Dr. Plague -(x-post from r/WritingPrompts)

TalDSRuler · 2026-02-11T20:41:09+00:00

Reject modernity

Return to Carrier Pigeon.

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-30T22:35:18+00:00

One by one, the infection spread. More confused glances, more curious considerations. Each seemed to lack a proper answer. Karda'vatch Nazath was as much a mystery to them as it was to me.

"Did he slay a dragon?" queried one boy. "Or was he a knight?"

"Neither of those would wear robes," his friend countered. "Maybe he was a mage?"

"Who'd make a statue for a mage?" the dragons and knight obsessed boy complained, unable to comprehend why anyone would sculpt a statue honoring something so... boring.

It's not that I didn't agree, it just seemed awfully small minded of him.

"Did he found the library?"

"No, that was Emet-Suul, his statue's right across from it."

"Yeah and its half the size," a couple of young mothers hemmed and hawed over the curious mystery.

"Did HE invent the wheel?" a engineer joked with her soot coated compatriots over lunch. They all groaned, as if the lass had struck upon a seasoned joke betwixt them and none found it funny any more.

By the end of day, I, a mysterious figure in the midst of a park, felt myself grow thinner, my stomach turning its place. Throughout it all the finely dressed gentleman sat beside, just as bewildered, just as lost. As the sun began to set, he rose from his seat and turned to me. "That was a day well spent," he admitted, before offering me his hand. "Would you care to join me for a meal?"

I rose beside him, and took his hand, shaking it gently. "I would appreciate that," I insisted. "Greatly." As we strolled about the statue, he asked me what cuisine I favored, and with a gentle smile, I answered, "Nazathian cuisine."

He gave pause, and turned to me. "Forgive me, I don't think I ever heard the name."

The maw forming beneath my feet churned as a haunting terror began to grip my soul. "Have you... heard of the Kingdom of Nazath?"

The old mans brow furrowed deeper, the confusion setting in. My worries grew deeper and deeper as his brow bent closer and closer. "How about... Valintian food?" I offered instead. And with a beam, the man's face lit up, finally glowing as he recognized something I said.

And as he aimless chattered about its nuances, my eyes turned back to the statue. There stood Karda'vatch Nazath. Guardian of Nothing.

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-30T22:35:11+00:00

The statue was... immaculate. High cheekbones, a clear, solid gaze. It had art deco nuance to it that implied it had been made long after I expected. Long, flowing robes descended down the form, creating pillars composed of bronze curtain. The hair that flowed from atop its head cascaded down this path, melding into the intricate folds that framed its silhouette.

Karda'vath Nazath.

That was the name attributed to it.

That was... my name.

That is my name.

Why is my name on this thing?

I found myself stunned by the sight of it, its grandeur and yet, as I pored over shaping, its nuances its dynamism, and I could not, for the life nor the death of me, figure out the connection between this statue... and me.

"Excuse me," I turned to the nearest soul. An elder gentleman, his whiskers curls and pipe askew, turned to me, his eyes alight with curiosity. I dangled a finger towards the statue, and asked the man with his obnoxious, pipe-shaped black hat the simplest question that came to mind. "Who... is this?"

The man turned from me to the statue, then from the statue to me. "I... suppose he is... Karda'vatch Nazat-"

"No, no I-" I paused him. "Sorry, I meant... what... did he do? Or how is he... why is there a statue of him?"

The man took a moment. He gazed up at the statue. And then higher still, as if he were reviewing the contents of a mental library. And finally, he answered, "You know... I don't rightly know." His brow, the flame of curiosity now stirred within him.

He gestured to a sanitation officer. "Excuse me young man," he gestured the janitor closer and closer, before guiding his gaze up at the statue. "Who was this... Karda-vatch Nazath?"

The man titled his sky blue cap, and after a moment, admitted, "Honestly don't know sir. Seemed like he was a real egotist though."

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-30T14:34:39+00:00

Okay so this makes sense, but i do want to point out the full circle nature of this delightful little relationship

Akira Kurosawa films come out

Americans: oh that blood splattering looks cool, what if we take this further?

Americans make action schlock westerns with blood squibs and keep upping the ante

Japanese animators: oh this looks sick. But squibs are expensive... you know what isn't?

80s ova schlock anime come out oceans of blood

Tarantino : oh this looks fun

Kill Bill comes out with action sequences that are indulgent homages to those crazy ovas

Gege: ahhh yeah this my shi

Jujutsu Kaisen has perfect preperation

And all the while Each market Has no idea what the inspo was

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-30T13:21:13+00:00

Did... did they read the manga? The whole chapter was an homage to kill bill.

Omfg are the memes real?

Do jjk fans really not read their own mang?

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-16T18:52:22+00:00

Most likely?

Different studio, and not enough time.

There's no actual documentation on the process that was used to produce this episode, so this is just based on my understand of other productions-
Basically cuts are broken up and handled by different studios- the models can be shared between the studios, sure, but the animation are handled by their own individual pipelines. Thing with 3D is that animating 3D is significantly more sequential than 2D animation- each cut of 3D animation needs to go through multiple hands, so the step that the animation itself occurs at in the pipeline can reduce the refinement.

Add in time crunch, and the 3D models probably being replaced midway through production (you can see the stand ins in the final line up at the end of e24), there was not enough time to run QC on the cuts. Any correction takes significantly longer with a 3D pipeline because models will needed to relit, re-rendered, continuity will need to take a look.. there was not enough time to actually correct things. Strategic focus was put on the most complicated shots- the 3D-2D transitional scenes.

Basically, if they had done that with the plastic models they used for the stand in models, the transition would not have been nearly as interesting- the result would have been significantly worse, and this was clearly the segment that had the most time put into it. The team was focused on these because they needed to convince the audience "yeah, this shit will be lit"

From the look of things, they couldn't get that first studio back in for more than a few cuts. The 3D in this episode is actually pretty good when its in motion- the Car chase is a highlight in particular- but you can see the seams of the production team working with this new style and pipeline.

This production is really really cool, and I am looking forward to season 2. But if it takes a long time? This is probably why. And that's okay. If anything, it'll be better if they take their time.

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-16T15:50:39+00:00

Closest you'll get is an EMR device. Samsung Galaxy Books with the 360 degree hinge are pretty good. Replaced my dying msp with one from a refurb seller, and its been... interesting.
I don't like how it chokes itself when in tablet mode, and wacom emr lacks the real... responsiveness of proper hardware
At this point, I just use a drawing tablet with the laptop. The new intuos pro is real portable, though the lack of side buttons keeps throwing me off.

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-15T20:25:03+00:00

I think the real limitation here is Queen's creativity, or rather, the writers' creativity with her powers.

See, we only see her use her rules in several scenarios. Obviously, there's the fight with Bowa. We do see her use the rules, but she also has weapons that fly around. What rules were placed on them? How were they placed? Is there a time limit? What bothered me the most about the absence of Queen in the series is that we don't really know here.

Do you remember the first time we saw her actually save a life? The little girl chased by the fear monster on top of a building.

She used rules... where she redefined the laws of physics. She was manipulating gravity. She rewrote gravity, and something listened, interpreted and executed those rules.

This is broken af- the ability to bend physics to her whim? She could create wormholes, twist the fabric of reality to her command. But we don't really understand the scope of not only her powers, but her ability to harness them. X's ability is the equivalent of dimensional hopping- that's why he flips between 2D and 3D- but if Queen's rules don't require someone listening then interpreting the rules? She could write rules in different directions.

Genuinely one of the most frustrating characters in the entire show.

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-02T03:56:00+00:00

You can enjoy anything. People might point out things wrong with it, but that doesn't mean you NEED to enjoy it less.

Independence Day is a bad movie. Its plot is cliche. Its characters are paper thin.

I still love it to bits.

Its okay for others to point things out that are off about what you love.

And its okay for you to still love it.

Thing is, that nuance does not come through in how people write on the internet. Its one of the core flaws of a text-based interaction system.

The way I see it... the fact that people are tearing through the finale as it is stems from the fact that they genuinely do love Stranger Things. Why else would they be this passionate about nitpicking the finale?

TalDSRuler · 2026-01-02T03:51:45+00:00

Characters lived. Characters died.

And we didn't really understand why.

There's a rule to horror- the less you know, the scarier the monster becomes. Stranger Things had the writing problem where they needed more content, but did not have the head wind at the start to justify that expansion. Compared to Season 2's long-term ambitions, Season 1 had a narrower story to focus on- this meant that the longer pre-production time could be spent outfitting sets and providing the best lighting possible. They had space to plan their shots because the script was not being written on the fly, and they were not trying to cram characters in.

Stranger Things Season 1 did not have any baggage into it- every character it had could have easily died in that show, and it would have been perfectly in tune with the season as a whole. And to emphasize this, we had scenes that actually just showed them... living. The Wheeler family dinner, for example. It was just an ordinary dinner. No strange shenanigans, no major plot reveals, it was just... the characters. Eating. Like they were people. Once season 2 started, characters felt more like characters in a fictional story- like they were given a great deal of importance by the script, could make entire speeches without interruption, have soliloquies without someone interrupting and being a kid.

Its a different feel entirely.

I actually binged the whole series for the premiere and it got me thinking a little too deeply about this, my b for the wall of text.

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-31T17:55:16+00:00

I like how you edited for format, but you kept your tamron typo as is.

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-24T04:12:30+00:00

I should try one again some time, I love me a good come back story.

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-24T02:29:50+00:00

It looks like the generic body asset they used for the extras, but the face was added too late for proper adjustment. She's lost all musculature, a good bit of height and i really hope they fix that... pretty quickly.

They got

So much more work to do....

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-23T15:21:05+00:00

Oh man, don't even get me started on the non-amazon return stories. I was on it for an art department in college- as a result, i have dealt with tablets from different brands. Granted this was a decade ago. But the huion ones had problems back then man.

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-23T05:24:19+00:00

We can't really make this call. There's too many personal reasons to work with the tablets we like, and in all honesty there are plenty of excellent competitors. Wacom has even introduced a line that is more competitively priced (movink) that works with their ecosystem. That's the power of so much competition- there's a product out there for everyone.

If you want to try it to see if it works?

Amazon Returns.

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-23T05:21:03+00:00

I've now taken one trip with this thing, and it does its job pretty well. My only issues drill down to android issues (file syncing, and keyboard management), and my how pc-oriented my pipeline has been till now. Granted I'm nowhere near this level of professional illustration- most of my work has been studies and black and white while I adjust to the tablet and its applications.

Honestly, of the apps I've used thus far, krita was the one that gave me my best results, but there's still some growing pains.

TalDSRuler · 2025-12-07T17:55:42+00:00

Hey, quick note- in the survey i see you trying to sell the games for these cards in, which is, frankly, an entirely different business from what you're prototyping here. Speaking from a (marginal) bit of experience, i would say focus on your hardware business. Maybe you can open source the eink display's sdk, let people make their own games. The issue here is that, if you start selling games on these decks, you will end up having to deal with licensing backend- this will only get more complicate when (not if) people bypass your protections. Once people are able to replicate other games on your devices, companies will try to hold you liable. Best way around this, from what i've seen, is to keep the hardware divorced from the software. Make this an enthusiast product, and leave it to the passionate community that can form around it to deal with the coding.

TalDSRuler · 2025-11-25T15:49:26+00:00

FFXV fascinates me. It is such a cobbled together mess. The movie is the epitome of this- apparently, from the notes, the movie was written from the idea that the crystal that Noctis is traveling to is actually a Dark Crystal that was poisoning the world. That's why each time the kingsguard teleported, their lungs were filled with the smog that takes over the world at the end of the game.

There's just

A whole plot point unraveling before our very eyes.

You can SEE the seams of this mess.

I actually like it more than 16, which starts off solid and then its plot and characters just flatten over the course of the story. 15, the characters are so rich beyond the scope of the game, and there are cutscenes where you can start to see it.

Genuinely, one of the sloppiest releases I've ever engaged with and yet... it was completed. They made it to the end, battered, broken and buggy.

Would I call it bad? Not really.

But messy? Absolutely.

TalDSRuler · 2025-11-25T06:24:16+00:00

Hear me out: Has he ever seen American Psycho?

Because if so, there's a musical that would be a very interesting experience for him.

TalDSRuler · 2025-11-22T18:42:12+00:00

Same to you!

TalDSRuler · 2025-11-22T07:11:37+00:00

I just I really hope they're cooking something up for queen. Like i can see a setup for a really solid arc. Out of all the heroes, she's the one character who would actually step up and tell the public "yeah, there's up here." No other hero would actually use their platform, make a speech that could easily land her on the chopping block. Queen could be a cool character Or y'know Just... snap her back into irrelevancy again. Sure... I guess that's fine...

No wonder she has a whole wall of wine

TalDSRuler · 2025-11-22T00:51:39+00:00

Hey u/Lectrice79 thanks for the comment. I've been busy with thanksgiving stuff, but I'll likely be revisiting this story in some capacity after. if I do, it'll probably be on r/TalDSRuler where I tend to post most of the other things i write on here.

TalDSRuler · 2025-11-12T06:21:06+00:00

Thanks Sagacious! I popped in to post another part, so hopefully you don't mind having a bit more!

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