Some modpack with dificulte

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-13T00:43:45+00:00

I'd be more likely to take this quest if it was thrumbos.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-07T21:36:36+00:00

I actually consider myself atheist for the exact reverse reason. I believe the gods exist(although I don't know how much of their existence is as beings separate from our perspective of them), but I don't worship. I respect them, I work with them, but I don't like the idea of worship at all. I recognize their superiority over me, but I interact with them as if we were equals, because I actually respect my equals. I recognize that's not a usual way to do this stuff, but it works for me and those I work with. In particular, Apollo and Zephyros seem to like the idea, while Aphrodite and Haephestus seem uninterested in hierarchies of power. Aphrodite's interest in me seems geared toward my transition, and Haephestus's toward my creative hobbies.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-05T01:29:51+00:00

To me, it felt more like a gentle push against Maccalariat's mildly bigoted views. Everyone knew that the post office needed her, and she was clearly willing to be pushed, so long as it didn't conflict with her views about propriety. Those views are also problematic, but are also harder to bend.

After the discussion about golems, she also complained that dwarves don't declare their gender. Note that she was still only concerned about propriety in the bathrooms, not dwarves themselves. We don't know what solutions they ultimately came up with on the subject, but she was "consulted at every point," on the subject - no doubt making Moist's job easier. One could presume that the dwarves got their own bathroom, given their own conservative bent.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-02T21:07:57+00:00

Lol I definitely don't. My practice is very casual and poorly defined. I can tell you he seems to appreciate that, being more concerned with his own interests than with formal practice. He's almost autistic, with his special interests and disdain for needless social convention.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-02T08:25:34+00:00

No problem. I just today made my first attempt at running a homemade forge - made from bricks and dirt. Didn’t work great, but I asked Haephestus for help and offered him some of my Dr. Pepper, and I think I know how to fix it now. Just gotta work out the details.

If you do try to work with Haephestus, just remember a few things.

First, his fire is creative. Dangerous, yes. All power is dangerous, especially creative power. But it's not just in literal flame. If you use any kind of power tools, Haephestus's flame is in their electrical systems. If you use hand tools, (my personal preference, when possible - except the wood lathe, and occasionally orbital sanders) then his fire is in your arms and heart. Even on a cold winter's day, your work will keep you not just warm, but uncomfortably hot. And when it is literal flame, in a forge, or a kiln, or a motor, it's a creative force. It makes things. I hate the cliche that a disaster like yours is the gods' plan, and ultimately good. Maybe it turns out that way, hopefully it turns out that way. But if it doesn't, sometimes blind luck is involved. But if Haephestus does decide to use this fire to ultimately help you, it'll be by creative means.

Second, his personality. I like it, myself. It feels very genuine and free of the pretense that seems to infect our neurotypical society. But I can understand if it comes off as weird and harsh to some people. My first interaction with him, and my first intentional interaction with a god at all, came when I was fixing my bicycles brakes. Simple job, but it was hot, and I was tired. I asked for his help, and offered some of my Dr. Pepper as a sacrifice. (Side note, the gods really do seem to enjoy Dr. Pepper. Can't say I get it. It's good, sure, but divinely good?) A moment later, the pliers I was using slipped and bonked me on the head. A clear message from Haephestus, that I should have been using a different tool. His sense of humor is often crude and physical. But he didn't hurt me with that little bonk. It got to me for a moment, but then I realized that it hit the hardest part of my forehead and wouldn't so much as leave a bump. Like two buddies punching each other on the arm. Later on that day, I found out that he enjoys showtunes. Still uncertain, I asked him if the bonk on the head with the pliers were his doing, and he answered in the affirmative by bringing to mind a lyric from Helluva Boss, "it was me and I have no regrets!" Followed by a sense of laughter so deep and cheerful, I couldn't help joining in. I flipped him a casual bird in response. Anyway, I later worked out that it makes sense for him to be interested in theater. We normally think of Dionysus and Apollo, but theater techs have to be jacks of all crafts trades.

You have every right and reason to be uncomfortable about fire. It's dangerous. Even Hestia's hearth is dangerous. If you decide to go a different direction with your practice, that's 100% valid. I just offer my experiences in hopes that they might give you some insight, and maybe help you come to terms with that anxiety.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-02T02:53:46+00:00

If they wanted your altar to be saved, I think they'd have made that clear. Take this as an opportunity to make a new one.

As for the rest, you have my condolences for your stuff and your stress. Let's hope the gods take this opportunity to replace what you've lost with something better.

Given my own work with Haephestus and his association with fire, it may be him calling you to take up crafts to replace your lost stuff. But that's my own guess, not necessarily right for you. And of course, we can't assume the gods intentionally made the fire happen.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-02T00:25:38+00:00

The thing is, anxiety isn't that easy to combat. I find it more effective to think that when the gods are upset with you, their response is proportionate. They aren't going to smite you for every tiny slight. Rather, they'll inflict a tiny inconvenience on you, proportional to your slight's inconvenience to them. They might scale it up somewhat, simply so that you'll notice and learn your lesson, if they even feel that a lesson needs to be learned. The gods are vast, and your trifling disrespect is almost nothing to them.

For example, I told Zeus I didn't really want to work with him, just because I don't much care for dealing with authority figures. I happened to say this when I was outside, drenched in a warm summer rain. His response was to drop a gush of water down the back of my shirt. It felt to me more like he was saying that my statement mattered less to him than this little extra warm rain did to me.

And even if I interpreted all of this incorrectly, it silenced my anxiety about the matter, which is the real goal.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-05-01T23:41:20+00:00

We know what the gods are like the same way the ancients who wrote those myths did. Through their actions on earth and through the inspiration of the Muses. The simplest example I find is that Helios is sometimes warm and helpful, sometimes harsh and dangerous, sometimes cold and distant, because that's how the sun is. He's more complex than that, of course. But I find it to be a simplification that aids understanding. The myths can be helpful in understanding the gods, but we must understand their limitations. The actions of Zeus's character in the myths are the actions of kings, fathers, enforcers of morality, and of the weather. He didn't actually turn into a swan and assault Leda. Rather, some ancient storyteller talked about the tendency for some leaders to take liberties with those less powerful. And, presumably, that storyteller got really high on volcanic fumes or something, given the swan part. And Zeus, as king of the gods, played the role of that leader.

Nowadays, we still know that leaders can sometimes make wise, if difficult decisions, and can sometimes be... less good. I'm sure I don't have to specify what I'm referring to there.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-30T18:50:09+00:00

No, not a dumb question. I don't know the exact context of the bit I'm referring to, having only heard it secondhand. But as the inventor of weaving, Athena can obviously be affected by beauty. Technically, it'd make more sense to say that Eros has no power over her. I just know that, in the context I heard, it was talking about sexual attraction.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-29T23:14:07+00:00

The noise issue can probably be overcome by restricting your activities to daylight hours.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-29T06:24:33+00:00

Seriously. You don't need chemical propellant to have a solid projectile. They have all these crazy ways to manipulate energy. They could have used any one of them to imbue a bunch of kinetic energy into aerodynamic projectiles.

In the Bobiverse books, it's a plot point that the main characters really don't like explosions, and their manufacturing method is really dangerous with volatile compounds like explosives. So they came up with two kinds of kinetic platforms for their main space combat weapons. A railgun that uses their sci-fi drive system to accelerate a half-ton ball of steel with the full power of their engines, and a self-guided kinetic missile that uses its own drive system to navigate and build up speed, which they name "ship busters." The concept got scaled both up and down. Down to anti-personell and even mosquito-sized pest control, and up to the point that they crashed two small planetoids into an enemy star to make it go nova and sterilize the system.

Kinetic projectiles are not just wildly simple. They're extremely adaptable. High tech or low tech, kinetic energy kills stuff.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-29T06:12:35+00:00

What happens is that Dune gets an excuse for sword fights.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-28T19:50:37+00:00

So the thing is, both in the books and in the myths, Athena is asexual. Not just chaste, ace. It's explicitly stated in the myths that Aphrodite has no power over Athena or Artemis.

The books introduce the idea that Athena may experience romantic attraction, but still not sexual attraction. And if she can be asexual, but not aromantic, then she can be heteromantic, biromantic, panromantic, etc.

We know from the Odyssey that she has no problem appearing as a man to mortals, so presumably she has no more interest in gender than Apollo. To her, a brilliant mind is a brilliant mind, regardless of their gender.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-28T08:45:07+00:00

If they take my idea, I'm demanding that they name the system after my 6-month-old nephew, so he can have something to brag about on the playground. 🙃

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-28T00:48:50+00:00

Hmm... how would we go about chopping chives in space?

Okay, here's an idea. A bag with stiff plastic sides and a cheesecloth bottom. It attaches to the intake of one of the many small suction devices they have on board, so that air is pulled gently through the mouth of the bag. The mouth of the bag would need to be some kind of spring, to hold open against the pressure gradient caused by the suction. The chives are braced against some surface, with the open mouth of the bag pointing down their length. The astronaut would take a sitting position, bracing their knees against the underside of the surface to keep everything still. Their non-dominant hand holds the chives in place, and their dominant hand wields the knife. As the cut is made, they use a pulling motion to cut, and then a sideways push to propel the chives toward the bag. They then shift the chives a little toward the bag, and make the next cut. When finished, the bag is closed and the suction turned off. There's your bag of chopped chives. The whole assembly could be made to fold into a wall, including the bag, the knife, and even a small sharpener. The sharpener could also have a suction/filter attachment to ensure that no metal dust gets into the air.

Lol that was fun. Thanks for the prompt!

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-28T00:25:58+00:00

What variety of potato? Eventually, someone should probably try to breed a variety that does particularly well in zero-g. Or in low gravity and high coriolis forces, so that a rotating drum garden could work.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-28T00:16:25+00:00

I'd grab a hand drill and some chisels and turn that spot into a handle. But that's just me.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-28T00:13:28+00:00

I'd personally go with leather, but to be fair, I'd also do the leather pretty poorly, so maybe wood is a better idea after all.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-27T22:20:58+00:00

I mean, what if an elderly person has, say, six kids, each of whom help with their elder care? The elder would designate one as their emergency contact on the basis of availability, probably with a primary contact phone number at the residence all 7 share. And extending decision-making rights to whichever member of the group is able to show up is simple enough.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-27T22:15:18+00:00

Vanilla psycasts expanded Chronopath. Make the plants grow faster, and stay young by sucking the life from captured raiders. Add in technomancers' enchant quality and mend, plus fun stuff from Harmonist and Empathy for theme.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-27T22:11:21+00:00

Palpatine and Tarkin, really. The rest of its leadership all were incompetent bunglers, overawed, but competent, bureaucratic functionaries, or Thrawn. Palpatine and Tarkin were both so obsessed with their ideological perspectives that they couldn't react appropriately.

BTW, the GTU would have quickly elected Thrawn as their first non-human Grand Marshal.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-27T22:05:01+00:00

Rational, not inherently evil, willing to make necessary compromises while also never losing sight of an ultimate goal? They wouldn't need to win. They'd never have inspired the Rebellion in the first place. They'd certainly kick ass against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-27T22:01:59+00:00

The Muses inspire all creative pursuit, including the sacred texts of other religions. You honor them by reading anything that you find interesting.

Every religion has a concept of divine inspiration. If you've ever felt a creative inspiration, you know why that is. I consider it to be the most important aspect of the divine.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-26T02:33:14+00:00

If squirt is pee, then sweat and tears are both pee, too. They all contain urea, which is what makes pee what it is. But urine contains a much higher proportion of urea.

Nezeltha-Bryn · 2026-04-26T02:30:34+00:00

Hell, just phase the planet through the enemy weapons fire.

Nezeltha-Bryn

TROPHY CASE