iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I dont know why people are like this :/ Va zl rkcrevrapr, jurgure lbh ner oryvrirq, unf ragveryl gb qb jvgu jurgure crbcyr yvxr lbh be gurz zber...vg'f hfhnyyl pregnva jub jvyy or oryvrirq orsber lbh fnl n jbeq...

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 20h

Everyone should write their own monster book, this is the only way to have a book that is entirely to your taste

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The surreal thing about writing my own bestiary is that unlike every other bestiary I have or will ever read, I love every monster in the book. I would use literally any of these in one of my adventures. They all seem fun. There are no "boring ones I had to include".

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It still fucks me up that lady gaga remains the only celebrity who figured out how to respond to "are you a secret tranlord???" questions

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It's finally done...my 164-monster book is complete. It's a love letter to Fantasy AGE, it is a -ton- of useful stuff for game masters, and it is completely free and remixable drive.google.com/file/d/181yH...

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Say what you will about PS3 but it's at least swinging for the fences on an idea. It's like a significantly more dynamic Draque V. Phantasy Star 2 is like if you could cheese out WIzardry through sheer grinding.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It's really weird that Phantasy Star 1 is this 1st person superlight dungeoncrawler that's a great time because it's so breezy, and Phantasy Star 4 is this peak 4th gen turn-based rpg with big manga energy, and then Phantasy Star 2 is just "you go through 20 troll dungeoncrawls in a row"

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Apparently matahachi gets whooped but idk….

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

"Oh well it's in the sequel" why would I agree to go to the sequel when part 1 sucked?

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

This movie is jam packed with narrative dead weight. Why didn't Matahachi and Takezo meet each other at the end? Because he "moved on"? Come on this is a samurai movie, why did you decide to make a broad philosophical point by snubbing the only thing to look forward to?

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Like I get that Matahachi and Takezo are two parallel lives, the guy who rose in society with stolen money vs. the man who worked his way to the top properly, but why should I care about Matahachi? He's just gone. He doesn't ultimately effect Takezo's life beyond visiting Otsu.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Matahachi disappears at 33m and doesn't reappear until 1h20m, where it's revealed that he and the graverobbers are rich now. He sort of haunts the narrative insofar as it makes Otsu hate Takezo, but she never acts on it, forgives him randomly, and then falls in love in the tree.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

What's so deeply baffling about it, to me, isn't the lack of vocal hate for it. It's an extremely mediocre action movie where Toshiro Mifune runs around Japan like a lost dog. What's baffling for me is the 10/10s. Even a raging misogynist samurai weeaboo should be like "this is a 7/10".

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I mean, it's done, you can go read it right now

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I'm writing supplements for an existing, mostly setting agnostic game. I don't really understand what "discussing creature design from a player’s perspective" even means, unless you're talking about a GMless micro RPG where players can introduce new foes somehow.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Ever self-doubt because you tried to shoot a guy who is trying to kill you? The oxygen-deprivation will magically cure that too. Granted you were morally absolved of this by virtue of that guy actually being a sociopathic violence-addicted lunatic but no biggie. What's Killmonger Syndrome?

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

You're only ever one oxygen-deprivation induced realization from everyone forgiving you for being a complete piece of shit for no reason. Simply babble some nonsense about the interconnectedness of everyone and they'll forgive you.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If you ever struggle from ptsd, just remember: all you have to do is have your friends peer pressure you and you'll stop having panic attacks. And if you start having a psychotic break, simply push it down, it'll go away if you get laid.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The fact that literally every character from the ambiguous third world country was a terrorist was stunningly tone deaf, stupid, and out of left field. This plot only made sense if you're a turboracist. To a normal person, it's completely incoherent, why would they suddenly act like that?

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The "actually I'm not privileged, I just believe harder than you" conversation was genuinely surreal it's like I tuned into fox news

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I was NOT prepared for how bad Planetes' back half was gonna be, I could not have imagined in 100 years how bad it was gonna be. Eject the premise of the show, make a far right pivot to make everything about the GWOT, character assassinate half the cast, and forcibly housewife the female lead.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

There is a power in vagueness, so I'm comfortable keeping the sense-descriptions short. Lovecraft made a whole career out of monsters you can't describe. A handful of evocative words, preferably non-modifier words like verbs, are adequate and keep the pace up. Wagner's Kane books do this very well.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The "Quick Visual" is almost like a silhouette, it's not the fine details but just the rough shape, that parts of the description that have an immediate emotional impact. Their imagination can fill in details just fine, and it's even self-personalizing.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Whatever makes it frightening. Specifically what it does is first and everything grows from that. Because a foe is a game-piece, I think in terms of what the player will focus in on. Players are very sensitive to enemy actions, a visual description less so. But you do want a "quick visual" in there.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

One of my blessings/curses as a fantasy writer is that I don't like Spirit Halloween monsters. It either has to be weird or frightening or unsettling, preferably all three at once.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

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Mark Jarrell @markjarrellart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Gate of the Hroraq (inverse) 2021

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madsabaoth @matte-gender.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

whoever at valve that decided that you can't gift a game bundle to someone who already owns the game needs to have their penis flattened

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

If you twisted my arm, maybe we have in common doctors that so neglectful and apathetic that it took a long time to realize you're not trans? it would be nice to have a word for "stopped hrt because I'm not trans, but I don't want to kill all trans people either" distinct from detransitioner

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

really lasered in on "one of the most explicit slurs in history" there but yes most reporters are either one $50 offer away from arguing for trans genocide or are already doing it for free

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

There's a like 15 year slur cycle where queer terms alternates between being reclaimed and reslurred, it's really surreal when you start paying attention to it.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Originally tranny was a trans community term, in fact a lot of people preferred it over transsexual (transgender hadn't been coined yet) because it had an endearing sound to it. But like basically every self-identification label in queer history, eventually the straights found and ruined it.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In so many words, Xabungle is an 8/10 comedy strapped to a 7/10 drama, stretched until it hits a 6/10. It's a weird mix of memorable and forgettable. The ending is kinda bizarrely unpleasant (the movie both fixes and makes this worse), but by Tomino standards it's very mild.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

But the good ideas are usually underexamined and spread too thin besides. The slapstick is actually pretty good but the non-physical humor is very very hit and miss. As often as good jokes you get "lmao women amirite?" or "lmao mem amirite" which is very lame.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And then, Arthur Rank is a shockingly good disabled character where their disability is neither ignored nor totalizing. He is more than his disability, but his disability is a big part of him. Obviously the show has maximum tomino misogyny but the jokeyness does take the sting out.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

What's funny is that what ideas are in there are actually really, really good. The three day rule is an insane and interesting idea. The way brainwashing is depicted as instilling an ideologue into your head is a great way to embody the bad ideas your culture teaches you into a storybeat.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

And yeah the best part of Xabungle as it is is consistently the slapstick and the overreacting but that's *because* they whiffed everything else. Having the other stuff wouldn't've really gotten in the way of those things. I would gladly part with Jiron Runs Away #5 for more plot.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

What's weird is, there's actually quite a few pieces available to make a plot that go unused. There's two other hominids on Zola. There was some crazy pre-cataclysmic civilization. You could put some big reveals in there, you could even make them silly. They just...didn't.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Xabungle's key issue is that it just didn't have enough ideas for 50 episodes. I really think if they trimmed Xabungle down to 26 episodes it would be a -lot- better. There's just so many fucking episodes of endless ship to ship battles that end in both sides withdrawing after minimal losses.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Anti-theism takes bigotry as a central dogma. Its purpose was always to hurt their neighbors, to control others, to make us all less free. There is no way for anti-theism to ever be anything other than violent. Only by rejecting anti-theism can irreligious groups become moral and true neighbors.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The difference between evangelicalism and anti-theism is that evangelicalism was once prosocial, sometimes a force for change and kindness. They were not a sword of fascism. It took a carefully orchestrated coup to become their modern self. It could return to its old self.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I have zero respect for the anti-theist. I will happily join hands with the skeptic, the humanist, the secularist. I can be persuaded to explain why I think the way I do to the respectful atheist, even though I hate debate. But the anti-theist is just another chud -- unworthy of my time.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The evangelical is at least a dupe born into the sham, a victim of the incredible power of us intelligence agency plots. The anti-theist chose to be stupid, chooses to antagonize their neighbors, chooses to be bigoted and cruel without specific manipulation.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The anti-theist betrays the spirit of all irreligious movements before them, it is a child of evangelicalism, a useful idiot for American Empire, and a complete ideological and cultural dead end. Anti-theism has most of the worst parts of religion without any of the good parts.

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

He beats her every few episodes now it's genuinely insane

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It's crazy that the front half of Xabungle is great and the back half is weak, but the front half of ZZ is weak and the back half is better. Tomino just needs to make Xabungle ZZ and we can finally experience true comedy tominokino

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Oh I forgot to mention, Fatman is constantly dressed like a Confederate Cavalryman, which I gotta wonder: do the character designers just think that's a western outfit? Do they know?

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is a petty complaint but it's starting to get really annoying how there's really bad footslide in every episode. Xabungle has a -lot- of cheap animation, like it sometimes looks worse than 0079 despite having more resources. I can accept the comedic caricature faces but the motion?

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Swan-may @swanmay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Tomino's decision to make Fatman a (FORMER I HOPE???) slave that Elchi purchased as a precocious youth and now he's like a literal loyal bloodhound is genuinely insane. Tomino this is somehow the most offensive thing you've made, and you wrote Brainpowerd!

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