#capitalization is a funky lil thing on this post

[toughtink]

a long time ago i made a guide to keys in Gideon the Ninth. i said i’d do some more Locked Tomb notes in the future, so i’m back to do that! these posts are pretty much my personal notes taken during my last reread, perfectly prone to errors, so feel free to add on if you spot any inconsistencies. also, the citations are specifically for the american paperback versions of the books. and i haven’t put much from nona in this list yet; mostly this one focuses on Harrow the Ninth info.

The River Sections in The Locked Tomb Series:

The Riverbank—seems to have many of the things you’d find on an actual real-world beach: silvery sand, dried wood, colored stones, long feathery plant stems and willow-like branches washed up on the shore, salt wind.

Epirhoic—Uppermost, near the banks. Where the lyctors plan to fight RB 7. Where folks always hope their ghost travels (“may your spirit travel high on the River” or smth), where Abigail assumes Isaac and Jeannemary’s spirits will travel given their youth and goodness ( “[They] never did anything wrong other than the time they tried to pierce each other’s tongues, should have travelled lightly through those waters.” —Abigail, htn 397).

Mesorhoic—middle, i guess. some ghosts.

Bathyrhoic—where the swiftest fight against a RB (8) took place. much fewer ghosts.

Barathron—very few ghosts sink this low. Jod says if he believed in sin, he’d say they died weighted down with sin, placing them nearer the trash space. deeper portions have pressure similar to water pressure in deep ocean (htn 494), but they never figured out what the River’s made of. Apparently there’s also rocks down here??? Because the Mithraeum gets caught on some rock face when dropped into the River (htn 496).

Stoma—Super hell? Opens & closes. Ferocious gravitational pull. Mouth to Hell. “A genuinely chaotic space—chaos in the meaning of the abyss as well as unfathomable…located at the bottom of the River. The Riverbed is studded with mouths that open at proximity of Resurrection Beasts, and no ghosts venture deeper than the bathyrhoic layer. Anyone who has entered the stoma has never returned. It is a portal to the place I cannot touch” (Jod, htn 240). Jod’s rubbish bin 🗑️. When a hole opens, it’s enormous with huge human teeth at the edges, each tooth “six bodies high and two bodies wide.” Gideon also describes it as “an eaten-away tunnel of reality.” (htn 495) Also, thousands of tentacle-y tongues come out (htn 496). Stoma is Greek for mouth, and though medically it normally refers to a hole in the abdomen used to expel waste, if we think of it as a mouth (which like, teeth + tongues sounds pretty mouthy), it could be compared to the mouth of a river, aka where it meets the ocean. Is “The Beyond” (in the next section) that ocean?

The River Beyond—what lies beyond, believed in thousands of years ago, but pooh-poohed now, and researched/believed in by Abigail Pent (htn 397), aka where spirits are attempting to cross to without being dragged to the depths of the River or going insane. Abigail believes there is a whole school of necromancy still undiscovered because of a lack of studying The Beyond (my capitals, not hers) and that something has gone terribly wrong in the River.—Personally, it feels like the system has been gummed up by necromancy, souls coming and going and causing problems when they really should have been going in one direction. Alecto asks Jod where he put all the children in ntn, so maybe normally those souls go directly back to their planets/nearest cosmic bodies? But killing the planets has made that impossible so now they’re stuck in a subspace Purgatory occasionally getting sucked into Hell ala The Good Place where OOPS! No one’s been able to get to Heaven for 10k years!

some miscellaneous thoughts about the river:

perhaps the river was never meant to exist at all? could the destruction of the solar system have created it? and what’s with its use as subspace travel? it’s plot convenient, sure, but is that a feature that can be expanded to all souls, living and dead? or is it the spiritual dimension being sucked into some kinda worm hole that was already in space or something? idk, it’s very weird as you can be there spiritually but not physically or you can be there physically too as evidenced by the very physical kinds of rocks and stuff as well as whole space ships getting dropped in. it’s certainly a fun take on the river styx, and i do think we’ll be going beyond the stoma in alecto. maybe it’ll really lean in to the greek mythology connection this time and we’ll get a bit of an orpheus and eurydice moment with a certain saddest girl in the world going in to rescue a certain goth nunlet?

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

please tell me this manga/comic/show exists i do not wanna have to make it

okok I've posted about this before but I'm watching animation content on youtube again while getting work done and by GOD I WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN

There's a specific concept I want to consume as content/art so badly but it came to me in a stupid dream. BUT. Sometimes, a dream means I DID see a hint of it somewhere and my brain accidentally plagiarized it which provides me with the teensiest sliver of hope that exists already and I don't have to work on it

It's a kind of a reverse isekai, right? But instead of an instant portal, it's time passing. And what I mean by that is that it's a Sun Wukong story, but the branch off is that after the main events of Journey to the West he gets either water temple'd or trapped in magic sleep again, not for a few hundred years but a few THOUSAND.

He wakes up to an incredibly far-flung China that remembers his myth and only his myth.

The art style that operated in this dream was sort of. Textured but 3D? Think nimona's buttery lighting but instead of emphasis on light and shapes to operate with the stained glass and solarpunk-medieval style the models are textured in a way that just invokes traditional brushwork and colour bleed even in a more cyberpunkish setting. Think like. Whenever there's a night scene the astigmatism glow of lamplight bleeds a little, like ink feathering on paper.

It's a little bit of a Steve Rogers treatment in a way, the world has moved past him, but also completely mythologized and capitalized on that mythology. Rather than treat that man out of time narrative as an aspect of backstory, it's the MAIN character narrative, because this ISN'T a world that needs him. This world is doing pretty okay, actually.

This a story about him.

Not about his feats or how cool his powers are or the 8 gajillion things the magic staff can do but just.

How ya doing, bud?

From the vaguely coherent notes that I could garner from my sleepily typed googledoc, it seems that I wanted this to be a love letter of sorts to the Asian diaspora experience? A specific sort of loneliness? Where the world you experience has a sort of disconnect in that it makes plain you belong there but you also don't, you never have, and there's no way to go "back" but going forward feels like groping blind through the muck. How much right to the past does he feel like he has? When it's been built into something he can't recognize and is clearly important to other people.

I want the pickup of the plot to gain him friends, family, maybe even a conflict or two but the stakes should never elevate vis a vis physical enemies to battle.

It'd be about 2/3 of this sort of narrative drawn story and the other 1/3 just hogwild worldbuilding and design

I've looked at a few other journey to the west adaptations but they mainly just use him as a funky lil action figure hero that's there to be cool as hell and save the day

99% likely this is just a thing my brain is made up and I'd need a several million budget and about 25 additional skills to start the ball rolling but hey, worth it to ask yall again

[misc-obeyme]

Nightbringer: Initial Thoughts

I have a lot of thoughts about Nightbringer, but I don't want to have one massive crazy post, so I'm gonna break it up a bit.

This first post is about the general gameplay, nothing story related. So there aren't any spoilers, just my thoughts on the app and updates.

Ruri☆Tunes

I LOVE IT. Listen, Ruri is adorable. I am right there with Levi. Like if this was a real anime, I would absolutely watch it. She's so cute! Did you guys see the background for Lesson 7 where there's a Ruri themed Miss Em doll? The cuteness nearly killed me.

The rhythm game itself is HARD. At first I didn't realize that you need to tap the actual objects. So by switching the controls to up and down, then turning my phone, and tapping the actual objects as they hit the line, I got WAY BETTER. I reblogged a post about this I think yesterday? It explains it better and thanks to that, the levels are now pretty fun.

I love the songs, of course, though some of the remixes are a little funky. But I loooove all the graphics! The lil donuts! And the lil demon chibis! And Luke's chihuahua! Oh yes and my favorite thing ever is Asmo's little "hai!" when he jumps over one of those green puddles. It's so cute.

Overall, I much prefer this to the dance battles. That being said, the levels are not really any easier than the OG. I was hoping we wouldn’t need to have a bunch of crazy high leveled cards to get through the story, buuuut it’s really looking like that might still be the way of it. I mean to be fair, the whole point of this is to make money so...

I don’t really hold it against them. I mean I do but I also don’t lol. The story is good enough that I can look past the money making motives. However I will say that this is just the case for me personally. I am lucky enough to have a little bit of disposable income to spend on apps, but I know a lot of players don’t.

Moving on before this becomes a rant about the evils of capitalism…

Wanderers Whereabouts

It sure is… something… Aside from the horrors of 3D models, I don't understand why they're playing sports in MC's room. Would it have been that much of an issue to give us an outdoor space as well as an indoor one? At least let them play sports in a field or something, you know?

My favorite ones so far have been when there's multiple demons in there, though. The way they interact with each other is so cute. And even though I find the whole thing a tiny bit weird, I DO like hearing their voices and seeing their interactions. Plus they do some really cute things when you give them an MC plushie.

But I think we all agree that the best part is watching Levi chase Mammon around on the map.

Fab Snap

This is supposed to be like TikTok, right? Once again I'm not a fan of the 3D models, which is probably due to the whole uncanny valley thing. However, I do still enjoy the shenanigans because what the fuck are those guys even doing? I'm sure you've all seen the musical chairs situation. I did like the one with Luke doing the snack test thing and you can hear Simeon who is recording the video. It's definitely cute to see them doing fun little things like that.

Everything else...

... seems to be the same except for some updated graphics and such. The story interface still has the 2D sprites thankfully and as far as I can tell, it works exactly the same as the OG. I've seen some people saying they're worried about the options changing the story, but they don't anymore than they did before. I think that's just their way of saying you get intimacy points with different characters depending on the options you choose. As far as I can tell, nothing seems to be any different on that end?

I love that they have entirely new special guest and home screen dialogue. The special guest dialogue especially seems more lovey and flirty than the OG. Solomon straight up says he loves you if you get the full heart reaction. You can still get annoyed reactions, though. From what I can tell, the reactions are the same as the OG app. If you get an S, it's the same as if you got three stars in the dance battle. I'm not sure about if you get lower than a B... but the three star reactions seemed to work for S, A, and B.

Also, I looooooove Karasu. I hope we get more Karasu beyond the tutorial, but I don't know if that's actually going to happen. I'm sure many of us will now refer to Mammon as Noodle Boy, though, because c'mon, that's excellent.

Okay there’s more I could talk about, but this post is already long lol. I like the mix of familiar stuff and new stuff. So far, I’m enjoying all of this. Stay tuned for posts about the story itself because there are so many thoughts.

I am also happy to receive any asks about your opinions on all of these things or if you have actual questions or anything else, of course.

[urfaveisgoingintheplinko-archive]

heya! I’m mod bunnie, it/its but I could care less!

my posts r tagged with #mod bunnie or some other variation of that cause I can’t spell

i really like rabbits and have bad taste in men </3(mmm the general my beloved)

im the one who made this blog, so I hope you have fun here!

my main is @funnie-bunn1e follow me I do so much bullshit

we are currently only accepting people who are friends with the current mods as new mods, to avoid any drama of a massive scale

⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰🐎⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰

Hello! I'm mod Rose, and I use she/they pronouns! my hobbies include throwing things in the plinko hell and watching them burn! I will be tagging my posts with #mod rose.

I hope you have fun on this blog!

⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰🐎⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰

Hi, I'm Nebula! I'm gendersilkie and my pronouns are she/they and all space, night and sky neopronouns. Please switch it up tho! I really like space, Super Paper Mario, Portal, Undertale, and Gaster. I'm also the only sane one here. I will be tagging my stuff under #mod nebula, but I might mess up and have it as # mod nebula.

⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰🐎⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰

haiii, i'm mod jester! i use all pronouns, but my defaults are 🌻/🌻s, jest/jesters, blue/sky and/or he/they! just don't stick to just one for me tho! i'm the oldest one here (i'm 19, almost 20), but act like a child a lot of the times lol

i love video games (im fixating on s4m, deltarune and fnaf!) and i love making stimboards (tho i'm a bit burnt out lol) also! love mens tits! my biggest kins are Jevil, sans, Susie, FlowerKid, and Benrey! and i'm the 'funky lil guy' mod :)

my posts are tagged mod jester and i only use capital letters when i'm serious! my main is @flowerkidlove

⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰🐎⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰

I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BEST MOD OF THE "URFAVEISGOININTHEPLINKO" BLOG ON "TUMBLR DOT COM"

⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰🐎⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰

i'm sans

⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰🐎⊱∽∽∽∽∽⊰

[athenafg26]

A small thing that never fails to make me giggle while scrolling my dash:

Seeing a lovely @lilakennedy post and getting to the bottom of it and seeing just an absolute shitload of capitalized tags on it and going "oh wait is this @awkward-bullshit 's reblog" and scrolling back up and -- "yep, it's absolutely Jim" xD

You keep on keeping on, you funky lil beans. Your interactions always make me smile xD

[ghosty-schnibibit]

late liveblog b/c i took the time to listen to the first ep over again :P

hey travis? hey- hey travis??? three in the morning travis?????

for real tho i am extremely excited for the new ep, and finally found some time to listen to it!!! this time i won’t have to avoid tumblr for like a week lmao

i can hear the excitement in travis's voice to do the "previously on the adventure zone" message and it fills my heart with happiness

god this music is just so good

how the fuck is that right??? i've played a rouge before and she in no way had a +8 to stealth

let him have this justin

the spectral cat from last ep!

i love argo so much holy shit

that is indeed very upsetting

awww, poor bud :(

oh baby, oh fitzroy my dipshit baby

"it isssss... cat" i love him so much

... argo has never seen a cat before??? poor baby

is he legit afraid of the cat

the voice is already slipping lmao

oh that's adorable! campus kitties :D

that's not a real thing fitzroy

so like a campus card, fun! i had the same thing at tcc lol

i think so? if i remember correctly from the past ep it's shared

"gary doesn't have time for love" :'(

he saw that one post i'm dying

it sounds like trav asked them beforehand, that's a neat way to plan for interactions before they happen and i like it

the dread pirate mary berry

"crush the beef" what does that mean fitzroy

what is this voice clint, you did not have this voice last ep, you've gone from vaguely ned to vaguely merle's fake scottish accent

"this turns to ash in my mouth" i love this

thank you griffin for this in character backstory opportunity

"to be by his side... kickin'" sounds to me like everyone's argo revenge plot theories might be correct

yummy! :D

mind chefs

fitzroy my sweet dipshit

he's a sweet sweets boy c:

"he's a failure" yes and i adore him

... god this class is just me all over

riveau, cool, thank you for the spelling notes

oh dang, that's a cool mechanic, i can see this wielding some potential narrative heaviness later on

i'd say about... a minute is good

i am so nervous for argo holy shit

argo's laying it on thick enough that i genuinely cannot tell whether or not clint got a good or bad roll

that was indeed a seventeen! go clint

... argo :(((

i legit cannot tell if this is argo bluffing the prof or if this is just clint being clint b/c merle and ned both pulled the "so am i getting paid now?" bit multiple times

i trust justin to not make this audio poision

owl professor :D

the dramatic music travis holy shit

so basically the middle ages lmao

"the golden age of accounting" t r a v i s

i can hear justin nearly combusting in the bg trying not to laugh and i am right there with him, this is such good world building but holy shit travis

basically reaffirming from last ep that the entire premise of this arc is the entertainment industry in a post scarcity economy, cool cool

oh my god this is such a mood

i adore bud so much

"sweet bird in heaven" pfff

so this prof is basically capitalism personified... thanks, i hate him

bud is 18 y/o me in my required "intro to college skills" class r/n

i am dying inside, this is so close to my own high school and college experiences, i feel like screaming on bud's behalf

I'M HAVING AP CALC FLASHBACKS TRAVIS, PLEASE LET IT E N D

"and you know what? i believe in you" i don't believe in me right now trav, i'm a 22 y/o adult and i have no idea what most of these words mean

oh god i just got the mental picture of all the other people in this class watching this exchange and it brought new levels of hilarity and abject horror to the situation, jfc i am d y i n g

this owl really is a personification of capitalism, huh? grasping at straws and concocting elaborate fantasy scenarios, desperate to prove that his system works even though it necessitates loss and goes against humanity’s inherently cooperative nature

travis this has gone on for like 15 minutes real time, f r e e  m e

"why did the mind make acorn?" i have never related to a taz pc more than i have in this moment, holy shit justin

sign! me! the! fuck! up!

yes i did trav!!! i loved it and i'm loving this! i am so proud of you!!!!!

aww, poor dude :(

fun! this sounds like a really interesting idea

fitzroy continuing to be salty about his name lol

i want to see the skeletons do the charleston so bad, but more then anything i want rainier to be my girlfriend

poor argo lmao

awww, fun!

f u r b y

nice! :D

JESUS ARGO

nice rolls all around!

go bud!!! ^u^

i don't see how that would help argo???

i'm liking a lot of the skills travis is adding

yes! block for my gf mapleboy!!!

"im feeling dastardly" fitzroy baby, you're allowed to use magic, what you’re doing isn't cheating you absolute dummy

WAIT WHAT

this is badass holy shit, i love these teachers

jesus fitzroy my dude

funky twenty! nice

natural twenty! even nicer

aww, sweet sacrifice boy

fitzroy nearly killed him holy shit

festo???

oh fun! that sounds adorable!

oh god, nm, this character is so weird

jesus christ i am so creeped out

oh my god fitzroy what the fuck, you turned a woman into a fish

aww baby :(((

i am fucking depressed now holy shit

okay, i like festo now

that was a cute lil noise

awww!!! magic pet, i am so excited to see what fitz is going to pick

lil crab buddy :D

poor fitzroy holy shit

oh it's the rouge professor! 

i do not like the creepy whisper voice travis, this is legit creeping me out

i am so fucking worried for argo

who is mariah??? oooh i am so intrigued

rain and stone... this is so interesting holy shit

awwwww!!!!!

"this is nothing" pfff

my sweet boys :')

i! am! so! freaking! pumped!!!

this was another really great episode! i know we’re still in set-up territory as far as how the plot is progressing but i’m already so intrigued in the world trav has made. there’s already so much mystery and foreshadowing going on, both in regard to the world and the character’s motivations and i am here for it! 

i’m actually typing this around 5:30 am and queuing it for later so it doesn’t get buried in the tag, but i cannot wait to see all the art of this ep, especially of snippy lol. see you guys next right thursday~! ^u^

[kanto-lope]

Voltaire and France = Bad Times

Before I jump back into wacky Voltaire shenanigans.... Hi! It’s been a long while, huh? Usually I wouldn’t post something this late but I got a lil funky over the weekend. I, too, delved into my own pleasures for a bit longer; and, I’m sure the hours on all my video games appreciated the undivided attention. I hope everyone is doing well. I think I’m doing okay but this ain’t about me. It’s about Candide again. So, what kind of wacky shenanigans did we look at this weekend? Well...

This week: Voltaire REALLY hates France.  I don’t think I can stress this enough. I haven’t read so much hatred in a long while. Though, I did appreciate seeing Candide evolved into this cynical man who is barely hanging on to whatever sanity he has left. However, I will digress and, man, Voltaire just hated France.  Before Chapter 22, Candide brings up his distaste for France. It feels it’s preparing the reader for what’s to come. The most important thing to keep in mind was that Candide hates France yet he has never spent enough time there. So it makes his opinion distrustful because he only has heard some of the things that happened there. Which genuinely reflects how simple he is to hear something without valid proof. But, and I cannot stress this enough, Voltaire hates France. 

It isn’t even an exaggeration at this point. Candide is filled with disgust, anger, and disappointment. We see him lose a gamble, lose his v-card in France, and even see him get angry countless times. Voltaire really shows how the people in Paris have no joy. They ALWAYS have a reason to be angry or sad. This is first seen during the play scene. Candide may be moved but another critic gave his bitter opinions. 

However, seeing this we can understand that the people of Paris care more about the money in their pockets over their own joy. 

I could especially see that during the time Candide fell ill. The only reason he received the attention and care he needed was because of the riches he had. It genuinely felt embarrassing. There was no humanity in the townspeople. There was no other way to put it. They would not respect Candide or Martin’s requests, only their own. In France, the benefits must come out of your ambitions. It really felt that way. I think Voltaire wanted it to get across.  The French are greedy, selfish, but they are also hopeless. It’s...dirty. France is dirty to its core and Voltaire portrays it like the embodiment of sin. People only indulge in their misery and pleasures. It’s the only way they can get by without dwelling on it. It breeds hypocrisy. It breeds desperation. Which we can see when Candide learns about the fake Cunegonde who wants to meet up with him in Paris. The people in Paris will take advantage of your vulnerability and it rightfully makes Candide angry. It made ME angry and that’s pretty rare.  Though, that’s what Voltaire wanted to get across. Maybe it was some sort of personal vendetta but he hated the arrogance and selfishness of France. It was more prominent in the capital it seems and it makes sense. It’s a hub where many flock for its prestige rather than its people. I guess that was another form of ignorance that he wanted to discuss but I can be just as clueless as the next guy.

Overall, fun chapter. I love seeing a cynical Candide. It makes me happy that he’s tired of giving the benefit of the doubt and taking into account what he goes through. However, I just feel like it’s going to be his massive downfall at the very end of the story. 

Until next time!

[sometrekkiepunk]

@itsvalidtohatestartrek tagged me to do this, Lilly I was just thinkin bout stlv last August lol what timing

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag a few blogs you would like to get to know better.

Nickname(s): My name’s Godiva so I’d like to thing my nickname God in highschool wasn’t too weird. I had a coworker once forget my name and the closest he could get was Ghirardelli and that stuck for a sec

Gender: Lady I think..

Sign: Taurus and Goat

Height: 5’6” without heels

Time: 1:20 pm

Fave band(s): Motorhead, my fav pass time is finding new bands, though, so you hit me up about rock and roll and I’ll never shut up

Fave solo artist(s): Uuuuum, Wendy O Williams? orrr Prince it varies

Song stuck in my head: When I go brain dead from exhaustion I get that 70s movie theater jingle stuck in my head (it called Funky Fanfare)

Last movie I saw: My vhs of Ghostbusters 2

Last show I watched: Adams Family

When did I create my blog: Dang like.. July of last year?

What do I post: This my side blog for Star Trek, mostly, so I didn’t freak out my followers on my main blog

Last thing I googled: O jesus, rv parks in pdx that were close to any lesbian bars.. because I’m moving to a park I’m not just a creep lol

Do I have any other blogs: My main for like, rock music and punk fashion and bitching about capitalism. I know I’m an edgelord

Do I get asks?: Sometimes but interacting online with people makes me nervous so I tend to get distant when a convo starts to form

Why did I chose my URL: Because.. I am a trekkie.. and a punk

Following: 720, but prob only like 50 for star trek and other sci fi

Followed by: Lilly you made me self conscious with your follower count, lol not even 100 on this blog, but that’s great for me. A post or two from here got some traction and I made the mistake of reading the comments and almost had a heart attack. I prefer staying inside my little mutual group

Average hours of sleep: 7 to stay reasonable but I can get wild and grab up to 10 hours if I’m feelin it

Lucky number: eh 0?

Instruments: Used to play drums, wanna play the piano, or banjo

What am I wearing: Work clothes, Steele toe docs, khaki green dickies, black work shirt tattered from chemicals

Dream job: Audio engineer

Dream trip: Bar crawl and backpacking in Ireland

Fave food: Indian or Mexican

Nationality: My famous direct descendant is that asshole Daniel Boone :/ Just a crusty lil american

Fave song: Impossible to answer

Last book I read: Lumberjanes and A Stitch In Time

Top three fictional universes i want to join: Star Trek tos and ds9, Doctor Who, and Firefly but like, nothing to do with the actual crew I just think the style is pretty rad, lol, I’m just doin my own thing

No idea who to tag I’m running late for work now oops