some stories are better off lived

It's that time of year again, you naughty number-loving nerds.

Whether you chose violence or call it an accident, these NPCs found their demise in your playthroughs.

Not sure what Volo did to you all to deserve this.

More non-Dark Urge players also managed to murder Alfira than Dark Urge players. Spawn of Bhaal or not, maybe it’s time to stop pointing fingers.

Some of you faced the Absolute with the most powerful weapons, others decided to bring a charcuterie board to a fight with a giant brain.

Speaking of weapons, you’ve been very skilled at finding the rarer ones in the game. Shout out to the folk who willingly wielded the rusty Poo-Scraper in Act 3.

For some of you, the strategy has been getting the entire party pissed before entering combat. Bottoms up for Drunken Master Monks, we suspect you are partially to blame for these.

Kinda weird, but not judging.

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

PS: You can see some regularly-updated statistics about incoming data here, with lots of demography and graphs to peruse!

what does this have to do with sea sponges???

(catching up with Tiger Tiger)

It would have been cool to see their reactions to Zuko's story and see how their perspective on Zuko changed. And I have no doubt that he tells them about it at some point. But this way, it doesn't come off as emotional blackmail, with him trying to paint his actions as 'Yes, I hunted you across the world, but I actually had a really good reason."

If he did, he might have had a better chance of joining the Gaang, but he doesn't. In traditional Zuko fashion, he takes the most challenging route possible.