#discovered i kind of liked the old version again but i had lost it

[inadequate-nefelibata]

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in • Anthem by Leonard Cohen

Allison McRoberts and Patty O'Connor KEVIN CAN F*** HIMSELF (2021)

[angelkitty54]

Sonic Prime AU time! (coz this has been everywhere in the last month or so.) Basically just some ideas I had for shatterverse versions of Sonic and Shadow, set after the end of the series.

New Yoke City: Based on the idea in SA2 where it's kinda implied Sonic was also made on the Ark like Shadow (which is never brought up again). Basically Nine stumbles across a pod that contains the New Yoke version of Sonic (Spirit) and excitedly wakes him up. However he quickly finds that this is not the Sonic he met before; Spirit has never been out of his bio-tank thingy before, he is basically a newborn in a full grown body, with the mentality of a newborn too. Spirit is a wide-eyed innocent child, sweet, kind and trusting, a stark contrast to the world around him and the people in it. Nine is having a hard time adjusting, especially since Spirit's keeps chewing on all his power cables. He is also constantly being accused of having cloned Sonic. Which he totally did not! He found this Sonic fair and square thank you very much!

Meanwhile, having lost their power source, the Chaos Council has lost a lot of ground to the resistance. In searching for new power sources and weapons, they discover Project Umbra (three guess who this is). Umbra leans a little more into his alien side than Shadow does, he is also less of an angsty teen and more of a scared, grieving child lashing out at a world that hurt him. He agrees to work for the council only due to the distant family connection, but he doesn't particularly like them or care about their goals. He just wants to see the world burn. Of course, things change when he finds out his baby brother survives the raid on the Ark. Tho he is not particularly happy about this strange fox hanging around, acting all buddy buddy with Umbra's brother. Ugh, the nerve of that guy!

Boscage Maze: Got inspiration from movies like Nausicaa and Origin: Spirits of the Past. So the instead of the prism, the massive jungle was actually caused by a bio-experiment gone wrong which set off an apocalypse. There are effectively three groups of survivors, those that escaped into space (mainly GUN people), those that survived on the surface (whose descendants became groups like the scavengers) that live more or less in harmony with the jungle, and those that made it into underground shelters and were put into stasis chambers where they have slept for several hundred years. The latter two group are often at odds with each other, one wanting their old world back, the other wanting the jungle to stay as is. Dr Nightshade Robotnik and his assistant, Sunny, are among the stasis group.

In this universe Gerald went down the road of cybernetics as well as genetic engineering when creating his Ultimate Lifeform, Nightshade. Their Maria got to live her life to it's fullest, becoming a scientist like her grandfather. Nightshade also dedicated his life to science, wanting to follow Maria's dreams of making the world a better place, even after she passed away. Sunny benefited from their research, as it's thanks to their work into cybernetics that he is able to walk (and run) again. Upon waking in the post-apocalyptic world, Dr Nightshade has made it his mission to find out what caused the plants to grow out of control and hopefully reverse the effects. Sunny, someone who sees the benefits of both the old and new world, hopes that he can help the good Doctor find balance between the natural and mechanized worlds. Meanwhile GUN is up to something rather suspicious up there in space...

No Place Sea: Yay pirate AU!! Honestly didn't have a lot of ideas beyond just pirates tho... Shadow is Captain Blackheart and is like super duper cursed. He is captain of a ghost ship, whose crew is also super cursed and/or undead. All save a single member, his navigator Tempest (Sonic), who is immune to the effects curses due to him being half siren. Tempest does not speak much as his voice is imbued with the charming power of a siren, which he lacks much control over. He has a knack for reading the winds and currents making him an ideal navigator in treacherous waters. He is both drawn to and fears the water, as something in those dark depths keeps calling to him, eager to drag him down down down into darkness... However he can't bring himself to stay away despite the danger, and luckily whatever is hunting him seems to steer clear of the ghost ship. In exchange for shelter aboard his ship, Tempest is helping Blackheart track down and decode ancient sea charts that will lead them to a great treasure he's been hunting. One said to be able to grant wishes: the chaos emeralds!

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮(they’ve gained perspective! They’re gonna talk it through and come out of this stronger! Love that for them!)

🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟(A lion attack?!??!? Poor chris my sweet baby i just want that child safe!)

🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼(very fascinating setup im intrigued!)

36 for 🔮 (HELL YEAH THEY ARE):

---

“I’m sorry I didn’t just explain that earlier,” Bobby says. “I’m sorry I let you think… Well, I don’t exactly know what you thought but obviously it hurt you.”

Buck shakes his head. “I forgive you.”

So easily. His anger burns so bright when he is angry. His forgiveness comes so readily. Bobby’s not sure if he’s worthy of it. 

“Thank you, Buck.” 

“You should tell me, though,” Buck says. “If it happens again.”

Bobby sighs. “Buck…”

“Look, I get it,” Buck interrupts. “I saw you, back then. I know you struggle to talk about some of it. I’m not asking for that. I’m just saying, you can tell me, so I can be there for you.”

“That’s not your job,” Bobby tells him. 

“Well you can’t have it both ways,” Buck protests. “I want it to be my job, Bobby. I’m not actually a kid.” 

Damn it. That’s… Well, that’s completely solid logic that Bobby can’t refute without being unfair. Oh, he hates that. 

He thinks back to the day of the funeral. What Buck must have seen of him. A child who hated himself, who was grieving, who had just discovered that alcohol made that go away. Who was so angry and scared and alone. Here Buck is still. Just like Athena has seen the worst of him, and remained. Strangely enough, Bobby thinks back to that afternoon, catatonic in his childhood bedroom, and although he knows he was alone, he has the memory of a warm hand on his shoulder. He’s never remembered that before. 

---

75 for 🧟 (Yesssss scary times!):

---

Buck knows that he’s hiding. 

Who wouldn’t? He feels like a little kid put on time out. Not that there’s been any actual punishment for him, aside from the radio being taken away. Hen has made it clear no one is going to hold it against him. I understand why you did it, she’d said. But still. He’s embarrassed. He feels foolish. Everyone thinks it was a desperate, futile attempt at something he will never accomplish. Everyone thinks Maddie is just another person he’s lost for good. 

So Buck is hiding in his room. 

He’s reading. He has so much to read, after all. He’s been going through the nonfiction books topic by topic. Right now he’s on music. Just anything the library has. He’s reading a biography of Fela Kuti, which is kind of blowing his mind. He knew nothing at all about him before picking up the book. He had to see if the library had any CDs of his music, which it does! He’s playing it on an old boom box. 

Saxophone filling his ears, knowledge transferring from page to Buck’s brain like a scanner, Buck can feel himself starting to calm down. He’s discovered learning is a bit meditative for him. He never did well in school. Never thought he was smart. Now he thinks he might just learn differently. Karen says so, anyway. She says he’s “probably brilliant, actually.” First person to say that, no doubt. It’s a shame, Buck thinks. He had to discover this thirst for knowledge at the end of the world. He’s not sure there will ever be new books. He’s not sure the internet will ever come back. He mourns a version of himself that might have thrived, with the right support. 

Laying on his mattress, music loud, book hovering above his face, Buck almost doesn’t hear the knock on his door. He’s pretty absorbed. The knock comes once, twice, and finally a third time before Buck catches it. 

“Uh, come in!” Buck calls. 

The door opens and Bobby steps in. 

Fuck. 

Buck sits up. He puts the book down, open, spine up. 

“Oh. Hi, Bobby.”

Bobby looks distraught. Buck worries he’s still pissed. He worries that he’s thought more about it, and has come to chew Buck out some more. 

He doesn’t.

“Buck, I… I don’t know how to explain…”

“What?” Buck asks. His spine goes rigid. “What’s happened? Is everyone okay?”

He thought Athena’s daughter was improving! 

“Everyone’s fine. Relatively.” Bobby says. “Buck, I’m sorry… I…”

“Bobby, what?” Buck begs. 

“There are people here for you.” Bobby says. “Looking for you.”

Buck goes numb. “Wh-what?”

“One of them says she’s your sister.”

“M-Maddie?” Buck asks, not really believing it. Didn’t everyone imply it was never going to happen?

---

24 for 🔼 (Thank you!):

---

 “But you don’t live in our house.”

Shannon winces a little. “No, Chris. I don’t.”

“So where will the baby live?”

“We still have a while to figure that out.” Eddie tries to move away from this topic. 

“Are you going to live in our house?” Chris asks. 

“I don’t think so, Christopher,” Shannon says quietly. 

Christopher’s face starts to go a little red. 

“Chris,” Eddie says. “I know you have a lot of questions-”

“No, I don’t want it.” Chris interrupts.

“What?” Shannon asks. 

“I don’t want the baby.” Chris says. “I don’t want a brother or sister.”

Eddie sighs. Fuck. He’d been too young to feel this way about Sophia, but he certainly had his reservations about Adriana. He was just a little younger than Chris when his mom told him about her third pregnancy.

[cy-cyborg]

Ok so the saga with my old PC continues and is only fueling my desire to get back into fanfiction lol because I found all of the files from my attempt at making a legend of spyro fan-game! I honestly thought they were lost, I'm so excited to see all this stuff again! This was the "logo" for the game (I know its nearly unreadable lol, so it says "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of The Past". 14/15 year old me didn't seem to care much for readability, I think I'd just discovered photoshop's layer effects lol)

Here's a bunch of random stuff I found.

I'm defiantly going to do a redraw of that last one at some point. That was like, THE thing I remember being super proud of when I first did it. I think it was going to be part of the trailer my now-partner was putting together for the game lol.

Actually, a lot of these were actually just frames from animations, but either the files are either just corrupted, or high school me didn't know how to set fps and resolution properly in the output so I got a headache trying to watch them lol. It's probably the second one honestly. Also I remember my old laptop wasn't able to play back the animation because it would lag so much, so I just had to kind of...guess at timing, and that went about as well as you'd expect. It didn't help that blender used to have this bug where your audio would move around your timeline so it really was just random guessing. I'm amazed anything got done at all, let alone how far we actually got (that is to say, not far at all but we had something playable at least).

I also found the demo files and footage of the "game" running (running at 12fps but running)! I'm curious if they still work, I'll have to download an older version of blender to test them out!

There's actually a lot more but actually finding it is proving to be quite a challenge since this laptop seems to be the digital equivalent of an ADHD "doom box" - meaning nothing is sorted into folders that make even a remote lick of sense to me, it's all just kind of thrown in together lmao.

I wanted to post these though because even though I don't really do 3D stuff anymore, It still made me really happy to see how much progress I've made over the years and how far I've come. Also a few folks who worked on this project with me back on Deviantart have started finding me lol, so in case there's anyone else out there, hello! I'm not dead, I'm still around, I'm just a lot more (openly) queer now lmao.

Image descriptions:

[ID 1: A game title that reads "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of the Past". The two lines, "the legend of" and "shadows of the past" are written in dark purple text. The purple material is supposed to look like liquid, but instead just looks hard to read. "Cynder" is writen in black, 3D text with red outlines, with the exception of the C. The "c" is modeled as a black tube instead of in a blocky style like the rest of the letters. The inside of the C has a red underbelly, and the bottom of the C ends in a tail, resembling Cynder's from the Legend of Spyro Series. There are 3 white spikes at the top of the C. /end ID]

[ID 2: a 3d render of 4 dragons around a christmas tree. A black dragon at the front, Cynder, is using her tail to hang tinsel, a pruple dragon, Spyro, on the left is reaching up into the branches of the tree. A blue dragon, Ignitus, is hovering behind the tree, his paws outstretched, implying he is placing the glowing star at the top. On his head is a silver dragon, Zerali, balancing on his horns. behind them is a series of floating islands. /End ID]

[ID 3: A render of Cynder with a darker colour pallet than the previous image and glowing yellow eyes, snarling at the camera, guarding a black gem. The sky in the background is blood red and the terrain is flat and barren. /End ID]

[ID 4: A render of an incomplete model of Terrador, a green dragon with brown horns and rocky shoulder decorations. He has no underbelly or wings. /end ID]

[ID 5: A render of a fan character named ekkosel, a blue, anthropomorphic dragonfly with an unsettling, uncanny face and green wings, T-posing. Her green wings are a blur /End ID]

[ID 6: two sketches of a anthropomorphic cheetah heads. One has long ears like a lynx and is labeled DotD design, the other has small, rounded ears like a cheetah usually has, labled TLoC design. /end ID]

[ID 7: A render of Zerali, the silver dragon from the second image, and ekkosel, from the 5th, playing together. In this image, we can see Zerali has a pinky-purple underbelly and shiny gold horns.]

[ID 8: A rendered scene showing a close up of blue ignitus with his eyes closed. He appears to be talking to Cynder, who is in the background, but blurry. The game's logo is visible in the bottom left of the image. /end ID]

[cheezyhamster]

Doodle of Albatross and his granddaughter

Granddaughter is an OC! One of my first, in fact!

Biiiig infodump under cut

Her name is Sapphire, accidentally sharing the name of Albatross's sister

My first iteration of her was an Animus princess that had universe-jumping abilities/discovered that her magic went beyond the reaches of her reality (Had this idea so that she could be an OC in any fandom/become a sona). This idea was probably when I was roughly 10-11. She was childish and stubborn.

In this iteration she discovered that she could "teleport" during the Seawing Massacre, wishing that she was anywhere safe as a knife sent by Albatross was stabbing her in the face (it didn't go very deep)

She looked something like this afterwards (I never made a reference :/):

As I used her more often I realized that I had no idea what her personality was and how she dealt with her abilities

I then decided that she eventually became cold and manipulative, treating the inhabitants in each universe as playthings, seeing how things turned out if she did this or that a specific way, before getting bored and moving on.

This version of Sapphire kind of disappeared when I started working on developing a Wings of Fire/Hunger Games-esque AU called the Flare Trials, where dragons in districts had their wings removed at hatching so as to leave them less able to revolt and fight the winged dragons of the Capitol. Tributes and the Games were initially developed as a means to both entertain dragons in the Capitol and incite fear and hopelessness in district dragons in watching young dragons fight to the death without any opportunity for a dragonet to survive. Eventually it was amended so that one district of dragonets could "win" and be granted wings and fame. Sapphire came in because she was the protagonist and won. Almost every other WoF OC I have came from this AU

Animus "Canon" Sapphire and weak Flare Trials Sapphire kind of merged for a while, but when I stopped working on the AU Animus Sapphire became separate again, though I didn't do anything with her until pretty much just now bc I fell into a Harry Potter phase (oof) and then into the OMORI phase I'm in now.

As I drew the doodle with Albatross today I had a thought of a version of Sapphire that could possibly be more solid? Sapphire looked up to Albatross heavily, aspiring to be just like him and was unwaveringly supportive and loyal to him. Albatross eventually opened up to Sapphire about how he was treated, confiding in her about how he is unappreciated and generally abused by his family (Queen Lagoon). Sapphire responded with righteous anger towards her grandmother, insisting that Albatross shouldn't let everyone bully him anymore. This inadvertently leads to the massacre. Sometime in between, however, Albatross, planning out the massacre, gives Sapphire Animus magic mostly experimentally, intending for her to help in the massacre and to aid in killing her brother (Fathom), Albatross's replacement (threat). Unfortunately for him, Sapphire is horrified by his plan and refuses to go along with his commands during the massacre, trying to dissuade Albatross before eventually fleeing after he lost patience with her and sent a knife flying into her face as she commanded her crown to keep her alive as fast as she could, though she still ended up scarred after her brush with death. Afterwards, she lived undercover, the crown she bore keeping her alive indefinitely. I don't have much else of an idea right now but uhh Darkstalker sized Seawing that is old as dirt and wrinkly 😁

Thanks for reading this infodump. As is evidenced, I love talking about my OCs! (All of them)

Please ask me about them or tell me to stop idk

[writer-of-random-things]

So...Guess who rewrote a Rudyard Kipling poem to make it about ghosts instead of gods?

Yes, it's me. Yes, I know I'm insane. Leave me alone

For the Dead Boy Detectives fandom, because it really looks like you guys need it right now. Here's my version of 'The Sack of the Gods':

Strangers drawn from the ends of the earth, lonely and frightened we are; I was the guardian of solitude, and he the remnants of a dying star. In the shadow of the world that deprived us of our glow, Quietly hand in hand we walked away, many years ago. The ghosts in the attic are here to stay, in the corners of our minds Made up of jagged memories and lost hopes, secrets we fear to find And as the miserable and fallen clamor to be set free We remain forever as we are, trapped in the midst of memories Dust of the past under our feet, gloating of danger above-- Still we help and still we hope, cradling purpose like a dove. Worlds upon worlds we discovered and kept, every 'goodbye' and 'hello': With heavy hearts we walked away, many years ago. We are forgiven as we forgive, all those wounds dark and deep As we guide others to the Lap of Time, the harbor of eternal sleep. We are forgiven as we forgive, all those old wounds that bleed We help and hope and hide away, escaping from Death's heed. He is the star I marked for my own, from the life we paved together By my side through the sands of time, we promised each other forever Met in a heartless world where we supplied each other's glow, We walked away broken but kind, many years ago. They will come back--come back again, as long as the red earth rolls. He never wasted a leaf or tree. Do you think he would squander souls?

Rationale for the changes I made under the cut (and an assurance that this is, in fact, within the reaches of copyright law)

'The Sack of the Gods' first came to my attention when Death says it in Episode 1; it's the perfect poem for Death (I actually thought of Discworld Death when I first heard it) but as beautiful as it was, I always thought the third stanza "They are forgiven as they forgive..." and the last two lines "They will come back--come back again..." were more gentle and tender as compared to the sweeping/epic scale of the rest of the poem and its connotations "hewing our way to Valhalla", etc.

So, in the light of the fandom quoting it after cancellation, I decided to stop being a fandom lurker and pay homage by taking Kipling's poem about grand reincarnation and making it more personal. Less about gods, more about ghosts. In 'ghosts' I mean the dead boys, yes, but also the ghosts of our past and of our minds. I wanted to make it about humanity, because at the end of the day, that's what Dead Boy Detectives is about. I kept the structure of the poem (and in the case of the third stanza, the rhyme scheme) and directly quoted the last two lines, but I tried to change the meaning to be more gentle, quiet, and kind, but still keeping with the spirit of the original.

"I was the guardian of solitude, and he the remnants of a dying star" refers to the first meeting between Charles and Edwin; in the second stanza, "miserable and fallen" refer to ghosts with unfinished business that come to the Agency. For the third stanza I changed the "They are forgiven..." to "We are forgiven..." because it sounded more collective and representative of the Agency's mission statement: the cases they solve matter, because theirs didn't. In finding closure for others, they are also doing so for themselves. The fourth stanza is about the boys--no explanation needed. I kept the last two lines the same because they were too beautiful to change.

So there you have it. Technically this is a pastiche. Or fanfiction. Look, I changed the original intent of the poem and didn't keep more than two lines exactly the same, so I should be good under copyright law (I daresay nobody cares whether this abides by copyright law or not but...uh I had to make sure).

[mothstache]

It seems that it's been a while since you posted about the Haltmanns, but I love your versions of them, shark-ness and all! Now I'm kind of wondering about Andrea, Susie's mom and Max's wife. I know that she's dead and that she was the species of the Mages (which is a big part of why Susie lacks a good chunk of her father's fabulous shark-ness), but what was she like? How did Max leave his planet and find her? What happened to her and did Susie know her well? Well, I mean, judging by one of my favorite bits of art by you (which I think might be about Andrea's death), I get the feeling she didn't and her dad did not take it well.

Poor Max and Susie :( 💔

Sorry about the wait! Been preoccupied with life and the asks have been building up. I am happy to talk about this family again though, broken as they may be.

Andrea was initially just another technician that worked beside Max Haltmann during his time supplying the GSA. The two of them got along very well, they generally had very alike thought processes and ways of problem-solving. Andrea's childhood was a lot like Max's too - despite having come from a planet in another part of the Galaxy she grew up without a stable family life and isolated from her peers. The two came to bond over shared experiences and started a close relationship. They married soon after the collapse of the GSA, but had to move to one of the smaller planets in the area to briefly hide from any forces of NME, since they would be executed if caught by them bc they were allied with the GSA. This was around the time Haltmann would take up the role as the CEO of his late father's smaller company at the time. The brilliant inventor at heart he is, he quickly started turning the company into a galaxy wide corporation by supplying products to planets in need, Andrea at his side the entire way.

Andrea herself was an absolute genius - despite Max's role as CEO he would credit her just as much with his success, if not more so. She and him would work on projects for hours on end, and go on frequent expeditions to remote, desolated planets to search for old, abandoned technology. One of these trips was when they uncovered the blueprints and broken parts of STAR DREAM. As fate would have it, this was their next big project - to get it up and running again.

Around this time (when they started repairing Star Dream) was when Max and Andrea discovered they were expecting a child. They were both overjoyed beyond belief, and excited to bring a new little inventor into the world. Since Max was carrying their baby, he reluctantly had to stop going on remote trips for his and the pup's safety. Andrea, being the head of the teams going to these remote planets, wasn't able to stay behind. Max found himself missing her quite a bit.

In the weeks leading up to the pup's birth, Max begged Andrea to stay behind just till they were born. As much as she wanted to, she insisted she couldn't leave her exploration team to fend for themselves, and promised this would be the last time she left for now. She departed to Lavadom, an unstable volcanic planet rumored to be littered with parts of ancient ships - as well as nests of invasive Sphere Doomers.

After a reported eruption, rescue missions were sent to Lavadom. No bodies were recovered.

Susie was born a few weeks later. She was named after one of Andrea's suggestions. When Max held her for the first time, he made two promises, to himself, to Susie, and to Andrea. That Star Dream, his and Andrea's work, WOULD see completion - and that he would protect Susie with his life. He wouldn't lose her like he lost Andrea.

As we all know, one of those promises was broken. And in the end, Max Haltmann himself was lost.

[beesmygod]

BLOODBORNE LORE Q+A PART 7: CAINHURST RAID, CARYLL AND THE RUNES, LEAVING BYRGENWERTH

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6 (start of lore dump)

---

my new adhd medication is working too good.

BLOCK #LONG POST/ TO NOT SEE THESE HUGE POSTS

i will post pure speculation in italics and important nouns in bold. these are created with the intent to be enjoyed by fans and non-fans.

translation source

---

from the jump i'm going to add an editor's note that from this point on the timeline is muddled, confusing, vague and occasionally contradictory. people have moved heaven and earth trying to make sense of the inconsistencies, but the truth of the matter is that bloodborne suffered the fromsoft late game curse and was chopped up beyond recognition at the 11th hour for whatever internal development reason. whats interesting to me is the stuff they chose to keep that's complete and utter chaff. there are extremely rare items that do literally nothing but sit in your inventory, or quests that are completely pointless. enemies appear where they "shouldn't" and it difficult to tell if they are trying to impart some kind of information or if we're just getting dragon-assed in lost izalith again. its very odd and i think thats what draws people back again and again. such as....me......

i can give you overviews of these events in the approximate order that they happened but there is no guarantee that they happened exactly in this order or in this fashion.

---

from this point on, there will be a distinct delineation between "old hunters" and "hunters". old hunters are from the time of byrgenwerth and have survived into the modern day as a result of old blood injections or can be summoned from the hunter's nightmare using the old hunter bell. a distinct characteristic of old hunters is that they no longer dream (the bell description reads: "The old hunters, who have long passed from the dream[...]"). notable old hunters include: gascoigne, alfred, djura, ludwig, gehrman, and maria.

regular ass hunters are new on the scene and usually belong to a recently established institution such as the healing church, school of mensis, or the choir. or they might just be common schlubs who joined the hunt as part of the neighborhood watch. [points at the camera] that's you. eventually. not yet.

---

as perfect proof of what i'm talking about with regards to contradictory timelines and being chopped to bits: an unknown time ago, martyr logarius and a band of executioners traveled to cainhurst castle and slaughtered the inhabitants, the dreaded vilebloods. the inciting incident (or so says alfred, a heavily biased source as hes the only executioner in the game, uh, with lines anyway) was an unknown scholar who "betrayed his fellows at Byrgenwerth and brought forbidden blood back with him to Cainhurst Castle". the blood "threaten[s] the purity of the Church's blood healing" although it's not explained how or what the fuck they're talking about. according to alfred, logarius stayed behind to prevent the undying and unkillable queen from regaining power.

i do not know when this takes place. cainhurst royals were "long-time imbibers of blood" who already had a system to deal with the beast plague, implying they doing blood before blood was cool. but eventually ludwig uses the executioner uniform as the basis for his church hunters and it features the modern edition of the hunter's mark (as opposed to the older versions that you can see in this concept art and in chalice dungeons), so it had to be during or before ludwig's time. there are runes associated with both parties that were discovered by a byrgenwerth scholar, so it at least happened during or after their lifetime.

so its kind of vaguely around this time even though they talk about it like it happened 1000 years ago. since this is one of the least comprehensible story-lines of the game, we won't worry about it too much right now.

i need an image to break this up so check out the most fucked up, non-snake related map in the game:

for a company known for its cohesive maps, this is a fucking insane series of choices. i understand annalise needs to be trapped but what the fuck is this room. why is it up here. why is it magic. why is it like a hoarders nest full of the same 4 statues found literally everywhere on this map. this truly is the most mysterious game.

everyone and their mother has a completely baseless and improbable theory about who the culprit was or if there even WAS a rat at byrgenwerth- so of course so do i. let me work my way over there.

---

whether due to an ideological difference or the whole fishing hamlet genocide thing, laurence and several of the hunters left byrgenwerth with the intent of researching "the old blood" from the labyrinth. the miraculous healing powers were too enticing for laurence to ignore, but willem was steadfast in his belief that humanity was not yet ready to reckon with whatever it was that was happening here - at least, not without elevating themselves to the same level as those in the "cosmos". his distaste for use of the blood is mentioned off-hand in the rune workshop tool description.

caryll runes side note for newbies: caryll runes are a gameplay mechanic that give you buffs you can switch in and out by using an iron brand on your consciousness. the runes themselves are transcriptions of "the inhuman utterings of the Great Ones". all but a handful of the runes were discovered/transcribed by runesmith caryll and some were explicitly secret ones.

almost nothing is known about caryll except they were a student of byrgenwerth. the workshop tool named for them is found on a dead hunter tied to a chair as the reward for the witch of hemwick fight. people will try to tell you that this schmuck is caryll but that's fucking stupid. caryll was not a hunter and there's no reason why caryll would have the means or motive to pilfer their own tool from the hunter's dream. i dont know why this guy has it. maybe hes just an asshole and stole it from the dream to be a dick. who knows. hes just griefing us lol

all three translations agree that caryll runes "do not rely" on using blood, so its significant when they DO start using blood in the runes. one could read this as indication of caryll's transition from byrgenwerth to the healing church to follow laurence over willem. nearly all of the covenant related runes and the runes relating to oedon are bleeding or "contain a nuance of Blood", as it says in the corruption rune used by the vilebloods.

the executioners have a rune too, "radiance", which is unusual for its description specifying that caryll had already discovered the rune by the time the executioners adopted it as their own. there is no mention of this on the "corruption" page, nor on the remaining covenant runes discovered by caryll.

if cainhurst were to alert their subjects of the already well-known beast plague caused by the miraculous healing blood, the church's newly established grasp on the populace would crumble. if cainhurst could keep the beasts in check, why couldn't they? they already did, after all, in the labyrinth. with the vilebloods gone (or at least, dealt with), the church has unilateral control of the ministration process to the point where alfred, an old hunter, does not understand it in the least. i wonder if a certain byrgenwerth educated runesmith was invited to castle cainhurst or traveled on their own, only to discover during the runemaking process that the "old blood" from the labyrinth and the blood in the veins of the royals were one and the same.

---

"eyes on the inside" is a cutesy way of describing "insight", but the byrgenwerth system for deriving said insight necessitated the gruesome acts at the fishing village to obtain an eye-ridden cord, or at the very least, the parasitic creatures and slugs aligned to the arcane found in the village and bodies of the fishing village. willem hoped the cord would elevate his mind, and by extension himself, into a great one.

if we do some reading between the lines on the description for the "spark hunter badge", the description of "a style of inquiry that [...] closely followed the methodology of Byrgenwerth" is almost certainly "expose yourself to it" or "use living specimens" based on, well, everything and their protegees do. its not clear if willem ever actually got the cord; it only says he "sought" it. but he did, at least take part in and shape the byrgenwerth focus of learning away from blood and toward developing eyes on the inside. by putting slugs in your fucking head.

someone on reddit pointed out that the brainsucker enemies are kos parasites living inside the stitched up skulls of...people? pthumerians? i would argue pthumerians due to the fact that these enemies replace the generic pthumerian enemies in a chalice dungeon much later.

we can talk about byrgenwerth's results and fate later. because next time, the healing church is established.

---

i cannot believe how long this shit is. kudos if you read it i guess. if nothing else it gets this out of my head, forever.

[anniebear-92]

Could u do all might having a daughter which he neglects?

Of course I can! That is an interesting ask!

I honestly see All Might being a parent could go two ways, either the child would feel extremely neglected and in the biggest shadow ever or he would be the most loving father ever based on his interactions with his students. If anyone wants to read one of how I think All Might would be as an actual dad? Let me know :)

Warnings: SFW, talks of depression, sadness and divorce. All Might is a shit dad. Her last name is Yagi because she is All Might's daughter.

She stared at the statue before her, darkness of the shadow surrounded her like the hug she rarely got. The figure envisioned by the artist continuously showed that big smile similar to her own if anyone was privy to see it.

The plaque at the base read a blurb about "The Symbol of Peace." How great this man is and was to this day. What about the people he had to step on to get to this place? To have his status in the middle of a shopping square?

Someone like, you.

His own flesh and blood that rarely got a phone call but on birthdays or Holidays. Even then she could hardly remember the last birthday he HAD called on. It was always a quick "How you doing kiddo?" or "I just called quick to say Happy birthday."

He was always quick to call and just as quick to disconnect the line because "Duty calls," Before you could even tell him about the great gift your mother always got you. Unlike your absent father your mother was always there, quick with a tissue or shoulder for your falling tears. A band-aid for the scrape you had gotten, cake to make you feel better, kind words and exciting stories before bedtime.

Not from him.

The day your doctor told the happy couple their daughter was quirkless was the first of many, those ocean blue eyes you shared with the man gave you that look of pity. That perpetual look that you were something to be protected, fragile, nothing. How can a quirkless person be a hero?

It had been the first day he stopped coming home at night, returning your mother's calls asking when he'd be home for dinner. Justice was always the answer. Cold nights in a bed alone, her seven year old daughter crawling in her lap to wipe the tears from her mother's cheeks.

Finally your mother had enough, the stack of papers from her lawyer were left on the table indicated he was going to be alone. When she received the notification he would not fight she knew the battle was lost, he no longer cared... If he did at all.

Your mother took you away from Tokyo where his agency was based, moving to the new city of Musatafu. He came to see you from time to time but it seemed only when he was already there for a non you reason. There was always seemingly an event in town, a mission he was taking care of to help out another agency.

Regardless of your absent father you never let it get you down. Your father was All might! The coolest hero in the world, right? When you started primary school and made friends of course you would boast about who your father was! Though their sneers and jokes about how you lie started to tear at the fabric of your heart, you slowly began keeping that information to your self. Who cared anyway? Not like the man ever called or stopped in unless it was convenient to him.

In middle school a miracle occurred, you developed your mother's quirk suddenly. A late bloomer the doctor had said. Testing your limits they discovered it was an even stronger version of her own with the next generation. Energy Manipulation, a strong quirk.

The word had gotten to your father and it was as if a switch flipped. He was always calling, always stopping by. "Hey kid, want to come on patrol with me and see how heroes work?" Your hopes had never been higher! Until he didn't show... again. Villain attacked he had blamed.

It was about age fourteen when you finally had enough, he had shown up to drop off a gift. A gift you promptly smashed to the floor.

"Why are you here? You rarely call, you only show up when you FEEL like it! I'm sick of you only having time for me when it's good for you! I developed a quirk late and now suddenly you want to be my dad? Go be the symbol of peace. Why don't you tell everyone how you stepped on your FAMILY to do it?"

Your teeth were bared, nostrils flaring as your chest heaved at finally giving him the piece of mind he deserved. His eyes had widened and not a word was said. He simply turned and left, no phone calls, no surprise visits. He simply disappeared.

Years passed and you decided with great resolve you were going to become a great hero and if you ever had a family, they would be your priority. You were going to become a better hero than that man ever was! You aced your tests, got good grades and trained day in and out. Your mother helped with quirk control and when time was ready, you applied for UA.

The entrance exam was decent, your fingers stretching towards the machine and feeling the crackle of the electricity inside. Lifting the unit you smashed them into another, shorted out, smashed, tore apart until finally the buzzer rang out.

Your acceptance came a week later, so did the buzz about someone becoming a new teacher. The one and only All Might. The first couple weeks were rocky, but you proved to him and everyone you deserved to be where you were.

"Yagi!"

The voice tore you out of your thoughts, head turning to find a messy haired, green eyed boy standing with your fellow classmates of 1A. They all smiled as you stood before that stupid statue.

"Let's go! It's time to be heroes!"

Adjusting your hero gear, you took the hand of the boy who idolized your father more than anyone else. His fingers interlaced with yours as his bright smile earned one of your own in return. He may have your father's quirk, he may have thought your dad is the greatest guy since sliced bread.

He had watched since the day you joined his class in Aldera Middle, the bright girl who rose from the shadow and brought her own light to the world. Whose smile outshined any that the "Symbol of Peace" had to offer.

If someone were to ask him today, "Who was the greatest hero who ever lived?" He'd smile his own thousand watt smile and without any hesitation he would give one name.... Yours.

[impishmisconception901]

Welcome To My Ramblings

Hi, I am ImpishMisconception.

I am 37 years old, just had my birthday on September 1st. I am single and I don't have any children. I live in Toronto Ontario Canada.

I don't work, I live on ODSP (disability) as my only source of income.

My pronouns are she/her and they/them. (These pronouns may change and I will update them if need be as I continue discovering myself.)

I am a Cis female and for now identify as Cis female (which may change or may not, I do not know right now.)

I am Asexual and Bi-romantic. (This is subject to change as I learn more about myself, I maybe Bisexual or Panromantic or Pansexual. I don't know right now.)

I have Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Depression, Anxiety, and Vertigo.

I was homeschooled by Christian (Protestant) Conservative parents and indoctrinated into Christianity.

I am now an Atheist and have been for about four years now.

My hobbies are going for walks, reading, playing hidden object games, playing Mahjong, playing The Sims, listening to music, daydreaming, watching YouTube videos, watching movies, and watching reruns of the TV shows Granada's Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett, Mash, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and Star Trek TNG.

As for what kind of books I like, well here is a list of my top ten favourite books.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The Phantom Of The Opera by Gaston Leroux

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

Philosophy for Dummies by Tom Morris

A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I also love reading Shakespeare and the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Author Conan Doyle.

(The above book list is subject to change as I read more books.)

As for what music I like, I am on Spotify so feel free to click and follow to see what music I listen to - https://open.spotify.com/user/1o69jk1m6k59cilaskhlziw19?si=7c4e116e5e274735

As for the movies I like, I love musicals, comedies and romance and romcoms are my addiction. I also am a huge fan of Disney/Pixar movies.

Here is a list of my top ten favourite movies.

The Phantom Of The Opera 1929, 1990, and 2004 versions. (Yes, I know the 1990 version is a miniseries but I am counting it as a movie for this list.)

Pride And Prejudice 2005 version.

The Princess Bride

Ever After

Gone With The Wind

The Lake House

A League Of Their Own

Monty Python's The Holy Grail and The Life Of Brian

Airplane

The Devil Wears Prada

List of my top ten favourite Disney. (All the Disney movies I list are the original versions, none of the live-action remakes.)

Dumbo

Sleeping Beauty

Beauty And The Beast

Aladdin

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

Mary Poppins

The Sword In The Stone

The Jungle Book

The Emporer's New Groove

Mulan

Here are my top ten favourite movies that are honourable mentions.

The Sound Of Music

Dead Poet's Society

Good Morning Vietnam

You've Got Mail

Four Weddings And A Funeral

French Kiss

The Adventures Of Robin Hood

The Cutting Edge

Titanic

Mrs.Doubtfire

Here are my top ten favourite Disney movies that are honourable mentions. (Again originals, no live-action remakes.)

The Rescuers Down Under

The Little Mermaid

The Lion King

Robin Hood

Cinderella

Pocahontas

Alice In Wonderland

Pinnochio

Tangled

The Aristocats

I am also a fan of Disney/Pixar movies and here is a list of my top five favourite Disney/Pixar movies. (All originals no live-action remakes. Sorry there aren't ten, I haven't seen that many Disney/Pixar movies. )

Toy Story

Inside Out

Wall-E

Finding Nemo

Cars

Here are some other children's movies I enjoy that aren't Disney/Pixar

The Wizard Of Oz

Madeline Lost In Paris

Hook

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

Shrek

Happy Feet

Jumanji

Here is a list of my top ten favourite Halloween movies.

Beetlejuice

Ghostbusters 1984 version

Hocus Pocus 1993 version

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Young Frankenstein

Dracula 1931 version

Dr.Jekyll And Mr.Hyde 1931 version

The Addams Family 1991 version

Hotel Transylvania movie series

I also enjoy the whole Halloweentown movie series and both Twitches movies.

Here is a list of my top ten favourite Christmas movies.

A Christmas Carol 1951 version

White Christmas

Miracle On 34th Street 1947 version

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Scrooged

The Santa Clause

Polar Express

Christmas With The Kranks

It's A Wonderful Life

Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas

(The above movie lists are subject to change as I watch more movies.)

So, that's about me, which is what this blog will be about.

I will just ramble on about whatever whenever. I make no promises about how often I will update the blog. I will just ramble on about whatever I am thinking or feeling or whatever whenever the mood hits me.

I am also on Reddit so feel free to follow me there if you want to - https://www.reddit.com/user/ImpishMisconception/

I am on YouTube but I don't make videos, I just watch stuff but feel free to follow me there as well if you want to - https://www.youtube.com/@impishmisconception7762/featured

If there's anything else you want to know about me, please ask.

[demonfox38]

Completed: Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster)

You know what? Yeah, it was.

Most of the time, when I start these evaluations, I go through what lead me to playing the game. It usually falls under the category of "life is complicated; played a video game to cope." This evaluation's edition is…uniquely spicy, in that regard. And by spicy, I mean soppy. You see, my parents have been living with me for several weeks as a result of a flood wiping out half of their house and town, as well as most of the vehicles. (The verdict's still out on whether or not my dad's Astro van will come back to life.) I also lost my car in the flood, as I was there when it hit. Luckily, no creature died! But, it's been a rough recovery period. Lots of mud-slopped possessions to wash—if they can be recovered at all.

So, I went from a house of 2 dogs, 1 human to 4 dogs, 3 humans, and 1 bird. "Life is complicated."

Not to say my summer was completely ruined! I was able to visit @jeannettegray for a few days, so that was a good reprieve! It's just mostly been me putting in my 40 hours at work, then putting in an additional 8-16 while I either babysit animals or clean possessions. When I haven't been working, I've mostly been sitting around with my parents, watching whatever they put on TV. 15+ year old sitcoms, crafting videos, and corpse shows, baby.

I finally reached the point where I didn't care if they were snooping on me while I was on the computer or a game console. I had to do something to keep myself sane while yet another re-run spooled itself out. My first attempt to get back to my 12 games beaten goal for this year was actually with a mushy-graphiced version of "Final Fantasy VI" that is no longer available on Steam for purchase. That lasted all of 5 minutes due to poor input mapping issues with the game. "Fine," I thought. "There's a deal on a Pixel Master set for 1-6. I would play at least half of these again."

And then I pivoted to "Final Fantasy III." The other "Final Fantasy III." The actual "Final Fantasy III."

Coping happened!

Now, it's never fun to acknowledge when you're a stereotype. But, on occasion, one must come clean. I am one of those insufferable bastards who is much more likely to play pre-"Final Fantasy VII" games and claim them to be among my favorites of the series. Like, I'm pro "Final Fantasy II" and willing to run a new "Final Fantasy I" file at any time. That kind of bastard. Having said that, I actually haven't been able to play an iteration of "Final Fantasy III" before! It was one of those games that got locked in Japan, only having a release in terms of a Nintendo DS remake in the late 2000s.

Could I have hunted down a fan translation of this game? Sure. It is nice to have this game handed over on a platter, though. Especially, such a well-polished platter!

"Final Fantasy III" focuses on the story of four dink-ass orphans who drop into a hole and accidentally get jobs from a hidden magic crystal. They are then tasked with defending the other crystals, fixing elements from going out of whack, and eventually stuffing encroaching darkness back into the void from whence it came. Ya know. Your average "Final Fantasy" experience.

While the plot feels a lot like "Final Fantasy 1 2.0," the interesting portions of it come more from the beat-to-beat moments. Like, discovering that the land you are on is actually a floating continent being propelled by ancient machinery, for one. Finding out the world is flooded and almost every living being is turned to stone? Woof. That was a punch in the gut. So was the bit in Saronia, when you have the misfortune of being shot down and dragged into its town-wide civil war. From a 30,000-foot elevation, yeah, this game can look average. But, you do miss out on some cool looking critters from that high up. You definitely don't see into the cave depths that this runs, either!

Coming to this game so late, I imagine a lot of people are going to be thrown by how simple the game itself really is. There is a job system here, so veterans of "Final Fantasy V" may expect some value in multi-classing and maxing out experience in as many jobs as possible. Honestly? There's not a lot of reason to do that. You have options, sure. But, it's more about sticking to your guns and maxing out your job level to get the most value out of the class as possible. If you miss out on grinding out Bards and Evokers, well…are you really missing that much? Just stick to what you like, and problems will work themselves out.

The game does try to force players into shifting roles around, depending on what's going on at the time. I don't think you really have to force a player to carry a White Mage in the party, but the game does throttle progress until you use one to shrink characters or transform them into toads. Similar attempts are made to force the Scholar, Thief, Black Mage, and Dark Knight classes, although some can be worked around with the right toolset (or just a stubborn "don't give a damn" attitude.)

Additionally, the game enjoys being a little shithead about hidden passageways. You'd better get used to looking for cracks in the walls and pushing yourself through gaps. First, for better items. Then, to actually beat the game! If you have a shred of Metroidvania skills, it's not the worst to deal with. It does require some level of concentration, though. Maybe slowing down and not being on mach speed 24/7.

Speaking of which—the "Pixel Remaster" version of "Final Fantasy III" may be the easiest version of this game released to date. Particularly, with its speed modifiers, experience multipliers, and even the ability to just. Turn the monster encounters off. Like, okay! I know what speed runners are abusing for this one! Additional fun features include the ability to switch between music types and plopping filters on to make your computer look more like an old CRT television set. Which, hey. I'm crusty enough to put the original music back on, but that filter might be a bit too much.

You tell me.

It's very clear that a lot of people put hard work into this game. Like, if the several studios listed at the end weren't evidence enough. But, yes. Someone clearly put work into shining these sprites up. At first, I was wondering if they were for some WonderSwan remake that never made it to the United States. But, these seem to be new for the release itself. That, and the rescored, live-recorded soundtrack that I immediately turned off in favor of old bleep-bloops.

I know. You'd think someone who had played flute and bassoon would have more respect for that sort of thing. It is a bit excessive for what I'm visually seeing, though. Nothing wrong in appreciating what's older, either!

About the only accessibility issue I noticed was some minor flashing with the game towards the latter half. (It wasn't too overwhelming, but it's better to mention it happening than not say anything at all.) Otherwise, hell. Between controls over monster spawning, EXP/gold multipliers, and a glut of language options, this is probably about the most accessible this game is ever going to get. Shit, it even has a tracker for seeing what treasures are available for you to pick up, as well as what hidden items you may have missed!

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a better version of this game. I mean, sure, there's the DS remake if you wanted your characters to have character or whatever. (Although, frankly, I'm one of those insufferable bastards that is happier having their characters shut up, if the characters are just going to spend the next 30+ hours being mopey, whiny, or over-caffeinated.) But, honestly? This is what I wanted. Famicom base code and square waves. A gentle coat of paint. A few accessibility options to make treasure/monster/achievement hunting less of a pain in the ass. Excellent. The only design choice I would have made differently is somehow augmenting the palette for each sprite to match the default Onion Knight color of each character. Like, pink guy always having pink highlights or base colors, green for green, etc. But, hey. It's not like the original game was doing that, either.

Well, someone could have polished up the NPC following code, too. Poor stuttery little guys just can't keep up!

Individually, "Final Fantasy III" is currently around $18.00 USD on Steam. However, there is a bundle to get all "Pixel Remaster" games for a discount as well that you may wish to consider. I'd wait for it to dip under $60.00 USD if you wanted to go that route, as that bundle does tend to get discounted more often than not. But, if there's three of the games that you'd be into from that set, you might as well scoop them all up. I've certainly enjoyed them in rougher states than this!

Again, though. You're reading something written by a person that is pro-"Final Fantasy II" and indifferent to "VII." Someone who habitually and gleefully plays "Quest 64." My sense of "good" may be much different than yours.

I suppose we all cope differently, don't we?

[dreamingangelwolf]

Hello tumblr, I am not dead yet *fist pump*

Finally answering one of two tagging things from @aranict - this is long overdue, to say the least…!

3 Ships:

1. Dabi/Hawks from My Hero Academia. Literally one interaction was all it took for me to go ‘oh god I ship it’ and, damn, I ship it hard. It may not be canon, but the potential for it is unreal - the snark, the parallels, the tension, the drama, that delicious enemies-to-lovers foundation, yesssss. Helps that each of them has a very attractive voice to me, too, haha X) This latest season is going to hurt me, I can tell…

2. Rowan Whitethorn/Aelin Galathynius from the Throne of Glass series. As much as I wanted these two to be much more of a slow burn than they actually were, I can forgive that when they work so well together as a couple. Crying shame also that we never got to see them literally fighting side by side, but we got “To whatever end” instead and y’know what? Iconic.

3. Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII. I have loved these two for nigh on 15 years now. I found FFVII because of them. I love the innocence of their fledgling relationship, I love the tragedy that it fell victim to, but mostly I adore how happy they made each other, and how complimentary their personalities were. (I have just reached Gongaga in Rebirth too and when I say I spent 50% of this part of the game clutching my chest over my heart - augh. The Feels.)

First Ship: Had to stretch my memory back a bit, but I’m pretty sure it would have been Lenne and Shuyin from Final Fantasy X-2. That was my first ever FF game (criminal, I know, but fight me) and their story grabbed my 14-year-old heartstrings like nothing else at the time. In retrospect, it might have been the tragedy of it again, and that was probably the first tragic romance that really resonated with me? Admittedly, ‘1,000 Words’ probably helped with that, heh (still love that song).

Last Song: ‘Choke’ by The Warning, whom I discovered in the last few days and damn. Talk about fresh talent. There are very few bands for me where I prefer the live version of a song to the recorded one but these girls are breaking all my expectations. Will also recommend ‘Hell You Call A Dream’, which is the song I was recommended and that got me hooked!

Last Movie: The Crow (1994), which my local cinema put on now that trailers of the remake with Bill Skarsgård are making the rounds. To my friends’ exasperation, it was a bit lost on me. I like the concept and the basis of the story, but I didn’t quite dig the goth-ness of it (eternal apologies, Brandon Lee - it’s no slight on you, I promise). I can appreciate it as a cult classic, and for its importance at the time, but personally it wasn’t what I want from a film nowadays. Can I still call myself a 90s kid

Currently Reading: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. I’m about 1/3 the way through, off the top of my head, and while it’s not gripping me like ToG (or even, dare I say it, ACOTAR) did, I’m liking it so far. It has, however, spurned a SJM Bingo Card between me and my two friends (who have also read the entirety of SJM’s books and are cheerleading my foray into Crescent City), which is proving to be highly amusing X)

Currently Craving: udon noodles in some kind of broth. Preferably a light, beefy one. Sick as I currently am, I just want the warm, thick, soft noodly goodness as a source of comfort and a way to flush out my sinuses. I curse my lack of takeaway options and my inability to cook one of my favourite foods for myself.

Okay I’m not tagging anyone else because I’m running on my last few brain cells and still need to get myself to bed, so I’ll wrap up with a thanks to aranict for the tag and a promise to get to the next one soon!

[melestiasworld]

enneagram > MBTI ?? (am I really saying that !?)

I was researching my enneagram type lately and I have a lot to unwrap

Amidst my attempt to organize the endless tabs on my phone, I stumbled upon an old Enneagram test result. It was surprisingly spot-on, articulating behaviors I've long recognized but struggled to articulate.

I'm a 9w1, and I've been watching Dr. Tom LaHue's videos about my type.

He was saying that 9s can, if not careful, mistake the taste, goal of other's for their own- something I know I tended to do a lot when I was younger Back then, I craved uniqueness so intensely I wanted to dress up differently, listen to different music -being like everyone else was disgusting to me. Looking back, I might have resembled a type 4 during that phase

but I'm glad I had this phase, it helped me cultivate my confidence and identity

I've also noticed a pattern where I struggle to voice my opinions naturally. It's something I've had to learn the hard way.

it takes effort for me to really put myself in thinking mode to connect with my true self and figure out what I truly desire Yet, when a topic strikes a chord, I don't hesitate to speak up. Tom was also saying how my default response to a question or a request is always “yes” when it should actually be “no”, so that I accept only what I truly desire

“you can find your real “yes” only by saying “no””

I mean, I already knew that of me, and what really helps me is seeing other people being assertive in their opinions

I love people-watching and seeing people stand their ground inspires me

I've recognized that I sometimes fear expressing my voice because I don't want to burden others. I'm capable of understanding multiple perspectives, making every option seem acceptable—but what do I truly want?

Combining assertiveness with kindness has been a struggle. I've been aware of this aspect of myself for some time, and I'm committed to improving.

We all have patterns that emerge when we're not in a healthy place. and the enneagram helps you see more clearly on this. In the vid, mr tom was going through the levels of health of 9s going from the worst to the best, I've stopped to the first because it resonated too much with me : My brain will do anything to keep me away from feeling any type of negative emotion, this actually has been really detrimental at one point in my life

I will get lost in my priorities and the things I need to get done so I’m doing fucking useless tasks like cleaning my shoes, cutting my bangs, or sorting the tabs on my phone when I have more pressing matters

I became aware of this problem a while ago when speaking to a therapist, did I buy a book to help me regulate my emotions? yes

did I read it? no

when will i read it ? who knows

dr. really putted the finger where it hurts, i think i really got to work on that

that was also said in some of the videos, 9w1’s are scared to be a burden or to be a burden because our biggest inner fear is being rejected by the ones we love

deep down I know that it is very true -nothing can keep people from leaving me

but what’s interesting would be to discover why do I harbor this fear of abandonment? Why do I crave safety so desperately? nobody really abandoned me, nor left me, I never had problems making friends, so where does it come from? I’m going to look into that during the several hours of reflections I have during my nightly reflections

I thought I had myself all figured out, that I’ve spent too much time pondering my identity, my values, and desires Yet life just keeps impressing me and putting me in situations where I have to work on myself again and evolve

its like rediscovering myself, or building a new version of me

I do not want to die knowing I haven’t achieved the final version of me; I want to reach my full potential

but I'm so thrown between the melissa who strives for greatness and has all of those crazy goals and the melissa who wants to rot in bed and do absolutely nothing - a topic for another rant

[lankira]

Was just talking about this character's BG3 version in @dee-the-red-witch's replies when I remembered that I've not talked about her on the blog much. WHICH IS A CRIME.

This is Razira Fein, my funky lil lesbian drow follower of Eilistraee (art by @canine-king-art )

When it comes time to talk about her backstory, I will admit that I kind of fridged her girlfriend. So cws for religious trauma and character death below the cut.

So, first up: Razira is practical, but not necessarily high femme or butch in her preferred presentation. This is heavily informed by her time as house guard and surface raider for one of the Houses of her universe's equivalent of Menzoberranzan. Like...being alive trumps looking good (far right armored look), and being comfortable on the road now that she's on the surface trumps style (all black hatted look).

The other two looks? The one that's very peacocky with the feather in the hat is her stage look. Gotta grab attention there, and she's spent so much of her life in full armor that exposed skin feels incorrect. She's fine with nudity in places like full moon rituals and the bedroom. Just not her thing on stage. She'd totally be down for watching a burlesque show though. Her other (vaguely-Japanese-inspired) look is what she wears when busking on city streets. Since not a lot of places on the surface are kind to drow and she doesn't want to risk damaging the embroidery and beadwork on that performance jacket, she picked something unique but simple.

Wait. Busking? Armor? This is either the most armored bard or something else is going on here! That's correct, something else is going on here.

See, Razira left her home after her girlfriend, Llostin, was murdered for trying to leave and join a enclave of followers of Eilistraee on the surface. Drow society does NOT like when its members turn their back on Lolth. The only thing left of the girlfriend's that Razira had was a holy text. As she read more of it, she understood why Llostin wanted to leave, and did so, succeeding where her late love had failed.

After spending decades with the enclave, learning about Eilistraee, learning song and dance and art and poetry, and unlearning a lot of the typical drow society bullshit, the leaders of the enclave suggested that Razira was ready to see the world. And so, she set out to do so, making money sometimes as an entertainer, sometimes as hired muscle to secure safe travel between cities. (This is why she started as a Fighter withe the Entertainer background)

Through all this travel, she learned a lot more about the world and found her own little place in it. Until the start of the campaign had her thrust into a series of world-shattering events.

While the campaign she was in ran very short for a number of reasons, she's one of the characters I'm most fond of. I usually play someone young, at the start of their journey. But Razira...not so much. She was about 250 years old and had been mourning her lost love for about a century of that time. She thought she was nearing the end of her character arc. She had discovered a lot about herself in that time and had believed that she would never find love again, in part because of the crippling survivor's guilt, in part because she didn't think that she would want to love again.

Until she met Aurellon, one of our party's sidekicks who was described as an androgynous Milo Thatch with the fashion sense of Billy Porter. The pair talked a lot about a lot of things and there was a queer little romance starting when the campaign was tragically cut short.

So, yeah... That's the short version of explaining Razira. Oh! Also! Her fighter subclass is Echo Knight, which we flavored as pulling echoes that were past or future incarnations of her soul instead of alternate world versions. So that was neat.

[ayearofpike]

I recently read/re-read some of Pike's books and came across this blog in the process. I love your analyses and comparisons of plot and character similarities among his books. Among the ones I read, Monster was my favorite - forgive me if you've said this somewhere, but do you have a personal favorite or least favorite of his stories?

I started answering this a while ago, and then mindlessly navigated away from the page and lost like twenty minutes of work. It was so frustrating that I abandoned the question, trying to give myself space and time that I wanted to invest again.

Because this is a great question. I actually meant to consider this in a sort of wrap-up post, with a summary and personal reflection. But after close to 100 stories I was so burned out on Pike that I wasn't in any place to think about it. (Kind of the same as what happened with the first version of this response.)

So four years later, here's my bests and worsts of the whole experience.

My top 5 favorites

See You Later. A heartfelt love story that unlocks all the feels. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I can't help myself with this one.

Master of Murder. More nostalgia, but it actually is genuinely clever, making the suspense novelist figure out the crime he's been subconsciously reporting for a year.

Monster. Dude, I knew I liked this and was creeped out by it back in the day, but I did not remember how tight and how chilling this story was. Maybe his actual best.

Whisper of Death. Creepy and delightful. Character motivations work, activities and actions and repercussions work, and even the sense of "wrong place, wrong time" feels right.

Die Softly. This book is fucked, but in a good way. I love how we're rooting for one thing and slowly come to realize it's all wrong.

other good ones

Bury Me Deep. A tight story with minimal characters and set. Believable and not overused.

Remember Me. It's a classic and a best-seller for a reason. Just … like, ignore the sequels.

Last Act. Even though I don't love the "ladies be crazy" conceit, this is a solid suspense mystery that we actually have a chance to unravel.

Weekend. Yeah, I like the mysteries. This one is realistic in characters and actions. And yeah, admittedly, I have a soft spot for my first Pike book.

pleasant surprises

Execution of Innocence. I don't know if it actually aged well, what with the crazy-gay trope, but I was grateful for the realistic crime story.

Gimme a Kiss. I remembered this one being simplistic and uninteresting. Maybe because I was a dumb kid. As an old man, I appreciated the thoughtful plot and agency of the female characters.

The Visitor. The first time around, I was mad at how short this book was. The reread revealed that it had exactly as much as it needed.

Spooksville in general. I hadn't read these before, and was expecting disconnected slime monster horror. It was nice to stick with one group of kids and one setting, even if the "scares" were diverse.

unpleasant surprises

The Lost Mind. I remembered this one being such a great story with a killer structure and an amazing twist, and was really bugged when, upon reread, I discovered it had a MASSIVE plot and character hole.

Falling. It was creepy in a good way the first time I read it, but coming back to it made it creepy in a bad way. Also, all his strong female agency in the good books goes out the window in this one.

The Star Group. One I loved at the time, with the whole idea of high school friend groups forever until we die, but upon reread the death wasn't actually a payoff.

books that don't include enough

Magic Fire. We needed more backstory, particularly on the love interest, since she was the whole reason for the story happening and we just plain don't know why.

The Tachyon Web. More about the characters (not to mention societies and interstellar politics) would have made this a deeper and more satisfying story.

The Grave. It has a lot of promise, but there's not enough about how they end up where they are and what might happen next or what it means. Seemed like he tried again with Witch World, which is ... sort of better? But still not great.

bottom 5

(tumblr won't let me do a numbered list in reverse)

5. Chain Letter 2. Throwing away a thoughtful portrayal of a kid with cancer-induced mental illness in order to move some books on the power of Satanic Panic.

4. Black Knight. It's The Hunger Games, except … not good.

3. The Wicked Heart. I can't with the fuckin' Hitler, Kevin.

2. Witch. I can't tell if nobody cares or if everyone cares too much. Either way, it sucks.

1. Remember Me 3. Not just the unnecessary-sequelness, though that's part of it. Shari Cooper didn't remember herself, and becomes a racist asshat, and I don't want anything here.

[dannyreviews]

Steamboat Willie (1928)

2024 had opened with the greatest rejoicing among fans of Disney and old school animation. After 95 years, the earliest version of Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain and is owned by the public. Immediately after midnight, YouTube account "Corridor" uploaded the iconic Disney short "Steamboat Willie" and as of this writing, the video has 376,000 views and is sure to go up. I thought I would celebrate by reviewing this 7 minute masterpiece which shows the inception of an American icon.

The cartoon opens with the famous shot of Mickey commanding a steamboat down the river, although without the permission of his boss, the giant Peg-Leg Pete (although without the Peg-Leg). Mickey is forced to do his chores while Pete's parrot taunts him. The steamboat picks up a bunch of animals including a cow and a goat. Minnie is also picked up and the two have fun playing music when the goat eats sheet music of "Turkey In The Straw" that Minnie brought aboard. The fun continues as Mickey and Minnie play the animals like musical instruments, using a duck quack, the cow's teats and a bull's set of teeth. Pete discovers the jam and orders Mickey to peel potatoes, again with the parrot taunting over him, but Mickey throws one of the potatoes to shut the parrot up, ending the cartoon.

"Steamboat Willie" is every bit the piece of film that is found in every montage celebrating the cinema of the 20th century. Mickey at the helm of the Steamboat is as iconic as Charles Foster Kane whispering "Rosebud" or Rick Blaine saying "Here's looking at you kid". And yet, the animation is primitive, the music by future Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies composer Carl W. Stalling is generic and the dialogue is unintelligible. All of that can be excused due to the art of animation being in the developmental stages and that it was the first animated sound film. Taken for what it is, "Steamboat Willie" resonates with people of all ages just for the very idea that it was Mickey Mouse's debut to the world and that's what really matters. It's the same thing with "The Jazz Singer", despite being the first full length talkie, it is really a mediocre film, and had it not been for the history, no one would care for it. If anything, the flaws are actually the most fascinating part.

Back in 1928, "Steamboat Willie" was the warmup feature for a now lost film called "Gang War" starring Jack Pickford (brother of Mary) and Olive Borden. The audience were blown away by Mickey Mouse, for the sheer brilliance of the cartoon as if it was other worldly. Also, the fact that "Gang War" was another early talkie that most likely was devoid of a musical score and the dialogue tended to be bland and inaudible. The film was panned by critics calling it another cliche flick. The critics had all the kind words for the cartoon preceding the feature which was more revolutionary. The audience demanded "Steamboat Willie" be repeated and the rest is history. I wonder if a copy of "Gang War" will surface and if it will find a new audience who might be receptive due to its association with "Steamboat Willie". Maybe, maybe not.

What will come from this new public domain status for early Mickey Mouse? Much like the plays of Shakespeare or the art of Leonardo Da Vinci, there is an audience willing to put their interpretation of the classic character in their own art, literature or parody. 2024 and beyond should and will be filled with endless possibilities.

9/10