#the same also applies to dancing to a lesser extent!

[eriyu]

Does your OC enjoy creating things? Are they particularly artistic? Or do they prefer to focus upon creating things with a practical use? (Let's try that again...)

bard main!!! Ehryu's music definitely counts. she'll happily sing and play the songs that she learns from Jehantel (or anywhere else), but she loves writing her own songs even more. and even with songs she's learned elsewhere, i imagine improvisation and putting your own spin on old songs is super common among bards.

and she'd be wildly offended by any implication that there's anything lesser about that compared to "practical" things. she knows very well the positive impact music can have :)

[marta-bee]

I’m rereading “The Adventure of the Dancing Men,” mostly because it’s the basis for the next Granada episode, and since I’ve just read SCAN, I’m noticing all sorts of fascinating parallels between the King of Bohemia and Hilton Cubitt, the client in DANC. 

By the end of SCAN, it’s pretty obvious the king is more the villain than Irene: not evil, but certainly at least as interested in controlling her than being safe from her supposed threats. Hilton is more unambiguously a good man. Doyle describes him thus: “He was a fine creature, this man of the old English soil, simple, straight and gentle, with his great, ernest blue eyes and broad, comely face. His love for his wife and his trust in her shone in his features.” He accepts Elsie’s decision to keep her past secret for him, at at first. By period standards he seems pretty progressive.

But for all his words, he really struggles to let Elsie manage her past on her own terms. Even at his first meeting with Holmes, when Holmes suggests the man just ask his wife why she was so bothered by the titular dancing men, he responds, "A promise is a promise, Mr. Holmes. If Elsie wished to tell me she would. If not, it is not for me to force her confidence. But I am justified in taking my own line – and I will." He promised Elsie before her wedding never to ask about her past, and he’s abiding by the letter of that promise. But the spirit, which was surely not to involve himself in that part of her life, he’s much less willing to go along with. He’s hiring a detective to look into why these drawings are so alarming to her, which, if it’s not quite violating his promise (Holmes is investigating the drawings, not Elsie), it’s at least right up against the line.

When I said I was seeing parallels between the King in SCAN and Hilton in DANC, I was really thinking of the final part of SCAN, where the king learns Irene has married someone else. This effectively takes Irene out of his sphere of control --she is now another man’s wife-- and he seems to regret that at some level. It seemed he enjoyed having her as “the other woman,” perhaps not an ongoing sexual partner but certainly as the emotional parallel of a mistress or courtesan. He didn’t want to be free of her so much as in control of her. 

And Cubitt is nowhere near as sexist and controlling, but there’s still a milder version of that dynamic. (Speaking as a 21st-century single woman with all the sensibilities and expectations that carries with him.) He’ll agree not to ask Elsie about her past because that was the only way she’d marry him; but what she clearly meant was not to pry, to leave her past to her to manage; and that’s something Hilton’s manhood won’t let him give her. it’s his duty to protect her, and leaving her to manage her past means ceding some of his... domain, for lack of a better word, to her. Masculinity, especially in the context of husband/wife relationships, just won’t allow it. In much the same way that later, his pride as a respectable quire from a respectable, solid family, won’t let him withdraw and go somewhere else.

At the risk of imposing concepts I’m not sure how to apply to the Victorian period, both because they’re so contemporary and also because I just don’t know enough about Victorian social norms, the problem here is heteronormativity, and to a lesser extent, a commitment to being respectable. Elsie’s past and her keeping it to herself isn’t easily reconciled with what it meant to be a husband and wife in their social setting. Certainly not once the messages start appearing and her past becomes much more relevant to the present. This isn’t the King of Bohemia’s blustering about and trampling over Irene’s autonomy. Hilton is trying, bless him. He’s a “man of the old English soil, simple, straight and gentle.” But everything about that won’t let him give Elsie control over this domain, much as Irene couldn’t have control over her life without being the pinnacle of virtue as a respectable English (unmarried) woman, and even then, she really only got security when she took shelter as a proper wife. The King would have been much more sympathetic as a character (which he wasn’t supposed to be; which was the point) if he’d only been concerned with protecting himself from blackmail, rather than maintaining his control over Irene. And in a much milder but still in many ways similar way, Hilton would have done much better to truly leave Elsie’s past to her to manage, rather than trying to square his promise with his need to protect her, almost to subsume her past into their combined present.

All of which makes the little domestic scene at the beginning so interesting. I’ll quote the whole bit, because it makes me smile but also because it’s actually a really interesting alternative to the whole dynamic between Elsie and Hilton.

"So, Watson," said he, suddenly, "you do not propose to invest in South African securities?"

I gave a start of astonishment. Accustomed as I was to Holmes's curious faculties, this sudden intrusion into my most intimate thoughts was utterly inexplicable.

"How on earth do you know that?" I asked.

He wheeled round upon his stool, with a steaming test-tube in his hand and a gleam of amusement in his deep-set eyes.

"Now, Watson, confess yourself utterly taken aback," said he.

"I am."

"I ought to make you sign a paper to that effect."

"Why?"

"Because in five minutes you will say that it is all so absurdly simple."

"I am sure that I will say nothing of the kind."

"You see, my dear Watson" – he propped his test-tube in the rack and began to lecture with the air of a professor addressing his class – "it is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one's audience with the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though possibly a meretricious, effect. Now, it was not really difficult, by an inspection of the groove between your left forefinger and thumb, to feel sure that you did NOT propose to invest your small capital in the goldfields."

"I see no connection."

"Very likely not; but I can quickly show you a close connection. Here are the missing links of the very simple chain: 1. You had chalk between your left finger and thumb when you returned from the club last night. 2. You put chalk there when you play billiards to steady the cue. 3. You never play billiards except with Thurston. 4. You told me four weeks ago that Thurston had an option on some South African property which would expire in a month, and which he desired you to share with him. 5. Your cheque-book is locked in my drawer, and you have not asked for the key. 6. You do not propose to invest your money in this manner."

"How absurdly simple!" I cried.

I’ve joked before how normal roommates don’t store their personal documents in each others’ desks like that; and since Watson was a published writer, it’s not like he surely didn’t have his own desk somewhere in the flat. I suppose it’s possible it didn’t have a locked drawer (maybe Holmes as an investigator has more of a need to keep documents secure?). Perhaps there’s a good explanation that doesn’t just ooze old-married-couple vibes. Perhaps it’s just a device to make Holmes’s reasoning dramatizable. Perhaps there’s also just no point in trying to keep secrets when Holmes’s piercing observations are thrown into the mix. But Watson having to involve Holmes if not outright ask his permission before he can act on a financial decision really does scream married domesticity more than cohabiting bachelors (confirmed or otherwise).

It’s really interesting, though, the way Holmes positions him and Watson here. Yes, Watson would have had to ask for the key, because it’s his desk drawer and the kind of thing Holmes would have possession over. But there’s no sense that Holmes would have imposed himself on Watson’s decision. Watson has the autonomy to spend his money as he likes. 

Holmes will know, because that’s just what Holmes does; but it’s Watson’s choice what to do with his own money. It’s all very shared, but still not comingled in the way Elsie’s and Hilton’s married life is. Watson has parts of his life he has control over. And it doesn’t lessen Holmes not to have control over Watson’s money because they’re not husband and wife with the social expectations that carries with it. We can joke that they’re practically married, and that response isn’t coming out of nowhere, but if it’s anything like a marriage it’s free of what it would mean to be husband and wife. And this is really only possible because they’re queer, even if that’s queerplatonic or something else that doesn’t actually involve the erotic. Holmes can be masculine and still give Watson space to be his own man in a way a man more literally married to a woman never could be precisely because he’s (they’re) queer.

Would that Hilton Cubitt had been so lucky. He and Elsie would have both been so much better off by the story’s end. Which is pretty much the point.

************************

There is so much I could say about BBC!Mary here, the problems of your past being your business, etc., but it’s 2023 and I’m pretty sure everyone’s made up their own minds of how to read HLV by this point and I’m not quite brave enough to tiptoe into that foray on a Saturday night, so.

[tenthgrove]

Also,this is from that same anon who sent the ask gushing about dancing with Prosciutto… this is a little embarrassing but my current partner and I met bc we acted in some shows together. At one point we were in a musical where we were partnered for a fairly romantic/sexual dance scene. And sometimes I’d get flustered and do clumsy things or miss steps in rehearsals because I had a huge crush on him and we were so close and physical with each other. He was kind of surprised later on once we were dating and he realized I was actually a much better dancer once I wasn’t silently freaking out and getting distracted 😩😂 ahh sorry for rambling but I can definitely envision the same sort of thing with prosciutto. Maybe you’re just fine at dancing. But then again, maybe now and then you slip up and make silly mistakes and he teases you about it… only to later realize once you’ve both confessed that it was because you were more focused on him than on the dance. I think he’d get more flustered than he’d let on if you told him after the fact!

Oh god that is one of my favourite romance tropes! Couple meets for 'professional' reasons but ends up becoming increasingly enthralled by each other. Just imagine applying this concept to Prosciutto and a trainee of his, a promising young assassin who inexplicably starts fucking up once they become closer. Maybe, to a lesser extent, Prosciutto does as well.

[lailoken]

The Coblynau

“Under the general title of Coblynau I class the fairies which haunt the mines, quarries and under- ground regions of Wales, corresponding to the cabalistic Gnomes. The word coblyn has the double meaning of knocker or thumper and sprite or fiend; and may it not be the original of goblin? It is applied by Welsh miners to pigmy fairies which dwell in the mines, and point out, by a peculiar knocking or rapping, rich veins of ore. The faith is extended, in some parts, so as to cover the indication of subterranean treasures generally, in caves and secret places of the mountains. The coblynau are described as being about half a yard in height and very ugly to look upon, but extremely good- natured, and warm friends of the miner. Their dress is a grotesque imitation of the miner's garb, and they carry tiny hammers, picks and lamps.

They work busily, loading ore in buckets, flitting about the shafts, turning tiny windlasses, and pounding away like madmen, but really accomplishing nothing whatever. throw stones at the miners, when enraged at being lightly spoken of; but the stones are harmless. Nevertheless, all miners of a proper spirit refrain from provoking them, because their presence brings good luck. They have been known to

Miners are possibly no more superstitious than other men of equal intelligence; I have heard some of their number repel indignantly the idea that they are superstitious at all; but this would simply be to raise them above the level of our common humanity. There is testimony enough, besides, to support my own conclusions, which accredit a liberal share of credulity to the mining class. The Oswestry Advertiser, a short time ago, recorded the fact that, at Cefn, 'a woman is employed as messenger at one of the collieries, and as she commences her duty early each morning she meets great numbers of colliers going to their work. Some of them, we are gravely assured, consider it a bad omen to meet a woman first thing in the morning; and not having succeeded in deterring her from her work by other means, they waited upon the manager and declared that they should remain at home unless the woman was dismissed.' This was in 1874. In June, 1878, the South Wales Daily News recorded a superstition of the quarrymen at Penrhyn, where some thousands of men refused to work on Ascension Day. This refusal did not arise out of any reverential feeling, but from an old and wide-spread superstition, which has lingered in that district for years, that if work is continued on Ascension Day an accident will certainly follow. A few years ago the agents persuaded the men to break through the superstition, and there were accidents each year-a not unlikely occurrence, seeing the extent of works carried on, and the dangerous nature of the occupation of the men. This year, however, the men, one and all, refused to work.' dealing with considerable numbers of the mining class, and are quoted in this instance as being more significant than individual cases would be. Of these last I have encountered many. Yet I should be sorry if any reader were to conclude from all this that Welsh miners are not in the main intelligent, church-going, newspaper-reading men. so, I think, even beyond the common. Their superstitions, therefore, like those of the rest of us, must be judged as 'a thing apart,' not to be reconciled with intelligence and education, but co-existing with them. Absolute freedom from superstition can come only with a degree of scientific culture not yet reached by mortal man.

It can hardly be cause for wonder that the miner should be superstitious. His life is passed in a dark and gloomy region, fathoms below the earth's green surface, surrounded by walls on which dim lamps shed a fitful light. It is not surprising that imagination (and the Welsh imagination is peculiarly vivid) should conjure up the faces and forms of gnomes and coblynau, of phantoms and fairy men. When they hear the mysterious thumping which they know is not produced by any human being, and when in examining the place where the noise was heard they find there are really valuable indications of ore, the sturdiest incredulity must sometimes be shaken. Science points out that the noise may be produced by the action of water upon the loose stones in fissures and pot-holes of the mountain limestone, and does actually suggest the presence of metals.

In the days before a Priestley had caught and bottled that demon which exists in the shape of carbonic acid gas, when the miner was smitten dead by an invisible foe in the deep bowels of the earth it was natural his awe-struck companions should ascribe the mysterious blow to a supernatural enemy. When the workman was assailed suddenly by what we now call fire-damp, which hurled him and his companions right and left upon the dark rocks, scorching, burning, and killing, those who survived were not likely to question the existence of the mine fiend. Hence arose the superstition—now probably quite extinct—of basilisks in the mines, which destroyed with their terrible gaze. When the explanation came, that the thing which killed the miner was what he breathed, not what he saw; and when chemistry took the fire-damp from the domain of faerie, the basilisk and the fire fiend had not a leg to stand on. The explanation of the Knockers is more recent, and less palpable and convincing.

The Coblynau are always given the form of dwarfs, in the popular fancy; wherever seen or heard, they are believed to have escaped from the mines or the secret regions of the mountains. Their homes are hidden from mortal vision. When encountered, either in the mines or on the mountains, they have strayed from their special abodes, which are as spectral as themselves. There is at least one account extant of their secret territory having been revealed to mortal eyes. I find it in a quaint volume (of which I shall have more to say), printed at Newport, Monmouthshire, in 1813. It relates that one William Evans, of Hafodafel, while crossing the Beacon Mountain very early in the morning, passed a fairy coal mine, where fairies were busily at work. Some were cutting the coal, some carrying it to fill the sacks, some raising the loads upon the horses' backs, and so on; but all in the completest silence. He thought this 'a wonderful extra natural thing,' and was considerably impressed by it, for well he knew that there really was no coal mine at that place. He was a person of undoubted veracity,' and what is more, 'a great man in the world-above telling an untruth.'

That the Coblynau sometimes wandered far from home, the same chronicler testifies; but on these occasions they were taking a holiday. Egbert Williams, 'a pious young gentleman of Denbigh- shire, then at school,' was one day playing in a field called Cae Caled, in the parish of Bodfari, with three girls, one of whom was his sister. Near the stile beyond Lanelwyd House they saw a company of fifteen or sixteen coblynau engaged in dancing madly. They were in the middle of the field, about seventy yards from the spectators, and they danced something after the manner of Morris-dancers, but with a wildness and swiftness in their motions. They were clothed in red like British soldiers, and wore red handkerchiefs spotted with yellow wound round their heads. And a strange circumstance about them was that although they were almost as big as ordinary men, yet they had unmistakably the appearance of dwarfs, and one could call them nothing but dwarfs. Presently one of them left the company and ran towards the group near the stile, who were direfully scared thereby, and scrambled in great fright to go over the stile. Barbara Jones got over first, then her sister, and as Egbert Williams was helping his sister over they saw the coblyn close upon them, and barely got over when his hairy hand was laid on the stile. He stood leaning on it, gazing after them as they ran, with a grim copper-coloured countenance and a fierce look. The young people ran to Lanelwyd House and called the elders out, but though they hurried quickly to the field the dwarfs had already disappeared.

The counterparts of the Coblynau are found in most mining countries. In Germany, the Wichtlein (little Wights) are little old long-bearded men, about three-quarters of an ell high, which haunt the mines of the southern land. The Bohemians call the Wichtlein by the name of Haus-schmiedlein, little House-smiths, from their sometimes making a noise as if labouring hard at the anvil. They are not so popular as in Wales, however, as they predict misfortune or death. They announce the doom of a miner by knocking three times distinctly, and when any lesser evil is about to befall him they are heard digging, pounding, and imitating other kinds of work. In Germany also the kobolds are rather troublesome than otherwise, to the miners, taking pleasure in frustrating their objects, and rendering their toil unfruitful. Sometimes they are down- right malignant, especially if neglected or insulted, but sometimes also they are indulgent to individuals whom they take under their protection. ‘When a miner therefore hit upon a rich vein of ore, the inference commonly was not that he possessed more skill, industry, or even luck than his fellow-workmen, but that the spirits of the mine had directed him to the treasure.'

The intimate connection between mine fairies and the whole race of dwarfs is constantly met through- out the fairy mythology; and the connection of the dwarfs with the mountains is equally universal. God,' says the preface to the Heldenbuch, 'gave the dwarfs being, because the land and the mountains were altogether waste and uncultivated, and there was much store of silver and gold and precious stones and pearls still in the mountains.' From the most ancient times, and in the oldest countries, down to our own time and the new world of America, the traditions are the same. The old Norse belief which made the dwarfs the current machinery of the northern Sagas is echoed in the Catskill Mountains with the rolling of the thunder among the crags where Hendrik Hudson's dwarfs are playing ninepins.”

-

British Goblins

Wirt Sikes, 1880

[nobody-knose--archive]

hey all, resident person who does music analysis without knowing how to do music analysis here (looking at you, mind electric post from last september with a few dozen notes), have you ever wanted a vaguely concise list of all the differences between not one, not three, but two different versions of ruler of everything? i made it regardless.

to start, i’ve got to highlight various aspects of the ruler of everything mmmm 2008 version (the reference i’m using to compare the other versions with):

-the bpm is 83

-the key is b minor (bm)

-instruments featured include various strings (violin, cello, bass, i probably can’t name them all by ear), glockenspiel, chimes, acoustic guitar, calliope, drums of course (a drumkit), a specific keyboard synth, electric guitar, bass guitar, choral vocals separate from the lyrical ones (technically not an instrument but i’m including it here for a reason), tambourine, and one more percussion instrument that i genuinely cannot name precisely but theorize is some snare-drum-with-brushes shenanigans or maybe possibly a güiro (sounds like lighting a match, you can hear it in the breakdown part).

-the song is 3:42 long, not counting 13, which is, of course, 13 seconds long

-approximately 32 seconds of it is the outro with only glockenspiel

-notable situations in which there are differences between audio channels include the intro, where the glockenspiel is mostly, but not entirely, stored within the left channel; the reversed cymbals leading into the second verse, where two separate cymbal tones are played in each channel, with very little overlap; the “aaah”s following the first verse of “ruler of everything”, where the sounds switch between coming mostly, but not entirely, in the left & right channels; the reversed “jackrabbit” line, where the sound starts on the right channel and ends in the left, never entirely in only one channel; the laughter immediately following the “wonderful life” verse, which pans between the left & right channels; during the bridge, where there are some backwards vocals that hang out greatly in the left channel and, to a lesser (& different) extent, the right; the final “smile” at the end of the bridge, which echoes between channels as it fades away; and the final choral vocal during the outro, which emanates more from the left channel, though it is still present in the right.

-miscellaneous points in which there are differences between audio channels include, in about the entirety of the “do you like how i dance?” verses, guitar power chords are heard primarily in the left some bowed string flairs come primarily in the right or left (i would guess there’s a cello part in the right & a normal violin part in the left, but i can’t name them by ear), and there’s an electric guitar riff that dwindles off in the left shortly before the breakdown/bridge. during the bridge there is the aforementioned weird percussion bit coming in primarily in the left, two separate reversed synth riffs in the right & left, and another electric guitar riff primarily in the left. during the final chorus, the vocoded (a la taken for a ride 05 ver) and deeper vocals are more present in the right channel than the left & vice versa, respectively, though neither is fully absent from the other.

now that we’ve got this out of the way, time to look at the 2005 release:

-right off the bat, there’s a couple key differences. the key itself is raised up half a semitone, which less places it in a different key & more makes it sound horrendously out of tune with the 08 release. the tempo is also slightly faster, despite its longer length of 4:17 (about 1:10 of which is the glockenspiel-solo outro, about 22 seconds of which is silence covering up the existence of hidden in the sand, with the following 19 seconds being ocean sfx that further lead into hidden in the sand). i’d place the tempo around 85 or 86 bpm, not a significant change, but enough to offset it from the 08 ver.

-instruments featured include- with those that appear in both the 08 & 05 versions in bold, and those that only appear in this version in italics- various strings (i’d wager the same ones as in 08), glockenspiel, calliope, acoustic guitar, real bells/chimes, a specific keyboard synth, a drumkit, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, choral vocals separate from the lyrical ones, that same unnamed percussion instrument from earlier (but more subdued), and tambourine.

boy, that sure is a lot of the same instruments isn’t it? time to move into the meat of the differences: musical shenanigans!

-for starters, the 05 ver sports many different mixes between audio channels from the 08 ver. the intro glockenspiel is located squarely in the left audio channel, leaving only an echo in the right (far less space in between than the 08 ver); the reversed cymbals are mixed together in both channels rather than separated; the calliope is only found in the left channel; the specific keyboard synth is only found in the right channel (this & the previous point apply to the entire track); the small guitar riff during the “powerful job” line that follows the “i’ve been you” melody is mostly in the left; when the glockenspiel returns around the final verse it keeps primarily to the right channel for the rest of the song; the wonky percussion instrument is only in the right channel for the first go of the breakdown, but switches to the left for the transition between the two; the electric guitar riff is far less relegated to only the left, if at all; the reverse tambourine during the transition to the other half of the breakdown is mostly in the right; and the cello (i think) that comes in before the final chorus emanates more from the left channel.

-concerning the vocals in particular for the audio channels, the gentle “ah-ah”s in the first verse move from the left to right channels; the “aaah”s following the first lines of ruler of everything are less concentrated in individual audio channels; the reversed “jackrabbit” line pans between channels more than once; zubin & joe’s vocals across their verses before the breakdown do various things such as taking place entirely within the left & right channels respectively, only having a line’s echo in the one channel, having two different audio distortions/harmonies of a line be in different channels, or having a distorting line pan between channels; the laughter immediately following the “wonderful life” verse is mostly found in the right audio channel; the vocalize following the “you’re making me cry” line is mostly in the left; the falsetto harmony in the following verse is mainly in the right; one deeper, distorted harmony in the intro to the breakdown is only in the left; the final “smile” at the end of the breakdown keeps more closely to each ear as it echoes between them; the deeper and vocoded distorted vocals during the final chorus are fully relegated to the left & right channels, respectively; the “aaah”s following the final lines of ruler of everything switch between coming primarily from the right & left channels; and the echo on the final line is, in one part, offset & in primarily the left channel, and in another part, distorted & primarily in the right channel.

boy oh boy! that sure is a lot isn’t it? what if i told you the part i’m going to cover next includes literally everything else. not being a trained musician, i at the very least won’t start by pointing out every subtle difference in mixing & mastering, and instead catalogue all the other changes i can pick up on. granted, i’m going to ignore the obvious things like sound quality, alternative harmonies/melodies/etc, and different samples, and i’ll try not to restate anything that can be gleaned from comparing the data further up this post

-assorted differences of note include generally greater acoustic guitar use (notably in the first verse), amplified reverb on too many lines to count (the “aaah”s, first verse, and zubin’s lines are notable at least), drastically reduced echo on the reversed “jackrabbit” line, a complete lack of vocal distortion on all of zubin’s lines, far quieter hi-hat from the “practice your mannerisms” line on to the next verse, the chime in the buildup to the breakdown is louder & holds for longer, there’s no glockenspiel immediately following the breakdown, and a far stronger echo placed on the final line.

is this it? is it the end? good question. i could very easily move on & do this all over again with the complete demos version, if anybody cares about that. but from my own point of view, i find that ver to be so different from the finished product that it’d be like comparing a song and a cover of it. anyway, if the tally hallmanac page for ruler of everything gets updated based on all the work i did i want to be cited. the wikia gets a pass though

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel III:

...I’m gonna need like a week to process that

I guess I know why people hate George now!

Could really use a good old reset from KeA right now

This is the best game in the Cold Steel series so far. Easily

I... there’s no way they’re all really dead, right? This series has been completely toothless about killing anyone who isn’t a villain until now, no way they’re permanently killing someone who’s been here since practically day 1, no way. Show me a body

And even then I’ll doubt it with all these revivals happening all over the place 

‘He’s HIDING’ I sob as I apply clown make-up 

Ben Diskin did not need to go so hard on the voice acting at Millium’s death he did not need to do that to me

My god when Angie drove into the graveyard and my PS4 popped up a little notification telling me it was a blocked scene, the tension in me... and I never saw that coming, I’ll have to see if it was foreshadowed at all by replaying CS1 and 2 some time

I saw Lughman being a baddie a mile away (a mysterious professor turning out to be evil in a Trails game? UNPRECEDENTED!) but he’s Alisa’s dad!?

Neat writing trick actually, since they probably knew we’d guess the former, they blindside us with the latter

I can’t express how happy it made me that the Rufus battle was Machias Jusis Elliot. My dream team!

Estelle and Joshua got mentioned so much I figured they’d make a surprise appearance at the end and save the day

:(

So. Characters:

Rean: Rean is once again moderately more interesting than he was before, but still the least interesting person in the game. I guess he’s got some guilt that’s actually justified now, that’s cool? 

I ship him with Crow, not because the pairing really appeals to me that much, but because being shipped with Crow would totally piss Rean off and I find that extremely funny

His relationship with Altina is the best relationship he’s ever had with a female character and it is 100% because she’s the only girl he’s never ship teased with

(I don’t have an issue with the concept of ship tease itself, I have an issue with Rean-ship tease because 1. I still truly do not understand why so many girls like him so much and 2. None of it will ever canonically go anywhere)

(Seriously I’m so tempted to write a breakdown of why every other guy in Erebonia is more desirable than Rean)

Juna: I like Juna. I realised early on that she and Kurt remind me of Estelle and Joshua, without being carbon copies, and that’s good. I also think her relationship with Rean was really interesting - ‘I don’t know how to feel about you because you saved my life, but it also wouldn’t have needed saving if it weren’t for your country’s actions, which you’ve played a major role in - but now I’m being forced to confront that you’re a human being too’ is a really complicated situation for her. It’s a lot more interesting than ‘I don’t like you because you accidentally got a face full of chest’, Alisa

I also really liked using her, I ended up loading her with the Platinum Pecky Medal and defensive stuff, and she was a wall, she took an S-craft from Arianrhod in her stride! My buff girl!

She should’ve just been the new protagonist ngl

Kurt: Kurt had a lot to live up to, seeing as his brother is my favourite minor character. And oh does he succeed, Kurt is my favourite of New VII, he’s a good straight man, he’s great in battle, I like his arc, I like his friendship with Juna, I like Kurt

Altina: I was not sure about Altina just... being a student now. But damn if she didn’t have the best character arc in the game. I only did her final bonding event on a whim, but it’s the best one I saw. My girl Allie deserves the damn world

I really, truly believe those three have a bond as well, they’re very well written as a group. This was a problem I had with Old VII, the fact that so many of them just... didn’t have relationships with each other. How do, say, Fie and Machias feel about each other? I have no idea. But this group has a fantastic dynamic and it makes that ending so much more effective

It’s like I praised Crossbell for, really - having a small core group is much more manageable in terms of giving them all equal screen time and getting me to care about them

Musse: Uh, kind of one-note and annoying, honestly. I don’t hate her or anything, but like... she’s either Being Mysterious or Hitting On Her Teacher (I hate it I hate it so much). It’s just hard to care about someone who’s clearly so fake, I guess? I’m definitely interested in her, but like... I don’t really like her

Ash: Poor boy. I thought Ash was such an interesting character (and man do I love having someone around who does not like Rean, and never really changes his mind about it). Ash is very well done imo

Alisa: Alisa is good when the issue is her family drama, and is so goddamn boring when it comes to Rean. Nothing new there

Elliot: I love his little ponytail I love it he’s so cute I want to hug him so bad

Laura: Winner of the ‘best new outfit’ award (was never that fond of her war outfit, but this one is perfect). Still good, but not notably so. I feel so bad for Laura, she tries so hard to matter, but she’s by far the character you’d have the easiest time lifting out of the game

And while I love Elliot... same situation really. You could go back to the start and have one character named Elliaura who likes swords and music and has two big-shot dads, and you wouldn’t lose much

Machias: Took down Rufus, yeah, destroy your best friend (boyfriend)’s evil family! Winner of the ‘worst new outfit’ award, AGAIN. Also winner of ‘dorkiest S-craft’. I did his final bonding event first, and according to Playstation trophies it’s the least popular one! Stop sleeping on my boy Machias guys, I know he was annoying in the first game but I love him :(

Gaius: Special award to Gaius for finally being interesting! Boy’s a Gralsritter now, did not see that coming!

And of course it happened off screen. Because god forbid interesting stuff happen to Gaius when we’re actually around

Oh also goddamn, that is a beautiful man

Emma: Don’t really like the new outfit. It’s kind of remarkable that she’s so important but I keep forgetting she exists. Exposition witch who sometimes just doesn’t deliver the exposition I guess

Fie: Still my fav girl. Wish there had been more focus on her feelings about her dad coming back to life. Like that she’s a bracer

Jusis: Wasn’t sure how to feel about his newly close friendship with Millium because I was concerned that I was meant to ship it (by far my least favourite thing about this franchise is that that was not an unreasonable concern, as it wouldn’t even be the most inappropriate relationship in this game alone). Very, very glad it was confirmed sibling-y (not that it’s stopped them before). He didn’t really get to do anything else, sadly, but he’s good as always

I did the Purebread contest with him, and he made bread from coffee beans Machias gave him, the Ferdibert Fire Emblem energy- 

“What are you doing underneath this scarlet Pleroma Grass?”

Milliam: :(

Sara: Doesn’t get much to do because this cast is bloated but like, I still really like her :)

Towa: Someone needs to check on Towa all her friends are dead or evil the poor poor girl (or uh. I guess Crow isn’t... hmm.)

Angie :(

My kids Tita and Agate are back and completely overshadowed by people teasing this almost 30-year old man about being in love with a 17 year old that he’s only ever claimed to see as a sister, I swear to god

The orbal gear looks so goofy lol

Stop mentioning Schera as just being ‘totally here, just off screen, ha ha’ give her a model! Have her be here!

Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing Josette again, I just don’t get... why? Why is she here?

Tio is back! And so is Randy, as a major character! I’m very very happy, I love them both

Michael’s fine, I guess? He’s kind of bland but I guess that’s kind of the point and I like him just fine. He serves his purpose well

I’ve never really liked Claire all that much, but she’s fine in this one again I suppose. A bit disappointed by the Lechter reveals really, I had expected more, to be honest

Aurelia is a fun character and I enjoy her as the principal. Want to see her fight Cassius

Want to see Cassius 

I love my girl Annabelle, but she’s the only reason I didn’t get all the character profiles (how was I meant to know I could even go to the highway at that point hmmm Falcom!?)

They picked a good selection of returning Thors students. Even Dorothee isn’t as annoying as she used to be. Hilarious that she’s the only one who didn’t get a profile

Juna gave a great big speech about how awesome the SSS are and namedrops everyone EXCEPT WAZY! My FAVOURITE Crossbell character! So offensive!

Oh speaking of offensive I took Machias to the Mishy show and was told he and Rean did a Mishy dance but they didn’t show it, what the hell-

Playable Olivier! Olivier back story! I could write a goddamn essay on why Olivier is such a great character. Glaring at you Falcom

I miss Mueller :(

Ada Grant is wonderful and I want better things for her

Rufus is a damn great villain just because of how much sense his actions suddenly make when you know that one little detail of him not actually being Jusis’s brother

I hate Cedric but like, in a way where I’m having fun hating him. That little bitch

Literally what do you even actually want Osbourne

I still cannot stand Elise. Something I realised playing this game is that one of the things that stops the Estelle and Joshua relationship from being as weird as it could be is that they don’t look at all alike, it’s very clear they’re not related in the slightest. Elise and Rean look like they really could be siblings, and come to think, so do Lloyd and Cecile. Which is also teased, to a lesser extent. It would be so much less uncomfortable if they just swapped Elise and Alfin’s models ngl (though still not good)

inb4 the final plot twist of the whole series is that Estelle and Joshua actually were biological siblings all along

This game looks so much better than its predecessors. Having the models being a little rounder and softer looking makes it look much more like an updated version of the original style than the complete departure that was CS1 and 2. Every time there was a flashback, Rean would be like ‘back then...’ and I’d feel compelled to say out loud ‘when we were shiny, and looked bad!’

‘Evil ancient magic corrupts people into making them do bad things!’ is... honestly a bit of a cop out that I did not expect from this series 

I found Rean telling Patrick ‘leave room for Aidios when dancing with my sister’ extremely funny. Rean would totally be a Christian summer camp counsellor in the real world

I honestly would have enjoyed it a lot more if Alfin decided to cause a scandal and have her first dance with Elise, but we can’t have such luxuries I suppose

When you get that book on dystopias, very clever to put the author on the last page. Seeing the name Gideon gave me such a start

Racquel was easily my fav new location

Leeves > Trista no doubt, maybe I’m just biased because it looks a lot like the village I grew up in but it’s just such a nicer design

Also the branch campus > main campus purely for being smaller, making the filler segments between field trips more bearable 

I prefer the longer but fewer chapters set-up, I think

There’s so many sad faces in this write up :( 

Back when I played Sky SC, I said something about how one of the themes is ‘you are not defined by your trauma’. I now think it would be more accurate to say that the theme of all the games (but especially��the Sky arc) is ‘don’t let your worst experiences define you’

Because there are characters who define themselves by their traumas and worst experiences - and those characters are all villains, or miserable, or both. Like, they don’t phrase it as such, but the requirement to be an Ouroboros enforcer is ‘have trauma and define yourself by it’

And both Joshua and Renne’s arcs are about learning not to do that

Equally, the idea that ‘it’s much easier to not to define yourself by your trauma when you have a good support system that wants the best for you’ is a big theme as well

I just think that’s a really interesting idea for a JRPG series to tackle, idk

I can’t believe I’m at the last game! This series has been my life for the past near-half a year, what do I do when I finish it?

...go back and play Sky FC, maybe?

[susangalvez10-blog]

What’s The Distinction Between An Opera And A Musical?

As hip-hop continues to evolve as a genre, categorizing sub genres by sound or location is becoming a an increasing number of difficult activity. Beginner musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure, http://www.audio-transcoder.com and derive their income elsewhere. Skilled musicians are employed by a variety of institutions and organisations, together with armed forces (in marching bands , concert bands and standard music teams), church buildings and synagogues, symphony orchestras, beckyskidmore86.wikidot.com broadcasting or movie production corporations, and music faculties Professional musicians typically work as freelancers or session musicians , seeking contracts and engagements in a wide range of settings. There are sometimes many links between newbie and professional musicians. Beginning newbie musicians take lessons with professional musicians. In group settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles resembling group live performance bands and group orchestras.

But like all musical kinds, emo is due for a 20-year resurrection this decade. Proper on cue, a new wave of bands has emerged to let their meek flags fly in the age of the selfie. The movement is not precisely nascent; key gamers like Algernon Cadwallader and My Coronary heart To Joy have already come and gone, and a dense network of groups thrives on Bandcamp, replete with its own emasculating lexicon ( Twinkle Daddies ???). It is nonetheless a distinctly underground phenomenon too. None of these bands seemed primed to cross over in this pop local weather without a Fall Out Boy-model digital makeover, and the bands that influenced them within the first place were by no means more than cult favorites anyhow. Electronic music legend Isao Tomita's debut album "Snowflakes are Dancing" reaches the top 50 of the pop charts and receives 4 Grammy nominations. Tomita is called the Wendy Carlos of Japan, famous for synthesizing classical works. Some easy insights can nonetheless be taken. Hip-Hop is approach ahead of the other genres (d'oh). People is available in second however since there is only one people artist (Bob Dylan) within the analysis it's not consultant at all. Pop is the genre with the most number of musicians and robynreimann34639.wikidot.com its average vocabulary size (2464 words) is near the average vocabulary size across all artists (2677 words). Same factor applies to the Rock style as nicely. Reggaeton is normally straight-up celebration and dance music, which makes it perfect to blast loudly, dance to and sing along with. In my guide, it is maybe the perfect genre for Spanish students just due to the fun factor. That said, some regional varieties of Spanish combine in indigenous words. For instance, Ecuadorian Spanish speakers often mix a number of alternative Kichwa words into their speech It might be valuable so that you can hearken to music in indigenous languages, simply to get a feel for the way these sound.

Perhaps enjoyable rock music continues to be being made but it isn't being performed on my native different station, so I am not aware of it. It looks like pretentiousness has taken over rock music. If a music would not have a severe which means, it has no proper to exist. Rock followers decry the demise of "real music." This is a flip off to many people who want music to serve completely different functions. Typically, it should be enjoyable. Generally, it needs to be severe. Sometimes it should be about things we are able to relate as to if that is falling in love or a painful breakup. Typically it may well cope with social issues. Germany will not be identified overseas for its music, however take a closer look and you can find quite a few international hit songs which originate within the country. A few songs even handle to become hits regardless of being music in the German language which must be thought of quite an accomplishment. The 1980s proved a moribund decade for pop. Styles got here and went, but it surely was an era quick on memorable music. Only Wham! (and later George Michael) emerged as true pop stars. This Tune Dynasty (960-1279) painting, entitled the "Evening Revels of Han Xizai," exhibits Chinese language musicians entertaining guests at a party in a 10th-century family. Neil Younger once sang Rock n' roll can by no means die," but based on Gene Simmons , it's already dead. The Kiss bassist recently made controversial remarks about Donald Sterling , immigration and depression (which he eventually backed off from), and now the Kiss bassist has one other huge statement to make: Rock is lastly dead," Simmons declared in an interview with Esquire The loss of life of rock was not a natural death. Rock didn't die of outdated age. It was murdered," he added. However rock's killer wasn't the blurring of musical genres or lack of craftsmanship. As a substitute, Simmons blames file sharing and the truth that nobody values music sufficient to pay you for it" for murdering rock n' roll.

6. Shared References. The other thing that's palpably totally different between jazz and classical musicians has to do with specific musical references. What did you play 1000 times in high school to the point that you simply now roll your eyes each time you hear it—Beethoven's 1st Symphony or Blue Bossa"? These shared references, at the same time as we might mock them, kind a cultural substrate that actually plays a surprisingly large role in how we interact on a day-to-day basis. Deep home is best described as music that you'd hear in a lounge. It's usually far slower and more laid again than other genres and options very deep bass. Of the entire genres in EDM deep home is among the least energetic.

Music Style Classification is among the many branches of Music Info Retrieval From right here you'll be able to carry out other duties on musical information like beat monitoring, music era, recommender programs, track separation and instrument recognition and many others. Music analysis is a various area and also an fascinating one. A music session someway represents a second for the user. Discovering these moments and describing them is an attention-grabbing problem in the area of Knowledge Science.Classical Music: Classical music lovers are usually extra introverted but are also relaxed with themselves and the world around them. They're creative and have a very good sense of shallowness. The style has seen a slow but noticeable revival in recent times, with many electronic musicians, DJs and remix musicians experimenting with it once once more, partly as a result of a renewed reputation in lots of circles (primarily due to Memetic Mutation , Speedy Techno Remixes and Japanese Pop Music ). Its renewed influence may be seen in varied types of laborious Techno and Trance music, with Pleased Hardcore (and to a lesser extent, Arduous Trance) being heavily influenced by it.

[radioactivecallista]

I think a huge part of our cultural issues in the US is the breakdown of older norms about manners. Instead of softening some details like not enforcing strict grammar anymore, we’re throwing the norms out, and this is creating chaos while we try to figure out how to live and work with each other without that structure.

It used to be that unprofessional behavior was not OK in the workplace. Nobody cared what generation you are, what was popular, or any other side issues. With some variation depending on the workplace - a corporate office and a stockroom had somewhat different norms - you were expected to behave like an adult and be considerate. You don’t bring politics into the workplace unless politics is directly part of it - no, “this affects meeeee” does not count, but being campaign manager for a governor hopeful does. You don’t hit on co-workers, nor throw a fit because someone asked out out once, at work or official work functions. Don’t knowingly make people uncomfortable, it’s rude - and it’s also rude to expect people to mind-read and know what makes you, personally, uncomfortable. Sometimes you have to gently tell them first. You don’t dance around blasting music and being obnoxious. You don’t douse yourself in thick perfume (or, if you do, you stop when your co-workers tell you it’s too much.) All of that is bad manners and unprofessional. It also applies, to a lesser extent, to students in class.

Now that manners and professionalism are weak guidelines in all but the strictest, most high-level workplaces, people knowingly and unknowingly cross lines that were there for a reason. And that reason was so that everybody had an idea of how to act and how not to act, and we could all work/study together with less friction. Today, something being vaguely rude doesn’t compel them to stop if they’re willing to be disliked by a few people they probably don’t even care about. Unprofessional is sometimes worn by a badge of honor by those trying to “stick it to the man.” So NOW how do you get people to stop doing shit that actually is irritating and making it harder to work/learn as a team?

Well, you have to escalate the situation. Instead of getting people to stop flirting because this is neither the time or the place and seriously dude you’re being annoying knock it off, you have to either claim you feel unsafe and in a “hostile work environment,” or make the claim that nobody, even adults, should ever ever ever be made to feel a little uncomfortable. This erases the distinction between rude and threatening, and confuses the situation, with some people ignoring almost all of it and some people being terrified of making a minor mistake. Minor mistakes carry the risk of getting punished like serious infractions  - it’s rarer, but it happens. You have to claim odor sensitivity and make it out to be ableist of people to wear too much perfume to get them to stop - sometimes this is true, but the point is that “that’s too much for work, please use less” doesn’t work anymore. If you can’t make a case for something negative being discriminatory, it’s very hard to deter it, whether it’s true in that specific instance or not.

It pops up more and more. Since you can’t easily set limits on behavior through etiquette guidelines, you either have to put up with the behavior those guidelines frowned upon in order to preserve group cohesion, or recreate the same guidelines through stronger, politically-charged new norms that have a lot more negative secondary effects.

We could have tweaked the “rules” to cover situations that were poorly covered before, folding them naturally into the professional/unprofessional distinctions, but that didn’t really happen. We ended up cobbling together something different and much uglier. I don’t like it.

[themetaisawesome]

17.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

I think we need more material that has a healthy relationship to canon.

This has nothing to do with material for crack ships. Those are people just having a good time in their sandbox. This belief does apply a lesser extent to AUs, but still to an extent.

So many people will take something from canon and cram it into the same repeated fandom tropes over and over again. It's not even examples of missing the forest for the trees, it's missing the forest and the trees for some bark you peeled off of a log and shaped into something you're gonna sell on etsy.

What actually happened within the text only matters to such a crowd to a degree where they see what they want to and run with it. This leads to so many OOC content made by people who don't realize that what they're doing is OOC. If you want good examples, I present 99% of everything z*kka related. You know how many times I think of this image whenever my dash forces me to see what people on that ship create?

Not all canons are made equal, I get that. I can name a few canon materials in my fandoms that I outright ignore because they do not spark joy within me. But here's the thing: I stay away from making content that's too related to things that I ignore or outright hate. Z*kka doesn't work for me, so I don't make things for that ship. I also don't bother trying to find ways to bash it in the fics I write. When I do make a decision to ignore something, I examine what I'm going to cut so that I can do so thoughtfully. If you're not careful when cutting a cake, you're gonna cut a fucked up slice.

If one approaches everything creative with a fix-it mentality, you gotta wonder if the original thing needed fixing at all. If I say that I'm a van Gogh fan and then present you something I made that looks like it came from Warhol, does it really matter how much I insist that it's a tribute to van Gogh? If I present a Hamlet AU where Hamlet isn't depressed, has no daddy or mommy issues, isn't a nerd, isn't impulsive, isn't self-centered, and isn't an extra af little bitch, I'm not writing Hamlet fanfiction, I'm writing a brand new character and calling him Hamlet.

Hamlet can absolutely be the protag of your Hamlet/Horatio coffee shop AU. But if you want to write that, use that brain of yours to ask, "what would the Prince of Denmark be like in all his hamlety ways if he also had to work at a starbucks?" I guarantee that the answers you come up with will have more and tastier meat on their calcium-filled bones.

If you are approaching an aspect of canon that you dislike or disagree with, don't immediately try to dance around it. Approach that thing head on and apply your critical thinking skills. Why do you dislike it? Can you understand why the creators made that decision in canon? Can you build on it and play with it rather than retcon it? If you ignore something you dislike without giving it a chance, you can't learn from it.

If I'm reading a fanfic you wrote and I can't feel your love for the original source material, you forgot why it's called fanfiction.

[tcfkag]

Update on Glee Re-Watch Part However Many

But what the FUCK did this show do to Tina’s character in Season 4 (and thereafter).

After Marley passed out at Sectionals because the Lesser Replacement Quinn basically encouraged her into an eating disorder that EVERYONE on the team ignored (other than Santana), Tina had the gall to blame Marley for their loss, and said to her “I knew Rachel Berry and you are no New Rachel” which...

First off, why is she putting pressure on an obviously scared shitless freshman or sophomore to BE the new Rachel Berry after spending three fucking years wanting to be the lead vocalist for the team.

Secondly, that Gangam-Style routine was freaking mortifying before Marley even passed out, if they had won with it, I would have been so angry.

Thirdly, (and this applies to Artie and Blaine too), the seniors on Glee seem to have totally given up their position as leaders on the team - they seem to completely rely on the (magical) ability of the seniors of the year before to get on a plane every week and come back to visit and just expect them to be the team leaders. 

But it was Tina, Artie, and Blaine’s responsibility to serve as whatever the equivalent of a “Captain” is on this year’s team and they dropped that ball completely. Blaine is running around in his weird “I’m the heartbroken victim bc Kurt completely justifiably dumped me” phase that for some reason involved capes. Artie directed the school musical again in his typical Artie fashion where he’s terrible and judgmental. And Tina knew that Marley was having body image issues, probably knew that Marley was at the very least starving herself, and should have noticed that it was impossible for Marley’s costume to be SHRINKING every night when Marley looked exactly the same....and did nothing about it other than complain that she didn’t get cast as Sandy or whatever. 

Which honestly, comes back to Artie sucking as a director because he almost didn’t cast Marley as Sandy because she had brown hair so I”m sure he didn’t even really consider Tina but in any world other than one as fucked up as McKinley, it would make perfect sense for the Senior with the most (only) experience performing in a musical to play the main role. And yet Tina wasn’t even considered. I realize the show runners were trying to set the younger/new cast members as a foil to the plot lines of the graduates, which was kind of a stupid decision in and of itself, but I don’t know why they had to do it by seemingly forgetting about or giving the new Seniors terrible storylines.

(I’m kind of ignoring Sam and Brittany on this because they were never going to be team leaders...though when the writers decided that Sam was as “dumb” as Brittany is beyond me....plus I hate what they’ve done with Brittany this season but that’s a post for another day. But I’ll also say that Sam to some extent did more to step up and try to help the team than almost any of the other Seniors).

Also, Rachel is such a little brat, how did she get a fucking golden ticket he Freshman year? How does she not understand that her dance teacher lady is just trying to make them better?

[foundcarcosa]

cccix.

Are you “with” the very last person you kissed? >> You could say that. Ever dated/kissed a someone with the name Casey, Tyler, Ryan, Jordan, Colton, Rebecca, Samantha, Lauren, Taylor, or Ashley? >> None of these. But this does remind me that I had a crush on a Ryan for a long time, and then as it turns out, he and our mutual friend who I also had a crush on were interested in each other, but it didn’t work out. Was your last kiss, standing up, sitting down, or lying down? >> Lying down. Are you happy with the choices you’ve made? >> Some of them. Are you excited for anything? >> The Chicago trip. To a lesser extent, the Holland (Michigan, not Holland the country) day-trip. Just... anything that gets me out of this area.

Do you hate the last person you kissed? >> Of course not. Can Calah is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re stuck in an elevator with one of your worst enemies, what do you do? >> I don’t know, considering I don’t have any enemies, let alone worst ones. Will this weekend be a good one? >> Hopefully. Are you mad at someone right now? >> No. Do you like to listen to the radio in the car? >> Sparrow usually plays her iPod in the car. Do you sleep with a fan on? >> In the summer, yeah. How is your hair right now? >> Still very short. It’s in the stage that I think looks best on me. Have you ever broken up with someone for someone else? >> No. How many windows are open on your computer? >> Three (Chrome, Evernote, Discord). How tall are you? >> Five-four. Is something bothering you? >> Yeah, a weird twinge in my tit. Bodies are fucking weird. Have you ever taken a shower with anyone before? >> Yes. Have you ever laughed at something that wasn’t meant to be funny? >> Sure. Have you ever told someone of the opposite sex “Fuck you”? >> Yes. Do you like to cuddle? >> In headspace it’s about all I do, but in meatspace that’s not as... easy. Have you done anything sneaky lately? >> Probably. Is your hair clean? >> Clean-ish. Last night, did you go to sleep smiling? >> I don’t think so. But there’s really no way for me to tell what exactly I’m doing as sleep descends. Were you happy when you woke up today? >> I was vaguely melancholy -- not actively sad, not in a bad mood, just kinda... grey. It just be’s like that, I guess. What are you drinking right now? >> Nothing actively, but I have water nearby. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car? >> Sure. Does someone have feelings for you? >> Sure. Have you ever been cheated on? >> No. Are you hard to please? >> Not in my opinion. I’m definitely uncompromising and demanding in certain areas, but overall my adaptability usually wins out. What are you craving right now? >> Nothing. How are you feeling right now? >> Still grey. I think I’m mostly just sleepy at this point. What are you sick of? >> Meh. Are you missing anyone/something? >> Nah. Relationship to the last person you called? >> --- Could you date someone shorter than you? >> Sure. Is there anybody you just wish would fall off the planet? >> Hmm. Do you wear glasses? >> No. Where did you sleep last night? >> In my bed. ... “Bed”. I hate futons. Do you straighten your hair? >> No. What color shirt are you wearing? >> Grey. Do you have a best friend? >> Can Calah is the closest thing to that concept, so I just use him as an answer. Do you wish you had the chance to go back in time and change something now? >> No. Who is the last person you got a text from? >> Sparrow. Are you excited for winter? >> Not right now, I’m not. It just passed into spring around here, let me live. When are you at your happiest? >> When the spectre of mortality isn’t hanging over my head. Is there anything you wish you did today? Why haven’t you done it? >> Nah. Do you prefer to spend your time indoors or outdoors? >> I prefer to have a combination of both. What were you doing before you started this survey? >> Playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and then checking Instagram. Can you honestly say that you love yourself? >> Yes. How many people have you kissed? >> Quite a few. Do you just feel awkward when you dance? >> Sometimes, but that’s a general feeling-ungainly-in-my-body feeling, not particularly about dancing. Do you think you spend too much time feeling upset? >> No. Is there anyone you would seriously punch right now if you had the chance? >> No. Do you own a pair of uggs? >> No. What are your plans for tomorrow? >> Probably showering, hopefully going to Plato’s Closet. Has the person you have feelings for ever told you that you’re attractive? >> Can Calah tells me sometimes (but usually he doesn’t have to say anything to convey it, ya dig). Sparrow says I’m cute.  Can you get over people easily? >> Apparently. Do you believe that there are certain circumstances where cheating is okay? >> No. How was your weekend? >> Kinda wack but we did get boba and Krispy Kreme so that was lit. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? >> I don’t remember. How do you feel right now? >> I answered this already and the answer has not changed in the past 5 minutes. Do you hide your feelings or show them? >> Depends on the feeling, the circumstance, the company... Do you like to have long hair or short hair? >> I prefer my hair to be short because I struggle to maintain it when it’s longer than a couple inches. But I like long-haired styles, in which case that’s what wigs are for. What is the last thing you cooked today? >> I didn’t cook today. What do you always take with you? >> PKW (phone, keys, wallet), and lip balm. Last person you drove around in a car with? >> --- Do you think relationships are hard? >> As hard as anything else about being alive.  What are your plans for this weekend? >> There’s a lot of repeats going on here. Any friends who are constantly venting about their significant other? >> No. Have you ever been ice-skating? >> No. Does the sound of rain at night help you sleep? >> Sure. Have you ever seen an albino person, in person? >> I don’t think so. Do you like Fuze drinks? >> I seem to remember liking the one I tried. Did the end of Hamilton make you sad? >> I haven’t seen it. Have you ever worn a pair of scrubs? >> Yes. Do you obsessively apply lip-gloss or lip balm? >> I guess you could say that. My lips dry out and chap really easily, so it’s either pick at them compulsively like I’ve been doing since I was a child, or constantly apply lip balm. At least the latter is preventing harm instead of causing it. Anything in your room that you’re hiding from your parents or someone else? >> No. Do you think you’d have what it takes to shoot someone if you had to protect yourself? >> I don’t know. I’ve literally never been in that situation, so trying to predict my behaviour is just silly. What’s your most noticeable flaw? >> I don’t know, considering what is most noticeable about someone varies from observer to observer. And what’s your best feature? >> Ditto. Have you ever walked into a massive cobweb? >> Nah, not a massive one. When you can tell that someone’s lying, do you call them out on it? >> Occasionally, but oftentimes I just let them go ahead with it. It usually doesn’t affect me one way or the other. Also, there’s always the likelihood that I’m wrong, so, you know. Have you ever hallucinated? >> Sure. Do you find serial killers fascinating? >> Not particularly.  Do you like Musicals? >> Yes. Is your hair damaged? >> Nah, doesn’t seem to be. Do you live with anyone that you try to avoid at all costs? >> No. Who was the last person you threw out of your life? >> Hmm. Are you wearing socks? >> No. Do you regret something you did yesterday? >> No. When was the last time you cried? >> Middle of last week. Why were you crying? >> I elaborated on the last survey I did, and I don’t feel like repeating it. Whats the last thing you ate? >> A doughnut. What kind of bottoms are you wearing? >> Black pajama pants with the Slytherin logo on them. What do you hear right now? >> Me typing, a plane overhead, other ambient sounds from outside. How many hours did you sleep last night? >> Six or so. Is something bothering you right now? >> Nothing concrete. In the past week have you gotten sick? >> Very briefly. In the past week have you felt stupid? >> Sure. In the past week have you got your hair cut? >> No. What were you doing at 9 AM this morning? >> Probably playing games on my phone. In the past week have you felt sad? >> Sure. Has someone disappointed you recently? >> No. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? >> Sure. If you could pack up and move, would you? >> I sure would. Do you hate when people smoke around you? >> As long as they’re not blowing smoke in my face obnoxiously, I don’t care. The smell is a little noxious to me now that I’ve quit, but I can deal with it. Who have you texted in the last 24 hours? >> No one. 

[sleepymarmot]

Notes I’ve taken during the Double XP weekend and forgot to publish, as usual

self care is staying in Mystery Heroes all day and never worrying about team comp

I love how you learn this game by watching and copying the enemies. I steal all positioning ideas for snipers and turrets from the read team. And reading about counters on the internet is one thing, but personal experience is more memorable. Today I played D.Va a lot and Symmetra (unsurprisingly) always wrecked me, so later when my D.Va met her red team double I switched to Symmetra and we won. I even got a POTG, though it looked unimpressive; I  also learned that the shield generator is awesome on a control map. (Earlier in the day I tried the same with Roadhog, but for some reason it didn’t work. I wonder if it’s just a general lack of skill or there’s some specific mechanic I’m not getting.)

I want to start recording the kill cams when the enemies take advantage of my mistakes in a cool way. Like when my Mei tried to chase after enemy Sombra who lured me right into Bastion’s line of sight. Or when my healer (Zenyatta, maybe Mercy, don’t remember) went through a choke ahead of the team for some reason and an enemy Mei walled me off of them.

After a couple of hours with Symmetra I now learn her teleporter is limited to six people. Whoops... 

We got absolutely demolished by a group of six on Gibraltar. They didn’t even let us out of spawn. I’d never experienced a game like this, it was like playing against aliens from Mars. When our team tried to mimic them next turn, of course someone sneaked out and they won again.

Over the weekend, my playstyle shifted from always “contest the objective!!” to “well let’s hold back and group up. okay it didn’t work. let’s group up? nope again. oh, the timer ran out”. Neither are productive. 

It’s actually one of the reasons I’m getting sick of playing healers. I want to initiate! I want to contest! I want to be! on! the! damn! objective! But how am I suposed to do it with no communication? When I’m a tank there’s at least a hope that when I rush in, the others would follow. (Which can be painful as Rein, because you can’t even turn around to check if they’re really backing you or have scattered elsewhere.) As a healer? Well, maybe Lucio, but I haven’t played him much because I can’t get the hang of wallriding and I need to be near my teammates which is not always possible. It’s so pointless to jump on the payload alone as Mercy. Or for a moment yesterday I pushed the payload as Ana, though it was in Mystery Heroes. Look, as a healer and a sniper, I don’t think I should be alone up here...

Also if I’m the only healer I can’t just switch to try and counter a particularly troublesome enemy. When I’m the only tank it applies too, but to a lesser extent.

Satisfying games I had in the same night:

Riding the payload as Bastion on Dorado attack. Never tried it before. The red team was not prepared. I don’t think the payload was ever deserted.

Tank-to-tank standoff on King’s Row, both attack and defense. I was Orisa, the enemies had Orisa too both times, and D.Va at least once. Stand your ground and spray bullets to your heart’s content. Shout out to the awesome Mercy who made this possible and rezzed me immediately, I think it was a multi rez too.

I got sick of the teams on defense standing too far from the pont, and then letting someone through and trying to rush back before they can capture it but being too late. So I went to Hollywood as Bastion, parked in a corner with my back to the gate and my barrel parallel to the wall with the chokepoint, and could shoot at anyone coming through without even aiming. The other teammates stayed on the point too. Everything went well -- until the enemy D.Va sent her mech over the wall and wiped everyone off the point at once. We couldn’t recover and they won. Now that was a POTG. I really should have expected that, though...

Speaking of D.Va -- I face so many strong ones but my own skills are still garbage :( I can’t even ult properly, like sometimes I try to use boosters but instead explode it immediately with nobody around. And I always get ejected from the mech so soon. I dunno what dark magic Defense Matrix management skills other people have.

Symmetra out-DPSed my Bastion several times and it was bullshit. She jumped around me faster than I could turn. Of course, when I play Symmetra, half of the time the enemies run away too fast and I run after them in a straight line providing an easy target, or they don’t even bother and overpower me without moving.

Me: It’s just cosmetics My obsessive brain: Makes me grind until the last hour of the event in late morning

Seriously it was kind of a hell... I waited for the new week in Arcade to unlock and couldn’t leave until my nine victories. And that night, the final night of the event, I discovered that 3v3 is the most efficient mode. No waiting/setup time, no stupid skirmish. We moved there at the suggestion of a teammate of a particularly torturous game in Total Mayhem that lasted 20 minutes. Zaryas on both sides, ults going off all the time but not killing anyone... 

And when I got all the lootboxes, they didn’t even give me anything but dupes. I had 3245 gold and was faced with a terrible choice: one skin or four dances. I’d wanted Zen and Rein’s dances all this time, Tracer and Sombra and some others are super cute too. But the skins are more prominent, while emotes can only be used occasionally and I might want to replace them on the wheel. Thankfully, I got Symmetra’s skin as loot, so the choice was between Pharah, D.Va and Lucio. I’m so terrible at Pharah I’ve stopped trying, so that skin might have been wasted on me. I looked up D.Va’s voice lines in the new skin and didn’t particularly like them. I like D.Va’s default skin, and theoretically I’d love to get my hands on the Lunar one if it’s ever available again, but I’m indifferent to Lucio’s default and the purchaseable skins are worse. So I was left with the choice between Lucio and four dances. I watched the video with this skin’s alternate songs and spent some time trying to figure out whether I like them or not.

I wasted so much time torturing myself over this I realized it could take less to earn some more gold. So I bought Lucio’s skin and went grinding again. At this point I didn’t particularly care about winning, just getting through the matches for the xp. The first lootbox was kind to me and dropped 50 gold... so I was only 5 gold away from an emote. In sleep-deprived desperation I sat down to grind another level. By the time it was over, I think it was a bit past 10am aka the official ending time. But I got my gold. I bought Zen’s dance, and I was finally free to log off and try to get rid of the adrenaline and finally get some sleep. I’m so sorry, Sweethardt... I wish we could be together :(

I’m still not sure if the Lucio skin was the right decision. The songs are indeed kind of distracting, and the speed one is badly mixed: starts with a new jazzy melody and then for some reason fades into the default beats (of a totally different style). And it bugs me that the hat completely covers his eyes. Ah, well. Any decision would have resulted in buyer’s remorse in this situation.

Highlight of the 3v3 grind session: sleepymarmot gets POTG for sleeping. My Lucio boops Ana, she shoots him with a sleepdart, and that’s all that happens. Entire chat went “wtf lol”. Clearly the game was sending us a message. It’s 7am, you know what’s the best thing to do right now? Going to fucking bed.

I pocketed Pharah a lot in those matches. I feel guilty about letting the third person die... But when my healer instincts got the better of me and I dropped down to feed a red cross, it didn’t end well. Fall off of Pharah once, and without communication, good luck trying to attach yourself to her again... Tbh I wouldn’t like to play this regularly -- it’s not very interesting to literally spend all the time literally riding on one person’s coattails. Though I guess in a normal game the fun is in the jumping back and forth between Pharah and the team -- like in a normal Mercy game but with more flying.

I also played Pharah myself in this duo a couple of times and actually didn’t do badly. I guess it’s easier on these smaller maps

After I wrote this entire post, I discovered that this event, like the free weekend, is still mysteriously active for me hours after the end date. So I went to grind again. Got Tracer’s dance (good), I think McCree’s too (don’t care). And you know what was in the final lootbox, which I opened after the event finally ended? Lucio’s goddamn skin! Of. Course.

I feel seriously burned out after playing so much in a short amount of time, especially because in the final hours I’ve stopped caring about winning at all. I lost concentration so badly -- I didn’t think about my abilities or teamwork or countering enemies, constantly attacked them head on even with characters not meant for that... What if this attitude stays and I won’t be able to play the game normally? What if I just ruined it for myself? Ugh. Why do I always have to be like this.

The best thing about this session was when I accidentally clicked on 1v1 and managed to win 5-1. It was pretty stressful so I went back to 3v3 immediately. But it was really fun to think strategically about hero selection, trying to quickly compute which of the three available characters is not only easiest for me to play, but the strongest against any of them.

Another good moment was in Mystery Heroes, when I got Reaper and on my way to the point was lamenting my inability to play him and the aforemetioned lack of concentration. The point is under attack, I teleport in, kill Zen and two others who were about to get onto it, help kill Winston in the middle of it, overtime runs out, I get POTG. Wat?

One night after playing a lot I had a dream that the Roadhog nerf came through and also changed his name (don’t remember to what) and portrait to an unmasked, civil-looking, clean-shaven 30-40 year old blond white man, and just as I went to see what his skins look like now I woke up

I finished the event at level 89. Considering that I only played during the free weekends and bought the game after the second one, that’s pretty fast leveling up.

I started recording a lot during the weekend, and have several videos in the drafts, but on second thought I don’t think anyone would be interested, there’s nothing remarkable going on in them.