#gate program

[oopsalltoxic]

Dude actually literally FUCK the G.A.T.E. programs in schools THE SHIT THEY DID MAKES ME FEEL ACTUALLY DELUSIONAL. Idk what it did to my brain but even with everything I've been through THAT hits me with the hardest derealization/depersonalization.

People theorize they were testing for psychic abilities? Telepathy? Bullshit FULL cap but the tests were SO WEIRD I'm somehow inclined to believe it. Autism test makes more sense as some have suggested, but what the fuck was up with the cards? I get testing for eye contact, but staring at me unmoving and unspeaking for the duration an entire subject while asking me to pretend she's not there? I get hearing tests, but then why did I do it both alone and with the whole class, and why were the tests so similar but so different?

And can we talk about the comments on those theories? Those are NOT real people, no way you can convince me. Maybe a few of the bunch are real. The majority reads like BAD a.i. Dead Internet Theory feels more real on those videos than anywhere.

Anyway, send an ask or DM if you're a real person that remembers this I guess. I'd truly love to swap stories.

[nnerveana]

✎ᝰ. convinced that undergoing the GATE program in elementary school turned me into a sleeper agent of some degree

[convelocity]

It's Tara. Of Waterdeep.

[prokopetz]

The fascinating thing about this particular patch note is that it implies the game engine is fully rendering your character's penis at all times, not just when you take your pants off.

[corinthianrm0]

the cyberpunk Gale no one asked for (G4l3?)

BLAME MARU (lexindre on bsky)

[galesdevoteewife]

Just a thought occurred to me today:

Apparently wizards can make programmed vibrators.

🫠

[kaijusaur]

ok but what if the ultimate baldurs gate 3 fan flash

[jimmerzz0905]

woag…….. the world is so bluu Dud

id say he’s my favorite killer but he’s literally just a c00lkidd skin ingame so

[foldbaron]

[evergreenpristine]

Soft Raphael???

[burned-lariat]

This is embarrassing for you, Dani. "Chaos queen" and "mOvInG oN" and all you've revealed yourself to be is a pathetic, bitchy pick-me. Sad.

[gravedigg]

A lil magma doodle of young En and Virg from this evening <3

[spacestationvampire]

minth.ara ....

[caverncrooner]

I had a thought about that BDG cover album of ABBA songs but as halloween creatures. And look, I'm not an animator, but I think Star would ROCK a Lay All Your Blood On Me animatic.

Listen to me. It starts after the nautiloid. The prolonged maniacal laughter from seeing the sun for the first time. BDG hits that "Welcome" intro and BAM he's pulling that knife on Tav. Then the whole thing is a montage of the romance arc with goofy cuts as appropriate. It's so unserious. Most is sung monologue style in front of his own tent where everyone can hear him talking to himself like a freak. Silly faces everywhere. Except it's a perfectly lore accurate depiction of the plot and it would be so easy.

This will play in my head frame by frame until the next world ending meteor.

[mumms-the-word]

Duke Belynne Stelmane and the Emperor

currently reading lore stuff about mind flayers for an upcoming deep dive and anyway here's some depressing content about how the Emperor turned Belynne Stelmane into his thrall (probably)

This is not Hot New Lore or a Brand New Theory by any stretch of the imagination, but hear me out

Remember when Wyll talks about meeting Stelmane? How he only saw her twice, but the second time she was very different? They attribute her changes to a stroke.

Wyll: I met her twice. The first time, I was a boy of seven or eight, at a banquet in the Flaming Fist's honour. One look and I was smitten. Chesnut hair that flowed behind her like willow fronds. She floated from one room to the next as if carried by clouds. The second time, Stelmane was...different. Even with the aid of a cane, each step she took was a struggle. Every word she spoke took great physical effort. 'A stroke victim?' I asked my father later. 'No,' he said. 'A stroke survivor.' Not a mere stroke, as it turns out - but the scars of her possession. Gods, what I wouldn't give to drive a dagger through the Emperor's building head. We can never let it do to us what it did to Stelmane.

The last part, the part where Wyll realizes that it was more than a stroke, is conditional upon you calling the Emperor out for possessing or messing with Stelmane, which is when the Emperor literally shows you him possessing her.

Note the glowy purple eyes and then later the mechanical movements, the fixed stares, the way Stelmane toasts the Emperor as if moved by puppet strings. Her gestures are stiff, as if she's being controlled.

Wyll and his father attribute Stelmane's movements to being part of a stroke. Slurred speech and difficulty moving parts of your body are stroke symptoms, so it's a convenient explanation for her change in behavior and her difficulty with movement and speech. But possession?

No, dear readers, I don't think the Emperor was possessing Stelmane. I think he genuinely made her a literal thrall.

(please excuse the horrible quality lol)

From Volo's Guide to Monsters on Mind Flayers:

A thrall-to-be is first rendered docile through psionic means. Using a low-power version of its Mind Blast ability, the mind flayer bombards the victim with energy that washes through its synapses like acid, clearing away its former personality and leaving it a partially empty shell. This step takes 24 hours. Over the next 48 hours, the illithids rebuild the victim's memories and personality, and the victim gains the skills and talents it needs to perform its intended function.

A Mind Blast that "washes through synapses like acid" sounds a lot like a stroke-adjacent experience to me. Strokes attack the brain, causing parts of the brain to literally die (usually due to a lack of blood flow or oxygen). It could explain Stelmane's stiff movements.

The "clearing away" of her personality and the suggestion of "rebuilding" her memories would also be extremely useful to the Emperor. Rather than exerting the mental energy to possess her all the time, constantly keeping her under concentrated surveillance, all he had to do was literally break her and then rebuild her. She becomes a Stelmane that is only partly herself, and empty shell that he can mold as he pleases.

This is veering into headcanon territory, but I imagine if it was just basic possession, she would move a little more fluidly and naturally than she does in the Emperor's memory. She wouldn't be exhibiting movements and speech that mimic stroke symptoms. That, and there is always the potential she could break free of possession.

But if she's a full-on mind flayer thrall, broken and rebuilt? An empty husk that has had her memories and personality pumped back into her, still under the control of the Emperor? That makes a ton of sense to me. There's no snapping out of that. As the Emperor says when he threatens you...she becomes a puppet.

And the fact that he keeps the threat of doing the same to you in his metaphorical back pocket at all times is honestly quite terrifying.