#been putting this soundtrack on loop while i work

[itspileofgoodthings]

tags continued from prev post.

[holmesunenthusiast]

hypothetical: if you had to choose only one holmes adaptation to exist and all the others got wiped from existence. What would the one be

OH GOD THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS IN MY HANDS

Confession time I'm actually a fake ass fan cuz I fear I've never watched the famously beloved ones 💔💔 I saw some of the Granada and the Soviet shows but I never had the time to properly sit down and appreciate them!! All this to say I'm excluding them from my answer because I'm hashtag not informed.

I think the ones I find most impactful/most enjoyable are the Enola Holmes movies, the Rdj films, The Great Mouse Detective, Moriarty the Patriot, and BBC Sherlock. Honorable mention to Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd century but I cannot in good faith put it up there with these I'm sorry SH22 😓 Sooo I'm picking from those!

Cut cuz this may get long... You can ignore this and scroll all the way to the bottom for my answer I'm so sorry for this omg 😭😭

The RDJ films have all the makings of an adaptation I should seriously hate, but at the same time it's such a fun new angle for Holmes that I'm kind of impressed at the audacity and just loop right back to enjoying them LMFAO like sure I GUESS Sherlock Holmes can be an action hero if you want him to be 🤷🤷🤷 I mean he canonically boxes so... Good job?? On that?? I think the premise is absolutely ridiculous but the cinematography, the acting, and the soundtrack all work together so beautifully to create a series that I love against all odds. (Still waiting on the third btw 💔) HOWEVER... I can't keep it around because of what it does to my girl Irene Norton. I HATEEEEE Irene as a Holmes love interest with all my heart and soul. Bad premise. Idc if she died. It should've never happened in the first place. Rachel Macadams I'm sorry they did this to you you could've been so much better.

Enola Holmes is another one which I feel absolutely masters the aesthetic it's going for. Enola herself is so charming, the music is whimsical, the setting and costumes are perfectly colorful, it's a SUPER fun watch... For anyone who can ignore the major canon changes 💀 the most HEINOUS issue imo was how they massacred my man Mycroft because WHO is this obsessive, unintelligent misogynist???? That is NOT Mycroft Holmes pls he would not GAF if his sister was a genius or whatever he would probably RECOMMEND for her to go to school but if she fought THAT hard his ass would not fight back. Get real. If anything SHERLOCK would be the one who would be more in support of his sisters schooling/marriage for reasons of safety and whatnot bc he deals with crime all day. I hate Enolas Mycroft with a burning passion for God's sake there was no reason for them to be doing allat they could've just invented a father 🤦🤦

Another, slightly more nitpicky critique I had was the choice to racebend and genderbend Morairty... Now I'm the last mf to be pointing the racebend finger because I pull the woke forced diversity stunt every time I stylize ACD canon characters. a Netflix casting director hates to see me pull up to the forced diversity competition. HOWEVER. I think that given the sort of story that Enola Holmes is trying to tell about female empowerment while simultaneously ignoring how intersectionality plays into that... It's fine. It WOULD be fine if we were creating a verse where we don't think too hard about these things. But Professor Moriarty?? Being made a black woman? Professor Moriarty works from a place of privilege. He has a strong academic history and is someone that is difficult to mark down without HEAVY evidence. No one will believe you because he's established himself as just some MATHEMATICIAN! What's he gonna do threaten you with a quadratic formula?? He's too Smart and White and Rich to be a bad guy. He is THE Quintessential White Man to be villainizing in your very simple feminist narrative!! 😭 You had everything you could possibly want Enola HOW did you fuck this up oml 🤦��♂️ and then to have Mira Troy just reveal her identity... WHEN THE ONLY WAY MORIARTY MANAGED TO OPERATE THE WAY HE DID IS CUZ NO ONE KNEW HIM😑. pls don't play with me if there's any character that gets more butchered in Holmes adaptations than Irene it's Moriarty.

Which is my perfect segue into Moriarty the Patriot. In terms of representing Moriarty as a figure no one in the public would ever expect as a criminal, they've done a stellar job. Easily one of the best adaptations in terms of understanding WHY it would be difficult to expose a guy like him. He's a PHILANTHROPIST. He HELPS people. How could someone like him also be a criminal??? So in all that, nice work. Making Moriarty the protagonist is a very creative choice. Now my problem here is Holmes (and not just his atrocious ass anime boy design I should kick this thing to the curb just for that). I. REALLY. Don't like the whole "finally my worthy opponent" dynamic being laced with like a love for the chase. Holmes was at his absolute LOWEST when he was going up against Moriarty and Moriarty was shitting his pants that The Sherlock Holmes was on his tail. I get that they needed their enemies to lovers yaoi but did we have to stoop to Sheri///arty territory 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️. It was bound to happen I'm just sad it happened in a series that actually puts Moriarty in the kind of position that'd make it hard for Holmes to take him down that goes beyond "he's caaaRAYZAYYYYY 🤪". Also the redemption arc was bullshitty and gay and I hate it. It had some really good elements and I enjoyed watching the first season but afterwards it just hurt to see them make MORIARTY more important to Holmes than fuckin DR JOHN H. WATSON. Don't play with me anime I am not the one 🙄

Aaaand now we're down to BBC and Disney. This truly seems bleak BUT I have to go back to your wording for this question cuz I feel like these two have DEEP roots and "wiped from existence" means I have to live with a lot less than just a bad Holmes adaptation. And this is about BBC specifically because TGMD is GOOD. Actually it's one of the adaptations that I think BEST represents Holmess mood. I know it's just a mouse who lives in his house who's like factkinning him but this mouse did his HOMEWORK okay? He perfectly captured holmess ups and downs, his moodswings, his recovery after moodswings, his tenderness and his ACTUAL CARE for the people hes working to help. And Dawson is the PERFECT WATSON!! He's a FANBOY. He's amazed at everything Basil is accomplishing, he finds him strange but brilliant and he is loyal and noble and SO KIND. The scene after Olivia gets kidnapped I think is my absolute favorite in terms of how it represents them. Basil is furious they lost the trail, he gets angry at Dawson for exactly a second but then he sees Dawson crying and immediately stops, reflects, and COMFORTS HIM. Oh my god you did it. You made Holmes smart and capable and calculating and brilliant and NOT AN ASSHOLE.

And I feel like just by describing TGMDs pros I've highlights all of BBCs shortcomings. The cases are not smart, not well thought out, and not interesting to follow. The characters are shallow and so too are their relationships. It only made it this far because I am replying to this message on the BBC Sherlock founded website. That's one of our forefathers unfortunately it was the kind of forefather you barely even consider sending a Christmas card to. It is undoubtedly influential and once I wiped the acd canon from my memory and also threw away my dignity and offense that a company is really trying to sell me the story that this is a smartly written character/series I had a great time! My go to quote about it is that it's a shitty early 2000s ooc chatfic. Objectively bad but sometimes you just LIKE that shit. it's fun in spite of and sometimes BECAUSE of its flaws. What do you mean the hound of the Baskervilles was a fucking hallucination. What do you mean you thought Victor Trevor was a dog. What do you mean Irene is a lesbian but her exception is... THAT 💀. That's hilarious. I hate you. Tell me more.

Also TGMD is the reason Disney as a company still exists. It gave them the funds to create The Little Mermaid and pushed them out of the Disney Dark Ages. We don't talk about what Disney does NOW but if it took Sherlock Holmes furry au to give us Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, it was worth it.

So The Great Mouse Detective is my winner! This is probably excluding a lot of great adaptations simply cuz I never watched them but TGMD will always have a special place in my heart and is usually my go to rec for when ppl want a fan adaptation. Basil is my pfp for a reason ig 🤭

[joycieillustrations]

🎶, 💔, 🌞

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I am never not listening to music! I curate soundtrack playlists for everything I write and am constantly on the lookout for more OSTs to add to my mix! Also for the past 5 years, Ramin Djawadi has been my most-listened to artist on my Spotify wrapped and I’ve been in his top 0.05% listeners worldwide — which I think speaks volumes as to how often I think about the ASOIAF universe 😂

These are some of my writing playlists:

As for what I’ve been listening to lately, I don’t know that there’s been just one song! My current go-to playlist at work is the ‘UK 00s bangers’ playlist I made for my American wife because finding out that she didn’t know who Girls Aloud and the Sugababes were broke me. I don’t know if she’s listened to it, but it’s certainly getting played by me!

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

Of what I’ve published so far, it has to be Salt and Smoke — I can’t believe I put them Through That after everything Rhaenys had been through at the Great Council. It has a happier end, but good grief it’s not without a lot of sadness beforehand.

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Any time I shouldn’t be 😂 But usually I like to write in the evening or when I’m lying in bed, I’ll just jot down ideas and scenes as they come to me - usually out of order- and then I’ll reorganise and refine it the next morning (I prefer to do this when I’m commuting, something about writing/editing on a train tickles my brain)

Thank you so much for your ask! ❤️

[yeah-uh-the-pilot]

Nobody asked for this but last night I couldn’t sleep and my only thought was ‘wait what kind of music does the firefam listen to????’. So, here are my opinions:

Bobby: dad rock. I mean it. 70’s and early 80’s music is his jam. Even at his most depressed he still accepted to go to a Springsteen concert with the probie. David Bowie is like his hero tho.

Athena: she still listens to the same stuff she used to listen to while in college and before Emmett died. Late eighties/early nineties RnB mostly.

Hen Wilson: I feel like her playlist would be a bit all over the place time wise BUT what all the artists she listens to have in common is that they’re either self-made women (particularly self-made black women) or big sapphic names in music. She loves Rihanna a lot, but Chappell Roan has been on a loop in her ears in the last couple of weeks.

Karen: I could make a joke here and say that she listens to lots of musicals but I won’t do that. She mostly likes instrumentals, quite stuff she can listen to when she studies or works. Her favourite album is the OST to Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Chimney: he does not have a favourite genre, his playlist is the current Top 50 and he has an incredible memory for them. He loves EVERYTHING. I know you guys like to believe Buck is a Swiftie, but Chimney is the one who has been listening to her religiously since Day 1. Fun fact no. 1: the only times he did not keep up with the top 50 was when Kevin died and when Maddie left for Boston. Fun fact no. 2: one day he came into the 118 singing Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter and the rest of the firefam did not know what to do with that fact.

Maddie: BALLADS BALLADS BALLADS BALLADS.

Eddie: This man cannot get himself to listen to new music to save his life. Most of the songs in his library are songs he just stumbled upon on the radio or that were part of soundtracks. For this reason, there are lots of Spanish songs from his silly little telenovelas in there. He mostly loves poetic songs. For some reason, he cried for like 30 minutes straight while listening to Dos oruguitas from Encanto for the first time

Buck: he doesn’t really listen to much music. He used to have this playlist for the gym but now that he trains at the station he loves listening to the people that he loves moving around him. When he’s driving he puts on a podcast and he tries to learn something new everyday.

Tommy: Bobby but like 20 years later. Rock music from the late eighties and early nineties. He cried when he heard that Guns n’ Roses where splitting up and was the first in line to buy Chinese Democracy when Axl Rose finally released it. He loved Kurt Cobain. He still listens to Foo Fighters. He LOVES Metallica. Enter Sandman was his favourite song for a long while but now for some reasons his favourite song is Patience by Guns n’ Roses.

[spectralhyena]

Echo of the Larkspur Review

I just finished reading Echo of the Larkspur by A.A. Freeman, aka @aughtpunk!

For the first couple chapters, I was kinda eh about it, and the first pov change threw me for a loop, but once I got into it, boy was I into it. It took effort to put it down and go to sleep at night, and I definitely gave myself eyestrain trying to read it on my phone while laying in bed at like midnight.

4.5 out of 5 stars, definitely recommend if you are into queer sci-fi romance!

Here is the blurb, and if it sounds interesting to you, check it out! It goes live on Amazon on July 23rd, and will be available in Paperback, Hardback, and E-Book.

The sole survivor of a massacre, Dr. Ciro Kwakkenbos, has spent the last six years in intensive therapy. He’s finally capable of working with Artificial Intelligence again—and comes to the Ceres colony determined to prevent robots from committing any future atrocities. When he arrives, Ciro realizes the robot in charge of the colony’s security, S.A.G.E. (Sentient Automated Geo-sentinel Engineer), is dangerously close to complete sentience. S.A.G.E. is more interested in observing the colonists’ everyday lives (and matching them with appropriate musical soundtracks) than following its intended programming. Robots aren’t supposed to be charming, kind, or compassionate, either. But as Ciro investigates, he discovers S.A.G.E. has learned how to lie and—possibly—harm and kill humans. Worse, S.A.G.E.’s memories have been hacked, deleting a deadly secret. Despite the danger S.A.G.E. poses, Ciro can’t deny the feelings growing between them. Now Ciro must unravel the truth behind the missing memories—before S.A.G.E. and the colony are doomed.

Here is the Pre-order link if you want it! https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Larkspur-Daisy-Chain-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0F9W9DKQC

For some reason, Amazon only lets you pre-order the e-book version, so those of us wanting paper-or-hardback copies will have to wait for the official release.

[ilkkawhat]

edit: my dumb ass posted this without even crediting who tagged me 😅😅 ty @everybuddiewantssome 💜💜

1. You get $100 to go thrift shopping, what are you buying and why?

hmm probably a combo of new clothes (i unfortunately upgraded a few sizes so i've been having to buy new stuff to compensate) and random gaming shit since you can find cool things at thrift shops--i found this twilight princess HD canvas thing one time

2. What's a song you could listen to dozens of times in a row and never get bored

Herald of Darkness. Or anything from the Alan Wake soundtracks tbh cause i have been listening to it since like 2023

3. What's a decade you really like music from?

I don't think I have a specific decade I like but I always like listening to 80s stuff

4. What's your dream hair?

probably some shade of purple lol but a short cut, sometimes i'll go a little long (ngl was totally going for aw2 alan's hair at one point)

and also just anything without the unfortunate cirrhosis i got going on or whatever the fuck it's called

5. What's a chore you actually like doing that surprises people?

Haven't done it in a while but cleaning the bathroom. I loved being able to just close myself in there, put on some music and clean everything

6. Do you fidget? How or with what?

Yuuuuup. I got a fidget cube I take with me on trips now, otherwise at my desk at work I'll fidget with random shit like paperclips or pens when I'm calls, at home with just....whatever

7. Tell me about a current hyperfixation of yours.

Since my blog is already about the biggest one lemme tell you about one of my like. tertiary hyperfixations: randy feltface. he's an australian comedian who acts with a purple puppet and he's just so fucking hysterical. I watched his special 'randy writes a novel' YEARS ago, can't even remember what made me watch it at the time and what got me back into it this year but i've just been watching his specials on youtube on repeat (and am currently watching as I type this lol, it's honestly pretty ??? how many times i've watched his stuff on a loop when i just don't know what else to do)

8. What's your favourite animated movie or tv series?

ah man. idk. i do enjoy so many of them and legit can't think of any particular one right now? AtLA and Korra, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Spongebob, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy were the big ones when I was a kid and I've gotten into the adult animated shows of course too (which reminds me I wanna rewatch Bob's Burgers and catch up--I did see the movie for that one in the theater and loved it)

9. If you were forced to lose one of your five senses, which one would you choose?

Smell cause it's honestly my weakest anyway, I rarely am able to smell things

10. What makes you feel put together? What makes you feel like you have your life in order? You know, that thing that makes you go yeah no, I got this?

As soon as I figure that out I'll let y'all know 😅 Unfortunately I've been like, conditioned that anytime I feel like I'm put together I get knocked down again. "Don't get too cocky" as my mom likes to tell me any time I truly feel like I'm doing good at things especially work.

Bonus question: for star wars fans, who is your favourite Jedi and why?

Bit of a idk. not cliche I'm sure but I can't quite think of the word...regardless. It's Obi-Wan lol and not just cause of the Hello There meme (though i fucking love that meme), I just genuinely like his character and the actors who played him.

[thatoldstandby]

Games of the Year 2024 because why not

So, this is unusual for this place, but uh.

I spent a lot of time on video games this year, and I feel like I have to write something to make up for it because otherwise. Eesh. Plus I want to write a thing more often this year, and this will be the first/second, depending on when I finish it up. Below the cut, I'll start with some games I'd still like to play or play more of; honorable mentions because I played a lot of things I loved and they don't fit in the top, and a top 5, because who has time for 10 games (please ignore the above numbers).

THINGS YET TO BE FINISHED

Here's a list of games I haven't touched, haven't completed, or haven't done enough of a Think to figure out where it stands. I'd love to get to any of these, and probably will. Unless I forget.

Nine Sols, Lorelai and the Laser Eyes, Arco, Cryptmaster, Metaphor ReFantazio, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Unicorn Overlord, Indika, Slitterhead, Fate/Stay Remaster, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, Metal Slug Tactics, Caves of Qud, Arctic Eggs, Sorry We're Closed, probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

HONORABLE MENTIONS in no particular order

Trails in the Sky FC and SC: This was the year I started my Trails journey. Luckily, it kicks off pretty nicely. Trails in the Sky FC is a fun, fairly generic JRPG with an entirely too lovable cast. Estelle is real and my friend. And then the last hour happens, and my interest is piqued immediately. And then SC is great, telling a compelling story with the cast of goobers you now care for and expanding the world expertly. And then the last hour happens again, and I'm super excited to keep delving into the world of Liberl. What an excellent throwback that fully explains why it's existed for twenty years.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Ichiban is real and my friend. I've been playing the Yakuza games since Yakuza 0 was first released, and then I needed a depression/mindless work game series to plow through while working my way through law school, and let me tell you. There's nothing more perfect than a series where there's always something new and the city barely changes between instances. The Ichiban games are similarly excellent, and wonderful JRPGs in their own right, but this one took the cake by also acting as a conclusion (for now) to Kiryu's story that completely nailed everything it needed to. I think it got a little out there in the final hours, but I was still along for the ride to the end. What a game. Dondoko Island is basically another game inside of it.

Balatro: Jimbo is real and my friend. It's Balatro. It's probably the single best designed game loop of anything released this year. It doesn't do a lot for me, personally, in that I like it and appreciate the artistry behind it, but I haven't lost my life to it at any point this year. Good game, highly suggested, not fully my cup of tea. That soundtrack is excellent though.

Conscript: So I played three Resident Evil (PSX) style survival horror games this year. I felt that one of them was pretty bad, and so won't talk about it here. But Conscript? Conscript hit just right. Set in the trenches of Verdun during WWI, it's an excellent survival horror game that eschews the stereotypical supernatural elements attached to the genre in a way that makes it work. It's got just enough of a narrative pull to get you through the game as well. Absolutely worth looking at if you're a fan of classic survival horror.

Rise of the Golden Idol: The Case of the Golden Idol was one of the best written mystery games I've ever played; one I'd put right up there with Return of the Obra Dinn. The DLC was still good, but less than the main game; not only was it weirdly difficult, but something just felt... off? about it. Luckily, Rise was just as good as the original game, and an excellent second entry. If you haven't played the Golden Idol series but love mysteries, then by all means, you should play it. It's really good. I don't think I like Rise quite as much as Case, but that's mostly quibbling about hairsbreadth differences at this point.

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail: I dunno, it's FFXIV. It's kind of a lodestone in my life at this point. And while Dawntrail was certainly not the best expac of the game, that's less to do with the quality of Dawntrail itself (which is mostly fine, with some shockingly clunky pacing issues, some off-sounding writing, and some poor VA direction for some of the scenes) and more to do with the one-two punch that is Shadowbringers and Endwalker. There's still a bunch to love about this game, and Tuliyolal and the surrounding environs are just so cool to me for a lot of reasons. Plus my static is cool and I love hanging out with them twice a week.

Threshold: I just played this last week? And I'm still thinking about it? What a weird, weird little thing.

BEST GAME OF SIGNALIS (2022)

Signalis (2022)

A highly prestigious award that Signalis has won every year since release. Excellent work Signalis. Keep up the good work.

TOP FIVE GAMES OF 2024 (AS OF ROUGHLY RIGHT NOW

5. Crow Country

The other Resident Evil (PSX) style survival horror I played this year! It's excellent, a tightly designed and paced adventure set in a creepy environment with a unique art style. The game controls really interestingly as well; adding a fun modern layer onto such an obvious retro love letter. It might have ranked higher on my list; but some of the puzzles (notably the mushroom puzzle) were actively bad and I haven't forgiven it.

4. Tactical Breach Wizards

I've been a fan of the Defenestration Trilogy since I first played the original Gunpoint back in 2013. Then, it was a neat, well written comedy stealth action game. I even liked the follow-up Heat Signature, though that had less writing and more of a focus on the gameplay loop, which was OK, but not mindblowing. So when the developer Tom Francis announced he was working on the third of the unrelated trilogy, and that it was called Tactical Breach Wizards, I was instantly excited and willing to wait for as long as it took. And it took a while. But when it came out? It was excellent. It is a strong tactical combat game centered around pushing enemies around a map, ideally out of windows. On top of that, it might be one of the best written games of the year. It had the unenviable narrative task of balancing around a SWAT-esque team of characters without falling too far into copaganda or falling for tacticool problems. Luckily, it not only does that, but is genuinely one of the funniest games I've played in a while. Utterly strong comedy writing, which is something that you don't come across in games often. Also, fuck Steve, no one likes Steve.

3. UFO 50

Most games have trouble getting down one or two gameplay loops. So the guy behind Spelunky, one of the best action rogue-likes, was like, I'm going to make that problem fifty times harder by releasing fifty different games as one. And then the madman did it; and he didn't just do it, he did it well. The concept behind UFO 50 is that it's a collection of 50 games that was a lost developer's entire back catalog originally released in the 1980s. So, UFO 50 is literally just 50 NES style games for you to peruse and play. It is an amazingly impressive feat of both game design and historical understanding. By hour count, it's the game that I've spent the most time in by such a large margin it's astounding. I don't even love all the games; but I love enough that there's always something more. It's such an amazing little package.

2. 1000xRESIST

A latecomer to this list, 1000xRESIST is... a lot. At a basic level, it's a narrative exploration game where you explore a world, chat to people, and "enjoy" a story being told. And what a story. It's about so much. Isolation, resistance, memory, familial trauma (and the continuation thereof), expectations, being a teenager, the things you carry forward.... Fuck, there's a lot, and it hit me in a very particular place that was difficult to continue at parts, but that's a sign of quality in a story. It ends astoundingly, and I love it very much. If there's one negative thing I can say about it, it's that it's a pretty ugly game. I try not to focus on that too much; but my god the models. It's really a shame, because there's some striking art design at play, and the use of colors is among the best I've seen this year. But those models are bad. Hekki Allmother; red to blue.

Mouthwashing

Fuckin'. Mouthwashing. Another narrative game, but where 1000xRESIST is a narrative sword, full of heft and weight, Mouthwashing is a scalpel. It is a tightly edited, highly focused that gets in to do what it wants, cuts through you with the cold horror and understanding of what it's going for, and then gets out. I played it myself after watching one (1) TikTok; I streamed it for a friend like two weeks later; I watched numerous streamers playthrough it; and then I played through it again with another friend. What an astounding piece of media, with some of the best cinematography I've seen in an embarrassingly long time. Just. Astounding.

[chelzone]

My WIP Games Ahead: An Assortment

feeling like rambling a bit to get myself motivated to work on stuff right now, as well give a fresh update on what projects ive been tending to this year. just gonna focus on three that have had a lotta work put into em already

not gonna tag this one since its a mixture of SFW and NSFW and hidden under a read more. dont open if u dont wanna read about the latter (more specifically expansion kink stuff)

Hallowed Discharge

this one i've been putting my heart and soul into for a long while now, as it's a mountain of coding and writing despite only being maybe 25-30% finished argubly. made within the Quest text adventure engine, much like my released SFW game Kindred Spirit. Hallowed Discharge revolves around a pooltoy priest named Reverend Artemis, and his task in trying to nonlethally expel a hell of a lot of spirits from an abandoned mall named Delícias do Vale. features a hell of a lot of NPCs to chat with, tons of tasks to do for the most important of spirits, a mixture of percentage-based stats to be mindful of (weight, faith, and energy), and a fuckton of early game overs if u aint careful along the way. so far currently i'd say half of the first floor's tended to, same for the basement, and nothing for the second floor or general outside yet.

last time i tinkered with this, i was tending to a mission where the player has to attempt to fix fuses around the mall to restore partial power to the basement generators (mechanically it works code-wise, still need to move them to proper areas before the task can be completed properly). as for the justification of kinky stuff, our beloved goddess of expansion herself Her Divine is puppeting the show from above

Enchanted Bliss

another game with a lotta heart put into it, this one's a SFW visual novel made within Ren'Py (my first proper one at that in said engine!). Enchanted Bliss revolves around a newbie and mid-to-late 20 something wizard Dylan Rhodes, being strung along on a mission with a bunch of professional wizards / coworkers (a field exercise for Rhodes, a bigger deal of trouble for the rest). within the ruined city of Filia Lunae, Dylan will have to tag up with one of their coworkers to investigate a part of said city and hopefully score a friendship / a romantic relationship along the way (or even beef it completely).

last time i worked on this, ive been in the process of redoing the art style completely to be a more neon and line-focused one (as seen in the image above). fuck ton of emotion sprites are done for the protagonist Dylan, supporting character / mission boss Carmichael, and one of said coworkers - Brava Denvers. still have to draw the rest of the emotions for the other 5 coworkers. past that ive made 16 short music loops (1 min or so each) that might wind up in the game or its soundtrack slated for post-game release in the years ahead. still a lot of drawing, writing, and music-making ahead along with sourcing any royalty free / public domain sounds with credits of course. current playable section is just the tutorial / introduction camp before starting any of the six routes

The Ballad of Hush and Clover

another kinky game, though this one made in the flicksy 2 engine much like me released SFW game For Your Eyes. this one revolves around wizard couple and toony folks Evelyn Hush an Patsy Clover, heading off to the Nilbrook Mountain Chain to investigate a strange cave stumbled upon by a coworker. from there, they stumble upon a small fragment of what used to be temple to the (shocker) goddess Her Divine. there, a mystical figure emerges as a proxy of said goddess an offers a challenge for one (whichever the player chooses) of the toony spouses / wizards present.

with enough vague story rambling outta the way, it's basically gonna be a point and click sort of storybook thang. you'll either be playing as Evelyn OR Patsy - not both. each spouse has their own setting and associated adventure in a simulated dimension tied to their challenge (the other stays behind in the real world with the mentioned figure / proxy). so far a fuckton of scenes are drawn for it already, fulfilling the entirety of gameplay in the introduction and tutorial. gameplay elements besides traveling From Here to There will also be opportunities to use your powers, think about the situation ahead, chat with the folks within the challenge, and utilize a map to figure out where the hell ur at.

last time i worked on it i started making the early parts of both playable stories for each respective protagonist. Evelyn gets to deal with potential inflation mischief on an airship resort of sorts, while Patsy deals with potential fattening mischief on a cross-country luxury train of sorts. this one has been fun as fuck to draw and write for, and is chock full of visuals oh my lord

anyway if uve read this or even a chunk of this write-up, thanks! feel its important to remind folks that im still working on things and offer any progress updates when i can lol. at the moment of writing (08-29-2024) im prob gonna try hopping back into game dev for one or all of these come early September this year. id say realistically it'll be a hot minute until i release any of these three (most work needed for Hallowed Discarge, least needed for The Ballad of Hush and Clover, yadda yadda)

[declawedwildcat]

2. Best music?

Bonus: Are there any songs that you like well enough musically but think ruin the moment when they play in game?

Off the top of my head I can't recall any moments that were completely ruined by the soundtrack, not for songs that I liked by themselves certainly. I do find that the openings and endings grow on me more after the fact; most of them don't really stick with me when they actually happen in-game, maybe just because they play over credits and not the actual scenes that I can associate them with, but listening to OSTs on their own and playing Rhythm Carnival I get a better appreciation of them.

However the song for Madarame's bad end is fucking hilarious and that is definitely not the effect they were going for. Deeply fucked-up narrative about relapse and selfish sabotage followed up by the very cool and metaphorical chorus Damaging Slowly from hit video game Slow Damage

From worst to best:

5. Togainu no Chi — Like most of my thoughts on tnc, there's nothing especially wrong with its OST, it just felt mostly forgettable and I can't remember any moments where the music really heightened the emotion of a scene in a noticeable way. It has a few different tones, mostly a metal/techno type sound or gentle piano, and its vocal tracks are primarily loud with heavy drums and guitar. It does a good job of setting the tone, I also can't think of anywhere that the music undercut what was going on, but it's not one I see myself ever turning on to listen to on its own.

4. sweet pool — I'm sure there's some category where I don't have to call sweet pool weird, but the music is not it. It's like... ambient synthesizer, metallic percussion, occasional piano or violin, it continues the experimental vibe of everything they were doing with this game. Some tracks individually feel like they have multiple tones within them, which can leave the mood of scenes disjointed and incongruent to me. It also doesn't have all that many instrumental tracks, and while it's not a long game comparatively, it's definitely long enough to get repetitive with the lack of variety. It ranks above tnc on account of the track "forever", which was the only song that struck me in-game and really nailed home the scenes it was used for. It's quite a haunting little piece and I found myself waiting for it each time I started a new ending.

3. DRAMAtical Murder — Heresy, I know. DMMd's music is such an inherent part of its identity and it's practically impossible to mistake it for any of the others in a lineup. However, I'd argue that even with as unified and identifiable as it is, it doesn't really lend itself to the narrative as much as it could. I can recognize the random background tracks sure, and they can give an intense nostalgia trip to anyone who hasn't heard them in a long time, but I don't know that I'd be able to pick out any of them as "oh yeah this played during THAT scene." There was no powerful moment that felt underscored by a change in music or unique track, everything that's there works fine for what they used it for but there's nothing so memorable that I could turn on the OST by itself and get emotional over a scene that it represents. They didn't even bother to name them, the tracks are all just numbered. It's strong, it's interesting, and it's every bit as futurepop as the rest of the game, but imo there's not enough distinction between individual tracks (and routes) to make it as powerful as it could have been.

2. Lamento — I essentially put Lamento this high for the opposite reason as DMMd. In my opinion its soundtrack is not as strong; it had a lot of good things going on with its floaty fantasy and rhythmic, for lack of a better word "tribal", sound, but it also tended to lack awareness of where those would be utilized in-game to the point of irritation sometimes (my main complaint being the usual battle themes. One of them has a core loop that's roughly ~0:06 long and the song itself is 2:26. The scenes it plays for, I would estimate, range from 5 to 15 minutes. I found myself mashing through some of the fight sequences because I just needed to make that infernal sound stop.) However what it does have are some really great scenes where the music absolutely heightens the experience in a noticeable way. When you first enter the library and then those vocals kick in? Gorgeous moment that would have been nothing if they used the same default tracks that played leading up to it.

1. Slow Damage — There's no doubt in my mind that surodame should get the top place. It's jazzy, it's funky, and when it hits it hits hard. It does have a lot of filler tracks that are on the forgettable side, but those are still pleasant and don't have the same tonal issues some of the older ones have, so they make for a good variety to fill the decently lengthy play time. Maybe it's just that they've blended together so much in my mind, but I really like how they were able to keep things unified to get many different moods without changing the overall sound profile for most tracks. When it does change tone, it is deliberate and provocative: there is one moment in particular that straight-up gave me chills when I finally got to it, and it was almost entirely due to a particular part of the song that plays for the first time there. There are nitpicks I would have about the soundtrack here and there overall, but the story would not have the power that it did, especially in the true route, with any other music.

{"Make me stack-rank my toxic yaoi" asks}

[thumpypuppy]

happy birthday!! i hope you've had a lovely day so far! thank you for all of the work you put into the ISAT soundtrack, i've been looping it (ha) off and on for weeks!

while i don't have anything substantial to show for it yet, and it will be awhile before i do, your music inspired me to want to pick up the piano again after not having played it for a decade. i've been making slow progress on re-learning muscle memory and adding new music to my repertoire (i've already got the first part of Friend Quest (Solo) down!) so thank you for the creative inspiration, it really means a ton to me (and many others as well, i'm sure 💜)

Oh thank you so much! We're super glad you're getting back into music and are so excited to hear what you end up doing!

Friend Quest (Solo) is actually an original piece that Sadie came up with on the spot in one take, and it's probably one of my (Lindar's) favorite pieces in the OST. Share a recording once you learn it! 💙

[catty-words]

thoughts about wallsocket (2023) that i know you were all itching for because i've obviously convinced you all to be as head over heels for this artist as i am:

- the first listen felt a little draggy and i thought the busyness of the tracks was unfocused, which i was prepared to be bummed about because that's an element of underscores' music that i really enjoy for reasons both straightforward (sounds make brain go brrrr) and deep (as an artist, i think her preoccupation with distraction and having to be the Shiniest to hold attention - individual or cultural - really complements the production style). but!

- the good news is i fell so fucking hard for every track by the second listen and i think the inertia i felt was mainly between 'duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' and 'you don't even know who i am' and by my third or forth listen, i was finding them the most engaging tracks on the album.

- good luck being the album's mantra makes me want to suffocate on velvet idk. in context, it's as dark as the whole of boneyard aka fearmonger (2021) but there's also a through line in underscores' work of her being exceptionally lucky (see "lonesharks", "horror movie soundtrack") and it feels as much like a helpless platitude as it does like a magical spell she's casting to keep us safe. which - themes!! and things/people/circumstances being so much of one thing they loop back around to being that thing's polar opposite.

- speaking of, the johnny of "johnny johnny johnny" validating the narrator's identity while also preying on her is my favorite vehicle for that theme so far.

- "shoot to kill, kill your darlings" is the first track i fell head over heels for, on the first listen and everything. and i keep getting more out of it with subsequent listens. think of me when you listen to this one, please. 💙

- when the "kinko's field trip 2006" hit???? reader i got CHILLS. literally shivered about it and it got me on listen two and three, as well. i don't think i've fully grappled with what its incorporation into wallsocket (2023) is trying to accomplish, but i do know it worked on me, like, a little too well. gonna be insane about it for the foreseeable future, gnashing my teeth as i type this in fact.

- i've had "cops and robbers" since it was released in may and somehow it wasn't until listening today that the full story really sunk in? like, i managed to hear i resurrect the dead and i'm not the bad guy, like it's just sitting there fully for the first time today? and, god, was the good luck-ing always in the mix? songs gaining new meaning in the context of their albums my beloved. album openers my beloved.

- does "you don't even know who i am" sample claptrap from borderlands? if not, that's still what the backing mantra on the track puts me in mind of, which gives the song a very compelling 'people vs technology' read that i've been getting a lot out of.

- underscores, i am pledging my allegiance to you.

[pizzleyanked]

it's been a while since i last shared a game i've been playing. april was spent with stardew valley and i've taken a break from it recently, which i've been spending with the incredible loop hero (dev. four quarters). i believe it's available on all platforms except playstation; it also came out on mobile in the last couple of days. i've been splitting my game time between pc and the steam deck and it plays really well on both. all pictures are completely unedited, my thoughts are below

loop hero is the bastard child of roguelite, deck builder, dungeon crawler, and class-based numbers machine elements. it is set in a post apocalyptic world transformed into a void by sans undertale a lich. all that is left is the loop, which the protagonist wanders endlessly until death or retreat. the loop starts and ends at the campsite, after which the creature and loot level will increase. the protagonist has vague memories of the world, which he imposes through the form of cards. each card is a tile with different properties, both positive and negative to the player. some come with enemy spawns which the protagonist battles automatically. the core gameplay mechanic hinges on knowing what cards to put, and where and when to do so. in a way, the player is the dm in this campaign. more cards can unwittingly bring more dangers, but it is through defeating enemies that one can get more cards and better loot to combat the increasing difficulty that comes with each loot. cards can also interact with others in ways that aren't predictable at first, but can give benefits down the line. there is a meter that indicates when enough cards have been placed in order to summon the chapter boss. during runs, resources can be gathered to improve the base camp, which makes this game lean roguelite, as it allows for progression between runs. some amount of resources is always brought back, but it depends on whether the player has died, retreated outside the camp tile, or retreated in the camp tile (the best outcome for resource gathering). certain base camp updates may also unlock different classes.

i found the writing to be really good so far. it is simple. no character is named and details are vague in a way i find murakami-esque. i think it's lovely that the hero is so strongly motivated to restore the world for, even if that means bringing dangerous people and creatures back. each time a new verbal enemy type is spawned and fought, there is a dialogue in which the protagonist tries to reason with them. i found it to be a nice humanizing touch. there is also a strong element of community as the base camp is expanded to accommodate new characters (who are all hot smh) who all provide support based on their building/profession. they're great. i have just defeated the first boss and don't know what comes next, but it seems that there is more to the initial premise than it first appears.

visually i find the game gorgeous, the devs did an amazing work with the pixel art, which is one of the most gorgeous i've seen in gaming. there are options to toggle a crt shader (which i have enabled in these pictures) and different font options for readability. i found the most stylized default font to be very readable for me, but the game features a simple sans-serif font and a sans-serif dyslexia-friendly font in addition. the soundtrack also leans heavy into the 8bit era of gaming aesthetics. it also has bangers such as this song that plays once the first boss appears.

[itsbenedict]

Just finished this game, which I played because my brain has been fried by work problems and I needed something to chill with, but mainly because @konec0 did the soundtrack and I wanna support what he's doing. Still appreciate you pitching in on Nepetaquest 2011 back in the day, dude!

Cuisineer is an arcadey restaurant manager game, and also an isometric hack-and-slash dungeon-crawler roguelike. You delve dungeons to get ingredients, you cook and serve those ingredients in your restaurant, you get money with which to upgrade things and get more ingredients and serve more food. Solid concept!

Does it work? Well... It's very cute, and very polished, but it's held back by some very strange design decisions.

In short... its primary and secondary gameplay loops clearly had a lot of love put into them, but the tertiary loop- the progression systems- are very weirdly balanced to the point of being almost broken.

Bad thing 1

The main problem: everything costs wood and stone. Everything costs wood and stone, and costs more wood and stone the further you upgrade things. But you don't get more wood and stone the further you get in the game, at least once your inventory space maxes out. Wood and stone give way to Magic Wood and Super-Stone of various sorts, which are required for stronger upgrades, but you still need big piles of the basic stuff and can't substitute the advanced stuff, and it's the limiting factor on every single purchase in the game except health potions and rugs for some reason. Combine that with sharply limited inventory space, and money from running the restaurant very swiftly stops mattering compared to how many times you've farmed the starting level for crafting materials. It functionally locks you out of what might be fun systems, like the decoration and furniture stuff- since doing anything cosmetic trades off against progression.

Bad thing 2

Also- in the dungeon-crawler half, there's not much advancement to speak of. You might think these resources could be spent to make you stronger, but... upgrading weapons is expensive and time-consuming and has extremely marginal rewards. Like, the starting weapon does 10 damage, and a fully-upgraded endgame weapon might do 15. The game seems to be trying really hard to avoid being an RPG and letting the player get stronger over time- the various mechanics for upgrading your combat capabilities are just not worth it, and the random weapon drops are mostly identical and do nothing but clutter your inventory.

(It feels like it's trying to limit progression so it can bill itself as a roguelike, even though that's not really what the game is on any meaningful level? Not a choice that really works for it as its own game, imo.)

Bad thing(?) 3

The game's combat is an odd duck. It's... very polished, and very compelling, if you use the one approach that actually works. There's nine weapons, but only a handful are viable with the way combat is designed.

Enemies have very short windows where it's safe to attack them, and are quick to punish you for bad timing or wrong positioning. Reminds me of a soulslike, almost. Healing is sharply limited, so you really need to be careful not to get hit by stuff- and there's so much stuff. Walk into a room, or too close to a room, and everything in it will instantly aggro you, including artillery enemies with long-distance ranged attacks. Problems appear quickly and overwhelmingly, so combat ends up being a case of... dodging massive walls of tomato danmaku and miscellaneous enemy projectiles as you charge into rooms full of enemies and hazards, trying to find one safe place to stand for one second while you hit one enemy for chip damage, over and over again until you gradually thin the enemy numbers and win yourself room to breathe. It's very intense and very fun once you get the rhythm...

...but some weapons just plain don't fit into that rhythm. Many enemies need to be consistently stunlocked to deal damage to them safely, and the reloading projectile weapons and slow hard-hitting weapons just can't do that, forcing you to take hits, which you can't afford to do. Narrow-hitbox spear-type weapons fare poorly against crowds of small enemies who can slip past your guard, which are Everywhere. There's a fun kebab weapon that lets you charge and dash around the stage, but levels are claustrophobic and full of hazards that punish you for doing that. As Chiyo Kumasawa foretold: the only thing you can rely on is your trusty mackerel.

There's also a weird and kind of funny tradeoff where... you can't meaningfully upgrade your damage, but you can roll elemental status effects that can give you some multipliers and useful passive AoE damage as you're dashing around trying not to die. But... these huge AoE elemental effects have very wide, obtrusive visuals that hide the enemies on the screen, and you really need to be paying attention to enemy animations so you don't get hit. It's a sort of unintentional tradeoff of defense for strength, which weirdly works.

Bad thing 4

The writing's kinda flat. You've been hoodwinked into taking on your parents' debt and running their restaurant, you have to pay it off- it's established pretty hastily and mainly ignored. The townspeople have very cute designs, but they're all kind of nothingburger characters whose lives revolve around the urgent need for you to deliver them lots of random food items for contrived reasons in exchange for recipes and stuff. Cast kind of comes off like some softcore smut artist's stable of OCs whose personalities were afterthoughts. Doesn't really go anywhere, the localization's pretty stiff, most jokes don't land... doesn't seem like there was a lot of effort put in there.

Good thing 1

I spill way more words nitpicking flaws than I do praising stuff, but I did enjoy this game enough to finish it, and it's not for no reason.

Firstly- the restaurant section. I have no complaints about the restaurant mode! It's polished to a mirror sheen, honestly. I'm given to understand the restaurant sim is a genre, mainly native to phones, and maybe this all works because it's cribbing mechanics from some more successful inspiration I've never heard of, but... it's just very enjoyable, void of potentially annoying cooking mechanics and letting you focus on queuing up dishes, keeping track of orders, and dashing around making sure everything is running smoothly. The balance job is very nice- the difficulty during lunch and dinner rushes is just enough to make you sweat a little as things ramp up, and they last just long enough to get the most out of the pressure without totally overwhelming you. Chef's kiss, no notes.

Good thing 2

konec0's soundtrack is real good! I mostly know him for his electroswing and HS fanmusic, but he can clearly pull off a wide range of styles. It matches the overall sound design really well and it's enjoyable to listen to. Excellent job there!

Good thing 3

The "final dungeon" segment does this very cool and fun thing where it combines the dungeon-crawling combat and the restaurant management into one challenging final exam where you have to survive combat arenas to scrounge up ingredients as you cook them up and serve them, which would maybe get exhausting in core gameplay but works really well as a challenge for the end of the game. Liiiiittle bit too easy in the first two rounds, but it's fine.

Good thing 4

I already mentioned this alongside the nitpicks, but: when the combat works, it works- the feel of it is satisfying, the challenge is well-calibrated, and the animations look great and convey what's happening well.

Good thing 5

Also the character art is very cute. Lot of fun designs there, even if as mentioned the characters they're attached to are pretty flat. The game's just gorgeous in general- the artists knocked it out of the park.

OH WAIT BAD THING 5

The game's cover/key art prominently features a squid that throws ninja stars! But there's no squid that throws ninja stars in the game! How the heck did that happen!!! Give me the ninja squid!!!!!

[schismusic]

Caterina Barbieri, six years later

After taking my last exam on June 4th I was waiting for the train home to leave. As the carriage I was in decided all of a sudden to piss a good liter of accumulated rainwater out of the ceiling and the walls behind me, I grabbed my earphones to listen to some music — and all of a sudden I was reminded of Information Needed to Create an Entire Body and INTCAEB by Caterina Barbieri. I first found out about Caterina Barbieri about a year and a half after she released Patterns of Consciousness, or right around the time she was releasing her retrospective compilation Born Again in the Voltage. At the time Caterina was a guest at a local electronic music festival, and it was incredibly unexpected for me to find myself more attracted by the two most mundane names in the lineup: hers, just a first name and a last name, exhuding elegant confidence; the other, Ross from Friends, a practical joke that sounded more fitting for some kind of fifth-wave emo band than it did the blissfully nostalgic tech-house act it actually stands for. And while I did love Family Portrait, I actually never listened to it in full in one single sitting. Patterns of Consciousness, on the other hand, immediately became my jam.

As I delved deeper and deeper into Barbieri's ever-looping, never-ending melody-making, I would actually find myself scouring for any and all available information on her work. Not much was available at the time, and I only accidentally stumbled upon her website that also included what I would later find out to be PoC's vinyl liner notes. Basically every melody Barbieri works with is a slow and constant accumulation/substitution of notes played by one monophonic synthesizer, dialed into a sequencer and slapped back and forth through a number of stereo delay lines to simulate counterpoint and even polyphony. The system by which the notes gather together and sort of gravitate into their respective position is, by the artist's own definition, "algorithmic", almost stochastic: eliminating possibilities until a powerful form coalesces and emerges out of nothing. Impossible to find a better soundtrack for my early university days, the 7am walks to Algebra class. And of course Information Needed to Create an Entire Body was exactly the sound I heard when learning how to count the subsets of k elements from a pool of n objects, or learning how to calculate the n-th number in the Bell succession. Little did I know that this record I'd naively stumbled upon would last longer in my memory than any of the classes I was attending at the time (this is regrettable, to an extent, but it also stands as a testament to just how much of an earworm Barbieri's work is).

I saw Caterina Barbieri play live three times, one of which together with Carlo Maria as Punctum (the sole vinyl pressing of Remote Sensing is to this day, speaking not just as a record collector but also as an estimator of that particular album, one of my "white whales": a gaping hole that might very well never be filled). It almost could have been four. I ran into Caterina Barbieri outside the train station of my city, about to catch the train to go back home; starstruck, I approached her, shook her hand. I knew she was going to play that night, and kind of in passing mentioned I would have loved to attend, but hadn't had any luck with the tickets. She was kind enough to offer to put me on a guestlist, which kind of took me aback: I wasn't even aware that that could have been a possibility, and I was so grateful she would offer that. I really did not know how to react to that. Unfortunately, the place she was going to play is pretty hard to get into, so nothing came of it, but even just the gesture was enough to actually make me stop and think. 2018 and 2019 weren't at all good years for me, but looking back it's these small, lacerating moments of kindness that stand out to me: signals that not everything was lost, that I could still become a better person and get better.

When Ecstatic Computation came out in May 2019, I had been religiously waiting for it to drop and the very moment I finally listened to it I knew we had an AOTY contender. It was literally everything I was hoping a sequel to Patterns to Consciousness to be, as someone who wasn't that into Born Again in the Voltage: heavily based on a comparable compositional method, yet somehow more human, more emotional, more ecstatic like the record itself says. I spent hours on end listening to the closing track, Bow of Perception, over and over again; the opener, Fantas, struck every chord it needed to; it was quite interesting and refreshing to hear Barbieri belt out ethereal vocals on Arrows of Time; However, the one that's stayed with me the most throughout all this is track 2: an otherwise unassuming, one-and-a-half-minute vignette striking like lightning with a sore violent melody in some sort of odd time signature (never really counted it out). Spine of Desire injects an inexplicable sense of danger into the entire record, and it never quite leaves, never afraid of its own nakedness, drenched in reverb it provokes the listener out of the analog warmth and into some edgier territories not too far removed from the more Oversteps-esque tracks on Remote Sensing.

Now I'll be completely honest with you all: I wasn't a fan of Spirit Exit when it came out, and I haven't exactly revisited it lately, but I did go to see Caterina Barbieri perform live at the RoBOt festival in October 2022 (on that same night, Ben Frost's show was plagued by performance-crashing issues to the main clock of all of his machines, and he still owned the night, shaking everything in his path right down to the bone). I had some fun, actually. I've met her and seen her so many times I'm convinced she must be terrified of me being some kind of stalker, which I clearly am not — I just like her live shows a lot, and if I had to be a bit of an asshole, they're usually on the cheap side, which makes it easier for me to go see them. At any rate, I went and grabbed a vinyl copy of the then-new album, which is still sitting unplayed on my shelf: not the nicest thing, but oh well. Now on the other hand, I knew what I was waiting for.

Last summer, Barbieri released a record called Myuthafoo, which she refers to as "Ecstatic Computation's sister album". The reason I was so hyped to hear it is that track 2, "Math of You", premiered (played along Pinnacles of You) in Virgil Abloh's Imaginary TV initiative. I was so fucking hyped to hear some new Barbieri tracks at the time — late 2020, I think — and when that track hit I was immediately sold. Spent a whole day reloading the page over and over again just so I could relisten to that new song: ice-fucking-cold. Like Ecstatic Computation, but from a parallel universe that's still in the middle of an ice age (Resident Advisor's review of the full album that featured it very cleverly says it's more or less like Ecstatic Computation, but replacing the human pulse with something more mechanical and computerized — I am paraphrasing, of course, to keep more in line with the tone of this piece and my writing in general). I was hooked. The opening synth swirl became its own track, Memory Leak, and it's as hard-hitting an opener as anything in Barbieri's catalog. Its strength? It is unbearably short. It should last much longer, and yet it doesn't. Cry about it.

Then what: all of a sudden, on June 4th, 2024, I am standing near the exit door of the train home after my last exam, and I'm listening to these two tracks that in my head have been practically synonymous with fucking discrete mathematics and combinatorics, in what feels like another life yet at the same time all too close for comfort. And I still derive enjoyment from it, and it's still the exact same enjoyment, which to me is the craziest part. Sometimes we find small elements of our past selves, refracted into tangential information, fragmented and forlorn and yet crystallized exactly as they appeared at the time. This entire post is essentially a counterpoint to the OPN one: it's probably not only surprise that I'm looking for. It's also something deeper than that and at the same time much simpler.

In the summer of 2019 I had just gotten my driver's license. I got two friends of mine onto my mother's car and we drove to Fano to see Caterina Barbieri play live in a former church which had lost its ceiling during some 1943 bombings. I was hoping she would play Bow of Perception, but I knew �� looking at her other live shows available on YouTube — she wasn't playing that track, and would usually start off with Fantas, move almost to the end of the record, then do an old one (usually Scratches on the Readable Surface). Whatever, anyway, I was still hoping, driving on a highway for the first time in my entire life, trying to remember all of the different bells and whistles you need to consider when you're just starting out behind the wheel. As I was sitting on the grass, now freely growing on what once was the inner floor of the church, I remember watching the opening act (an admittedly very talented guy by the moniker "Aspect Ratio", you can find him here (link Bandcamp)) remove his equipment from the stage and Caterina Barbieri taking position behind her machines. The tension was palpable, for some reason. And then that first staccato line hit me. All of a sudden I knew it was going to turn out okay, as hard as it had been. Six years later, that same old feeling of catharsis runs me over again.

[veeagainsttheday]

After some discussion in a gc I ranked the OFMD soundtrack choices for each season.

Season 1:

Gnossienne No. 5: I have a Pavlovian response to this song now. I hear it and a little movie reel in my mind starts up with The Kiss (Season 1 edition). 

The Chain: This was my most played song of 2022 on Spotify for a reason. The choreography: immaculate. That shot where the small boats are approaching the Revenge and it skips to the beat? Should have won an Emmy on its own. And Stede and Ed looking at each other as the music and the world fades away leaving only their love? Yeah, that’s the good shit. 

Avalanche: This music overlaying Ed’s transformation into the Kraken, the shots of Stede’s books falling into the water? “I have begun to long for you/I who have no greed/I have begun to ask for you/I who have no need/You say you've gone away from me/But I can feel you when you breathe” It takes a scene that could have been campy or funny and with the power of Leonard Cohen elevates it to the most emotionally devastating shit you’ve ever seen.

Our Prayer: It’s so brief but it’s SO good. The blissful music overlaying Stede’s smile at being known. 

Miles from Nowhere: Beautiful song, beautiful sentiment, Stede is finally, truly free of his old life and is on his way to discover what his new one will be: “I have my freedom/I can make my own rules/Oh yes, the ones that I choose”

High on a Rocky Ledge: I loved this choice as an opening and hearing it over the shot of all the flags always makes me so emotional. 

Perfect Day: I can’t believe I’ve put my dear Lou Reed so low on this list but that’s what the impeccable choices above do for me. Obviously the crucial lyrics here are, “You made me forget myself/I thought I was someone else/Someone good” and juxtaposed over Ed rowing alone and Stede returning to discomfort in a married state it’s just so much. 

The Empty Boat: I actually LOVE this choice, the lyrics are so good for Ed’s expression and feelings in this scene, but it just doesn’t feature as strongly as the others. 

Bonus shoutout to Il triello: Olivia, give him the old fuck eye!

Trailer interlude:

Because the Night: This choice made me absolutely deranged. Hearing this was when I was like oh they are going to fuck and I am somehow going to be seeing it in a few weeks on my screen. The night before the premiere I was so full of emotions that I took a drive and played this over and over again while screaming along to try to get some of them out. 

The Beautiful Ones: My brain became an endless loop of Baby baby baby for a week with Stede’s words and the cake toppers overlaid. 

Season 2:

This Woman’s Work: This is THE song of the season to me. We all wanted a reunion, we wrote something like 10,000 versions of it, I personally wrote something like 10 versions of it, and then the actual reunion was SO gorgeous and SO perfect and soundtracked by this and “all the things I should have said that I never said, all the things we should have done that we never did” and that piano and the build and and and I will never recover. 

Pygmy Love Song AND Seabird: I put these two as one because they’re the crux of Ed’s journey in this season and they work so well together thematically. First, the Impossible Birds - imagine hearing that there’s a piece of media about Blackbeard, infamous pirate, where one of his lines of dialogue is, “We’re never going back to land. We’re gonna sail, rob, raise hell, forever and ever without end” and instead of these words being delivered as a tough war cry they’re instead spoken in utter grief in a voice made nasal from tears. Taika’s delivery is so good it makes me want to eat through a brick wall (and all shout outs forever to Joel Fry for playing off him in this scene and several others). Playing in the background, its music lilting and warbling just as much as Ed’s voice? “My heart, my heart is full of love, I have nothing else.” So then a bunch of stuff happens (see the aforementioned reunion above) and we’re in episode 4 and Ed sees Buttons turn into an actual Impossible Bird, choosing to transform himself for love, and as Ed says “Fuck yeah brother, fly,” his face shining with revelation, we get, “There’s a road I know I must go/even though I tell myself that road is closed/like a lonely seabird/you’ve been away from land too long” MAGGIE PHILLIPS YOUR MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Run From Me: I was already a big Timber Timbre fan so when I read that one of their songs was in the show, I got very excited, and this did not disappoint. Its use to bookend this episode was incredible - the jilted wedding theme and the slow beginning of the song at the beginning as Ed is clearly in such a low place contrasted with the faster end of the song at the end of the episode as Ed enters this manic state during the storm - double Maggie Phillips your mind!!!

Strawberry Letter 23: The opening chords of this starting right after Ed introduces himself as the devil - just perfection. Ed’s sending 88 letters in his own way. 

Road to Moscow: This one feels like a real “I just heard it last night and if anything happened to it I would kill everyone and myself” situation. Fascinating use here because the song is about a Russian soldier witnessing the ultimately-failed German invasion of Russia in WWII - a notoriously bloody campaign with massive losses on both sides, which is of course what happens to our crew and the soldiers they encounter as well. This line gave me chills in the context of the crew fighting through the trees: “Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees/Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and on our knees/And all that I ever was able to see/The fire in the air glowing red, silhouetting the smoke on the breeze”.

I Love My Baby: Perfect double use. Also further wedding foreshadowing: “Just say you love me

And we'll go to the preacherman/Just say you love me/And before him we'll stand/We'll live our lives together/As we go hand in hand.”

Baby: Can’t believe this is so low but the other ones were all so good!! 

The Times They Are A-Changing: Great use, loved that they used the Nina Simone version, it’s just not as significant to me as the others. 

Callback Gnossienne No. 5: this playing while Stede’s looking through the cabin in episode 3 made me want to lay down in the road. 

[beautyofsorrow]

🎶✨🎢!!

🎶Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

not usually! sometimes i will turn on a george winston album (plains or summer or autumn, depending on the time of year), but lyrics distract the hell out of me. if my neighbors are being noisy (...all the time these days...) i will turn on rainymood to help drown out the tv/music/screaming

notable past exceptions have been "burning house" by cam which i looped the entire time i wrote a certain saffianna fic (and now cannot listen to OR read because of it) and "sweet but psycho" by ava max which has been an earworm since april 2022 and the soundtrack to like every saffi fic i wrote between 2x07 and 2x10 airing. for some reason i was able to write with those on

usually i just loop a song obsessively before/after i write tho. like yesterday when i looped "another kind of love" by amy grant for 5 hours and pretended not to see the religious parts so it coded as aro. or "tokyo sunrise" by LP which was the soundtrack to plotting the saffianna fic that ends origin stories. or that time i looped "soolaimon" by neil diamond while writing [fic i cannot remember because i write too much]. (update: i triangulated using ao3 and my youtube history and it's most likely "call me maybe") (no i did not loop that song while writing that fic but yes i have looped that song in the past) (it's catchy)

however. i think the song i have looped the most often aside from "sweet but psycho" is this ava max/avril lavigne mashup. tremendously good earworm. 257billion out of 10

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

u put so much thought into your titles and epigraphs. absolutely wild how they add five more layers to an already deeply layered fic. gonna be thinking about this for the next 5-10 business years <- things i have said aloud to myself while obsessively rereading a certain l'una fic

also your character voices are Impeccable <- thing i have been thinking A LOT because i have finally unlocked the secret to una chin-riley and i'm starting to get there with chapel and la'an

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

it's the AU. we have not even begun to get to the wild parts, but anything that takes tamsyn muir as inspiration is going to be balls to the wall buck wild. unfortunately for you all it mostly lives in my head. but i can say with confidence none of you are ready. except maybe zanna bc they get my unhinged notes in DMs all the time

writing-wise i think that time i revised/expanded my seven/jay fic and typed a combined total of 23k in 1 week was. a lot. there was also the time i decided to write smut for the first time and i decided to do it at work and people kept coming into my cubicle to chat and i had to pretend i didn't have 1000 words of naked women on my screen. don't write smut at work, kids. it's not worth the stress

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