Echo-oaks - Writing Everything

Very important jobs that are ignored in the fallout universe:

These are professions which have been historically used in western cultures - especially british and american - and thus there would be plentiful data able to be found in historical texts on how to at least start the process. Historical reenactment has always been a hobby and entire villages stand as living museums and have since the 50's -- so it's probable in the fallout universe that these things exsist. Especially on the east coast where fo3 and fo4 take place.

Cobbler - relies on skills of multiple other mentioned jobs; tanner, leatherworker, woodworker and often have at least rudimentary skill in said tasks to be more self sufficient.

Leathworker - belts, bags, decor, clothing, animal tack, they can specialize or multiskill.

Tanner - different job than leather working. They actually make the leather for the others to use.

Potter - pots and clayware. Not a confusing thing to understand why theyd be great. Clay is a resource that is reusable, and I'll go on a limb with this but --- not one of the depleted resources that was involved in the war.

Woodworker - so. Many. Things. From clothespins to Furniture. Plates and bowls, tools, shoe lasts, entertainment. Renewable resource.

Sewists - they make clothes and clothing patterns.

Weaver - they weave fibers, animal or plant, into fabric for sewists and cobblers, rugs and blankets. So many things.

Blacksmith - makes metal stuff, from tableware to door latches. Tools, horse shoe blanks, buckles, nails, grommets, and yes we can branch into weaponsmithing but im literally talking nuts and bolts not armor and cleavers.

Knifesmith - often is also the blacksmith, but makes your everyday use tools and utensils. Cleavers, chefs knives, hatchet, machete. Can make weaponry but typically works with the everyday items.

Miller - take grains, turn them i to flour. Now can make food stuffs.

Sheerer - yes, back in ye old times just like today people with wooly animals hired a specialist to come sheer them.

Ferrier - yes for some reason the only farm animal to survive is the cow. This is dumb, and is ignored for much preferred fannon. Also, even cows can use the care of foot specialists. Youtube has so many channels about care of commercial scale cow feets.

The list continues, but these are just like.. my basic "what every region needs at least one of." And by region, I mean every 3-5 settlement span. Of course, that number varies as well, depending on innumerable variables.

Anyway. People need to look to the past, further than just the 20-21st century to get an idea of what would be needed to help the fallout apoc wasteland thrive.

🎶 What music do you listen to when you write?

i don't actually listen to music when i write. i have a fan that plays nonstop in the background tho. if i'm writing in a library, i listen to rock (mostly) or whatever genre hits the vibes.

lunchtime with the senpais 🍱

here's the piece i did last october for the digital side zine of @akamatsuzine, overture!

tip: a concentrating and distracted artist tends to be more honest. But watch out

Two of my fave komaeda interaction in DRS! 🌴

i just feel like “what if the trauma we go through is usually not noble but purposeless and terrible and the things we develop to keep us alive often change us for the worse” is one of the most important realizations you can come to in terms of like. empathizing with your fellow man and yet whenever that theme shows up in fiction so many people are immediately like its either PERFECT VICTIM OR IRREDEEMABLY EVIL. open the door and walk out of the dichotomy

I’m a fierce believer and defender of Smooth Brain Astarion (affectionate).

I love that, if left to his own devices, he ends up dead in a ditch. I love that this pasty menace of an elf is a walking disaster. I love that his brain produces one coherent thought per day, only to have it backfire on him later on. I love that his first choice in freedom is to unapologetically be the worst version of himself. Because it makes sense. 

That’s what abuse and trauma do to your brain—they fuck with it. 

And in Astarion’s defence, the man didn’t have to use his brain for nearly 200 years—it’s probably the very thing that kept him as alive as he can be; to survive 200 years of pure shit. 

And what use is his brain when his days and nights are dictated by someone else for as long as he can remember? When he has no say in what clothes he wears. When he doesn’t get to choose what or when to eat. When his body and mind aren’t his own, distorted by torture and hunger and self-loathing, forced to obey his vampiric master. Why use his brain when his survival depends exclusively on his abuser’s whims? 

Astarion could’ve come up with the most brilliant plan possible to escape Cazador or save a mark from their doom, but he never stood a chance of succeeding—which doesn’t mean that he didn’t get punished for trying (or even thinking about it) anyway.

Existing under Cazador was a game he couldn’t win, so why bother playing? 

And it’s only by chance that Astarion’s autonomy is returned to him literally overnight. It’s only natural that he’s overwhelmed by his newfound freedom. How is he expected to make sound decisions when he can’t even recall a time when he could do and say as he pleased? 

Of course Astarion is a walking disaster when he finds himself on that beach after the Nautiloid crash—and he’s fully aware of that! That’s why it’s so crucial for him to get on the player’s/other companion’s good side.

He’s self-aware enough to be so insecure about himself that he would rather trust a stranger’s capabilities than his own. 

Being a catastrophe of a person is part of Astarion’s character journey. Not only does he have to reclaim his personhood, he has to learn how to depend on his own brain again and I think that's such a painfully beautiful, important message Baldur’s Gate 3 sends. 

Because healing isn’t pretty. Nor is it easy.

You’re not alright the moment you’re free of whatever horrors you had to live through—and that’s ok! There’s time and room for you to adjust. 

And the moment Astarion feels more or less safe within his new environment, when he’s fed and treated like a person worthy of respect and consideration, his insights, skills and perception are crucial assets to the group.

Astarion knows his art and literature, and although his little remarks are unhinged at times, he's genuinely witty. Even his objections are, considering the circumstances, absolutely legitimate.

Personally, I love seeing Smooth Brain Astarion become more and more secure in his judgement the more Tav/other companions trust and support him.

Astarion is smart, his brain’s just been stewed for nearly 200 years.

[source]

i will go feral if i can find a well written fic for a trans masc reader in my fandoms.

let me have a bit of the spotlight.