#Mystery and Coincidence

[chloesimaginationthings]

Man this scene in FNAF 2 movie is gonna be wild-

[nicholasandriani]

The Marvelous Dance of Coincidence: When Destiny and Storytelling Collide

Writers and dreamers, gather ’round for a tale as old as time -aren’t they all?- a narrative element that has both captivated and confounded storytellers since the dawn of creativity: coincidence. Yes, my dear friends, today we embark on a journey to explore the craft of employing coincidence in our beloved forms of storytelling. We shall learn how to wield this powerful tool with finesse,…

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gaslighter? I hardly know her!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[kedreeva]

Okay if you haven't yet, and you have Netflix/Paramount+, consider giving "School Spirits" a chance.

It looks like a silly little cheesy teenage ghosts show, I put it on for background noise, and then got totally engrossed in the mystery. It's VERY well written, very well filmed, the mystery was GREAT and the payoff at the end is also great.

One of the things majorly lacking in shows I've recently tried to watch is that they try to do a twist/reveal at the end that comes out of nowhere. They don't want you to guess what they're doing. This show doesn't do that. This show wants you to guess. They give you seven different mysteries and enough clues to guess (most of) what is going on, so that when you get the final puzzle piece to any given mystery, it feels GREAT.

The story premise is this: a teenager in hs wakes up as a ghost in the hs, and doesn't remember how she died, and with the help of the other ghosts, tries to solve the mystery of her own death.

Simple premise. BEAUTIFULLY executed. Not all of the questions that arise get answered, but the main one (what she doesn't remember) gets solved by the end of the season, leaving the "why/how and what comes next" to be carried to the next season. It does a cliffhanger RIGHT. But now I desperately want to see the second season (which I believe has been approved, so it's a matter of waiting).

So pretty please, if you're looking for something to do and a great, engaging lil mystery to watch, consider! School Spirits!!

[todayontumblr]

Thursday the 20th.

You better believe.

We hope you've ironed your black t-shirt, found your favorite beanie, polished your golden chain. Every day for the last god knows how long, your alarm has blared you awake, you've prised your sticky eyes open, rolled out of bed, sat there staring into space for around 15 minutes, drawn back the curtains, and checked your Antonio Banderas calendar. And it was always a crushing disappointment, to compound the ordeal of waking up—sometimes, it was the 20th. Sometimes it was Thursday. From time to time it was Wednesday the 19th, or Friday the 21st, but it was never quite the money shot. Only today things are a little different—you will have completed the aforementioned morning routine and checked your calender—only today, It's Business Time. It's #thursday the 20th. Praise be! 

What makes today all the more remarkable is that its coming was foretold in an episode of The Simpsons, no less, that show with the uncanny ability to predict world events long before they actually happen. Smartwatches? The horse meat scandal? The three-eyed fish? The censoring of Michelangelo's David? Lady Gaga's Superbowl Performance? Facetime? Trump's election? The pandemic itself??

Admittedly, some of these are a little easier to vouch for than others, but it is indisputable that today's materialization of Thursday the 20th is more than a little spooky. Don't believe us? See for yourself. Sometimes, all that can be said is that the universe works in mysterious ways.

However you're spending your big day, make it count. It's only #thursday the 20th once in a blue moon, after all, but it always goes down smooth. And for some reason, unbeknownst to us, like a whisper in the breeze, today has got us thinking of another Simpsons coincidence. But perhaps some mysteries are best left unsolved.

[s-che]

Parasitic Games

So I've been rewatching Gravity Falls, right? And reading the Book of Bill, of course. And also playing a lot of Cultist Simulator? Which is a weird one but also a very specific combination of vibes.

Anyway I blacked out and finally wrote a twin pair of journaling games, A CALAMITOUS COINCIDENCE and THE ALCHEMIST. I wrote them in my dark basement research center (apartment) while remembering only occasionally to fulfill my obligations to the outside world (still going to work, I guess) while attempting to string together the clues and assemble, at last, my magnum opus (get them on the actual page, or screen I guess).

Anyway, let's do some normal ad copy.

Calamitous Coincidence is based on stories of lonely investigators, clever children, and inescapable tragedy (like A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and Gravity Falls) while The Alchemist lets you jump right in to bullshit esoteric thinking inspired by absolute freaks like John Dee and Aleister Crowley (or Cultist Simulator and Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, which are the reasons I actually wrote it).

I'm really putting that religion degree to good work, huh?

Both games give you the tools you need to figure out who you are in the world, what you're looking for, and where you think you'll find it -- neither give you the answers you're looking for. You'll have to find those yourself.

Both games are prototypes, currently available on Patreon for anyone paying $3 or more. As always with my patreon stuff, I extremely, extremely encourage you to sign up for a month, download the stuff you're interested interested in, and then cancel. It still means a lot.

Both games have been setting my brain on fire for the last month and a half, and I'm glad to get them out into the world (even if they are still a little broken).

I hope you like them:)

[where-the-water-flows]

ok so like, maybe I am missing something, but. is almost every action/plan carried out by nanyin associated folks to revive nanyin just... absolute clownshoes nonsense? every single attempt is just nine fuck ups in a trench coat before the plan falls off a cliff, and/or gets fully coathangered by someone else's completely unrelated plan at the last second?? Like...

Princess Longxuan, Li Xiangyi's + Jiao Liqiao's mumble great grandmother (?), first cab off the rank re:attempting to revive nanyin. Her husband - who is the fucking crown prince of Xi, and thus should have been a basically guaranteed way to get the nanyin bloodline on the throne, no more plotting required!! job jobbed, everyone take a real long lunch!! - seems to have either decided on his own or been convinced (by her? I guess??) to be like 'fuck waiting to inherit the throne when my dad the emperor dies, life is short and coups never ever go wrong', and then fucked that up so bad they got executed and also consigned to the shame tomb for eternity about it. on the one hand, wild that she did not get executed prior to the failed coup, given everyone seems to have known? she was from nanyin?? which literally falls the day after her wedding???? I don't know enough about historical Chinese customs here w/r/t if she would have been considered to have fully 'married out' and thus be....not of nanyin and presumably thus an enemy of the state...even though she clearly still thought of herself as being of nanyin???? also, this is assuming that nanyin is an enemy of Xi! maybe they were allies, and when nanyin fell Xi was like ':( oh noooo.... anyway.' , but I....do not get that impression. on the other hand. girlie your husband is the crown prince. you have a son with him, thus securing the bloodline already. you are, presumably, a fucking shoe in for inheriting the throne? how did you fuck this up. I know it might have just been your husband being impatient but also good lord, talk about an own goal.

Feng A-Lu, nanyin sorcerer, secret great grandfather(ish) of the current emperor of Xi. second attempt to do anything about getting nanyin bloodline on the throne. fucks up and does not find the heir even a little bit. On the one hand, finding some kid/teen in a forest is probably reasonably difficult, given the circumstances, on the other hand, c'mon man. you had one job.

Jin Yu Huang Quan, the og guys holding the ice keys. fully just decided to simply say no thank you!! to bringing back nanyin, the thing they were explicitly entrusted with doing. not really a fuck up on their part, because they got sweet cash money out of it, but also, very funny they were collectively just 'friendship ended with reviving nanyin, being rich in Xi is our new friend.'

Feng A-Lu, again. also fucks up what is presumably the back up plan to take over Xi with the power of the karmic bug (and murder), because he gets distracted by a pretty girl, and then practically attic wifes himself. on the one hand, not really his fault consort Ying was planning her own 'and then I will be emperor empress, mwuah-ha-ha' thing, on the other hand, c'mon man, stop thinking with your dick for five seconds.

Feng bloodline / Wansheng clan. misidentifies the orphan heir they've been looking for. literally would have been better off not checking the signs (necklace, birthmark) and just picking one of the two possible options at random, because that would have given them a 50/50 chance of picking the right kid. not really their fault for assuming the kid with the identifying necklace is actually the kid with the identifying necklace they're looking for, but still. fucked that one up right good. the fact that even if shan gudao had won nanyin still wouldn't have managed to get their royal bloodline on the throne is incredibly funny.

Shan Gudao, sigu sect era. leaving as read he's not actually nanyin royalty anyway and thus literally everything he does is by definition clownshoes fuck up from the start; sigu sect era he is presumably planning to get close to the emperor via...sigu sect becoming allied with/part of the imperial court?? and then launching a coup from there. maybe also picking up the karmic bug, only he screws that up too, RIP to the 14 thieves. manages to ally with the court! plan derailed because surprise, li xiangyi has learnt a new trick, and it is: basic diplomacy. has to fully fake his death about this for a literal decade. hilariously bad outcome, nice job mate.

Shan Gudao, again. retrieves (via jiao liqiao via di feisheng+fang doubing+li lianhua) the karmic bug box he failed to get his hands on a decade ago. manages to finally collect all four ice keys. unlocks the karmic bug box. immediately loses the karmic bug, box, and keys. technically this probably doesn't count as fucking up a whole plan unto itself and is just a set back because he does get the bug back but also, lol. lmao.

Jiao Liqiao. she has clearly been working with the wansheng clan (including, secretly, shan gudao) for about/over a decade? thundering fire bombs, basically took over the jinyuan alliance, etc, but also, she does seem to have just been using them (to get her man) as much as they were using her (to clear remove any possible threats to their power/throne), so... good for her I guess. she decides to go all in on being the emperor at basically the last second, and honestly, she doesn't do too bad! she could fully nuke the karmic bug advantage, and after that it's a power struggle between her and shan gudao, which, I'd back her and her legion of jianghu boytoys over him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ she does die because her malewife ambitions were set too high, though. notable for how her plan coathangers herself with the absolute clownshoes behavior.

Shan gudao, again (again). actually gets sort of on the throne! for like. a second. before getting his ass kicked, his henchmen killed/defeated, and also finding out that whoops wrong orphan. hilarious to me that he is the nanyin aligned person who actually succeeds at getting a nanyin person on the throne for a hot second, except for how he's not....actually of a nanyin bloodline at all. net zero success.

like, once is happenstance, twice is bad luck, nine+ times over a century is very much hitting maybe you should just pick a new, more realistic goal territory.

[crimeronan]

thinking more about potential amnesiac hunter timelines. unless i did a Lot of plot finagling, i don't imagine it would be a very long-lived scenario: belos gets killed with hammers, luz flings herself on raine immediately, raine and darius pull her into hunter's mindscape to help, etc.

so the two main thoughts are:

1) how Unbelievably Disorienting this would be from hunter's perspective. purging his memories of luz would fuck him up So Bad that i'm having to think more of what he Does remember than what he doesn't.

he can recognize raine and darius. he knows belos is the emperor. he remembers having been hurt by belos and he knows there was a reason he wasn't fighting back but he can't remember what it was. a seemingly-angry emperor drags him into a room with a girl he's never seen before and within thirty seconds she's crying and begging hunter to talk to her. he has a Wild headache and he doesn't like seeing her upset. he does his best to convey this but it's hard to parse words into sentences.

then she kills belos with hammers in front of him.

like. good god.

2) we've had "everyone traipses through luz's mindscape uncovering new depths of horror".... but what about "luz raine and darius traipse through hunter's mindscape learning literally every single thing he never wanted any of them to know"??

[windsweptinred]

So, the great 'RULES' of the Endless. I know they're meant to be there for their own and everyone else's 'good'. To avoid cosmic imbalance blah blah blah. But look at them from a slightly different angle and they smack of far more insidious Divide and Conquer tactics.

Don't interfere with each others affairs. I mean, technically speaking all your purposes are so deeply interwoven with each other, it's more unnatural to keep them forcefully divided. But if you all could just stay in your own realms, do your own thing and interact as little as possible. That would be grand! Whatever you do, don't work as a cohesive unit!

Don't spill each others blood. Who doesn't want everyone to stay alive and unharmed? Right? But it also handily protects Ma and Da from any form of retaliation. A convenient way to defang the children...Just saying.

And finally don't love mortals. Yes. Please do keep your emotional distance from the very beings whose subconsciouses form and sustain you. Loving a mortal... Uff, that would be like you having a full working understanding of the core of your power. Then sticking your cosmic charger right on in there for a XP boost. The horror!

Seems to me someone really doesn't want the Endless siblings as the united, powerful front they could be... 🤔

Can someone get Hob in here to call bullsh*t on this please?

[rainbowsky]

Wtf? 🤡

[maxladcomics]

Undertale: 3

You have to interact with any of the sinks 3 times to get Memory head (any order counts, you can interact with only one sink 3 times or all 3 once)

There are 3 Memory heads

The Bad Memory takes 1 HP, unless you have 3 or less HP

Then it heals you.

3

Another suspicious 3

Dozen = 12

Papyrus's 'social media connections': -2? (+1 from Undyne)

Did you know Papyrus gives you the option to stop fighting him after 3 tries?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[murderedbyhomework]

Zeng shunxi singing 一生所愛 (love in one lifetime) as his character song for the mlc concert is absolutely crazy, especially when his quote for his character was "你放心，只要有我在，沒人敢動你" (don't worry, as long as I'm here, no one will dare touch you), and we should all definitely go crazy over it.

But Cheng Yi's character song for llh was 刀劍如夢 (sword and life just like a dream) also has a fun fact. It's the theme song for Zeng Shunxi's show 倚天屠龍記 (the heaven sword and the dragon sabre) where zeng shunxi was zhang wuji lmao. Like this is probably a coincidence but it's still hilarious lol

[adaines-furious-feast]

Someone has probably already pointed this out but it's kind of fitting that Cassandra tried to warn her followers what would happen and they didn't believe it.

[thistledropkick]

"Having fun and being stupid, that's what's most important Thank you, Amigo"

A mysterious masked wrestler named El Amigo showed up at today's Baka Gaijin show, in a post-show "bonus track" that unfortunately wasn't livestreamed. This mysterious masked wrestler wore a mask that he apparently made in the taxi on the way to the venue, and a singlet with 友達 friend written on the front and 不成者 "narazumono" rogue written on the back. What a mysterious rogue luchador....

[dizzybizz]

Have you drawn Gunther from Stardew Valley yet? I'm asking for a friend 👉👈

well,,, i certainly have now _(:з)∠)_

[onewhale]

In order that I prepare for my new drawing, I have to find some model of Maria

Then I find this on the Pinterest

Wait… why so familiar🤔

So I searched my album

Luka you are Maria???🤪