#and talking about larping

[measureyourlifeincake]

OK what about if *you* could sit down and eat and chat with any of your artistic inspirations or artists you admire, who would you choose and what would you feed them and what would you ask?

honestly, my first thought was Jonny Sims and I'd give him some more spicy curry to feed Lovecraft

but my SECOND thought was Brennan Lee Mulligan, partly because I am currently in the middle of watching a Dimension 20 episode, partly because ever since I watched this video that youtube recommended me, I've been lowkey daydreaming about cooking a meal for that man just because I know he'd be so appreciative.

For what we'd eat, it'd have to be something I've already made before (I mean, I'm pretty good at following a recipe, but I'd want this to be a known quantity, y'know), so maybe a risotto? I make a really good mushroom risotto. There's also a pumpkin risotto I made once that was really good, I can make that. Also, my brother and I once made a loaded potato soup that fucked severely, I think he'd like that. (added bonus of giving me a reason to use the immersion blender my mom bought recently for reasons beyond my understanding) I dunno, it has to fit both my criteria of being something I know how to make and can be proud of, and Brennan's criteria (as outlined in the above video) of being "heavy."

As for what I'd ask him (after "what do you think of the food"), I'd probably mostly talk to him about larping. In a manner of speaking, he is responsible for me getting started with larping to begin with (as well as nearly every larp i've ever done), so we'd have a lot to talk about there. I'd definitely want to ask him about the possibility of there being a larp show on dropout and how that would work because that's something I've thought a lot about recently and I'd absolutely want to bring up the idea with him. Also, and this is an extremely specific thing that few people will get but i'd ask him if he knows the origin of tophat/gettysburg and why it's like that.

[randomwriteronline]

btw still not over @crystaltoa 's whole post on narrative and destiny and bionicle characters being aware they're characters but not in a common fourth wall breaking way. Random thinks too hard two electric boogaloo

Like. The Matoran Universe is a fictional universe within the already fictional universe of Bionicle. Like the more realized version of a book in a book. It's a completely artificial manufactured cosmos where essentially nothing is real - most elements are replaced by protodermis, animals and plants are produced, the inhabitants are engineered and built via assembly lines, their sapience was installed post-completion - and the awareness of this is None. Like Crystal mentions in the original post, the characters know they're following Destiny like it's the rough draft of a play and they're actors of the Commedia dell'Arte, taking on certain archetypical roles and adhering more or less closely to their traits and clichés, but that's where the self-awareness ends because to them this is a performance of life, not a pantomime. The nature of the Matoran Universe naturally prevents any knowledge of or contact with the wider "real" universe, so they remain ignorant to how fictitious their existence is and continue to perceive their own reality as the only possible one (ITS THE FUCKING CAVE AGAIN).

Keep this in mind for later.

Now back to Destiny. MU beings seem to have a tendency to conflate or heavily associate it with Mata Nui ("the will of Mata Nui" being used as a synonym for it, the Order of Mata Nui working to ensure it), to the point where it would be fair to assume that the two are one and the same, or that at least Mata Nui has some agency on Destiny; however, while it's true that Mata Nui is heavily tied to Destiny to the point of seeming its incarnation, he just as submitted to it as the rest of the MU beings are, if not possibly more.

In the narrative of Destiny, Mata Nui is at once playing both the Objective and the Ultimate Hero - not in the sense that he's the platonic ideal of the role, but that at the end of the day he is the proper main character, if not the ONLY proper character for it. The concept of Destiny with a capital D is after all a creation of the Great Beings, whose principal concern and endgame is eventually* healing Spherus Magna: since Mata Nui is made for this specific purpose, Destiny exists to ensure he actually follows through with it; since Mata Nui needs to be functional in order to succeed, the narrative of Destiny converges around him and works to compel the MU beings towards keeping him alive. Thus, as mentioned, he is both hero and objective, protagonist and macguffin.

*dont fuckin talk to me abt the great beings and how they provoked the entire plot of bionicle through their tendency towards inaction and apathy. perhaps ill elaborate one day but the jist of it is that i need to bite them in the ass

This duality intrinsic to his character is made explicit by the constant if sometimes faint separation between his soul/spirit/essence ("him" proper) and his body (a "thing" he only inhabits) - causing him to oscillate between being a person and being an object, with the latter often winning over the former especially while he was commanding the Great Spirit Robot. His exile from this incarnation of fiction into the "real" world doesn't unshackle him from the narrative, which is too far above him from him to be escaped just like that, but it does allow him to take a detour outside of it and come into his own self in a way he's been unable to experience until now - because he hasn't exactly been a character at all, let alone an active player. He is first and foremost a tool, a means to an end; he's less reciting/living a part and more doing the job he's been built to do, and this singleminded and utilitarian approach to his identity seems to have been at least part of the problem in how effectively he could perform his task as it prevented him from noticing the problems which then led into the main conflict of Bionicle. By being forcefully exiled from fiction and having to become "real" he finally surpasses this obstacle and gains the mindset and skillset of a proper protagonist, finally realizing his heroic potential to a point where he can put it in practice.

Teridax, on the other hand.

Crystal has said it before because it is true and correct and right, so it's worth saying again: Teridax loves being the Villain. He's enamored with the role to such a disgusting degree that he essentially hoarded it for himself the moment he found out it was an option and nearly everybody else had to be declassed to Lackey or Antagonist in comparison. It's more than a role or a calling - it's a lifestyle. He makes it his whole personality and reason of being, completely abandoning his original purpose as a Makuta (in direct contrast with Mata Nui, who instead focused exclusively on his purpose at the cost of neglecting his role). He revels in the clichés, the monologues, the manipulation, the cruelty, the ominous laughs, the stark shadows, the drama and theatricality of it all. He likes it so much that it literally makes him stupid.

Teridax runs The Plan in tandem with Destiny in order to usurp it, replacing it with his own design in the same way he aims to replace Mata Nui with himself in the role of Great Spirit. In his mind, these are equivalent pairs: Mata Nui coincides with Destiny just like Teridax coincides with The Plan, so by replacing one you replace both, and he gains power not just over the universe but over the story itself.

Of course, as explained above, this is completely wrong: while he can and does run The Plan as parallel to Destiny in a way that makes them effectively overlap, and he does succeed in gaining Mata Nui's power, he remains a character subjugated by a narrative which is completely out of reach for him and continues to influence how the consequences of his actions will ultimately play out. This is immediately obvious to the reader the second he decides to get rid of all his problems by shooting them into space, completely unaware of the fact that the narrative has already made it so that Mata Nui will have the means to reach his objective, get another physical form, and eventually find a replacement for the body he needed for his quest, rendering the Great Spirit Robot mostly obsolete (which will be part of the reason why, again in tandem with Teridax's need for gratuitous cruelty, it will eventually be bested by the technically much worse Prototype Robot), all while Teridax is too busy learning the commands and terrifying his blood cells to realize his genius idea is going to get back at him and curbstomp him into the surface of a moon in roughly a couple of weeks.

But there's more!

Because the Great Spirit Robot is in and of itself a sort of physical manifestation of fiction as the container of the fictional Matoran Universe, it's effectively the most gargantuan vessel of Destiny available in the Bionicle Universe. As such, it is intrisically tied to the rule that dominates both of the stories centered around it: in Destiny's case, that Mata Nui will always succeed; in Bionicle (a story for kids)'s case, that the Villain will always fall to the Hero.

Teridax proudly, confidently and without doubt turns himself into the embodiment of his inevitable defeat.

[centaurianthropology]

Watched the first two episodes of ‘Private Nightmares’ now, and I am really liking the vibe. Having an all-thin-blood coterie is such a different perspective than those we’ve had before. They are at best on the fringes of kindred society, given the shittiest jobs and could be set up to fail constantly. They aren’t really told anything by anyone.

Is this version of LA predominately Anarch? Predominately Camarilla? Who the hell knows?? Certainly not our coterie. So interestingly, while this is absolutely a story about helplessness in an uncaring system, it doesn’t yet feel like the game of politics that LA/NYbN often were. They are so far beneath the politics they can’t even see the shape of the board where they’re being moved.

So it makes perfect sense that they see what is 100% the coolest and most horrifying description of a Lasombra I’ve heard in a minute, and they are terrified of her, but they also see an opportunity. No matter what they do for their current employers, this bottom-of-the-heap shit is the best they’re ever going to get. They’re never going to be able to make their own decisions about their nights where they are. They’ll constantly be waiting around the theatre to get called upon by some full Kindred who won’t tell them shit. At best, it’ll be a bad job, and at worst they’re being sent on suicide runs deliberately set up to kill them.

So why not befriend the horror? Why not see who else might be hiring? The Lasombra are generally either aligned with the Camarilla or the Sabbat, but she has strong Sabbat vibes.

Are we looking at not only a Thin Blood chronicle, but a real attempt at a long-form Sabbat chronicle? One that tries to add nuance to the Sabbat? We’re playing in Alex’s version of the World of Darkness after all. There is no way to tell yet what the Anarchs, the Camarilla, and the Sabbat look like in this world. In the usual games, the Sabbat are almost exclusively antagonists, either mindless murder-machines or some sort of death cult. Is there more nuance to it here? Are they just another faction, and perhaps the one least likely to look down on Thin Bloods, or are they just another group looking to use and discard our coterie?

Either way, the decision to perhaps go looking her up asking for a job? What a great play. What a cool way to take the story.

[phantomrose96]

On my The Silt Verses relisten and I got to the part where Hayward LARPs about his fake fail-marriage while talking to Carpenter (we don't learn he's not married til like a season later). Really love getting to this fresh and going, okay yeah, guy who makes-up being in a failing marriage, which is something he does, for NO reason at all, while talking to a woman he just met. Why is Hayward the funniest motherfucker on the planet. Why did he make up an entire marriage on the spot for no reason, a marriage he's made up failing at. He's the funniest motherfucker alive I'm putting him in the salad-shaker.

[kolechiart]

* god my all time favourite running joke in this show has to be bishop catching diabolical strays unprovoked. it's never when he's attempting to be antagonist and therefore it would be warranted no it's always when he's just sat there quietly minding his own business.

like how in mitchell junior one of the first things mitchell does when he enters the late class is to call bishop ugly by saying he's aged terribly despite the fact the guy hasn't uttered a single word. something about it always makes me laugh that poor thing is always in the cross fire

[fumifooms]

You have converted me into a Laicion shipper and now I suffer from how little content it has... ;_;

I am both delighted and terribly sorry… It’s very small consolation but I am planning on writing for them at some point (hopefully soon) and drawing more for them, and I also know I have a buddy who really likes the ship and has big plans for a fic for the far-off future… It’s tragic too because it’s not even an ultra niche rarepair, my laicion comic is my most liked dunmeshi fanart, and it gets a good amount of poll votes and interest, so clearly a bunch of people do like it… SO WHERE IS THE CONTENT‼️‼️

I will try brethren but I cannot provide fully for the community, I am already busy working the marchil fields everyday, the winter shall be long and hard

[egopathic]

If it helps the discourse still kinda exists in the aspd and npd community but it’s now in the form of accusing everyone of larping. I swear I have seen every and all ways ASPD can present being called fake on here. It’s so stupid and annoying but has its funny moments. But now I just don’t ever talk about my experiences because of it. 💀

aspd fakers this, npd fakers that.

enough idle talk. to find the One True Narcissistic Psychopath we must lock all of cluster B tumblr in the octagon and fight it out

[as-dreamers-do]

THIS IS WHY WE WEAR NERD SHIRTS IN PUBLIC, KIDS

[ktzart]

asmodai heart shaped sun glasses :)

this reminds me that I want to let everyone know that like 90% of the time asmodai chooses NOT to appear as his cool flayed skull head form. he can only appear to people in dreams and he has complete control over how he looks in the dreamscape and this is the form he chooses

(+ mac hating him so bad)

[pastelslugcat]

Had a really good time at LARP yesterday! There were 13 people so it was a pretty big group for what I'm used to but I knew everyone there so it was okay. We were all just hanging out in character for a while before the story started. There was this whole dark cult thing going on and three artifacts that we had to collect. One of the artifacts was a huge ancient looking book and we were told to give it to the smartest of us. I don't know why my friends thought I was the smartest but all of them but I just went with it. Anyway the artifacts were cursed so me and the other two people who had taken the artifacts had to slowly start to turn against the others as servants of a dark cult and eventually stop them from doing a ritual. But we had to stop them by fighting. The thing with that was that somehow the only three people in the group who knew how to use the prop swords were also the three people chosen to have the relics so the other team couldn't even fight back and it was so funny because we kept telling my friend who's a really good swordfighter and has been teaching me for over a year now to just loose the fight for plot but refused to.

Apart from my friend continuously chugging every mystery potion we found, even the glowing one, it was really fun and I can't wait to do it again.

[marianne-dash-wood]

LARP OCS YOU SAY

you are the best i love u

SO

i'm gonna put this under a readmore because a) it will be LONG and b) it will have photos which, while I have cropped/redacted for privacy reasons, still are of me/the backs of other people's heads. For the same privacy reasons I am not linking back to the photographers but some of their watermarks are still there, if cropped a bit.

So first up i wanna talk about my faviroute unethical scientist This is Duck! They live in a post-cordyceps world and have been passing themselves off as a doctor for the last twenty years in order to get shelter/accomadation at whatever survivors base they end up at. They have a best friend, Pigeon, but have lost track of him since their last job, uh. exploded. They have a bit of a skewed moral compass and definetely won't try and take your kidneys. you know. for science.

They are currently aligned with a group called the Ghost Moths (definetely not the fireflies, please don't sue us) and are working on a cure. there are a couple of immune people in the group and duck is currently planning an "organ donation" program in the event of anyone in the community's deaths, in order to further research the effects of cordyceps on the human body. Each of their patches represents people they've known that have died, and want to remember them. Their last job had a group known as the Nightengales (or alleged Nightengales) delibretely infecting people with forms of cordyceps to test strains of the virus. While Duck was soley on "retrieval duty" (aka, picking up new test subjects) and ultimately helped to destroy the place, they are still incredibly guilty, and terrified their new friends will find out. They are also really struggling, going into the next event, with the loss of a friend who they were not able to prevent from getting infected, and another friend who was literally torn to pieces by a supercharged clicker. (his name is boy george. he's a clicker that can see. it's the scariest shit ever) also they might be on the run from the secret elite group that still controls all the food supply in the country called the consortium for their cure research. (100% duck would have cut into ellie's brain, for SURE. they have a pact with another "we-have-no-ethics-and-have-odd-moral-lines" scientist that if one of the gets infected, the other will vivisect them)

I have written so much of this characters stupid in-character diary, it's ridiulous. I've started leaving it around the game's medbay, hoping someone will pick it up and read all of duck's juicy secrets (like their old job, the fact they have no medical training, and that they've been secretly working on the cure anyway despite being told not to for security reasons)

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Second, my hunger games champion, Ashe! From Province 12, they are the youngest of four brothers. Their eldest brother, Smoke, is dying of blacklung, Cinder is disabled after a mine "accident" and Hemlock is working himself to the bone. Five years before the games, their youngest brother, Cinesra, won a bet and moved to the province's merchant district, not speaking to his family since. What a wild coincidence that it is that they both got drawn to represent Province 12!

Ashe went into that arena with one goal - save their brother. With the support that a Champion gets, their brother will be rich enough to save their family from death or poverty. Due to the technology of the ruling classes, you don't get to die just once during your games - And Ashe died three times. The last time, they were woken up, their brother beside them, and told to try and persuade the scientists why the other should die and they should live. When Ashe woke again in the arena, they were convinced that they had been brough back and their brother was dead, with only an hour to go until the end of the games. They found each other, miraculously alive, and then found out: the rules had been changed. If two tributes from the same province were alive, then they would both win. They could both go home. The two of them waited until the last possible moment, as the forcefields were closing in, to rush into the cornocpia. Standing above their only kill of the game, the career, Ashe realised they had won. They both had won.

but that was only the start of the horror. Their victory tour was exhausting; at their interview, they had sung with their brother, and now they were forced to perform as the newest stars. Just when they thought the tour was over, that they could finally go back home... they woke up in a dark cell, with other champions of previous games, and supposedly, trapped in a lab experiment, with the resurrected tributes of former years to haunt them. The scientists were gone, and all their experiments were loose.

And there, in the middle of the second night of this new and terrible hell, the doors were opened and as their brother was going, they got up from their brief sleep and went with him, to make sure everything was okay.

and that's where Ashe Bastion took their final breath. bleeding out, they were dropped by a monster in the dark as the rest of the group ran for cover. they managed to crawl to their feet, and staggered towards where they had made their base.... but bled out of the stairs. their body was picked up and paraded to their brother through the glass wall of an observation booth, before being unceremoniously dumped. and that's how their story would have ended.

But.... perhaps.......... it is not the end............

(fun facts - their kit is obviously quite bare cus of the fact we were wearing the t-shirts provided by the game. to differentiate ashe, i used the space buns, and even slept in them! i also, in the second picture, had Ashe's in-character diary in my pocket, which contains songs of rebellion and the admission that they looked the other way when Cinder stole their explosives (they are the explosives expert in the mines) to try and revolt against the metropole. they have tremendous guilt as that attempt led to dozens of deaths of their fellow miners and the permenent disfiguration and disability of Cinder. They only ever got one kill in the entire arena, and even then never killed any monster while at the labs. they are haunted by the single death they brought about.)

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Next is Kestrel! They are a human fighter from a game set post-ragnarok, where humans, alfar (elves) and gods fled midgard when ragnarok occured, and settled instead in some of the other nine realms. Kestrel is from Vanahiem, a place that values nature, equality, and the cycle of the world above all else. All are equal, even gods, and everyone has a voice. They are fiery, passionate, and always ready to defend their fellow Vana. For this reason, they have been named the Champion of the Reaping (Autumn), to represent change, action and passion. They are also a member of the Hunters, who are focused on balance in nature, exterminating threats that might work against that balance, and follow the will of the ancestors. Kestrel is working a little on learning how to bend to that authority, which they have always struggled with, having been a mercenary for many years. They are an impulsive fighter, but they are now also second in command of Vanahiem's forces, learning the trade alongside their fellow Hunter and master of war, Halvdan, who they now count as close as a brother.

Critically, before they joined their fellows on the newly opened Midgard, they only cared about one person - Jackdaw, a Hearthkeeper (storyteller held in high regard), with whom they've travelled. the Birds, as others call them, are also Fatesworn - their souls tied together, for good or ill. If one feels pain, the other does too. (Luna can u tell double life came out just before i played this characteR CAN YOU TELL). When on midgard, mortals are blessed with an extension of life. They can die twice, before it is permenent again. Unfortunetely, Kestrel was very stupid, and a jaunt to the woods to gether resources left them down a life. (CAN YOU SEE WHY I WAS THINKING ABOUT DOUBLE LIFE CAN YOU sEE)

However, Jackdaw has been wandering midgard (i.e. their player has not been able to attend events) and they haven't seen each other since before Kestrel's first death. Kestrel has no doubt he would have felt it, but they have no idea what this has done to their bond.

Kestrel's past is also rearing its head - before they found jackdaw, they may have..... been a minor terrorist troublemaker with a cult that worshipped Hel and promised ruin. Having now seen the truth about Hel (she's nice we promise), in seach for more knowledge, kestrel has reached out to the leader of the cult that they very dramatically left for information. oh, and it's also their ex.

I am SO looking forward to playing kestrel again. they have so much going on - they have been given responsibility as a Champion of the Seasons (meant to advise the council) and as a future war leader (meant to plan the battles and strategies against our enemies). They are also, critically, dealing with the fact that a) they died, and they have no idea if jackdaw is okay and b) they are actually caring about other people that are not jackdaw, which has not been the case since they met.

also they beat up a ghost once and it was AWESOME

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A quick shout out to Aleyn, a character who is now retired, but was a bit of a rebel - worhsipping outlawed gods, straddling the line between two nations at all times and their individual and sometimes contridicting laws. After the loss of yet another member of their family (at this point, this was the fifth person they had lost in a year), they have left the Warhost of the allied nations, to try and hunt down and kill an enemy of their clan. I'm just showing off this fit because it fucking slapped and that embroidery on the front took forever

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And finally.... MY NEWEST CHARACTER

I don't have any good photos of them yet, but they live in a swamp with their family and are very excited to see the world outside of the forests of their homeland. Their name is Cragan, they like fighting and i think these photos sum them up pretty well

before and after the monster called strength lmao.

They're technically a healer too, but mostly just so they can slap a bandage on their family and get them out of the way of monsters, not fully getting them up lol.

[geddy-leesbian]

so here's how you get a woman

befriend a cishet man on a starcraft lore subreddit

convince him that there's two Starcraft characters that are definitely gay together. despite him being so straight and not really having any experience in fandoms/shipping to the point he never would have started shipping a M/M pairing on his own, you make such compelling arguments that he starts actively shipping them too

now that he accepts Matt and Valerian are gay together, begin presenting your case that Valerian is also trans. once again, despite the fact he never in a million years would have seen him as trans on his own, you make such compelling arguments that he actively supports your trans Valerian agenda, even bouncing trans Val headcanon/fic ideas off you

eventually date him

break up with him after realizing you're 100% a lesbian, but stay friends

eventually get into RE and start telling him your woke RE thoughts that he immediately integrates into his headcanons (he was into RE before you btw) such as trans Leon and Serrennedy and every female character being a lesbian

approximately 7 years after you first met him, he'll transition into a woman. swoop in for the kill.

you now have a hot viking woman lover

profit

[vvelegrin]

"--when you're ENGAGING in ELECTRONIC WARFARE--"

(plays with an rtl-sdr)

[tetrachromate]

"why do white people dig into their ancestry for a smidgen of culture" because they think they're not allowed to meaningfully associate with anything outside their own immediate cultural context. Even *universalist* traditions like, idk, buddhism, are tainted by the perception of cultural appropriation because their most recent adherents tend to come from the sinosphere or SE asia

[its-sixxers]

also man shadowheart reminds me of my little sister a lot so that scene in the epilogue where she gives you a hug got me all misty eyed

my sister's moved to a different province and i only see her on holidays and i miss her, man :(

[plexippusangel]

About to hand weave this man a potion carrying pouch in his character colors. I was already thinking about it. And then was like no. It's too early. I'll just give him a bit of the yarn my pouch is woven out of that I hypothetically would use as one of the components as a favor to wear for the tournament. I will be normal. So normal.

AND THEN HE GAVE ME A HANDMADE POTION CARRYING POUCH IN HIS BLUE THIS MAN MATCHED MY FREAK AND I TEMPORARILY SCALED BACK

gonna stay at 100% freak going forward