#Strange crazy insane weird don't describe it

[theglizzardwizard]

Just write allegorically and you'll feel better

[electronickingdomfox]

"Planet of Judgment" review

A novel from 1977, by Joe Haldeman. It begins with a rather generic "stranded on dinosaur planet" plot, but then the story becomes far more unhinged and entertaining. By the end, I was wondering what drugs was the author taking. So yeah, recommended novel, for sheer insanity.

As usual, Spock is gay. Also, McCoy is probably gay too.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise arrives at a strange rogue planet, with its own artificial sun. Of course Kirk has to investigate the anomalous planet (aptly named "Anomaly"), and he lands there with some security guys in a shuttlecraft. The fact that the transporter doesn't work, should be hint enough that this planet is trouble. They encounter giant beasts similar to dinosaurs. Also pterodactyls. And soon discover that the usual laws of physics don't apply as they should. Their phasers only work on stun, they have no communications, and the shuttlecraft is dead. So far, no redshirt has died, so the Enterprise sends another shuttlecraft with more redshirts just in case. At last, since it's obvious everyone is trapped on that planet, Spock decides to send three more shuttlecrafts with a ton of people (including himself, McCoy, Chapel and Uhura) so the party can begin.

The first part of the novel deals with the crew trying to survive in the wild environment. There's also two strange, stream-of-consciousness scenes to show Kirk and McCoy's dreams. The crew spots some hominid creatures that they take for cavemen. Also, two redshirts finally die. One being half-eaten by a giant flower, in a surprisingly gory scene. There's more body horror ahead, as one injured redshirt vanishes suddenly, and returns the next day significantly changed. He has no eyes, ears or nose, as if they had never been there in the first place, and hair is quickly covering his whole body. It's discovered then, that the supposed cavemen are actually a very advanced telepathic race, and have mutated the crewman into one of their own, to better communicate and study the humans. (By the way, the crewman is very happy with the changes.)

The aliens, called Arivne, only need the scientists (Spock, McCoy and three others) for their experiments, so everyone else is sent back to the Enterprise. Then, they force them to relive traumatic moments of their past, in order to learn things like "decision-making" or "betrayal", which their species, living in perfect unity, doesn't know. There are interesting glimpses into Spock and McCoy's past, as part of these visions. Such as Spock being bullied by his human cousins as a child, or McCoy's divorce. It's finally revealed that the Arivne are doing all this to prepare against the attack of other, insectoid aliens, that will soon invade the whole galaxy (McCoy describes one as an "ugly son of a bitch"). The aliens, called Irapina, are sending first three champions to test the waters. If Spock, McCoy and Kirk (who's been returned to the planet to not miss the fight) can defeat the three Irapina, they'll withdraw to invade another, less interesting place (like the Romulan Empire).

This is where things become really, really weird. As the battles against the Irapina take place inside hallucinations, that can nonetheless kill the loser (a bit as in "Spectre of the Gun"). Come to think of it, something similar happened in "Spock Must Die". These early novels truly loved their hallucinations... We have McCoy battling the baby Irapina in a poker game, set in the Wild West. Which ends with McCoy decapitating the alien with a card. Yeah. Spock takes a math quiz on a sinking game board. Then Kirk fights in a naval battle against pirates, while Spock is busy inside a star, trying to make it go nova (Spock has practice with this, as earlier he had created a volcano by pushing to the surface from a planet's core).

Anyway, it's all gloriously crazy. Even though the ending seemed a bit rushed. There are also some seemingly abandoned plot threads. For example, the love triangle between a female scientist, another guy and a professor. I thought that these three characters would have more relevance later on, but eventually, nothing is done with them.

Spirk Meter: 7/10*. I was determined to give this novel a low rating, even a zero. After all, how slashy can it be if Kirk and Spock barely interact? It turns out, it can be fairly slashy... For starters, the most traumatic experience in Spock's past that the Arivne could find, was his battle against Kirk in Amok Time and the thought he had killed him (the whole sequence is taken from Blish novelization, which is a rather lazy way to fill pages, if you ask me). Relieving the scene makes Spock cry actual tears. Then, what is Spock's biggest worry while stranded on the planet? Being eaten by dinosaurs? Nah! The greatest danger for him is that Chapel would try to seduce him! Even though poor Chapel doesn't even interact with him in the whole novel, and has been nothing but professional. He goes as far as suggesting that McCoy seduces her, to get rid of Chapel himself (too bad for Spock, McCoy's gay too; more on this later). So far, this isn't much. But then, near the ending, it's Spock's love for Kirk that saves the whole galaxy once more. During the final confrontation, the Irapina cheat at the game and merge the two hallucinations: Kirk battling on the pirate ship, and Spock creating a supernova. If Spock succeeds at his test, the heat from the nova will kill Kirk. Of course, he chooses to fail his test and die himself, so Kirk has a chance. He does it out of "logic, morality, and a vestige of an emotion he might deny: love" (direct quote). The Irapina hadn't predicted such sacrifice in the name of love, so they declare the battle null, which gives Kirk and Spock another chance.

This is as far as Kirk and Spock are concerned. Now, what's the deal with McCoy? For starters, during his dream sequence, he wonders about the fact that he has never been truly interested in a woman, not even his wife. Later, Spock asks McCoy to explain sex and love to him, since he doesn't understand why Chapel is so interested in him. McCoy explains that women (and men) are attracted to power, which Spock has; intellect, which Spock has in spades; fairness, which is congenital for Spock (these are his words); and of course, that mysterious aura of strangeness, that is so very Spock's... And yeah, it doesn't seem AT ALL that McCoy has reflected a lot about Spock's appeal... After this, Spock asks him to seduce Chapel himself. McCoy refuses as he doesn't see Chapel that way. Spock assures him that he won't ask him to do anything against his nature, to which McCoy becomes very defensive. There's a long passage then, where McCoy ponders about his reasons to prefer the other female scientist in the party (all very un-romantic, practical reasons) over Chapel. As well as the fact that, despite being familiar with the female body because of his work as a doctor, he kind of fails when it comes to women. Something that he can't confess to Spock, but has confided to Chapel; the reason why he can't see her as a lover, and why Chapel can't be attracted to him either. What does Chapel know? It's also noteworthy, that this whole scene serves absolutely no purpose for the plot, since Chapel disappears from the story quite early and nothing happens between her and Spock. Last but not least, during the re-enactment of McCoy's divorce, we learn that a major reason for his wife abandoning him is that she was sexually frustrated. And neither of them were happy in their marriage. McCoy doesn't take it so bad, joining Starfleet right afterwards... So yeah, in my opinion, there's something about all this that screams "closeted homosexual".

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[incensuous]

apo//thecary diaries spoilers/rant

i just finished vol5 of the light novel and im bursting at the seams, dont mind me im just rambling to myself

i LOVE jinshi and maomao, i ADORE them to bits and pieces, both of them have deeply endeared me.

however, i'm seriously questioning a handful of noncon moments where jinshi is more or less "gently" forcing himself onto maomao. who clearly and abundantly shows her disinterest, often physically and verbally. and usually i'm whatever about noncon in fics and can enjoy it, but to see the really bizarre noncon in this series that isnt... really... about that? it feels so strange.

the romance is veering into territory i am disappointed by because it does feel a bit cliche and has the classic whiff of "kinda rapey male lead noncons his way onto female lead, sexy!" which... part of me understands since maomao is SO obstinately ignorant (willingly so, typically)

it starts from when jinshi pins maomao down in a cave, when they're alone, in a very sexual way. they are interrupted by being rescued, and he is frustrated she tries to play dumb about him not being a eunuch, considering he was trying to tell her his real identity.

he seems to apologize for it, offering her an extremely rare medicinal ingredient which she is over the moon for and promptly ignores whatever the hell he's trying to say lol

2. as they are concluding an INSANE non-romance plot arc, the two of them are resting (amongst a bunch of seemingly dead children), he attempts to corner her and kiss her. they're conveniently interrupted when the children RESURRECT LOL she's trying to warm up the UNDEAD children and he's all *bedroom eyes* "can we continue this later?" time and place, jinshi!!!

3. in a different moment, he, i'm not kidding, BITES her. he just bites her goddamn neck. she smacks him across the shoulder. then he falls asleep in her lap which is cute but ... HELLO??? JINSHI????? WHY THE BITE???? i think that is singlehandedly tHE most out of pocket thing he's fucking done yet. it's also just so smutty the way it's described, there's a string of saliva as he pulls back from her neck????? am i on ao3 by accident?!

4. there's PLENTY of very very cute iconic moments too, don't get me wrong, it makes me squeal like crazy. but vol5 ends with jinshi finding maomao outside of the party (classic), and then gets frustrated with her suggesting he marry a "safe choice". then he cHOKES her. HE STRAIGHT UP JUST TWISTS HER ARM AND CHOKES HER. she tells him, "it hurts" and he just says, "oh, does it?" of course, he eventually stops and then holds her until she gets mad at him. and then he is pushing her back down towards the bench, laying on top of her.

after the first instance in the cave, i kind of brushed it off like. that was weird, but i was extremely delirious over jinshi's whimpering and that totally clouded my judgment lol.

but now with all of these other scenes, i'm still in love with them but i have to admit i'm feeling a little conflicted. maomao's pov is always that he looks at her with eyes like a "feral dog", and that she is trying to get away. it kind of breaks my heart. she says "He will devour her, all in the pursuit for something that wasn't even there." like, YES i am thirsty for jinshi so the idea of him having bedroom eyes is hot, but the way maomao is so uncomfortable with it genuinely upsets me...

[pocket-lin]

9 and 10 for the fandom asks!

hi!! thank you!! I apologize if the formatting is weird for this, I wrote half of it on my phone notes app the the rest on the Tumblr site and also I just generally don't know how to do things hahah

(i'm focussing on the sandman cuz I think that’s the biggest fandom we share!!)

9. a ship that isn't your OTP but that you enjoy

so dreamling is my ultimate sandman ship, BUT. two other ones I love are:

dream/hob/corinthian aka hobrintheus. everyone go read @softest-punk’s fic self-abandon, and the confounding effects thereof !! hob humanizing the corinthian (calling him cori), the corinthian being so genuinely in love with hob, dream being being so very dream about the situation… pure excellence. I have a handful of other fics I can rec for this ship, too!!

dream/hob/daniel. this is 10000000% @moorishflower’s fault because their Beautiful, Strange and New series is fucking unparalleled  (tbh everything they write is like a drug to me). the main fic was so incredibly fun to read while it was a wip!!! especially when the story gets to that part (ifkyk). 

10. a blog (mutual or one you follow) that has made your fandom experience brighter

okay this question is so hard to answer because I’ve only got back into any fandom in 2022 (long and kinda sad story) and I haven’t quite gotten up the gumption to talk to many people outside of commenting on fics. so!! I’m just gonna shoutout some more fics I love from the people I talked about in the other answer!

here’s a few more @softest-punk fics that I recommend, especially if you like alternate universes, a hopelessly-in-love hob, and support the Trans Agenda:

Catching Up - human/no powers au with alternating pov. all that post-fishbowl trauma goodness with an incredibly sweet hob who just wants to take care of his dear friend (who he is also hopelessly in love with but that's nbd)

Falling - another human/no powers au! strangers to friends to lovers story with extremely hot sex. i'm remembering how much I love this one and I'm about to go reread it!!

Half sleep, half waking- this is one of their most recents fics and it's a rivers of london crossover!! 1989 fishbowl rescue au (alternating hob and nightingale pov) where hob enlists the help of his friend (and ex-lover) dci nightingale to figure out why his oldest friend (who he is hopelessly in love with) missed their centennial meeting. I love hob's whole "thing" in this one–I have a personal head canon that he would absolutely have all kinds of rizz with the potentially less than human and/or immortal components of the world.

here's some more @moorishflower fics I recommend, especially if you like alternate universes, delicious angst, and extremely well thought out world-building! I don't know the best way to word this (fiction writing isn't my strong suit), but the way that this author describes things makes me go insane. they know exactly how to describe how things taste/smell/feel and it just completely transports me into the story.

iron, glass, bones, blood - monster4monster, love but the kind of love where you want to pin them to a board like a butterfly and find out what their blood looks like under a microscope, kink as a way to reclaim trauma... I literally cannot tell you how many times I've read this fic. it feels like it was pulled from the very depths of my subconscious.

On sexual dimorphism in C. urophasianus - (if you know me irl, no you don't) very lighthearted, non-traditional a/b/o, omegas are very empowered. they've only been together one week and it's still very new between them and now dream has to "court" hob because of his instincts going all crazy. very, very sweet!!

17th Century Knife Restoration - this fic made me cryyyyyy. hob watching a restoration video on YouTube and uh oh its his knife and uh oh now he has many feelings. to be loved is to be known, and also to be changed 💜

also their Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs series' most recent fic, Basic Needs, is currently posting and is making ME have many feelings!! check this one out if you want mutual pining of the most desperate nature, down and out dream and caretaker hob (oh and hob has a gigantic dick and dream is obsessed with it)

[longeyelashedtragedy]

Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

Aside from fanfic, are there any other fan works you’d like to try creating? Fanart, or fanvids, gifsets, or podfic? 

By the end of this year, you want your fandom to think of you as “that author who _______.”

Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

sure! uh, i think this is not what people would expect, but there's this fic i want to write that would be rated G, and yet when I sat down to write it (i have a couple pages in draft) it felt weirdly scandalous and i'm not sure why?

long story short, it's a "frankenstein AU," based on the fact that there's this particular footballer who's very tall and imposing and a bit unique looking and runs very fast and has these periods where he bangs in insane amounts of goals--and lives a sort of funky lifestyle to enable this--so a lot of people call him a "robot" or use otherwise nonhuman terms to describe him (for those of you football people reading this--haaland hahaha)

so, kind of based on real life events, the background of the fic is that there's this norwegian guy who's a professional footballer with a good career, a wife and two kids, but then he has a career-ending injury (after this is where we deviate from irl) and falls into a depression etc and his wife takes the two kids and leaves him.

devastated, this guy goes a bit crazy and decides he wants to create a son of his own--the perfect footballer, who will be better than he ever was, whose career he can live through (if you guys know anything about alfie and erling i think this seems accurate to their irl relationship), and who will never leave him because he'll rely on him. so he and his bestie go to great lengths to "create" this strange looking very tall "son," teach him to talk, walk, score goals, etc, create a backstory for why he appeared out of nowhere and why he seems a bit developmentally behind his "peers" in some ways...over time, he does become a brilliant world renowned footballer, but in gaining more sentience, power, and global respect, he also gets a glimpse of what autonomy feels like, and--

the "and" is what i haven't figured out, it obviously will need a sad and or weird ending and one thing i have confidence in is my ability to land a sad/weird ending. i just don't know what it would be, and also when i sat down to write this, something about it felt very creepy and i don't know what? but i wish i could write it because i think it'd be an interesting addition to football ao3.

i answered the next one here!

By the end of this year, you want your fandom to think of you as “that author who _______.” oof. who actually improved as a writer? no, what i'd like is "that author who figured out how to write slightly off-putting fic about frank lampard but in a mature way with very high quality writing and themes."

[jungkookschin]

WTF??

THAT WAS SO GOOD

the way you describe jungkook and oc’s relationships from both their perspectives is so cute 😞 just the way they talk about each other is so?? omg i don’t even have words. “future mother of my kids” OH HES REALLY IN LOVE. also when jungkook was like “she doesn’t need to be a superhero with me” STFU SO CUTE I CANT 😭 it’s really so crazy that they’re really just saving the world but so gentle and normal with eo.

fuck apollo, fuck ares, kinda don’t know how i feel about hephaestus but yeah fuck him too why not, just fuck all the gods tbh

oh? we’re learning more about jungkook’s past hookups? why is that so funny

i love the way you write oc tho. like her thinking is so real and realistic. she’s secure in their relationship but also has doubts about herself that are totally understandable.

jungkook being so protective lowkey had me blushing 🤭 he was thinking how oc should be more aware of her surroundings to protect herself from perverts and then was like wait no that’s why i’m here

smut was explicit but that was hot and sweet ngl. jungkook really just wants to please his girl

i’m curious about the dream tho like?? anticipating the next chapter already

thank you so much for taking the time to write this amazing chapter!! 🫶

AWWW THANK U SMMMMM <3333 again full transparency i use chatgpt to rewrite sentences bc my ass is soo lazy to think of pretty sentence structures.

im sooo happy that u commented on their dynamic just bc i put a lot of effort into making the little things matter. like i COULD just say some shit like "Jungkook is in love with her and wants to protect her blah blah blah" but i TRY to show it thru his actions.. which is superrr fun given that this is an action story and he can like kill monsters and shit hehe

NO FR FUCK THE GODS!! fuck hephaestus too. in greek mythology hes always been up to some STRANGE and WEIRD activities... but in this fic im trying to portray him as a good father bc he's yn's dad 😭✋

And as for oc , i think she's super relatable 😭 like i COULD make her crazy and insane (as we all r sometimes 😌) but i want to show her rational side . lowkey some fanfic readers are kinda women-hating, for lack of a better term. bc if i give my oc's any flaws, they'll go off in my inbox about how much they hate oc 😭 like damnn she's not actually dating jungkook chillll

i lovedd writing the protective aspect, and i love when guys r protective. not FORCEFULL but idk he was kinda forceful in the fic but it's always hot cause he's like "omg wait, im the strongest demigod in the history of the world, i can take care of her", and i can imagine that it gives oc an overwhelming sense of security cause shes gonna be safe foreverrr

AS FOR THE SMUT AHHHH, i recently started to add smut in my fics, but IM so scared of making it too explicit. Like I don't want to make it too obvious because i feel weird writing words like "dick" or "pussy" jkdfsfkldf

furthermore, i have a theory that a lot of my fics would be more popular if i added some delicious smut to it, but then sometimes i think that oh wait jungkook is a real person and if he saw this he might not like it. which is why i try to add the appropriate amount to make the story make sense and not sexualize him too much?? instead just try to convey the intensity of his love .

as for the dream, i think when i wrote it i wanted to portray y/n's paranoia , which is another reason jk wanted to keep her away from the quest

nonetheless, thank u for ur comments <33, i can tell that u really read the story which means so much to me. I hope u have the bestest day ever anon!!

[khodorkovskaya]

12.01.23

sooo a lot of confusing things happened.

i went to see puss in boots yesterday and the hype is so worth it! im obsessed! it was so good!!!

and guess who i invited to the cinema with me...............

yeah, i know, i don't understand either. i texted him when i was on the train from luzern and he said yes. and so we went together.

(i was being weird on the phone with my parents about it so now they think that i have a secret lover lol. like idk i just can't lie to my parents so when they asked me who i went to the cinema with i was like "nobody!!!!" and it sounded very sspicious. so yeah, they believe that im seeing someone new now. but no lol. im just back on my bs.)

after the film we decided to go get a drink (i had green tea) and we had a very strange conversation. i told him about the books ive been reading and how im slowly making my way through kundera's "immortality" but i don't understand any of it. and then we talked about immortality (bc it was also a theme in puss in boots!) in relation to fame and who gets to be famous and who will always be left in the shadows. and then we said something along the lines of "extraordinary people get to be famous and normal people don't". and then i started telling him about how i think that it didn't work out between us bc we're not normal and we need normality to balance things out.

he said that his first relationship was with a normal person and, even though she was amazing, the relationship was boring. and he said that when he realised that i was crazy he found it charming. and it made me blush.

but anyway i started telling him about my zurich friend and my normal boyfriend fantasy and how i just want to fall in love with a normal person and be normal and hold hands. and he said that my zurich friend is very far from normal and how what we had was actually a normal relationship and i was too spoiled to realise it. he predicts that im gonna realise it in the future bc im gonna meet a lot of shitty guys and regret leaving him. but it will be a good learning experience for me.

and yeah he said that im not making sense and im speaking nonsense. and i think he's right bc ever since i isolated myself from society ive just been a bit insane. like im slowly descending into madness which i think is good for me bc i really need to think and analyse things. but at the same time ive become detached from reality. and now i have all these theories about wanting a normal boyfriend and hating the balkans.

then okay girlies bear with me... i missed my last tram and..... slept over at his place... yikes, i know i know.... but he promised we were gonna sleep in different beds (spoiler: we didn't) and we were just gonna drink tea and chat (spoiler: we didn't just drink tea and chat). and uhh im not gonna go into the details but i didn't feel really good. i just felt like... annoyed i guess is the best word to describe it.

i asked him if we could be friends bc i really want to be friends with him. i want to see his future spouse and kids and i want him to see mine. and i want us to be best friends until we die. but he said that if it's definitely over between us as a couple, we're not gonna see each other again. and it made me sad. why so harsh? why can't we just admit that it doesn't work and stay friends? he wouldn't give me an answer.

this morning we talked a bit more about our relationship and normality and stuff. and he said that in order to be a better and more mature person and actually learn from the past, i need to face my fears and confront him. and we can try to be bf/gf again but make an effort this time. and if it doesn't work, at least we would've tried.

so i was thinking about that for the whole day today. weighing the pros and cons and trying to understand what is "délire" and what is actually reasonable. i feel like im missing something in my brain, i swear. why do i never know what's right and wrong? what do i want and what do i not want? i feel like im disabled or something idk.

and then all of a sudden my dad (who i haven't heard from in a while) messages me like "call me now". he's in india now and i thought it was something urgent. so i called him. and the call lasted only 10 minutes (usually he goes on and on about conspiracy theories for like an hour). and this is what he said:

"you need to get back together with B!!! he's a good man. and it's rare in our day and age. there's a slavic genocide going on. and you guys have a problem with homosexuals in europe. and B represents gender values and he's a real man, which is so rare! sure, nobody's perfect i mean look at me. but B has more pros than cons. sure he's lazy, maybe he even goes to see other hoes from time to time. but nobody is perfect and your clock is ticking. you're 23 and healthy, it's the best time to have a child! if you're still unmarried at 30, people are gonna look at you weird. marriage is a status symbol, you know, it doesn't mean anything. you can get divorced. but being divorced at 30 is so much better than never having been married. it shows that you're a serious woman. and you should try to get back with him. organise a theatrical performance or something, i don't know. and tell him that the wedding's in may so he will be keeping busy organising everything. it's better to do things you regret, than regretting not doing things. okay bye!"

what the fuck.

[yuureimajo]

i've been catching up on some YouTube content and just watched the "Sky Trumpets" episode of Mystery Files and i was like !!! because i've actually experienced this mystery! … along with dozens and dozens of other people … but yeah! i actually, personally have heard this crazy sound that i personally think sounds kinda like a gigantic chair scraping across a gigantic floor. have to say though, i'm normally in agreement with Shane about unexplained things probably having at least logical if not mundane answers, but not in this case. 'cause like … i agree, the sounds do also sound kinda like trains. i live in a city (that is approx. a 12 hour drive from Terrace, which was one of the cities where someone took a video that was shown in the episode) with train tracks that go right through the center of town, and the sound and rumble of the trains is basically omnipresent. and sometimes when they brake, the screech of the wheels on the tracks is insanely loud. after a while living here, especially if you live close to the tracks … well i wouldn't say you get used to it, but you just kind of accept it as part of daily life. so, back in 2008 (possibly early 2009), when i heard this ear-splittingly loud metallic scraping and rumbling noise, that was in fact my first thought: a train stopped suddenly - like very suddenly, the way it might because there's a person on the tracks - and we must be hearing the wheels shrieking along the tracks and the momentum slamming back through each of the boxcars. except there wasn't a train. from our street there was a clear view of the train tracks straight across the river and for quite a distance in both directions since they run quite straight, and there was no train in sight. i've seen other people comment on ~the sound~ saying that they heard it in a place with no trains at all, which makes it all the stranger that it sounds like one. but let me tell you, the experience of living with train sounds and thinking you're hearing the aftermath of a particularly big one slamming on its brakes, only to take a look at the tracks and see nothing there, is plenty strange in itself. now because i'm a skeptic myself, i already know the arguments people would probably make about this. like:

"maybe the train was farther away." maybe, but if that was the case then it wouldn't sound so loud - we know what the trains sound like when they're traveling, when they brake and when they whistle far enough down the tracks that you can't see them yet. this sound was so loud, it was like we were standing next to the train as it braked - louder than it ever normally was from across the river. "maybe the train was farther away and air currents or some other natural force carried the sound toward you so it sounded close by." maybe! so then i'd ask why we never heard it before or since. it was just that one time, back in 2008, and while it's happened to other people before that and since then, i've actually never seen anyone saying they heard it more than once. (admittedly, i obviously haven't seen statements from every single person who's ever experienced this, though.) "maybe you imagined it." i can at least definitively say that it was not an auditory hallucination. i didn't get it on camera, but i was of perfectly sound mind that day, and what's more, i was with other people who heard it too - some of whom were neighbors i didn't even know and had no reason to pretend to be hearing something they weren't. we were all out on the street listening to this deafening noise carry on for probably close to 10 minutes. (that brings me to another point - cameras truly don't pick up how loud this noise is. even describing it is hard because, while it is kinda like the train sounds, it's almost like ... they're in slow mo, or pitched down? when you watch a video of it, it sounds like, you know, a loud noise, kinda weird. but hearing it in person … it's indescribably loud. louder than trains, as i said above. louder than thunder. we could barely hear each other talk over it.) i also have to disagree with some of the theories from other people that Ryan presented in the video. i sincerely doubt it has anything to do with tsunamis, sea methane, or fish mating noises, considering the city i live in is well inland. i also don't really buy into the whole "spy planes" thing. seems farfetched. however, as for earthquakes … this one's a possibility. we do get earthquakes here, typically very small - not even enough to cause any shaking. but that doesn't mean they couldn't cause some kind of noise. and i think the theory of it being related to the auroras is potentially plausible. again, i don't really understand why most people would only hear it once in that case, but i'm willing to say the auroras (both borealis and australis) are a possible source. i feel like this is one of those phenomena that unless you experience it yourself, you probably aren't going to take it very seriously. it's going to either seem like a cool, weird mystery, or like just some loud sound that people are overreacting to, or even like it's just a viral hoax. and while i know it's real, i certainly don't think it's something wacky like aliens or ~the rapture~. but having heard it myself, and not having heard a possible answer that fully explains what the hell this noise was ... it's definitely still on my mental list of "weird and illogical things that have happened to me that keep me from being a complete non-believer in the supernatural." aka: my "wtf" list. ("supernatural" in this case doesn't automatically mean "spooky scary", just unexplained - so far - by science.) this long post brought to you by the fact that i don't have a youtube channel and thus could not comment on the video itself and yet i wanted to talk about this so i came to tumblr.

[amaranthineoceans]

Everything Weird About Deltarune!

Spoiler Warning for Undertale and Both Chapters of Deltarune! Really! I Literally Go Through Everything I Can Remember About Them!

This is a long post so get comfortable. Also note that my brain doesn't process thoughts into words very well so some of these might not be worded in the best way. :)

Deltarune. The first teaser chapter was released on October 31, 2018, and it came out of nowhere. We've all gone through this, but I'll try and go through every single painstaking detail I can remember. Feel free to reblog and add/correct things.

The weirdness begins right off the bat. The title is an anagram of UNDERTALE. We all know Toby likes to use anagrams when he wants to indirectly tell us when things are related, so it's no surprise that when you go to download DELTARUNE, it warns you that the game is designed for people who have played UNDERTALE. You think, "Cool, so it's a sequel? Or maybe a prequel? A different perspective of UNDERTALE perhaps?" You were wrong; so terribly, terribly wrong! I'll elaborate on this later.

Before you download the application, the terms of service that you must agree to beforehand reads simply and plainly, "You accept everything that will happen from now on." This detail was kinda brushed off in the beginning, because, hey, it's Toby Fox. He does weird stuff all the time. But even in the first chapter, it's apparent that the concept of choice, or more accurately, the lack of it, is a very present theme in the game. I would like to remind you that Toby has announced that there will be one ending in the game. One. I'll elaborate on this later.

The program (as in, what the game is called in your files) is named SURVEY PROGRAM. Why not just call it Deltarune like it is when you download chapter two?

The game launches you, without a title screen, without any setting adjustment options, straight into a reference to the theme of the entire franchise: the lack of choice. A strange formless voice guides you through "making a vessel", with what we know now as a fountain in the background. You have the option to make some very disturbing choices in this character creator, such as making its favorite flavor "pain" or expressing your feelings about it with options such as "fear" and "disgust." You name your "creation," tell the formless voice your name (which is different from your vessel's name) and watch as said formless voice muses over your name at an agonizing pace. It thanks you for your time and tells you that your wonderful creation, (cue music cutout and background removal) will now be discarded. "No one can choose who they are in this world." The screen slowly turns white as the voice says, "Your... name... is..."

It gets weirder. The next scene appears from the whiteness and showcases Toriel calling "Kris" out of bed. Kris' area of the room is very bare in contrast to the other side, which we later discover is Asriel's.

It's Toriel. Why is Toriel here?

Kris is kind of an anagram of Frisk (the protagonist of UNDERTALE) but without the F. I highly doubt this is a coincidence.

Speaking with Noelle is the only reason you can proceed (see what i did there?) while finding a partner in the classroom. This means you can't go through the 1st chapter without knowing who she is. Is it because of the Snowgrave route?

Ralsei is just suspicious to me. There's no way he was just waiting in that castle his whole life alone without some mental toil. So either he's insane or he wasn't alone the whole time. What happened? Is it related to how he can close his eyes and see what Susie is going through when she's apart from the party? Was he just watching everything? Is he related to the formless voice?

Susie's icon is the only one without color in the Dark World.

Jevil's fight is more difficult than Sans'.

Your actions have little consequence in the first chapter. If you choose to go genocide, the only difference in the ending is being run out of the kingdom, and this doesn't carry over to the next chapter. Again, lack of choice, people.

If at the end of chapter one, you walk around town, it's mentioned (notably by Noelle) that you're usually not this talkative. If you go to the hospital and speak with the receptionist, they mention that you used to play the piano in the corner. If you decide to attempt to play the said piano, an out-of-key bash can be heard and the receptionist comments on how you used to play beautifully. If you try this in chapter two, the result is the same. All this is confirmation that Kris is acting noticeably weird.

When you leave the Dark World and walk around town, you can find Sans. He "pretends" to recognize you, and if you tell him you recognize him, he tells you it's funny, considering that you two have never met before. He winks. I'm pretty sure he knows that the player is there.

The mention of Papyrus in both games, but the purposeful lack of him. Like he's avoiding you.

If you go upstairs while inside Asgore's flower shop, there are flowers in glass cases resembling his SOUL collection in UNDERTALE. There's a red flower.

You can't enter the church.

The clock in the storage closet shows a different time than all the others in the school.

If you go all the way south in town and into the woods, the music stops and you come across a rusty, double door is in a hill covered in crass. It's locked. If you go this way in chapter two, however, you watch a cutscene where you and susie happen to find Monster Kid from UNDERTALE (or someone resembling them) and an owl kid in front of the door. The owl kid is pressuring Monster Kid to (presumably) break inside, telling them that they don't want to be a wimp like Kris. Does this imply that Kris is connected to this strange door somehow?

The ending. You know what I'm talking about.

Did Kris actually rip out the SOUL (I say "the" because I'm not entirely sure it's Kris') and knife because they wanted to eat the pie? Did they only eat the pie because Toriel caught them?

Why did they look at the player? Are they sick of being controlled? Is that why they freaked out after the Spamton fight? (later)

Anyway, now we're at chapter two.

DELTARUNE Chapter Two was released on September 17th, 2021. 17. Entry Number 17. Sound familiar?

Asriel's part of the room is different from the last chapter. I don't think this means anything sinister, but I think it means Kris notices different things about the room as the story progresses. My theory is that it will become more sinister in each chapter.

Ralsei getting super excited to see Susie and Kris after a day. As in he has separation anxiety and it breaks my heart. not anything suspicious but it makes me sad so it's on the list.

Kris and Susie's rooms. Ralsei REALLY doesn't want them to leave. Seriously get this boy a therapist. Or a stuffed animal. SOMETHING.

Kris having to gather everything from the storage closet so that people appear in the Dark World????? Why??????????????? They had to do the same thing for the computer lab too.

The golden door. I don't trust it.

How/why the heck did Noelle and Berdley go into the Computer Lab Dark World? I don't see either of them just walking into pulsing void doors without Susie.

Apparently the knight has been gone for a bit and can corrupt people's minds? The king in the first chapter doesn't seem like he can be redeemed but Queen just seems,,, not bad, but a little crazy. I wonder what happened.

Then again, name ONE person in this franchise without trauma.

Spamton.

Horror doesn't bother me. Spamton? Spamton bothers me.

SPAMTON. ENOUGH SAID.

A Kromer is a type of hat invented in the '70s. Nobody named Mike is associated with it, that I can find.

SPAMPTON. HOW DO I EVEN DESCRIBE IT.

HIS SONG IS THE ONLY ONE WITH WORDS.

The way he asks Kris is they want to be a heart on a chain their whole life. Like, dude, no wonder they were screaming after the fight.

WHERE DID THE YELLOW HEART COME FROM. YELLOW MEANS JUSTICE. WHY DOES JUSTICE APPLY.

Kris screaming after the fight and the player not being able to hear it. Don't you dare tell me that's just how the game is designed. There are sound effects characters make throughout the game. None that I can think of apply to Kris, apart from when they rip their soul out.

Ralsei brushing off the Spamton fight. Either that's his coping mechanism or he was trying to shut Susie and Kris up to protect them from... something. I'll touch on that in a minute.

According to Queen, DETERMINATION is a key factor in creating a fountain.

Also according to Queen, Kris, Noelle, and Susie all have DETERMINATION SOULS.

Ralsei freaking out about Berdley making a fountain implies that he may also have DETERMINATION. Why I'm bringing all this up will make sense soon.

How was Noelle able to cast Snowgrave... a spell that she, according to her, didn't know?

The Snowgrave route is so twisted.

You manipulate Noelle into killing Berdley and then, when you get back to the computer lab and investigate his corpse, the text box says that he doesn't seem to be awake. As if you're in denial?

Burgerpants recognizes you. Not Kris. As in the player.

The ending. I don't think I need to describe it. Kris is very methodical without the SOUL. (I say "the" because, again, I'm not 100% convinced it's theirs.) I'm saying this about how they left clues that someone broke into the This proves that they are NOT a mindless, vengeful husk.

HOW DID THEY MAKE THE FOUNTAIN WITHOUT THE SOUL INSIDE OF THEM. DID THEY FEED THE SOUL TO IT AFTERWARDS? IS THAT WHAT THAT WAS?

Another point I would like to make is my theory that Ralsei knows much more than he would have us believe. I might put this into a different post because I have yet to gather my points into a coherent bullet point list, so keep an eye out for that.

Anyway apart from Toriel and Susie being VERY heavy sleepers, I think I've gone through everything. I have a few theories.

1. Kris is possessed by the player and figured out that they could make a fountain from Queen and related to Spamton freaking out about freedom. They then decided to make a fountain going by the logic that "this would tick the player off." This is one of my top theories that assumes that the SOUL is theirs.

And 2. Kris is possessed by both the player and the knight. I think the formless voice at the very beginning of the game is the knight, and they somehow needed the player to possess someone with DETERMINATION. If so, then why Kris? We know from Queen that Noelle and Susie, and maybe even Berdley also have DETERMINATION. The most plausible thing I can think of is the fact that human souls are stronger than monster ones.

I do think that the popular theory (about the one that suggests that the Dark Word is nothing but a figment of a child's imagination, and the events that occur in said Dark World are simply children playing with toys) has been thoroughly dashed due to Berdley's murder in the genocide route of the second chapter. Unless he's not dead. Regardless, how the events (or lack thereof) that occur in the second chapter play through the next will be interesting, especially considering Toby's announcement about how there will be one ending to the game. So either Berdley isn't dead, or he will be.

Aaaand I think that's it! Sorry for the long post; let me know your thoughts and if I missed anything!

[its-our-paris]

I don't want this to come across as combative it's just curiosity and you don't have to answer but how do you reconcile Johnny being innocent with his loss in the Uk supreme court?

Eh, it's okay, I meant to make a new post about the trial since I opened my mouth early on after a gut reaction, but then the fact that everyone and their mum is weighing in on it now stopped me. I simply don't think my opinion matters much, at the end of the day, or that it's particularly well-informed - although I have been watching much of the trial, and reactions to it on both sides, but so have a lot of people. I think the way people jump down each other's throats for disagreeing about this is insane, but also, that's the internet for you. I think the meme-fication of it all is pretty awful, but equally, it's very human. We have enjoyed the suffering of others, as a species, since always. I feel bad for Amber now, far more than Johnny. Her career is likely entirely ruined, at least for a good while. I thought his was before all this, to be honest. I was convinced his career was done. But it looks like it isn't. I don't think anymore that he will win this case in court, but I don't think it matters whether he does or not, really.

Anyway, since you brought it up, I will talk about the whole thing a bt before I answer your question...

At the moment I kind of go back and forth daily regarding which version of the story seems credible to me, personally. I'm not out there tweeting #justiceforjohnny or claiming he's an innocent victim, really. The reaction I had in the beginning of the trial was pretty strong because I distinctly remember when the allegations against him had first been made, I recall talking about it with my husband and both of us going: "Huh, who knew, turns out Johnny Depp is an asshole. Shame."

I immediately and unquestioningly believed Amber Heard. Except - I remember then looking at the 'evidence', as in her bruised pictures, just thinking 'Huh, I barely see anything, that seems strange'. And, in all fairness, I never read much about the whole case, but whenever I read about it at all, I started coming away with an odd feeling, like, I want to believe this woman, why would she lie? But something doesn't feel right. Then I read Johnny was suing her for defamation, which just seemed weird to me as well, because if she had enough damning evidence, how could he possibly expect to win? However, I'm not going to go and judge some celebrities' lives based on a gut feeling. So I didn't engage with any of this at all until this trial started.

It's been really interesting hearing them both talk. My God, I would not want to date either one of those two people. I believe 100% that they both think they're in the right - as in, doing the right thing, not necessarily telling the exact truth. I think both of them are remembering two entirely different versions of events and I think both are embellishing/downplaying them at times.

My first reaction to hearing JD's side of the story was definitely: "Oh my gosh, he's been framed, this woman is horrid." - Because a lot of what I heard her say in those audio recordings, and honestly some things I heard her say on the stand since - "I'd never seen a grown man cry, it's weird" excuse me the fuck what? - reminded me of abusive situations I'd been in and really rubbed me the wrong way.

However, I've also seen and heard enough of their exchanges now to safely say JD is evidently a hard-to-deal-with emotionally volatile man-child (at his worst) who has a pretty serious substance abuse problem. I believe he drove her crazy. I also believe she drove him crazy. So far, I find it very hard to believe her exact version of events though, because just when, say, she gives a bit of testimony where I do think: "Oh, I'm finding this quite credible" it's then followed up by photographic evidence of a bruise, for example, that is all but totally invisible when she's just described how he was basically bashing her head in. I don't know, I keep getting thrown off by her testimony for various reasons. I'm not going to do any behaviour analysis here, but we are all human beings who are accustomed to communicating with other human beings and deciding when we find something authentic or not. That's all. We can't help but do that.

But back to your question. How do I reconcile the result of the UK trial with Johnny being innocent? Well, like I said, innocent of what? I don't really think he's totally innocent, as in, he's not an angel who never lost it, never shouted abuse at her, although the actual physical violence she describes... the way she describes it? I don't know, man. I don't think he's half as guilty as she makes out to be, personally. Much as I've watched pro-Amber Heard videos and read the articles in favour of her being the obvious abuse victim, I then watch her actually speak about it and I'm finding it extremely hard to believe that things happened exactly as she describes. I could easily be wrong, but the case is not for me to judge anyway. Clearly, her evidence was enough though to win the UK court case. Right now, that's kind of... neither here nor there for me. Right now, we're all getting to watch their testimonies and we all are free to judge the evidence for ourselves, even though really it isn't anybody's place.

It sure is fascinating though.