heyitstaako

[heyitstaako]

If you all haven't heard about it yet: https://ratethelandlord.org/

[heyitstaako]

Hey there, long time no post!

I actually finished this piece a little while ago but I kind of forgot about it with my last uni course and life happening haha 😅 but since I've been replaying botw the last few weeks and with totk just around the corner I thought now was a nice time to share it with you all! ☺️

~(also I definitely am very normal about totk and absolutely not in any financial debt at all because of the collectors edition and OLED)~

[heyitstaako]

happy april 13th !!

[heyitstaako]

neil john combo

[heyitstaako]

actually in the spirit of my own advice there, i’m just gonna say some nice things about homestuck:

god. the art and music. don’t pretend your jaw didn’t hit the floor when cascade dropped.

davekat was so fucking good, an incredible exploration of toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia, and joey in hiveswap is shaping up to have some similar themes.

the quadrants are FASCINATING from an aroace perspective. i could and have Gone Off about how our ideas of How Relationships Should Look are fundamentally made up, and how the fandom latching onto what was supposed to be a ludicrous alternative demonstrates that.

god. the epic worldbuilding, the SCALE of the thing, the horrorterrors, the genesis frog, the entire mythology of universe death and rebirth, it’s incredible.

basically invented a new media genre

incredibly interesting characters who had a lot of random interests that made it super fun and easy to project on them

the meta bullshit was hilarious

the themes of free will and identity and escaping the roles you were literally born for were wildly fascinating and also exactly what i needed to hear at 18 years old

made me gay

[heyitstaako]

Kiki: i mean. If i don't dispel this... ball, that the Raven Queen probably can't break... *pocket boyfriend*

Percy: Keyleth-

Kiki: I HAVEN'T HELD HIM IN THIRTY YEARS LET ME HAVE THIS

[heyitstaako]

bells hells split up era predictions:

laudna, ashton and orym undertake an intense emotional journey where they confront loss and the reality of their lives being playthings of more powerful actors in the world. they grow and heal and come out the other side as closer friends than ever... and maybe more?

fearne and fcg stumble upon man-made horrors beyond OUR comprehension. they understand them just fine though.

chetney and imogen nuke wildemount

[heyitstaako]

It really is wild how much balance's Faerun is a victim of circumstance. Literally just a bunch of aliens came down and brought their war in with them. They totally overwrote the world's current political goings-on by injecting a new war for artifacts of powers beyond mortal comprehension, stopped that by wiping the minds of everyone on the planet, and then ended up luring in a massive eldritch presence that forced all the people of the world to fight against it again. The memory and agency stripped from every single person in a whole universe. Even the divine, their prophecies and paperwork twisted towards this strange new calling. Fuck, dude, the Moon's been fake for years.

[heyitstaako]

[heyitstaako]

Contact Other Plane really is such a perfect wizard and warlock spell, because it truly encapsulates the hubris of those classes. It's the most extreme "fuck around and find out" spell. It's like, you can make a collect call out of this world. You might get some answers, but you also might go insane for trying it. You'll be fine in the morning, though. You will learn nothing from this experience.

[heyitstaako]

hybrids <3

[heyitstaako]

This minecraft short comic called "A strange Coast" made by Ian Flynn I believe, I found in a book from my library I work has to be one of the most beautiful and respectful takes on the game.

It understands minecraft so perfectly and doesn't treat it as childishly as the other stories in it did.

And all that within 10 pages and no word spoken.

[heyitstaako]

This is a reminder that the lich you're facing? The one that's terrifying and powerful? He's a fuckin nerd. He's a massive loser and his weakness is lockers. Throw him into one.

[heyitstaako]

Honestly, the implication with the Sendings that there is something wrong with the leylines and the weave of magic in Exandria is so funny to me. There is a non-zero chance, not even a low chance, that Ludinus is pissed because he got tossed to some random point in Exandria, and now he has to walk places. And maybe get on a ship. God forbid.*

But this also has a lot of other implications. The leylines tend to be associated with both intra- and interdimensional travel, as well as things like Scrying, Sending of course, and possibly other methods of divination.

It is also possible that, given what we know about dunamis, that dunamancy is also tied to the leylines or the weave in some way.

We know that divine magic is at least working—but we only know this to be true of divine magic granted by a god of the Pantheon.

So, with all of that in mind, a HIGHLY incomplete sample of things that may or may not be happening across Exandria while the Hells A-Team is traveling to Uthodurn:

Yussa is torn between gratitude for being free from the menace of Caleb Widogast teleporting into his house and Jester Lavorre sending him messages at all hours, and irritation that he can't get any of his work done because it all has to do with planar magic.

Any gratitude wears off when Fjord and Jester come banging on his door because Jester cannot send any messages nor contact Artagan, who is bound by the rules of the planes and by extension the leylines (since he can, unlike the gods, pass mostly freely from plane to plane).

Fjord's magic is completely fine because he is operating on sheer force of will and obeys no laws known to mortals, physics, or nature. Essek, who was holed up in the Lavorres' spare room for the week, is absolutely pissed because half of his magic is broken (and also he has no idea where his partner is).

Caleb and Beau take like seven hours to get the collar off before discovering that they are stuck somewhere in the Issylran tundra. (They would probably get fined by the Slayer's Take for the number of bounties they take out their rage on, if the Slayer's Take had ANY idea who the fuck they were.)

Caduceus is cheerfully gardening and has no idea this has happened. Melora decides not to bother him. Let him live in bliss, unlike the rest of Exandria.

Dorian has been having a meltdown into his Sending stone while Opal and Dariax run rampant and Cyrus looks very pretty but does absolutely nothing. It has no effect.

Keyleth is sitting in a daze somewhere next to a tree that will not open wondering if the last thirty-six hours were a fever dream.

The city of Syngorn saw the moon nonsense, panicked, tried to hop to the Feywild, then panicked harder. Fortunately, they could not contact anyone, and Allura Vysoren did not have to hear about it.

Ludinus has murdered several people. It has gotten him no closer to leaving whatever random part of the Tal'dorei countryside he is menacing.

Somewhere, there is a bird. That bird saw this beam, looked down into a very old, very precious orb, and said, "Not this fucking shit again."

All in all, very funny couple of days Exandria is happening. I'm sure things will not get any worse.

*I know he traveled by ship to the peace talks, okay, but that was for appearances. He didn't have shit to be doing at the time.

[heyitstaako]

The thing about Ludinus is that yes, he does have a very high INT score but he is in fact stupid. He is a particular brand of stupid that I like to call Wizard Stupid, which is related to but not identical to Wizard Hubris. Wizard Hubris is the vision; Wizard Stupid is the realization.

Wizard Hubris is excessive confidence that is derived from the fact that one is a wizard, and therefore obviously knows everything, probably even more than the gods. Wizard Stupid is then carrying out the plans derived from Wizard Hubris without any kind of safety net. Where Wizard Hubris says "There is nothing beyond my capabilities"; Wizard Stupid says "No consequences can touch me." Wizard Hubris is building the Tower of Babel; Wizard Stupid is leaning one ladder on top of another ladder to do so. Wizard Hubris is the belief that you can, and indeed, are entitled, to fuck around. Wizard Stupid is the unshakeable belief that you will not be subjected to finding out.

So: let's look at Caleb. Caleb is FULL of Wizard Hubris for most of Campaign 2, given that he desires to reconfigure the time-space continuum, but except for a few relatively rare occasions, he is not terribly Wizard Stupid. He actually tends to be extremely cautious, and the cases in which he indulges the Wizard Stupidity are relatively self-contained (eg: the emerald).

Yussa, meanwhile, has few grand designs and mostly wants to hang out and fuck with the gentrification and political cronyism of Nicodranas, and honestly, good for him, seems totally reasonable. However, he does think that the Archmage's Bane is not referring to him (archmage) and that Astral Projection, a totally standard high level wizard's spell well within his abilities without any need for hubris, will carry no risk if he then decides to check out a little place called Cognouza.

Of course, many wizards have both. It's actually pretty rare to be mostly one or the other (which is why Caleb and Yussa are used for illustrative purposes). It's also pretty rare to have neither; Allura is the closest, and even she has her moments. Some degree of Wizard Hubris and Stupid do come packaged with the act of being a wizard.

Ludinus, obviously has both; he is, basically, building the Tower of Babel and he is, canonically, violating a list of safety protocols that rivals the length of a CVS receipt. And so: the hubris is "I can, should, must, and will blow up the moon that imprisons a god-eating abomination"; the stupid is sticking his fucking arm in the machine to power it.

[heyitstaako]

Pearl and BigB. BigB and Pearl. Nosy neighbours. Just two of the former Evo members going around the server. Watching everyone. Interesting.