative new peak first aid centers when they're interrupted by a disciple from the beast peak: Shen Yuan, an otherwise ordinary young man, has discovered yet another treatment for sex pollen that involves neither sex nor involvement with heavenly demons.
Mirrors: AO3 link
Wordcount: ~1900 words
Ships: None
Notes: Inspired by this post on Tumblr:
Post text
Medical mystery Shen Yuan who literally every checkup has a new thing that should have killed him and Mu Qingfang is incredibly concerned
MQF: Shixiong, why is your blood purple?
SY: Oh right! it’s okay I was hit with the misty eyed-transfusion-curse-of-papapa pollen but I took the antidote so now I sprout a daisy every time I pee. It’s basically the closest thing to a cure haha and the only other treatment is heavenly demon blood so what are you gonna do, amirite?
MQF: what.
Fic: ( There's No Hippocratic Oath in Xianxia China )
This past week I listened to Verity Weaver
Aug. 19th, 2025 07:42 pmconulyWhich I guess I can sum up as "trenchant criticism of capitalism, maybe a little preachy, not subtle at all". This might not sound like a big endorsement, but then again, I'm pretty sure most of you are Star Trek and even Babylon 5 fans, so actually it is!
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So, I may have said, the niblings' stepmother* has a new baby!
Aug. 18th, 2025 02:00 amconulyAnyway, E was looking at Halloween costume patterns and obviously your opinion doesn't really matter at all, only the parents' does, but I thought I'd put up a poll anyway. Which costume is best for a six or seven month old?
* Former stepmother, but the relationship is still there even if she's not with their dad anymore
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Poll #33490 Halloween costumes!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52
* Former stepmother, but the relationship is still there even if she's not with their dad anymore
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Voyager episodes!
Aug. 17th, 2025 01:01 amconulySo, we watched that one with the telepathic pitcher plant. Seven and Naomi bond - the writers really worked to make Naomi useful to the plot rather than just being kinda there, and it mostly works - but honestly, our space Ahab has chosen the least-efficient manner possible to destroy his whale.
Then we watch the two parter with the Borg Queen, in which we establish that the Hansens (whom Seven actually refers to as the Hansens) were absolutely terrible parents. I mean, even beyond the way they brought their child on a platter to be assimilated, growing up on a tiny spaceship with only two other people is just no life for a child. They should have left her at home. (And all the flashbacks establish that she spent a lot of her brief childhood scared. Poor baby!) At one point in this episode, Seven helps rescue a group of astonishingly passive refugees who are about to be assimilated. There's a lot of off-screen screaming, but I guess these refugees weren't paid enough to talk, because they're both passive and totally silent. Also, nobody at any points suggests trying to de-assimilate any drones, even the one who is probably Seven's father, if we can believe the Borg Queen. Seems a bit uncaring, but as I said, he wasn't a good father so fuck him, I guess.
This is followed by a kinda sad and pointless episode in which Harry Kim contracts love from having surprisingly racy (for 90s Trek) sex with a dissident from a xenophobic society. She achieves her primary objective, forcing the people in charge to allow those who want to leave their society to do so, but they still break up. He's sad about it. (E and I decided that the only other Varro with a speaking role has gotta be her dad. He sure acts like he knows her pretty well, and that ship has a lot more people than Voyager does!)
And then one of my absolute favorite episodes, the one where Tom and B'Elanna get married and there's apparently a new baby on the ship we haven't heard of before and, by the way, the ship is disintegrating. Lots of people hate this episode because it's sad and bleak and pointless, but I absolutely fucking love it.
We skipped the Chakotay episode because ugh, fake Native American fake spirituality, something something "vision quest", and then it was Think Tank, which is a very watchable episode. It's not great, it's terrible - it's watchable. Also, nobody really says it, but the spokesperson of the eponymous Think Tank is himself a victim of it. He was taken from them in childhood, which wasn't all that long ago. Possibly they all are victims except the founder. It sounds like being part of a particularly reclusive cult.
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Then we watch the two parter with the Borg Queen, in which we establish that the Hansens (whom Seven actually refers to as the Hansens) were absolutely terrible parents. I mean, even beyond the way they brought their child on a platter to be assimilated, growing up on a tiny spaceship with only two other people is just no life for a child. They should have left her at home. (And all the flashbacks establish that she spent a lot of her brief childhood scared. Poor baby!) At one point in this episode, Seven helps rescue a group of astonishingly passive refugees who are about to be assimilated. There's a lot of off-screen screaming, but I guess these refugees weren't paid enough to talk, because they're both passive and totally silent. Also, nobody at any points suggests trying to de-assimilate any drones, even the one who is probably Seven's father, if we can believe the Borg Queen. Seems a bit uncaring, but as I said, he wasn't a good father so fuck him, I guess.
This is followed by a kinda sad and pointless episode in which Harry Kim contracts love from having surprisingly racy (for 90s Trek) sex with a dissident from a xenophobic society. She achieves her primary objective, forcing the people in charge to allow those who want to leave their society to do so, but they still break up. He's sad about it. (E and I decided that the only other Varro with a speaking role has gotta be her dad. He sure acts like he knows her pretty well, and that ship has a lot more people than Voyager does!)
And then one of my absolute favorite episodes, the one where Tom and B'Elanna get married and there's apparently a new baby on the ship we haven't heard of before and, by the way, the ship is disintegrating. Lots of people hate this episode because it's sad and bleak and pointless, but I absolutely fucking love it.
We skipped the Chakotay episode because ugh, fake Native American fake spirituality, something something "vision quest", and then it was Think Tank, which is a very watchable episode. It's not great, it's terrible - it's watchable. Also, nobody really says it, but the spokesperson of the eponymous Think Tank is himself a victim of it. He was taken from them in childhood, which wasn't all that long ago. Possibly they all are victims except the founder. It sounds like being part of a particularly reclusive cult.
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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou
Aug. 15th, 2025 02:30 amconulyA free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
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Link
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Link
Pokémon Friends again: Well, that didn't last long
Aug. 10th, 2025 11:27 pmsoc_puppetI've been playing this game for just over a week now, and already the difficulty scaling is past where I find the rewards worth it. Most of the puzzles are around difficulty level 4 to 6 now, and I'm just not figuring enough of them out in the time limit I'm given. I'll still get some yarn when I finish the designated three puzzle set, but if I fail any of the puzzles, it's the lower quality yarn—even though the point total from all the puzzles, failures included, is higher than when I was playing the games on their lowest difficulty.
If I were getting more yarn per try, it might be worth it to me to keep playing. If the timers were more generous, it might be worth it to me. If I could choose which puzzles to play and which yarn to work towards, or if the difficulty scaling were a bit slower, it might be worth it to me. But at this point, I'll probably just play a few more days out of sunk cost fallacy driven hope, and then try to forget I even bought the damn game. Which is a shame, because I'd really love to have some sort of apartment-decorating game with the mechanics from the main room that I loved so much.
Honestly, I'd originally bought this game with the hopes of playing some of the puzzles with my niblings, but with how the game's set up, I'm not sure I'd even be able to reach all of the games, let alone be able to play in a way that didn't leave all of us frustrated in the end.
This disappointment aside, if Nintendo ever decided to put out a simple version of Voltorb Flip that works the same way as it does in HGSS, maybe for $2 or so, I'd buy that in a heartbeat. (They won't, they'd want to microtransaction and dark pattern the hell out of it, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it!)
If I were getting more yarn per try, it might be worth it to me to keep playing. If the timers were more generous, it might be worth it to me. If I could choose which puzzles to play and which yarn to work towards, or if the difficulty scaling were a bit slower, it might be worth it to me. But at this point, I'll probably just play a few more days out of sunk cost fallacy driven hope, and then try to forget I even bought the damn game. Which is a shame, because I'd really love to have some sort of apartment-decorating game with the mechanics from the main room that I loved so much.
Honestly, I'd originally bought this game with the hopes of playing some of the puzzles with my niblings, but with how the game's set up, I'm not sure I'd even be able to reach all of the games, let alone be able to play in a way that didn't leave all of us frustrated in the end.
This disappointment aside, if Nintendo ever decided to put out a simple version of Voltorb Flip that works the same way as it does in HGSS, maybe for $2 or so, I'd buy that in a heartbeat. (They won't, they'd want to microtransaction and dark pattern the hell out of it, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it!)
A few unrelated questions
Aug. 12th, 2025 02:23 pmconuly(Some of which I may have asked before, in which case, forgive me.)
1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?
1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.
2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?
3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?
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1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?
1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.
2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?
3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?
( Read more... )