#Dave The Stone Giant

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Dungeonmaster (1984)

[wormycomic]

[thegodmother007]

My New Neighbor- Chapter 7: Pride & Prejudice

My New Neighbor Chapter 7: Pride & Prejudice

TRIGGER WARNING: This story will eventually contain violence, angst, threat of death, swearing, dark humor, adult themes like sex & drugs, racism, classism, sexism etc. Do not say you have not been warned

Chapter 7:

I got the notification from my bank that the $125 was dropped into my account a few days later & I was stoked. I already had a few things picked out & in my cart online that I used the $125 to pay for. It was then, as I clicked “checkout" that I wondered what Vi was going to get herself. My memory flashed in front of my eyes, remembering how Vi left Trivia Night a few days ago. I still felt a nagging in the back of my mind that I had upset her in some way. If I wanted a teammate for the next Trivia Night & to keep making money, I figured I would go and check in with her. I decided to text her, having gotten her number shortly before Trivia Night. “Hey, it’s Cain. Just wanted to see if your $125 dropped yet? I got mine this afternoon.” 

I left my phone on my coffee table, giving Vi some time to respond & picked up my gaming controller to kill some time before my shift at Dave & Crusters. After an hour or so, I took a break to grab some chips when I checked my phone to see that my message to Vi was ‘Read’ almost an hour ago, but left unresponded to. Maybe I am looking into it too deeply, but I had a pit in my stomach with the feeling that I probably did say something to her that may have upset her. I sighed and texted her again “Hey, did I upset you or something?” I asked her, and within 10-seconds, I could see she read it. I can see the bubble pop up indicating she was ‘typing’. I waited for her response, fishing through my cabinets for the bag of BBQ Chips I grabbed from the store yesterday. I hear a ‘ping’ and see Vi’s message across my screen. “Yea. That comment about giants being ‘better suited’ for hard labor was a bit fucked up considering I won us the Trivia Night...” My heart dropped reading that. I hadn’t meant it that way, I was just commenting on how they are capable of doing more physical tasks than us humans. I frantically typed back to her:

Cain: “I had not meant it in that way. It’s just you guys are better at the heavy stuff, that is all.” 

Vi: “You said you were shocked I am smart & could answer the questions during trivia night. You acted like you expected me to be an idiot.”

Cain: “I did not mean to underestimate you…”

Vi: “It’s more than just being underestimated. You treated me like the stereotype that Giants are bumbling idiots stuck in the stone age, is true. That is antiquated as hell.”

I felt a burning in my ears of embarrassment when I had to look up what ‘antiquated’ meant. Further showing me that maybe Vi is right, that I had the wrong idea about her. I felt like I should try to explain myself at least a little bit.

Cain: “I didn’t mean to stereotype you. I just wasn’t aware that there are giants who like school.”

Vi: “Yea, a lot of us like school & a lot of us are very educated.”

I could sense how matter of fact she was being in this moment and I didn’t know how else to continue the conversation. 

Cain: “I see that now. It won’t happen again.”

Vi: “Better not.”

I felt a twinge of fear crawl up my back at her last message to me. I couldn’t help but feel it was an underhanded threat. But at the risk of offending her again, I opt to say nothing to her about it. 

Cain: “Are we still cool?”

Vi: “For now”

I sensed she needed some time to cool off a bit, so I left the conversation. I looked at the clock to see my 2pm-10pm shift was not far away, so I went to grab my uniform & get ready. 

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

Cain did not respond after my last message to him. I assume to avoid further pissing me off, which is fair. I had been waiting for an opportunity to talk to him about his comment towards me on Trivia Night. Admittedly, I continued thinking about his comment about what Giants are best ‘suited for’ and felt like I was 10 years old again. 

Involuntarily I was reminded of the time that I ended up meeting a group of human kids on the outskirts of the countryside where I lived, asking if they’d want to play with me. Being 10 years old at the time with no other kids my age living even close to me, I felt so lucky to find 4 who said “Yes.” Three boys & a girl. She was the younger sister of one of the boys who was forced to drag her along, but she was closer to my age & cooler than her brother, so I was happy she was there.

I hadn’t played with humans before, but I knew they were very fragile & I had to be extra careful when we played. That was always drilled into my head as a kid, to give humans their space & always be gentle. My father had a few human colleagues who he interacted with from time to time, so he always lectured me on the proper way to act around them, when I visited his work. 

It was fun at first, we had a great time together. I was only about 30ft at the time, so the size difference, although large, was not as intrusive as one would think. Kids can make almost anything work if it means playing. 

We played Medieval Kingdom where I played the dragon & the others were the knights and princess who slayed the dragon. Then we played superheroes, where I was the villain who was trying to destroy the city & the ‘heros’ defeated me to save the city. After that, we were dinosaurs where I played the T-rex & chased after everyone. Of course, I went slowly, so the humans could ‘get away’ and hide. It was a lot like hide and seek, but you act like dinosaurs & instead of ‘finding’ someone you ‘ate’ them. I later felt weird about that last part. 

After a while, everyone grew tired and the sun was going down, so we called it a day. Before we all went our separate ways, the boys asked if I would meet them again tomorrow to play. Without hesitation I agreed and went home to tell my parents and older brother all about the friends I had finally made. 

After dinner that night, I found my older brother who was 19yr old at the time, in the doorway of my bedroom. I was on my bed, drawing, when he came in. “Can I talk to you for a second?” he asked, with a serious tone that I didn’t really hear from him before. That night, he explained to me that playing the villain, the dragon & the most dangerous dinosaur, was not a coincidence. My brother tried explaining to me that humans saw Giants as dangerous. Already knowing that we could accidentally hurt a human if we weren’t careful, I tried shutting him down. I did not like how he was talking about my new friends. “Vi, just listen…” echoed in my brain as I remembered his next words. “Vi, humans see us as monsters. You were the dragon today because they see you as a monster. You were the villain today because you’re the enemy. You were the most dangerous dinosaur because you’re the most dangerous person to them.” I fought back, telling him that I liked playing the dragon, I liked playing the villain and I liked playing the T-rex. We were just having fun, what was the big deal? “The big deal Vi, is that you’re seen as the monster & you’ll always be the monster to them. Tomorrow, when you go back, ask them to play a game that does not involve you being the bad guy. Let’s see how they react.” 

Determined to prove my brother wrong, I went back to that field the next day knowing in my heart of hearts that he was wrong. But it never got that far. I sat in the spot we met, waiting to see my friends walking out the woods that separated my land from theirs, just like they said they would. After about two hours, I went home. “They probably got into trouble or got sick.” I told myself & I went back the next day. Then the next day. Each day, I waited patiently, praying they would show up. Much to my heart’s delight, one of them did. Sampson, the older brother of the girl my age, came out of the woods on his own, hands in his pockets. His eyes stayed casted down when he saw me sitting in the field. I was so excited that I would be able to go home and tell my brother just how wrong he was, that my friends came back to play with me despite what he said. Sampson came up to me, looking over his shoulder a few times as if he was looking out for something. “Hey Vi…” He said in a weak voice. I stayed seated, asking him what was wrong. “We can’t play with you anymore. My mom and dad found out we played with you & said it was too dangerous to see you again. They said it’s my job as an older brother to protect my sister…” My heart stopped for a moment, paralyzed by his words. “Why do they think I am so dangerous?” I asked him. Sampson took a few steps back, looking away while saying something under his breath that I couldn’t hear. I leaned in closer to hear him better “What?” I asked. Looking up at me with a pale face & true fear in his eyes he squeaked out “They said Giants used to eat people and that some still do. All Giants are dangerous and you could kill one of us if you wanted to.” I sat back up with shock “But I would never do that!” I exclaimed, feeling the tingling warmth of tears threatening to pour out. Sampson nodded “I know! I told them you were nice, but they didn’t want to listen. They said if we’re caught playing with you, we'll get punished.” I looked behind Sampson where I saw Allison, Sampson’s sister hiding behind a tree & the two other boys, peeking from behind a bush. When they saw me spot them, they all resumed hiding, away from sight. My attention was caught once again as Sampson said “We can’t play with you anymore Vi. You’re too dangerous & my parents don’t want us talking to you.” I watched one of my tears hit the dirt patch where Sampson stood, muddying up the ground. He avoided my gaze, and wiped what I could assume were his own tears from his eyes.

After some moments of silence, I hear Sampson ask me “Can you leave? We want to play but we can’t if you’re here…” I felt my throat tighten and my chest felt heavy. Slowly, I got up, wiping the dirt from my pink shorts. I did not say anything to them after that, knowing that nothing I could say would come out as anything besides broken sobs. I was already embarrassed enough, feeling the sting of rejection & of my brother being right. I turned & walked back towards home without having spoken to any of those kids again, trying to hold it in until I was far enough away. 

I didn’t go back home right away, I sat by a creek a few dozen yards off from my house & just stuck my feet in, letting myself cry until I was out of tears. I wrestled with what Sampson told me “Giants used to eat people.” That cannot be true. I have never eaten anyone, I have never seen anyone else doing that & the idea of doing it made me feel ill. I didn’t want my parents to see me cry, so once I was good & ready, I went to my brother Bo’s room where he was playing with his video game system. He sees me in the doorway, sparing me a glance before refocusing on his game “What’s up squirt?” He asked me, not peeling his eyes away from the screen until the only response he got from me was my sniffling. Pausing his game and looking at me with concern, he told me to tell him what was wrong, and I did. 

He listened to the whole story and sat with me as a few extra tears fell onto my lap. “I’m sorry they said that to you, Vi.” Bo said, giving me a hug. But one burning question bothered me to my core. “Is that true, Bo? Did Giants eat people?” Bo looked away, sighing much like he did when he warned me about humans the first time. “Yes. But a very long time ago. Like, hundreds & hundreds of years ago. No Giant these days has any reason to eat humans now, not like when we were all fighting for survival in the Stone Age.” Being 10 at the time, I didn't quite understand history & what survival took back then, but I took my brother’s word for it. “But if Giants haven’t eaten humans in hundreds of years, why are they still scared of us?” Bo was quiet for a moment, contemplating how to explain it to a 10yr old. “Because like it or not, Giants don’t need to eat humans to still be scary to humans. Imagine a person 50x bigger than you. They can step on you, grab & crush you, heck even if they don’t know you’re there, you could still get hurt, right?” I nodded, understanding what he meant. “So what can I do to not be so scary to them?” Hoping he had a way I could get my friends back and at that, he frowned “Nothing much you can do, kiddo. You’re a Giant & you’ll always be a Giant. There is no changing that, just stay away from them.” That answer hurt almost as much as Sampson telling me we couldn’t be friends anymore. 

I sat back on my couch, putting my phone on the side table as I looked up at the ceiling of my apartment. I had hoped that when I joined the Human & Giant Integration Program, I would have found my Unit Partner was more open minded than the parents of those kids. I was hoping that I would have met humans who were as interested as I was, in bridging the gap between the two races. I felt a distant feeling of disappointment, similar to what I felt the first time I encountered this kind of hurt. I remind myself “You’re a Giant, there is no changing that.” I sat, thinking about the next year I had in this place & figured we were only a few weeks into the lease, I needed to give Cain more time to warm up. “Imagine a person 50x bigger than you...” I faintly hear Bo’s voice say in the back of my mind. I look at my hands, picturing them compared to Cain, trying to put myself in his shoes, but that was a lot easier said than done. I decided I would push the memories from my mind with a good workout to clear my head. One of the reasons I chose this apartment that hosted the Integration Program was because they had an excellent gym. Very few emotions can’t be helped with a hard workout & some sweat. At the very least it would give me some time to think.

[meteor-crew-after-dark]

Hussie said gamzee was the shortest

He's allowed to be wrong.

To be honest, since that detail didn't make it into the comic itself or any of the notes he passed to his art team later, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he was joking, changed his mind, or that detail was unimportant enough to forget.

While I try not to impose headcanons where it's not necessary, but like, when translating the canon sprites into my style I did have to make decisions to keep them all from looking the same. Tall Gamzee is intimidating yet, has the build of a gentle giant and that's kind of the goal.

Dave is at this point in the blog confirmed cis, because like, yeah... I'm tackling his homophobia and you'd be hard pressed to find a teen in the 2000s who's homophobic but open to being transgender. It wouldn't be important otherwise, but now that I've set that one in stone, it is very funny and in character for a teen boy to talk about penis.

[chronotsr]

No. 3 - G3, Hall of the Fire Giant King (July 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): Erol Otus, Dave C. Sutherland III (cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 9, preferably 5+ players Theme: Standard Swords and Sorcery Major re-releases: G1-3 Against the Giants, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Dungeon #200, Tales from the Yawning Portal

So that was a little disappointing. But maybe it just middles in the middle? C'mon Gary, let's see that special skill I've heard so much about.

G3 begins how G2 ended: teleporting conveniently on the outskirts of the fortress in such a way as to skip a trek without surprising the players. Meh. Our big bad this time is King Snurre -- I haven't mentioned the Chieftains yet because they're all just midbosses compared to the this guy. And, he's kind of famous isn't he?

For a guy who is functionally a one-off NPC that the party presumably kills, he ends up in a lot of paintings. Not that I'm complaining, that 4e art is amazing. In fact, broadly, 4e's art is a little underrated, it benefits from being less restrained than 5e. I don't think that's a knock on 5e's artists, more like…the art direction seems to be intentionally tamer. Anyway, thank you 4e art, I never realized there was a dog in the background of the 5e PHB until now. Neat.

Yada yada yada the setup is exactly the same as before, but now it's got ~mordor vibes~. As far as changes change, these fire giants (even the children) expressly do not do morale checks because apparently Snurre is such a motherfucker. Scary!

Anyway, we're already in the room-by-room, so let's begin the juicy part:

There's a scooby doo trap with a tapestry in the doorway having holes for eyes so a giant guard can alert the entire building if the players don't catch it. That's evil! But not unfair, which is a good balance. Naturally, there is a ballista tripwire on revisit that does some nasty damage, so this hallway is just The Troll Zone

Snurre has two pet hellhounds leashed to his throne, but also he's wearing a white dragonskin as a cloak at all times, which overcomes his natural aversion to cold with MAGIC. What an asshole! Also, as you look at that picture from the 5e cover, there's a bevy of (unimportant) changes from the original, like Snurre is no longer in his signature pitch-black platemail, but I think special mention should go to the fact that in the original he has literally 60k worth of precious stones on his person and scattered throughout the architecture of the throne room. This room should be GLEAMING.

A Gygaxism: Queen Frupy is a 'haradin', which roughly means 'scold', which. Ok. So, so much attention is given to how uggo she is (to Gary). Actually, I think the description of her armor is kinda cool, she wears black dragonskin, studded with iron (so by Runescape logic I guess she's good with a bow?). Reaper Minis did a character that sort-of resembles the description, but their Vanja has a spear where Frupy uses a scepter:

You can actually negotiate with her, the implication of the text is that she's unreasonable but…just ignore that. Lol.

She also has a magic mirror (implied to be a furniture mirror, not a hand mirror) that reveals invisible creatures in the reflection, which is kind of awesome. Good way to catch assassins! Somehow the drow are using a gifted necklace to spy on them, but I feel like the mirror probably should've revealed in some way (maybe the mirror was also a drow gift?) She's more astute than she lets on, because she has a huge stash of mind control crap in her dresser drawers for emergencies.

????????????????????????????

Keeping with the "giant leader's treasure sucks" tradition, Snurre's treasure is genuinely crazy. It occupies a FULL PAGE, and each INDIVIDUAL TRUNK has a listing and an explicit mention of the traps. Traps range from a standard scything trap to secret snakes to the treasure being invisible to contact poison. How the hell does Snurre use this room? You're telling me he never fucked up remembering which of the 13 chests were trapped in which way? Oh, also, they're pick-proof, because fuck you thief. Naturally, the loot itself is also a fucking trap, because while there is some truly amazing stuff in there (20 randomized magic items, a decent amount of valuables, a +3 ring of protection, and a ring of 3 wishes), there is also lots of troll items (statues with a stacking curse of -1 to all tests, ring of contrariness, ring of delusion). On the whole, a big fuck you to the party. Oh, and while the locks are unpickable, you can shoot them off with magic missile, which is…why?

Snurre's dwarf-slave-advisor is bizarrely well equipped and loyal, and given the opportunity to escape he will…backstab the party. As much as people complain about how early DND has too many save or die traps, I genuinely think the regularity with which rescued npcs betray the party is a waaaaaay dumber and more ridiculous trend. I simply cannot fathom why someone as smart as Obmi would choose to keep being a slave to Snurre when adventurers showed up with the ability to free him. Honestly? Take his big lie and make it true. The lie makes sense because it makes more sense than the canon character.

The scroll that finally tips at the motivation of the giants is, no kidding, scroll #68 of almost 450 paper items, none of which are mentioned. The weird need for a number baffles me.

The kitchen is doing some lateral thinking and using one of the gas vents as a gas stove, which is hilarious.

Oh, we're only now to level 2?

All of the former kings are entombed in a Giant Tomb, which, that is entirely too cool of a visual for them to have not included a visual. In a fucking grave mistake, this room is cut from the 4e remake, so there is no incredible art of it. There is no justice.

If you somehow didn't kill the hill giant chieftain AND you didn't get him in G2, he's here in G3. And he brought the pet bears!

Gary, you're such an asshole. No one would ever think to throw their cool mace into the lava pit mid combat. This is just trolling.

🤷 Guess I'll die

"The were-rats, if losing, will turn into rats and flee down the drain" That is, actually an incredible escape plan, except that we have pre-established that this Hall is founded upon LAVA AND COOKING-HOT GAS.

Fuck the party I guess

You often hear people who got into ADND in the late 1e/2e era talk about how people speculated that Hommlet must lead to Temple of Elemental Evil because of hints about the Elemental Eye and, honestly it just kind of feels like Gary defaults to the Eye. It has come up in every scenario he has written so far (which admittedly is 2 so far), but with the power of Knowing What Comes Next I can assure you that this is going to keep happening. Anyway, there is a temple to the Eye here, complete with human sacrifice, and the allusion to tentacles eating people is already starting to signpost what we now know is true: It's Tharizdun. The Eye is Tharizdun. It always comes back to Cthulhus!

A lot of early players clearly enjoyed Poking Random Shit because if you decide to touch the Elemental Eye's altar and also play every musical instrument in the room, you get to make every person in the room roll on this table, AND also execute whichever player is nearest to the altar (no save). But, hey, you will suddenly get whatever you want most on the altar. If you are somehow dumb enough to do it again, there's a 1 in 12 chance you get a +1 in all stats, a 2 in 12 chance of something extremely bad happening, and a 9 in 12 chance nothing happens.

Would genuinely like to know how many GMs bothered following this instruction. It does teleport you towards the final encounter, so that's something.

An entire page is dedicated to disarming the tentacle wall magic trap, which to be honest looks like it'd repel a significant percentage of players because you either need an evil cleric or some good magic to dispel the wall, and the wall punishes the shit out of you for trying to disarm it. To be a mild devil's advocate, the tentacle wall IS super suspiciously placed (the shape of the room implies it's going somewhere), so at least it's not also super esoteric. If you DO bypass it, you are now the proud winner of the "discover the drow" award! Woah, elves but they're ontologically evil??????????????????????????????????? Truly novel! Eclavdra, head of the drow here, hangs out doing nothing in particular, and you may unceremoniously execute her if you want to bring her storyline to an unceremonious end.

The frost giants are here from last module, if they survived. They really want you to kill these kings!

No really why did they used to draw trolls like that

This adventure just won't end. There's a surprising amount to say about this module given that it's only 22 pages of monster murder and motherfucker traps. Anyway, welcome to level 3!

There are fake dragons here to troll you into getting excited for loot

The fire giants also have a panic room? Every giant has a panic room. Why are panic rooms so normal in the G series?

A SECOND fake dragon that is actually a gorgon, which is almost funny

Finally, a REAL red dragon, which is frankly cruelty to fool me three times

After many, many drow are fought, you eventually run into a magic-fighter drow noble who has a wand of "viscid globs", which despite the suggestive name, is actually a superglue gun? You can literally rip yourself apart trying to separate yourself from a glued object. It's a really, really bizarre item. And it has a LOT of charges -- 79.

Mercifully, finally, something that could be potentially interesting: Eclavdra's rival is hanging out in the basement and can be sweetalked into helping the party screw over Eclavdra, which. FINALLY. However, if you displease her, it's demon time.

For reasons I cannot fathom, there are mind flayers here observing the drow, and the drow are not super bothered by that.

And that's basically it! at the very end they find a tube with a map and a wish leading to the D series, and a quick explainer on the then-new Drow. Well, not that quick, it's a page and a half, but the conceptualization of the drow is basically unchanged between then and now. Evil elves, forced underground, adapted to living there, dark skin, magic spidersilk clothes and adamantine weapons, sunlight sensitivity, drow spell list.

On the whole, G3 is, an adventure. While yes the Drow twist is kind of neat (but not special, since Drow are functionally Melniboneans and Elric was already decades old at this point), mostly this module lacks the fun of G1 and substitutes lots of murder traps for any genuine creativity with the scenario. On the whole, I consider it…crowd pleasingly boring? Your treasure goblins will love it for how much nice stuff they can find, if they survive.

We will end today with the back cover, which features some hippogriff mounts. People just don't give parties flying mounts anymore, it's honestly strange the tradition died. See you in the D series later. And if you're waiting for more obscure modules…I can only promise one in 1978.

[karkatting]

alphaswitch au - introduction

hi! here is some info about the alphaswitch au by @clockworkdrop​ and i, since some people expressed interest in it!

all of this is directly copied from the huge doc we have, and this post is mostly focused on the characters. not everything is set in stone/planned out yet, so some characters have more info than others. my plan is to update this post with new stuff as we figure it out lol.

general stuff

alpha kids and dancestor trolls are the ‘beta session(s)’

dirk and roxy live in the same year as jane and jake

alpha kids and dancestors are the same age (16 at the beginning, 19 by the end)

not a direct parallel of the canon beta session, some things are different

session lasts several months

the rest is under a readmore cus this shits long

alpha humans

jane:

server player: roxy

sprite: gcat + poppop

patron troll: aranea

receives guidance from meenah

guardian, dad (dad), john is deceased

meenah insisted on being her guide instead of aranea because of their connection

meenah tries to give relationship advice but since she’s jumping all over it’s not helpful

jake:

server player: supposed to be jane, ends up being dirk

sprite: dirkbot + ??

patron troll: kankri

receives guidance from aranea

guardian, jade, is deceased and was grown into a giant tree on the island

aranea became his guide after kankri fucked off and meenah stole jane from her

aranea tries to give him romantic advice but it kinda doesn’t work

roxy:

server player: dirk

sprite: wizard doll + frigglish

patron troll & guidance: porrim

guardian, rose, is a prolific author whom roxy really looks up to, but she feels a sort of distance from her that she doesn’t know how to fix

often talks to meulin about cats and other things. roxy learns about the quadrant system from her

when her mom dies, has an aspect berserk moment similar to rose’s grimdark that causes her viewport to go dark

has some internalized homophobia, doesn’t know she’s not straight (yet)

dirk:

server player: jake

sprite: a puppet i guess + dirk’s head

patron troll: latula

receives guidance from kankri & latula

guardian, dave, is a famous movie director and is rarely home. he leaves various items and notes around the house for him

secretly wants to be closer with him, probably kind of fucked up when he dies

still has lil hal who is just as much of a nuisance. maybe even more so

while his patron troll is latula, kankri quickly took her place as his guide both because dirk is the only one that can even somewhat handle talking to him and kankri finds him infuriating in an intrigued way. he also thought latula wasn’t “doing it right”

he still talks to latula, they get along well. she maybe helps him out with jake stuff cus kankri sure as hell isn’t going to. she is also more helpful with game stuff than kankri is

after dirkjake kiss, dirks head ends up in dirks puppet sprite so he has dirksprite (another splinter, he mad)

hal

still glasses

just being so annoying to dirk

also to kankri

he figures out whats up with dirkkri before dirk does

eventually dirk is convinced to make the body for him, its a horse robot but it can also transform into a human body too. hal loves it unironically but dirk is using like 12 layers of irony to rationalize this being a good decision

trolls

session lasts 3 years (13-16)

won but just barely

still gave the frog cancer

tons of teen drama still

basically everything that was described in the comic to happen before the dreambubbles still happens, except the scratch

kankri:

trollhandle: genesiologicalCancriform (GC)

genesiology - obsolete term for study of genetics/reproduction

cancriform - latin adjective describing crabs/cancers

in a neverending cycle of debate with his past and future selves

probably likes troll documentaries

panquadromantic like karkat, but just suppresses any sort of romantic feelings he has towards anyone. a lot of internalized… panquadrophobia???

pretends he’s not suppressing anything because all microlabels are valid but also shames porrim but he’s never been a hypocrite in his life 

his celibacy is more of a result of the hemocaste system on beforus rather than a genuine disinterest in romance - he wants to feel independent and not be “coddled” by anyone

picks fights/debates with dirk over stupid shit just for the hell of it

still has a crush on latula (at first)

pacifist, so probably relied on porrim to help him during the game (was mad about it though) (his plan was to lecture to imps and ogres to go away)

she teaches him how to use guns but he still rarely utilizes it

Still wearing the leggings until right when the humans arrive, when porrim gives him the sweater

arc: learning to listen to his friends instead of speaking over them, not be misogynistic and ableist, quadrant stuff, recognize some of the group don’t care about hemospectrum, learn to accept help from others (and hopefully get the rest of them there) (dirk helps with most of it)

meulin:

trollhandle: catalysislAficionado (CA)

catalysis - a catalyst is something that provokes significant change or action, referring to her matchmaking

aficionado - she loves doing it

very invested in the love lives of the kids and tries to help them out with their crushes even if it has no chance of happening

idk i think she’s just taking them like barbies and smooshing their heads together

has a tendency to view others as characters rather than real people

causes problems through incompetence/obliviousness to others’ feelings

besties/eventual moirails with roxy

this catgirl can fit so many repressed emotions in her

arc: get away from kurloz (roxy), learn boundaries (also roxy?)

meenah:

trollhandle: (CC)

feels connected to jane after going through her timeline, for reasons she doesn’t understand (yet)

tries to get jane to do dangerous stuff because she thinks it’ll make her a stronger player

constantly jumps around the timeline because she’s looking for exciting things to do

godtier

arc: meenah really cares about her friends but they all have strained relationships because she spent so long bullying them to make them stronger at the game, so a good place for her arc would be her becoming a good leader but not through like dictatorship and telling them what to do or whatever, but just by learning to better utilize how she cares and lead by supporting them. not feeling the need to steal things and gain power or something

aranea:

trollhandle: ????Avicularia (GA)

avicularia - genus of spiders, specifically tarantulas. idk i thought it sounded cool

godtier

mastermind behind the dirkjake kiss

talks to the kids about classpects but like in a calliope way where it’s a little too literal

pushing jake hard to level up since pages are a “weaker class” (in the same vein of vriska with tavros and also john)

while vriska tries to learn a lot about the game so she can cheat to the end, aranea learns a lot about the game so she can know everything and make the best plan to win.

latula:

trollhandle: calibratingGriptape (CG)

calibrating - parallels terezi’s handle

griptape - grip tape is the material on top of a skateboard

prompted to give dirk relationship advice after seeing the dirkjake kiss. she thought it was very cool

even though kankri “took her place” as dirk’s guide, she still ends up helping dirk more because kankri kind of sucks at it

has a lot of thoughts about being pushed out by kankri but is trying not to show it (rad girl facade, etc)

arc: stop putting on the rad girl persona and be herself

porrim:

Trollhandle: antevortianGirl (AG)

antevorta - roman goddess of childbirth and prophecy

girl - #girl

serves as roxy’s guide/patron troll during the game. helps her with actual game stuff as opposed to meulin who helps her with interpersonal stuff

arc: stop infantalizing everyone below her on hemospectrum, something something matriorb

damara

trollhandle: (AA)

maybe talks to jane about how jake keeps telling her about their relationship and asking for advice, is just like “yeah, it sucks huh”

maybe drops the LE stuff during the alpha session? still causing problems on purpose though

not very invested in the kids, mostly causing problems on the meteor

she gets knocked out before she can doom the timeline, porrim (shes her main friend and also mom stuff) carries her to the door with the group. damara wakes up already locked in the meteor. maybe scratch messages her and tells her she failed and is also like really creepy like always. and then she watches jane stuff and is just like. yeah no this is the worst

jane and damara parallels. they are there

arc: recognize that others have gone through same stuff as her (jane), reject le, tell rufioh to knock it off (probably remain friends after that)(roxy helps), doesn’t have to forgive everyone else for their treatment of her if she doesn’t want to

rufioh:

trollhandle: (TA)

something something dirkjake parallels

dude’s a mess

mituna:

trollhandle: (AT)

actually stands up to cronus

still dubiously godtier

kurloz

trollhandle: (CT)

the stuff kurloz is involved in relates to see no evil (mituna) hear no evil (meulin) speak no evil (kurloz) but according to fridgestuck theres a fourth that's sometimes smell no evil (latula).

also caused cronus’s rejection of magic and belief in the prophecy

meulin and mituna friendship arc

something something kurloz is in charge of black ships and the conflict resolution quadrant is a black ship and kurloz is actively sabotaging them and maybe this is why they can't fix any of their problems at some point we gotta figure out what to do with him

roxy probably suspects somethings up with him (close to meulin and would recognize that she seems forgetful after seeing him, batterwitch), would probably be frustrated that meulin doesn’t believe her but would find ways to keep her away from him

crisis of faith when interacting with humans, leads to him ditching clown religion. no idea where that goes from there

someone figures out the mind control and other stuff, meulin, mituna, and cronus can decide if they forgive him or not

cronus

trollhandle: (AC)

roxy has a conversation with cronus, its bad

he literally JUST dropped the wizard act within the last year or so, so seeing her wizard stuff he probably makes fun of her or something

hates jake because he’s the hero of hope that might take over his place in the prophecies he felt entitled to

jake messes with him about human culture like the “telling caliborn what gay means” thing

leads to him losing ALL hope, leading to mituna fight

cronus hits on all of them and brings up the fact he is humankin a lot

gets the idea to be humankin from watching the timelines, was probably still doing the wizard thing until that moment, or had picked up a different persona in the session and switched to human then

arc: downward spiral from hopelessness (jake), become somewhat less of an asshole

beta humans

stuck in a void session for 6 years

in communication with the cherubs

egbert:

sprite:

 pre-retcon: ?? + ??

post-retcon: meulin + dirksprite (after reunion)

acting like there are no problems while actively looking at many problems

june realization at some point

rose:

sprite:

pre-retcon: ?? + ??

post-retcon: roxy + frigglishsprite (after reunion)

having a crisis about relevance

is painfully aware that this session is basically set up to make them lose their minds

drinking arc (mom’s alcohol in house)

dave:

sprite: crow + doomed dave

plays with time loops a little but realizes he’s making eternity even longer so stops unless necessary

still does a lot of reflection about bro since he'd still be around people who care about him

coming out: rose knows pre-game but they probably never officially told each other. maybe he tells her in like year 1 or 2. but he doesn't come out to the others until he's like 17 at least probably. davesprite too

at some point he grows out his hair really long, but it’s totally not to look like nic cage so a certain someone who loves nic cage might be interested who would do that

(crushing big time on egbert)

jade:

sprite: bec + dream jade

happy to be around her friends and not trapped on an island, but she is also super frustrated that it isn't like what she saw in her dreams

first one to snap after keeping her frustration bottled up. after that, rose sets a rule that they have to be honest to avoid more of that. (obviously they don’t stick to that very well)

i guess she godtiers at some point to be dog

cherubs

calliope:

friendly to all of them

probably just similar to how she was to the alphas

(she probably still has to die 🙁)

they will save her

caliborn:

jeers dave the most

is upset that he is not like alpha male

kickstarts dave’s de-masculinity stuff

asks dave for art of his friends

dave just changes the colors of the making this happen picture

platonically hates all of them. if he does the "you're attractive and ugly" thing like with jane, that's at jade

egbert really hates his art

similar to the alphas, mostly focuses on the boys and avoids/is creepy to the girls. probably pissed about june stuff cus he sucks

[thewertsearch]

Asks Comp 13/4

I think he's behind that door. The platform bears his symbol, and it's his final chance to show up in-game.

The best theory I have is that Bilious Slick is the god of Sgrub, and he only appears to a party of Players who have truly proven themselves. Given that Sgrub's endgame involves the creation of a universe, his role probably relates to this in some way.

Maybe he's the one who grants the Players the 'seed' - or whatever else is mechanically required to alchemize a universe.

The thought has occurred to me, too! I've been skimming some old posts while writing asks, and a couple of things have stood out to me.

We still don't know who the pen pal is. I'm still convinced he has something to do with Grandpa Harley, and my best guess is that he's someone who contains Grandpa as an alchemical component.

The session monitor in Skaianet's lab has a new meaning now. Every single one of those sessions could spawn a universe. And it's been implied that every planet with intelligent life will eventually spawn Sburb sessions. If you do the maths, it's clear that each universe should spawn billions of sessions. Just how many 'children' does each universe produce?

Ooh, yes, let's think about the implications of all this on my 'sonas!

If we assume that the kidsona was on comic-canon Earth, then she's in the universe created by the Zodiac trolls. The universe that she and the trollsona could create could be a completely new one!

...that is, if they create a universe at all. There's nothing saying you have to use that grist on a universe, and they might have other plans...

I was actually thinking about Tinkers when I made that post!

I read Worm a couple of years ago. In retrospect, it would also have made pretty good liveblogging material, although probably not quite as good as Homestuck. There's some great stuff in Worm, but a lot of what I really like about it doesn't show up until close to the end.

I initially assumed that the Psychic Double Reacharound was a contingency plan that she'd prepared earlier, since she couldn't possibly have come up with something so elaborate in the heat of the moment, while bleeding out on the ground.

But then I remembered she came up with the Sollux/Mind Honey plan seemingly on the spot, and now I'm not so sure. God damn, Vriska.

This is genuinely super flattering. I hope the inconsistency isn't too much of an issue - and, yes, I note the irony of saying this immediately after a four-month hiatus!

If was clear from early on that things in Homestuck weren't always what they seemed. Hell, sometimes they're not even what we're shown.

We have to assume some of what we're being told is true, or else we wouldn't have a story - but we always have to remember who's telling the story.

[Lol I love this fic. lots of **GIANT** spoilers tho, just because of the nature of the fic. For example, big ones starting at 16, 55 and 57 - C]

Recommended, and does apparently contain spoilers - but this is one I'm particularly looking forward to.

It's kind of a funny question, isn't it?

From Davesprite's perspective, he did change the future - his future. John died, but he 'changed things' - and now John's alive, even though he was dead 'before'.

But if you zoom out a little, you can see that this change was predetermined by the Alpha Timeline, which always depended on these events. Davesprite changed the first-order future - but the meta-future was always set in stone.

The Medium's timeline is so weird, isn't it? Its retroactive existence is difficult to puzzle out.

I don't think you could see the history of your Land by travelling back before you entered. All physical evidence of that history is there, but it's generated in a single instance when you Enter, and can't be accessed. It's analogous to read-only-memory.

After all, John, Rose and Dave are in the past with respect to LOJADE, but they're never going to see its 'history' - and Jade's Entry isn't going to insert it into the Medium retroactively. It won't have been 'there all along' when John was flying around earlier on his jetpack - it'll only ever have been there from Jade's Entry onwards.

As for getting into Earth's past, I think Karkat had it right, when he described the kids' original universe as 'a set of points to choose from'. You can't get into Earth's past by time-travelling around the Medium, but that doesn't really matter, since you can open portals into any point in its history, as long as you have the gear.

They're fascinating questions, aren't they?

Pre-Exile, she was the Tradition Wrangler - a Prospitian lawyer who struggled to interpret the Medium's archaic laws!

DD is a man of action, and I'm sure he approves of any Player who acts decisively themselves.

Plus, I'm sure he can emphasize with Aradia's situation. After all, it sucks to be bossed around by someone whose motivations make no goddamn sense half the time.

Common Terezi W.

True - she didn't need to hold her there for long. The laser pointer thing is a better analogy, blinding her almost instantly. I don't think it's any less fucked-up - it's more like a different flavor of fucked-up.

That's a pretty impressive robotics feat for Equius, actually. I wonder what Aradiabot is actually made of?

Tracing the source of alchemy gear is one of my favorite Homestuck 'minigames'.

Hivebent's art is fantastic! I really see why the comic blew up around this time. It's really coming into its own, stylistically. Of particular note is the art of Make Her Pay, and the art accompanying Aradia's final monologue. I can't wait to see more!

Gamzee is just too high to be rendered in a less symbolic manner.

Sollux is broken, and probably another mutant. The Sgrub trolls don't seem surprised by his level of power - but considering their circle includes other absurd espers like Aradia and Vriska, they probably aren't the best people to ask about what's normal.

Damn, I wish we could have seen more of Alternia. I know some of the spin-offs dig into this, but I hope we get more in canon, too.

Terezi's dream self is blind, because that's the version of herself she identifies most with. There's very little doubt in my mind that your dream self would reflect your self-perception in other ways, too. Skaia is clearly an ally - thank you, king.

You could imagine a Player whose dream self changes after they realize - or conversely, a Player whose dream self cracked their eggy loking thign. I'd be surprised if there weren't many fanfictions where this is a plot point - and depending on how things shake out in the comic itself, I'm not ruling it out.

In asking about magic, Kanaya really does start to sound like the young child that she is. It's easy to forget, but heartbreaking when you remember.

A few people have talked about this, so I added all of my 'immediate reaction' posts to the liveblog tag! I think it got them all - other than LOLCAT, which I missed and will add now - but if there are others, let me know!

I guess Matespritship isn't explicitly described in terms of romantic love. It's described as a close analogue of human romance, which is 'rooted in strongly positive emotions'. I've been assuming, based on that, that Red Romance is effectively interchangeable with the human concept of romantic love - but I suppose that's not necessarily the case.

I do think you're hitting on a very good point, here, too, which is that the quadrant system itself is described as something that trolls need. I think the 'need' for these categories is enforced, artificially, for the benefit of the Empire. It wouldn't be the first institution to pull something like this.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see how the troll/human ships end up shaking out. It's going to be a challenge to merge their respective relationship frameworks. The best solution, of course, is for them to experience their own relationships without any cultural baggage, but I don't think I'm just speaking for myself when I say that that's easier said than done!

[buckets-and-trees]

"You can tell a lot about someone by the type of music they listen to. Hit shuffle on your iPod, phone, iTunes, media player etc and write down the first 20 songs. Then pass this on to 10 people. One rule: NO SKIPPING."

Thanks so much for the tag @nouis-bum! I didn't get to take a proper lunch break today, so I'm having a bit of an afternoon brain break...

The King of All Birds - Aoife O'Donovan

About Today - The National

Love Will Take You - Angus & Julia Stone

Today Has Been OK - Emiliana Torrini

Two Points for Honesty - Guster

Boyhood - Jump, Little Children

Higher Love - Prides

Splendor - M83

Called Out in the Dark - Snow Patrol

Fury - Henry Jackman (CA:TWS OST)

Thank Your Lucky Star Date - Michael Giacchino (Star Trek Beyond OST)

Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers

Two Step - Dave Matthews Band

Rome - Phoenix

Would've, Could've, Should've - Taylor Swift

Two Ghosts - Harry Styles

Insomnia - Young the Giant

Dr. March's Daughters - Alexandre Desplat (Little Women 2019 OST)

Neon - John Mayer

Spirit Cold - Tall Heights

Tagging @sgt-seabass @biteofcherry @stargazingfangirl18 @witchywithwhiskey @sergeantbarnessdoll @nickfowlerrr @gaysindistress and anyone else who wants to play (I'm such an audiophile)

[louisupdates]

AWAY FROM HOME FESTIVAL RECAP

Concert number: 40

Date: 19 AUG 2023

Place: Lido di Camaiore, Italia

Capacity: 45,000

Venue: Parco BussolaDomani [vibes] [josh gale] [michael blackwell] [stefan dalle luche] [oli crump] [matt vines] [rich smedley] [x] [tanck] [jdelf]

Livestream [x] [x]

Louis’ Tweet and IG post

Louis’ IG reel

awayfromhomefestival IG post: [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [full images]

awayfromhomefestival IG post: [X]

LTHQ IG post: [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ]

Concert Group Photo

Fashion: Aries t-shirt, CDLP tank top, Stone Island pants, Helen

Setlist

Photos: [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [the scale] [x] [HQ shoulder] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ arm] [HQ] [HQ] [HQ] [D’Alessandro e Galli] [D’Alessandro e Galli] [stefano dalle luche] [D’Alessandro e Galli] [via Charlotte Claber] [Peter Pan] [with Lucky] [HQ] [x] [x] [🍑] [HQ back] [hot bodyguard] [giant eye, tiny man] [x] [barricade] [barricade gifs] [barricade gifs] [unhinged barricade] [barricade] [barricade] [more photos and videos]

Videos: [x]

Speeches: This has been a dream of mine [x], So, every single band, every single crew member, everyone who’s worked on this thank you, thank you, thank you. Go fucking mad for it! [x]

Outro: We Are The Champions, by Queen

Press: Sky TV

Trends: #1 on TUMBLR, Louies, afhf, Uncle Louis

Misc: Louis like, AFHF site map, Blossoms, The Cribs, Dave Gibson IG, fan art, Charlie, Krystle, a W was spotted, Andrew Cushin’s bass player tweet, moodboard

[thatonepikminperson]

Stone Wraith, Mercury Wraith, and Floral Wraith.

Let's start with the first of the three, the Floral Wraith, who may or may not be inspired by the Pom Wraith AU. (It is)

Floral Wraiths are a Solid type of Wraith, very rare to find now-a-days. These guys get along with all plant creatures, and it is the ONLY wraith type that Pikmin trust. The Floral Wraith is a small Wraith, with the dump truck part of the Water Wraith (We both know what I’m talking about here), being for the legs. It has tiny green goopy arms and a giant flower as its “face.” This flower will range in the center’s color, but the petals are guaranteed to be black.

These Wraith’s power comes from the pollen that can be found on any of the flowers they create. This pollen shuts down a few key places of a creature's minds, most commonly the ones that cause creatures to think clearly. With this, the Floral Wraith can make the creature do anything they want, and believe anything they say. It really just gaslights the creature into doing/believing anything really. As they say, Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.

These Wraiths are not affected by Lumiknolls.

The Floral Wraith, whose name is Rose, or Uncle Rose, is mostly a good guy. MOSTLY. Man's will still side with Ref over Pom on 90% of things, but he doesn't abuse the kid like she does. He just mainly tries to keep Pom in line via GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS. (Sorry I had to lol). He's very laid back, and very not formal about anything. His only big sin, aside from the gaslighting, is supporting Ref over Pom.

(Stone and Mercury are down here!)

Mercury Wraiths are some of the most feared Wraiths known to most of the planet. The Mercury Wraith looks like a mid-sized Plasma Wraith, with its nubs on its head being chains. At the end of these chains are cuffs, designed to launch onto other creatures in order to impose its own will on the creature. These are also used to slowly eat away at the creature, until it’s part of its mass. The only way the Wraith gains power is if it consumes something that is more powerful than itself.

These Wraiths are technically a type of mixed Wraith, being between a Plasma and Gas Wraith, but the Gas Wraith’s consciousness is entirely gone, just leaving the Plasma. Thanks to the whole, being a mixed Wraith thing, it has a wonderful voice that lures in creatures. (Like a siren) Once they get close, it attaches itself to the creature and eats it alive. It sometimes uses the creature to attack other creatures. The Wraith has become infamous for its style of attack, as well for what it eats. The Wraith is generally avoided by most creatures, especially its prey, other Wraiths. Luckily for the other Wraiths, this creature only hunts other Wraiths every 16 seasons, or 4 years. 

Oh yeah, also not affected by Lumiknolls and is a Type 3 Mixed Wraith, which is when a Mixed Wraith is created, but there is only ONE consciousness. (It’s 3 because it’s way less common than the other two, so it gets third place.)

Now, that might seem like a weird thing for a Wraith apart of the family, but the Mercury Wraith, named Mery, doesn't want to eat any of her family members. Really. She likes them, and would rather hunt other Wraiths. And when that time comes, her family (Most commonly Dave or Ref) helps her hunt other Wraiths down. She's a very shy Wraith, and often tries not to talk. She grew up with Pom for a little bit, and view him as her lost, confused brother that she has to get back, at any cost.

Stone Wraiths is a mix of the Plasm Wraith and the Reflective Wraith. They are made up of grey stone, having the body shape of a Plasm. Their head nubs are giant hands that extend outwards just a bit and then downwards, creating large stone gauntlets. They use these to move around, as the Stone Wraith is incredibly small. 

Stone Wraiths take the form of a creature, either one that is currently dead or alive, that they’ve seen out in the wild. They then stay still, like a stone statue, until an unsuspecting creature walks up to them, and well, gets a little surprise. They reside in caves, lined with real statues of real people, and creatures. They can even do this to other Wraiths, but it’s incredibly hard for them to pull it off. 

Depending on the personalities of the Reflective and Plasm Wraiths, they might fight from time to time. If the two created a combined consciousness, and they fight, the consciousness is kicked out of control and one or both of them take over. If it gets too unstable, or the Core is broken in half, then the two Wraiths will split up, leaving behind their Stone Wraith form. 

These Wraiths are affected by Lumiknolls, and is a Type 2 Mixed Wraith.

The Stone Wraith, or known by her current space person's last name, Printen Shepherd, is one of the few Wraiths in the family who thinks before acting (Seriously, Dave and her are like the only ones that do this). She's very head strong, and knows what she wants. She's super good friends with Ref though, and will side with her on anything and everything. As expected, Pom doesn't like her very much. She does love him, seeing him as her lost son, and she is willing to hurt him and anyone he loves to get him back to his "Normal Self."

[wormycomic]

[taylorhawkins]

Hammer Of The Nice, Ordinary Guys

originally for CMJ New Music Monthly, 1997

"Pat and I were into the same exact kind of music," Taylor says--Queen, Pink Floyd, the Police. "It was like having a big sister in the band." Mentioning the Police has triggered something in his head, and he starts playing the drum part to "Next To You" on his legs. "I took the beating for being the new kid for so long," Taylor continues. "'New guy!'"

A snapshot of the Foo Fighters' dressing room: 20 bottles of spring water, 8 bottles of Perrier, a cooler full of soda, Snapple and iced tea, a cooler full of beer (including microbrews), two bottles of merlot, two giant bottles of IBC root beer, three loaves of French bread, several other varieties of bread, pitas, crackers, chips and picante sauce, coffee with sugar, cream and lemons on the side, granola bars, bite-size candy bars, a big stack of towels (one of which Pete is ripping up), a bowl of fresh fruit, another bowl of fresh berries, a few varieties of gum, and a hanging basket in the shape of a bull's head. This last is not in the band's contract, and Taylor is trying to figure out how to wear it.

Note that all this is not dinner--just backstage snack material. (At the end of the night, Pete hijacks a lot of what's left for the tour bus.) For dinner, there's surprisingly good catering--teriyaki chicken, rice, various vegetable and tofu things. As people eat, Taylor is drumming on the table--he eats a bit, then heads up to the drum riser to play some more. There's a Nick Cave tape playing over the PA, which doesn't stop him from taking a crack at "When The Levee Breaks" before the audience starts arriving.

Back in the dressing room, guitar tech Earnie "Guitar" Bailey (everyone says that's legally his middle name) is holding court, telling Nirvana stories--he started touring with them in early '92. After Nirvana ended, he and his wife had a restaurant in Seattle for a year; he sold it, figuring he'd take it easy for a while. And promptly got a call from Dave: "'I'm going on the road next week, wanna come?'"

Dave bursts through the dressing room, wearing a skull mask for no apparent reason and grabbing everyone in his path. Franz, paging through the tour itinerary, looks up: "Dave, why are we going to Sweden in November?"

"Because we need to rock, man! We need to fuckin' rock!" And out he goes.

Earnie, unfazed by the interruption, continues. "It's been interesting watching Dave growing into being the ringleader. At first, he wasn't used to calling all the shots--being the charming frontman. Now he's hilarious when he starts rambling on stage... I wish he'd be the same guy on stage he is on the bus.

"I think the second record's a lot more personal--"

Dave suddenly walks back into the room. Earnie pretends he doesn't notice, and raises his voice a bit: "Of course, the main thing about Dave is to never turn your back on him--he'll fuck you over in a second."

Smirking, Dave attempts to change the subject. "I had these breakfast burritos--for breakfast--"

Taylor interrupts: "Seeing as how they're breakfast burritos--"

Dave whacks him, and the room abruptly degenerates into everyone trying to toss candy-bars and fruit into the bull's-head basket. Then Taylor starts drumming again, this time on the bottles on the food table.

An hour or so later, various Foos and friends are watching the opening band, Verbena, doing their very loud Stones-via-Royal Trux thing on stage. Dave is really getting into them. Franz, backstage, is quizzically examining a box of ginseng that a "runner" has retrieved for the band. Nate, who's been missing for the past few hours, comes back with two huge bags of clothes; he's got a bad toothache and isn't talking much, so he pretty much keeps to himself. Taylor is in the dressing-room bathroom, drumming on the fixtures. He's liking Verbena. "They sound kinda like Nirvana! Bleach!"

By 8:30, the band are finally all in the same room. Let's just say drumsticks are a dangerous thing to have in a dressing room. Dave eventually starts doing a little rhythmic exercise on the wastebasket; Taylor joins him, on the other side of the basket. This, it turns out, is a nightly ritual, a drill to focus their concentration. There are two drummers in this band.

Showtime. The hall, we later find out, is about 3/4 full, but it sure looks fully occupied. They start out the set with both Taylor and Dave playing drums; after a minute, Dave switches to guitar, they go into "This Is A Call," and we get to see the results of all that ginseng. Everybody's leaping around the stage like crazy for the hour-plus set. They do a new one, called "The Colour And The Shape," a fast, Pixies-ish thrasher; they do most of the hits (though not "Big Me"). But the big cheers are for "Everlong." "You get that just right," Nate said earlier, "it's kind of orgasmic, really. It's amazing when it really comes together." In fact, everything comes together--not bad for this lineup's third show.

Nate, on The Colour And The Shape: "It's almost like a concept record, some people say--the lyrics were all written at one period in Dave's life, and they really reflect well what was going on in Dave's life."

Dave's perspective: "Writing lyrics, you're taking something completely intimate and turning it into something completely not-intimate."

Taylor, on Dave: "Do not compliment him. He can't take a compliment."

As it turns out, Taylor isn't even as much of a party animal as all that. As everyone gets onto the tour bus the next morning, Gus asks him what happened with the two women he'd been flirting with at Emo's. "Left 'em there, went back to the hotel, went to sleep."

The inside of the tour bus basically looks like a nice hotel room itself: tasteful curtains, a little couch-and-table setup, a ceiling mirror, a kitchenette with a coffee machine, a set of bunks for people to sleep in (stacked three-high). There's a stereo/VCR in front, another in back. Texas passes by outside. Taylor is up front, chatting with congenial driver Larry Ellis and singing snatches of "Billie Jean." Dave is chatting with Gus: "Did I tell you I found out I ripped off a Def Leppard song? That song 'Hysteria' and 'Everlong.' It's got a line 'breathe out so I can breathe you in.'"

A dialogue:

Gus: Do you guys want to go to Pensacola on your day off and go to the beach?

Dave: Fuck off.

Taylor: Day off after what?

Gus: Read your itinerary!

Taylor: Dude, I wanna go jet-skiin'!

Franz: In the rain?

Taylor: Oh, dude!

Skeeter Thompson, the old bass player of Scream, is coming in from Little Rock tonight--"Scream reunion!" There's some concern over the number of tickets the Dallas show tonight has sold: 1400 for a 3200-capacity venue. The Stones, Gus is quick to remind the band, have only sold 12,000 tickets for a show with Smashing Pumpkins opening, though, so it's not that big a deal. Things are tough all over. The album's down a notch in the charts this week, but there are five big debuts that came in above it--it's actually sold more copies this week than last. Eventually, almost everyone heads back to catch some Z's; Pete stays up front to watch Short Cuts on the VCR.

When the bus pulls into the Bronco Bowl, the converted former bowling alley they'll be playing in Dallas, it's just about soundcheck time, which means, since they're still teaching Franz the songs, that it's time to learn "Big Me." That's basic enough, so they follow up with an Angry Samoans cover that Taylor's never heard either--it's a little weird watching him figure out how to play hardcore. Dave demonstrates the drum break by waving his arms in the air. Taylor has an idea for a slight change in the arrangement of "This Is A Call," so they try it a couple of different ways.

"I don't know if we should do that at the end of every verse," Dave says.

"I think it fucking sucks," Taylor declares, and that's the end of that.

x

[dollarbin]

Sandy Saturdays #5:

Fairport Convention's White Dress

Sandy Denny hated her return to Fairport Convention.

By 1974 the band had cycled through about 25 increasingly Tolkienish members in 7 years (seriously, I can think of 2 drummers, one of whom was about to be replaced, 2 bass players, 3 guitarists, a fiddler/mandolin savant and about 17 lead singers; and the only two women in that mix were the only ones without giant, hairy feet).

What's more, no one in the band understood Denny's songs, most especially her own husband; I mean just look at them; do they look like who you want backing up one of the best musicians in history?

The husband in question, Trevor Lucas, far left, was about 7 foot 6 (unlike his band mates, he obviously was not a hobbit; rather he's like a ranger that Aragorn would ditch at first chance) and knew a few guitar chords; he figured that qualified him to be Denny's producer.

What's more, Fairport in 74 wanted to rock while Sandy wanted to sway; the other band members knew Lucas couldn't produce pancakes for the breakfast table let alone a real band, so they turned away from their long term sympathetic engineer and producer, John Wood, and hired this guy instead:

That would be Glyn Johns, who had guided both the Beatles and the Stones to just about nowhere worthwhile, and who went on to dedicate his lousy career mostly to Eric Clapton (yuck; someone get Eric's slowhand offa my throat) and, you guessed it, Stephen Stills. Both men suck. Just look at Johns and Stills hanging out with two lesser losers:

David Crosby, second from left, is accusing Glyn, far right, of having a fake name (seriously: Glyn?) and of eating Crosby's pastrami sandwich to boot. Glyn, in turn, is pointing out that the sandwich is clearly already in Crosby's belly. Graham Nash, standing between them, is employing some of the Nonviolent Communication Techniques he has been trying to use, unsuccessfully, on his pet ferrets. And Stephen Stills? Standing at far left, he's clearly the true pastrami thief, plus he's stolen Graham's ferrets, and is opening his mouth to dissemble about it all while (covertly) passing gas.

To make matters worse for poor Sandy, when on stage Fairport Convention still rolled out the traditional rockified British folk songs that had made them all initially famous. "Forget the perfect songs you wrote on your first four records Sandy," they told her. "We need you to sing Child Ballad Number 69: The Undertaker's Loathsome Barrow, then stand aside while we lay out assorted French dances that will insure we never have a successful record; please, learn the lyrics lass."

Here's what Sandy had to say about it all afterwards:

"If I have to sing Matty Groves one more time I'll throw myself out the window."

Her quote would be funny if she'd had the life, and the band, she deserved, and had not fallen down a set of stairs to her death just a few years later.

But there is one moment in her second tenure with the band which documents the greatness of what could have been. Dave Swarbrick was capable of writing a song worthy of her voice and he did so just once in 74 with the simple and aching, White Dress.

Check it out.

This video is a bit of the Holy Grail for Denny freaks like me: only the first minute of footage has ever emerged. Where is the rest? Happily some guy who surely lives in his mother's basement and is wondering right now when she will tell him breakfast is ready took the time to paste on still photos over the rest of the live take so we can hear everything and see how it started.

That's drummer number three in the opening shot, and Swarbrick stands behind Denny with the mandolin, grinning away at his good luck to have her singing his song. Sandy sets aside all her angst in this performance; she fills every available space with her grace and heartache.

Did Neil Young know about Denny's performance of this song before he wrote its natural sequel, Wrecking Ball, wherein his ladyfriend dons something pretty and white before they go dancing tonight? If not, Emmylou Harris certainly knew all about Sandy and the song before she sang Shakey's version. Just listen to the similar aching sway.

I love Harris's performance here, but I get chills seeing and listening to Denny fronting the band in 74. I get a little weepy to. Denny died four years later, 46 years ago this Spring. She should be 76 years old today, singing to her grandchildren.

At least she's still singing to us.

[roseofsherwood]

“The Jacobs & The Coronas”

CW: Minors smoking and gambling

Racetrack Higgins sat on the steps of the newsboys boarding house fiddling with his hand of cards. He glanced up at the new newsie he had roped into playing with him. This kid was probably 12 and had a look of concentration plastered on his face as he stared at his cards. But Race knew no matter how hard this kid tried, Race was about to win a cent at the end of this game. Racetrack took off his cap, fanning himself a bit. Even though the sun was disappearing behind the giant buildings, the night brought no relief from the unending heat and the smells that lingered in that heavy New York air. At this particular moment he could pick out the smells of fish, sweat, rotting food, refuse, and…smoke.

A smoke. That’s what he wish he had right now.

He’d been out of anything he could smoke for 2 days, and about the only thing that was keeping him in a good mood at the moment was watching this kid about to lay down a card (specifically a stupid choice of a card), which would secure his victory. But just before the kid had laid that card onto the stone steps, Race heard a voice shout his name from behind him.

At this startling sound, the little newsie up and bolted into the boarding house, his hand of cards fluttering through the air before landing back on the ground. Race sighed and rolled his eyes before he began to gather the cards that were now tossed across the steps.

“Well hello to you too, Davey.” He said, not even looking up.

“Racetrack! I cannot believe you gave my little brother a cigar!”

Race laughed, pausing his card pickup just long enough to look up and see the panic in David’s face. “Do what now?”

“This isn’t funny, Race! My folks are gonna kill me if they find out!”

“I didn’t give Les nothin’!” Race shoved all the cards in his pocket, before throwing up his hands in surrender, “Honest!”

“Oh yeah? Well I just found him smoking…this!” David pulled a half smoked Corona out of the pocket of his well pressed shirt.

Race jumped to his feet, snatching the cigar from Davey’s hand. “That crafty little thief!” He remarked, not yet sure if he was more angry or proud of the kid.

“Excuse me?” David snapped.

“Oh, calm down, Dave. He’ll be fine! I was smokin’ long before I was the kid’s age.”

“Well, that’s great,” mumbled David as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Race turned his attention fully to his cigar now, fumbling through every pocket on his body, in search of a match. After a minute of frenzied searching, David sighed loudly and pulled three matches out of his shirt pocket, extending them to Race.

Race’s eyes lit up and he grabbed the matches before David’s arm was fully outstretched. With the cigar in his mouth, he used one hand to steady himself on the railing of the steps, and the other hand to strike a match on the bottom of his worn leather boots.

And that was that. It was lit. He finally had his Corona. He took a few moments, savoring his cigar before looking up at David grinning. David sighed, apparently giving up on his normal speech about how Race shouldn’t be smoking and instead simply shook his head.

Race’s grin turned mischievous and he held out the cigar to his friend.

Davey looked at Race indignantly…then down at the cigar…then back to Race. Finally David crossed his arms and simply replied, “That’s disgusting.”

[scorpio-marionette]

31 Nights of Head Canons - Night 1

A/N: So pretty much everybody is doing Kinktober. While I can't really write smut, I still wanted to do something for the spoopy season. I decided literally today to do 31 head canons, one every day, and post them at night for everyone to enjoy when they can. I have a list of Halloween/Horror related questions to ask 19 of Pedro's characters. I hope use guys like them. Let me know what you think of the canons.

~

Night 1:

What are you afraid of? What do you not want to run into?

Dio

The demon he serves. Dio may have sold his soul to this entity, but that doesn't mean he isn't afraid of it. After all, it is better to be the right hand of the devil than to be in his path.

~

Omar

Being found out that he's fake. Omar never wanted to be a boxer. His father forced him, wanting to raise his son to be a "man's man", whatever that means. Afraid of his dad, he went through with it. After gaining attention for it, he became more afraid of being found out. The lash out from his father would not compare to the crushing loneliness and ridicule he would get from his so called "friends".

~

Zach

If he were still on the street, it would be serial killers and zombies. He has minimal defenses against either of them, so he would rather not deal with them. Now that he has a home, it would be burglers and repo men. He's just getting his life back. he doesn't want to lose it now.

~

Oberyn

Oberyn is just crazy enough to be willing to face anything. I mean, he was willing to take on Ser Gregor Clegane a.k.a. the Mountain. A giant man! He lived in a world with dragons! I don't think he's intimidated.

~

Marcus Pike

Freddy Krueger. The dream demon is something Marcus hates. But can you guess why? He hates him because Freddy isn't something he can really defend against. Yes, he has training with weapons and is an effective agent, but what if he's attacked in his sleep? He can't win there. Freddy can only be killed in the real world.

~

Max Phillips

At this point, Max doesn't believe there's anything out there that could take him on. He's already the undead. All he has to fear is a wooden stake to the heart, but who's crazy enough to try that on him? *Cough, cough*

~

Pero Tovar

With what happened at the Wall in China, is there anything that's going to top seeing and fighting a Tao Tie? If you can find one thing that would scare Pero more than that, I will be empressed.

~

Javier Peña

The CIA in its entirety. There isn't a ghost, ghoul, or monster that could top the gore he's seen in Columbia, but he'd rather take on any of them if means not having to deal with the CIA again.

~

Jack

I think Jack wants to run head long into danger. Especially if it means hunting down the guy who killed his wife. His life means nothing with her gone. He will take on anyone or anything.

~

Ezra

Ezra has met his fair share of unsavory characters, but if he could avoid something at any cost? It would probably be going back to that godforsaken moon. The Green is his nightmare given life. He's lived it. He doesn't want to do it again.

~

Dave

Dave is the monster you should be running from. He's the one your parents tell you about when you're going out at night. The one you should be weary of and never trust. but then why can't you walk away?

~

Frankie

Another one of Santi's ops. Seriously though, Cat doesn't care for Santi's schemes anymore. The only thing that would scare him more are the ghosts of those he killed coming to haunt him.

~

Max Lord

There's a lot of things that scare Max. Diana becoming man at him and then coming for him. Barbara coming to kill him. That blasted dream stone returning and ruining his life again. What scares him the most is his ex wife; her showing up to take Alistair away from him. That would destroy Max. Hopefully that never happens.

~

Marcus Moreno

Marcus is a superhero. He's seen a lot in his time as leader of the Heroics. He's even been kidnapped by aliens and survived. Nothing is going to shake him, except losing Missy.

~

Din

I would say the past scares Din quite a bit. Especially considering that there's a lot of new problems stemming from old wounds. However, now that Grogu has returned to him, I would say that the Empire scares him more. Luckily, avoiding them is already on the agenda. And there will always be a fear of losing his son again.

~

Nico

Poltergeists. Not the movie, mind you. The actual supernatural phenomenon. Nico's lived alone for longer than he cares to admit, and he's more than positive his last place was haunted. While he visibly seems unnerved, inside he's desperate to get away. Hence why he's looking for a new house. Unfortunately, this listing is a little too big... and echos too much.

~

Dieter

Dieter isn't afraid of anything supernatural. He doesn't believe in that stuff. If anything he's afraid of his stash running out. He can't deal with his life style without it. Though I suppose he could just quit instead.... Nah.

~

Javi Gutierrez

The twins from the Shining. While Javi can appreciate the artistry of the film, there's just something about the girls that just peaks his anxiety. The speaking in sync. The eerie standing at the end of the hallway. Javi has even beem offered to stay at the Stanley Hotel where the movie was made. He turned it down out of fear the girls would be there, though he would never admit that to anyone.

~

Joel

Joel is in the middle of the zombie apacolypse... I'll give you three guesses as to what he wants to avoid.

[reefer-reelz-n-reviews]

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010)

 

Smoking: Papa Smurf {I had attempted to rolls some jays for the movie but for some reason they wouldn’t stay sealed 😥}

 

Here is the little description from Disney+ “A modern-day sorcerer must make his seemingly average recruit into the ultimate apprentice.” I feel it sums it accurately. Now for my high mind to write this week’s entry 😊

We start off with a background on the 3 sorcerers that worked under Merlin, James A Stephens, and the evil Morgana, Alice Krige. We have Nicolas Cage playing Balthazar and Alfred Molina playing Horvath the dueling for good and evil. Then we get a glimpse a little more into the future of a young boy named Dave who is found out to be the Prime Merlinean.

Now we go 10 years later and adult Dave is played by Jay Baruchel. The voice of Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon. I love the relationship Dave has with Bennet, played by Omar Benson Miller. Bennet wants to help him not be by himself and spend time with friends so he doesn’t get stuck in his science projects alone.

Nicolas Cage coming into save the day by turning wolves to puppies while riding a giant metal eagle. I mean can you talk about an entrance!

One of my favorite parts is coming up. The fight in China Town, and on top of that during a festival! We have the fight between Balthazar and Sun-Lok played by Gregory Woo. He has this really cool power where he turned one of the festival paper dragons into a real dragon and chase Dave around. I love how they use the confetti. Its just floating down gracefully, and then they use magic to manipulate it as well.

I’m watching the movie right now on Disney+, but I also have the DVD as well. In the special features they go into details about how they made the Merlin Circle because they didn’t want it to be put in but have it be real. Now I don’t remember a lot about what was said, okay okay, any of what was said ahahah, but I remember thinking it was interesting lol.

Watching Jay try to make a plasma bolt is hilarious! It’s like a whole training sequence where he is basically failing, and failing hilariously.

Now we have Horvath trying to get some more help by reaching out to Drake Stone, played by Toby Kebbell. He uses his sorcerer abilities to be a magician and make money by doing shows. Very good looking and killer accent 😍

There is a Star Wars reference in this movie. Thinking about it. I wonder if in some how Disney new that 2 years after this movie came out they would take the Star Wars franchise?

Then they is the wonderful scene where Dave leaves his lab to be cleaned by his magic. This scene was done with a lot of people in green outfits being different kinds of cleaning supplies. It is an ode to the scene in Fantasia where Mickey Mouse puts on Merlin’s hat and does the same thing with the brooms and mops. They did a REALLY good job putting it all together.

And I just got a 10min interruption by a cat. Calcifur apparently needed my attention for a little while lol.

Snack Break!

I got this way too huge slice of cake. Its soooo good and coconutty 🤤

Can’t believe I’ve gotten almost 600 words in and haven’t even mentioned Dave’s love interest Becky, played by Teresa Palmer. They have a very cute relationship that buds throughout the movie.

Now we get to the last battle. Morgana has been brought back through the 3rd sorcerer Veronica, played by Monica Bellucci. Morgana’s soul is connected to Veronica’s and she is trying to complete the ritual she was stopped from in the beginning of the movie.

We have Balthazar and Horvath battling each other while she is shooting fire balls up in the sky and no one in New York is paying any attention to it. Nor was I for the last 5 mins lol. I got distracted on my phone for a minute there.

Dave gets to battle Morgana in the end, and you know, stuff happens. Once again, trying not to ruin stuff here lol!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s review! Till next time ❤

 

-RRR