#Classic stuff going on in the tags

[grungost]

Hiiiiiiiii :3 (again)

Haha, I would *never* stop posting for almost three quarters of a year... Anyway, Senior years almost over, whatever, more importantly Dragon's Dogma 2 was released and is absolutely incredible. Once again breaking out the superlatives: one of my favorite overall games. Ok, I don't think I even want to go into that, so what am I writing about here? This is basically public journaling, or would be if anyone really read these. I'm not complaining, though, it's pretty much fine. I started watching House MD, another absolute banger show, scratches a similar itch to SVU, but instead of being about cops its about doctors and occasionally disparages cops (edit: obviously a positive, just to make that clear). I read Roadside Picnic, the book that Stalker is originally based on, that was super good. I don't read as much as I used to when I was in grade school or whatever. I started reading Gardens of the Moon, first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series; haven't gotten far, but its cool. Uhhh, I don't think there's much else really. Still like magic; I didn't even read everything I wrote in my last post, but I saw it was about some magic stuff and I still think that stuff's neat. Oh, there have been a bunch of really good original songs from some of the Hololive JP members (I don't think I ever mentioned that particular interest of mine, I'm pretty into both JP and EN vtubers), Suisei's "Bibidiba," Kobo's "Help," and Marine's song that I don't remember the name of. Whatever the latest one was. All of them bangers.

I don't think I ever mentioned that I got really into Fear and Hunger in the past year. Oh wait, that happened after my last post! Man, that was back in October and my last post was in August. Anyway, Fear and Hunger; what a difference between when I first found out about it. When I first played it, it had such an oppressive atmosphere, genuinely upsetting at times, if only on account of the fact I'd never played a game so visceral, bodily, and sexual; pretty unique experience. Once you get into the swing of things though its just a bunch of fun. Oh, it was incredible though, making it to Mahabre for the first time; I was sick for a significant portion of the summer, had a hacking cough and a persistent headache or something (wasn't Covid, thankfully), and when I first went there, the music, the bizarre underground sunlight, the feeling of digging into the secret and divine realm that undergirded everything I'd been through to that point, all of it was heightened by my dizziness. It was pretty worrying at the time when I was so tired and had a coughing fit long enough that I passed out for a minute or so, but in retrospect it totally enhanced the experience and I can't help but appreciate how the experience as a whole positively affected my perception of the game. I won't talk as much about F&H 2, it wasn't as good. I appreciated that it was going for something else, but I much prefer the straight up fantasy setting of the first one. don't get me wrong, still a great game, just not my favorite.

I think that about wraps it up. I'm not gonna promise consistency again, but maybe I'll keep my page up in a tab and it'll remind me to write sometimes. Maybe if I had a topic... Maybe I could write about Fox Junction, a PS1 JP-only roguelike that isn't especially fun but has such an incredible atmosphere I can't help but love it. Maybe I could write about Tunic, my favorite game of all time (I still don't remember, but there's a good chance I already did in my previous post on account of how similar the subject matter is re: synchronicity and a spiritual world). Or maybe, just maybe, I could write another long, rambling post about nothing in particular. Who's to say what I'll end up writing about, there's simply no way to be certain. Alright, later!

[captainswan618]

Doctor Who The Dalek Invasion of Earth: Flashpoint (1964) // Journey's End (2008)

[nah-my-mom-said-no]

Manglobe will not be forgotten. That studio cooked WAYY TOOO hard

[ivoryratdoggerythethird]

i could've gone my whole life without learning about hector as more than the boyfriend-killer because what do you mean. what do you mean he was favored by apollo. what.

apollo who is the god of prophecy? apollo whose prophetic powers were a of gift of cassandra? fucking cassandra of troy, the mad oracle, sister to hector? cassandra who rejected him?

cassandra who was then cursed to never be believed about her visions. cassandra who saw her kingdom fall and her brothers die and her own murder play out. cassandra whose eyes were blessed and doomed but whose voice was denied. by apollo.

apollo who was supposed to help hector triumph. apollo who would rather let the seer be harked as hysterical and mad than compromise his ego. apollo who let even his champion be deaf to the prophecies of their loss. of his own death.

hector who was graced by apollo. hector, brother of all-seeing cassandra. hector who was denied the warnings of their fates by the god who was meant to guide him. hector, who his patron deity would rather let die and be disgraced and have his corpse paraded around his horrified, beloved city and leave his wife a widow and his son vulnerable to his own murder and his loving king-father left to beg the killer of his son for a cold dead body.

hector who was blessed by apollo to die a gruesome death before his doomed city because apollo would rather punish his sister than keep him alive. cassandra knew, cassandra tried to tell him, to tell anyone. apollo wouldn't allow it.

the hubris and wrath of a god always triumphs over their own favor. aphrodiate would rather her beloved son be miserable than concede to a mortal woman, zephyr would rather kill the mortal he loves than suffer the jealousy and shame of watching him with another god.

apollo who guides the arrow of paris to avenge hector but what does that matter? for years he kept their sister's words of warning and desperate pleas from reaching their ears, visions that might have saved him, warned him. but of course, the lives of a city full of mortals is worth nothing against a sliver of a god's pride. what the hell.

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Fais fanfic rambles: Introduction to my 'Selkies by Starlight' ISaT AU

Note: Not to be confused with @looped-140-and-counting / Soren_793's wonderful Selkie AU oneshot series 'The Northern Islanders are Selkies' which was hugely inspiring for this if potentially VERY different in vibe (we got very into talking about cloaks! XD)

Basic premise/summary:

In an alternate version of the precanon adventure, the party lead by Mirabelle to stop the King freezing Vaugarde in time, recruit Siffrin as per usual.

Thing is, Siffrin is a Selkie.

A very skittish selkie without a cloak of their own, who openly wears the cloak of another, and due to Reasons is under the impression that the party know all both of those things and the Implications about them, and for whatever reason have decided to welcome him into their group anyway.

Which er, he's completely wrong about as the party know absolutely nothing.

Mira and Isa like most Vaugardian humans think 'shifters' are just fairytales, Odile knows shapeshifters are real but is only really familiar with how foxes like her father work, and Bonnie is actually able to sense some pretty major things but is a preteen dealing with a lot and hasn't even joined the party yet, so this pretty major misunderstanding is sustained for quite a while...

Cue the AUs' main focus being on the resulting party dynamic shifts as more and more canon divergence due to Sif's 'selkie stuff' (both cute and serious) comes into play, the party slowly realising something is up, and all of it hitting an eruption point right around the time of the 4th Orb/the loss of Siffrin's eye...

Some key world building notes: (Note: very summarised from my docs. I have like 20k+ words on this stuff XD)

The Island - Probably the most drastically different thing from canon here, the Island was not forgotten or erased here. Rather it is hidden away and permanently shrouded in Wish Craft generated fog from 'those without cloaks'. Side note: Sif is still unable to return home and continues to have some very plot critical memory problems but those are due to unrelated issues, which means yay I get to have Sif talk 'home culture' with the others in this =D Also idk why the King is freezing Vaugarde still. I've got a few ideas I'm not sure about and he's not in focus enough for it to even matter really, but random suggestions -especially those with possible selkie motivations- would be very much appreciated.

Selkie powers in my setting - Went into something of a deep dive regarding selkie folklore for this and did you know they have an absolute ton of seer/oracle based stuff going on?

From selkie being summoned by their human lovers shedding seven tears into the ocean, to a selkie man telling a former lover that he and their child will die at the hands by her genuinely good and loving future husband, to a selkie woman forseeing her fisherman husband about to die out in a storm just in time for her to swim over there and rescue him, etc.

So... Yeah. This AU has a lot of plot relevant sensory/seer stuff going on as well as the standard seal shapeshifter stuff (Islander selkie traditionally believe it to be the Universe talking with them, in the same way Wish Craft is talking to the Universe), and going off all the stuff I read decided it'd be most fitting if the general rule for how it all works is: - Selkie always passively have a bit of it going on (aka Sif's canon 'you sense someone nearby' stuff) which like most things can be enhanced with Craft use a bit. - Near perfect understanding of all 'connected' bodies of water (aka they know EXACTLY where the tasty fish are/will be and can probably get a general sense of location for most people on a boat) - Potentially get strong 'visions of the future' and/or instincts on what they need to do to avert an outcome when it comes to loved ones being in danger/distress.

They also maybe get to pull very fast, high power Wish Craft 'curses'/miracles' at idk, the cost of something major like their cloak or lives (mostly based off of the The Legend of Kópakonan where the whole island of Kalsoy was cursed with death by a selkie in retaliation for her husband and children being murdered) but not super attached to this idea past it being in 'seal shifter' stories in-setting.

Other non humans in setting and regional differences in shifters - Pretty much only selkie and selkie issues are in focus here, but just as a general thing, all non humans in setting are shapeshifters and originated from human ancestors who went crazy with the the Body Craft and/or used Wish Craft in some way.

Ka Bue in particular has a ton of them since yokai, with their origins being various sects/clans back in the warring eras going so nuts with trying to weaponize Body Craft (super soldiers, enhanced life spans, infiltration, exploiting attraction to furries, etc), that after some particularly high profile incidents (for an idea plz see: Kiyohime, Tamamo no Mae, Kachi-kachi Yama) and 'Body Craft misuse leading to shut down of the brain/vital organs' being the most common cause of death for 10+ years once peace time was established, eventually Ka Bue's authorities set their foot down and banned Body Craft altogether.

Currently the shifter population in Ka Bue is around 30% of the population, shifters are required to have ID regarding their forms (or potential forms if they're merely 'half'), and it's considered distasteful for a shifter to be in non human form outside of private settings/necessity and even ruder to ask a shifter about their non human forms if they haven't brought the topic up yet first (kinda like seeing/asking about someone's underwear or something XD).

In contrast the Vaugarde, Mwudu and Porteria region is extremely shifter sparce, with most of its original shifter population being the result of various Universe worshipping peoples (mostly small groups, like greek mystery cults) deciding to use a big Wish Craft ritual as some sort of religious rite and becoming shifters as a side effect of their primary Wish (usually stuff like 'we wish for us and our descendants to be one with You and the sea/air' or 'may we Change with the phases of the holy moon' etc) which granted them some pretty neat skills but also tended to come with some 'potentially nasty' drawbacks attached (see: selkie and swan maidens with their cloaks, werewolves Changing in both body and mind etc) Which er, lead to some issues born of lack of knowledge about this stuff, later some very nasty anti shifter sentiment in the region, and then around... IDK 200 to 300 years ago or so ended up exploding into violence and other very nasty things, with most shifters able to do so fleeing the region, and those that couldn't either enduring horrible conditions until they could escape/died or went deep into hiding, with the Island's Country being founded by the two later groups who used Wish Craft to hide their new home, erase awareness of their existence from their enemies (a short term, fully intentionally 'forgetting' blast centered specifically around shifters), and developed a LOT of culture and traditions regarding when, who and what can be told to 'outsiders' about themselves, Wish Craft, etc in order to keep their people safe.

There are shifters living in present in Vaugarde of course (anti shifter sentiment died back a LOT after most people stopped thinking they were real, and most modern day Change Believers are more likely to view these 'totally fictional/allegorical' beings as children/messengers of the Change God rather than 'evil demons who stole power by tearing apart the Change God's cloak for themselves and thus have to be hunted down and made to repent' propaganda take that was everywhere back then) but numbers actually living outside the Island as opposed to merely visiting remain low, since either the shifters know their history and stick firmly to their 'stay secret' traditions or quickly pick up on how oddly unknown shifters are around these parts and decide to err on the side of caution... Also 'trust worthy' humans who do learn about them (usually northern coastal folk, gee wonder why) tend to help cover them up so... Yeah =D

---

And... Yeah!

This is hella long as is, so will stop here and ramble about the actual 'how this all affects our beloved Sif and Co plot and culture wise' stuff that is the actual meat of the AU in another post later, but hope this made for an interesting/idea provoking read, know that I have no issue with anyone using any of this for their own works (just please, don't use the 'Selkies under starlight' same story name unless it's actually a fanfic/fanart of my 'hopefully soon has a chapter/one shot up' fic/Ao3 series of the same name so people don't get confused), and I would love to chatter with you about any thoughts/questions you might have so...

Wishing you a good day =D

(sighes in relief finally getting this post finished after literal months. Pheeeeww~)

[sluckythewizard]

'I wont cry for you, I wont crucify the things you do. I wont cry for you, see, when you're gone, I'll still be BLOODY MARY'

[nebulajay]

I have not watched the Rani's episodes and i know fuck all about Omega and where that character is coming from but ummm i also get the feeling the writers know even less than me really getting the feeling that theyre just pulling names out of a hat and maybe googling it

[culpeppercheckers721]

So the last few weeks I’ve fallen into this weird micro-obsession with The Great Gatsby, been thinking about re-reading it, and come to find out last night after I recently finished one of his audiobooks for the first time (Fairytale), THERE IS A FUCKING VERSION SETH NUMRICH NARRATES. GENUINELY FUCKING SCREAMED AND NO I HAVE NOT RECOVERED.

[hide-your-bugs-away]

Had a fun time splurging at The Pokémon Store yesterday... 👀

[batautism]

I haven't written fanfiction since I was like 13 with a friend, I don't know why pathologic is the thing that've pushed me back into writing but here is a wip of my dankovsky homosexual child/teenhood fic

[terranceholdsapencil]

What kinds of subgenres has doctor who had and in which episodes? It doesn't have to fit perfectly.

E.g "a town called mercy" - western, "blink"- horror, "the happiness patrol "- political satire... can be more broad ("horror" "sci fi" "mystery" or more specific "found footage horror(ish)" for blink or "cosmic horror" or "historical military espionage" or "spy thriller")

It can also be episode "types". E.g. "base under siege story" for something like the moonbase or warriors of the deep, or "post-regen mess" or "introductary episode"....

[r0semultiverse]

Happy 4/13, here's the Deltritan or Satyr Equivalent to Dragon Ball for their species and civilization.

[welltumlbrforgotme]

Tom Pryce at 1977 South Africa Grand Prix.

[cy4zur3]

There's something really interesting going on in Aeneid I with the idea of female deception. Let's see if I can put this concisely:

Hunc Phoenissa tenet Dido blandisque moratur  vocibus; et vereor, quo se Iunonia vertant hospitia; haud tanto cessabit cardine rerum. Quocirca capere ante dolis et cingere flamma reginam meditor, ne quo se numine mutet, sed magno Aeneae mecum teneatur amore.  

(Aen 1.670-75)

Phoenician Dido holds him there, delaying him with flattery,

and I fear what may come of Juno’s hospitality:

at such a critical turn of events she’ll not be idle.

So I intend to deceive the queen with guile, and encircle

her with passion, so that no divine will can rescue her,

but she’ll be seized, with me, by deep love for Aeneas.

tr. A. S. Kline

So in this passage, Venus is talking to Cupid about her concerns that Dido will prevent Aeneas from leaving Carthage.

She claims that Dido holds Aeneas there, and so Dido will be seized by Aeneas. Dido uses blandis ... vocibus, flattery, against Aeneas, whilst she will be held not by any such thing but instead magno amore, by a great love. These things are clearly unequal, and imply a deception on Dido's part.

Moreover, the grammar implies culpability on Dido's part for the love as well. Venus says that Dido will be seized "mecum; with me," not "a me; by me." The latter would imply Venus had an active hand in it - which she does, because this is literally the speech in which she tells Cupid to make Dido fall in love! But gramatically, Venus is absolved.

Dido is actively holding Aeneas, as she's the subject of tenet, but she's also the subject of teneatur. This is neat stylistically, but more importantly it means that Aeneas is never actively pursuing or seizing her. Although she'll become as infatuated with him as he is with her, it's phrased as though it's her fault for her own deception.

This doesn't come out in the translation, but the verbs for these two actions are the same (tenet and teneatur are both different conjugations of teneo, tenere). They're clearly supposed to be comparable; the seizing of Dido is positioned as a sort of comeuppance for her trickery in seizing Aeneas.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

My friend told me to start xmen comics and i did just one question what are charles and erik cuz im kinda confused are they a couple or smth my friend wont tell me anything this is my last option to know what im getting into

they can be whatever you want them to be my friend....

[askbensolo]

maybe life is best lived one step at a time.

and maybe sometimes difficult things are worth pursuing.

and maybe certain scars are worth overcoming.