Dumbass tabletop rpg character concept:
A character whose weapon is a gun with red dot sight laser, except the gun is just a dummy that's been carved out of wood and sprayed black, with a laser pointer pen taped onto it. It's obviously fake to any character who knows anything about firearms, and it's always a gamble whether anyone who doesn't know anything about guns is going to be fooled by it. But that's the neat part: The gun isn't the weapon.
This character has a familiar, a big cat beast that's been trained to attack on command, attacking whatever the laser is pointed at.
No wait it gets better: Instead of a vocal command or some sort of a gesture, the dummy gun's otherwise useless trigger makes a very distinct clicking sound, which is the cat's cue to attack.
Meiji period fashion was some of the best in the world, speaking purely from an aesthetic standpoint you can really see the collision of European and Japanese standards of beauty and how their broad agreement even in particulars (the similarity between Japanese and Gibson girl bouffants, the obi vs the corset, the obi knot vs the bustle, the mutual covetousness for exotic textiles, the feverish swapping of both art styles and subjects) combined and produced some of the most interesting cultural exchange we have this level of documentation for. Europeans were wearing kimono or adapting them into tea gowns, japanese were pairing lacy Edwardian blouses with skirt hakama and little button up boots. haori jackets with bowler hats and European style lapels. if steampunk was any good as an aesthetic it would steal wholesale from the copious records we have in both graphic arts and photography of how people were dressing in this milieu.
«The botany professor,» from Kkokei Shimbun, October 20, 1908. she's wearing a kimono blouse or haori, edwardian skirt or hakama, gibson girl bouffant, a lacy high-collar blouse with cravat and brooch, and a pocket watch with chain
1910-1930 (Taishō era, right after Meiji, which I should have included in my OP) men's haori with western lapels
I have a love for both kimonos and bustle dresses, so I love seeing how the two fashions influenced each other over this period. And thanks to Pinterest, I have pictures!
Victorian tea gown that clearly started as a kimono. It still has the long furisode sleeves, but now they’re gathered at the shoulder and turned around so that the long open side is facing the front instead of the back. Similarly the back is taken in with curved seams to fit the torso and pleated below that for the skirt.
Woodblock of a woman in a a bustle dress made with colorful patterned fabrics and examples of how a woman could style her hair with it.
More prints to showcase hairstyles, two women wearing western wear and two women wearing kimonos.
This next one’s modern, but it involves hoopskirts so I’ll add it in because it makes me so happy. There’s been different styles of wedding fashion that take kimonos and give them a more modern look. Often this involves taking a kimono and then cutting and resewing it into a new dress. Very pretty, but it can’t ever be worn like a traditional kimono again. But now there’s another trend where the bride wears a hoopskirt with a white skirt, then you take the kimono and drape it on. The back of the kimono covers the front of the dress, the long sleeves fall across the sides or the back, and you still wear an obi with it. The result is pretty and the kimono itself doesn’t have to be altered at all.
And because you mentioned steampunk, I have to add in these two:
Personally I’m a big fan of Taisho Meisen kimono, which are what happen when the Japanese textile industry abruptly gets access to aniline dyes, new spinning and weaving technology, and the concept of Art Deco:
I am whatever gender has the shortest line at the bathroom
No need I think
I see this one going places
Yeah. The bathroom
ah but which bathroom
the one with the shortest line did you not read the post
yall ever heard about the wave
???? like the thing you do at sport events??
no, i mean this social experiment started by a history teacher in calofornia in 1967
im Intrigued
it’s creepy not so much like paranormal but as in it’s a scary look at human nature. hang on a sec ill explain it
alright so. in 1967, a new history teacher at Cubberly High School in Northern California named Ron Jones was teaching his class about the Holocaust and Hitler’s rise to power. At some point during the lesson, many of his students began to ask why the rest of Germany had stood by and done nothing, and how afterwards they could have said they didn’t know. Many said that they would never allow something like that to happen, but most simply couldn’t understand how the population had allowed it back then. This made Ron curious: what was the answer? Why had so many Germans joined and tolerated the Nazis as their neighbors were dragged away? He realized there was no way of knowing, not without being there, and certainly no way of teaching it - unless, maybe, they could experience something similar.
The next day, Ron came in and began to command his class differently than usual. He had stricter rules, making students stand when asking or answering questions and having them fix their posture. He said it was a lesson on discipline and the phrase “strength through discipline” was written on the board.
The students, shockingly responded positively to the stricter rules; it was as if they had just been waiting for this and wanted more. They worked as a team and answered questions correctly, even sitting quietly until Ron dismissed them at the end of class.
In the next two days, the phrases “strength through community” and “action” appeared on the board. Ron announced to the class that their new rules and ideas were now the cornerstones of the group called the Wave. Their mottos were the three phrases on the board, and he introduced them to a salute (made by curling one’s right hand into the shape of a wave and tapping one’s left shoulder with it). The kids practiced both the motto and the salute that day.
Everything was going well in this experiment: Ron was increasingly seen as an incredibly important leader, the kids were being more well behaved, they were ahead in their studies, all good things, so Ron decided to continue the Wave. In class, he gave the students Wave membership cards, some of which had red x’s on the back. The x’s indicated that those people were to monitor the other members of the Wave and report directly to Ron if someone broke a rule.
Additionally that day, Ron gave the instruction to recruit members to the Wave; all were invited and all were equal in the Wave.
And recruit they did.
Later that week, there were over 200 members of the Wave. The pep rally became an official Wave rally where dozens of new members were sworn in. As the group grew, most everyone joined. However, if someone did not join, they were likely to find themselves very alone and possibly being threatened or hurt by Wave members.
By the 5th day, Ron knew things had spiraled out of control. He had grown into a mythical leader, and the students carried out his orders without hesitation, even if these orders never existed in the first place and were grown from within the Wave. He decided to tell the students that there would be a televised announcement of the Wave’s candidate announcement for the presidential election, and that all members should attend the rally later that day.
When they arrived, the hundreds of students were greeted with a blank screen and Ron. He told them the true nature of the Wave; how it had been born as an experiment that had grown exponentially until he had to end it. The students were shocked, and some even cried. They had all believed in the Wave wholeheartedly after just 5 short days.
The Wave is terrifying because it is real. Not so long ago, a history teacher fresh out from college was able to turn a school into a military state in just 5 days. We as humans are so easily led into fascist dictatorships and we so rarely question what goes on around us. The Wave is a testament to that, and a scary one.
There’s a really great German film of the same name (“Die Welle” - The Wave) based on this experiment - rather than stopping after 5 days however, the teacher lets it continue and things get much, MUCH worse. It’s a terrifying movie, but fascinating too.
HOLD UP
WERE Y’ALL NOT MADE TO READ THIS BOOK IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL WHEN LEARNING WORLD HISTORY BECAUSE IT WAS REQUIRED READING IN MINE
I went to school where they taught us slavery wasn’t the cause of the civil war they weren’t gonna teach me shit
For those who are just looking at an unsourced paragraph it seems to be well documented.
The Fenton Parents get the chance to present their work to Bruce Wayne. He looks vaguely interested, and even purchases some personal protective devices and ghost weapons.
Danny's parents are really hopeful that this is the start of something big! All of their inventions are patented and if a big company like Wayne Enterprises decides to make a deal with them, that would meam the first real financial success in years.
Unfortunately, Wayne Enterprises never contacts them again. A few months go by and Danny sees a member of the Justice League using ghost weapons that are exact copies of his parents work without the fenton branding on them!
Did Bruce Wayne really just. Steal his parents designs and then sell them to the Justice League?????
Thats corporate espionage!!!
Danny gets so mad he literally flies to Wayne Enterprises biggest competitor, Lexcorp, and manages to finagle a meeting with Lex Luthor himself. It was suspiciously easy, but the moment Lex heard about an opportunity to get some leverage on Bruce Wayne, he personally invited Danny into his office.
An hour later and Lexcorps lawyers are chomping at the bit to start the lawsuit process. This is basically definitive, legal proof that Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises has ties with the Justice League, that so great for lex he literally has to stop himself from evil villain cackling. Lex gices the lawyers cart blanche to go for the throat on behalf of the Fentons.
Danny is spitting mad! If the Justice League had gone to his parents, they probably would have made them personalized weapons for free. But instead Wayne stole his parents work and then, presumably, sold it to the League. All billionaires really are bastards.
Meanwhile, Bruce had purchased the weapons with the intent on keeping them for the Bat family to use. He removed the fenton branding because the neon green paint literally glowed in the dark and was not good for stealth.
Green Arrow borrowed a couple of the weapons for a ghost problem, one time, and now he is looking at the nastiest lawsuit Wayne Enterprises has seen in a long, long time.
Well shit.
Generational differences!
DEAD ON MAIN RAPUNZEL AU
Vlad is the mother Gothel stand in who steals Danny away from Jack and Maddie.
Not sure about the details yet, but Jason is walking in the woods near the tower hears Danny whistling some song and the cheesy fantasy romance of his brain starts to spin.
He doesn't even wait for Danny to let down his hair, motherfucker just scales the tower cuz he's Jason "Red Hood" Todd-Wayne baby.
Danny stop angering ghost writer or you will be isekai’ed
Jason Todd, a confused man who have read many shitty Wattpad fics in his early days: man this shouldn’t be so tempting to do.
Jason scales the tower and climbs through the window, then gets knocked the fuck out the second he sets foot on the tower's floor, because Danny is used to intruders who scream about wanting to skin him or pulverise him, and he is NOT fucking around about the security.
Jason was not, in any way, prepared for this.
This, unfortunately for Jason is in no way a turn off
In fact the fact Danny got the jump on him makes Jason’s competency kink act up
Saw this funny post and wanted to draw something w it
watch until the very end
your url just makes it better
Did a fucking Cornetto commercial do this to me
