#i'll never stop thinking about this

[tame-a-messenger]

okay anon about the podcast here . omg!!! she got a little too drunk at the smosh christmas party and had a deep conversation with him that she didn't remember the details, only that they talked a lot and then when they got back from break he told her it meant a lot to him. then she came clean that she didn't remember and he told her it was her telling him how grateful she was for him (her literal words btw). they are so freaking sweet. I love them so much.

It might be the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Her being so worried she 'said something else' just for it to have been something so harmless and kind? *melts*

They are just too sweet! <3

(link)

[books-and-dragons]

hi, i saw your post about grigori angels and was wondering why this disproves the kokabiel and baraquiel!crowley theories? sorry if this has been asked before, or it's obvious!

hey anon, nothing to be sorry about!!

i wouldn't necessarily say the fact kokabiel and baraquiel are grigori disproves the theory, if only because we don't know how the grigori story fits into the good omens canon- and playing fast and loose with the bible stories is always an option so it's still a possibility, just an unlikely one if we follow the orginal biblical canon; as the grigori arrive much later on, and their 'fall' is not the same one as we see with 'lucifer's angels'

regardless, the grigori are fascinating to consider- especially in the gomens universe! they're unique amongst angels, and still vastly different from demons- the only ones who well and truly get humans

i'll start by quickly sharing the grigori lore, then bring it back to crowley

The Grigori

the grigori are detailed in the book of enoch, and their time is after eden, after the beginning. with sin now being an option for humans, the grigori were created and sent to earth to understand human behaviour

their name translates to 'the watchers'. an apt title for their role: watchers over humanity. the reason for this is debated, but fundamentally we come down to the important fact that the grigori, with their unique position as Watchers, understood humans better than any other angel- which was the whole point. why humans sinned, and how to influence them towards virtue and faith while still allowing humans to maintain their free will.

then, things began to change. the grigori started to interact with humans, taught us of technology and knowledge that we would soon discover ourselves. they later began to marry humans. they copulated with humans- from this, we had the nephilim. i don't need to reiterate how that particular tale ends. at least, not for the nephilim.

The Second Fall

here's the fun part. at least, in the context of talking about 'Fallen Angels'

in the eyes of god, the grigori had left their place of belonging, heaven, in favour of humans and earth. for this act, they were to fall.

except, the grigori didn't fall. at least, not in the sense we tend to define falling.

jude, verse six, outlines as much. 'and the angels that kept not with their first estate but left with their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day'

it would be more accurate to say the grigori were cast out, that they are in 'time out'- for they were not stripped of their grace, nor did they fall to hell/become demons as lucifer's angels did. instead their punishment is to spend the rest of their years on earth, until the day of judgement. for all intents and purposes they are still angels, just not yet allowed back into heaven.

(when we consider that the grigori had already been living on earth, amongst humans, there's something to be said for wondering if this is really a punishment at all. god really fumbled the bag on that one, or maybe it was intentional. the grigori tale is full of interesting debates!)

from what i gathered, this event is [colloquially] referred to as 'the second fall'. it happens after the original fall, the better known one. a long time after- given the grigori are after eden.

the important takeaways about the grigori come down to this: they are unique amongst angels for understanding humans, they are the parents of the nephilim, and they 'fell' from heaven- but not in the same way

Fitting with Good Omens/Angel!Crowley theories

if we're following the biblical canon here, crowley couldn't have been kokabiel or baraqiel for they are both grigori. they didn't fall with lucifer, not as the-angel-that-crowley-was did. by the time of kokabiel and baraquiel, crowley the demon already existed.

the grigori came after the beginning, once humans had already left eden. their 'fall' is referred to as the 'second fall', nevermind the fact that they didn't really fall at all. the grigori aren't in hell, they aren't demons- they're still angels. contrastingly, crowley fell, and very much is a demon- he's part of the first [real] fall, one of lucifer's angels. let's also remember that a very important part of the grigori story is how they fell for, and into bed with, humans- and procreated with them. somehow, this isn't something i envision for the-angel-that-was-crowley

this said, crowley (and aziraphale) were definitely about on earth during the time this was happening. they witnessed the flood themselves (the incident designed for the purpose of destroying the nephilim, the offspring of grigori and humans), and i'm sure at least aziraphale would have heard about the 'second fall', if not also crowley along with the rest of hell (also, imagine how pissed you'd be if you took a million-light-year dive into sulphur, came out a demon of hell, only for these 'watcher angels' to also be called fallen, when all they did was get put in time out for several millenia. the unfairness has to sting)

i like to imagine crowley had a form of healthy tolerance-bordering-appreciation for grigori angels- they value humanity's free will, shared knowledge with humans that often centred on creative and technological developments, even when this meant punishment by god

what makes the grigori so interestingly unique is their understanding of humans and what may drive them to sin. it's a skill that even aziraphale, with his appreciation for humanity, hasn't quite grasped yet

i don't think we'll ever actually see the grigori in good omens, since they're not too widely known of, but they fit so perfect to the good omens theme of discussing human morality and behaviour that we see debated by crowley and aziraphale. they'd both have very different, very strong, feelings about the grigori and their fate- which is fun to think about

[grelliam]

To this day I still think "I wish squids were real" is the funniest example of ascended canon ever. Like, the first Splatoon game comes out, someone makes a Miiverse post just saying "I wish squids were real" (already peak comedy), "I wish X was real" becomes a meme in the Splatoon community and gets reposted everywhere.

Then two years later Splatoon 2 comes out and

Literally iconic

[14dayswithyou]

💖 Day 3.5 is now available! 💖

For the last couple of months, only Server Boosters had access to the 3.5 update... Buuuuut now it's available for everyone to play in the 14DWY Discord — and soon itch.io once I'm happy with the QA and state of the game — so please don't feel pressured to join unless you want to!!

The full devlog + even more screenshots are under the cut ^^

What's been added to the 3.5 version?

📺 Streamer Mode!

I've been told that it's difficult to stream and monetise age-restricted videos on YouTube and Twitch, so I added an option to remove the sexual content and strong language used in the demo.

Now y'all can invite Ren into your bed for cuddles without putting your streamer career on the line /silly /lh

This won't affect the 18+ rating or dark themes/elements of the game, however! Although Streamer Mode will prevent you from seeing any "gruesome" CGs in the future, most of the core elements of the game will still be tied to the choices and decisions you make. So you won't miss out on the overall experience by using streamer mode!!

⚙️ Custom Pronouns!

It only took me one entire year to get around to it, but you can finally choose your own preferred pronouns (or use a set of pronouns instead)... At the cost of being able to change them mid-game ^^;

Since the original pronoun screen wouldn't update until a new scene was displayed, I temporarily disabled the feature. But once I find a workaround, I'll bring it back!

💗 Choose how others perceive you!

You can now choose how the cast and narration perceive you! Originally, the narration was kept strictly gender-neutral (outside of pronouns and genitalia picked by the player), but this will soon change in future updates.

For more clarity: you don't get to choose the words specifically, but you can choose between masculine, feminine, and androgynous terms!

📋 Separate top and bottom genitalia!

You can now choose your tatas and pps separately! >:3

Alongside that, you can also choose your preferred body type!

I removed the "both" genitalia option because a few players still assumed it was an obscure version of "intersex". That wasn't my intention and I don't want to mislead anyone, so I took it out for now ^^;

I also didn't want to include a screenshot of the new genitalia choices in action (because it's NSFW), so y'all get the same character menu screen for the nth time instead lmao

📱 Relationship Screen Overhaul!

You can now change your own status for more immersion, and long-term Server Boosters will eventually be able to submit and use their own icon within the game as well!

Stalking finding your friends has now become easier by using "Buddy Maps"; a new app that allows you to see the location of all the cast members!

I want to offer players more incentive to check the relationship screen since they tend to miss the status updates, so hopefully this might help ;v;

It also says it "updates every few hours" so folks don't go overboard and check every 5 seconds to see where Ren is gdsghf (also keep in mind that he's a hacker lol)

🖤 Additional Scenes Update!

Day 2 received a brand new CG!!!!! Originally, I planned on only adding a few CGs sporadically throughout the game, but it didn't feel right to leave Day 2 so... empty... so I added a brand new CG to (hopefully) make things feel more balanced and natural!

If you decline Teo's offer on Day 3, Leon will now call and try to convince you to reconsider. However, players are still allowed to decline, and if they do, they'll reach a dead end.

After listening to feedback on itch, I changed some of the dialogue during Days 1-3 to make it seem more consistent! They're only small changes though, so it's honestly not worth looking for sdgjssga

🎶 Updated BGM and SFX!

I wanted to try out a different style of music to see if it fits the vibe of 14DWY more! The BGM features more acoustics to suit the "beachy" theme of Corland Bay, though I made a conscious effort to include piano elements as well to stay true to the original!!

I figured it'd be better to give players a live example before I make a poll (to see if they prefer the change or not) and publish it to Itch.

Some new SFX have also been added, though it's very minimal and honestly not that noticeable.

How to download and play the update?

(warning: clicking on the following links will open Discord!!) To download the Day 3.5 update, simply join the 14DWY Discord server, verify your age, and visit the "14dwy-updates" channel!

Alternatively, you can also wait until the update is publicly released on Itch to play it as well!! (It normally gets released shortly after a round of QA testing/getting feedback from the server, though I may release it earlier if I feel like it hehe ^^)

Enjoy!!

[buttercupshands]

So.

Act 5, huh?

Oh, and that.

"You can start breakdown now."

Finished the game couple of days ago and had some thoughts I needed to process a little. Like. Yes.

So anyway I actually didn't plan this and just wanted to redraw some sprites to just make sure I understand how to draw Siffrin correctly (still working on that!)

What did I learn from this? How fun it it to draw on a canvas that literally doesn't let you draw with colors without some layer cheating when necessary. Never tried it.

The beans. Sleeping beans.

Basically what happens when you want to sleep AND draw. Draw characters sleeping on your behalf.

Doesn't help, but at least it's cute.

I have no idea what was going on in my mind as I drew this. Feels like a fever dream of 'I want to sleep' at 4 am and 'Hm...' of thinking random things

Also that phone craft sign. Still too funny to imagine. I had to.

[thepersonperson]

Do you know how funny it is that Sukuna is literally suffering from Gojo brainrot?

This may be an illustration of Gojo's brain damage from forcefully resetting his cursed technique, but since Sukuna is copying him (pose included), this is what his brain looks like too.

[peach-coloured-glasses]

am i still a mess over them? yes absolutely

[la-pheacienne]

George Martin, 2013: "In a very basic level winter is coming for all of us. I think that’s one of the things that art is concerned with: the awareness of our own mortality. “Valar morghulis” – “All men must die”. That shadow lies over our world and will until medical science gives us all immortality… but I don’t think it makes it necessarily a pessimistic world. Not any more pessimistic than the real world we live in. We’re here for a short time and we should be conscious of our own mortality, but the important thing is that love, compassion and empathy with other human beings is still possible. Laughter is still possible! Even laughter in the face of death… The struggle to make the world a better place… We have things like war, murder and rape… horrible things that still exist, but we don’t have to accept them, we can fight the good fight. The fight to eliminate those things.There is darkness in the world, but I don’t think we necessarily need to give way to despair. One of the great things that Tolkien says in Lord of The Rings is “despair is the ultimate crime”. That’s the ultimate failing of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, that he despairs of ever being able to defeat Sauron. We should not despair. We should not go gentle into that good night".

JRR Tolkien, 1962 : "One reviewer once said, this is a jolly jolly book, all the right boys come home [...]- this isn't true of course, he can't have read the story. [...] Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death. . . . . . (He quotes Simone de Beauvoir) 'There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever happens to man is natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it he would sense to it an unjustifiable violation.' Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord Of The Rings".

"Lotr is all rainbows and unicorns and Asoiaf is nihilistic and grimdark". Wrong, and wrong. In all its hope and radiance, lotr often gets very dark, and despite all the death and suffering, the hopeful moments in asoiaf shine bright. The meeting point of these two is this: having hope while in despair, and even better, refusing to give up because you have to go on despite not having any hope left.

[crystallakec]

back at it babeyyyy<3

[softiedingo]

*look* dear god *sighs intensely*

[literallyjusttoa]

Messing with my art style a bit so I did a quick lil experiment.

[theminecraftbee]

hermit horror week day 4: season 7 or taken over

Xisuma slowly blinks at the console logs for the server again. He's very tired; he's been collecting blackstone again, and it's very tiring, collecting blackstone. He's been building a lot of pretty houses, and stocking a lot of shops, and he hasn't had time to look at the console much recently. He probably shouldn't be now, because he's tired, and tired people make mistakes.

He makes a lot of mistakes; he's silly like that. A big derp. It's why he has to be careful, since he's been tired so much lately. He definitely shouldn't have the console open.

It's just, earlier Impulse had a question, since his moss farm kept lagging, and Xisuma thought it would be easy enough to try to find the root cause of. And he did find the root cause of it--Impulse's farm is too fast and his storage simply doesn't keep up with the amount of moss--but there's... some other things...

He blinks again at the dates on the server files. The last edited dates. Slowly, he clicks again on his own player data, and tries to make sense of what he's reading. Files like this, they aren't really meant to be that human-readable. It's--well, it is mostly json, so it's mostly human-readable, actually, but a lot of it is still encrypted, for player safety, which would. Maybe explain what he's looking at? He thinks? He's--well, he does have root access, is the thing, because he's the admin, but he still shouldn't be able to look at any player willy-nilly.

He's a little too much of a derp to be trusted with that. He probably shouldn't even be looking at his data! It's just. That last edited date. Xisuma doesn't edit his own player data. That way lies madness. He's, uh, pretty sure he knows some people who went a little mad doing that. So the fact of the matter is--well, it's not the only file that's been edited recently, he tells himself. Just because it's a lot of memory files that seem to have been edited, as well as access permissions--that's... normal enough for a new season, right?

He's...

He doesn't notice his other self walk up behind him.

"Oh, hey Xisuma. You finished gathering materials for our next build, then?" Evil Xisuma says. All of Xisuma's hairs stand on end.

"I mean, I've gathered enough to get started," Xisuma says.

"Pity. I was really hoping you'd manage to get everything. I thought maybe we'd finish today, but I guess we can't now."

"I--you're right. I'm really sorry."

"No, no, don't worry, don't worry, my friend," Evil Xisuma says. "We probably couldn't have finished today anyway, even if you said you'd try for it."

Xisuma's heart is in his throat. "Sorry, my head's just been. You know how I am. Silly me, forgetting things."

Evil Xisuma shakes his head. "It's awfully lucky I came back this season. Think of all the important things you'd be forgetting without reminders!"

Xisuma looks down and away.

"Gosh, and now you're... playing around in the admin console?"

"Oh!" Xisuma says. "It's, er, nothing really big..."

"Can I see it?"

He barely resists the urge to close out of his player data and hide that's what he'd been looking at. He doesn't know why he wants to hide it. It's not like--well, if Evil Xisuma got mad about it, it would be... right, wouldn't it? Because, well, Xisuma knows full well he shouldn't be looking at or editing his own player data. Editing your own data is the way to madness, and Xisuma, well, he's been so tired lately. He could easily accidentally hit a button. He could easily accidentally hit delete. He has root access, after all.

His heart is in his throat again. He shuffles his feet. "Sure," he says, finally. "I, er, I promise, I wasn't doing anything. I just noticed the last edited date on, uh, files that aren't automatically created by the system? And I thought, gosh, that's weird. I'd only been in there to check on Impulse, really, after he'd had some lag issues. I was just finishing up. It's nothing--the date's weird, though, right? That's all I was noticing."

He watches Evil Xisuma's fingers scroll through all of Xisuma's data. It's not quite fast enough that Xisuma isn't sure he's reading it, and suddenly, Xisuma feels very small.

Finally, Evil Xisuma hands Xisuma's tablet with the admin console open back to him. Xisuma looks down, and Evil Xisuma has closed out of the player data again.

"You just forgot the last maintenance date," Evil Xisuma says.

"Really?" Xisuma says.

"Oh, yeah, for sure. You're so tired lately. You silly derp. You've just been forgetting things easily. You should really get more rest!"

"Oh, but then we won't finish our projects," Xisuma says.

"I guess we wouldn't," Evil Xisuma says back.

"It's just--it's. Most of the time, access permission for player memories isn't edited during maintenance, and I just--I don't remember putting your name down?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

Xisuma tries to think.

"I don't know," he says finally, small, unable to meaningfully articulate anything about what's wrong with it. "I guess it only makes sense, if I'm forgetting things so easily."

"Exactly! Gosh, we make a good team," Evil Xisuma says, and he smiles at Xisuma. Xisuma crookedly smiles back.

"Yeah, we do," Xisuma agrees.

"Don't pull that out again unless I say so, okay?"

"Okay," Xisuma agrees automatically, and then he knows he will not. It makes sense. If he was upsetting himself over nothing like this, why, imagine what he'd do if he could open it whenever? He'd just constantly be upsetting himself!

"Now, my friend, let's return to building the Evil Empire."

"Let's!" agrees Xisuma, and just like that, the entire encounter slips from his mind.

[irrationalattachment]

cookie is my normie roommate. when she sat down the other day, hit her vape and uttered these words i was shaken to my core.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Folks often make fun of the fact that Ernest says "my brother" instead of "our brother" during the Frankensteins' reunion after William's death as if throwing shade at Victor but like

There's some 10-ish years age gap between Ernest and William, for Victor and William it's 17. William was most likely not even a year old when Victor left to university and there's been radio silence from him ever since. Victor and William literally don't know each other, for pretty much William's whole life Ernest has been his only brother. It was just the two of them and Liz, Victor was never part of it. So it's natural that Ernest would slip like that.

Victor lost the idea of a brother but Ernest actually lost a brother

[nedeii]

[moonscape]

apparently the confessions blog is posting dumb takes we have to put it down now