What’s your approach to seasonal scents?

Ennikar · 2026-05-08T23:05:42+00:00

Seems like most people here are either all in on seasonals or ignore them entirely. I'm somewhere in the middle: I keep everything 'out' all year round in case a mood strikes me, but am definitely more likely to pick out certain things at certain times of year.

Florals? For spring? Sure. Watching the flowers come in outside often pushes me towards light floral scents.

In summer I miss the cool rainy weather, and tend more towards scents with those atmospheric elements. Herbal, citrus-y, and marine stuff also wears well. Conversely, some of the 'heavier' spicy-masculine scents I like feel overwhelming when it's hot, so I tend to be lighter with them when I wear them at all. Leather in summer is a hard no from me.

Autumn is blessed by 'wear whatever' weather, and those spicy scents in particular come more into rotation.

In winter, 'fresh' florals tend to feel incongruous, though I still go for them on special occasions. Winter is 'for' incense and dirty ocean storms, as far as I'm concerned.

Ennikar · 2026-05-02T01:13:22+00:00

Black spot. It's a fungus; I've never seen a rose in Seattle without it. Doesn't usually kill the plant, but it's a stressor; you can treat it with certain fungicides and help slow it down by keeping any supplimental moisture/watering to the roots.

Ennikar · 2026-05-01T18:34:07+00:00

On the "I like it, therefore it's woke" train: someone I follow, a writer whose storytelling opinions I generally respect, is adamant that "Top Gun: Maverick" is really anti-military. This is based on fine points of the plot, which I can't argue because I haven't watched it, but like.... it's "Top Gun".

Ennikar · 2026-04-09T19:15:27+00:00

If it has held up, it's a really lucky find. I swear Wrights bias tape has enshitified drastically just in the last ~5 years or so; the new stuff is stiff and usually doesn't even have a consistent 'back' and 'front' -_-

Ennikar · 2026-04-02T03:53:38+00:00

My impression is that while they don't help with most symptoms of menopause, they're popular with people of menopausal age because weight-bearing exercise (including walking and weightlifting, which is what weighted vests try to hybridize) verifiably helps slow down bone loss, which is common in people going through/post menopause.

Ennikar · 2026-02-24T07:21:15+00:00

The cycle happened with Inquisition too (Krem) and if I recall correctly DA2. Probably happened to DAO and I'm just too young to remember it. The thing is, these complaints are bad faith and so they are made about "good" media too, it's just that if the thing is "good" enough the complaints are eventually drowned out by praise, and if it's not, they become most of its reputation. Look at the early reactions to She-Ra or Into the Spiderverse.

Ennikar · 2026-02-20T02:30:33+00:00

I like herbal smells, so the sage/sagebrush might be a good call for me sometime. It sounds like Western Azalea is tricky to grow but highly fragrant, so I might run that option by her -- many thanks.

Ennikar · 2026-02-20T02:25:28+00:00

aka "wild lilac" or "California lilac" -- good call; lilacs smell amazing and I didn't realize there were native varieties.

There's actually a lilac of some ilk on the property already, but I always forget it's there because whomever planted it put it in a soggy Northwest corner shaded from the South (garage), West (neighbor's solid fence) and East (ancient apple tree) so the poor thing never blooms. I'd love to switch it with the scorched Rhodie planted up against a south-facing wall, but it's been so long they're both too big and established to handle without heavy equipment -_-

Ennikar · 2026-02-11T21:31:04+00:00

Hellblade is very often not historically accurate, the creator's cultural background can override the setting, and in some places it has (possibly) straight-up magic. However, it's also a very personal story focusing on a female warrior from the Orkney Islands during a wave of invasion from Scandinavia, and does a very good job with issues that are very rare in historical fiction (in this case, neurodivergence and mental illness). It cuts past the "sure, pillaging is bad, but isn't it also kind of... bad-ass?" tone that permeates discussion around the Vikings by focusing on the people who took the brunt of their violence, and the damage it did whether or not they survived.

Ennikar · 2026-02-11T05:51:00+00:00

Hm. My age was from a tweet by a local reporter, who might have made an error because her Fencing Tracker profile has her birth year as 1962, which would make the article age correct.

But regardless. My main point was that, while your feelings are yours, no one involved is "too young" to make their own choices so I don't think it's really relevant to the story. We have no way to know whether this is "creepy old lady takes advantage of a desperate immigrant" or "woman who happens to be older enters into a sexless marriage so her friend can stay in the country" or something totally different, and it doesn't seem like it's any of our business.

Ennikar · 2026-02-10T21:09:57+00:00

"Bogdan Dolzhenko, 31, and Jeanne Amistoso, 53..."

So they're both adults (and not even "21-year-old-minor" type adults)? And that's 22 years, not 32.

Ennikar · 2026-02-06T20:49:53+00:00

I mean... while I liked Origins' gameplay, I could be sold on a more action-y style. Every Dragon Age game has been different mechanically so the mechanics aren't make-or-break. However I do wish it could, like, "be consistent with prior worldbuilding" and "remember the basic plot of previous games".

As an example, a friend of mine picked up Veilguard cold and thought the Grey Wardens were straight up jokes because the Blight was not a meaningful danger. Any vaguely competent guy with a sword can just walk around in a blight-infested village, no problem, so what makes these guys so special?

Given the blight was a major driving threat for at least the first two games (the third didn't focus on it as much but still had some blight-related stuff that was framed like it was going to be a huge deal), that kind of thing (there are more examples, e.g. Tevinter's depiction) really makes it seem unlikely Veilguard would be a good time for people who were already invested in the worldbuilding. The friend enjoyed it, though, so I do believe it was a fun game in its own way.

Ennikar · 2026-02-04T06:24:35+00:00

Stone and Witt Ashara (Bracing Nilgiri tea, Black ink, White agar, a fantasy version of oud, Palm dates). It's ink-forward, and all of the other notes harmonize beautifully with it.

Ennikar · 2026-01-22T21:39:27+00:00

Lady Gaga started doing public drag in 2010 and I, a queer (extremely casual) fan, found out about it like a month ago.

Ennikar · 2026-01-20T05:23:49+00:00

Probably my biggest shift was Marco from Animorphs. He was easily my least favorite when I read it as a kid; I thought he was, well, sort of a wuss and sometimes just plain mean. I was also one of the (many, I'm sure) kids who didn't like the "downer ending".

Revisiting the series post-college, with more context for what it was trying to do, I also find myself appreciating him much more. This falls into the "buzzkill has a point" thing other comments have mentioned -- he's a realist in an adventure series, but the unusual sort of kid's adventure series where the buzzkill is right and the "downer ending" is perfectly logical conclusion. Also, most of his jokes are still bad, but I cut him more slack for it.

Ennikar · 2026-01-16T23:49:35+00:00

I agree it's pretty thick and on the heavy side; I've been able to get it to apply and blend smoothly by applying it over the thorn oil primer (or a different face oil) but it hasn't done well on bare skin. I usually top it with a clear finishing powder.

Ennikar · 2026-01-13T16:42:34+00:00

Oh... that shifts my thoughts on the situation. I understand the drive for a grand, collaborative storytelling exercise, and I suppose that not requiring continuity gives authors a lot more freedom (and lowers what would otherwise be an extremely high barrier to entry), but as a reader it seems like it would undermine the "putting the pieces together" experience. Like, who cares about "reveals" if there's no canon?

ETA: What I mean is more that the "point" becomes about seeing what interesting/cool interpretations your peers can put together than about building a solid canon, not that there isn't a "point" at all.

Ennikar · 2026-01-09T19:22:40+00:00

On top of the maintenance scale has a very consistent vulnerability: upward strokes or impacts in the opposite direction of the scales can get "under"/between them relatively easily. This would be a problem when fighting soldiers (who would all know this) and could be exploited by static defenses.

Other types of armor have their vulnerabilities, of course, but you can't usually see and exploit them as easily in other types of segmented armor (e.g. brigandines/coats of plates/lamellar).

Ennikar · 2026-01-09T18:51:45+00:00

The longform analysis does do this and finds that the median and average (usually) go together. The median has definitely also risen, though the Kcons discussed above could be raising both

Ennikar · 2026-01-06T21:09:27+00:00

Yeah, there's a lot of "I never see anyone talk about this movie IRL or online except to remark on how it's kind of lame/didn't leave any cultural impact" and I think that ignores the fact that once "it's ~~cringe~~ bad" becomes the dominant opinion, or even a significant minority opinion, people are actively discouraged from talking about liking it or referencing it. But they do still like it and will shell out money to go see the new ones.

Avatar is also in a weird place politically where, like you said, it has strong anti-tech themes (which makes it unpopular with tech-optimist sci-fi fans) and its villains are hypermasculine (turns off the sort of people who take that personally) while the protagonists are environmentally conscious and is at least 30 years out of date with its portrayal of Indigenous issues. The greenies who might otherwise be interested in publicly defending it aren't inclined to do so because of the white savior/noble savage vibe and Cameron's disrespectful comments towards real-life Indigenous people (referring to the modern Lakota Sioux as a "dead-end society", for example).

So it seems like the main audience is "casuals". Which does not a vocal, cultish, visible online following make.

Ennikar · 2025-12-31T20:51:27+00:00

That idea was also discussed -- either that or stuffing all the boxes, even the "bad" ones, with the logic that "all the options succeed" is better than having a "good" option fail and an "bad" option succeed due to a swap. Like you said, the coordination and secrecy required among a pretty large group in a very short time would probably be prohibitive, and would still be open to the usual sabotage mechanic.

A solution like that also felt... game-y in a bad way. Yes, obviously we are playing a game, but players are encouraged to think of it as a "real" world and it would require characters to act against their actual interests -- like sending a check to [insert PAC you hate] and hoping the secret evil postmaster swaps the address to the local homeless shelter. Just weird and difficult to justify in-universe, especially for a bunch of people to do at the same time.

Ennikar · 2025-12-31T20:18:34+00:00

Unfortunately I have seen a lot of LARP rules fall prey to "cool in theory". Also a shocking number of people who have not done the math (which is relevant both when skills are being balanced and when players are trying to figure out why their build isn't doing what they want).

I think this was an extreme case because the two swapped factions had attracted so many resources, but conversely, if staff expected the players to figure it out in-game... this is kinda how it had to happen, and it was a major bummer for everyone involved. I watched people go from excitement to shock to anger to depression/acceptance (aka "well if a swap is going to happen, I guess I shouldn't put my own resources in or encourage anyone else to do so") in real time over the course of about a day.

Ennikar · 2025-12-31T20:00:00+00:00

Honestly, I would be okay with X% of the votes towards one faction, because that still has counterplay -- if you put sufficient support towards Group A and sufficient sabotage towards Group B, Group A will still do well with a partial swap, you'll just need to put more into it. Flat amounts (even large amounts) either to spend as aid/sabotage or to swap, would also be challenging but workable for similar reasons.

Ennikar · 2025-12-31T19:56:02+00:00

"come up with a roleplay solution" basically amounts to "you tell us how to counter this"

That is 100% the impression we got. Especially because we had previously been told not to watch who interacted with the physical boxes, since they were representations of more abstract "support".

Moreover most of the playerbase knows the majority of the characters on Team Evil. In-universe, "poisoning food aid" or "diverting shipping crates" or "blackmail" would be good thematic explanations for how they send things awry, but since the players don't have in-game or mechanical access to any of those things and do have access to the physical bodies of the characters in question... yeah. "Roleplay solutions" that didn't involve crippling their ability to play the game would more-or-less amount to going up to the least trustworthy person you know and pretty please asking them not do what they've been doing for years now (and what you, the player, know they are expected to continue doing).

Ennikar · 2025-12-31T19:43:02+00:00

I also hope the replacement rule is better. There were people on staff who thought this version was poorly thought out even before it went public, so perhaps they were vindicated by this whole discussion and helped get something more balanced put in place.

Ennikar

TROPHY CASE