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this-curiouscat · 1 year

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🌀,🌤️,and 🌈 please!

🌀 Post the pitch for a game you’re working on

I have to cheat a little for this one because my games are currently either done or such vague ideas that I can't even pitch them properly.

But let's talk about Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon, which Jasmin Neitzel and me actually wrote first before we hacked it into Dolly, We Bought a Dream House.

Here's the pitch: You're a group of anthropomorphic bunnies who have bought a dungeon to move in there together. As you narrate the exploration and renovation of the dungeon, you draw a map of it together.

Mechanically, we're calling it a GM-less OSR story game. We're using OSR elements like dice drops, random roll tables, and of course a classic fantasy dungeon setting and combine them with GM-less story mechanics, action rolls inspired by Lasers & Feelings (but not exactly like L&F), and the idea that dungeons can also be homes.

We've already published it in German earlier this year and I've recently translated it into English and will release it tomorrow at the latest.

🌤️ Share your favorite mechanic from a game you’re working on

Same disclaimer as above. So let's talk about something I've already published! I'm still proud of my supplement Alternative Crowns of the Queen for Brindlewood Bay.

As in the original game, it's a set of narrative prompts that allow more insight into the characters' backstory and current life outside of investigating murders and supernatural conspiracies (you use them to bump up a roll one level). And as in the original game, they're meant to show the Murder Mavens "as a woman."

However, my Crowns of the Queen cover a lot more ground than the ones in the original because a senior woman's life of course contains many other relevant aspects than being a daughter, mother, or wife/romantic partner (which is what the original game focuses on). Therefore, my Crowns offer you prompts about bodies, aging, and health, female solidarity and friendship, professional successes and failures, and of course an option to tell a coming-out story.

(In case anyone reading along is wondering: Yes, I absolutely think asking questions/giving narrative prompts is a proper game mechanic just as much as rolling dice or drawing cards or ticking boxes on a sheet is.)

🌈 Share your favourite class/playbook from one of your games (name the game, or let me choose)

So far, I only have one game that has something resembling playbooks, so we're talking about my Firebrands game Miss Bernburg's Finishing School for Young Ladies here. It's set in an all-girl upper-class boarding school in the 1950s (located in Western Europe or North America).

It has three cliques to choose from, which function as character archetypes more than social circles: Homemakers, Bookworms, and Rebels (the latter may be renamed in the translation of the second edition I'm planning for sometime in the future). You get a short flavor text, a list of attractive characteristics to choose three from, and some name suggestions. There are further character questions to answer, such as items they've put on display or keep hidden in their dorm rooms (those are partly different in the first and second edition of the game).

I always enjoy playing a Homemaker (or seeing them played) because there's so much variety you can bring to this type of Young Lady. You can play her as a naive, down-to-earth person who just enjoys traditionally female activities and responsibilities. Or you can play her as a charmingly manipulative person who sees this role as the best opportunity to at least have some social and political influence in her life. Or you can play her as someone who aims to use a facade of respectability to create space for a relatively unbothered queer life on the side. Or maybe she's just waiting for someone to nudge her out of her conformist comfort zone and discover a curious or rebellious streak?

As always, we play to find out, and the Homemakers nearly always have some of the most interesting story arcs I've played and witnessed in this game. (Ask me again and I will tell you the same thing about the other two cliques, though!)

(Cover illustration by Christiane Ebrecht)

Thanks for asking! 💖

#my games #plotbunny games #ttrpg design #ask me stuff #bunny we bought a dungeon #alternative crowns of the queen #brindlewood bay #miss bernburg's finishing school for young ladies #fräulein bernburgs pensionat für junge damen

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ambermistwing · 2 years

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When I first watch the playthrough of the first and second gargoyle's quest, I loved everything about it, the music, the graphics, the gamelan and the story, how firebrand is a red gargoyle demon (Red Arremer) and a respected warrior and friend, and how he cares for his village and the other ghouls, seeing his allies die as they were giving him messages and his village being destroyed was heart breaking, and as he goes to help his people and fight the evil as the prophecized hero of the ghoul realm known as the Red Blaze I was engaged. Even the music was fantastic, like for example Hell Field, despite the name it is the most beautiful and peaceful music in the game, and so many different covers on YouTube.

There were so many moments that I loved from Gargoyles quest, some I would call wholesome, like when one of the ghouls offered to test Firebrand's strength and congratulates him at the end of the game. One of my most favorite wholesome parts was when firebrand, after learning that he is the decendent of the oringinal Red Blaze and gains the eternal candle from Rushifell, he hears a voice in his head saying "You are our son. Show us your real power and defeat the king of destruction." It really warmed my heart reading that, hearing his parent(s) encouraging him.

Gargoyle's quest II is chronologically and canonically the first game with the original Red Blaze (who was also conveniently called Firebrand), it's almost the same as the first one but had new graphics and colorful design, even new characters that help him, it was fun and interesting and new areas were fun, it was sad for him to have witnessed his entire village and king dying in front of him but he was able to overcome the evil in the end and be the warrior he always wanted to be (I could say more but I'm not as good with describing as others are, but I also don't want to make it too long for you guys) These two games were different from other games at that time because of how a demon was portrayed as a hero, instead of a human just fighting monsters, it had good monsters as well as bad monsters (it can also be said for the demon's crest npcs that weren't enemies) because usually in games we only see it from the humans perspective or we just play as a monster killing people, it is unique for me though I realize probably not for some of you, yes there are the tmnt who save humans, but I mean like from firebrand in ghouls and goblins he was seen as a boss you had to defeat, but in these games we get a look at how his kind views him and from his perspective.

Demon's crest was a different response for me, cause while the story was interesting but the gameplay was a little eh for me (I'm not dissing it, this is just my opinion of it, it doesn't mean it's bad, peopleactuallysay it'sgood so go watch or play it and form your own opinions) the story starts with firebrand fighting to obtain the elemental crests on them to end the Civil War in the demon realm or to discover 'true power' but as he was wounded he was attacked with a cheap shot by Phalanx, who set the realm on fire and blames him for it, he took everything from him except his will. The design of the game was good but reminded me of those games you would play at an arcade ( like the game Skull was playing in the movie monster house 'thou art dead', or other games like that which i think they were trying to base it off of) which to me was weird cause I was used to the first two games designs, the character design was cool (the head was weird for me) and I liked that he could change forms with every stone you gain, the music was great and I loved how you would fly from place to place in the overworld, but this would lead to some people going out of order or just go to the final boss, which would lead to one of the four endings (bad, neutral, good, and best ending) the time stone was confusing for me. But I loved still love that game and if you want to check it out, consider getting the game or watch the playthrough on YouTube.

If you wish to learn more about him then check out the wiki or just play the games and watch the playthrough https://ghostsngoblins.fandom.com/wiki/Firebrand

All in all I really love it but I fear that these games is super underrated and so is firebrand, he's amazing but feel like there is so much potential for him and the Fandom, but there's hardly any mention of him and no fanfiction about him or gargoyle's quest or demon's crest at all, or even any x reader fanfics of him (don't judge) one day I hope he gets his own game again in the future, maybe him going to the human realm in his perspective, and maybe different then just king Arthur's realm in ghost and goblins. Or most likely a fanfic of him meeting the Disney gargoyles (I think it would be an interesting story, also funny if they ask "why is this gargoyle naked, also he does kinda look like my man Brooklyn)

#gargoyle's quest #brooklyn #gargoyles brooklyn #demon's crest #firebrand #first post #rant post #Gargoyles are awesome

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cksmart-world · 6 months

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SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

April 9, 2024

LOOKOUT — EARTHQUAKES, ECLIPSES, SIGNS FROM GOD

Marjorie Taylor Green has a message for all of America: God is watching. Y'all better repent, the Georgia MAGA star warned. We got earthquakes and eclipses and all kinds of stuff and there's gonna be an Apocalypse if Donald Trump is not elected. Yikes, this is serious. As you may recall, MTG compared Trump to Jesus because like Christ he is being persecuted by a dastardly government. That's bad. It's lucky we've got MTG around. She also pulled the covers back on “Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police,” that use cold soup against her enemies. They're practically as bad as Hitler's Gestapo. “She’s a traitor to our country, she’s guilty of treason,” MTG said of the former speaker of the house. “And it’s a crime punishable by death is what treason is.” The Georgia firebrand has knowledge of myriad concerns of the day. She came out strongly against “fake meat” that is grown in “peach tree dishes.” It's all some kind of dietary conspiracy to change the DNA of children and turn them into Democrats. When Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks, people listen. Now she's got Speaker Mike Johnson in her crosshairs because he staved off a government shutdown by cooperating with Democrats and there is no sin worse than that. Those eclipses and earthquakes aren't foolin' around.

DAYLIGHT-SAVING-TIME ON THE MOON?

If you think switching to Daylight Saving Time is hard here on Earth, think what it will be like on the moon. That's right, U.S. scientists will soon assign the moon it's very own time. In the future when we colonize it, people up there won't want to go on Earth time because it could screw everything up. A day on Earth is 24 hours. A day on the moon is 29.5 Earth days. No Wilson, we are not making this up. Golfers on the moon might like it, but if you suffer from season affective disorder (SAD) you could get messed up. Talk about depressing. Put another way; during any given day on the moon, it will be daylight for about two Earth weeks and then dark for about two Earth weeks. Greenwich Mean Time — which is our standard based on the Greenwich Meridian in London — could get confusing on the moon. On the other hand, English astronauts might throw a wobbly if they could only take tea once every fortnight. New terms would have to be invented for life on the moon. For example what would, “pack a lunch” mean. Pack 14 lunches? Would, “see you tomorrow,” mean see you in two weeks? What about, “take the rest of the day off.” The four-day work week? It gives the Theory of Relativity a very weird feel. Where is Einstein when you need him.

NASTY EMAILS: BASEBALL STRIKES OUT IN CITY OF SALT

The staff here at Smart Bomb put together an investigative unit to get to the bottom of the plan to bring the Bigs to the City of Salt. Along the way a raft of emails came into their possession. Here is a sample:

Councilman #1: We're getting hosed. The mayor is getting sucked in. She should play hardball — no pun intended.

Councilman # 2: She's playing patty-cake with those vipers. They could turn around and bite us right in the situation.

Councilman #1: This is starting to feel like some kind of shell game. One team goes here; one team goes there; nothing up their sleeve; and then the pea disappears.

Councilman #2: And we're left holding an empty bag and the tax increment turns into tiger butter.

Councilman #1: Don't look at the man behind the curtain.

Councilman #2: I'm starting to feel like the Palestinians. What about the Geneva Conventions and everything.

Councilman #1: We're outgunned. They've got the Republicans and the developers.

Councilman #2: A distinction without a difference.

Councilman #1: I saw Willy Mayes hit a home run at Dirk's Field when was 9.

Councilman #2: How did this happen. We just got thrown out of the game.

Post script — That'll do it for another week of springtime in the Rockies where we keep track of freedom of the press so you don't have to. Old saw: Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. Matthew Prince is a billionaire who moved to Park City recently and bought the town's historic newspaper, The Park Record. He also bought land on a hill overlooking Old Town Park City and proposed building a very big house there. When neighbors objected to the McMansion, Price sued them and then wrote a screed in his very own newspaper explaining how dumb Park City government is. Call it freedom of the press. From our “truth-telling” file, this: Rep. Mike Turner, R- Ohio, is complaining that his GOP colleagues are parroting Russian propaganda regarding Putin's war in Ukraine, saying it's all about NATO — which is... well, propaganda. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, added that Russian propaganda had “infected” the Republican Party’s base. What a surprise. No secret, Donald Trump doesn't want to fund Ukraine and is buddies with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Trump said he knows how to end the War — just give Crimea and Donbas to Putin and call it good. See, that wasn't so difficult, was it?

Well Wilson, bad omens abound. We got eclipses, earthquakes, blizzard and floods. It's not that we want to focus only on the negative but when the sun goes out, what can you do. The eclipse won't last long but what it foretells might. So get the guys in the band to put down their moon rocks and take us out with an anthem for the times:

I see the bad moon a-rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightning I see bad times today Don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's a bad moon on the rise I hear hurricanes a-blowing I know the end is coming soon I fear rivers overflowing I hear the voice of rage and ruin Don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's a bad moon on the rise Hope you got your things together Hope you are quite prepared to die Looks like we're in for nasty weather One eye is taken for an eye Well, don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's a bad moon on the rise

(Bad Moon On The Rise — Credence Clearwater Revival)

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mlobsters · 6 months

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supernatural s15e2 raising hell (w. brad buckner, eugenie ross-leming)

what's up with that chain, sammy

spn 14x20 moriah giving disney haunted mansion

i'll be honest, i don't really understand this souls from hell / ghosts combo situation. goofy fucking cg on the souls. ghosts of s1 monsters

ah yes, the hell-ghost all hands meeting

is rowena flirting with castiel again? asked the same question in 14x14:

14x14 no clue what the exchange (would say flirting but to what end, to make cas uncomfortable or actual flirting) between rowena and castiel was about.

great. ketch. very tan business casual and with some new wacky weapon. and i guess they're going to have a show-recognized moment of flirting between rowena and ketch.

oook. captions and script say she says "you!" but all i hear is "ew"

CHUCK So, how about the "Game of Thrones" ending? Pretty great, right?

choosing to interpret that as petty chuck shade because what writer thought that was a great ending :p

DEAN This mess... all the messes. It turns out that we're just hamsters running in a wheel our whole lives. What do we have to show for it, huh? Tell me you don't feel conned. God's been lying to you, Cas, forever. You bought into the biggest scam in history. CASTIEL You don't think I'm angry? After what Chuck did? After what he took from me? He killed Jack. But that doesn't mean it was all a lie. DEAN Really? CASTIEL Chuck is all-knowing. He knew the truth, he... he just kept it to himself. DEAN Well, now that his cover's blown, everything that we've done is for what? Nothing? CASTIEL Even if we didn't know that all of the challenges that we face were born of Chuck's machinations, how would we describe it all? We'd call it "life". Because that's precisely what life is. It's an obstacle course, and maybe Chuck designed the obstacles, but we ran our own race. We made our own moves. And mostly, we did well with that. DEAN Did we? I'll tell you what we do know. Nothing about our lives is real. Everything that we've lost, everything that we are is because of Chuck. So maybe you can stick your head back in the sand, maybe you can pretend that we actually had a choice. I can't. CASTIEL Dean. You asked, "What about all of this is real?" We are.

i mean, i can see where dean's coming from. going to start questioning everything you feel even when knowing someone was behind the wheel setting up every important moment in your life. and never knowing if you in fact had any wiggle room to make any decision or feel any feeling that wasn't preordained. think cas is being realistic slash optimistic, but also relatable how dean's feeling. if you can truly blame a singular being for sending you to hell for 40 years, killing almost everyone you care about, torturing everyone you care most about, etc -- all for god's entertainment? gonna be pretty fucking mad

spn 15x02 / nda by billie eilish

so fucking dumb and random but here i am watching and i'm like THAT SCREECHY NOISE! it's so fucking similar to the beginning of the song NDA. that song is the first in my main playlist so i hear the start of it more than normal (because often i'm obsessing over new songs at the end of my playlist so i won't have it on shuffle)

~this is why i can't watch a fucking episode in less than 3 hours sometimes~

just have to laugh every time osric chau pops up. get that bag, friend

DEAN Chuck said he was sending you to Heaven. KEVIN Yeah, what he said, not what he did.

????? okay

cut back to hell-ghost all hands. this plot is LITERALLY making me do this while i watch. didn't i just stick up for you, late seasons? they're not much worse than the other seasons, i said. are you trying to make me look like an ass??

ROWENA The dominating, analytical enforcer... you... and the pulsating, throbbing firebrand... me.

pulsating, ok. little more than i needed to know, rowena

this soul sucking thing with the showdown and the shooting ketch and playing the music like i'm supposed to be sad about ketch getting hurt... woof. and this kevin business is also so random and ridiculous. and i didn't like the amara plotline the first time around

i hope this episode is not an indicator of the season to come.

#supernatural #spnwatch #spn 15x02 #brad buckner #eugenie ross leming #spn clip #spn musical score

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godslush · 8 years

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I’m probably going to stream later, but I don’t have a specific time since it’ll depend on how long my video backlog for the day goes, whether or not I go out for lunch later, and whether or not I can decide on a music playlist.

Been on a Makaimura binge, so gonna be drawing this guy:

Old pic (modified sig to indicate), though one I’ve been happy with. RP character with lore origins in my headworld. I’ll throw more details when I post the new pic.

#art #dai headworld shenans #i use makaimura instead of ghosts 'n goblins #because it also covers firebrand's games #which inspire me way more #but i like the originals too

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prokopetz · 4 years

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Hey, got another question related to The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality from itchio. You mentioned the video games you recommendeded (and I definitely agree with the recommendations for Pyre and Bleed), but which of the TTRPGs would you recommend? Because the themes for quite a few of them are interesting, but I don't know which of them are particularly fun.

(With reference to this post here.)

Could do. The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality’s contents are considerably heavier on video games than tabletop games, and I’ve already covered solo/single-player tabletop RPGs in a previous post (and won’t replicate them here), so this is necessarily going to be a somewhat shorter list than the previous one; hopefully folks will find something in here that catches their eye all the same.

A few personal favourites:

Anomaly - A SCP Foundation inspired investigative RPG based on Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year. Its sequel is also included.

Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game - A Fate Core-powered RPG based on the webcomic of the same name.

Blades in the Dark - A tightly engineered supernatural heist caper game that plays a lot like tabletop Dishonored.

The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze - A Bronze Age tragedy whose dice rules partly inspired my own Olaf Hits the Dragon etc.

Corvid Court - A game about terrible people doing terrible things. Also, you might literally be birds?

Costume Fairy Adventures - Exactly what it says on the tin. This inclusion is purely self-serving, as I’m its lead developer!

The Curse of the House of Rookwood - A gothic urban fantasy game with a focus on family -- for better or for worse.

For the Honor - A She-Ra and the Princesses of Power inspired setting hack of the Firebrands framework.

Glitter Hearts - A rare example of a non-grimdark magical girl tabletop RPG. Uses the Apocalypse Engine.

Godsend - A diceless god-game hack of Legacy: Life Among the Ruins (the base game is not required to play).

Hello, World - A Blades in the Dark setting hack (see above) about immortal digital intelligences in a post-cyberpunk utopia.

Ironsworn: Delve - A huge dungeon-crawling expansion set for the free Norse-flavoured travelogue RPG Ironsworn.

Lancer - A crunchy mecha combat simulator from the creator of Kill Six Billion Demons.

Mausritter - An old-school D&D retroclone with a novel papercraft inventory system, in which the player characters are all mice.

Michtim: Fluffy Adventures - An emotionally driven political fantasy game about tiny hamster-like critters.

One Last Fight - A GMless card-prompt game about a group of heroes on their way to their final battle.

Stand Up - A lightweight Persona 5-inspired hack of Avery Alder’s Belonging Outside Belonging engine.

Strike! - A fun little exercise in trying to re-create D&D4E-style tactical depth while keeping the math a little simpler.

Troika! - Surrealist road trip fantasy with table-based character creation that can easily pull double duty as a prompt generator.

Visigoths vs Mall Goths - An LGBTQ-friendly tabletop dating sim about time-travelling Germanic warriors hanging out in a mall.

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #tabletop rpg recommendations #violence mention #death mention #docswiss

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geejaysmith · 5 years

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Wolf 359 Classpects, pt. 1

Soooo, while I was still busy with the last few weeks of my summer internship, I did keep thinking about classpecting the Wolf 359 cast. Possibly too much, because it wouldn't leave me alone until I'd solved my own God Tier riddle. Unfortunately, it got really long in the solving because I have many Thoughts and want to share all of them, always, so uh, a complete Classpect Analysis of Wolf 359 will be in parts? This first one covers Eiffel's, Hera's, Lovelace's and Minkowski's aspects.

DOUG EIFFEL: An utter no-brainer; ya boi Dougie Fresh is a Breath player if I ever saw one. For Chrissakes, he's the communications officer, and the first one to start complaining about the monotony of being stuck in a deep space sardine can. Breath is associated with communication, freedom, openness, and change - "free as the breeze", you might think of it, but that also leads to Breath players having trouble pinning themselves down to anything. They get skittish if they feel pinned down, and frustrated when stuck in place. Doug's noncommittal aloofness, the way he's off in his own little world (partially to hide from the fact he really does not like himself very much at all), and the way he's incorporated media into his self-perception all match pretty well with John and the Nitrams. But at the same time, he's the one playing mediator even as early as The Sound And The Fury. Being largely outside of the War Industrial Complex the other characters are so familiar with and thus mostly free from its dogmatic worldview of hierarchy and order, he's becomes the One Sane Man when he's the one to shout "what is WRONG with you people?" when "murder" shows up in the top 3 potential solutions to a problem, and he has no hesitation in saying what's on his mind. And it's not all complaints and bad ideas, either; he's got whole speeches telling the others how amazing he thinks they are and how in awe he is of their skills. A key catalyst in the plot of Wolf 359 is the reaching effects of his radio broadcasts. Also, there's something hilarious to the fact that for the aspect associated with communication, Doug *literally* cannot lie to save his life. I kept my ears open for the infamous Breath Hex on my second listen - that is, the strange little way in which things Breath players say tend to come to pass in reality. Cigarette Candy is basically 20 straight minutes of the Decima virus being Breath Hexed into existence, and he guessed Lovelace's situation in one - "Maybe she's a clone, or like a *really* good robot replica."

HERA: Another easy one. Although Hera is resistant to splintering as we've come to recognize it, Heart players are nothing if not determined to be an individual. They have a firm idea of themselves as a person and defend it fiercely, including compartmentalizing away pieces that don't fit their self-image. Maybe less actively putting them down like Jade Harley did to Jadesprite (the manifestation of the negative feelings she repressed out of fear they'd make her less useful) - that would mean attacking or denying a part of themselves - and more... "why yes, I put this part of myself in this box, and I may look at the box on occasion, the box definitely exists, but I don't go near the box and I definitely do not touch or open or interact with the box. And then one day, I will die." So that piece finds other avenues to express itself because it can't not do that. Hera's programming dictates she be "chipper and non-confrontational and always ready to help", but she actively resists being a mere utility and always has - her earliest know action was to attempt a jailbreak of the manufacturing facility she was made in, born rebel that she is. She will insist upon her name over her serial number unless you force her not to, and gets passive-aggressive at people treating her like a machine. And yet, even as she teaches herself to ignore commands literally written into the base of her personality, she doesn't reject her directive to be helpful, nor does she express a wish to be a flesh-and-blood human, or even really to have a physical form? She has a human self-image in mental spaces (we presume, I will semi-seriously point out there's nothing definitively stating she doesn't see herself as like, her fursona or something), but when she has to limit herself to a human-like view of the ship, her immediate reaction is "this is weird, I don't like it." This is honestly something about Hera that I think may be unique among non-villainous AI characters; she seems to be content with being what she is in general, and she just wishes for people to treat her as a person and not a piece of equipment they can do with as they please.

ISABEL LOVELACE: Arm-wrestled Hera for the Heart aspect and lost, despite Hera not actually having any arms, but that's okay because there's two aspects that fit her much better: Blood and Time. I ultimately went with Blood.

This is the part where you notice I'm onto the third of four characters in an aspects-only meta post, yet there is still a lot of post to go. This is because These Kinds Of Characters, the sort that're constantly on emotional lockdown, are a Challenge Mode, and for me to truly be satisfied with my classification I have to start drilling into the bedrock of what it even means to have an aspect in general, what it means to have a specific aspect, and what each aspect is really about. When you're on that level you tend to find yourself throwing out explicit expositional statements as incomplete, oversimplified, or unreliable, and looking at the text directly with a subtextual electron microscope. Brace yourselves. I have thrown the author out of the airlock, and I am about to get verbose.

Lovelace's character sheet describes her in contradictions, and we get to see two different sides to her that resolve into the complete picture by the time Lovelace Mk. III wakes up. There's Captain Isabel Lovelace, goofing around in her earlier logs, and The Terminator. She does things Her Way and is very much prepared to fight you if you object - the whole reason she was picked for the Hephaestus mission was her willingness to go against (in her words) "stupid orders" and do what she thought was right. She's also fiercely loyal; The Terminator is the end result of her anger and grief for her lost crew and at her failure to get them home alive. Her backstory episode has her summing up her complicated relationship to the Air Force with "I owe a lot of who I am to them." And even before she and Minkowski have completely stopped butting heads, Lovelace shoves her out of the way of an exploding wall panel that would've killed her, and takes a near-fatal bit of shrapnel to the gut in the process. At her best, Lovelace is a fearless, boundlessly determined, dedicated firebrand of a leader. At worst, she can be impatient, stubborn, shortsighted, and ruthless. I dunno about you but that reminds me of a certain... angry crab that I know.

"Time" was what a few people chimed in with for Lovelace and while I see some of the connections (her awareness of the time loop, "Variations on a Theme", her multiple selves and multiple deaths, the repeated motif of clocks and pocketwatches) I don't think she quite fits in with the other Time players. Unlike most Time players, she doesn't have a fixation with historic context, the "Why Things Are The Way That They Are." This manifests in Dave's paleontology and his taking of source material for ironic twisting, Aradia's archaeology and knowledge of The Nature Of The Game, Damara's... /noises and vague gestures bc I don't want to go back through Meenahbound but her role as The Handmaid fits the pattern, and Caliborn's own warped, thoughtless replication of narrative archetypes. Context. Decisions. What came before and how it shapes the now, where your decisions will take it from here. The consequences those decisions will have. The details versus the larger picture. Even failure has its place in that scheme - that's the Time aspect. Lovelace doesn't like to dwell, she's a very "barrelling forward momentum" kind of person.

Side note: Aradia, Dave, and Damara all face hesitation to take action they had to learn to overcome. Also, all of them had to be pushed to use violence except in self-defense; Aradia let Vriska cross a series of lines before beating the everloving shit out of her, and Damara snapped after what, years? Of Meenah's abuse. Dave, on the other hand, never raises a hand to another person except as a complete necessity. Caliborn is, if anything, an aberration here in that he's outright homocidal and self-doubt is something that happens to other people. Caliborn is an outright aberration to a lot of Time player patterns, and to SBURB in general, because it's SBURB, so the rules are made up and the points don't fucking matter, except when they do, because Fuck You, The Author Said So.

No, Lovelace's approach to decision-making is that regrets are for afterwards, and "if I fail I deserve to be out of this picture; also, this situation has gone entirely pear-shaped, time to fling myself into the sun." (and that sounds an awful lot like someone that I know very well, but I'll deal with that royal mess when I get to the crazy whamma-jamma that is Classes). Impatience and railroading of other people can be her undoing just the same as assertiveness and decisiveness are her gifts.

...aaand then I went ahead and watched the live episode and yeah, major Karkat vibes there. However, I note that I don't believe we have ever hit hard evidence in Homestuck that Blood players are capable of Chilling The Fuck Out - this is part of the limitations of classpecting characters who weren't made for this system, you really have to dig into how much of their behavior is situational and where you see the kernel of individual perception shine through, the Rosetta Stone by which you begin to see the constants. "Where the object becomes the subject", to quote Memoria.

Finally, I think it's also worth noting that while Lovelace has a lot of connections to Time motifs, she also has connections to a lot of Blood motifs that arguably become more important to her story. Personal bonds and social justice are two of the Blood aspects strongest associations - see Lovelace's loyalty to her crew, and extending her desire to avenge them out to everyone Goddard Futuristics has ever used and tossed aside. The physical body and literal blood are other strong associations, and gee, how many times does the O-negative Cure-All Alien Juice in Lovelace's veins become a critical plot point? Not to mention the implication that her new friends all pulled through the finale because all of them now have her blood in their system. I'll accept that she's closer to the line between Blood and Time than some, but I'm holding by ground here:

(Also, here's some irony for you, she may share an aspect with the Cancer trolls, but her birthday is August 11th, making her a Leo.)

RENEE MINKOWSKI: Minkowski was the hardest of these 4 to come to a decision on. My first inclination was Mind. Her general disposition put me in mind of a Life player. But then, I sat down and thought my way past the Commander's layers of emotional armor and ultimately settled on Light.

First off, by being a stickler for protocol and procedure as well as an Actual Responsible Adult, Minkowski is a kind of character that Homestuck straight-up just does not have, so snap judgements aren't gonna cut it here. This is, again, another limitation of the classpecting system - all the examples we have to draw from are teenage disasters stuck in a lawless hellscape of some description or another, and written by an author allergic to boxing himself in with hard conclusions. But I digress.

Commander Minkowski is also stubborn. When she sets her mind to something, she digs in her heels, cranks the dial to 11, and then breaks off the knob and pockets it so you can't turn it back down. We see this as soon as episode 2, and at it's most hyperbolic when she Captain Ahabs the plant monster. Her's is iron-willed, bloody-minded, unstoppable, Determi-fucking-nation - when she sets her mind to it.

The submarine thought exercise is what had me initially lock her down as a hero of Mind before I mulled it over. The exercise is meant to provoke thought about priorities - what you think your role's purpose is in that situation will determine your priorities, and thus, your decisions. Mind heroes' most prominent skills are in riding the flow of causality, watching decisions, their causes and their consequences, and directing that path. They know people, and how to direct people. But the need for this means that they can get a little co-dependent. Other people are understandable - it's themselves that Mind heroes have the greatest struggle with. Without that vehicle of another person, Mind heroes may find themselves adrift and struggling to define themselves. This is fitting, given Mind is the most direct counterpart to the Heart aspect.

However, upon further examination, I found that this framework of priorities setting your decisions can also be extended to the Light aspect. What is "lucky" in a given situation? What do you define as a fortunate outcome? Rose arguably gets Grimdark'd by something like this, she asks the cue ball "are the horrorterrors evil?" and in doing so attempts to pry into the motivations and intent of *indescribable eldritch beings existing on a nigh-incomprehensible plane* and wedge it down into a relative human understanding of morality, which is sort of like trying to fit the Pacific Ocean into a water bottle. She was trying to deduce what impact the horrorterrors would have upon her and her friends, but asked the wrong question and got an answer she couldn't handle. She didn't recognize Doc Scratch was baiting her into this by leading her into a specific framework through which to ask the question. Vriska died because of her failure to recognize she was in a situation where luck didn't matter. Aranea got trounced because of her inability to recognize that reshuffling reality to prioritize herself and her preferred outcomes still didn't overcome the fundamental nature of timelines - you try to take over the alpha timeline with an insubordinate branch? That's a doomed timeline no matter how you slice it, and we know what happens to those. Luck and knowledge are both used by the Light-bound to give themselves power, whether in showing themselves off as The Smart One or the The Helpful One or The Unstoppable One, but their limited viewpoint often leads them to overlook the limitations of their own framework, or in other words, missing the bigger picture. I'll point out here also how Minkowski has the entire DSSPPM memorized and is the one who wants to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is really going on up at Wolf 359. Additionally, one of her other ambitions, at least once upon a time, was writing musicals. The verbal arts are one of the domains of Light players.

So while on the surface, Minkowski bears the most resemblance to a Life player, Life players tend to have an element of conformity to them. Unquestioned assumptions they've internalized have about the context in which they exist. Light heroes, on the other hand, need conformity so they have something to defy when they jump up and down screaming LOOK AT ME!

So after much pontificating, I came to a decision. In the end, what Minkowski wanted more than anything else was a stage. Maybe to direct rather than hold the spotlight, but still; that's a Light hero if ever I saw one.

#wolf 359 #homestuck #classpect meta #holy crossover batman #wolf 359 classpects

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ace-and-spade · 5 years

Text

Denouement And Resolution || Mastermind Revelations Pt. 3

“So where did everything go horribly, horribly wrong? Just for starters, all the way at the very beginning. When we first kidnapped you, the plan was to minimize casualties as much as we could while holding onto you all, as our bargaining tool with Hope’s Peak. Told them that if they wanted all of us back safe and sound, they had to accede to our requests to expose their own skullduggery. Turns out, Hope’s Peak ignored us and presumed us to be fools for thinking they cared so much about their students. We tried to show them that we were not messing around - that is the real reason why Ariadne snapped Mizushima’s neck all so long ago. We told them that it was only going to get worse from there, and they believed us. Only problem was, it was deemed necessary that they were going to completely obliterate the Crescent Moon Hotel and every last one of us inside it; they could cover it up as a freak accident and not be fodder for how close the school came to being exposed for what they did. And they certainly had the resources to do so, and subsequently pretend as if we had never had this same conversation with the school in the first place. We would all have died, and our family and friends would have been none the wiser for our fates.”

“Before they could raze this entire hotel to the ground, however, we forced them into a stalemate; all of the records Blanche had brought with her, detailing the experiments she suffered at the hands of Hope’s Peak and the subsequent fallout which lead to more kids being experimented upon, all of it would be shared with the public if it seemed like we would not be left alive. It was our failsafe, a way to get out of trouble in what I thought was the highly unlikely probability Hope’s Peak was that uncaring - until that moment, it never occurred to me I would have to actually use it. We remained at an impasse of choice; we couldn’t expose them lest they blow us all sky-high in retaliation, and they couldn’t make the first move lest we play our last cards. In a deadlock where neither of us could act, we dared each other to make the first move. The Mutual Killing Game continued unimpeded, and while I cannot speak for Blanche, I simply hoped that Hope’s Peak would cave in eventually once they saw how much you suffered. That they would finally come to their senses.”

“But as you can see, that didn’t happen. In fact, Hope’s Peak took every precaution, played up every excuse in the book to pretend like us SHSL students simply vanished. In an accident, taken by the Bermuda triangle or simply participating in a social experiment, if there was an excuse they could make they tried to then take. The whole world at large doesn’t know we’re here, and any attempts we’ve made to contact the outside life have all been jammed by their communications. They still couldn’t act against us, but at this rate all they had to do was wait it out - the thought that all we could be doing might end up being for nothing sickened me, and it caused Blanche to spiral out of control. None of us will forgive her for going rogue and wanting to play you all as a class against one another, but I still cared that she had become the very person she hated, using her power over you in order to start drama and play things up for her own amusement. I still loved her, and it was for her sake that she needed to die before she unravelled apart at the seams - it was a mix of our own actions and a certain someone’s machinations that killed her in the end. It just had to be done.”

“And in her absence, I stepped up. Meifen, you wanted to know why I didn’t just end this game when I did? I sincerely wish I had a straight answer for you, but the truth weaves a couple of different things altogether. Part of me was entrenched in the sunk-cost fallacy: Blanche and I had thrown almost everything we had to create this hotel, and in hopes of publicizing the tragedy that happened here, closed every avenue left to us. My grandmother is safe and living on a very generous pension, and I’m sure Azami has noticed that I’ve left a trust fund to her name, just to get her all the way through college and perhaps even life. There was no going back the way we came, and I was determined to see this game play out to its completion.”

“Part of me also wanted to play the villain. This throne here was originally meant for Blanche and I to sit in, and while I shan’t besmirch her name any more than it has to be, it would’ve been her you had to deal with. The catharsis of every good mystery is the identification and downfall of the antagonist, and had I just ended the game after she died and swept it under the rug, what good would that have done for you? Plagued by the notions of what could’ve been, searching for answers when nobody would give them to you… I didn’t want to rob you all of understanding. Of the chance to find the truth with your own merits. Granted, I definitely could be lying even now, as I did when I tried to get away with framing Daichi in my place.”

“And that’s because… part of me still wants to live. I’m just not as selfless as you purport me out to be, Alma. I want to live too. I don’t want to die.”

“But there’s no future in which I live that the people I care about are safe. I’m a firebrand - no, an anarchist. A danger to society, a threat to everyone I love. I am the great suffering, and it can only end when I end too. As much as I want to live, I want to go home with you, Meifen. I want to take those long walks by the beach I promised you, Alma. I want to make amends with you, Alessandro, I want to forgive you as well, Cyprien. And I’ll be damned if I can’t have a cellmate to keep me on my toes if we get out of here, Alastair Crawford. And of course, I want to be alive to love Amora. I wanted to be here for her, when everyone else was gone. I don’t want to leave her all alone in this world. That’s why I tried to pin the crime on Daichi, but I suppose you all were as brilliant as I hoped you were. Honestly, I don’t think even my heart was in trying to get away with it anymore… I’m as tired of this as you. I’m sorry.”

“So what does this mean for us, going forward?”

#chapter 6 #trial 6 #akito #amora

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sunlitlion · 6 years

Text

candleverse chronicles | pt 0

so. astral projection. we all do it.

okay, not all of us, but some of us do. and ya girl is no stranger to it.

if you know of the slenderverse, specifically the everymanhybrid verse, you know of the candleverse. habit’s playground, the pocket between timelines and dimensions.

i’m gonna astral project there. and im gonna keep all my notes here. in case anyone is stupid enough to follow my footsteps.

so, for anyone into emh but not witchcraft/astral work... here are some sources. (x), (x), (x) < that last one is a masterpost of resources for research purposes and those looking to astral travel.

a warning: if you want to astral travel, do NOT do what i’m doing. i’m not smart. this isn’t kosher. this isn’t a good idea. even with all of my precautionary measures im still putting my astral body at risk. if you really truly want to, you can PM me about it, and ill share my personal notes but i am NOT a professional. go forward at your own damn risk.

alright, so warnings aside, let’s get into the prologue.

i am lucky enough to have contact with an evan, a habit, and a noah/firebrand. if you believe in kin shit, call it that. if you believe in past lives, call it that. i personally call it a mix of past lives and a system. i am a spiritual person. don’t pm me, send an ask, or @. me about it because i’m not gonna respond.

i asked firebrand and evan about the candleverse and got their specific general advice for what it’s like, precautionary measures, and an escape plan. here’s what i was told, in transcript form:

firebrand || candleverse notes

general

- Mind tricks. Constantly changing. Do not trust your senses, rely only on your intuition, it’ll guide you.

- It looks like Princeton, New Jersey. Evan’s house is the exact centre, and the clearest part. Everything beyond it gets darker and harder to traverse through due to illusions and mindfuckery.

- There is a purple haze that surrounds the Candleverse. It’s safer, but harder to work out. Hide here, but don’t stay in one place for too long.

- The bridge is an OK spot. But don’t fall in the river. You’ll die in the astral.

protective measures

- Do NOT try to play offensively. It won’t work. You’re in Habit’s house.

- Use wards for hiding, and confusing anything that enters the vicinity.

- Use glamours to alter your astral body and make you into a spirit as unassuming as possible. Humans are what he wants.

- Keep your vibrations basic. Too low means you’ll be drained. Too high means you stick out.

- Get a glamour for any guides or thoughtforms you bring. (In my case, Figaro the thoughtform).

escape plan

- bring a power bank or totem that will give you just enough energy to make a door and leave if you need to in a moment’s notice.

evan || candleverse notes

general

- Do NOT interact with the Candle versions of Evan, Vinnie, and ESPECIALLY Jeff/Steph. Just don’t do it. They’re like big fucking beacons.

- Any kind of foliage is good. Trees, bushes. If a rabbit can hide in it, you’re good. A good rule of thumb is “Think like a rabbit.” So, the town is a good place to hide, but it’s also gonna be real confusing. Anywhere out in the open, you’re fucked.

- If your vibrations are high so you can keep up magic, places with moderate lighting are gonna be your best bet, so you’ll blend in. If you’re keeping your vibrations low to hide, keep to the edges and forest-y areas. Whatever makes you feel safest. Either way, you’re playing on the losing side in a game rigged in Habit’s favor.

- If you aren’t panicking, you’re giving off less energy, so you’re safer. Fear will stink you up, and it’ll catch Habit’s attention. Keep calm, you’ll stay safe.

- Cover the tracks of your spirit/thoughtform if they can’t do it themselves, or if they naturally produce magic. For example, my thoughtform Figaro is built to feed off of naturally occuring excess negative energy and build harm-shielding wards for himself and I from it. In the Candleverse, this process needs to be hidden.

- Piggybacking off of that point, a mosquito could fart and Habit would know. Any tiny move you make, any change to the verse, Habit will pick up on it. He might ignore it if it’s insignificant, but he might not. If you do something risky, your best bet is to get away from the mess, hide, and try not to leave a trail.

protective measures

- Only stay in for 15 minutes at first, up to 30 minutes. No longer than an hour. Time is slower in the Candleverse, but you’re gonna get exhausted, and it’s gonna get easier to find you.

- Do not let Habit know you’re a human. You’re toast.

- Get better at improv. Learn how to play your part. If Habit approaches you, do NOT panic. Know what you’re supposed to be and act like it.

- Use DEFENSIVE wards and magic, not OFFENSIVE. Wards that protect you from harm make it seem like you’re EXPECTING Habit to attack you, and he might just. He’d definitely seek you out for it. Don’t make it seem like you’re ready for a fight.

escape plan

- Make that power bank as inconspicuous as possible. Remember-- play the part.

- If you’re in a bind, or about to be caught, just make a break for the edge, find a place to hide, and calm down before leaving.

other

if you’re like me, and tend to crack under pressure or panic in the face of danger and make the wrong decision, then you’re gonna wanna practice beforehand.

there are all kinds of candleverses that take place in different areas of the timeline of EMH. start with a dead candleverse, in which there are no more traces of habit. you will know the difference because the energy they give off is pure white rather than dark purple.

live <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> dead

this is the scale firebrand gave me in reference to this. the closer to white they get, the more dead the candleverse (meaning the less traces of habit, the safer!).

another look at the scale

white verse - no traces of habit, little to no traps or illusions, dawn/sunrise

grey purple verse - just a hint of habit, slightly more traps and illusions, midday

pale purple verse - a little of habit, a moderate amount of traps and illusions, afternoon

blue purple verse - half habit, slightly more traps and illusions, sunset/evening

true purple verse - mostly habit, many traps and illusions, dusk

dark purple verse - habit is live and present and on the prowl, a fuckton of traps and illusions, dead of night

i was also lucky enough for firebrand to be willing to get in contact with other firebrands, as all noah’s stick together, and they might be able to give me a little extra help. pending.

map

firebrand and evan helped me to draw out this rough sketch of the map, but it will be updated as I explore.

as i said, it’s very rough, but here’s a key.

☆ - safe for hiding purposes

* - unsafe

X - immediate death

``` - light source (the more light, the more unsafe)

🌀 - entrance point

EH - Evan’s House, the center of the Candleverse. UNSAFE.

Town - Just as the name implies. Good for hiding but, very dark and confusing. Take it slow.

B - Buildings. Decrepit, good for hiding.

N.E.H. - Never ending house. If you recall, in Bridge to Nowhere, Noah went up and down this stairwell repeatedly. Unsafe.

Bridge - Bridge to Nowhere. Moderately safe. Don’t stay on for too long.

P.G. - Playground. Moderately unsafe.

Open Space - Not good. No hiding spots.

Forest - Very dark, but good for hiding. Lots of foliage.

River - Runs through the forest and under bridge. Instant death upon touching.

Habit tends to stay around the more lighted areas. Do not by any means go near or enter Evan’s house. Just don’t do it.

protective measures

so, we all decided that lots and lots of defensive magic is your best bet. cover up the fact that you’re human first and foremost. if, like me, your energy is bright and beaming, make an energy mask to cover that. put up wards with multiple layers. put up illusion glamours with multiple layers. run, hide, camouflage. you’re a rabbit here.

here’s what im doing specifically. lemme go over it.

defensive-offensive ward - protects from anything you deem to be harm. it won’t do much for you at that point. if all of your other wards/glamours have failed at this point, you’re fucked anyway. its basically one last line of defense if all else fails.

illusion/energy mask - this is to change your energy. its to cover up your human parts. make it strong. make it powerful. make it work. if habit gets a single SNIFF of your human pussy, your ass if grass and he’s gonna mow it.

appearance glamour - this is to change your appearance and all. make you look not human. idc what you look like, im choosing a hazy kinda shadowy unassuming spirit type thing. look lost, not like a tourist.

camouflage ward - this is gonna make you blend in to the foliage and shit much better. keep you under the radar. you are a cat in the night. a simple breath in the breeze, you feel. you ARE the dancing queen.

hidden/hiding illusion - same deal, but this makes it harder to track you if you hide. hide well, don’t fuck this up. its literally your astral body on the line, maybe even your astral life. but don’t worry, as long as you hide your cord and keep it in tact, you can come back. just give it a few moon cycles.

and thats basically all ive got in preperation for this trip. ill keep cc updates coming as they happen. my first trip is tomorrow (Tuesday, March 19, 2019), around 5:00 PM CT.

#mine #candleverse chronicles #astral projection #astral projection stories #candleverse #emh #everymanhybrid #habit #evan jennings #tribe twelve #firebrand #noah maxwell #etc etc #experiences #notes #grimoire

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gurguliare · 6 years

Note

fromm "It was hard to know how to stop feigning indignation with someone you couldn’t punch in the arm." of the grandecho fic, to the end? (i'm only...... partially angling for more thoughts on grand & ballad catapult bureaucracy shenanigans....)

kjdsgjlksdjg I will see what I can do

It was hard to know how to stop feigning indignation with someone you couldn’t punch in the arm. Or anywhere else. Echo did their best, though, covering their head and laugh-sighing; and when they checked from under their fingers, Ballad was smiling too. He looked thoughtful. Their brother was such a planner, although he wasn’t very good at it.

I really enjoy the Echo-Ballad reconciliation in TM because it’s a nicely played version of the trope where cognitive dissonance takes a LOT OF EFFORT to sustain, and when confronting an enemy who is lying to themselves, you are advised to just beat them half to death so they run out of energy to lie. Classic. The downside is that moving beyond honesty to constructive honesty also takes energy, which means breaking down an opponent in that way kind of leaves you with a sack of pulp and habit… I made Ballad severe and nosy and not-obviously-repentant in this fic because I imagine he would just not have the juice for more big speeches, everything pompous that comes out of his mouth here is supposed to be him on autopilot.

Also Andi does a good job emoting in the voice work for Echo toward the end, lots of on-edge half-real exasperation, and I wanted to preserve that in the body language here.

“If he wants to go back,” he said, “he can use my disappearance. He should say it proves what he was always saying, that I was hotheaded, I didn’t have my priorities right. Ask him what he thinks about that.”

Again, Ballad on autopilot. BTW all the stuff here about Grand ~undermining Ballad~ is supposed to LITERALLY reflect just Grand’s arguments during the single round of the Firebrands game where they were on opposite sides of that one debate over how to use Advent’s guns or whatever, my thought being that Ballad was then like, “HE THWARTS ME AT EVERY TURN” and Grand forgot all about it. otoh I could also imagine that Ballad, as one of the few competent community leaders in Advent, would have been a roadblock to Grand orchestrating the group’s implosion. Except I don’t think he was because the other higher-ups seem to have been too dumb to notice any of his advice. So my integrated theory is that Grand spent a lot of time at Advent being distressed by how straightforward the job was, and sometimes took it out on Ballad for fun, and because at least Ballad was trying,

“Okay.”

“Maybe he can volunteer to take over the Volunteers. That should bring more people over, anyone who might be tempted to go with Kitcha Kana’s crew at first.”

volunteers of seiche as one body: “oh god, not THAT asshole”

“Um…”

“It should work. Every member of the Advent Group is considered eligible for leadership positions.”

“Ugh, god, don’t say that. Did you have to go to orientation?”

Yes. And he still has the bag of company swag. Well, no, he doesn’t. But I bet one of the other volunteers will conscientiously bring it with the rest of his things.

“Don’t be such a baby. You might be planning orientations yourself, someday. Someday soon.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The smile spread to a grin. “I’m through with Advent. But I wouldn’t trust me with my kids,” said Ballad, coldly. “Legato is due for her rebellious stage in T minus no years. Who do you think is going to be running the school?”

“in T minus no years” doesn’t work for Ballad voice (or indeed, at all) but I wanted a bouncy ramp-up. Let’s put it down to the blood loss.

#alkarinque #no one expects the fannish inquisition

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attract-mode-collective · 6 years

Video

youtube

Exactly 79 Photos & Videos Concerning The Game Boy (plus other handhelds)

So... hope you’ve all been following me on Twitter, which is more or less the unofficial new home for Attract Mode. Mostly cuz Tumblr’s days are, alas, numbers, plus I haven’t warmed up to Medium as much as I had hoped to. Though I’ve actually spent the past two months republishing every single post that contains mainline Game Culture Snapshots, so it has remained somewhat useful at least.

Now, for a while there, I had been compiling every single thing tweeted. But because I’m now so damn active on that end… plus I’m busier than ever with other projects… I’m way behind with those digest posts, and the very idea of playing catch up legit gives me anxiety. Yet I have been sharing lots of cool things, which all deserve to be in the blog proper… and because a lot of them are specific to the Game Boy, I figure, why not just focus on that?

Like the above, which is a technique for producing full color photographs via the Game Boy Camera, and yet another thing that I can’t believe hasn’t made the rounds!

Sticking with Game Boy photography, here have a pair of mods that will greatly enhance picture quality. The first involves mounting SLR lens onto a Game Boy Camera (via ekeler.com)...

And the second has one shoving a Game Boy Camera into a SLR itself (via @MaxKriegerVG)...

As someone who was into video games as a kid, and also interested in photography, the Game Boy Camera was the first camera I was able to call my own. Am pretty sure this was the case for others as well?

I also remember seeing this ad in Nickelodeon Magazine (which I would eventually writer for, not too long later) and being absolutely gob smacked (via nintendroid.org)…

Though as much I loved Nintendo brand of FUNtography, I would quickly discover… as did everyone else I also assume… that taking pictures is serious business (via @PolandNintendo)…

Not only did I have a Game Boy Color, but I also had the Game Boy Printer (I still own both, for the record). Unfortunately my snapshots from Link’s Awakening have long since faded, but as with many things, you can find copies online (via gameandgraphics.com)…

Speaking of the world of print, coming soon is a handy guide to Nintendo handy game machine (via miki800.com)…

That one magazine ad featuring Princess Peach catch your eye as well? Well here’s a much better look at it (via suppermariobroth)…

I love handheld gadgets of all kinds, yet some of the popular ones confuse me. Like Hudson’s Shooting Watch; it makes no sense to have a gadget that can detect button presses without a game attached. Guess I’m not alone (via instagram.com/kazzycom)…

A realization I made while sifting through Game Boy related content is how popular the color yellow is with many. Cuz Pokemon? Anyhow, the final post from a blog that specializes in gorgeous photographs of gorgeous hardware, which I just brought up again very recently (via hard-aware)…

How your parents used to trade Pokemans online (via melonjaywalk)…

And no, Game Boys weren't the only things that one could connect to keitais ya know. And yes, Game Boys aren’t the only portables I’ll be showcasing (via anthony10000000)…

I own quite a few VMUs and am always looking to expand my collection… but nothing yellow, sorry. Instead, I want the one covered with dolphins (via anthony10000000)…

So my new favorites artist is Eri Kitamura, and not just cuz she makes pretty looking Game Boys…

She also makes pretty looking girls playing Game Boys (well, this one is technically listening to music)…

Was originally going to post the first thing from Eri that caught my eye, which is a Game Boy with a girl on it, but instead here’s a Game Boy with a girl on it playing a Game Boy…

Time for two more videos from the same individual responsible with the process for producing color photographs at the very top. And it’s what everyone has been waiting… specifically the backlit Game Boy Color mod everyone has been waiting for.

The process is detailed in this two-part video, and here’s the first one (it’s about 50 minutes long cuz spoilers: this shit ain’t easy)…

youtube

And here’s part two, which is ONLY 40-ish minutes long…

youtube

The author of the videos actually has a store, so if the process seems a bit too daunting, you can purchase a pre-modded unit for $250. Actually, this one is $260, cuz of the dual shells. Quite the price tag, yet somehow totally worth it (via instagram.com/esotericmods)…

Now might be a good time to mention how… remember that GBA with the GameCube finish from eBay a few months back? Well, I decided to get the one that resembles a Super Famicom, something I’ve been lusting over for years.

Well, here’s what the aforementioned seller had in his listing…

And this is what I got instead…

Yeah, that green shoulder button is not the right shade. After some complaining, I got the seller to admit that the one in the picture was hand painted; he didn’t know where it get ones that it’s exact color as on a Super Fami controller.

He also had a no refund policy, yet I bitched & moaned enough to warrant an exchange, for another Cube-esque model, one sans the stick. Cuz it’s comparatively boring to look at, here’s a version with the stick…

Again, mine just has the standard d-pad. As for my replacement… the colors of the A & B buttons are not an exact match, once again. But it’s close enough (am mostly just sick of dealing with that guy, aka johnnys_merchandise, whom you should all avoid btw), plus I have started to scour AliExpress for replacements.

BTW, my failure to obtain a modded handheld that channels another form of hardware has me wondering if I should go for something completely different instead (via instagram.com/wakuwakuisland)…

Up in the mountains, flower bloom amongst Game Boys & Game Boy Colors, whereas deep in the forest, you’ll find mushrooms and Game Boy Advances (via pxchinko)…

Some say memories are fuzzy, though for others, they're leafy (via lyosphe)…

I’ve looked all over for tinycartridge's original post, but no luck, so you can all instead have my personal copy of the earthy wallpaper that was shared years ago (and which I still to this very day)...

The Game Boy Micro, DS, and DS Lite are like family, and like siblings, there can the occasional squabble (via benkyo-es)…

@frankcifaldi: When I met this guy in 2003 and he told me he was going to make an extensive fan site about the Supervision, a Taiwanese Game Boy knockoff, I was like "sure dude." 15 years later he actually launched the thing??

Meanwhile, the Game & Watch Perfect Catalogue just came out, with the full low down on all 59 models. BTW, had no idea there were 59 in total until @ionadisco mentioned it…

How Game & Watches were sold in America; I fondly recalls this ad in-between the pages of Amazing/Spectacular/Web of Spider-Man (via suppermariobroth)…

And how Game Boys were sold in Japan, one day one apparently, which would explain this salesperson’s rather perplexed demeanor (via flashbak.com)…

Silly as it sounds, and as silly as he looks, the US version of Firebrand is nonetheless a warm & welcoming face from my childhood (via nintendometro)...

Mario dropping a knowledge bomb (via suppermariobroth)…

Here’s Peach seemingly kicking Toad’s ass in Super Mario Bros Deluxe, which I’ve been meaning to tweet for a while now, but now seems like the right time & place for obvious reasons (via nintendometro)…

A cute comic about someone finally beating a game after ten years, or at least I believe that's the case (you know, language barrier and all; via @desune593)

Sailor Moon seems to enjoy handheld gaming more so than in the arcades (via uglygreenjacket)…

It saddens me that ravages of time is robbing me of my precious memories, including the names of 90s anime, hence why I had to ask on Twitter who exactly is this (answer was Tenchi Muyo; via shxtfased)...

It’s SethEverman, just playing some pokemon blue…

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Speaking of music, it again saddens me that I wasn’t about to make the trip to Japan to catch chiptunes at Square Sounds, and various associated venues. At least @bit_shifter_ took this great snapshot of Glomag at Cyberpunks Osaka…

Meanwhile, here in NYC, we actually still have record stores. And you can grab Josh’s latest release, his first in 12 years(!) at Rough Trade (via bit-shifter)…

Though back to Japan; attended Square Sounds would have also afforded me the chance to check out Tokyo Game Show, where I could have gotten that VMU shaped USB drive that was being sold at the Sega booth (via miki800)…

A few weeks before TGS, there was an earthquake in Japan, in northern island Hokkaido. Many were left without power, but one person was able to keep up with the news, thanks to an old DS peripheral that basically provides bunny ears (via kotaku.com)…

On a semi-related note, here’s someone watching old ECW VHS tapes on their Game Gear (via heavyelectricity)…

Sorry, but the only other thing I have that’s related to Sega’s Master System on the go is this gif from a pizza ranch salad dressing (yikes) commercial, which was cross-promoting Sonic Chaos (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

I have no idea why I'm so amused by this Getty Image of a Neo Geo Pocket that was confiscated at summer camp. Or perhaps no explanation is needed? (via hellomrkearns)…

Speaking of the Great Outdoors, here’s my buddy Steve enjoying some Mario Kart 8 in the middle of a forest (via instagram.com/vitaminsteve)…

And speaking of Mario Kart on the Switch, Bowser seems like a pretty cool dood to have a car trip (via suppermariobroth)…

The Switch is so beloved that people are doing fan art, not for any particular game but the simple the act of playing with it (via annazees)…

Granted, one of the best things about the Switch is all the different ways in which one can play (via kanekoshake)…

If you enjoy your Switch on the go and are looking for a way to store games… and are a diehard Breath of the Wild fan as well… plus if you have access to a 3D printer (via miki800.com)…

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It’s a tribute to Star Wars… games… all of them… featuring Princess Leia focused on her DMG (via deviantart.com/robduenas)...

BTW, do you still have your Game Boy? If not, here ya go (via anthony10000000)…

When the realization hits that your Game Boy Color library is incomplete (via @Bootleg_Stuff)…

Back to my buddy Steve, who visited the Primark at the Staten Island mall and took pics of the game related apparel that, sadly, were no longer in stock by the time I was able to swing by. With the one thing I really wanted being this shirt…

This pair of Super Mario Land X Air Jordans is only $1,350.00 (via miki800.com)…

I’m sure you’ve seen him already, but for the sake of completion, here’s that grandpa from who rigged this bike with 11 phones to become a Pokemon Go master (via bbc.com)…

Yet another sign of our times, literally (via fuckdragonballz)…

This image features a PSP and a MacBook, both of which are from the mid-2000s, yet feels very late 1990s/early 2000s. Why? Those USB cables (via jcgraphix)…

And last but not least, here’s Paris Hilton with her DS in 2005 (via @ParisHilton)…

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sleepymarmot · 6 years

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Twilight Mirage liveblog 5/5 (finale & post-mortem)

64-67

Found a new shortcut to my heart: announcing your finale is going to be a mashup of The Quiet Year and Firebrands

Why is it surpising that the Qui Err Coalition allies with the Waking Cadent? That was my first thought when Iota was making her speech! The Qui Err thinks the humans should leave, the Cadent thinks the humans should leave, sounds pretty compatible to me.

What's the logic of “When Crystal Palace arrives, we will blow up this system”? It's not a bomb! But it will be in danger if a bomb goes off right next to it!

Oh no, Ali is doing the classic “shoot yourself in the foot on purpose” move

I don't get how Grand Magnificent got promoted from “got paid once to retire” to “is trusted to do actual missions for Advent”

Why the hell does Gig want to kill Ballad

The players keep underestimating how “horny” the scenes in Firebrands are and Austin is increasingly exasperated

I would like to thank Jack from the bottom of my heart for choosing dance as a framing for making contact with Grand. Also I completely lost it at “there are talons on my shoulder”

I must have missed something, what's so bad about the Splice and Our Profit that everyone's so excited to fuck them over? The Mirage is made a renewable resource, right, so the Splice isn't a drain on anything?

The Echo-Ballad scene is so frustrating that I can't even feel appropriately bad about it! Come on Echo, just help Grand go back to Advent as an undercover spy, it doesn't have to be a competition this time!

I still don't understand Independence II… How do you send your new very conspicous and recognizable design to friends in rival factions without blowing your cover

The timeline here is really weird… Echo rescues Grand and brings Ballad with them, Ballad calls off his people, Grand sends out his new mech design… And a week later, Grand's still on Qui Err territory having a friendly lunch with its leader? If going back is still an option, how is that going to look without making Advent seem like total idiots? Ah, it's only a day after? Okay…

I'm very glad the Volition problem was solved so peacefully!

5 minutes later: “Quire could die!” How about no??! I was so busy preparing to mourn Volition. I am completely unprepared to lose Quire just like that.

Memorious was alive and also an axiom worm this whole time? Wut

Fuck, do we need another opportunity to kill off Ballad?! This list of NPCs is making me very nervous, I don't want any of them to die… As soon as they said “tactical skirmish” I started screaming internally and likely won't stop until it is over… Wow, Ali, that was cold Oh no, Keith is really on a mission to murder Ballad

Grand how could you bring a bomb to Christmas dinner what the hell RIP bird leader / avian boss, he had an amazing unique voice and, in my head, a really cool cartoony design

Thanks for 9.5 hours of fun. Now I guess it's time for the 4 hour long brutal and heartbreaking final boss encounter

Full offence Gig, but I wouldn't log off even the real internet for lawn games

Signet fucking saved everyone single-handedly, twice. Two biggest threats. Incredible. What is the rest of the game even about

Seriously, do the players know something about Advent that I don't?! Otherwise please stop calling your cheesy space mafia “nazis”

I've been waiting for Even and Cascabel stealing time together since the beginning of the finale! For 11 hours! Finally! This finale is in dire need of more romance content I like that everyone immediately starting dragging all Bioware games at once

I don't see how a secular virtual reality is more of a “weird cult” than an augmented reality in which people maintain an actual religion worshipping the union of human and synthetic life for 30k years. Can we not do the hypocrisy again please. Why is it okay for the Divine Fleet to build their own take on utopia but when the NEH does it's portrayed as a threat and all characters treat it with suspicion and contempt

OK all these ideological debates are fine and dandy but people really should ask more practical questions like “you don't have to rush, why don't you just go back to the previous eco-friendly methods we have previously agreed upon” Glad Fourteen won, but ideologically, as you can guess from this entire liveblog, I'm with Our Profit

I don't like how Tender started with the intention of attacking Our Profit / the Splice but very much like how it somehow turned into her offering to help them and solve everyone's problems in one move

Grand Magnificent building a pseudo-Divine to blind the Crystal Palace with the power of bullshit is the ideal happy ending for him

Good on everyone for doing the best possible things with the Divines, except for the DFS for managing to do every possible bad thing simultaneously!!! My dislike of that faction is vindicated but at what cost Oh god it's even worse

“Echo Reverie, who knew well both the value and the cost of violence, and who dreamt powerfully of peace” is such a beautiful and concise summary of their character arc God I just love how organically Echo and Gig's arcs led them to help a decolonized society lead independent, peaceful and joyful lives

A new Fleet with a healthier relationship between the Divines and everyone else is nice, thank you Signet

Oh my god, the ending titles are Gig interviewing everyone, that's so sweet!!! Really the perfect sentence to end this campaign with.

(I feel like a jerk mentioning it but… Whenever there's music overlayed with the voice track, it's almost always too loud and I have to strain my ears to hear the words… It's been like that since season one. Am I really the only one with this problem?!)

Whew! Hard to believe this long, long listening experience is over. I have mixed feelings: sometimes it was exciting or inspiring, sometimes it was fun but I felt I could as well be doing something else, sometimes I listened to the outro and thought “this music and the montage for it in my head right now make me feel so much more than the episode I just heard”, and sometimes the ideology of the narrative or characters'/players' opinions and actions clashed enough with my worldview enough to poison the entire experience. What's new is that, unlike the previous arcs, I didn't have an urge to shake my friends and yell at them “you absolutely must listen to this!” and that made me sad. But that might be just me getting used to this show and taking its good features for granted.

Post-mortem

Oh god, the production of the final sequence sounds like absolute nightmare

Thanks for validating me with the speech about the Fleet's lack of engagement with its “original sin”, Austin

Thanks, Janine, I hate it! This religion didn't need to get any creepier!

Yes tell us how many ears Tender has! I need to know!! Tender's fursona is the Russian food cat?! Amazing The livestream practically starts with googling animal pictures. Classic

Honestly Echo's disability was barely noticeable to me as a listener… There wasn't a lot of visible difference between the way they accessed the mesh and other PCs did, and after the nanites did activate, I don't think it was ever brought up again…

Yeah I'm genuinely upset that Tender and Fourteen didn't get together, by the way! Or at least have an overt romantic storyline! Give me that sweet sweet PC/PC romance my soul is starving Like I get what Jack is saying about the value of depicting friendship and normally I'd be on his side but 😭 😭 😭 On the other hand I didn't know Echo/Grand was a thing (And now feel kind of bitter it got more official endorsement than my ship that has more canonical foundation) This universe is actually about Austin inventing NPCs who have crushes on Keith's characters and then Keith pointedly avoiding the subject How could anyone forget about Tender's wild fangirling over Waltz lmfao

Austin calmly talking of all these things I screamed about above like “yeah that's what I intended”. Like on the one hand I'm glad, but on the other why couldn't you make it less frustrating to listen to

The rehabilitation theme is another thing that is present thematically but was not discussed on screen enough imo. One thing my mind kept returning to re: Contrition's Figure was the question of forgiveness for serious crime, personal boundaries and principles, and the policy of not disclosing the inmates' crimes. I imagine a survivor of rape or abuse wouldn't want to share space with someone who did the same kind of crime that hurt them. Even if they wouldn't be made to interact, of course, but what if that person believes those kind of people don't deserve rehabilitation at all? What if they reject that system on principle? You often encounter seemingly serious statements like “abusers/rapists/nazis should die”, especially lately. I've heard that about “fascists” (which is a separate issue) in this very campaign. Where do people with these opinions go in a utopia? Do they not exist? Do people who commit horrific crimes not exist either? Because I was listening to that arc and thinking “What if one of those undisclosed crimes was csa or serial murder or something like that? Would I be expected to shake hands and play chess with that criminal? How could I rehabilitate, heal, re-socialize, learn to trust in a space where anyone I meet could be Shrodinger's rapist?” And that leads to the bigger question of what a utopia is. Is it a better society – or better human nature? If latter (and Austin said so) – then to what extent? Because the theoretical people who are so much more advanced than us that they are, en masse, incapable of extreme cruelty, must also differ from our generation with their entire psychology. And a psychology so different would be unimaginable, unplayable, and would not provide necessary dramatic conflict or antagonistic characters. Which is why most alien characters in most stories, including this one, are just humans in silly costumes or prosthetics.

Oh dear god, that must be the heaviest personal story yet… But I understand better what Declan's Corrective was about.

Oh I've been definitely thinking about static utopias vs utopias of process while listening! When I wrote at some point that they made me stop and consider what a utopia is, it was one of the things I meant.

Yeah, sure, in our world the Splice would be terrible because of the existing power dynamics. But that's a Counter/weight story! Twilight Mirage and the Divine Fleet have been about the technologies and ideas that could have been, or were, used to terrible ends, but miraculously, we got to see them used in good faith with genuinely good intentions and good results. Divines have been all kinds of threats over the ages, and yet the Fleet managed to build a community around them that was a small paradise for 30,000 years. So why do the NEH and the Splice not get the same benefit of the doubt? Why is narrative not treating them with the same respect? Why are they always a threat? Why isn't there a major, likeable NPC whose life was enriched by the Splice to the extent that it is central to their identity, who could be our advocate for that point of view? Why are some powerful and potentially infinitely dangerous things, like Divines or religion itself, shown as more valid than others? And don't tell me that our player characters are from the Fleet – none of them are Qui Err either, and yet by the end it is a respected, lovingly portrayed player faction.

Oh, and also, speaking of the Splice's dangers, and what would have made it dangerous in the real world – one of the things that bothered me about it was that these dangers weren't actually described and addressed in the show properly! Probably at least in part because this techology is so magical it's hard to codify how it works. If it gives an indefinite amount of time, how do you sync up all these infinite amounts of timelines? Whenever anyone logs in to visit Tender, how do they know if it's been a day for her, like in the real world, or a hundred years? (Oh and by the way, I waited in vain for the explanation for these strange duplicities and possible time anomalies; what was going on with Ache and Acre?) If opposing the Splice and the NEH were about solving specific problems with the Splice, I would be all for that!

But yeah, I really do appreciate “processes that self-regulate and address their own issues”, how the story and specifically the finale were about the work of building a better world. I like the finale especially because it shows the social processes more clearly; TM's lack of a faction game and its focus on “bigger picture” was palpable, so I was happy to see again that aspect of the show I think is really good and unique. At first I thought it was anticlimactic that the main threats of the finale were solved so easily, early, and pretty much single-handedly. And, indeed, in a tv show that would have looked pretty strange (and require some rewriting, because with how it went down, Signet should have been the sole protagonist from the start lol). But on the other hand, it gave a lot of space and focus to what the whole story has been about: building a better society and future. Not just saving it from an external threat and drawing the curtain on that – but making sure the world we won is the one we want to live in. Preserve the environment! Decolonize the land! Shut off the tyrannical prophecy machine! And that's a good thing, and from my perspective very characteristic of this show. Before it, I didn't even know there were games about building and preserving communities and addressing civil issues! For years I thought “Well, stories of adventure are fun, but they don't address the real issues”, but turns out, there are people and systems that at least try to combine both. And that's a thought I can find comfort in, even if the specific choices of this campaign make me frustrated sometimes.

“I also tried to move away from violence this season and ended up making an arms manufacturer”

Somehow the end of the post-mortem feels sadder and more final than the end of the show proper

#friends at the table #blah blah blah

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edh-a-to-z · 7 years

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17 - Anax and Cymede

LORE:

Go tell the Spartans. It’s time to abuse the Heroic mechanic.

Anax and Cymede are the King and Queen of Akroas, AKA Theros version of Sparta. Except with less slavery and more noble warrior stuff.

From here:

Anax is a burly man in his late 40s, once a follower of Iroas. In his later years he has turned to Purphoros as he steers his people through the creation of a small empire. This shift is reflected in the trend in art now seen from Akroan artisans. Swords and armor are now decorated. Pottery, clothing, wall paintings, and weaving show ancient Akroan patterns and symbolism handed down for generations. To his people, Anax is a great leader to be followed without question. To other poleis, he is known as a skilled tactician and heartless killer.

Cymede worships Keranos primarily. She is a skilled warrior but a more powerful seer. Having herself been struck by lightning and given a glimpse of the future, Cymede is seen by some as being partly responsible for her husband's effectiveness as king. Cymede is beginning to become aware of the power of godly creatures such as nymphs. She has seen abstract glimpses of their power and feels the gods are bestowing gifts on the faithful. Because of this, the cult of Keranos is gaining a foothold in the Kolophon. Cymede has even had a special temple built on a distant mountain summit where the storms are particularly severe. During the storm season, she visits there, meditating on a silver platform.

THE CARD:

Though it takes a bit jumping through a hoop, Anax and Cymede offer something rather rare in Boros colors - Trample.

The card is also pretty solid for a 3 drop - First Strike and Vigilance are great on a 3/2 three drop, and the aforementioned buff will be how we win.

BUILDS:

We want to abuse Anax and Cymede’s Heroic ability. For that, we need combat tricks, Auras that can be cast multiple times, and the ability to go wide. And we need them to stay alive.

Luckily, we’re in Boros colors. We have plenty of cheap and effective combat tricks and auras that we couldn’t use elsewhere. We’ll have plenty of tokens, and we’ll use an equipment fetching tech to keep out commander alive.

This deck is also super budget. The basic version can be done for under $100 (probably lower, but I’m not in the mood for math), and can be easily upgraded.

BATTLE PLAN:

We want things that work like Heroic (Anax and Cymede plus the best of the Heroic cards).

Then we want things that target - multi targeting cards with Strive, Enchantments that can bounce to hand and target again, anything to activate heroic. Then, we need to make use of A&C’s ability - we need to go wide. Lots and lots of tokens to throw at the enemy, that get buffed and have trample.

Akroan Crusader, by Johann Bodin

First we want Akroan Crusader, Akroan Conscriptor, Akroan Line-Breaker, Dawnbringer Charioteers, Fabled Hero, Favored Hoplite, Hero of Iroas, Leonin Iconoclast, Phalanx Leader, Tethmos High Priest, and Vanguard of Brimaz are all great Heroic choices (most of the remaining just have some +1/+1 counter syngery, which is a little underwhelming).

We also want Mirrorwing Dragon and Zada, Hedron Grinder. We cast battle tricks and buffs on them, and they copy it for the whole team.

EDIT: Whoops! Looks like I got that wrong, the copies Mirrorwing and Zada make won’t trigger Heroic for your whole team, as Heroic works on a casting trigger, not just being the target. They’re still amazing cards to play with since we’re running this many combat tricks, so try them out! Thanks for the catch, @imadrewid!

For spells we want two groups: reusable enchantments, and combat tricks that can target multiple creatures (alternatively, you can just do single targets with the desire to hit Anax and Cymede and nothing else).

I wish this card wasn’t 10 dollars. - R Angelic Destiny, by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

Conviction, Crown of Flames, Flickering Ward, Ghitu Firebreathing, Mark of Fury, and Sun Clasp are all enchantments that can be cast more than once. They’re all super cheap, and if you have more money to burn, there’s Angelic Destiny and Eldrazi Conscription.

Next, we have the instants and sorceries. We want the best of the Strive cards, plus some fun combat tricks, preferably ones that replace themselves or hit multiple targets.

Ajani’s Presence, Desperate Stand, Launch the Fleet, Phalanx Formation, Rouse the Mob, and Twinflame are some of my favorite instants. Check here for some more ideas.

C’mon guys, we’re almost at Arbys! Launch the Fleet, by Karl Kopinski

Finally, we need an army. Any token generators, especially ones that make multiples or can do it repeatedly, are great choices. We already have Akroan Crusader and Vanguard of Brimaaz, and there’s Assemble the Legion, Hanweir Garrison (don’t forget Hanweir Battlements too!), Captain of the Watch, Hero of Bladehold, Monastery Mentor, and Sram’s Expertise. There are more, but these are my favorites.

THE REST:

If the deck has one weakness, it’s the Boros color’s aggro - weak draw. We can make up for this with a few cards.

We also want to protect Anax and Cymede - our deck is really designed around them not dying. So a basic equipment package is our go-to, so check this out here. Plus, anything that adds hexproof or indestructible are great choices. The Kaldra trio, Darksteel Plate, Mask of Avacyn, Swiftfoor Boots are great equipment.

On the enchantment side of things, try Shielded by Faith, Unquestioned Authority, Indestructible, Spirit Mantle, and Holy Mantle - a mix of Protection from Creatures and Indestructible works great on the battlefield. Add some enchantment tutors to speed things up.

“Alright peasants, this is a sword. Hold it like this” - Mentor Mentor of the Meek, by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

We can draw with the White classic of Mentor of the Meek (given all the tokens we’ll be making). Plus Sram, Senior Artificer works great with our auras that jump around. Also to consider - Mesa Enchantress and Kore Spiritdancer for more draw.

There’s also spell doublers. Chandra, the Firebrand, Dual Casting, Primal Amulet/Wellspring do it on the cheap, and Dualcaster Mage, Fork, Reverberate, Howl of the Horde, Increasing Vengeace are more doublers, but need mana to fire off to make copies. Extra copies is extra heroic triggers. May or may not work with the deck.

There’s always classic Boros Legendaries like Aurelia, Blade of the Legion, Iroas, God of Victory, and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. I just love having these guys around, and they work in any Boros deck.

WEAKNESSES:

Heavy reliance on the board state leaves us vulnerable to Board Wipes, and Boros colors has a hard time recurring that.

”SCREW YOU, STUPID SWORD!!!” - That guy, probably Disenchant, by Andrew Goldhawk

Defensive measures likes Propaganda or Silent Arbiter hurt our efforts. We need to bring White’s responses of Disenchant, Oblivion Ring effects, and Return to Dust. Plus any artifacts that can do they same are also good.

We can’t wipe the board easily. While Mass Calcify can be an option, the presence of red cards in our deck, plus White creatures potentially being in other players decks, makes this card less reliable than I like. Alternatively, you can run Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Thalia’s Lancers (to tutor her), plus as many Board wipes as you want.

Boros also lags behind in ramp, so add in the normal - Boros Signet/Cluestone/Keyrune are great, as are basic fetches of Evolving Wild and Terramorphic Expanse. Knight of the White Orchid is great, Land Tax, Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Heart, Weathered Wayfarer all pricey, all great.

Knight of the White Orchid, by Mark Zug

RATINGS:

Control: 4/10

You don’t have a lot of options outside of White’s Hate creatures and Board wipes, but you can’t use the latter whenever you want since you’re married to the board.

With the exception of the Avacyn + board wipes, you’re relying almost 100% on the board, aside from whatever white single target removal you run.

Aggro: 9/10

This deck rewards aggressive behavior, and does it great. With evasion and team buffs, Anax and Cymede go for the throat. The cards I reccommend are heavily influenced by this idea.

Combo Potential: 7/10

Depends what you mean my combo. There’s lots of potential here without insane levels of power. The commander itself has combo synergy, but doesn’t break the game.

Overall Power: 4/10

While a decent choice for EDH, and great in Tiny Leaders, it’s a cEDH Tier 4 leader, and lags behind the pack in most respects. And Boros is the weakest EDH color pair.

Versatility: 6/10

There’s a lot of way to build it for a Boros deck. Not unlimited, but they’re there. Unfortunately they’re all limited to aggro versions.

Affordability: 10/10

This is one of the fiscally cheapest commanders I have covered. Easy manabase, easy mechanic to abuse, a lot of stuff at low rarities.

Overall Score: 40/60

A surprisingly respectable score. Anax and Cymede offer aggressive players a lot to work with, and a lot of room to work in. Plus, cards that work well with them are super-budget, or work excellent in other Boros aggro commander decks.

One of the 99: Decent

While it takes some buildaround to use Heroic, Anax and Cymede have a decent body for a creature, and can add a lot of value to an Aggro Boros build.

FINAL VERDICT:

While a little small, with some work, they make a solid workhorse of a Boros commander. While not a powerhouse, they can hold their own against a lot of decks.

That’s it for now campers! Stay tuned for Angus Mackenzie, Bant god of turbofog decks!

#mtg #edh #edhatoz #commander #theros #anax and cymede #atoz commander

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anthonyisright · 6 years

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My Verdict On 2018’s Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees

A little late, but I did it the last three years and don’t want to skip one.

Bon Jovi: OVERDUE. When was the last time you referenced Bon Jovi to anyone between the ages of 16 and 60 and they said “who?” You can debate whether they’re an enduring joy or excruciating cockroaches, but you can’t debate whether they’re a FAMOUS rock band, and this is a hall of FAME. How many grinning ‘80s hair-tossers could still cross over in the ‘00s, I ask you? Just these guys and the Chili Peppers, I think. And those guys are already in here. No wonder Jon’s cranky.

The Cars: What I said last year - Super-important AOR/New Wave crossover act that’s weirdly failed to endure in pop culture, possibly because they didn’t dress funny enough or have a boss logo. Last year I said “maybe next year,” and I might still say it this year. It’s fine they got in, but wouldn’t have on my hypothetical ballot.

Dire Straits: I think we should respect Mark Knopfler’s wishes and never think of this band again.

The Moody Blues: It’s Simpsons official that these guys knock ‘em dead in Vegas, and I’m under the impression many people over 40 have had sex to “Nights In White Satin.” File with The Cars under “whatever, but not on my ballot.”

Nina Simone: Sure comes up a lot more with rock fans than anyone else who covered Gershwin in 1958. A little obscure by my standards, but a Sainted Eternal Discovery for bohemian college students, like Lou Reed or Leonard Cohen. So fine.

Sigh. Only two acts I’d put on a ballot? Let’s see who else was nominated.

Kate Bush: Down to get that Sainted Eternal Discovery nod, but she ain’t dead yet.

Depeche Mode: What I said last year - They’re due, but The Cure should beat them as far as dweeb music goes. DM is iconic, but they’re not ROBERT SMITH iconic. Also they went from Secretly Having Lots Of Sex to Clearly Having Lots Of Sex, which confuses the brand somewhat. Robert’s Robert.

Eurythmics: Can they say Eurythmics feat. Annie Lennox? Like how “Careless Whisper” was credited in the US to Wham feat. George Michael? Combine her ‘80s with her ‘90s and that might add up to inclusion here.

J. Geils Band: What I spat last year - Give me a fucking break. I’m this close to arguing The Blues Brothers should get in first.

Judas Priest: As with Depeche Mode and the Cure, these guys are worthy but I think Iron Maiden is an even more iconic t-shirt.

LL Cool J: He’s the only working game show host with a Kennedy Center Honor. He recorded hit singles for twenty years. Everybody knows him! Let him in!

MC5: Grandmaster Flash's old group? No way.

The Meters: Nah.

Radiohead: IMMEDIATELY. THE MOST FAMOUS BAND FOR NERDS OF THEIR GENERATION, THE ULTIMATE IN MILLENNIAL ANGST COME ON LET’S NOT MAKE THE TWENTY SOMETHINGS WAIT! WHY DELAY THE INEVITABLE? Arrest Thom and drag him up on stage strapped to a gurney like Hannibal Lecter. Then make him play “Creep.” They earned it!

Rage Against The Machine: Easily the rap-rock group I can most easily see being loved by leftie firebrands and young republicans of all ages for years to come.

Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan: Didn’t they just nominate Chaka Khan last year? This is the smartest combo for the marquee, as per my comments on The Eurythmics featuring Annie Lennox. Still think we can do better.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: I accept on faith that she was a big deal in the late ‘30s, but I must say I haven’t personally heard about her. Feel free to blame the public education system.

Link Wray: While I think it’s shitty to only induct “singles” from acts that aren’t going to get in otherwise (they should induct “Satisfaction” or “Hey Jude” so it doesn’t look so backhanded a compliment), "Rumble” was a worthy “single” induction.

The Zombies: As I said last year - If these guys get in before The Monkees, then the word “fame” has no meaning with these people.

My hypothetical top 5 ballot - Bon Jovi, LL Cool J, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Nina Simone. I hope we can do better than 2/5 next year. Don’t forget...Weezer’s eligible!

#music

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theseaeaglelives · 4 years

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Round 12

THE SEA EAGLE

MAKING RUGBY LEAGUE GREAT AGAIN!!!

Taking a mid-season holiday for the past month, the Sea Eagle did his utmost to self-isolate, and avoid anyone with a Victorian number plate and/or persons who had come within a bull’s roar of the Crossroads Hotel, the suburbs of Casula, Liverpool, Warwick Farm or South Western Sydney in general, and of course the Holy Duck restaurant and Thai Rock at Wetherill Park. That said, it’s fair to say that even in the pre-COVID era (or any other era for that matter), the Sea Eagle would in all likelihood have avoided most of these destinations on the basis of pure common sense.

A bit like the happenings in Victoria the past month has not been kind to Manly with two wins since the demise of Tommy Turbo and a brief summary of those games follows:

Round 7

Manly Sea Eagles 22

Defeated By

Cronulla Sharks 40

Following on from the stirring victory against the Raiders, Manly was expected to make easy meat of their perennial whipping boys (i.e. The Sharks). Unfortunately, neither team read the script and the Manly defence also decided to take a mid-season holiday allowing the Sharks to run roughshod in this game.

The Sharks ran in 7 tries and only a late flourish (3 tries in the last 15 minutes) saved Manly from even further embarrassment.

As far as the Sea Eagle is concerned there was nothing good to come out of this game, apart from the fact that he did not have to watch it, so the less said the better.

Round 8

Manly Sea Eagles 12

Defeated by

Newcastle Knights 14

Another game that the Sea Eagle was unable to watch, however the score would indicate a much better effort by Manly. That said, Rugby League 101 is a difficult concept to overcome and despite the closeness of the result, the outcome still sees Manly failing to get the chocolates and the all-important 2 competition points.

It has been reported (a bit like in Round 4) that Manly did not get the rub of the green in terms of refereeing decisions in this game culminating in the last minute send off, of Manly firebrand Adin Fonua-Blake for allegedly calling the referee “a f#$king retard” following a contentious and controversial decision.

Fonua-Blake was duly (and rightfully) suspended for 2 weeks, plus a $20k fine (suspended) for this outburst and forced to make an apology to all and sundry, including the toothless tiger also known as the Australian Human Rights Commission for his derogatory attitude and use of the term “retard”.

No doubt this was because the term “retard” is seen as offending those members of society with impaired intellect. Strangely, the fact this outburst was directed at a referee and questioned said referees ability/integrity was barely an issue.

Without condoning the actions of Mr Fonua-Blake, who is quickly building up the CV of an A grade goose, and is an individual who himself may possibly be of quite an impaired intellect, the Sea Eagle is somewhat bemused that Manly did not contest the charges and the suspension.

On the face of it, the use of the word “retard” could well be construed as being derogatory to those members of society of less fortunate and impaired intellect. Having said that, the Oxford Dictionary defines “retard” to mean “to make the development or progress of something slower”. Could it be that young Adin was merely pointing out to the referee his displeasure at the ref’s failure to stamp down on slow play and/or delaying tactics by the Knights??

The suspension of Fonua-Blake for his outburst has prompted the Sea Eagle to ponder on what is now deemed to be an acceptable way to dish out criticism of referees and/or to avoid offence to the usual suspects.

To start with, it would appear that the use of the pro-noun “f#@king” is acceptable given that there was little or no offence taken by this word in this instance.

Obviously as has been proven here, the word “retard” is not acceptable, as is anything that is sexist (e.g. woman, girlie, pussy etc), racist (e.g. black, coon, gook etc.) or that could cause offence to the LBGTQ community (e.g. faggot, poofter, pillow biter, poo puncher, traveller of the chocolate superhighway, carpet muncher etc.). As it should be. There is no place or need to denounce, denigrate, humiliate, slur, or belittle anyone. Even if it is true and even if, on any reading of the objective facts, the said comment could only be taken as a correct statement of the bleeding obvious. Readings of the Sea Eagle over many years will stand testimony to that .

In AFL circles the use of the word “maggot” has been universally adopted, so “f#@king maggot” may be a goer. As would be “f#@king tool”, “f#@king knob” and perhaps also “f#@king f@#kwit”. The use of the word “f(8kng c87nt” should however be avoided. The list of acceptable options is endless and players (and fans) now just need to be more creative than has been the case in bygone eras.

Round 9

Manly Sea Eagles 4

Defeated by

St-George Dragons 34

The Manly defence mid-season holiday continued in this game and without Tommy Turbo/Dylan Walker there was also nothing to offer in attack. The Dragons, who were going legless at the time ran roughshod over Manly and as a result Manly’s season was then appearing to be in a free-fall, not dissimilar to the Victorian government’s handling of the COVID debacle.

As was the case in Round 7, as far as the Sea Eagle is concerned there was nothing good to come out of this game, apart from the fact that he did not have to watch it, so the less said the better.

Round 10

Manly Sea Eagles 22

Defeated

Parramatta Eels 18

Based on the past 3 weeks, Manly were expected to be lapped by the high-flying and competition leading Eels.

Sent out at the juicy odds of $4.50, Manly was back at fortress Brookvale, and dished out an old-fashioned ambush on their bitter rivals and in the blink of an eye ran out to a 16-0 lead in as many minutes.

Cherry Baby (who had a shocker the previous week) was back to his best and was front and centre, leading from the front and instrumental in Manly’s improved performance.

Despite a late comeback by the Eels, Manly ran out deserved winners to get their season back on track and keep them within striking distance from the top 8. That said, without Tommy Turbo (and to a lesser extent Dylan Walker), Manly do appear to continue to struggle and it is only their pride and tradition, and a great coach in Des Hasler, who seems to work miracles with very little, that will keep them in contention until the great man Tommy Turbo (and Dylan Walker) return from injury.

Round 11

Manly Sea Eagles 24

Defeated

North Queensland Cowboys 12

Let’s face it, a trip to Townville even at the best of times is never a pleasant experience. Commonly referred to as Shitsville in the popular Shit Towns of Australia Facebook Page, Townsville is a regular chart topper in the rankings of Australia’s crappiest places to visit. A trip to Townsville is made even worse when confronted by an equally desperate North QLD Cowboys outfit and played at a traditional graveyard for many previous Manly campaigns.

Thankfully however, Manly carried some of their good form from the previous week’s outing against the Eels and started this game where they left off.

After dominating the early skirmishes, Manly opened the scoring after 7 minutes via a barnstorming and bullocking effort from Curtis “the Carnivore” Sironen (more on that later).

After having to withstand some pressure of their own with some at times desperate defence, Manly were able to extend their lead 10 minutes of the break when new hooker Danny Levi barged over from dummy half. Levi has been a shrewd acquisition for Manly and has done a fine job filling in for the mandatorily stood down, Manase Fainu, who in the Sea Eagle’s opinion will be lucky to avoid incarceration for his alleged off-season stabbing incident.

Unfortunately, Manly was unable to maintain their dominance with the Cowboys hitting back on the stroke of half time when winger Kyle Felt lept high to take a bomb over the permanently grounded Horhay Taufua. Defusing the high ball has never been one of young Horhay’s hallmarks and again he was found wanting in this instance. Manly 12-6.

After withstanding some early second half pressure, tries to Cherry Baby and Cade Cust sealed the win for Manly. The Sea Eagle (as did Des Hasler post-match) would like to single out Cade Cust for special mention. Young Cust is improving each week and looks a likely prospect reminding the Sea Eagle of a young Keiran Foran. Let’s hope for young Cade’s sake that he does not follow the example set by Foran (i.e. leaving the nest, chasing greener pastures elsewhere and ending up on the rugby league scrap heap at one time allegedly residing in a less than ideal housing arrangement).

When Dylan Walker returns it will be interesting to see whether he finds himself back out in the centre position , putting a bit of pressure on Brad Parker to retain his spot. That said, young Parker might be quite a useful bench player given his robust frame and liking for the heavy stuff, which could easily see him cover forward and/or backline replacements as required.

EAT RED MEAT

It has been reported (SMH 25/7/20) that since going on to what has been called a Carnivore (i.e. meat only) diet this year, young Curtis Sironen has been able to transform himself from an average journeyman to an established and worthy first grader. Based on his recent performances it’s hard to argue, however the Sea Eagle must attribute some of his improvement to the fact that he is now being mentored by master Coach Des Hasler as opposed to the procession of mediocre Coaches he has had to endure in the past.

It also goes to prove, yet again, some things the Sea Eagle has found quite repellent . And that is the latest trend of so called veganism. We need to get one thing straight here . Carnivores are A grade predators and top the food chain. And for good reason . If you play Rugby League or think like a Rugby League person then you better eat red meat and follow the Curtis Sironen example. It is your choice whether you prefer to eat it raw, rare or medium rare . If you want to follow netball , soccer (men or women's ) or AFL (men or womens) then by all means become a vegetable only eating Nancy Boy.

The Sea Eagle, based on the findings of Mr Sironen, suggests red meat become a predominant part of the diet (and if religious reasons preclude eating beef, ensure that lamb , Goat , kangaroo , snake or crocodile, or venison is the appropriate substitution). If you are capable of engaging in the Bear Grills type lost art of catch and kill your own in this space, all the better.

The Demise of the Dogs (and the return of Trent Barrett)

It is not with any pleasure that the Sea Eagle accounts the demise of this once proud club. The past decade has been nothing short of shambolic, from sex scandals (e.g. Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie etc), mad Monday debacles, horrendous recruiting (e.g. Foran, Hoppoate, Hasler etc), to now finding itself odds-on to get the spoon in 2020 and having recently sacked club stalwart and legend Dean Pay.

Can it get worse for the Dogs and their long-suffering fans? In short YES.

It has widely been reported in many media outlets that none other than Trent Barrett has been signed to a 3-year deal to take on the head job relacing Dean Pay.

What is there left to say about Trent Barrett, that has not already been said. His time at Manly was nothing short of a debacle, with the only good thing to be said about this DFI infected, ex-Dragon/Shark, non-premiership winner, was that he kept the gym clean and has a good supply of his own gym/office furniture.

https://t.co/2A3P9koeuD?ssr=true

The decision by the Dogs to give Barrett the head job beggars belief. Those in charge of this decision at the very least should have sought explanation and clarification of the following questions and issues, during the interview and appointment process. Namely; “Trent:

Have you won a premiership as a player?

Have you won a premiership as a coach?

Have you ever been coached at club level by a premiership winner?

As a player were you ever coached by DFI patient zero, Brian Smith?

Is it possible that as a consequence of question 3, that you are infected with DFI which is still transmittable to players that you coach?

As a player, were you ever publicly slapped by your coach (who was also a DFI infected, ex-Dragon, non-premiership winner?)

Were you sacked from your previous head coaching role?

Has any team since your sacking, under a new coach improved?

Do you hate Manly and all they represent (ie success and a failure to tolerate mediocrity)?

Do you agree that on the whole, when someone leaves Manly they rarely if ever, go any better and sometimes end up on the slide to oblivion?”

Finally, do you still have any decent office/gym furniture?

The Sea Eagle takes little joy or pleasure from this apparent demise of the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs . Whilst it is fair to say the Sea Eagle has never loved this club , the Sea Eagle has generally speaking had nothing but the most respect for how about they went about the business of Rugby League. Let's face it, there was a time when if you played the Bulldogs, you knew you were in for a hard afternoon/evening’s work . Until now . The appointment of Trent Barret as coach, who is so un-Bulldog, will and should end in tears.

COVID 19 MELBOURNE

With the recent debacle that is the Victorian government handling of Covid 19 quarantine matters, one might have hoped the effective isolation of Victoria from the rest of Australia via mandatory border closures, would have seen the Melbourne Storm and their filthy wrestling techniques also marooned in that COVID-19 ridden hellhole. Regrettably, the Storm managed to escape to sunny Queensland and are now functioning as though nothing had happened. More is the pity.

Frankly, the Sea Eagle cannot understand how this occured given Queensland has quite correctly banned anyone who comes from the Liverpool and general South Western Sydney post codes from entering their State (and seem to be able to ban residents from nominated NSW postcodes virtually at will and on a daily basis).

When they went to Albury earlier in the year, that town rightly wanted them out pronto.

Surely banning the Storm would have been an easy and straightforward/ common sense decision to make given where they came from (ie Melbourne). This must now be seen for what it is, a missed opportunity to remove the Storm from the Rugby League landscape once and for all. All fair minded followers of Rugby League can place the blame for this one squarely at the feet of the Queensland government.

THE SEA EAGLE

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