#incidental architecture

[incidentalcomics]

[redwolf]

Incidental Architecture designed Tree House in St Ives, NSW -- via ArchDaily

[bleachbleachbleach]

On the topic of wheels, what do you think of Akon's giant cart? It was really funny to me that it only appears in two panels of the manga, but because of the nature of animation, they had to show him pushing that thing around for like 3 solid minutes. I'm a little disappointed they couldn't have come up with something to put in it, some writhing tentacles or something. Do you think the Squad 12ers ever push each other around in these things when it gets real late in the lab and they're feeling punchy? Has Rin ever napped in one?

There probably aren't more wheels in Soul Society because they are simply too powerful. Plus, too many simple machines and the physics of the place becomes just a little *too* legible and other things start breaking down. It's a delicate trade-off, and there's a faction of the 12th that privately believes that although the headliner balance that always gets talked about in Soul Society is the souls (it being the eponymous balance, and the one most directly related to the present shinigami mandate), it's actually the wheels you need to watch out for. (It's worth noting that, yes, of course this 12th faction is related to the Train Guys underground, being that the train 1) has wheels, and 2) is a Very Important thing in Soul Society that almost no one else thinks about regularly.)

Indeed, the train and these carts share some phylogenetic relation, though of course it's quite distant. But not so distant that most shinigami in the 12th aren't careful about how they comport themselves around the carts, as rumor has it they sometimes exhibit a mind of their own and a few of them can be very persuasive. (It's not unusual to push an empty cart around for three whole minutes with seemingly not ask or destination in mind, just to diffuse some of the animacy of the damn thing. Akon usually tries not to take the carts for a walk without some other express purpose, for efficiency's sake, but Nemu's needs don't often align with efficiency's sake, so they walk. They talk. They push an empty cart nowhere.)

Rin's heard all the warnings. He is also friends with most of the cart-walking shinigami (who are usually not Akon, and tend to have fairly high turnover because sometimes they just *disappear* and it's never been proven whether they were called to volunteer for what is listed in the budget as "other experiments" or whether the carts took them for a walk), because he is generally pretty excited about the carts, given his interest in Little Guys:

[Bleach e134]

One day he hopped in one, and was suddenly overtaken by the feeling that he should nap in it, as in a rowboat headed for a waterfall (according to the cart, this was a good thing).

When he woke up, he wasn't anywhere he recognized, though the tracks in the dirt (and even the hard stone--grooves worn into it as though wheels had been tracing this place for a long, long time) suggest he was not the first to find himself there. It was cold, but surprisingly dry, with a brine to the air like a sea without water. As his eyes adjusted to the dark and the rest of his sensorium to the nature of the reishi here, he realized he was in some kind of cavern. It felt a little like the walls of the Seireitei, the seki-sekki they were made from. Perhaps that was what made this place, too.

Whether he was there for a few hours or a week or several years, he's not sure, but at some point he fell asleep again and when he woke, he was back in the lab. Based on the date on the calendar, it had in fact been months, but no one could remember missing him, or else were playing a very elaborate game where they pretended not to for the sake of the bit; and Rin can't begin to guess which was more likely, because that commitment to indeterminacy is the nature of the 12th. All his work was... done... He wasn't behind on anything. But that only meant either his colleagues had done his work for the sake of the bit (less unlikely than it sounds--if there's one thing that truly unites the Gotei, it's not duty to serve but duty to the bit), or he'd managed to be in two places, two states, at once. He'd been in the cart and not in the cart. Naturally.

After his return, a bulletin did go out, though. A revision to the guest rules, which outside visitors to the 12th would all now need to sign:

Don't touch anything.

[ego-sum-arbor]

Agghhhh I hate buildings

[mothmiso]

Casablanca (2) (3) (4) by TheBookofGinko

[thedragonagelesbian]

@hexblooddruid replied to your post “im obsessed with what yiseeril was feeling upon...”:

Ahhh I was wondering how Yiseeril was going to treat the flock post reveal. Delicious

​yeah!!! it's a really interesting tension, where in private to members of the inner circle yiseeril is very consistently like 'that was neither andraste nor divine justinia that was a spirit nothing more nothing less and its words arent worth dwelling on' (which prompted mother giselle to start quoting scripture at her about how wise she was for not listening to a demon-- there's so much to unpack there, that in yiseeril's spiritual crisis she encounters a phenomenon that is genuinely unexplained and could be opened to ambiguous theological interpretation but instead slips back on the more dogmatic normative perspective) but feels obligated to keep up the public appearance of having been chosen/saved/ordained, even as she's easing up on the scope of those claims (i.e., talking to josephine afterward, when she asks you how the inquisition should respond to the rumors about andraste's actual involvement, you have two affirmative options-- one doubling down on being andraste's voice, and one preaching a more banal message of love & acceptance in a difficult time. and yiseeril chose the latter)

i don't think it's occurred to yiseeril that whether she believes herself is ultimately irrelevant. or like... she's always known that it was a tool that could be leveraged regardless of the facts and her own personal feelings, but for the whole of the game up to this point, the core of that tool has been genuine faith, and with the sincerity of that faith removed or cast into doubt, she worries that the entire house of cards she's built around it--around being andraste's favorite princess--will collapse.

overlooking the crueler reality that history will invariably say she was a good andrastian, regardless of how her personal feelings shift or how & to what extent she transmits those personal feelings to the thedosian public

(much as history says that she was an unharrowed mage who voluntarily submitted to the rite of tranquility)

like. it was always performance, because that's who yiseeril is and she enjoys it & spinning magnificent stories and lies, but at least then there was a kernel of something she thought was true, and now that's gone, and she's realized she's not enjoying this as much anymore, but she can't. stop. dancing.

[dlyarchitecture]

[vintagerpg]

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was born in 1720, in Venice, though he spent much of his working life in Rome and its environs, and died there in 1778. His etchings, which tend to be of architectural or archaeological subjects, were some of the finest of his day and are still astounding today.

For our purposes, his series “Carceri d’invenzione,” or “Imaginary Prisons,” is probably the most important in terms of its influence on RPGs — these 16 prints depict impossible subterranean spaces, part jail, part labyrinth, full of strange machines, hanging chains and baffling architecture. You know, like a dungeon. I believe, in some way, these illustrations have been absorbed into a kind of collective unconscious when it comes to the idea of an RPG dungeon. And, in the D&D cosmology; I think it is no coincidence that the prison plane is called Carceri, even if it doesn’t look like something Piranesi dreamed up.

Piranesi’s other work isn’t without influence, though. He was obsessed with ruins and underground spaces, the cavernous remains of aqueducts and other more obscure places. Many of his aboveground views have exaggerated scales, or fanciful elements. It all looms. This Taschen published book is a collection of all Piranesi’s etchings and flipping through, I dare you to not have dozens of ideas for adventures. I didn’t choose Piranesi as incidental illustrations for the appendix of my book by accident, after all!

[why-bless-your-heart]

One of my first experiences with somebody who bought into conspiracy theories (and whose wife, incidentally, sold essential oils), was when I was a teenager and he explained to me that the twin towers falling was a planned demolition because buildings don’t fall straight down.

Except what he didn’t know was that I had a children’s book about architectural engineering published pre-2001 that talked specifically about how they were able to make the towers as tall as they did without sacrificing structural integrity, which is that instead of the usual

— — —

| | | | | |

— — —

column support, they used support just around the perimeter, like so

— — —

| |

— — —

AND that if you had a brother who loved to play with kapla blocks, like mine did, you could watch a tall structure that’s hollow in the center fall almost straight down any day. But I was a teenager, so I just nodded politely and told him that was very interesting and changed the subject.

[reason-with-the-underdog]

kaveh's brain? massive, tremendous, huge his accomplishments? innumberable his finances? uhh...

there's something so sexy about kaveh incidentally being the senior architecture researcher mentioned in the descriptions of multiple sumeru textiles but his contributions and side interest in weaving/looms get overlooked because he didn't think its something to brag about.....

like, he has so many other accomplishments its easy to forget that he helped save sumeru's traditional weaving industry from being overrun by mass-produced cheap imitations.... just another tuesday for kaveh ya know

anyways here's the story of kaveh's career (and him getting entangled in several different innovative research projects and managing a busy career and being a young man in his 20s with a lot of disposable income and not talking to a Specific Person..!)

told through letters, interviews, chats, comment sections, invoices, & more!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58528708/

[redwolf]

Incidental Architecture designed Tsubo Niwa House in North Sydney, NSW -- via ArchDaily

[fraudulent-cheese]

Fuck it, here's another post with a bunch of TD headcanons!

Gwen has sharp nails, like claws almost. They're not even that long most of the time

She also has pretty bad Rejection Sensetive Dysphoria, but she's working on it (and without being filmed!)

Ellody's major is in astrophysics, while Mary's is in Architecture

Trent would definitely love Alex G's music. Zoey would also like Alex G's music

If the two world tour newbies were to participate in the Awake-A-Thon, they would have widely different performances; Alejandro would not do well at the challenge whatsoever, he'd loose before the 48h mark by like ten hours. Sierra on the other hand is used to having a complete shit garbage sleep schedule and could probably handle a week without sleep if she had something she could fixate on

Dakota slightly glows in the dark, most obviously seen in her eyes, hair and skin (or at least, the skin not covered by scales or fur). It's phosphorescent, so she cannot see in the dark, nor could she use herself as a light source, but it's still neat.

Speaking of glowing in the dark, Alejandro's eyes glow in the dark in the same way a cat's eyes does in pictures. He's just built different. This has freaked at least one other person in the cast.

Izzy would be strong enough to convince Courtney to do weed. Unstopable Force VS Immovable wall.

Cinderhella (the person Noah's mentionned in his TDWT bio) is Kitty. This is just because i think Kitty and Noah being online friends is cute

SPEAKING OF WHICH, i think Kitty at some point would probably stream herself playing FNAF 2 or something to Noah and at first he'd probably only watch it because 1. she's his friend and 2. he's doing it 'ironically' (he will genuinely get into it). Incidentally Kitty's pretty good at whatever game she'd stream

Bridgette and Fin from Stoked are friends, they met the year before TDI since they were attending the same surfing resort.

I don't think Sierra would be scared of spiders whatsoever. They could crawl on her face and she'd barely react

The one thing Duncan and Heather have in common? They'd fucking celebrate when their parents FINALLY divorce.

Ella can imitate bird calls perfectly >:)

[sasster]

Power

This is the longest week of these guys' lives, huh? [doc]

--

“How are you gonna get ‘im to help?” Archie finally asked as they trudged on. The cafe they’d set out for appearing in the distance, peppered among a string of other small businesses along the otherwise desolate road, must have shaken the thought loose.

And, truthfully, it was a simple and warranted question; one that he probably should have asked before setting out to random cafes with a guy that he should hate. This fact did not stop Cylion from being, on some level, annoyed. He’d been enjoying the peace and quiet that they spent so long walking in and the sound of Archie’s voice just reminded him of the drain his life was sent spiraling down. The yellow blood clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

“By asking him to help.” He said as he adjusted the hood and jacket that he wore to conceal his wings. They fluttered against the bondage in protest. “Like a normal person.”

That was when Archie stopped walking and Cylion did the same a few paces ahead, turning to look at him in the same movement. The purple blood had a look of confusion draped over his features, a grimace that didn’t fit quite right on his otherwise smooth face and his eyebrows arched high. The knife he’d been spinning in his hand went still.

“You’re going to treat Dorili Duxile like a normal person.”

“I am,” Cylion stated simply, decided that staying still was more uncomfortable for his anxious wings, and turned to continue walking. “Drives him crazy.”

Archie did not let the distance between them grow any larger, crossing it in a few short skips before he resumed keeping an easy pace. “Pissin’im off will make ‘im wanna help?”

“More or less. If not that, then the potential for pissing Persep off.”

A breathless laugh escaped Archie and Cylion felt that the man must have been walking closer to him than when they left his father’s territory for the likes of the lands governed by His Indomitable Rhetoric and His Unshakable Presence, because the laugh rang louder in his ear than expected. “You guys have a weird ass friendship.”

“Friends is a word.”

“Right, right,” he was twirling the knife around his fingers again. “You’re too good for friends, I forgot.”

Cylion did not bother concealing the eyeroll that comment earned him as they advanced on the cafe.

—

Maybe no one really knew what to expect when walking into an establishment that was not on the House of Restoration’s home turf. What could be expected of a place that might keep a descendant of Remora Ofidis gleefully employed? Or maybe, more likely, Cylion just needed to get out more, because what he wasn’t expecting was for the place to be so damn cute.

The walls were not the industrial dark grey that he’d come to associate with the architecture of greater Alternia, but a softer shade that almost offended the eye in its lightness, with splashes of pastel colors here and there that brought a taste of nostalgia to his mouth.

He had not entered Nymira’s room since the day she left. Tried very hard not to think about it, even. He cleared his throat to dispel the guilt that started to build up.

Incidentally, the sound drew the attention of the barista that’d been chatting with an, admittedly, intimidatingly large blue blood that was showing off way too much chest hair near where food gets served.

The barista moved back to the register and adjusted their glasses before speaking. “What can I get you—” Arsami glanced between them and stopped. After a few solid seconds, they sighed and their tail flicked behind them irritably. “Weasel sits at a booth in the back.”

“What if we were just on a date?” Archie asked, feigning insult and bumping a shoulder against Cylion for emphasis. Cylion only groaned.

“Are you?” They asked dismissively, with their attention already turned back to their hairy friend.

“Nah.”

“That’s what I thought. Weasel’s somewhere over there.” They pointed to the other side of the cafe and reabsorbed themself in their conversation.

Cylion let his gaze follow the direction they pointed in, allowing the task to pull his mind off of the uncomfortable proximity that he’d been sharing with Archie as of late. It took even more energy to will away the idea that the pair at the counter were now likely gossiping about them and their alleged coupledom. He tried to focus on whether or not he could see his quarry from where he stood instead.

“Y’believe that?” Archie bemoaned, “Won’t even take our date seriously.”

“Maybe it has something to do with me being out of your league.”

“Doubt that—” He’d started to protest, but Cyllion was already walking toward one of the larger corner booths at the back of the cafe. It was being rattled by some commotion that seemed to go ignored by the barista.

“C’mon, Magpie! Look at what you did to my danish!” Weasel’s whine could be heard above the sound of the scuffling. “I was really looking forward to it.”

Walking up to the table, Cylion was not surprised to see that the source of the noise violation was Weasel stretched across it, using one hand to pin a deranged looking violet blood to the wooden surface. With his other hand, he grasped at the man’s wrist. A knife thrashed wildly between them. There was also the flattened dessert in question, smeared across the table in a pinkish smudged mush.

Archie whistled at the sight. “Man, Cylion, why don’t we ever do knife play like that?”

The two struggled in the booth against each other for a moment longer and watching them like that made Cylion’s wings twitch uncomfortably in their restraints.

“Yeah, Cy, you gotta,” Weasel grunted, trying and failing to grab at the knife, the attempt resulted in his friend nearly wiggling free only to be slammed down again. “You gotta keep it sexy.”

“In public,” Cylion criticized, stomaching the uneasiness that the display of Weasel’s strength stirred within him. Something about it felt unnatural. “I’ll pass.”

“That’s part of the sexiness— Ah, shit! Fuck!”

A spurt of green shot out across his hand, Magpie having taken his distraction as an opportunity to squeeze out of his grip and sink his teeth right into him. Then, when Weasel retreated to nurse the wound, the violet blood swung the hand that held the knife and plunged it practically to the handle into his arm.

Weasel grunted and reeled, but on the whole seemed to regard it as little more than an inconvenience. He made a face, twisted the knife out with a sickening squelch, and with little ceremony drove it through his friend’s hand, effectively pinning him back to the table.

“You’ll scare our company away.” Weasel chided, giving his own wounds a look of indifference. “Magpie, this is Cylion and…” He finally paid full attention to who was standing before him. “His new boytoy, Archie Roatus?” He grinned.

“Yep!” Archie said at the same time that Cylion said, “God, no.”

Seemingly cured of the aggression that previously gripped him, Magpie waved with a chipper flourish and chirped, “Hello!” in polite greeting and pulled on the knife to free himself. “I am going to go replace Weasel’s danish now. Can I treat the two of you to anything?”

Cylion shook his head and slid past him to move into the booth just as he was getting out of it, severely uninterested in the sort of transactions these freaks have going on.

“All good, next time.” Archie declined and scooted in beside Cylion.

Magpie shrugged, “Okay. Do let me know if you change your mind!” And then he was gone in the direction of the front counter, a pep in his step.

“Are you two about to ask me to be your third?” Weasel asked when his friend disappeared from view, giving his new arm wound an inquisitive poke. 

“God, what is it with everyone today? No.”

“Shame. I’d make a hell of a third.”

Cylion stared at his stupid grinning face long and hard, the temper he worked to swallow fighting its way to the surface in the form of a scowl he could not keep away. No one was taking him as seriously as he was used to and he could feel the frustration bubbling into a fist the longer he thought about it. “Find that satisfaction elsewhere.” He said so low it may as well have been a growl.

For whatever it was worth, Archie didn’t say anything to prod at the idea further, maybe sensing the irritation that was no doubt roiling off of him in waves.

Weasel got the idea soon after and raised both hands up with a smile, already drying blood made a steady trail down the side of the wounded one. “I’m just kidding. Lighten up, buddy.”

Cylion narrowed his eyes.

“Right, right. This is still about Persep, is it?” He glanced between the unlikely duo, no doubt doing his own mental math on the match up. “Abductions aren’t out of character for him. Nor is the disappearing act. He always turns up to gloat when he succeeds though.”

The unuseful exposition must have been for Archie’s sake, because he did not say anything that Cylion was not intimately aware of.

“I am not happy to wait around for him this time, Dorili. I need your help to track him down.”

“I’m honored, real touched, that you have so much faith in me. I already told you, though, I haven’t been able to sniff the guy out for some time now.” He plucked something imaginary from the air for added emphasis. “The thread is just gone. Poof.”

“Yes, but I’ve been thinking—”

“I bet you have. Let me stop you there; there’s nothing to exploit. No holes.”

Weasel’s smugness rubbed roughly against Cylion’s skin. He snapped his mouth shut and ground his teeth. There was a way to word his next thought, something to force the bastard’s hand.

Somewhere in his pride.

Of course there was something to exploit.

“I read somewhere,” he started again, suddenly levelling his own smug grin at the jade blood. “That the Gracious Provider—”

“Oh, don’t start on that man.

“—Once tracked down an abducted grub by following such impossible threads.” 

“Dude, don’t.”

“It’s just what I heard, Dorili. Rather impressive. No one’d seen or heard of the thing for so long. Whatever they did to scrub the kid from the face of Alternia was potent. Maybe someone like Arkiro here might’ve been able to get to them,” He nodded his head in Archie’s direction. “But they didn’t have that. You know, in their desperation they finally asked the Provider for his help,”

A pang of satisfaction surged through the former prophet as he watched Weasel start to squirm in front of him. It had not been so long since he last used that silver tongue of his to bend the world around him to his will, but god he would be lying if he said he didn’t miss it. The powerlessness of the evening fell away as he shrugged into his old clothes.

Weasel mumbled something noncommittal under his breath, Cylion hardly registered it. He carried on his sermon.

“And the Provider provides, does he not? He may not have been able to get to the kid immediately—”

“But he was able to follow traces back to people that were recently in touch with it. Eventually forcing the information out of the parties involved.” Weasel finished the thought with a roll of the eyes. “This isn’t the same thing.”

Cylion paused, perked up in a way that made his wings flutter as best they could in their current conditions. Dorili Duxile was an easy one to get around the finger. “Because you’re not as good as Persep or because you’re not as good as Redivi?”

A sneer peeled Weasel’s lips back, baring his fangs in threat.

Archie shifted slightly, nearly imperceptibly, beside him. Protective?

“You know perfectly well—”

“Yes, yes. I understand your philosophy on generational excellence, Dorili. I’d like to see it in action.”

“You’re such an ass.” Weasel growled.

“What would you do if it were Rosira?”

Weasel said nothing, though Cylion could tell he'd acquiesced to the favor, tossing his gaze to the side as Magpie returned with the promised pastry.

Archie relaxed again and Cylion let out a sigh.

There wasn’t a damn thing in the world the three of them wouldn’t do for their sisters.

[hyperpotamianarch]

So, after seeing @half-shadowgalra's post about what if Bianca stayed alive, I thought of analyzing the topic. So, my take on what might change, following the details of canon I can remember:

Firstly, let us assume that Bianca accidentally drove Talos into the Labyrinth, and just got severe head trauma and amnesia instead of dying. Zoe, Percy and co, however, still think she died and continue under this assumption. What happens next?

Well, as far as I know, only one god might actually know Bianca is still alive - her father, Hades. Who, I might say, is not present for the Winter Solstice council and doesn't seem like he'll inform anyone. He would want his daughter safe, probably, so there's a chance he'll send Alecto to find her and bring her somewhere safe - possibly the underworld. No guarantee that the Erinyes would succeed, though.

As to what we see in canon... In his angry burst, Nico mentions feeling Bianca being judged in the underworld, and having nightmares. I'm going to have to assume his nightmares will be altered. And, well... This certainty of her death, which was another sign of them being children of Hades, will likely not exist. How will it change things? Well, I think Nico will still be angry at Percy and consider him guilty of Bianca's death. Maybe. After all, the lack of certainty he had in another timeline can't actually help him realize Bianca is alive. He can't know he would've felt it if she died - even if he started feeling such things, he probably didn't understand that well enough yet. He might have some doubts, though. That's still a minor change, all things considered.

Next time Bianca's death affects the plot is the Iris-net messages. However, we might need to explore first what happened to Bianca. Especially since she not only fell into one of the most dangerous pieces of magical architecture, she did so in a time it was being explored by a whole bunch of people. At any given moment, she could encounter Luke's forces, Clarisse, Daedalus or one of the creatures looking for her. So, you're Bianca Di Angelo, daughter of Hades, who's trapped in a maze underground and have amnesia. What can you do?

Well, I think her bow and arrows are either right beside her or a summon away - the latter is going to be problematic, because she doesn't remember how to summon them. She'll probably have her hunting knife. Oh, and did I mention that she won't remember her training, whatever amount she had?

I don't think canon gives us much indication on what she might do in such a situation. Part of the question is how much she forgot. And since we're makeing this up anyway, we can go for the option we find the most fun! Oh, and I forgot Nico is joining everyone in the Labyrinth pretty quickly. Either way, I think I'll go (regarding her memories) with forgetting everything except for her brother. And English, though it will be fun to have her speak some Italian dialect for some time. Oh, and her name. Easier that way.

So, Bianca wakes up in a cave. She only remembers her name and that she has a brother called Nico. Who is, for some reason, not present. She hears weird sounds and runs away from them.

Now here's another bit: we don't know what Bianca's powers include beyond the ability to permanently kill skeletal warriors. Incidentally, we have another canonical Pluto kid who can control caves. Now sure, Hazel and Nico supposedly have between them Hades' two dominions: riches and death. No reason to keep them separate, however. Bianca can have some power over underground spaces. We have seen Hazel interact with the Labyrinth in the House of Hades, even manipulate it - though she was using magic instead of demigod powers, so we can't be sure if someone with similar powers but no magic could do it. I do think it's possible, though - especially without anyone directly resisting her. It'd be mostly instinctive and unintentional, though, so there's no telling where it would lead her.

Now, where would Bianca find herself? It's hard to tell. Everyone goes through the arena eventually, but it takes time. Bianca can get to many places, Camp Half-Blood included as well as Geryon's farm or the underworld. There really is no telling. Meanwhile, Nico is looking into ways to find his sister and bring her back. Does he realize she's alive? Or does he still try to learn from Minos? As far as I know, we were never told how he made his way to the underworld. Did Hades send Alecto to collect him? If so, does that mean we'll have a family reunion sooner rather than later? Or maybe does Bianca inadvertently run away from it in effort to stay alive and, ironically enough, find her brother?

One possible change would be that when Hades gets Nico, he tells him (at some point) that his sister is still alive. Not in an attempt to console him - Hades doesn't really know about that - but as a throwaway line when Nico mentions her death. I think I can picture that. Nico still runs away, but this time to find his living sister - all that assuming he somehow got to Hades' palace in the time between the Titan's Curse and the Battle of the Labyrinth. In such a case, he might not turn to Minos, which would significantly change BotL. So... Maybe the best option here is Nico not getting to Hades' palace/Hades being too secretive about it all.

Now, no Percy Jackson story is complete without old myths underlining events: Percy isn't compared to Heracles for naught, there are a couple of parallels between them - at least in monster slaying and such things. Sadly, I can't say I'm an expert in Greek mythology, and I'm not sure I know enough to create a story paralleling any myth. So, I kind of hope someone more experienced could come and give a fitting story - only thing I can think of right now is Atalanta, the huntress who took a vow of virginity, joined the Argonauts for a time and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian boar, drawing first blood and thus winning the boar's hide - which eventually lead to much strife. Now, one would think this boar was used in the past, like in tTC - but nope, it was a different boar, so I'm sure having some taste of the Atalanta myth could work. Kind of. Maybe, somehow, I don't know.

So, Bianca is dealing with her own stuff. Maybe, because I just thought of it, she can also have a taste of Cadmus' story - the guy looking for his disappearing sister who went on to found a city instead. I'll have to think about it for a bit, especially since I think both Atalanta and him had a weird "happily ever after in animal form" thing. Cadmus and his wife became snakes, while Atalanta and the husband she eventually did marry (thus breaking her vow of virginity, though the consequences were somehow unrelated) were turned into lions. Huh.

Anyway, she deals with that while running away from Alecto. Nico tries to find a way to reassure his sister while Minos hides the fact she's actually still alive from him. And maybe Bianca encounters Luke.

Now, the repercussions of Bianca being alive include Percy not getting the Iris-net calls about Nico. Which would mean that, if they meet in Geryon's farm, Percy has no way to convince Nico that Bianca doesn't want what he does. Which leaves us at an impasse, so Nico would head out with Minos straight away... Probably. Here's the thing: Bianca being down there means she can be found by someone. I think Clarisse isn't a good option for that, though. So, what if Luke found her? Would she join him? Or be killed? Well, obviously not the latter, we didn't save her so that someone else might kill her. But since we want her as a hero, we'd prefer her not to serve the titans, right?

So, after some thought: maybe she got to the arena and was forced to compete. Her fighting talent was promising, so Luke suggested she join them. And then... I think she run.

This is just a vague outline, and you may have noticed this is stream of thought writing. So, umm... well, I can only say that next she's probably told to give up the search for her brother and follow a cow, which probably should lead her to the huntresses, but instead of following it she'll keep looking and will find Nico, because I honestly don't like how easily Cadmus gave up on Europa just because the oracle told him. Curses be upon Zeus. Coming to think of it, the myth of Cadmus might fit well with the theme of BotL, because Cadmus is Minos' uncle. Yeah, it's all still stream of thought.

Bianca will probably meet Nico before the whole "king of ghosts" fiasco. I think this should affect the larger story, but I'm not sure how. So, umm... Let's leave it here for now?

So, a suggestion to a more organized outline: Bianca is in the Labyrinth. She runs away from some monster and accidentally finds herself in the company of some half-bloods loyal to Kronos. At first she journeys with them and they slay monsters together. However, after having drawn first blood from a very strong monster, some of the half-bloods became angry at her for hurting their egos or something? So she run away from them? Then she gets the magical cow, maybe Alecto finds her, and then she continues to search for her brother, who she maybe finds on the verge of killing someone to bring her back to life.

I might try to write it at some point, but I'm not very good at finishing stories. So, I guess we'll see.

[copperbadge]

Hey Sam, it looks like I'll be in Chicago for a few days next May. I'm going through all the typical sight seeing websites, but do you have any recommendations for a first time visitor? I'm not huge on architecture, parks or crowds. History, art and music are a big yes. I'm considering the Big Bus hop on/off tour for practicality. Any tips would be appreciated!

I used to have a "guide to Chicago" that I would link people to, but I think it probably badly needs updating, since a lot of what it talks about is pre-pandemic, and some places don't exist anymore (which is not necessarily down to the pandemic, Chicago is an ever-changing place). RIP Apocalypse McDonalds. Definitely before you follow anyone's advice including mine, look up what you're going to go see to make sure it's still there.

So, couple of quick recommendations; thanks for telling me some of what you're into, that always helps :) I'm going to assume you're either staying somewhere close to downtown or willing to trek into the city from outside it. A lot of people who tell me they're visiting Chicago are actually visiting Rosemont, which is a nice place but not Chicago and not super close to most of what I'll be talking about. Chicago is extremely large, and if you are staying around the O'Hare airport area (Rosemont) it will be an hour by public transit or at least $50 by rideshare/cab to get downtown.

I will say whenever I'm visiting somewhere, my first stop is always Atlas Obscura, which usually lists the really weird shit to do. :D

I've never done the Big Bus tour, but it's much nicer to do it in May than, say, December, and the people I know who've done it found it a convenient and inexpensive way to get around the city without having to deal with public transit, so while I can't personally recommend, I've only heard good things.

I know you said you weren't into architecture, but if you want to see a lot of Chicago in a very relaxed fashion, while incidentally getting some architecture knowledge, it's tough to beat the Chicago Architecture Center's boat tour. You just get on the boat, buy a drink if you want one, sit back, and drift down the river and back while someone narrates the history of Chicago architecture to you. You'll also, in May, see lots of other folks out on the river and get a real taste of Chicago's downtown scene. If you'd like to see the river without the cost of the architecture tour, I'd check out the water taxis and see if there's an opportunity to take one when going between other places you're visiting. They do a lot of tourist-destination stops.

For history, the Chicago History Museum is a natural fit and a lot of walking tours leave from the museum, although most of them are architecture :D I would also HIGHLY recommend Adam Selzer's Mysterious Chicago tours; Selzer is a very smart local historian and if you'd like to do reading ahead of time I also highly recommend his book Ghosts of Chicago. If he's offering a tour of Rose Hill or Graceland cemeteries, I'd jump on that; Graceland was my old "home" cemetery (it was literally my backyard for about a decade) and I think it's extremely interesting and beautiful. If you do go to Graceland, I can recommend Byron's nearby as a great place to get a burger, fries, Italian Beef, or a hot dog. But pretty much any tour he offers I would recommend whether I've been on it or not, he's great.

For art, again, the natural choice is the Art Institute Museum; to avoid lines, I'd recommend buying your museum ticket ahead of time and entering through the Modern Wing on Monroe Street, which is less attractive but also way less crowded than the "Lions" entrance on Michigan Avenue. I always recommend people make sure not to miss the Thorne Miniatures (they're in the basement so easy to miss, but any docent can direct you there) and the Ugliest Vase in the World. They move the vase around quite a bit, but if you check the website for the Londonderry Vase before you go, it'll tell you where to find it. Its hideousness must be seen in person. Also make sure not to miss the Chagall windows, they're off in a corner by the entrance to the cafe.

I'm not really much on music so my reccs are weaker there, but if you'd like some Chicago blues in a tourist-friendly environment, Kingston Mines is good, as is Buddy Guy's (which also has great food and is closer to downtown). If you like fried chicken, Harold's Chicken Shack is near Buddy Guy's (it's all over, it's a small chain, but that's usually the easiest one for people to find). The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is pretty great for classical music, and in the summer they often have special guests. If you like the NPR show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", they record live in downtown Chicago at the Fine Arts building; you usually have to buy pretty far in advance, keep an eye on tickets here.

More general recommendations: the Museum of Science and Industry is really fun, especially with kids but even without, but it's also the furthest out from downtown and can take some work to get to. Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium are both fun times, although the Shedd is kinda pricey I think. They're right next to each other though so a day doing both is convenient. If you are doing any of the museums, keep your eyes peeled for the "Mold A Rama" machines, where for $5 you can watch the machine injection-mold you a souvenir. Often the museums have custom machines for various exhibits (the Death exhibit at the Field had a skull one, for instance).

There are two train systems in Chicago: the "El" (the color-coded trains you see in movies all the time) and the Metra. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TAKE THE METRA TRAIN ANYWHERE. The Metra is a commuter rail designed for people who know how to use it, and they don't announce stops or even sometimes have signage; often the train won't stop at a platform unless it's told to during certain times of day. It is extremely easy to get extremely lost on the Metra and end up somewhere you do not want to be. If you are taking public transit, even if it seems less convenient, stick to buses and the El trains. The El and Metra run on different tracks so it's easy to avoid the Metra, but I always like to warn folks.

Okay, I think that's the highlights, minus some parks and such; I hope you have a great time! Feel free to hit me if you have questions.

[serialsunset]

Okay I wanna talk about the environments of levels 4 and 5 of the og Castlevania, because they are my favourites in the whole game and exemplify what I love about it. This is long so CUT

First of all as a general point I love that the game has the map cutscene between stages showing you exactly where you’re going. Even in the nonsense architecture of draculas castle it grounds you in a precise location, and it strengthens the feeling that you are moving through a location instead of just beating levels. (Side note, I love that the caverns are unmapped, such a good detail)

Level 4 goes the extra mile by giving us an extra cutscene for context as to how we end up where we are; we fell down this huge chasm, and now we’re in an underground cavern

Now this place is stunningly coloured, the blue against the orange not only makes the colours pop out against each other but it also pushes the blue wayyyyyy back into the background, so the caverns have a sense of scale, they feel huge! But when you come to the segment where you have to duck under the rocks, it still feels intensely claustrophobic, especially with bats and mermen still coming at you

Honestly this whole level could have just been ‘the cavern level’ and it would have worked, the music is fantastic and the environment stands out among the others in the game, there’s enough here to make a perfectly good and engaging level, but about halfway through they completely switch it up and have you actually escape and make it to the surface

After the closed-off caverns seeing that open sky feels genuinely refreshing! It helps that the music changes to Stalker as well, it’s a much calmer track than the tense and blood-pumping Walking on the Edge (even if I much prefer walking on the edge lol)

I love this section. Plant life overtaking crumbling architecture is always going to be a win for me, of course, but it also tells a story. More than just the regular decrepit nature of the castle, it feels neglected. The sky is open and empty and the only signs of life are the birds carrying fleamen and a lone white dragon guarding an entranceway (not even doing a great job considering if you hoof it you can just walk right past it).

The hallway once you get inside seems really simple, and it is, but that one little detail of the tunnel tells us everything we need to know; this is some kind of sewer. That explains why this part of the castle is so unpopulated, why it’s so close to the underground caverns, and why it seems so lightly guarded (who would bother breaking in through here).

And a detail that I find a bit sad, is when you arrive at the boss he’s not only spawned in, but he’s already moving. Most bosses in the game are already onscreen before the fight starts, but they’re in some kind of idle or resting state. The creature is just, kinda shuffling around down here. He’s not even that much of a threat, it’s Igor that causes all the problems. You get the impression that they just stuck him in this room just so that SOMETHING would be guarding the entrance and he just incidentally befriended one of the little wretched creatures that hang around outside.

And once you beat him you move onto level 5, which maintains continuity in how the sections of the castle are connected

We’re in the dungeon now, populated with fleamen and skeletons. This being connected to the sewer makes perfect sense, and adds more context to the reason the previous area was so sparsely populated (seriously WHO would break in through here). There’s not a whole lot to say about this section of the level, the colours aren’t as bold here but they add to the atmosphere and serve a great purpose for later

I will say I love the giant cells in this specific area, what’s in there?

Even if the changes aren’t as drastic as in level 4, this level tells a hell of a story. Because just like level 4 this isn’t merely the dungeon level, we’re ascending through different parts of the castle.

After you encounter the first axe knight (the first enemy in the level that’s not a skeleton or fleaman) there’s a noticeable switch-up in the background. The brickwork changes completely, coffins line the wall, there are shelves with beakers and test tubes and human brains in jars, and most horrifyingly we see human bodies laid on slabs under a strange apparatus. What I especially love is how each of these elements is introduced to the player slowly, you see them one at a time as you walk through the area and the horror is ramped up with each element.

Once again this location change makes perfect sense and adds to the horror, they are either taking prisoners and performing horrible experiments on them in this dingy laboratory, or they’re creating monstrosities up here and sending them to rot in the dungeon, perhaps even sending them to guard the sewer entrance. The areas flow so well into each other and we’re not even at my favourite switch-up in the level, because as we continue to ascend we end up in a VERY different location

Lush drapery? Neatly tiled walls? Glittering pillars? Paintings? Colour? When placed against what we’ve just been through this place is completely opulent, just compare the way those pillars look to the ones in the lab.

Now, we don’t have enough context to be able to tell what exactly this room is supposed to be, but I’ve always envisioned it as some sort of ballroom or dance hall, a place where parties are thrown so that important guests can come and fawn over how lavish everything is, all the while there are incomprehensible atrocities being committed just the next floor down. Or, if you want to go another way perhaps it could be a ploy meant to lure unsuspecting guests down to a fate worse than death (could The Creature in level 4 be dressed in evening wear?). No matter how you look at it this is a really cool piece of visual storytelling, and that’s part of the reason I love this game SO so much.

I, and I imagine most players, completely missed all of this the first few times I played Castlevania. It’s hard to appreciate the background details when you’re fighting for your life. But the more you play it and the better you get at it the more you get to breathe and actually take a look at your surroundings, and you’re rewarded for that! They absolutely didn’t have to go that extra mile but they did and I love that so much.

Maybe sometime I’ll talk more about the whole game like this (I also have a lot of love for level 3), but for now I just wanted to talk about these two levels specifically because every time I play the game I’m blown away all over again.