#our life games are the best games

[winnielight206]

Can't be the only one who thinks Renee should have a DLC or something when the game releases

Don't like the step 2 design tho, but whatever

[emptyrainbowz]

I hate everyone who’s taking about NEEDING to do Dan and Phil Crafts duo costumes for Halloween this year. I’m ALONE!!! I’m probably gonna dress up as Dan and call it a day!!!!

[eyrieofsynapses]

good evening, all. it is May the 25th. our lilacs are blooming, just as the ones at the Watch House did. and I am thinking about remembrance of the fallen, and GNU, and the love in commemoration.

y'know, I read Night Watch… oh, maybe a year ago and some months ago. and the lilac symbolism, the remembrance of the Watch, has always struck me with the depth of the emotion of it, the tangibility of it in the flowers. but I wasn't aware that today was the day until I saw commemorative posts, all that gorgeous artwork and more, on my dash.

I was also not aware, until now, that fans commemorated the day not only because of the book reference, but in support of Terry Pratchett and of those with Alzheimer's. which knocked me over a bit because of course, of course the group that would use GNU to honor him would do that. and… I've been thinking about GNU a lot, lately, and this caught me again.

I read Going Postal a bit ago, and reread it recently. both times, the parts about GNU made me tear up. this idea of the names, the memories, the lives of the clacks workers who dedicated themselves to ensuring that people heard each other's voices—all those names spoken again and again and again by that which they poured their souls into, winging along in the air as they could not, an eternal reminder that they were loved—how could that not touch a person's heart?

when I found out that fans online used it to memorialize him, I damn well cried. hell, I still tear up just thinking about it. do you know, there's a code for an HTTP header "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" written by Reddit users to put in webpages, where it goes unseen by the average user? and in 2015, when Netcraft took a survey, there were eighty-four thousand websites using it? it's eight years later—how many thousands upon thousands of websites have this now, do you think? how many little cables of light has his name flown along, now? how many times?

that alone is absurdly and unimaginably lovely in its own right, but… there's something else to it. there's something about remembering with the lilac sprigs every year, just as Vimes and those who were there remembered their dead. something about how, when we take up our lilac sprigs, we carry a little piece of the characters in our hearts, too. I kept trying to put my finger on why that makes me tear up the way it does. the conclusion I came to is this:

what greater way to honor a writer is there, but to honor them the way they did the characters they poured their heart and soul into? what better way to say we know you and you are not forgotten and your work and words and gifts to the world are held in our hearts forever than to remember them by their own words, their own vision? how else could we say you embodied all the good you believed in and wished to see in the world, but to memorialize them after the little pieces of their soul they wrapped in ink and put upon the page?

it is a knowing of the writer, to remember them in their way. it is not a worn-out faceless platitude, but a reminder that their work has been read and will continue to be, that the characters and world they loved enough to bring to life last just as their name does. such remembrance is warm and loving and delights in their memory even as it grieves.

and now Pratchett's name has been written in his tradition, over and over and over, across the vast plane of the Internet, where it will—with any luck—continue to fly for generations to come.

there is no way to truly express the beauty of that… but perhaps we can catch a glimpse of it in the lilacs, both ours and the Watch's.

[artist-ellen]

i am so sorry for spam liking your asoiaf art but im IN LOVE with it. i really disliked a lot of the costumes in GoT (and HotD for that matter) and i'm just in love with your redesigns and art style! i would love to see you do a redesign series for House of the Dragon!

Honestly…. I kind of loved it when people “spam” like things. Not only is it a great serotonin hit but it means art I did a while ago is still being found and enjoyed. Most SM these days only promotes the new and for such a fleeting moment that the hours and hours or work feel futile. So please, by all means, spam and like things to your hearts content!

I have been thinking a lot about what a HotD costume redesign would look like, my problem is that I have too many “new idea” for a series started or half formed. So we’ll see what is what, a part of me wants to have the shop side of things set up so I can pretend my art is making money before I go for more fanart 😅. Not being employed is stressful and the self-doubt is real… but I can’t complain too much, I could be a lot worse off.

May you have a fantastic rest of your day!! ✨

[rationalisms]

hi. i would just like to say that this is an attitude i've seen around increasingly often and i find it deeply baffling. like, genuinely could not relate any less to what is being expressed here.

personally, almost all media i'm obsessed with and talk about constantly is because i think it's good and i love talking about the ways in which it's good. yes, criticism can be fun and breed conversation, but so can positive critique. thoughtful, long-lasting engagement with a piece of media doesn't have to be negative. there are in fact ways for media to be good beyond "competent but generally unremarkable"?

and this is ymmv, but complaining about something is more the snack food of media criticism for me. it's fun and great in the moment and it absolutely is something i need to do regularly to feel normal. but i can't live off it. i need to experience genuine appreciation and esteem on a regular basis too, or i shrivel like a raisin. (expressed more seriously: the kind of critique i find actually nourishing in the sense that it allows me to refine what kind of art i would like to make, and what makes me tick as a human being, is the positive kind about media i love very much for being excellent.)

idk guys. is it just that i'm autistic and therefore discussing for the nth time why xyz rules never stops being entertaining? what am i missing here. maybe it's good when media is good?

[the-sun-is-also-a-star]

aww, this sounds cute

?

When I was like 8?? My cousin and I climbed the tree outside my aunt's house, we collected about 5 or so snails from the tree, placing them on our arm to climb down, then we lined them up on the table on the outside patio, created a start and finish line, and raced them

character : barty

[nostalgicfun]

When we talk about nostalgia we generally talk about our childhood, but what’s something fairly recent-ish you’re somehow already nostalgic for? 🌈

[otomes-and-tears]

Are you looking for a community to meet fellow otome and visual novel enthusiasts? Well, look no further then Otome’s little corner ♡

We’re a small discord server dedicated to otome games, with special channels dedicated to books, writing, art and game recommendations! 

♡  Our community has individual channels for the following games: ♡

♛My Candy Love

♛Eldarya

♛Moonlight Lovers 

♛Mystic Messenger

♛ Sweet Elite

♛ Nix Hydra (RIP)

♛ Blooming Panic

♛ Our Life

...As well as chats for french, spanish and portuguese speakers and a dedicated chats for NSFW content!

Join us today!

https://discord.com/invite/xCjCGVXSQH 

[nekromeowncer]

[vulpixelates]

sometimes a family is you, your kooky art teacher from middle/high school who talks to her dead spouses, a cowardly vampire hacker dweeb, a pair of fisherbutches who have different but equally weird connections to an entity that lives in the ocean, and a mad scientist who takes a lot of lsd and thinks everything is a sign of aliens

[sneakyfox55]

major To The Moon series spoilers ahead!

no because the real Quincy--relative to the "real" world our Lynri came from--never actually got to see his family again

can we talk about that please like my heart BREAKS for this man and sure you can say "well like he wasn't actually real because this is the topmost stack and not reality lmbo" but like.

what IS reality?

like! the entire point of the games is to bring up the question "what is the reality we tell ourselves, at one point does reality become... not so?" and that's honestly like, other than the various other themes Kan Gao has so masterfully crafted into this series that's my favorite one because then the ethic becomes, if nothing is reality--if everything is just the reality OR fiction we tell ourselves--what does it really matter?

so if we go based off that, the real Quincy relative to IF-Lynri's timeline just. was basically pushed off to the side. and yeah, there's the version of him within the machine that we play as of course and we get to see that version of him be happy, but how can that account for the original version? did that Quincy not have feelings? did that Quincy just, not have his heart broken by the love of his life after the tragic loss of their child? did she not abandon him? from we know that did still happen, does it matter that it did, maybe not to any other version of them (or even IF-Lynri for that matter since she gets everything she wants in the end) but did it not matter to that Quincy?

and it hurts so much worse to me personally to know that, he would have never know about any of this, and he has no idea that in another timeline so to speak, he gets to be happy. and!!! this even goes back to To The Moon the game (try saying that 5 times fast) itself because!!!!

the real River and Johnny technically might have never reunited.

in fact they? probably really didn't? at least not in a way that could have ever been substantial to either of them. the "real" Johnny never actually remembered their first meeting, and the "real" River never got to feel that closure that she so desperately wanted from him.

but then it goes back to the question of if it matters, since they're happy anyway?

and this all leads to my point about all of this:

does it? does creating perfect fantasy worlds for everyone really MATTER if the real them never got to live out that fantasy world?? because sure, you can say to THEM, it does! in that brief moment before they leave this world, they can leave knowing they did all they wanted! they can leave with a (figurative) smile on their face!! right? isn't that the point?

...but then. where does it stop meaning something because EVERYTHING was made up? how can we differentiate the two anymore?

and at what point was reality just... maybe, not reality in the first place?

[muzzleroars]

have u ever heard end-world normopathy by ghost and pals. that along with scapegoat do crazy ultrakill flavored shit to my brain its insane

oouuughhhh HUGE vibes of the creation running past the creator and changing into something they would see with hatred, as a perversion of their vision without regard for the life of the creation itself. which. is such an important theme in this game to me as the thread that runs through the angels, the machines, and hell itself. each was made with a strict purpose yet, by the incompetence or arrogance of their makers, turned into something unable to properly be controlled in their own weakness. both god and (likely) humanity attempted to rectify this with subjugation and abandonment, but as the testament said, they cannot unmake what has been done. and with them gone, see how the creations turn into what they feared, how hell governs itself and makes sport of the damned of its own accord; how the machines flood into its halls and devour the already dead to steal their immortality; how gabriel, the brightest in heaven, turns apostate and similarly robs the high angels of their eternal gift. and all the damage done is the fruit of those who made them.

of course both of these songs give me just. major gabriel/v1/v2 vibes the most, but hell is there as an encompassing element in the background of it all. because i think in a way, all of their purposes have fucked with them but their reactions to gaining autonomy in the face of that design is drastically different. for all of them the job they were given upon birth is inescapable, it defines their identity, but how it weaves in with their free will is unique. v1 has warped its sense of war over time, corrupted mind twisting it into a being meant to forever create war and strife rather than just fight in it. it's drive is not for blood but for battle, infinite and inescapable. they made it, but its time never came. v2 is meant to bring peace but it is based in the same violence, it knows its time is over in a world so atrophied with a purpose that was always confused besides. they made it, but it was neglected. gabriel is an angel without a god or master, his static existence collapsed in on itself into the sham it always was. god made him, but he was lied to. and then hell surrounds all of it, made as a place of eternal torment and damnation to know nothing else, never meant to have a mind yet living and breathing and doing nothing but evil. god made it, but it was abandoned.

in this way i think of hell and v1 as parallels a lot while gabriel and v2 are closer in proximity - the former two have abandoned their creators right back, have rid themselves of those expectations and, if they think on their creators at all, may only view them with disdain or perhaps self-satisfaction. they are both far-gone, but i think there is a part of them that has the am conundrum - they do as they please, yet something in them is irreparably bound to their creators no matter what they accomplish (hell in particular is absolutely am-adjacent). gabriel and v2 are angrier in their abandonment, bitter in how lost they are now and what their creators have wrought for them. freedom isn't easy, they didn't ask for it, yet they have no choice when they know too much and the world they're in demands it of them in a sense. and neither of them, even if given the chance, could go back to what they once were (gabriel especially has entirely left the cave) all of it asks what it means to be created with a purpose, and if that really is better than being created aimlessly. SORRY this got on a little bit of a tangent, but these songs really just made my mind run off with this theme and it's one that drives me crazy!!!

[wistaliia]

JAMIE ALL OVERRR

[smartzelda]

I AM EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED OVER A CARTOON PAPER BOMB

[love-songs-for-emma]

am i going to single-handedly create a fandom about jay holt from the video game "as dusk falls"? i just fuckin might

[meltedhorror]

I always hoped we'd rot together, that the day the earth reclaimed my bones it'd be by the side of you. . . Maybe if I close my eyes and believe enough, it'll come true eventually. . .