#chaos writeups

[fritzes]

mini chaos writeup: fritzpaul acapulco match

for @pinkcaraz

so, let's set the scene. it's the semifinals of acapulco 2023, taylor fritz vs tommy paul. keep in mind, acapulco is a tournament where it's so hot and humid that they literally only have night session matches, so this is all happening pretty late at night

oh, and in the quarterfinals, taylor just beat frances. big week for the trio

tommy wins the first set (and the only normal set in this match) 6-3. obviously this frustrates taylor. they have that interesting dynamic where they're such close friends that they're even more competitive with each other than they are with anyone else, and this stretches back a while. this is pure speculation, but surely taylor feels like he has something to prove here, since tommy literally used to make bets with other players on who could beat taylor the fastest (to be fair to tommy, taylor absolutely sucked in juniors)

so, in the second set, there are a ton of breaks and tommy ends up serving for the match. he has a match point... and then he loses said match point and gets broken. classic tommy paul. taylor goes on to take the set in a 7-2 tiebreak

at this point, they're both exhausted. taylor has completely changed outfits. they're playing some crazy tennis. there are some early breaks, but it seems like it's barreling towards a tiebreak. oh, and throughout the set, taylor is starting to look really, really sick

so, at 5-6, just before taylor is about to serve to stay in the set, he walks back to his bench and vomits into a bin. now, in retrospect, this could have been a good thing, signaling the rise of post puke fritz, but alas that did not happen. instead of doing the sane thing of trying to get some kind of break, taylor walks right back out onto the court to serve. he faces two match points, but he somehow manages to hold

in the third set tiebreak, tommy returns the score taylor gave him in the second set, 7-2. and so, three and a half hours later, it's over

at the net, tommy looks like he's about to collapse. taylor looks like he's about to collapse and then melt into a little puddle. they're both dying

the next day, tommy loses the final in three sets to alex de minaur

in 2024, they both lose in the first round of acapulco. considering all of this, maybe that's for the best

[thiscityneedslessfog]

Love and Hate: Magatsu-Inaba and the Hollow Forest

oh wooooow I’m talking about my favorite dungeons—YES I AM AND HERE’S WHY

okay okay so you know how Marie and Adachi’s dungeons both tamper with items—in Marie’s dungeon you get these weird weapons that swipe your SP, and the only items and equipment you can use are from the dungeon. Adachi’s case is lesser, but he totally disallows you from using Goho-Ms in the main Magatsu Inaba.

But more importantly: Have you noticed how Marie and Adachi’s dungeons both have fragments of Inaba within them?

But Marie’s version of Inaba, even if fragmented, is largely intact. You just have perfectly normal pieces of the Junes food court or the sign floating around in the area. You see the school’s chairs, too, from her Rank 4, in the arenas.

I’m curious to see how Magatsu Inaba looks in the anime (yet to watch it) but in the game it’s mostly comprised of broken road signs with police tape everywhere. The buildings are mere silhouettes in the distance—vague, just “buildings.” So far away and unreachable, and you can’t identify any of them as a distinct place. The doors are police caution tape. The only way you can escape Adachi’s item-tampering abilities is by jumping into a sinkhole.

In Adachi’s mind, Inaba is a wreck, a worthless wasteland, the layout not remembered because… I’d argue Adachi can’t be bothered to memorize it. He hates Inaba. He reviles Inaba. It’s not a town to him at all. It’s a prison, that he believes is too brutal for the original unknown crime he committed. And his entire story is about trying to destroy what he perceives as his jail cell. He’s motivated by a desire for control over his life, and he sees Inaba as a place to limit his autonomy.

(As an aside, Adachi’s first miniboss being a Chaos Fuzz, a police officer shadow, is hilarious. The spider may be a total bitch, but he’s a very funny bitch.)

Throughout Marie’s arc, she slowly grows attached to Inaba via the sights and encounters she has throughout Inaba alongside Yu. She learns to love it, and is genuinely apologetic when she believes she has to die and abandon Inaba. The sixth floor of her dungeon is called “Memories of Love.” She feels nostalgic for Inaba even when she can’t remember anything else—she cherishes this place and makes an effort to remember it.

Actually, Yosuke, who is much more like Adachi, even shows a genuine desire to remember and care for Inaba in his own mindscape, which looks notably similar to Adachi’s. It’s a desolate version of the Central Shopping District of Inaba, with the same red-and-black sky permeating that all dungeons save Marie’s and Izanami’s have. And I guess Kanji’s and Rise’s but theirs are entirely indoors. But it’s obviously the Central Shopping District. He immediately finds Konishi Liquors from his wacky mindscape version of the Shopping District, there’s a well-made replica in there.

This is because of how Saki helped him genuinely learn to appreciate Inaba, as he talks about in his Rank 8–he initially disliked the place because of the mistreatment he faced over just being the Junes manager’s kid, but Saki was actually friendly towards him and caused him to actually develop an attachment to the place even before Yu showed up. I talked about this in my writeup about his Social Link!

Adachi, unlike Marie and Yosuke, refuses to emotionally connect to anyone in Inaba. He asserts he’s alone throughout, even when Dojima proves him wrong and tries to reach out. To be honest, I think it’s in reality shoving the layout out of his mind. He doesn’t want to remember. And through this he self-isolates, something that tears him apart while Marie and Yosuke took the hands that saved them from the brink.

As I said in my writeup about how similar he and Yukiko actually are, I wonder whose fault that is…

But I think this is why the Hollow Forest and Magatsu-Inaba are my favorite dungeons. They show two wildly different perspectives on Inaba and also have the dungeon rulers actively tamper with your ability to traverse it normally—Adachi forces you away if you don’t complete the Mandala and tampers with your Goho-Ms, not to mention Magatsu Mandala 3 where he boots you to I think the beginning of the Mandala if you get into a fight there, and Marie just won’t let you use your items you have because she’s too far in denial. I also like how their dungeon enemies show more about them as people, but I’d rather write about that in pieces about the individual dungeons!

[azzie-beastbinder]

Late Night Calls

Her communicator was ringing. Nari permitted herself a single groan before she reached over and answered it. With it being one in the morning, there was only one person it could have been.

Satoru’s voice was quiet and firm. It lacked the rough edge of steel it typically had when he was dealing with the gang. “Nari. We need to talk.”

“Boss? Do you know how late it is-”

“I’m aware, and I’ve got bugs crawling on me and Koda leaning on my left shoulder in a way that’s making it numb.”

Nari picked up on the name. “Koda, not ‘Boss Hayashi’. Personal problem phone call then?”

“...You know me well. Were this any other case, I’d be pissed about that. But right now I need your expertise.”

“My expertise on what the hell’s wrong with you?”

“Precisely.”

“Great. Alright, what prompted the phone call?”

“Finding out that my younger brother apparently had sex with the prince of a demon cult on a plane that paved over its oceans.”

“...Run that by me again?”

“Apparently they did it while Koda was experiencing a colorshift, so he definitely wasn’t in his right mind, as much as he pretends that he was.”

“Remind me, colorshift?”

“He basically had all of his morals and priorities rewritten for twenty-four straight hours.”

Nari was silent for a moment as she processed that.

“Yeah. I just scrolled back up in the communicator to try and find it when it happened, but there’s also two posts on the hellsite about it and Hayashi’s already making plans for round two.”

“...So are you concerned about your brother having sex or are you concerned about who he’s having sex with? Give me something to work with here, boss.”

“The who. I of all people can’t judge the kid for getting some tail. I just...okay, shit, how much did you read from my writeup of Thunder Junction and the failed heist?”

“Enough to figure out that you’re probably talking about a kid of that Rakdos guy.”

“Exactly.”

“So, significantly more dangerous than you banging the son of the Regent?”

“Considering he’s a planeswalker to boot, apparently knows a song that makes people all murder each other, and spontaneously combusts-”

“Ah, there’s part of why you called me. Your fear of fire’s run headlong into your concern for your little brother.”

“Right. And Koda’s been spiraling pretty hard lately. The depersonalization and suicidal ideation’s getting worse, it’s slipping a lot more into how he talks about himself.”

“And you think this prince is...what, encouraging it or making it worse?”

“...I don’t know.”

Nari paused. She had never heard Satoru use those three words together in that order. He never admitted to not knowing something, knowing it would come across as weakness to anyone other than Nari. What was going on on other planes to make him finally crack? She took a deep, silent breath.

That quiet breath was what allowed her to hear Satoru’s next whispered admission. “I hate the idea of anyone dehumanizing and using my brother like that.”

Nari rolled over onto her back in bed and was silently grateful that she wasn’t somewhere in the woods on another plane like Satoru was. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“...Revenge fuck the guy’s dad?”

“NO. By the kami, boss. What are you, eighteen?”

“Sorry, sorry. The stress is getting to me. Add on the shit with H- ...the Devouring Chaos, and I’m fairly certain that even if I did die, my heart would just keep beating.”

Nari didn’t need the name finished to know who Satoru meant. Hidetsugu, the ogre-oni, one of the founders of the Hyozan Reckoners alongside Satoru’s ancestor Toshiro. And the two had one hell of a falling out that has affected generations of Umezawas and numerous chaos cultists ever since.

Nari had been six years old when Thistlefur found Satoru, also merely six, among the smoldering ruins of the Umezawa family home, disabled and orphaned. It was how the two of them met, after all – both orphaned, both taken in by Thistlefur. They never considered each other siblings, like how Satoru had never considered Thistlefur to be his dad, but they were close friends through the years. When Satoru had killed Kyuso, the boss before him, it was Nari who became his second-in-command immediately. When Ayame Hayashi was murdered and Satoru had finished consoling Koda, it was Nari who consoled Satoru.

Nari pinched the bridge of her nose. “How bad is everything else on those communicators, boss?”

“There’s an angel from Xerex who’s dedicated to some kind of divine peace that’s putting them in direct conflict with everyone else, someone wants the Brokers to go to war with the Dokuchi Reckoners and they’re pulling strings about it, there are incredibly depressed Dimir agents – also I apparently slept with their boss on Thunder Junction, didn’t know that going in – and...honestly I could be here all day, but then we wouldn’t actually get back to Towashi. I’ll tell you the rest in person.”

“Sounds good, boss.” Nari smirked. “Grey hair check?”

Satoru sounded more exhausted now. “I found three new ones.”

“Old man.”

“Shady bitch.”

“See you when you get home, boss.”

“Shouldn’t be too long now... A little more hiking, a little falling down a mountain, and then getting back to the city and making good on a deal. Then you and I are putting our heads down and working. Hayashi needs our support for this to go well.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Nari let Satoru hang up first, then dropped her communicator back on her nightstand and stared up at the ceiling. She could feel Azamuki’s influence roiling within her, almost like Treachery Incarnate knew something it wouldn’t share with her.

She was worried about that.

[axolator]

Script-A-"Day" #37: Circus by Utku

Welcome to the show where booze and death is recommended! It is not a question of if you are gonna die but with who you shall share the experience with. - Utku

Featured characters: General, Acrobat, Harpy, Boomdandy

Fabled characters: Sentinel (at base-0 Outsiders, sometimes on base-1)

Jinxes:

Cannibal/Zealot: If the Cannibal gains the Zealot ability, the Cannibal learns this.

You can fake this to a poisoned Cannibal, and you probably should if an evil bluffing Zealot gets executed.

Widow/Magician: When the Widow sees the Grimoire, the Demon and Magician's character tokens are removed.

Complexity: Advanced. Recommended for STs who are okay with using their discretion, and for players familiar with BMR who are okay with something going tick-tick-boom if they aren't careful.

Database link (find the PDF and JSON for running it there!)

Writeup under the cut!

Before I say my piece, a note from Utku himself!

As a script maker, I really like picking one character and building a script that lets that character shine. With this script, I wanted to give Acrobat some representation as I think it is a fairly under-utilised role among custom scripts. In this script, Acrobat shines in two unique ways. First, it can use its ability to strengthen the town's information. An Acrobat picking a vi or cannibal and not dying is a really strong source of information as the fact they are sober gives more information. Second, the poisoning in the script is done in a way that it is either traceable (aka Pukka) or it is permanent (widow, vigor, sweetheart). If you pick a player and you do not die, you have a great idea on whether their ability malfunctioned due to droisoning during the game or not. With this script, the emphasis for good is not on finding the demon, but in finding the good versus evil and then adding socials to build upon that. I think one strength of this script is how much pure information roles (Noble, Village Idiot, Balloonist) are improved by their interaction with mechanical roles (Acrobat, Lycan) or through ST information roles (General and High Priestess). On the other hand, evil team is designed to exploit how the good team works through either faking it (Shab, Ojo, and Assassin are able to mimic confirmation) or through sowing doubts among town: is this player pushing on me because of the information or because of Harpy madness? Is this evil ping we want to vote on the Boomdandy, or was this information gained through Widow grim? Each demon has their unique strength, as well as ability to hide themselves.

Circus is a script centered around the Acrobat, and the several potential reasons for its own death. Townsfolk like the Innkeeper, Village Idiot, and Cannibal will want to be checked to ensure their sobriety while everything else on the script gets in the way: the Assassin and Harpy can prematurely off an Acrobat picking a sober player, and the Sweetheart, Widow, and Pukka can introduce extra drunkenness and poisoning to kill the Acrobat themselves. The Shabaloth, Vigormortis, and Assassin provide incentives and ways to mimic the Acrobat's ability via multikills, and the rest of the script provides a BMR-like wrapper for the rest of the script. Accusations will be flying as a fusion of traditional information like the Steward, Noble, and VI and BMR-like mechanical characters like the Innkeeper, Lycanthrope, and Gambler collide — the Cannibal, Zealot and Harpy only add to the chaos, making for a nominations phase where evil can easily hoist someone onto the block if town doesn't play their cards right.

Bagbuilding Circus can be a little bit of a trip, given its semi-BMR-like nature. To that end, if you have a Lycanthrope in-play, consider adding characters like Noble and VI to ping off the Faux Paw (and consider leaving Innkeeper as a bluff for evils so they can explain why they didn't die at night). Think about evil's disruption power, too: an Assassin or Widow is often better-placed to handle stronger Townsfolk compared to a Harpy or Boomdandy.

Some notes:

Your reminder to put Demons in Noble pings sometimes! The Noble isn't a triple Knight. Separately, it's totally fair play to use the Lycanthrope's Faux Paw as the "evil player" in the Noble ping, and can actually help the good team confirm the Lycanthrope and solve who the Faux Paw is.

I've talked about High Priestess enough here, but to summarize — The High Priestess is most interesting when they're incentivized to have conversations with their pings and socially read them: the operative word in the High Priestess's ability text is "talk", and their role is to facilitate useful conversations that would not happen otherwise. A High Priestess should expect to be shown players who benefit from being talked to, like the Sweetheart everyone's tunneling as evil who has the key to the solve or the Boomdandy in a collapsing bluff who's outing evil a little too hard. Who is most important to talk to is somewhat subjective and might change depending on which player pulls the HP token: keep your group in mind, and do what's fun.

Make sure your group knows how you run the General. Individual STs tend to differ between running a 3-star scale (good/neutral/evil) and a 5-star scale (introducing "slightly good" and "slightly evil" as ratings), and both have their merits on this script. Choose whichever one you're more confident in running, given the nuances of this script.

Remember how the Gambler and Acrobat interact with the Lycanthope. Since both of them can die before the Lycanthrope chooses a living player, if the Lycanthrope picks an Acrobat/Gambler who died earlier that night and gets told "no", the Acrobat/Gambler is effectively hard-confirmed to the Lycan, which can be extremely powerful for the good team — especially with characters as powerful as those two! If you can, limit putting both Gambler and Acrobat in a Lycanthrope bag, especially at lower player counts — but maybe make both bluffs with an Assassin, Shabaloth, or Ojo on the team if your evil team will go for it?

Consider houseruling the Lycanthrope/Ogre interaction as follows: "if the Ogre chooses the Lycanthrope's Faux Paw, they stay good." This means the Ogre can play for their friend's team regardless of misregistration, which is more in the spirit of the character.

If a Harpy's madness gets broken, strongly consider killing one or both mad players at night to obscure what happened at night. On a BMR-like script, introducing ambiguity in the night deaths is often better than fully outing the Harpy's presence by killing during the day. If the player to break Harpy-madness is evil (and won't announce that they're harpy-mad), carefully consider who you kill: if you just kill the second player, it effectively makes the Harpy a better, louder Assassin — only do it if evil's really behind. Usually, you'll want to kill both players involved in the Harpy-madness.

Don't shab-rez too late! If the Shabaloth is getting doublekill after doublekill, consider resurrecting someone (and outing the Demon type) to balance things earlier rather than later. It's no fun for the evil team for the Shabaloth to resurrect in final 5 or 4, when the evil team doesn't have time to re-kill them and they just end up as a confirmed non-Demon in the endgame. Depending on game size, resurrecting N3 or N4 usually feels about right, but it'll depend on your game.

I made a whole post about the Ojo recently, but to quickly recap, if the Ojo intentionally misses with the intent to help its team bluff a doublekill (e.g. Gambler, Acrobat, a Shabaloth game), strongly consider honoring that and killing multiple players on an intentional miss. Don't overdo it — keep the game balanced — but once or twice per game tends to feel about right.

[canmom]

Annecy 2025 - Lundi

I'm gonna write really briefly here bc the lack of sleep is catching up to me. Just notes for a more full writeup later.

holy fucking shit Shinya Ohira

I saw the short films block containing Shinya Ohira's new film for the Star Wars Visions collection! Whatever reservations I have about the Mouse, Ohira (and DavidPro) somehow outdid themselves again, a dying stormtrooper's fever dream of flowing images set to waves of jazz that somehow becomes a symbol of the whole weight of this whole ridiculous franchise and its stock of imagery, but also it's kinda Gundam Thunderbolt innit, except even more so somehow. The other films in the block were also very solid, with the delightfully deranged 9 Million Colours about the romance between a murderous pistol shrimp and a blind porpoise a particular standout.

VR is still alive!!!

I watched a bunch of VR works! I wrote about them on Bluesky so I'll just link the thread for now, pending a proper writeup of all the VR. With a bit of luck I'll get into the big Gundam one tomorrow, but what I've seen so far has been quite varied and already a lot stronger than previous year.

the most perplexing heterosexual fish film I've seen since lu over the wall

Studio 4°C are back with another lavish film about sea creatures, titled ChaO! Unfortunately it's... kinda disappointing. Weird mashup of a fated romance and arranged marriage plot, which despite all the effort they spend animating the girl, kind of forgets to give her a personality outside of being the boy's devoted girlfriend and remembering some shit he said as a kid. This relationship enables peace between humans and merpeople and also big profit for our boy's boss... The tension of having all that weight on a relationship is... mostly played for jokes as the two grow closer, and overall it feels like the ghost of Shinzo Abe is hiding behind the screen somewhere. The character designs span a wild range of highly caricatured bobble head guys to only mildly caricatured, which is sometimes a little jarring, though it is at least a very beautiful and colourful film with some extraordinary sequences. If only it had a story worthy of them!

Hungarian short films - anima verité

Hungarian animation is the theme this year and I made it to the 'anima verité' block which focuses on something like animations with a grounded setting, documentary aspect, or social commentary, inspired by a particular Hungarian director's use of the term (need to remind myself who the curator said that was). Unfortunately my lack of sleep was really catching up with me at this point so I didn't appreciate them as much as I'd like. There was a fun one where the people of an apartment block all have a good shout, and an interesting one that animated interview footage of kids talking about their understanding of history during the Leninist period, plus that cool fppov one about a fly we covered on Animation Night.

student films still kick ass

The non-reservation queues are a bloodbath this year, and I screwed up on making my reservation for Planétes (aka something like Dandelion Odyssey) so that's for tomorrow... but I did manage to get into one last student films block! Too late to write on depth, but body stuff was a strong theme this year, represented vividly especially in the films from Japan. The last film is about an exhausted mother trying to take care of her disabled son while getting fucked around by the government and if you thought that sounds very British, you'd be right - it had some interesting and confident stylejank in both the 2D and the 3D. I should check out more of the artist's work.

OK, that's all I've got time for tonight, next film in like 8 hours lol

[rivetgoth]

I have definitely talked about it before (though I can’t find any specific posts right now) but god I love this fucking album sooooo much. Far and away my favorite PIG output which is saying a lot. It’s also one of thee only commentaries on Christianity using the aesthetics that I can stand as I feel like very very few attempts at doing so are successful. But Raymond did so good with this. Through the whole album he takes in this persona of this like, culty televangelist preacher type who uses Christianity as both a tool to manipulate and control the people and ironically a way to justify his own succumbing to temptation. All of the sleaze and glam and glitter and lechery and hypocrisy. Also pretty much every song is just such a banger. Opening the album with “We are the pure and chosen few and all the rest are damned / There’s room enough in Hell for you, we don’t want Heaven crammed,” the line “the miracle of no regret” (UGGHH), the part in “Cult of Chaos” when he says “I’m a servant for the shilling … of my God that’s ever willing” it’s so good. Could do a very very lengthy writeup on this whole LP someday.

[simslegacy5083]

Not So Berry (Straud Descendants) Gen 9

Today's (8/13/2024) Episode: Making The Pitch

When Luigi put his mind to something it usually wasn’t long before he’d achieved his goal, and his proposal for Noemi’s boss was no exception.

Working late into the night he outlined his idea for a new life sim. He’d played Sims Forever since he was young and had been programming mods to enhance his gameplay almost as long. The popularity of those mods made him confident that he understood what would appeal to other gamers.

Noemi had been right that Luigi’s name being attached to the project would get her bosses attention.

Her supervisor had looked skeptical when she’d dropped a proposal from her fiancée off that morning, but by lunchtime Patricia caught her in the breakroom with quite a different attitude. “I looked into your boy’s plan.” She said, wolfing down a quick sandwich between meetings.

“A respected Sims Forever modder with a couple other claims to fame developing a competitor to the classic game?” She rapped her knuckles on the table for emphasis and pointed. “Get him here ASAP for a meeting with me and Daniel from investment! I’m positive the community will eat this up.”

A couple days later Luigi found himself in the conference room of Rainy Day’s downtown headquarters. He and Noemi worked for different branches of the same parent company, and he’d met her boss a couple times in passing, but the investment guy was new to him.

Used to public performances he was at ease, smiling brightly as he shook hands and settled down across from the other two sims.

“So…” Patrica began “I read your proposal and I’m intrigued. I want to hear more about what you think you can bring to the table to set your game apart from Sims Forever. We’ll want to attract its audience and bring in new players – how do you intend to do that”?

As he’d gotten older Luigi had learned how to use his cheerful nature to his advantage. To that end he didn’t attempt to hide his enthusiasm, letting his excitement shine through and captivating his audience as he launched into an explanation.

"Sims Forever has been my favorite videogame for as long as I can remember. I love it, but I’m also very aware of what it lacks, the things I got into modding to fix. I want to develop a game that has options for more control, and more chaos. One with randomly generated NPCs that didn’t dress themselves in the dark, who have skills and backstories to match their traits and preferences.” 

Luigi paused to take a breath, but before he could continue Daniel held up a hand to stop him. "I've heard enough. Your project writeup outlined this quite nicely. It’s clear you have the passion to execute your vision; and I’ll be counting on Noemi here to manage the team needed to back you up."

Luigi gave Daniel a sincerely thankful smile as they discussed the contractual details, but Patricia didn’t let him escape on a high note.

"Before you go, there is one issue we need to talk about. You got yourself into quite the pickle the other night with that little mouse fiasco. I trust the PR department is helping you clean up that mess?“ She looked at him expectantly as he did his best to suppress a flash of irritation and shame. 

"Of course," he lied "they're all over it.“ In reality, the “damage control” team were all over him to address it publicly, but he’d been stonewalling them. He’d hoped the whole thing would just blow over in time without requiring him to take an active and risky role in repairing his reputation.

 As he and Noemi walked out to grab lunch, Luigi’s excitement at his win was dampened by worrying about what he was going to say to the team’s publicist later that evening. It looked like he was going to need to cooperate with them after all.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[namedhope]

avatar: the last a.irbender verse is updated!

putting below the cut the new writeup with all the changes ( also updated on her verses page too ofc )... turned out to be a lot more than i thought though the base of the story is still there lol. if you notice any horrible mistakes or anything lacks clarity lmk.

centuries prior to hope's birth, there was a man of deep and cruel intentions who wished nothing more than destruction on the whole of the world.  actually originating from the water tribe, he studied deeply into the spirit realm and forbidden magics.  eventually, he brought the two together, crafting a gem of terrible and haunting power.  with it, wrath and anger and chaos would come to life.  unnatural and forced, disturbing spirits and the environment... animals and people.  the world was on the brink of it all until the avatar finally figured out how to counter such dangerous energy.

if he could not destroy the gem, he could contain it.  he sealed it in a box using his bending and magic of his own, but the magic he discovered came with a cost to utilize.  his ( forbidden but not so secret ) love at the time, a woman named elpis, was sealed away within the box as well.  she was turned into a literal embodiment of hope, and it was her new spirit that was used to contain the terror of the gem.  with her and box now serving as balance to the gem, the avatar could hide the artifact away, though his pain was immense for the accidental fate of his love.

the box and its contents would not rest easy, however, and as elpis' spirit began to weaken over the years, it corruption inside sought out an escape... somehow, someway, it found a family with a new baby girl, where it blessed her with its drive, knowledge, and some of its magic.  it turned her hair fiery red and would set her on a path of craving power... to finding it and releasing it from its prison...

valeria was this child, and she was born to a wealthy family in a village in the outer reaches of the nation. from a young age, her firebending was potent and mesmerizing.  she was not prodigy levels, but for someone born in an affluent family with no military ties, it was incredible what she could do and accomplish from such a young age.  her parents were part of noble families under ozai, using this connection to benefit financially and socially... all while inwardly seeking royalty status.

the couple saw themselves to be far more upperclass than even the ruling family, and this materialistic view led to a doting nature upon their eldest daughter.  valeria being spoiled to such a degree had her easily believing she would make a better heir to the nation than anyone else, yet even from childhood, she knew that overthrowing the government was beyond her capabilities on her own and wouldn't win her public favor. thus, she threw herself into studying the spirit realm and the connections the avatar once had in order to see if she could take such power for herself.  she intended to use it to claim the throne through sheer respect and authority, not knowing that the tickle in the back of her mind leading her down this path was actually the will of the gem buried deep.

hope was born when valeria was twelve.  it was her who elpis' spirit blessed to take on her mantle and balance the dangers of the artifact.  an outcast from the get go despite the wealth and status she grew up in with her sister, the younger was quite the contrast between the two daughters. her unusual hair color ( being blue... unheard of in the fire nation but given to her by elpis' blessing ), lack of bending or even interest in it, and more generous attitude was quite an oddity in her village.  not to mention she could paint visions of the future, though such was a truth she hid from just about everyone once she learned about it in her youth.  even from her own sister.

it had been when hope was four that their parents vanished. unknown to the two sisters until the guards would come to their home, their parents had been attempting a coupe, but were caught and charged with treason.  the guards had come to take in the two daughters, as well, to execute them alongside their parents due to the familial ties.  in a twist of fate, valeria managed to have her and hope spared and their wealth still provided to them - the redhead promised her loyalty to the fire nation royalty, and with her talents and intellect, she was seen as a valuable member of the nation.  by extension, hope was given the same sparing.

she and valeria started off close while hope was so young.  then they only had each other after their parents were executed.  though hope didn't always approve of the elder's actions or behaviors, she overlooked them in favor of not being alone.  however, she discovered what valeria was studying when she was fourteen... of the dangerous magic her sister was craving. from then on, the two stopped getting along and would get into bitter arguments where hope tried to prevent her sister from ruining the balance of an already out of balance world...  the artifact that valeria was seeking couldn't be good news.

hope's efforts to disrupt valeria's pursuit would be too late; the elder sister would find the box containing the gem that would connect her to the spirit world, taking hold of it immediately and unleashing the horrors. their village would be overrun by the spirits let free where that were disturbed and furious.  chaos was released along veins of deep red magic snaking over the land, misery and destruction in their wake.

their corner of the nation began to fall.  at fifteen years old now, hope was able to use a vision to find where the artifact her sister used was now conducting itself.  valeria had fled after everything went out of hand... though to this day, hope has no idea if she survived or not.  so many people didn't.  managing to calm some of the spirits and get them and other survivors to stand behind her, hope was able to get to where the gem was.  upon coming in contact with it, the entity of elpis' spirit fully passed to her, and she was protected from the item's attempt to destroy her.  sealing it back away into the box, the whole thing would vanish from her hands mysteriously.  unbeknownst to her, she had absorbed the artifact entirely, now serving as the seal and guardian of its chaos.  she was seen as a hero by those she mollified and recruited, though her village was still left in shambles and few people remained.  hope would work with them to try and pick up the pieces of their lives.

everything that had occurred had not been entirely missed by the rest of the nation.  the realization of an ancient power brought attention, and since hope was seemingly still in possession of it after, a powerful fire bending assassin came after her to claim it - desiring the energy for their own gain. it was a vicious fight that left her right arm horribly burned.  yet before the assassin could down her and "cut her open to claim the magic for themselves," hope would unleash a terrible and frightful blast of pure chaos.  it destroyed the assassin swiftly, leaving only blood and smoldering remains.

for the power of the artifact manifests as gold energy that results in chaos, explosions, and destruction... hope hasn't figured out how to use it since and now it lies dormant in her.  the war and the aftermath of it all kept most eyes off her village and so she's gone on as an unnoticed hero, something she doesn't mind for the time being.she lives alone now in another village where she tries to make a living off painting... but is finding herself more and more constantly plagued by visions of the future.  in certain cases, she can have been taken in by zuko ( honorforged ) where she is living in the royal palace to learn more about what she's become and who she is meant to be.

[nerawrites]

Chapter 25: The Lineup

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Ships: The bear x Fem!oc

Warnings: none (i think)

Song:Angel-Massive Attack

Masterlist

The official competitor lineup for La Toque d’Or dropped on a crisp Wednesday morning. A clean, minimal webpage. Black text on white background. No frills—just the names.

Carmy was the first to see it. He stood by the back office computer at The Bear, one hand clutching a half-eaten granola bar, the other scrolling.

His eyes locked on one name, halfway down the list.

Lloris.

He blinked. Re-read it.

No first name. No team. Just Lloris.

Sydney wandered in mid-scroll, sipping her coffee. “What’s up?”

Carmy didn’t answer. Just stepped aside so she could look.

Sydney leaned over his shoulder, reading down the list—Chef Luca, some Michelin-starred solo entries, a few high-profile restaurants… and then—

“Wait. What the fuck?”

She jabbed the screen. “Is that—?”

“Yeah.”

“Lloris?” Her voice dropped into something half-awe, half-panic. “That’s not a real name. That’s like—an alias. Like Banksy for chefs.”

“I know.”

“Aren’t they—gone?” Sydney asked slowly. “They were in that one article a while ago but no one’s heard anything else.”

Carmy nodded slowly, the weight of it starting to settle.

Richie walked in, half-eating a pastry. “Yo, you two look like someone died.”

Sydney spun. “Richie, Lloris is competing.”

Richie paused. “Lloris? Like, Lloris Lloris?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, fuck me sideways,” Richie muttered, dropping into a chair. “That’s like finding out Jesus is doing a guest pop-up at your local deli.”

Marcus appeared next, drawn by the rising chaos. “What’s going on?”

Sydney just turned the screen toward him.

He blinked. “No way.”

Sugar came in last. “Okay, why are you all acting like you just saw a ghost?”

Sydney pointed. “Because we did.”

Sugar squinted at the screen. Her brows lifted. “ Weren’t they that chef who vanished after…?”

“Yeah,” Marcus confirmed. “After that steak thing.”

Everyone went quiet.

Carmy cleared his throat. “They’re back. And we’re up against them.”

Meanwhile, in New York…

David slid the article across the kitchen island toward Alicia.

She didn’t need to look. She already knew.

“I’m assuming this is your idea of morning entertainment,” she said dryly.

David grinned. “Just wanted you to see how famous you are. Mystery chef reappears. Everyone’s losing their minds.”

Alicia scrolled through the article with detached curiosity. The writeup was professional, vague. The return of the elusive chef known only as Lloris… anonymous by design, her presence marks a shift in this year’s competition. Rumors swirl. Speculation runs rampant. Who are they? Where have they been? And why now?

She handed it back.

David gave her a look. “You okay?”

“I think I hate this.”

“Yeah, but you also love it.”

She didn’t argue.

Across the Atlantic…

Luca stared at his phone, rereading the lineup in the quiet of his apartment.

He hadn’t expected to see that name again. Not ever.

He muttered something under his breath and picked up the phone, already dialing Marcus.

When the call connected, his voice was low. “You saw the list?”

Marcus laughed nervously. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

Luca paused. “You think it’s really them?”

“I don’t know. But it’s gotta be.”

A beat of silence.

“Shit’s getting serious,” Luca said.

Elsewhere…

In quiet corners of other kitchens, reactions echoed the same:

“What the fuck—Lloris?”

“Didn’t they quit?”

“No one even knows what they look like…”

“Their gonna win.”

“They always do.”

A/N

Sorry for not being able more consistently college has been beating my ass.

[cosmicveils]

Lore relevant to drow in Faerûn (Baldur's Gate 3 setting)

This is a writeup mostly for anyone playing BG3 that may be curious about drow, if they're unfamiliar with the Forgotten Realms/Faerun setting. I will say as a disclosure that I haven't read all of the drow-centric Forgotten Realms novels, and it's been quite a while since I read the ones I am familiar with. This is really just a basic primer lol. Anyway...

Religion and where they live: Drow usually live in the Underdark, which is incredibly vast. There are many cities spread throughout the caverns, generally with tens of thousands of drow and their slaves.

Typically, these drow revere Lolth, the Spider Queen -- an evil goddess who loves chaos above all else. Their society is incredibly matriarchal; women generally treat men like they're inferior, and only women can become clerics of Lolth. Men are usually focused on more martial pursuits. Typically, the third-born son of a House is ritually sacrificed to Lolth as an infant.

Assassination and ritual sacrifice are extremely common in Lolth-sworn drow society, even amongst family members. It is very common for Houses (families, essentially) to go to war with each other to advance their place in society. Countless houses have been completely exterminated this way.

Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the book "Homeland" by R.A. Salvatore:

Drider punishment: Remember Kar'niss from early in Act 2, the drow whose lower body is that of an enormous spider? He's a drider. Driders are drow who have been punished, typically by a high priestess of Lolth, or sometimes Lolth herself. Most driders seem to be male, but women have been turned into driders as well. The process is said to be excruciating, and it's generally a punishment for failing Lolth in some way, being disloyal, or hating Lolth and the ways of the drow.

Surface drow and Eilistraee: There are a couple of drow towns on the surface world, but they are extremely isolated and rarely seen. These "Seldarine" drow usually follow Eilistraee, another drow goddess that wants something better for her people. She embodies freedom, song, and dance. For a long time, her clergy was also female-only, but in recent times it's become welcoming to male members as well. Sometimes, these men use a ritual spell to change their sex, to better experience closeness to their goddess. While it's usually a temporary experience, some do it frequently or stay female-presenting for long periods of time. (And of course, this can be very relevant to transgender drow who wish to change their sex, or certain aspects of it.)

The Seldarine refers to the general elven pantheon of gods, all good-aligned enemies of Lolth. Long ago, Lolth betrayed Corellon, the leader of the Seldarine, and was cast out for her crimes. Eilistraee, the daughter of Lolth and Corellon, tries to steer the drow towards something better. A strong aspect of her faith is the freedom to choose. While most of her worshipers are drow, she welcomes all, and various types of outcasts can find comfort in her religion. She is considered a minor deity, however, and thus knowledge about her is quite rare outside of the drow. Both Eilistraee and her followers are little known and poorly understood.

How they're perceived by others: Drow are usually very distrusted both in the Underdark and on the surface, due to the reputation of the Lolth-sworn drow. Occasionally, they'll send raiding parties to the surface world to murder elves (especially followers of Eilistraee, if they happen to find one) and capture slaves. Drow aren't generally attacked on sight anymore by the time BG3 takes place, but they're still quite rare and tend to cause anxiety when they're not expected.

Sunlight Sensitivity: Drow born and raised in the Underdark also tend to be extremely sensitive to sunlight, as it's something they're not used to. This isn't present in Baldur's Gate 3, but it's been noted in D&D novels and materials for quite some time.

"Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of the attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight."

On the other side of this, however, they also have superior darkvision. This does show up in BG3; their darkvision distance is twice that of other races that have it, like surface elves.

As mentioned in some of the novels with drow characters, sunlight sensitivity can fade with enough time and exposure.

No sleeping necessary: You may have noticed Astarion, your character, or others sleeping in an interesting pose, like they're meditating. Drow (and other elves) in D&D don't need sleep; instead, they generally use a meditative trance. (They can sleep if they want to, but most choose not to).

"Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep."

And interestingly: while in trance, elves still have their passive Perception, just at a disadvantage. Other races don't, since they're considered unconscious while asleep. (Of course, if an elf or drow is actually sleeping and not trancing for whatever reason, they'd lose that slight edge.)

Retconned stuff: They used to actually have infravision (heat vision)! This was back in the late 80s/early 90s. From my understanding, though, this was eventually swapped out for darkvision. With the infravision, they also had Drow Sign Language, which relied on seeing the heat in their hands when they used it. You can see this in the beginning of "Homeland" by R.A. Salvatore.

An additional note from bramblepatch regarding that:

if I think of anything else, I'll add it on later lol

[fritzes]

the curse of ATP Madrid 2024

remember toronto's chaos? yeah this one's crazier

(shoutout @rodlaveraryna for helping me find the toronto post when I totally lost it)

first of all, the World #1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the tournament, making the fairly new #2 Jannik Sinner the top seed at a Masters 1000 for the first time.

In the first round, Félix Auger-Aliassime (who, keep in mind, took Nadal to five sets at Roland Garros) loses the first set to Nishioka. However, he comes back in the second and third sets to win the match 4-6 6-1 6-4. We'll be seeing a lot of him. In a Next Gen battle, young phenomenon João Fonseca loses the first set to the clay incompetent Alex Michelsen but proceeds to bagel him in the second set and then win the third with 4-6 6-0 6-2. Fabian Marozsan (of beating Alcaraz in Rome fame) saves eleven set points against Karatsev to win the first set and goes on to win the match 7-6 7-6. Moutet and Shang play an almost four hour match in which Moutet caused a massive delay by demanding the umpire give him coffee. And, most insane of all, teenager Darwin Blanch is drawn against Rafael Nadal for his second tour match ever. The scoreline is 6-1 6-0 (at least he got a game!)

Second round - here come the seeds. Jakub Menšík, yet another Next Gen wonder, upsets Dimitrov in three intense sets 6-2 6-7 6-3. Félix bagels known clay flop Mannarino. Fonseca loses quite brutally to Norrie. The ultimate clay hater himself, Daniil Medvedev, loses the first set to Matteo Arnaldi and looks absolutely done but comes back to win 2-6 6-4 6-4. Another known clay hater, Alexander Bublik, jokes his way through a win against Carballés Baena, who was so frustrated that he hit a serve directly at Bublik. Ben Shelton bagels Machac. Rafa manages to beat de Minaur, who he just lost to in Barcelona. Stefanos Tsitsipas, fresh off of two clay finals, is beaten by qualifier Monteiro 6-4 6-4.

In the third round, our top seed Jannik Sinner starts to show sign of discomfort, and his opponent Kotov is serving for the second set after Jannik won the first. Kotov has set point... and hits a questionable underarm serve that Jannik crushes down the line. Jannik goes on to break back and win the match 6-2 7-5. In the beginning of a long line of strange occurrences, Félix's opponent Menšik retires in the second set. Daniil loses the first set to Korda, yells at everyone, accuses the umpire of working for the Illuminati, but comes back to win the match 5-7 7-6 6-3. Bublik, the other resident clay hater, beats Ben Shelton 3-6 7-6 6-4, stetting up a match against who but Daniil. Holger Rune, who made two clay masters finals, loses to Griekspoor 6-4 4-6 6-3.

We start off the fourth round with another shaky Jannik match where he barely gets past Khachanov 5-7 6-3 6-3. At the exact same time - I kid you not, the exact same time - is a rematch of last year’s final. Carlos Alcaraz has match points over Struff at the very same minute as Jannik, but loses all three of them and extends the match another half hour or so, eventually winning it 6-3 6-7 7-6. Daniil comfortably wins the clay hater battle 7-6 6-4, and Bublik seems perfectly fine with it. In a strange occurrence of two varying levels of servebots on clay, Taylor Fritz beats Hurkacz 7-6 6-4 (including a very predictable tiebreak). Perhaps the strangest of all, Félix takes out Casper Ruud, the man who would marry clay if he could, 6-4 7-5.

And now to the quarterfinals. Think these matches have predictable outcomes? Wrong! Only Taylor manages to emerge as the favorite who wins, beating Cerundolo 6-1 3-6 6-3, an American servebot into clay masters semis. Meanwhile, Jannik withdraws entirely, giving Félix yet another walkover. In what may be the calmest match of his career, Andrey Rublev beats Carlos 4-6 6-3 6-2, ending his Madrid title streak. And, Daniil retires against Jiri Lehecka.

So, the semifinals no one expected. Andrey dispatches Fritz 6-4 6-3 after they traded breaks in the opening two games. And Félix receives yet another walkover when Lehecka retires a few games into the match. Yes, he received not one, not two, but three walkovers en route to the final.

In the end, though, Andrey wins it and claims a second masters title. So, that’s the end of the story, right? No, because in his interviews afterwards, Andrey reveals that he has been extremely sick for the entirety of the tournament and that he could barely sleep or eat. A bizarre yet fitting end to this strange tournament.

[vinegar-on-main]

fynn thoughts. now.

:)

I ASSUME YOU MEAN FLYNN FROM SMT IV AND HELLO YES HI I am going to be talking major spoilers for SMT IV and by extension Apocalypse during this.

If you have any desire to play or watch me play the game (@beantothemax and by extension @meme-boys-blog you have clearance) I suggest you do not engage.

For the record, i haven't beaten SMT IV Apocalypse yet, so most of my opinions will come from SMT IV and the few glimpses I got of him during gameplay so far.

Favorite thing about them Almost every single NPC in Tokyo talks about how polite he is, almost unbearably so if you refuse healing from Hunters Associations. Every dialogue option is so very polite and formal.

Least favorite thing about them GOOD LORD I wish we got to see more of Past!Flynn in the Neutral route. I mean I got a couple more scraps of info from Apocalypse, but I need to know the kid's relationship with Masakado and/or Skins and Fujiwara.

Favorite line Hes a bit of a silent protagonist, but he does say stuff about Relics that you find around Tokyo. They're so silly. Try guessing which one is which!

"Could it be to protect one from feces?"

"Bizarre-smelling sand."

"Could it be a uniform for some sort of ritual?"

"A very bouncy object."

"Could it be seaweed?"

"....."

"A squishy carpet"

brOTP Mentioned this in the Isabeau writeup, but yeah. Isabeau. They've gone through so much, they're basically besties at this point.

OTP HEY GUYS YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE SO TRAGIC??? I love Flynn/Issachar. I love the inherent tragedy in it. I can see them going off and being Samurai together like they dreamed but alas, the world is not so kind... In fact it is so much Crueler than they think! nOTP Shipping Flynn with Walter or Jonathan. Like sure I can see it, but I think those two are more in love with Chaos or Law respectively. Again, please change my mind! I love hearing different opinions to mine!

Random Headcanon Flynn never really talked to people when he was a kid. Issachar approached him one time at like a town meeting and Issachar made it his mission to be friends with him. Flynn immediately opened up as soon as Issachar brought him out into the woods to hunt for Cool Bugs.

Unpopular opinion If you say any other ending is canon you CLEARLY haven't played neutral. And yeah i mean i get you neutral ending is hard to get and a bit of a slog, but new game plus is RIGHT THERE. And there's a BILLION guides on how to get neutral.

Song I associate with them

Just... Lets just say i drafted out an entire animatic to this song.

Favorite Picture of them

Sleepy... Having dreams about Things Screaming in his face... In all seriousness i think you know what is my fav picture:

Yes, i had to hunt through my files to see my darling boy smile again. He deserves it. Look at him, Hes so happy. About .5 seconds later he is beaten within an inch of his life. :(

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 50 of Harrow the Ninth

Well, I mean, maybe. If you get resurrected, like I said in the last writeup, that does probably clear space for a new character to appear

So, Wake possessed Cytherea's body, probably starting from when Harrow stabbed the body with the sword a second time, I would guess. This doesn't make sense to me for a couple of reasons, though: 1) How could Wake be simultaneously piloting around Cytherea's body while also fighting Nonius in the River bubble? It seems like her soul would have to be in two different places simutaneously for that to happen, and 2) If Wake already has Cytherea's body, why does she need to kill Harrow and possess her body as well? It's not like she's having trouble using Cytherea to cause chaos. I guess you could maybe argue that the whole Nonius fight just took place while Cytherea was tied up, but I think Wake has been trying to possess Harrow from the beginning of the River bubble stuff

So this point of contention is not about environmental destruction of the Earth, or anything like that, then?

So, apparently the first part is from Henry V, the second part is from the Maori version of the New Zealand national anthem, and the last part is an Eminem lyric. Does BOE use a naming scheme that's like the Puritans who named themselves after entire bible verses, except that instead of using the bible, they use the entire corpus of pre-Resurrection media?

Also, I've been told by people that they are somehow speaking modern English even 10,000 years into the future, does that also go for BOE? Clearly Wake is able to communicate with the other characters without issues. But if this is really just supposed to be the case because John is some kind of micromanager who somehow manages to magically stop language change in the Nine Houses, why would BOE be affected by that? They aren't even in the Nine Houses, and I doubt very much that John cares whether or not they can communicate with him. Anyway, the reason I mention this is that if BOE no longer spoke a language in which these phrases mean anything, they would actually probably work much better as names. The first two seem fine as they are, actually, but I think the Eminem lyric becomes substantially less silly-looking if you don't know what it means. And Wake says "they're dead words", but if she is speaking modern English to John, they aren't really dead words, are they?

This makes zero sense. She's been walking around the Mithraeum with a gun, she's been perfectly capable of killing herself whenever she wanted to do that. Also, does John see himself as a cop?

Was the prison on the Ninth actually intended to be a dummy target for BOE? I don't know how much sense that makes, since like John says, there's nothing on the Ninth except the Tomb, and until the conclusion of this chapter I think he's very sure that no one can use the Tomb against him. So why put a decoy there?

I'm guessing this is a reference to whatever catastrophe happened just before the Resurrection and not, say, the bombs that BOE sent against John's ships?

Would being named after an Evanescence lyric really be any sillier than being named after an Eminem lyric? Honestly, it's probably an improvement in this particular case

So that's an interesting thing, actually - Wake's skeleton was almost certainly converted into a construct for snow leek farming/etc. on the Ninth, so it would have been perfectly human-shaped and mobile, it's not like her bones got buried in the ground or something. Earlier Harrow said that revenants want to inhabit something that's mobile - like a skeleton - or they get bored and leave. So why did she leave her perfectly mobile skeleton to go possess Gideon's sword? Did she only possess the sword when she found out it might leave the planet? What is the thanergy link between Wake's skeleton and the sword in the first place? Or was she just able to possess the sword because it belonged to Gideon?

After reading the entire chapter I'm still not sure what she knows now that she didn't know then. That the Tomb was opened 8 years ago and nothing much happened? I'm guessing she was in on this because she thought opening the Tomb would end the Nine Houses

So Mercy was somehow able to make sperm survive for 12 weeks, but couldn't make the ova last that long? I know thanergy is bad for reproduction, but this is kind of like how Hal 9000 doesn't have all the abilities of modern computers but can somehow beat every human at chess. Or who knows, maybe John's sperm is just special like that

There's something about this story, where Gideon was literally conceived and born just to die, not even properly named, her whole purpose was just to die so that someone else could achieve some end, and then that didn't happen and she was saved from that fate by Commander Wake's death, and then she grew up and independently decided that her whole purpose in life was to die for someone else anyway

Why does he do this? I theorized before that Pyrrha is stil around and he's kind of both of them, so do his eyes betray when he is Gideon versus Pyrrha too and he wants to hide that?

I'm absolutely dying to know exactly what kind of relationship these two(/three?) had/have. They had an affair and they do seem to like each other, but he killed her literally twice now and she very much tried to kill him with the whole incinerator thing. Actually, I mean, speaking of the incinerator incident, when he talked to Harrow after that, did he really think Wake was possessing Harrow? Did he not realize she was actually possessing Cytherea? I think he must have realized she was possessing Cytherea, because of his visits to her before that, but then after the incinerator thing he was talking to Harrow like she was Wake. But I guess Wake was then also in the River bubble doing the two-places at once thing

What Pyrrha died for? I mean, aside from the fact that I think Pyrrha might still be around, actually, wouldn't the official story be that Pyrrha died 10,000 years ago and not 19 years ago?

I love all of Gideon Nav's descriptions of Gideon the First: Gideon Classic, Gideon Senior, Gideon Prime, Gideon, original flavor

Is this the real reason why John seals himself up when they fight the resurrection beasts, so he doesn't bleed blood that could be used to open the Tomb?

So, the original plan was the Gideon's death would, by itself, undo the blood ward and then presumably Mercy or Augustine could come by later to undo all of the other wards? And what actually happened was that there was a thanergy bloom because of the deaths of the 200 children and then Gideon like, I don't know, scraped her knee outside the Tomb once and that undid the blood ward? And Harrow thought she must have figured it out herself somehow?

This is simultaneously so funny and also kind of gross. But the original Deus Apate, like I mean the original Greek one, was really just about distracting God and not about secretly harvesting his sperm to create a baby to bring about the apocalypse, no one needed to specifically seduce Zeus to get him to create babies with absolutely everyone. I thought it was an appropriate reference when it appeared earlier in the story because that was about distracting John, but it feels significantly less apropos here

Did Tamsyn Muir sit down and go, you know what would have been really cool? You know what would have been really great? It would have been just awesome if Darth Vader had cracked a dad joke at the end of Return of the Jedi, I'm so mad he didn't do that

Things that are still not resolved as of this chapter:

What does Gideon's eye color mean?

Why were Mercy and Augustine trying to open the Tomb?

[icebrooding]

STORY! THOUGHTS! (along with meta/fractal)

In chronological order as I go through;

"You're damn right Nephus, let us go in, guns blazing!"

I think its so cute baby kryptis are 'broodlings'. The adventures are pretty fun!

Love noticing new dialogues on-map!!!

Nephus telling Peitha to get behind us and her instantly running out into combat is perfect. She will make good friends with Trahearne in my fic.

Chapter 18 fucking destroyed me??

Like ok. Eparch terrified of Mordremoth? Scary shit. When you're this big of a threat but there is still The Bigger Fish...

Snargle books existing in Nayos (via thievery) made me wheeze.

Looking up the stairs and seeing the kryptis standing up the sides of it was so Good visually smh.

I joked earlier: 'what if Zakiros is empty'. not like this..... never like this...........

Going in That Room actually made me feel so... upset. The whole time I was going around freeing the essences I was just 'this is distressing. this is so, so upsetting'. I felt so oddly cold.

My theory that Eparch slaughtering that village was done purely out of nature and not out of malice, confirm. But on that note...

I still feel like there is more to it. I still think Isgarren had done something to Eparch. There is still something SUPER missing here. Their dynamic is shady to the very end.

I need to do a writeup on how Eparch was actually a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, obviously :/ /s

The horn and then the kryptis all standing down made the hairs on my arms stand on end lmfao

Confirmation that Febe was one of the other House leaders! Man, Nephus really was the only surviving one, huh... I assume Aurkus died at some point, anyway.

ISGARREN COMING IN AT THE LAST MOMENT LETS GOO. You did not get Midgarsormr'd, you scrungly prune of a creature.

Something about Eparch calling Peitha a 'princess' and then so specifically 'my blood' just makes me wonder if he was really her father and not her uncle. IDK, just thoughts for my brain...... its probably not but i love Thinking

Eparch's entire last segment really does make me think he was the 'well-intentioned extremist' that got extremely lost/messed up along the way. With all the dialogue about Nayos being so hard to survive in and how resources are so scarce... Eugh. He was a power-hungry tyrant who did such horrible things but the memories from his PoV give him extra depth that I can feel sympathy toward.

I feel like I need to write some kind of Commander/Nephus/Zantharon fic.

So many fic ideas. SO MANY IDEAS FOR WILDFLOWERS HNGH.

and since i just did the meta-

SPIDER EPARCH REAL. I WANTED SO BAD FOR HIM TO HAVE A FUCKED UP SPIDER FORM. YES.

FRACTAL!

GOD FUCKING WOW I CANT BELIEVE THE SAME DUDE THAT KILLED ISGARREN'S GF ALMOST KILLED HIM TOO :)))

deimos/cerus fight was a whew as a 3man team. i love the constant chaos of their mechanics all going off and giving me trauma like you'd never believe! oil! OIL! OIL!!!

eparch.... hah. that was not gonna happen lmfao. need to get our resident Fourth Man and then I think we'll be okay tho.

[axolator]

"Script"-A-Day #-7 (Finale): Gary Cooper, Sheriff by emma

How many Zombuuls? Ideally, zero

Featured characters: Alchemist, Scarlet Woman, Zombuul

Fabled characters: Sentinel, Bootlegger

The Bootlegger rules are as follows:

When the Hatter dies, the Demon may choose to become a Minion & a Minion may choose to become a Demon (also called "Chaos Hatter")

Lil' Monsta cannot start in play & may only be selected by the Hatter if at least 2 Zombuuls are pretending to be dead.

The Plague Doctor can only give the Storyteller the Scarlet Woman ability.

Jinxes:

Scarlet Woman / Plague Doctor: If the Plague Doctor dies [and the ST would gain the Scarlet Woman ability], a living Minion gains the Scarlet Woman ability in addition to their own ability, and learns this.

Evil Twin / Plague Doctor: The Storyteller cannot gain the Evil Twin ability if the Plague Doctor dies.

Given the Bootlegger rule, this jinx will never be relevant.

Marionette / Lil’ Monsta: The Marionette neighbors a Minion, not the Demon. The Marionette is not woken to choose who takes the Lil' Monsta token, and does not learn they are the Marionette if they have the Lil' Monsta token.

Marionette / Plague Doctor: If the Demon has a neighbor who is alive and a Townsfolk or Outsider when the Plague Doctor dies, that player becomes an evil Marionette. If there is already an extra evil player, this does not happen.

Given the Bootlegger rule, this jinx will never be relevant.

Lil’ Monsta / Scarlet Woman: If there are 5 or more players alive and the player holding the Lil' Monsta token dies, the Scarlet Woman is given the Lil' Monsta token tonight.

The babysitting phase is also skipped tonight (if relevant).

Lil’ Monsta / Hatter: If a Demon chooses Lil' Monsta, they also choose a Minion to become and babysit Lil' Monsta tonight.

Legion / Hatter: If the Hatter dies and Legion is in play, nothing happens. If the Hatter dies and an evil player chooses Legion, all current evil players become Legion.

Writeup under the cut!

Gary Cooper, Sheriff isn't just a script. Gary Cooper is a masterpiece. The two shenanigans this script is built around carry this script beyond a mere "funny-haha" and into the meme it is today. The first shenanigan it revolves around is around the Scarlet Woman and Zombuul — if the Zombuul fake-dies, the Scarlet Woman becomes the Zombuul, resulting in 2 active Demons from then on (until one gets killed). Obviously, an Alchemist-Scarlet Woman can do this, too, and thus become a good Zombuul — or instead become a good Legion when the first Legion dies, letting the good team know just what's going on, but also having to die at some point for the good team to win. The second shenanigan concerns the Professor, Cannibal, and all the different ways to recycle the Professor ability, allowing the good team to infinitely loop resurrections — evil has little if any counterplay to this strategy.

All that to say, if you do decide to run this script, make it an Atheist game. Please. If, for some reason, you don't, then general bagbuilding principles apply: Fool, Tea Lady, Professor, and everything that can gain those abilities can end up hard confirmed, so dial the amount hard confirmation back so the evil team doesn't suffer. Zombuul + SW isn't a lot of kill power by itself (even if it is double what a solo Zombuul gets), so consider a Gossip or killing Amnesiac to help speed up the game if you don't end up putting in a Scarlet.

Some notes:

If you really want things to be good, the Pixie should see the Alchemist token, then get the Alch-SW ability once the Alch-SW-turned-Zombuul dies the first time. Waiter, waiter, more Zombuuls please!

Remember that a SC-turned-Demon learns of a living Marionette, since "The Demon knows who you are" is a constant check.

If the Slayer shoots the Recluse who dies, you can register the Recluse as a Demon to the Scarlet Woman (or Alch-SW), turning them into whatever Demon the Recluse registered as. It's hilarious, would recommend.

If you want, you can register the Recluse as the Demon for the purposes of placing a Marionette. I'd say to consider before you do this, but if you're putting an evil team in a game of Gary Cooper then something has gone wrong already, so do whatever.

And... honestly, that's about it. Thank you to everyone for putting up with me while I shitposted this April Fools. Expect a normal Script-A-Day this Friday, and for me to resume the Garden of Djinn meme soon! <3

Oh, and Jimothy ran this game! I did not. Whether I've actually run a game of Gary Cooper is a question left for the readers to answer in the reblogs — I know a couple of my followers who may or may not have been in a GC-adjacent game I may or may not have run.

[decepti-thots]

since almost none of the LL arcs made it through to the second round i don't think it's unfair to point out here what i said to lily while round one was going on: the main thing that doing the writeups in the bracket that stood out to me was. it was really hard to do proper summaries of the LL arcs the way i did for most of he MTMTE arcs?

i told them that the one that really made me go 'ah okay' was how. ok, so it was genuinely coincidental that elegant chaos and dissolution were matched up in round one as the two 'functionist arcs', i did not do that on purpose, i was trying to do a thing where round one was not gonna have any hard matchups based on my qualitative knowledge of what is and isn't beloved in the fandom, so the good shit was saved for later rounds, and it shook out that way. but like. i could summarise what elegant chaos was 'about' in a way that would jog the memory very quickly for anyone who hadn't read the comic in a hot second, because i didn't need to lean on the plot but the core theme. 'it's the time travel arc with a trolley problem for our characters at its core', boom, done. and i couldn't do that for dissolution! it is seven issues long, and i can tell you the 'plot', but i couldn't easily tell you... what that arc is. about. there is a division between its ostensible themes and the events that happen. same with the nautica-memory-loss arc. same with crucible! the LL arcs, i consistently struggled to briefly summarise not plot events but... what is it 'about'.

and i think that's why LL #25 made it through where other lost light stories didn't; i have my issues with it, but as with the best MTMTE arcs, i know what it's about. LL struggles to regain the narrative coherency most of MTMTE had where 'theme' and 'plot points' are mostly in sync, and a lot of that is as much to do with the simple fact that demanding a comic relaunch itself to have a #1 is a fucking stupid thing to do, tbh. even as i am more critical of later MTMTE arcs at times, the fact is that the loss of momentum caused by that editorial decision is not something you can just write yourself out of and editorial decisions deserve a chunk of the blame. comics industry, get your shit together. but i do think that LL #25, in being this epilogue that insists upon being its own thing, works to try and recover some of that thematic drive. similarly, i think the mederi arc is the closest LL comes to regaining that synergy between theme and 'plot', and lo, it came the closest as major arcs go to putting up a fight. anyway the moral of the story is that constant enforced relaunches are VERY DUMB. not that i think not having it would have magically fixed EVERY problem, but. seriously. oh my god. bane of the industry.