dumples

Great. In case you change your mind I have been noodling on this and have a full blown idea that I will write out in full to get it out of my head . If I was doing this I would have used a large series of isopods and set the following systems around them.

In my head the chains of islands would have a slow but consistent current that allows for some boats to just float between islands. These boats would be slow and completely uncontrolled. In order to move faster the isopod ships would capture a swarm of isopods in low nets which would allow the boat to move faster in the opposite direction of the current since the isopods are moving towards new detritus. (This allows for interesting travel decisions since going each direction has a different type of ships and different travel speeds).

As the isopods ships gets to a new island they would need to pull up their nets to slow down. They would then harvest the isopods and start selling to refuel their water supplies. They would open the larger ones and sell their meat either raw or cook. They would also sell the cleaned shells from sizes of a pumpkin down to a few inches. In order to clean the shells they would throw them in a large vat alongside any isopods to small to harvest to ferment for months. This alcoholic fermented isopod meat would make a stew like drink which is what the crew primarily lives off of. All of the leftover meat and guts would be preserved this way for years. Once this raw meats have fermented long enough they can open it off the harvest the cleaned and bleached shells.

In order to catch a new swarm they will need some waste to attract them. After each island they would drop off the entire crew's collected excrement before they pull up the net to get them moving. That way the party will need to pay to travel and promise their excrement along the journey to the ship. Sure to get the party questioning and throw the players off.

Whether she is an Asshole or not doesn't matter. If she makes you feel bad when you are with her then she isn't worth hanging around with. But she does seem like an asshole.

Also to note here that Not Being an Asshole isn't some award you win and then gives you lifetime immunity. If she is being mean now, then she is an asshole even if she wasn't an asshole at some point in the past. In the same way that being an asshole doesn't make you an asshole for life. We need to all continue to strive to be not an asshole.

I went to Edinburgh when they did their Tattoo / Fringe / International festival a few years ago. It was one of the most fun I have ever had traveling. The energy of the crowds, the street fairs and food were amazing and then going to see tons of live comedy and / or shows was amazing. I want to go again and just try to see as many shows as possible especially some of the smaller ones. I might even be interested in going to see the Tattoo.

This may be one of the dumbest takes I have ever seen. Sanctions are done instead of armed combat as a diplomatic tool. So instead of using those we should "checks notes" go to more war? That way war kills more people than sanctions.

My favorite part was all the talk about how the kitchen was going to the size of a closet right next to the idea that you need 100 microwaves to make one good meal. Exactly the tech-bro pitch

Low maintenance vis key. I do mow mine to remove any tree saplings because I don't want trees there. I do attempt to bring some native seeds in because the seed bed is mostly non-natives. Got to get those going.

It's a lot of Black Eyes Susans right now. But I got more longer lasting perennials under most of them. It's super low maintenance and beautiful. I seed in the fall and sometimes the spring. I mow yearly (early spring) to kill any tree saplings and do some weeding in the spring but not much.

I'm planning on harvesting some seeds from my Susans and maybe the coneflowers this year. I usually just let them fall. It would be fun to give the seeds away or spread them around empty lots

I have been trying to live a solarpunk / permaculture lifestyle one step at a time. I am starting with plants

Its nice to be able to see what you should remove. I have defeating the Creeping Bellflower in my new wildflower section of my yard. (The thin strip between my fence and the alley sometimes called the Hell Strip). If you are like me and want to know what is good to have in your yard I would recommend Prairie Moon Nursery if you live in North America. The shop sells native plants and lets you filter by location, bloom season etc. in case you need to buy plants or seeds. It also has a great range map, great pictures and good descriptions in case you are interested. I highly recommend looking at the website to get plants to names

I love this idea. But I would do a more ancient looking Octopus. Make it have a long shell or some strange shape. Not the more familiar octopus you would see today but their weird Cambrian origin.

My first thought was going to be dolphins but after reading your description a large mammal wouldn't exist at all. My next thought would be these barges aren't directed but rather falling the semi-erratic patterns of large schools of some smaller animals. These schools would follow a slow meandering direction through the more shallow seas but are unpredictable and slow. As far as animals go, I would go with crabs, isopod, krill or another crustaceans.

You could also have them pulled by something larger but an underwater burrower. I was thinking how cool and unpredictable would be have some kind of underwater, underground large worm would be. It would filter feed on buried detritus and would involve massive risk to get it attached but would be faster than the small animal method above. It would be the same idea as Dune sand worm riding but underwater. You could even using something like a purple worm as the stats.

I am a man and have read a few romance novels all of which were in the romantasy genre. I have enjoyed them so far. As a demographics go, I think its mostly female and queer orientated. At least for the more modern books. They are having their moment. I know of a few romance specific book stores opening in larger cities.