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easternmind · 1 year

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The weird and wonderful history of Kowloon as a digital interactive space - Part I

The Kowloon Walled City was one of the most emblematic locations in Hong Kong due to its irregular, fast-paced and largely ungoverned growth within a minute parcel of land. During the occupation of Hong Kong Island by the British in the mid 18th century, the Qing authorities surrounded the area with walls, turning it into a strategic position from where to closely inspect the foreign nation's covert activities. Almost a century later, during World War II, the area was seized by the Japanese, who tore down the walls and repurposed the stone for the construction of a nearby airport.

After the war, China would eventually regain possession of the city, though the disinterest of local authorities in addressing its increasing social disturbances placed it in a downward path to a state of utter degradation. By the 1970s, Kowloon had become the epicentre of Hong Kong's criminal underworld, dominated by a handful of its most vicious Triads.

Towards the last years of its existence, the ancient settlement was as a precarious heap of concrete, sheltering nearly half a million people within less than seven acres of land. Cultural and political changes in China made it increasingly difficult for this urban anomaly to remain unaddressed. In the late 1980s, an action plan was put together aiming to relocate its inhabitants and reconvert the real estate into an inner-city park. Stories about residents refusing to leave their unsafe and unsanitary homes were featured prominently in newspapers, baffling readers all over the world. Once the single most densely populated area in the world, this enclave was an architectural aberration whose disconcerting aesthetic influenced numerous works of art in different fields of creation; including a small yet consequential number of video games that briefly reference or prominently feature this abominably transfixing space.

九龍島 (Kyu-Ryu-Tou) - Starcraft - 1986

The year is 2025. An arms dealer escalates the tensions between East and West by developing a genetic weapon in a secret base at Kowloon Island. The United Nations react by sending in their best man, Jamie Starr. Unrelated to the Walled City itself, the first game to be located in the Kowloon peninsula - and indeed include the name as a part of its title - is this obscure turn-based RPG, Kyu-Ryu-Tou for the NEC PC88 and FM-77 machines. The game is a sequel to Shangai, released the year before, featuring the same protagonist. Starcraft would also go on to produce a third instalment in 1987 named TO.KY.O. Clearly there wasn't much regard here from the developers part for geographic accuracy, as Kowloon is depicted here as being an island. While Hong Kong's southern territory is composed of an actual island, all the different areas named Kowloon are located in the mainland.

Riot City - Westone - 1991

One of the most shameless specimens among a relatively long list of Final Fight clones, Riot City contains subtle references to Kowloon, though never referring to it by name. Two narcotics detectives are assigned with the mission of dismantling a cartel running a crime-ridden located in fictional Riot Island. This recurring yet geographically nonsensical notion of Kowloon as an island comes up here, yet again. The final moment of the introduction sequence for this minor Sega arcade success shows both protagonists approaching a tight cluster of buildings whose source inspiration is quite unmistakable. Because Westone maintained ownership of most of this production's intellectual property, a later port to the PC Engine entitled Riot Zone was made possible with the help of Hudson soft. Kowloon's Gate - Zeque - 1997

Reviving the Walled City through the lens of cybermystic surrealism, Kowloon's Gate is a dense, daunting adventure masterfully capturing the slum's dark and narrow recesses. This 1997 Japanese Playstation exclusive spans across four discs of unparalleled full motion 3D CGI spectacle, alternating with real-time 3D dungeons brimming with outlandish characters and concepts deeply inspired by Chinese history, geography and cultural traditions.

Ironically, Zeque managed to embed the theme of Feng-Shui, the ancient geomantic art seeking harmony between the individual and their surrounding space, into a story set in the world's most historically untidy district.

SaGa Frontier - Square - 1997

SaGa Frontier takes place in a solar system named The Regions, composed of multiple inhabited worlds for the player to explore, each with its different degree of civilizational development and culture. One of these planets goes by the suggestive name Kūron. Its pervasive neon light signs, food stalls, makeshift cabins and rooftop scaffolding instantly evoke the memory of China’s so-called city of darkness.

Shadow Hearts - Sacnoth - 2001

Shortly after the release of Koudelka, Sacnoth's initiated the development of Shadow Hearts, the first episode from a cult RPG trilogy exclusively designed for the Playstation 2. In good Japanese fashion, the game proposes an anachronistic yet visually suggestive depiction of Kowloon, portraying its architectural style and degree of decay as it existed in the late twentieth century, despite the fact that the game's events take place during the nineteen twenties.

Just as noteworthy is the almost complete absence of any inhabitants, which inadvertently make this portrayal of the quarter eerily reminiscent of the state in which it was found circa 1993 or 1994, as local authorities brought the long, arduous eviction project to a close.

Shenmue II - SEGA AM2 - 2001

Shenmue II exhibits the most complete and period-accurate video game representation of Kowloon to date. While more recent games featuring this area may represent a number of its aspects with the aid of improved visual fidelity, none features it with such depth as this masterpiece of masterpieces. More than mere background decoration, Kowloon exists in the Shenmue series as a crucial, climacteric element of its modern epic narrative.

It is a well known fact that Yu Suzuki and his team conducted extensive research of the region so as to achieve a result that impresses even to this day. It must be noted, however, that they have similarly taken a fair share of creative liberty when converting the area to best align with the themes they wished to explore. Further reading is required for a more complete context in this regard, namely how this area ties with an early Dreamcast tech demo design which fans lovingly named Tower of Babel. Ostensively, technical limitations did curtail the degree of precision in which the surrounding area could be replicated. The aerial view from the cutscene in which Ryo Hazuki arrives on location places Kowloon at an imaginary degree of elevation over surrounding vegetation. In the year of 1987, during which the game is set, the actual enclave stood perfectly levelled with a myriad of other modern buildings, undoubtedly more than could be reproduced under the circumstances. These trifling considerations aside, Shenmue II entirely succeeds in capturing the vibrant life and mesmerizing beauty of the destitute and decayed urban agglomeration, in a way that it was deemed entirely impossible at the time of its release.

For reasons entirely related to per post content limitations imposed by Tumblr, this article will be continued in PART II.

#china #hong kong #kowloon #kowloon walled city #videogames #Kyu-Ryu-Tou #riot city #saga frontier #kowloon's gate #shenmue ii

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goodboyaudios · 3 months

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Unwritten Characters #1: Alesha Fulduun

Alesha was a first era Paladin from the Eastern Highlands. While she was not seen officially as a queen, the people who knew of her deeds viewed her as such.

During the Leviathan attacks, Alesha single-handedly conquered the Eastern Highlands, adopting all of it's people into the first clan of New Tennessee, Clan Fulduun.

Although she was a driving force of peace during a time of hysteria, the Triad viewed her as a possible threat to their regime.

At the end of the attacks, the Triad sent out a private invitation to Alesha, asking her to a dinner, where they might discuss talks of unity for a brighter future.

Alesha was wary of the Triad, not wanting to trust this new faceless entity, but she also didn't want to create new threats for her people.

She asked the Triad to postpone meetings for 2 years and establish a neutral zone while she thought things through.

In reality, she wanted to spend time with her newlywed husband and unborn child before diving headfirst into something that might severely hurt her and her people.

While she enjoyed the time they had, the lingering day of her meeting with the Triad was ever-looming.

Fearing for what was to come, she reached out to the Landstar. She didn't agree with the Landstar's principals of justice, but she did know that there was no better place for a child to live.

In secret, she approached Rion and told him to take her child, but to her dismay, he refused. The Landstar was not a place to dump children and he shamed her for doing such a thing.

Alesha knew what she was doing was wrong, but she also knew in her heart that with the way New Tennessee was changing, it was no place for her child. She couldn't bare to see her baby grow up in the world she might leave behind.

The thought of this tortured Alesha and she became desperate, begging Rion to take the baby. Her only request of doing so being that the child will never suffer the burden of the why and where.

Rion thought for a moment and offered Alesha a deal. He would take the baby, in exchange, he would make the child a Star Captain. He would cut the baby's bloodline away from the parents and adopt the child into a new family. One that exists to protect the universe and all it's inhabitants.

Alesha, not fully understanding what this meant, accepted without a second thought.

She went back to New Tennessee where she finally met with the Triad. After all she'd gone through, she ended up making a few mistakes with her negotiations. She unprofessionally called the Triad out for being more oppressive than the Landstar ever could be, which was a founding reason as to why the Paladins existed.

This blunder in brazen behavior would lead the Triad to kill Alesha before she returned to the Eastern Highlands, but not before making it look like an act of terrorism, martyring Alesha by naming their orbiting star after her and lying about her accepting the merge between the occupied lands of the current Paladin King Wallace Yore and the Eastern Highlands.

Alesha's husband, who's name is lost to time, was hunted by the Triad for inciting rebellion and calling out the falsehoods of the Triad. He and his followers have since been driven into hiding and then further into myth under the mantle of "The Ghost Tribe".

#good boy audios #goodboyaudios #youtube #asmr roleplay #asmr boyfriend

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madam-whim · 8 months

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The Gold Road Reveal and my thoughts on it

I’m gonna start this off by saying I love ESO. I have been playing since 2017 and I’m pretty much doing everything the game has to offer. Quests, dungeons, trials, antiquities, sometimes PvP. That being said, this post will include lots of criticism that I feel (or know) is shared by many other fans.

But first things first, let me start off by listing some of the things on yesterday’s stream that had me bouncing in my seat:

The new zone is absolutely stunning! There’s a lot of variety to it and it does look very pretty. Exploring it will undoubtedly be fun and a feast for my eyes.

Also, Fennorian will be there, so I know there will at least be one well-written character that my Vestige has an actual bond with.

The scribing system being more of a roleplay thing – I don’t know what some people were hoping for, but I’m glad it’s not some Big Damage For Those Who Are Good At Maths kind of system. It still allows for a more unique playstyle, and I suppose it’s going to turn out like always: Do whatever you want in open world spaces, but keep your bow backflip heal out of veteran content.

And maybe the biggest “Yes!” moment of the evening: Ed Stark being the zone lead for Gold Road. While I did not like High Isle as much (too predictable for my taste, but at least it had recurring characters), he was responsible for Greymoor and Murkmire as well. I thought Greymoor was fantastic (good quests, excellent new characters alongside very familiar recurring ones), and Murkmire… well, I think Murkmire suffers greatly from being “the DLC that came after the Daedric Triad” so to speak. It kind of fell into the void created by a storyline spanning a full year (or even more, if you count the setup for the whole thing, which really began with the Varen’s ghost and Darien’s letter in Wrothgar and the Gold Coast sweetroll killer quests). I think that’s why lots of people don’t seem to like Murkmire very much despite it having great storytelling. My point is this: I do have some hope that after the fiasco some recent DLCs were story-wise, Ed Stark will at least make sure Gold Road makes sense.

And now for the criticism.

Ithelia’s design (Whenever, wherever, I want to kill Hermaeus…)

… yeah, about that. As one of my friends put it, she looks like Shakira with wings.

They really could have done so much better. The way she is now, as @akaviri-dovah said, she really just looks like a Meridia clone who somehow stole Jyggalag’s crystals, which is funny on so many levels (more on that later). Suffice it to say that I personally think the design choices are kind of lazy, given that we already have an angelic-looking Daedric lady.

Also, what’s with this picture? This kinda makes it seem as if she originally looked. Um. A lil different from the way she is now. In any case, I’m just gonna call this a missed opportunity for something more unique. I do like the glass shard aesthetic, I just wish they’d taken it in a different direction.

Dragon Break Princess Ithelia, or something like that

Now I know Dragon Breaks have to work differently from what Ithelia does, but I am kind of wondering what the consequences of her fate-altering abilities are. How do you alter fate in a way that threatens reality (with reality consisting of past and present events, with all possible versions of the future being possibly-real until one actually happens) without altering the timeline? Just by removing a possible future? Then one could argue that any Daedra could do the same just by manipulating people. Granted, it’s possible that Ithelia sees all possible futures and can do whatever she likes with them, but even then, she’d only be influencing what can become reality, not what already is. So how can she be THAT dangerous?

Right now, it just seems to me that they needed an adversary for Hermaeus Mora, and since his big things are knowledge, secrets and fate, and they couldn’t very well make a Daedric Prince of Anti-Intellectualism or a Daedric Prince of Snitching, she had to be a fate-altering type of Daedra.

At this point I’m still wondering how she even works, because how does she not accidentally cause Dragon Breaks? And if she is that damn powerful, how on earth did Mora alone manage to pretty much remove any trace of her? Which kind of brings me to my next point.

Memory Issues

I know, I know, Ithelia is not the first “new” Daedric Prince. (Which makes her stolen Jyggalag crystal vibes rather funny if you ask me.) And I don’t mind her being crazy powerful either, because so was Jyggalag or else he wouldn’t have been cursed. But that, to my knowledge, required several other Princes, whereas Ithelia apparently got owned by Hermaeus Mora alone, who then erased all memory of her. Which is not only quite the feat given how powerful she has to be, but also a very weird thing for Hermaeus Mora to do. I kinda thought stealing memories was more Meridia’s style. This entire part does not quite make sense to me yet and seems a little out of character, but well. By the way, speaking of Meridia…

Meridia-baiting the players

At this point, ZOS have to know we’re getting tired of waiting for villain Meridia. Everyone I know who is even the least bit interested in ESO’s storyline wants to see it. And I’ve seen people get their hopes up in recent days (new Meridia/Dawnbreaker-themed music box, the Ayleid ruin hint on the fragments sent to streamers…). Even in the twitch chat, there were people hyped about what they thought was Meridia, and who were disappointed when they were told it was Ithelia. And yes, I am absolutely saying they did this and made her a Meridia lookalike on purpose. But I’m well aware that we haven’t gotten any new hints about either Meridia or a certain someone since Greymoor, and that chapter will be four years old soon. Even I am beginning to give up, as much as I hate to say it.

By the way, I really did NOT appreciate Matt Firor name-dropping Darien right at the beginning. If you’re not planning to do anything with him, just let it go. I know absolutely nobody who appreciates being fed very tiny hints for two years and then being left in the dark for four years straight. If you don’t want to pick that storyline up again, just stuff the man into the Old Life quest and be done with it.

Honestly, once again, I’m gonna say this is a MASSIVE missed opportunity right here. ESO’s 10 year anniversary is coming up, what could possibly be better than to go back to the roots now and reward all those loyal players with the story they are waiting for? I distinctly recall Molag Bal telling me to watch my step around Meridia, and the setup is all there. I’m honestly disappointed that there is no Meridia content at all. And this ties in with my final point, albeit vaguely.

“Recurring” characters

Ah, yes, we do love recurring characters. Sometimes. We do love it when a fan favorite comes back – a character who’s accompanied the Vestige over the course of an entire story arc or has made multiple appearances over the years and has become beloved by many players, and, most importantly, who is well-written, i.e. has a unique personality. And that’s why “recurring characters” is not always a recipe for success when it comes to getting people hooked on a story.

It is when it’s one of the five companions, or a Ravenwatch member, or your main alliance buddy (Raz, Naryu and – oh, wait, yeah, us Covenant babies don’t have one anymore). It also works when it’s a character we’ve run across several times already, like Alchemy, who I know tons of people love, or my favorite walking disaster Revus Demnevanni.

But it’s certainly not working when it’s a character we barely know anything about, and who isn’t a hit with the community. Like Eveli’s brother whom I had to google because I could not remember who he was. He’s from a prologue quest. Nothing more. That’s not a “beloved returning character”.

ZOS have several of those just lying around, and they’re just not using them. And even the base game had so many characters that were there over the course of several zones, that were well-written and at least memorable to the degree that people would recognize them with just a little reminder, like Indaenir or Holgunn and Walks-in-Ash or the Vanos siblings. Hell, we haven't seen good old Vanus Galerion in a while. They are ten years old now and deserve to be dragged to the surface again.

Okay, I’m done now!

This concludes my rant (because that’s what it is, I’m aware). I just want to say again that this is not be dragging ESO through the mud, this is just me pointing out that the devs (especially the writers) could do so much better if they listened to their lore nerds and story-interested players more.

#eso #gold road #ithelia #hermaeus mora #meridia #long post #tes #intya rambles #i am still very salty about the whole meridia situation #and the unfinished business we have with her #and I don't like players getting their hopes up for nothing

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polyamorousmood · 11 days

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Hi! So like I'm fairly new to polyamory and I'm starting to think it might be an umbrella term for a range of different attraction dynamic types as opposed to people treating it differently purely by choice. I mean like yeah it of course covers lots of types of relationship, but do you feel thank lots of poly people have an innate preference for a certain dynamic that is their comfort zone or naturally best state and other types of dynamic might be harder the same way that monogamy is hard? I reckon it might go some way in explaining how people can be certain they're poly but then get intense displacement or envy or jealousy in certain contexts. and those contexts often conflict with what other poly people say is best and normal due to their own feelings. ie: some people need hierarchy but others need total equality, some people need anarchy but others need clearly defined rules, some people love a V or N but others need a triad, some people need kitchen table and closeness between metas and others need separation and distance or even DADT

starting to think my sense of stability in my relationship is sort of ruled by some of these dichotomies and I'm interested in whether that's a learned behaviour I can work on or if other poly people have a sense that some things are just the right way for them too. thanks!

Its kinda both imho. It is something many people feel innately, but that doesn't mean you can't work on it if you want to.

What'd you expect? A clear answer about polyamory? HAHAHA (if you thought you'd get that, that's only more proof how green you are, see. There's no one answer to anything here. That's the joke here. That's it.)

Anyway.

A lot of people are comforted by hierarchical things: they know where they stand in a relationship, and the clear definitions limit ambiguity. That can simplify things for many people. On the other side, something more relationship anarchy may feel fairer and less ruled by rules for the people that appreciate that dynamic. So on and so forth for any of the other examples you gave.

But the truth is, they're not dichotomy. Most people exist somewhere on a spectrum🤷. Keeping our example of hierarchical vs anarchistic relationships: maybe there's not formally a hierarchy, but functionally you have one partner you live with and therefore spend more time with? What if you want an egalitarian relationship eventually, but in the meantime you do prioritize the partner you've been with 4 years over the one you've been with 3 months because it kind of makes sense you'd have more faith in the much longer relationship? Real life complicates😵‍💫 these theoreticals. And once again, that's the case for any dynamic or structure. You're kitchen table until the polycule starts sprawling and your partner's partner's partner's partner lives an hour away and can't be bothered to meet all 20 of you. Etc etc etc. I could give 100 examples, but this is going to be long enough as is.

So with everything existing on a spectrum, and real life so often mucking up our theoreticals, it must be the case that we can adjust to these changes, at least somewhat, even when we feel strongly about a certain situation being what works best for us.

The first and most important step in that is to respect your partners. Listen to their needs, share your own, engage in good faith. The fundamentals. I admit, its hard for me to describe how to go about changing these things, because it is so fundamental to me that someone would compromise for the ones they love. What I can say for certain, is that in my life, what I have found works best is to treat relationship dynamics as a negotiation rather than as hard rules.

Let me give an example from my life. Being kitchen table🍽️ is my innately strongly preferred dynamic. The partner I currently live with and I started our relationship with the understanding we would be poly and kitchen table. It was (and is!) perfect👌. However, I got a metamour that initially thought kitchen table would work well, but later realized parts of that were deeply uncomfortable for them. By the standards we set years ago, I think I would have been within rights to say 🗣️"no, I need this, that's what we agreed on" but that's not what I wanted to do, so we started a negotiation instead. I told my partner how much I was confident I could stretch, and what I was willing to try but wasn't sure whether I could keep up or not. I told my partner what other things they could do to help me get the feeling I wanted without my metamour having to capitulate to things that made them feel really bad😣.

What we wound up settling on, for the remainder of the relationship, was that my live-in partner would keep me updated on that relationship as much as possible without getting into personal details the metamour didn't want shared. The metamour and I would only be in the same room together once a month 📅(even when they were hanging out at our house). And this felt a little strained, it was awkward at times, but that was okay. It was still workable, everyone involved put up with mild uncomfortable feelings but not severe ones. I grew🌱🌷 because of that metamour! I like to think they grew because of me. I am now more flexible in what feels okay to me, because I was willing to make other people I cared about more comfortable.

I don't know how helpful that is to you. You gotta just kinda fucking do it to some degree. You'll have to be willing to suck up some stuff in the interest of fairness. You'll have to be willing to do the therapy things to get over feelings that are a little out of line, and not do something just because your insecurity is asking it of you. You'll have to work with your partners to find other ways to get what you need out of a relationship.

So. To sum up. Yeah, I think most poly have a specific ideal relationship dynamic, and they compromise as needed in the same way anyone would with any relationship.

#ask box is always open #poly relationship advice #poly relationship dynamics

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dujour13 · 2 months

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9 People You Want to Know Better

tagged by @arendaes, @dmagedgoods and @undyingembers - thank you!! 💕💕💕

Three ships:

Siavash/Woljif always ❤️ My chaotic boys are exponentially worse together, but also manage to balance each other out. The two-way hurt/comfort story that pushes all the right buttons for me.

And two of my dearest ships from my writer friends. Although these aren’t the only two I hold dear they're special to me:

@arendaes’ Ariadne Trias/Daeran Arendae/Woljif Jefto – a triad that are a degree more exponentially worse together, great fun and crazy in love.

@dragonologist-phd’s Cleo/Galfrey – The demon path Galfrey romance I can’t live without. There’s something about Galfrey’s walls of dignity and reserve being breached by this raging barbarian that’s just so romantic.

Last Song:

Where Devils Weep – Jonathan Hultèn

Last Movie:

Poor Things - I’m a Frankenstein nerd, a feminist, and I love absurdist cinema. No notes.

Currently Reading:

The Sleeping Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro

I’m loving this so far. Ishiguro’s a fave but this one’s shaping up to be my fave of his! Set in post-Arthurian Britain, the whole story feels suffused in myth and magic while not feeling like fantasy. Beautiful old couple love story.

Currently Watching:

In between series right now. Just finished IWTV and that’ll be a tough act to follow.

Currently Eating:

Bread, cheese and wine

Currently Craving:

Blorbo energy (see under “Current Obsession” below)

Favorite Color:

Burgundy

Favorite Flavor:

Dark chocolate

Current Obsession:

I wish I had one. In a bit of a dead zone right now due to RL stuff.

Last thing I googled:

Non-binary term for niece/nephew. Embarrassed I didn’t know this before. I’m going with nibling.

Favorite season:

Autumn! Halloween, chestnuts, storms, my birthday, the scent of dead leaves, rainy mornings. I just wish it didn’t also mean school starts.

Skill I’d like to learn:

I’d love to get back into drawing. I’m pretty good at copying references or doodling but I haven’t been practicing and it’s hard to find the time. That and learning a musical instrument. And German.

Best advice:

“Lighten up.” – Tom Robbins

Tagging: @the-raging-tempest, @jean-dieu, @yunessa, @spyridonya, @dragonflytehanu, @arrow90-quiver

#tag game

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epicsandwichartonly · 2 months

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Trying to sneak out my comfort zone but stumbling back again

I don't hate triads like this one

I hate different ones

Time: 0:16; Ibis paint x free ver. using finger (phone)

#garf joly au #jon arbuckle #garfield #garfield fanart #art #digital art #EpicSandwichArt

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dramioneasks · 9 months

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Dramione News:

HP Snooze Fest - Posting has begun, 3 dramione fics so far :)

Harry Potter Kink Meme - Round #2, starts Oct 16th - Dec 31st.

Harry Potter Fest Hub - Dark Festivus Gift Exchange, Fest is complete, a masterlist will be posted soon.

HP Yuletide and Mulled Wine Fest - Fest is complete, a masterlist will be posted soon.

HP Deflower December - Fest runs all Dec.

HP Fanfic Writer’s Guild - Comfort Zone Fest, Fics due Jan 21st.

HP Soulmates Secret Santa - Fest is complete, a masterlist will be posted soon.

HP Festival of Stars - Posting has begun, 7 dramione so far!

HP Knotfest - Claiming is open, ends Jan 15th.

Dramione Fanfiction Forum/The Slytherin Cabal - Twistmas, Fest is complete, a masterlist will be posted soon.

Wheel of the Year Fest - Fest is complete, fics this round?

HP Animagi Week - Prompts will be revealed Jan 8th.

HP Goldenage - Salt and Pepper Fest, claiming has begun. Fics due Feb 18th.

HP BardFest - Claiming is closed, fics due Feb 7th.

HP Eiffel Tower Fest - Signups and claiming is open, closed Jan 31st.

HP Yuletide Bliss - Fest is complete, no dramione this year :(

New Year’s Countdown - Posting closes Dec 31st. No dramione so far :(

HP Triad!Fest - Claiming closes Feb 7th.

The Three Broomsticks - The Twelve Days of Yule Bash, Fest runs from Dec 11th - 22nd, prompts are available to view.

Kinks of Knockturn Alley - Kinkmas, Fest runs all Dec, Prompts are available to view.

D/Hr Advent - Fest runs all Dec.

hp_bunintheoven - Prompting from Jan 6th - 18th.

Love Is In The Air Fest - Prompting and claiming open from Dec 15th - Jan 30th.

HP Trans Fest - Prompting from Mar 31st - Apr 14th.

The Great Wizarding Feast Fest - Signups open from Mar 1st - Apr 30th.

HP Springtide Festival - Prompting open from Dec 20th - Jan 3rd.

#dramione news

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pokemonfangame · 1 year

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You are Vinny Vinesauce a streamer from Staten Island, New York. On one Sunday night, you planned to play a mysterious game made by your community titled Vinemon: Sauce Edition.

The game is loaded up but your house's power flickers on and off while the internet fully cuts out. Do not presume this was the doing of vineRizon. The power that calls you to this world is far greater than that of those internet providers.

As you exit your house you find you aren't in Staten Island anymore but in a region called "Fanoth". As you look for answers to why you were brought here you discover that Imakuni was also brought to this world and is now your next-door rival. When you begin to share notes a sudden explosion happens and you both rush outside to see the cause of it. You discover the professor panicked and the only Vinemon he has left for you to use is a Water-Typed Vinemon named Scoot.

After being given Scoot and a battle with your rival & friend Imakuni, You are given the VineGar to keep track of quests, manage your PC, and check the map of the region.

As you overlook the map you begin to realize this world is strikingly familiar. Yet these places feel completely different from the ones you visited in the past on stream.

As you travel the region you will meet many of the characters you've created and encountered while streaming. This includes iconic video game mascots, Original Characters (donut steel), Celebrities, Memes, Streamers, YouTubers, and many more!

Explore, Battle, and Catch in Vinemon before it's too late. After all, you still got a Sunday Stream to put on and you can't leave chat alone unattended.

Features:

211 Vinemon

76+ New Items

158+ New Moves

61+ New Abilities

182+ Diverse Songs

104+ Unique Trainers

Aprox. 40+ Hours of Gameplay

Quest System

Multiple Save Files

Autosave

Custom Pause Menu

IV & EV Stat Menu

Keyboard Mapping

VineGear PC Storage

Advanced Dex

Modified EBS

HM Items

Lots of Mini-Games

Game Corner

Unique & Custom Shinies

Corruptions (Alt. Shiny)

Cable Club

Animated OW Cutscenes

Reborn Battle Animations

Original Songs & Covers

Unique Region

Custom Egg Sprites & Anims.

Quality of Life Breeding

Egg Reward Program

Triple Triad Club Challenges

Reworked Safari Zone

Majorly Enhanced Battle AI

Progress Improves Wild Al

Gym Leader Rematches

#Pokemon #Pokemon fan art #Pokemon fan game #Vinemon Sauce Edition #vinesauce #fakemon mixed with pokemon #just download to play #This might look like a silly meme game that you'd only enjoy if you're into Vinesauce but these devs have been working hard for years #PVP enabled

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burninface · 4 months

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Weekly Tag Wednesday

Thank you again for tagging me ling!@lingy910y

name: face

your time zone: GMT+8

favorite food:🍟

your eye color:dark black but according to ling they’re opaque (high five!

do you have curly, wavy, or straight hair? straight but always knotted like curly

coffee or tea? coffee

you can only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what is it? hard one, emmm I want to choose one of the queen's, but too weird to live, too rare to die by p!atd maybe

how many countries have you visited? 3 and they're all asian countries

favorite social media platform (other than tumblr): mastodon maybe (since I don't interact with others much, they're all the same to me

if you had to be reincarnated as an animal, what would you want to be? seagull, I want to rob 🍟

relationship status: I'm a litho so I'm quite likely to be single forever

did you go to college? if so, what did you study? yes, major in occupational therapy

you’ve just made a letterboxd account. what are your top 4 films? a fistful of dollars(I love the whole triad), thelma & louise, eat drink man woman, singin in the rain

what’s one of your pet peeves? the sound of smacking lips and slurping (only loudly)

what’s one of your guilty pleasures? deliberately putting things off to deadline as a way to force out inspiration

and finally, if you could learn any skill, what skill would you want to learn? how to social with others in person without panicking

since I've already done it late...no tagging others this time, just do it if you want! (wait did I forget to tag others last time?? sorry, promise I'll tag someone next week!!😢

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redstringraven · 1 year

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an excruciatingly long ramble about the ‘03 turtles and the enneagram 🐢💜 pt4

[ intro + disclaimers post ] [ pt 2 - raph ] [ pt 3 - leo ] [ pt 5 - mikey ]

don, 5 with a 4 wing

addendums: [ 1 ]

intro

alright, donnie-bear, it’s your turn in the spotlight. which i know you hate, so i’ll try not to keep you too long.

don doesn’t really get to have like… a season-wide growth or 'arc' of sorts (leo’s is a main focus of season four and raph’s is more of a subtle thing you can notice as the series progresses). what’s interesting is, in some ways, being a 5 could explain that. IF we wanted to be charitable and say never addressing the wild shit don goes through was intentional. but i know that’s more self-indulgence or wanting to gently take the writers by their shoulders and shake them on my end.

please, flying spaghetti monster, get these boys some goddamn therapy.

let’s begin.

bare basics of the 5

5s are one of the three withdrawn types (along with 4s and 9s), and they’re members of the head triad (made of 5s, 6s and 7s).

the withdrawn types lack differentiation between their conscious self and their unconscious, unprocessed thoughts, impulses and feelings. their unconsciousness constantly wells up into consciousness through daydreams and fantasies. all three of the withdrawn types respond to stress by moving away from engagement with the world around them and into an “inner safe haven” in their imagination. in other words, they have a habit of “zoning out”.

the head triad may also be referred to as the ‘thinking’, ‘reason’ or ‘fear’ triad. members of this triad are concerned with anxiety; they carry a great deal of fear and are driven by it. they feel they experience a lack of support and guidance, and because of this they often engage in behaviors they believe will enhance their safety and security. they take in and relate to the world through the mind, and they tend to think and plan carefully before they act. 5s externalize it, 6s internalize it, and 7s forget it.

a 5’s basic fear is that of being helpless, useless, overwhelmed or incapable

their basic desire is to be capable and competent

they believe they’ll be okay so long as they have mastered something

childhood take-aways

as you likely expect, we return to the quote from master splinter in things change (s1ep1):

“your path in life will not be an easy one. the outside world will not be a friendly place for you. you four are different in ways the surface dwellers would never understand. to survive, you must master these skills i teach you: the powers of stealth and secrecy. you must become kage, shadow warriors, and you must never be discovered by the outside world.”

young 5s tend to be quiet children who occupy their time with books, collecting insects or plants, learning a musical instrument, using a computer, or playing board games or with chemistry sets rather than participate in play with their peers. anxious parents might find themselves coaxing their young 5 into basic activities--joining a sports team or going to a playground--in an effort for their child to be more ‘normal’; these efforts are often met with intense resistance from the 5. the 5 will sometimes feel overwhelmed by their protective figures, and they'll seek out other ways to feel secure and confident.

as children, 5s see the world around them with startling clarity. they elaborate on it in their minds, which will have repercussions later on for better or for worse. these types value independence--or, more accurately: non-intrusion. early on, 5s learn to believe that by not asking much from you, you won't ask much of them; through that, 5s attain safety and a feeling of control. as a way of defending themselves, they learn to cut themselves off from nurturance--any painful feelings of need and longing--by staying in their minds.

something i find interesting about the lesson (s3ep13) in retrospect of the enneagram is what don and leo choose to focus on when teaching a young casey. now, i know in some way the choices were kind of narrative jokes (as well as poking fun at the fact they’re like eight-years-old and trying to teach something complex like martial arts) but i think, in don’s case, there’s a bit more going on.

leo, who in his older years more focuses on strategy, went for meditation as his starting point (likely remembering where his own ninjitsu training might have begun and wanting to do it 'right') whereas don went for strategy as HIS starting point.

one could argue that out of the four brothers, don is the ‘weakest’ fighter (in terms of technique and natural skill, NOT physical strength; i will get to that). rather than focus on where his ninjitsu training began and giving casey the chance to see if his own physical abilities can develop, don goes right into where he knows HE’S capable: the thinking aspect. planning.

splinter says “to survive, you must master these skills”, and here is a young don already recognizing that out of the four of them, he needs to rely on something more than just ninjitsu skills alone.

don’s best tool in an actual confrontation at this point--what would keep him capable and ‘not useless’--would be navigating a battlefield strategically and keeping himself one step ahead of his opponent.

in flashbacks from tales of leo (s1ep19), we can see don’s built himself a little robot car. this, obviously, will serve no form of protection or security in an actual fight or time of emergency; it’s a toy. he’s a child with a still-developing brain and knowledge of the craft. there's no context to if this story takes place before or after the events of the lesson, but it's evident he's already pursuing other areas to (hopefully!) master outside of ninjitsu that could aid him later.

don as a 5

5s can sometimes be nicknamed: ‘the thinker’, ‘the innovator’, ‘the observer’, ‘the sage’, ‘the specialist’, ‘the radical’, or ‘the expert’.

more than any type, 5s want to find out why things are the way they are. behind their relentless pursuit of knowledge is a deep insecurity about their ability to function successfully. 5s feel that they do not have an ability to do things as well as others. they believe in the safety and security of their own minds.

5s are highly motivated by a desire to understand. to them, gathering knowledge and mastering information are keys to survival. 5s collect and horde information like dragons to gold; they want to know at least a little bit about every obscure topic. they don’t want to appear foolish or uninformed, or be humiliated by not having the correct answer. while don’s physically present at the hockey game in the golden puck (s2ep18), he’s got his nose in a book about the sport's history. this could not only be his 5’s desire to collect information, but also an attempt to understand something casey (and maybe by proxy, raph) is interested in.

5s have a presentational or lecture-like “talking style”; if you ask them what they feel, they’re more likely to tell you what they think. due to this, they tend to respond to problems rather than react to them. it’s this ability that helps don stay as the level-head out of the four brothers. like 9s, 5s are able to remain neutral and see both sides of a conflict. but where a 9 might be worried about hurt feelings, a 5 will look at the situation objectively and shoot straight with you (a contributing reason to why raph might respond better to don calling him out than leo or mikey; don is always going to be straight-forward with him, something 8s, as we covered, value). raph and leo, being on the gut-triad, have a tendency to react to their instinct, and mikey doesn’t always slow down enough to exercise his 5 (it’s his security number, and we’ll get to that).

from a narrative/’tope’ standpoint, you could look at don having 'random' knowledge outside of his usual science and engineering expertise as him filling his narrative role as “the smart one”, but his 5 could also serve as an explanation for why he just… can either read or recognize an italian phrase in the darkness within (s3ep14) or why he has a pigeon puppet in search for splinter (s1ep25) that my bird-loving ass continues to be DELIGHTED over to this day. a 5 never wants to be put in a position where they have to depend on others to take care of them. the idea of losing their independence and self-reliance terrifies them. so, they gather all sorts of information and ideas and resources they deem potentially useful later.

and semi-due to this, the average 5 has a bit of a scarcity mentality. they’re careful to measure how much time they’re spending with others in comparison to time they spend honing their abilities to master something or expand their knowledge. this might lead to them hoarding their space, time, and even affection. it’s common for a 5 to have a space that is THEIR space. this could be as small as a specific chair they always retreat to for reading (that they get a little territorial about should you find yourself sitting in it one day), a corner of the garage, or a larger space such as a study or work-room. don, of course, has his lab which seems to be a (questionably) repurposed subway car for the majority of the series. i don’t know how he got it in the lair… that’s a question for another day. and given a 5’s secrecy and independence it, frankly, wouldn’t surprise me if no one knows how he got it in there. we'll touch on that more in a bit.

don’s wing was probably the hardest for me to pin down out of the brothers. i remember on the same site i saw raph being labeled as an 8w9, don was a 5w6. it took a lot of thinking, a lot of reviewing, but i’ve decided i disagree.

it’s possible he might reach for the 6’s influence from time to time, but i decided on 4 for two key reasons:

5s with a 6 wing tend to be more argumentative and will even actively antagonize people who disagree with them and their views (gives me more stockman energy than it does don; not saying stockman is a 5, tho), and

when mikey’s talking about the different freedoms they all have due to leo shouldering most of the responsibility in samurai tourist (s4ep13), he says don’s free to ‘dream’.

mikey’s insight and that word choice are important. again, i can’t help but wonder if the site’s decision to give don a 6 for a wing was to fully put him on the thinking triad rather than give him a foot in the feeling triad.

the 4’s influence brings with it the more surreal and fantastical; 5w4s are more creative and often seek niches unexplored by others, able to tap into the imaginative side of their brain rather than only the analytic. i think it goes without saying that several of don’s inventions are outside the norm and incredibly creative and innovative. the tunneler, whose existence would even be the undoing of the shredder in another world, is a fantastic example of this. additionally, don's limited access to resources forces him to think and problem-solve more even creatively, and i wouldn't be surprised if that fueled and developed his 4 more than his 6.

5s with a 4 wing are sometimes nicknamed ‘the iconoclast’. they’re creative, sensitive, and empathetic. they’re not always sure what to do with their feelings and prefer to process them in solitude. these 5s are more prone to experiencing melancholy, but they’re less emotionally guarded around others and tend to be better at being kind to themselves. they tend to be more creative than the other sub-type; their tinkering with familiar forms, ideas and concepts can lead to startling innovations. they’re often drawn to the arts, and their curiosity and perceptiveness combine with the desire to express their unique and personal visions.

stress & security numbers

don’s stress number is a 7, so in times of high stress and low spirits he’ll begin to express the negative traits associated to 7s. stressed 5s hoard and cling more tightly to things, make their world smaller and smaller, and will turn their attention away from the needs of others. in worst-case scenarios, they might refuse to help at all or even become hostile to the suggestion, as it would require them to use their valuable time, energy and resources that keep THEM safe. they might become frivolous, disorganized and distracted to the point of not being able to complete tasks and stop thinking about the consequences of their behavior. they’ll begin feeling even more inadequate, feel sorry for themselves, and do whatever they can to avoid pain.

these 5s become more impulsive, their minds speed up--restless and agitated--and they feel more compelled to distract themselves. under extreme stress, they might even become aggressive and insensitive in their pursuit of… whatever it is they want at the time.

examples of don’s 7 showing up could include:

his outburst at his brothers at the start of return to the underground (s2ep13), his frustration with himself for not being able to find a cure for their friends below, and remaining confined/isolated to his lab while his brothers continue to go about their lives and other activities

straight up ripping professor honeycutt’s head off in worlds collide pt1 (s3ep5) because he panicked. funny as it was, mikey’s right… that was kind of extreme. aggressive, impulsive, and insensitive, one might even say

we get a glimpse of one of don’s workstations in bad day (s4ep8) and it's a complete mess. it’s possible that leo’s shift in attitude is wearing don down internally. he’s not taking care of his spaces, and he might not be taking care of himself much, either.

in dragons rising (s4ep10), when leo’s hanging off the back of a truck and mikey’s sliding on the hood of the battleshell, there's a pair of dragons in a truck behind them. those dragons rear-end the battleshell, and don doesn’t hesitate to shoot a fucking missile right into the driver’s seat. had those dragons not thought fast enough to bail, they'd be off the census.

also in this episode, after don tries to look on the bright side (saying they stopped half the convoy) and leo snaps at him, he’s turned away from leo for the rest of the scene--he’s even cut out of the frame in one shot. boy has: completely withdrawn from the ‘conversation’ while the others remain engaged and listening.

don’s security number is an 8, so when mentally and spiritually healthy he’ll begin to adopt the positive traits associated with 8s. with the influence of their 8, 5s become more spontaneous, outspoken and physically present. they get energetic, confident, and much more talkative. the difference can be quite striking to people, leading to playful questions like “what’s gotten into don today?”.

secure 5s become more willing to participate rather than just observe. they feel empowered to take on major challenges, and some will even pursue or assume leadership roles. rather than fear the loss of the abilities or expertise that they’ve been careful to cultivate in isolation, they harness those skills strategically and constructively. they come out of their own heads and embrace a deeper contact with their vitality and physicality. they can take on a whimsical or dark sense of humor, and take delight in puns and wordplay. a more mischievous, lively and elfin side of them begins to show through. a 5 who wants to experience the abundance of life without worrying about what they can afford to lose is one on the high side of an 8.

examples of don’s 8 surfacing could include:

whenever we see him engaging in play with his brothers; he’s not only choosing to be present and share his time with them, but he also seems to--pardon the pun--come out of his shell a bit more. examples could include darkness at the edge of town (s1ep6), reflections (s2ep9), space invaders pt 1 (s3ep2), nobody’s fool (s3ep11), and time travails (s3ep17)

in the king (s1ep16) when the champions all battle cry and rush into the fight, he joins them. battle cry and all. fucking dweeb.

suggesting they all go get ice cream in the ultimate ninja (s2ep10); it’s small, but don’s choosing to not only remain present but to leave the lair and do an unplanned activity with the others

any time he exercises that gentleman’s snark of his, but i’m going to choose a class favorite: “nighty night, dragon-boy” from cousin sid (s4ep1)

how giddy and talkative he is at the start of return of savanti (s4ep20).

don’s 8 is subtle, but it breaks his habitual patterns. people who aren’t that familiar with him might think this is just him behaving ‘normally’, but those who do know him understand that he prefers being left to his projects, studies, and ideas. when he chooses to not only be present in the moment and spend his valuable time with his loved ones, it’s him leaving his safe spaces, risking to use up those resources he so carefully maintains and allowing himself to feel good and be confident in areas he’s normally not. his 8’s a little difficult to spot, but it’s there if you know how to spot a 5 dipping their toe into gremlin-mode. and it is highly endearing.

just don’t tell sam regiel that, he lives 24/7 in gremlin-mode, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally, none of us are safe--

cardinal sins - 5 and greed

much in the way that raph’s cardinal sin wasn’t a surface-level explanation, neither is don’s. because i can already hear some folks protesting in regard to how generous and selfless he is. i hear you, and you’re correct. materialistically, 5s can be extremely generous. … however, as the greediest greed to ever greed once said:

“you humans think greed is only about money and power. but everybody wants something they don't have.”

remember that the thinking and head triad can also be called the ‘fear’ triad, and that types in this triad struggle with and are driven by fear. fear makes 5s shrink inward, and avarice makes them hoard whatever minimal resources they have around them. their greed, their avarice, focuses on their inner resources, their energy, and their time. they’re greedy for knowledge and improving their expertise, and they can easily feel intruded upon and learn to protect themselves by emotionally withdrawing from people.

5s want to conserve their energy and resources in order to avoid needing others too much, trying to take as little from the environment and those around them as possible. they feel as though there is not much of them to go around, and the needs of others can deplete or exhaust them. don even laments in his official profile that he longs for the day he can be left alone to explore his interests, and that maybe someday "he'll have the time he needs".

in new blood (s3ep12) don 'cheats' at their game of ninja hide-and-seek by using nightvision goggles to quickly find his brothers. he's both making up for, in his mind, his natural skill at the game, and he's possibly looking to speed things up a bit so he can return to what HE wants to use his time doing. i think it's also worth noting that in city at war pt3 (s2ep16), don’s the one who asks karai what’s in it for them should they agree to help her. in exchange for the valuable resources the turtles will give to help karai (their time, their energy, their literal safety), what do they get in return?

it’s also important to recognize that 5s consider information a resource. due to this, 5s are extremely private and secretive people. it’s rare for any one person to know everything about a 5; each colleague or friend might have a part of a 5’s story, but no one person or even group of people will have the whole story. 5s might even go out of their way to not introduce certain circles of friends to each other due to an underlying fear that they all might talk to each other and be able to piece together what information about the 5 they have. that information--their lives and experiences--is THEIRS. keeping that hidden away, not sharing that resource, is a method of security.

i think we get a fair amount of glimpses into this aspect of don throughout the series, and the first is quite earliy on, but small. when they meet april (s1ep3), don’s not the one who introduces himself as the tech-wiz in the group. mikey’s the one who talks him up, and don even tells him to ‘cut it out’ (even if he says this playfully or humbly, this is not technically mikey's information to share).

the way mikey reacts to don's pigeon puppet suggests this is the first time any of them have seen the silly thing. as far as we know, he never tells his brothers about the events of the king (s1ep16) or that he got tortured by triceratons (s3ep3)--FOR information, at that!--or about where he went in same as it never was (s3ep21). and the whole time he’s sick in the latter half of season 4, he keeps brushing it off as just a bug bite and then a cold. he’s probably in a lot more discomfort than he ever lets on, but… eh, no one needs to know that. it’s probably nothing. this is both HIS information… and, also, leans into the 5’s negative trait of neglecting their own health in stressed states and minimizing their own comfort. they don’t want to have to rely on anyone for anything.

as with raph and leo, let’s also peek at the other cardinal sins associated with don: with his 4 wing, 7 stress and 8 security, the others in his circle would be envy, gluttony, and lust respectively.

SaiNW and don straight up disappearing

a gentle content warning for mention of death in the last paragraph of this section. i know it’s kind of a ‘dead dove, do not eat’ situation with this being sainw and all, but just so you know it’s coming.

as i mentioned in an earlier section, don’s 5 aids him in being the level-head in the family. sainw!mikey even remarks on this in the episode (that "they really needed that level-head of his"). i mentioned in that same section that mikey does have access to the 5, with it being his security number, but… given the environment of sainw, i think it’s fair to say that all of the turtles would have been in the most unhealthy state of their core number. this would mean mikey’s 5 is closed off, and he’d be leaning more into his 1. they, as a team, had lost their links to any of the positive influence that could have come from the 5’s respond over react nature.

don’s disappearance is left vague, not only to us as the viewers but also to his family. he just disappeared. and when his brothers finally see him again thirty years later, it’s not even their don. they're just as in the dark as we are, meaning there was no big fight or blow up or otherwise ‘obvious explanation’ as to why don would have left without a word.

i discussed leo and raph's types at their highest and lowest points, so let's pause to take a look at don's real quick. at their healthiest, 5s can be described as: participating and visionary, observant and perceptive, focused and innovative. at their unhealthiest, they become: nihilistic and eccentric, horrified and delirious, oblivion seeking and self-annhilating.

the series itself is officially twenty years old, and sainw is one of the most utilized episodes when it comes to the creation of fanworks, so i’m sure just about every reason under the sun has been either touched upon or hinted at or explored to explain why don vanished the way he did. and, sadly, thanks to don’s 5, they could all work in my opinion. it’s painfully simple.

5s, due to their need for independence as well as their reluctance to talk about themselves, are the types of people who will leave the house without a word. if they realize the house coffee supply is running low, they’ll grab their keys and head out to the store. they have a library book that's due soon, so rather than go directly home after work like they usually do they'll detour to drop it off. maybe they just feel like taking a walk; out the door they go. no “hey, i’m heading out, be back in ten!”, no text, no post-it note, nothing. it’s not a reflection on how they feel about you or anyone else, it’s just how they are.

it wouldn’t surprise me at all if don was guilty of this. maybe in the middle of a project he realizes he needs something from the junkyard, flings his duffel over his shoulder and just heads out to go grab it real quick. if no one happens to cross his path between his lab and the garage door, he won’t go out of his way to tell anyone where he's off to or that he's leaving at all. they probably won’t know unless one of them text or call him (rip leo and raph’s stress-o-meters). there’s, of course, a chance his family has caught onto this habit and requested he let SOMEONE know, but… that also means don would have to comply to that. be it intentionally ignoring this request or maybe just being too wrapped up in his work or creative excitement to get what he needs and continue making progress that he just plain forgets to say something, who knows.

sainw!don likely did the same thing, and his exit would have likely been paired with a more unhealthy and stressed state of being. for some reason, a reason we’ll never have, he left their hideout and all dialogue/evidence points to no one happening to cross his path on his way out to learn where he was going.

maybe he just needed air. maybe he was trying to get supplies. maybe he got captured and/or killed while he was out there. maybe there are details surrounding casey and/or splinter’s death that we don’t have that caused him to actually want to break off from the others and go on his own (the 7 in him stopping him from being attentive to the needs of others and withdrawing in full, hostile to helping). maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a genuine, unrelated accident cost him his life and no one knew where he was or even to go looking for him when he never came back. we don’t know and we never will. it's another layer to the tragedy of the episode.

[ryan bergara voice] what happened to sainw!donatello will always remain… unsolved.

i’m sorry, if i don’t meme at least once in this section i will be depressed for the rest of the day, let’s move on.

brains and brawn? you mean don.

this has been commented on in the fandom a handful of times over the years: don’s probably the strongest, physically, out of the brothers. yeah, stronger than raph. there’s evidence not only in-series, but if you consider the enneagram aspect of don and his 5, it opens another perspective into some of the things we might not get to see on screen.

take don’s independence for example. the fact he doesn’t ever want to have to rely on anyone else. sure, yeah, being in danger out on the field--he’s aware of when he needs help and will ask for it in that aspect, as he has recognized that ninjitsu is not the ‘skill’ he has mastered or has aimed TO master… but he’s not going to ask his brothers for help moving things around in his lab (especially given that his lab is one of HIS spaces). he’s going to do it himself, even if he has to spend two days building a one-use pulley system to make it happen. this is the enneagram type who just flat out leaves the house without telling anyone anything. you think he’s gonna wander out of his lab and ask someone to help him move a giant tire if he can figure out a way to do it himself? hell no. god forbid.

think about all the shit don has to move on a day to day basis to build and fix and modify the stuff he does. the average weight of an eight-cylinder car engine is between 400 to 700 pounds (that’s 181kg to 317kg). and the original battleshell wasn’t just a van, either, it was an armored car they ‘borrowed’ from the purple dragons (s1ep1). we see that he has a car engine removed and suspended while he fixes it in lone raph and cub (s1ep24) and it's fucking huge. it’s so funny to think that raph is over here like “i’m gonna be so strong [works out in his free time]” and meanwhile don’s out beside some abandoned car somewhere with the hood propped open like “hmm… i COULD call one of my brothers and ask them to help me strip this engine out and get it home… but i could also not do that [proceeds to not do that and gets it home himself]”.

i acknowledge that some of these can be dismissed as "cartoon physics", but humor me for a paragraph.

given that everyone else was busy fighting, don had to've dragged stockman's robotic arm--which is bigger than him--from inside the building to the outer edge all on his own in return to new york pt3 (s1ep23) so he can cover raph from the roof. we’ve seen don single-handedly lift a metal beam off his person (s2ep20), we’ve seen him stop an underwater fan with his staff and force it to stay still (s3ep9), we’ve seen him jam his staff into solid fucking cement cement (s2ep14), when everyone was getting sucked into the portal at the end of the battle nexus it was traximus--the eight foot triceraton--THEN don keeping the chain anchored to the ground (s2ep26), he’s thrown triceratons around with his own two hands--lifted one out of a vehicle even (s2ep4), he dragged two of his unconscious brothers toward the pedestal in april’s artifact (s2ep21), he and raph are both bearing the brunt of the weight of a slab of roof after the foot’s training building collapses in city at war (s2ep15), he’s been at the top of the turtle chain at least twice in the series when they’re hanging off of something (s1ep2 & s3ep26) which means he’s holding up roughly 720 pounds with just his own damn hands and arms.

in his pursuit to master mechanics while being fully independent in doing so, not needing to rely on his brothers to help him move things from the junkyard to his lab to the final piece, he’s unknowingly made himself the team muscle, too. my brother in bushido, do you even lift? yes.

anyway the entire point of this section is to say that whenever i see 03 don written as the physically weak one because he’s the nerd and not the most skilled fighter, i’m immediately yeeting myself out of the conversation. he’ll scrap with you in the vacant lot behind the arby’s and win.

yet another section about the first half of season 4

since we talked about raph and leo’s perspectives in this area of the show--and since i plan on dedicating a section for mikey in his post--don deserves a lookover as well.

if you were to ask me who was probably coping the worst with the outcome of exodus, it’d obviously be leo. duh. but if you were to ask me who was coping the worst aside from leo, i would place my money on don. the series doesn’t allow him to process like it did with leo, and if you zoom out a bit and look at season 3… there’s not a lot of time, we can assume, between sainw and exodus. narratively, there are three episodes, but two of them (the real world parts 1 and 2) take place on the same day as sainw. in both sainw and exodus, don is the last man standing at the end of the fight. in sainw he defeats the shredder after his brothers have perished. in exodus, master splinter and his brothers are all downed. leo and raph are even lying beside each other again. the whole thing had to’ve been too close for comfort on a variety of levels. a slap of deja-vu he didn’t ask for and that no one else in the room is going to understand.

we don’t get to see a lot of don directly engaging with leo’s shift in attitude throughout the earlier half of season four and, maybe while not purposeful by the writers, i think at least some of that could be contributed to his 5 dipping into his 7. where raph is challenging leo’s attitude shift and starting to push him away by becoming hostile (as a way of protecting himself), don is just straight up not engaging with leo at all if he can help it. in his head, he doesn’t have the energy or capacity to deal with this right now. his own inner resources are low, he’s still healing from sainw and exodus on his own, and not only does he not want anyone to know about that, he just can’t deal with leo’s needs at the moment.

his shared glee with raph over mikey having to do a rematch with kluh (s4ep6) could even be attributed to his 7’s desperate and scattered need for a distraction--a change of pace--oh, thank god, not only will this keep leo’s attention off ME and he’ll stop dragging me into training, but maybe it’ll humble mikey enough to get him to stop antagonizing raph for a day because the air around here is already too tense.

when we get to the opening of samurai tourist (s4ep13), don points out that raph’s right in recognizing leo’s shift in behavior is getting worse, but he does so in a way that's uncharacteristically removed for him.

“leo’s gotten really intense. ever since our final showdown with the shredder, he just seems so… angry."

like... this is an extremely surface level observation for the same guy who noticed that they very well could have been in nano’s position had master splinter not been a good person (s2ep11), or who pointed out to mikey that he shouldn’t call the undergrounders ‘monsters’ when to most people they are ALSO monsters (s1ep14), or who connected the dots that if it hadn’t been for the shredder they never would have become mutants (s2ep9), or who didn’t hesitate to give zog a breathing aid because he knew oxygen was poisonous to him (s2ep19)--just to name a few instances.

don has consistently throughout the series been empathetic and aware of the experiences and emotions and needs of the people they encounter. now, one of the people he knows better than anyone else on the planet has drastically changed, but all he can say is that he seems angry. don isn’t in a healthy enough place to feel secure in using his inner resources to spend on leo. they’ve all likely been focused inward and on keeping himself afloat, keeping his own struggles invisible and minimized, keeping his head down while tensions rise between raph and leo.

again, i wish so badly that the series had taken the time to explore the ripple effect of leo’s damage as well as any healing that the other brothers needed to do rather than simply saying “they’ve all healed, but you, leo, have not”. because i just don’t believe that. i do like that the brothers seem to be responding in their own ways to leo’s shift, with don and raph being on the unhealthier end of that and mikey being on the healthy side, but… yeah. wish we had a half season to explore all of them. guess that’s what fanfiction’s for.

conclusion

as mentioned in part 1, the two books i referenced and heavily pulled from in the more enneagram-focused sections of this project (the parts where the enneagram itself is explained rather than how it applies to the turtles) were:

the wisdom of the enneagram by don richard riso & russ hudson

the road back to you by ian morgan cron & suzanne stabile

oh my god, i can’t believe i only have one post left in this series to do. after over a year of working on this thing to finally see it come to a close is kind of wild. honestly, it was getting to the point i was wondering if i’d do it at all (which is why i just FORCED myself to post the disclaimer post as a way of holding myself accountable jfdkls).

anyway, i’m very excited. mikey’s the last one to go, and--as i had a reason i chose to cover raph first--i have a reason i chose to cover mikey last. the reason might be evident if you’ve been paying attention, too. but i’ll elaborate on that a bit more once we get into the post itself. u-u/!

thank you so, so much for reading yet again, and i hope you enjoy the warm drinks and snacks i set out for you. see you in the next one!

#tmnt #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt don #tmnt donatello #;tmnt #;hannah's meta #;tmnt enneagram #;donatello #[ LET'S GO LADS. ONE MORE TO WRITE. ]

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squirrels-are-sleeping · 3 months

Text

Counter/Weight 27: An Animal out of Context, Liveblog

(It has come to this, I've got to do reaction posts, otherwise I shall explode)

We're in the past! Austin and Jack are building a religion/history/myth/origin story!

JACK: … And on this planet, things are very, very bad … because something is telling these people exactly how much timber they need to cut, and every day that number is going up, and already we have a name for this thing– JACK: … –and it is called Rigour and we built it. … It’s really, really bad, and we want more than anything else … we wanna chop down trees. We wanna keep producing, but more than anything else, we want to throw off the yoke that Rigour has us under.

So the villain is actually the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?? Or more precisely, something like if Taylorism (my beloathed) and the Protestant Ethic were taken to an extreme and had a very ugly robotic child

AUSTIN: … The relic is a mapping system. … See, normally, your maps are controlled by Rigour. You see where you can go, and normally … your personal lumberjack rigger only can have a zone of operation inside of zones that Rigour determines. … It automatically, like an automated car, drives you to a place. … Now you can move wherever you want. … [T]his is the Liberty in the Liberty and Discovery system. I am the Divine of Liberty and Discovery.

OK, so there's probably a lot to say about metaphors of divinity as they apply to Divines. It's not super clear to me to what extent the Diasporan culture at the time of the Chime imbues Divines with actual godhood, or whether religions even exist as the kind of cultural practices that we would recognise, separate from veneration of big-ass machines.

However, it's clear that, when the events of this Tower game occur, the only Divine that's existed up until now is Rigour, and he is not even called that. It would seem like the only thing framing Liberty and Discovery as divinities is the framework of the game itself.

And yet, one of the first actions that Liberty and Discovery perform is, in effect, world-making. The Pilgrim's world up until now was defined by Rigour, but now he has a map - and in a literal sense, the map doesn't simply describe a different place, it creates a new world for him. In this way, Liberty and Discovery do what divinities do.

AUSTIN: Okay. The Divine names the pilgrimage. This is the Pilgrimage of the Opposite of Alone.

Fuck, that's beautiful and weird, and a little sinister. What's the opposite of "alone"? It's not "together", because for the Pilgrim there's no sense of togetherness.

And in one room, you see a– a single… screen on with a sort of logo on it, an L and a D. The D is holding the L close. They are intimate for a logo.

First of all, what a descriptor to choose for a logo.

Second of all, are Liberty and Discovery separate selves? Or are they a composite self, Liberty-and-Discovery? Is AuDy going to be a triad when they wake up?

AUSTIN: The name, by the way, that it gives you, starts to feel good in your mouth. It’s Chital. C-H-I-T-A-L.

This is interesting. At first I interpreted this piece as him re-discovering what he was called before he was named for his Juggernaut. But no, actually. He doesn't claim a name, the name is still coming from the Divine. He is named, and accepts it.

JACK: [T]o pay off my saw blade… I have a detachable saw blade. So … my ability to chop down trees goes up significantly more. I chop down four times as many trees. … AUSTIN: And this is how you honor my– my relics. Okay. JACK: I don't know anything about you. AUSTIN: You know a couple things. JACK: Well, you’ve given me a saw blade. AUSTIN: Mm.

Ooof, the world of disappointment and judgement in this exchange. If my deity said "mm" to me in that voice, I might lie down and have a cry

AUSTIN: I think that the way space months work– one of the ways they work here, at least– is that most people don’t know what all of the different seasons are on all of the different major planets. But everyone knows one or two special things about one or two planets, right? And so, you know, everyone knows about the beautiful winter month on the planet of Garden where, for nine months out of the 10-month year, it is this beautiful spring. And then there’s this one month of just fierce winter storms for a week, and then it’s just a beautiful winter playground for the remaining three weeks. Everybody knows the name of that month. No one knows what the third spring month is like, but everyone knows what that one is.

See, here's the reason I fucking love this show. You have to think deeply about human cultures to notice that a calendar is not just for marking the progress of a year, but is a collection of specific meanings entangled with particular cultural circumstances, and what the natural world is doing is only somewhat related to what a month is collectively understood to mean.

AUSTIN: [Rigour] comes across like austerity does now for some people. For those who already have a great deal of power, they hear it, and they go, “Oh, yes, those people do need to be more rigorous, don’t they?”

Let's take a short break to all say "fuck austerity"

AUSTIN: If you’re curious about what the inspiration for Rigour is, it is– JACK: Is it Henry Ford? AUSTIN: –Taylorism and Fordism. It is those practices. Scientific management.

CALLED IT

~Mako's interlude~

AUSTIN: Maybe this is the way you do that, technically you’re in your Larry form, moving around Mako’s memories, you know? I think Larry form just has his hair parted the other way. … KEITH: … Whatever color Mako’s hair and shirt are they match, but for Larry, they match in a slightly different way.

Hold your horses! Is Larry just here now? Hanging out in Mako's brain with Ibex/Righteousness's avatar/whatever that was? AuDy is two Divines (who are maybe one Divine), and Mako is hosting a friendly virus on top of his Evil MIT software?

I'm also extremely here for the Orth/Mako dynamic we discover in this segment, where Orth sets him Tasks and Duties, and Mako acts like a petulant child about it, and both of them are right, and neither of them is right. I daren't go on AO3 because spoilers, but god, I hope somebody has explored this.

Back in the Tower, Chital has installed Righteousness on the L&D mech. Is it now 3 robots in one? Or 1 complex robot?

~Cass's interlude~

AUSTIN: What’s Cass interested in right now? ART: Uhh… I mean, I think, on one sense, Cass is interested in nostalgia right now

…and

AUSTIN: So what’s the meal that Cass had that comes to mind while cooking. ART: I… I think there was a banquet at the beginning of the war … I imagine that [Cass's parents] look… just glorious, right? All five of them, probably. These are their best clothes. … The monarch is wearing a fantastic crown … and all of the family are wearing finery, and they sit and they talk”

The texture of Cass's nostalgia is so interesting. They're grieving for their parent, but the parent was a monarch who'd waged a war of conquest. They'd recently spent a fair amount of time watching a memory in which Sokrates works to prevent mass death from a weapon that their parent had deployed. When they wake, the parent is dead, and Sokrates has taken apart the monarchy and is reigning over its pieces.

Cass flies the mech bequeathed to them, and uses their hereditary cookware to make sad space pasta with fake squid ink, and reminisces about the last time they spent time with their parents and siblings, and it's a huge fucking state banquet.

I'm worried for Cass; they need a hug.

Back in the Tower, Rigour is here :-D The rest of the episode baffled the fuck out of me in terms of mechanics of The Tower. I went back and listened to it twice. Jack drew a Joker, and things became Bad? And then they drew another Joker?

JACK: Yeah. But I don’t think you can judge me based on the presence of the Adversary. AUSTIN: Is that what you think, or is that what Chital thinks? JACK: Oh, no, that’s what I think. I don’t think that you can judge me. I don’t– AUSTIN: Did you live up to your own laws? Did you find loopholes in your own laws? Did you break your own laws? AUSTIN: Did you honor my relics? Did you covet them? Did you disavow them? Distance yourself from them?

Ok but why is Austin so menacing, though

AUSTIN: Did you. Oh, Jack. Oh, Jack. Oh, Jack.

You know things are bad when Austin starts regretfully saying your name like a disappointed school teacher.

Anyway, RIP Chital, you disappointed your judgy mech suit one too many times.

#friends at the table #f@tt #counter/weight #f@tt liveblog #vic listens to f@tt

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