#perhaps i will infodump later...

[ilovedthestars]

Hello there, I am a space nerd, a fact I’m sure no one guessed from the fact that I go by Stars on the internet. I am here to explain how the moon works, because I think it’s cool and also something that most people don't know. This is mostly an infodump just for fun, but may also be vaguely useful for artists, writers & stargazers.

By “how the moon works,” I mean that although pretty much everyone knows about the moon’s phases, not everyone really gets how they affect things like when & where the moon is in the sky. See: the common idea that the sun is in the sky in the day, and the moon is in the sky at night. You know this isn’t strictly true if you’ve ever seen the moon in the sky in the daytime, but do you know how it actually works? If I gave you a moon phase and a time of day, would you be able to tell me whether the moon was in the sky or not?

I am here to (hopefully) explain how you can do that! With scribbly diagrams! Please join me under the readmore if you would like to come to my TED talk.

First of all, to avoid any accidental curse-of-knowledge assumptions on my part, let me define some terms!

First off, the phases of the moon, which you probably know most of, but bear with me. A “full moon” is when the moon is fully illuminated and appears as a circle in the sky. A “gibbous moon” is when the moon is more than half full, but not completely full—it appears large and roundish, but not a circle (not everyone knows the name for this one). A “half moon” is when the moon is half illuminated and appears as a semicircle—this one has some other names that I’ll get to in a second. A “crescent moon” is when the moon is less than half illuminated and appears as a concave curve. A “new moon” is when the moon is completely dark from Earth’s perspective and can’t be seen in the sky.

Also, “waxing” is when the moon is transitioning from new to full, or getting bigger in the sky, and “waning” is when the moon is transitioning from full to new, or getting smaller in the sky.

Speaking of “half moon,” I frequently confuse friends by calling this a “first quarter” or a “third quarter” moon. Those names refer not to the illumination of the moon but to the full cycle of phases. If you think of the moon phases as split into four quarters, starting from zero at a new moon, then halfway to full is 1/4, full is 1/2, halfway back to new is 3/4, and then we’ve reached the end/beginning of the cycle with another new moon. So one of the half moons is a first quarter moon, and the other (with the other half illuminated) is a third quarter moon.

This is where I have to add a disclaimer—I am in the northern hemisphere, and I am familiar with astronomy in the northern hemisphere. If you are in the southern hemisphere, to you, I am looking at the moon “upside down.” Yes, really. If you’re using my diagrams, flip them upside down. I’ll try to be clear when I’m talking about stuff that flips between the hemispheres, but it’s something that I struggle to wrap my head around too, so apologies if I’m confusing or miss something.

So, here’s a diagram of the moon phases to show you the difference between first and third quarter moons, but if you’re in the southern hemisphere, please flip it over to see what they would look like for you. (The chronological order still goes in the same direction as the arrow, the moon itself is just the other way in the sky.)

The fun trick I was taught to remember which way the cycle goes is “light from the right.” (Southern hemisphere people, you’ll have to flip this one.) Light, or shadow, moves from the right edge of the moon to the left. So if the moon is a crescent and the right edge is lit up, it’s waxing, or moving towards full. If the moon is a gibbous with a dark right edge, it’s just past full and will be waning towards the third quarter over the next few days. If you look at the diagram above (and imagine the crescent and gibbous phases transitioning in between), this might be easier to imagine.

Like I said, for the southern hemisphere this would actually be “light from the left.” If you’re near the equator and the moon is overhead, you could use “light from the west,” because that’s secretly the real rule. Another thing that’s useful to know for stargazing—the moon, sun and planets follow a path in the sky called the ecliptic, which is roughly over the equator. (Not exactly—it wiggles around relative to earth’s surface, because of the tilt of the earth’s axis that causes the seasons, but it stays near the equator.) If you’re standing in the northern hemisphere, the equator is south of you, so the ecliptic is also in the southern part of the sky. When you look at the moon, it will always be in the south, so the west-facing side of the moon will always be to your right. Likewise, if you’re in the southern hemisphere, the moon (and sun, and planets) will always appear in the northern half of the sky, so west will be to your left. Light moves across the moon’s surface from the west to the east.

Now you can impress people by looking at the moon and saying, “Oh look, what a lovely waxing gibbous!” (I don’t actually know if the is impressive, but I do it all the time. For bonus points, get an app on your phone that tells you the phase of the moon and check it frequently so you can plan when to stargaze. Then you can casually mention that the moon will be full in a couple days when it’s not even in the sky, and maybe people will think you’re a werewolf.)

Now that I’ve explained the moon’s phases, I get to explain how they’re related to the time and place that the moon is in the sky. See, most people (I assume) don’t think twice about things like, say, a book describing a crescent moon in the sky overhead at midnight. But that actually can’t happen! And it has to do with the moon’s position in the 3D solar system, and how that maps onto our sky. This is kind of hard for me to explain without a lot of 3D hand gestures and pointing at the sky, but I’m gonna do my best to show it in two dimensions.

So, most people probably know that the moon’s phases are caused by the sun’s light illuminating half of the moon, and since the relative positions of the moon, sun & earth change throughout the month, the half that’s illuminated moves around the moon and changes how it looks from our viewpoint. So, a very basic rule: the side of the moon that’s illuminated is the side that’s facing the sun.

So, when the moon is full, that’s because the side that faces us is also facing the sun. This means the sun is directly opposite the moon. Here’s a very scientific diagram:

In case it’s not clear, this is a “top-down” view of the solar system where the moon, earth and sun are all in the same plane (in this case it doesn’t matter if we’re looking at the north or south pole, the positions would look the same). It’s also obviously not to scale and very simplified, but the point is to demonstrate that the moon is opposite the earth from the sun.*

The little person on the earth is of course spinning around as the earth rotates once per day. But at this point in the lunar month, you can see that when they are on the side of the earth where they can see the moon, they are also on the side facing away from the sun. When the moon is full or close to full, it’s opposite the sun—it rises around sunset, sets around sunrise, and is at its peak in the sky around midnight. This is how lots of people tend to think of the moon rising and setting, but it’s only true when the moon is close to full!

If that doesn’t make sense, here’s a diagram of when the moon is at the opposite point in its cycle, a new moon:

When the moon is new, the side that faces the earth is dark, which means the opposite side is facing the sun. The moon is on the same side of earth as the sun is. The little person spinning around the earth won’t see the moon in the night sky, because the moon is close to the sun in the sky,* and it’s actually rising in the morning and setting in the evening at this time of the month! You can’t easily see the moon when it’s new, but it might be visible a few days before or after this as a crescent. You’ll only see a crescent moon in the sky during the day, or close to dawn/dusk—it will be close above the horizon where the sun has just set or is about to rise. (The light edge faces the sun, so if it’s near the horizon in twilight sometimes it will look like the light edge is actually pointing down, with the tips of the crescent pointing up in the sky.)

*A side note on eclipses: My diagram is oversimplified! The moon, earth and sun aren’t actually all in the same plane all the time, they’re slightly misaligned. So even when I say the moon and sun are “directly” opposite each other, or aligned, they aren’t lined up perfectly enough to cast shadows on each other most of the time. When they do line up perfectly at the right time, that’s when you get a solar eclipse (when the moon is new) or lunar eclipse (when the moon is full).

Okay, so when the moon is full it’s in the sky at night, and when the moon is new it’s in the sky during the day. What about in between? This is where it gets a little confusing, especially for those of you in the southern hemisphere, who are going to have to flip everything I say. Apologies in advance, but it kind of hurts my head even to explain how this works in my own half of the sky.

So, when the moon is half-full, at the first quarter and third quarter of the phase cycle I explained above, the sun’s light is coming (from our perspective) from the side. The moon is ninety degrees away in its orbit from full or new, and the sun’s light is effectively perpendicular to our viewpoint, instead of parallel. This time it matters which way we’re looking, so these are a top-down view from the northern-hemisphere side. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, I think you can flip which is the first & third quarter to make this accurate.

As you can see, when our little person is spinning around the globe, they’re going to be seeing the moon high in the sky right around the line between night and day. From a northern perspective, the earth spins counter-clockwise (vice versa from the south), so if you picture the person spinning around their little earth, you can see that the first quarter moon is going to be visible when they’re spinning from light to dark (sunset) and the third quarter moon is going to be visible when they’re spinning from dark to light (sunrise).

Bonus fun trick: If you remember the rule of “light from the right” in the northern hemisphere and how that determines the order of the phases, and look at these diagrams again, you can figure out which direction the moon orbits the earth from this viewpoint. (This is, in fact, the only way I can remember which direction the moon orbits the earth, despite being far more complicated than just memorizing it. If you’d like to make a game of it, I’ll put the answer at the bottom of the post).

Remembering how this looks from this top-down floating-above-the-earth perspective is hard, but you don’t really have to. I only explained it so it would make sense when I went back to my earlier visualization, from when I was explaining how “light from the right” works. I’m a very spatial learner, and I like picturing things relative to my own body, so this is how I remember when the different phases of the moon appear in the sky:

Imagine you’re standing, facing the ecliptic, where the sun and the moon travel through the sky. In the northern hemisphere, you’re facing south, with east to your left and west to your right. Imagine that the sun has just set, falling beneath the horizon to your right. Imagine that the moon is full, and hopefully I’ve explained well enough that now you know where it will be—cresting the horizon at your left. Imagine the opposite too—the sun is rising in the east at your left, as the full moon sinks in the west at your right. The new moon’s position, if you’d like to visualize that, is effectively the same as the sun.

Now, the difference between the two half-moons. Light comes from the west—in the northern hemisphere, your right—so when the right half is illuminated, it’s the first quarter of the lunar month, waxing to full, and when the left half is illuminated, it’s the third quarter, waning to new. One is high at dusk and one is high at dawn. Which is which?

You’re facing south. Picture a first quarter moon, right side lit up, at its peak in the southern sky. The light side is always facing the sun. Where is the sun? It must be to your right, touching the horizon in the west, setting. The first quarter moon is in the sky before, during and after dusk.

Picture a third quarter moon, left side lit up, at its peak. The light side faces the sun. The sun is to your left, touching the horizon in the east, rising. The third quarter moon is in the sky before, during and after dawn.

When I imagine this, I’m standing on my back porch, where I often go outside and stargaze. My telescope is small and one of the few things it can see with any detail is the moon. I want to be able to look at the moon just after dark, without having to stay up too late—and this memory device, of facing south and imagining the sun at my right hand to the west, is how I remember that the first quarter is the best time for me to observe the moon. It will be high in the sky at sunset, easy for me to see over the houses and trees.

If you remember that the moon waxes and wanes from the west (right in the north, left in the south), then you can fill in all the gradations of crescent and gibbous moon between the four main quarters. (As an example, if I wait a few days past first quarter to go outside and look at the moon, it’s waxed into a gibbous moon and it rises later in the evening, peaking in the sky closer to midnight. Another example: a waxing crescent is between a new moon and first quarter, so it will trail behind the sun and be above the horizon in the southwest at sunset.)

I hope that all of this makes sense and is useful to someone, whether for figuring out when you can observe the moon and where in the sky to look, or for thinking about how to place it in the sky in your writing and art. If nothing else, I hope I have brought you entertainment, and/or ruined the way the moon works in Minecraft for you forever. (It rises and sets directly opposite the sun!! Even when it’s a new moon!!! Light doesn’t work like that!!)

And finally, if you were trying to guess, the moon orbits the earth counter-clockwise if you’re looking down from the northern side.

[sunset-peril]

Today, someone told me that a Budgerigar and an Indian Ringneck are 'the same bird, just different colors'

I am proud of myself. I didn't say anything back because my comment wouldn't have changed anything (except for creating tension between me and a colleague)

But still. That was not a pain I was expecting at 8 in the morning.

[maddragon15]

Finalized design for my version of Etho for hermitcraft s10!

Warning long infodump ahead about the decisions made and general lore

So I've had this idea that redstone is like uranium. Powerful, can be used for energy + various machinery and scientific discoveries, used to increase the value of the everyday lives (uranium girls ref) but with the major cause of life deletion/life altering affects. I believe that it would cause more mutations within redstoners over the course of time they are exposed to it and the varying degree that they're covered in it. But redstone is a fairly new resource that has been discovered in the world of minecraft/hermitcraft. So the research behind it isn't as strong nor as known as it should be. Therefore every effect that happens to the pioneers of redstone is completely new and unheard of. Which might be the reason why some builders like Grian, Scar, Ren, Gem, etc are hesitant to fully learn redstone mechanics due to the unknown nature of it but still aren't fully opposed because of the benefits it has.

In my world of hermitcraft for season 10 it's built off of the fact that there's quite a few people leaning into that cybery, technological, sci-fi theme. Like the Punks, then Ren's Gigaverse and of course the nature of Doc in general. So the main story is that this world of hc2410 is that it's a world that was much similar to earth. It went through the usual set of technological feats bit by bit, culture by culture.

For a long time their main power source which fueled everything was glowstone, a semi renewable material exported from the Nether and harvested from blazes and the blaze rods. Blaze rods were grinded down then compressed into glass like bilets which were then heated, strained, and forged into various forms that were needed. For a while it was small 2x2 inch cubes mainly used in lamps and later 6x6 foot cubes for lighthouses. But as the age of the iron wore on, technology looked much like the era of the vacuum tubes.

Thus began the swap of simplified forms of glowstone into the complexities of tubes and the requirement of more materials and longer time to create these specialized parts. Though that didn't stop what pioneers were part of that era, these guys being Etho, Tango, Doc, and Mumbo. Now these guys were very basic hybrids, Etho an arctic fox, Tango a nether born blaze, Doc whom was a rare specices of creeper, and Mumbo who was actually just a human. It took long and multiple days worth of work to even produce what would be a 4 part machine in modern redstone technology with glowstone. Though these guys were at this point young and determined to optimize their creations.

Glowstone in itself was a relatively safe material to work with unless of course consumed, if consumed it would wear down the lining of the stomach, cause holes in the intestines, and heat the user to an unbearable degree akin to the infamous iron bull method of torture except it was your insides and only your insides being subjected to it. To the person that found this out would never be credited and largely forgotten in most history records. Mainly because he died such a painful death and most didn't want to remember it. So when Etho was working on the mines with his crew and discovered redstone there was a guess and perhaps a hope that it would be as safe as glowstone. Therefore safety percautions that were used with materials like obsidian and diamond were thrown out the window. Instead it was instantly collected into glass cylinders and brought back to the workshop to be played around with.

Thus the reason why for most parts of hc2410 many will be seen with previous and malfunctioning innovations or straight up tech from the glowstone era. One of these people is Mumbo who still uses comms from the glowstone era as a way to keep his small hometown economy running because any way to help Big Ron was a win in his book. Pearl is also another example user of older innovations or at least less redstone heavy variations. Rather going into the world of solar, and botany side of technology dubbed leafstone. Other variations of older innovations would also have to be old port towns who used wind and small hydroplants to keep their town running and connected with the rest of the world such as Gem's & Grian's hometown.

With Etho being the main guy who really played around with it and pretty much like at it like ate it like it was sugar was thee very first to experience the mutational effect of redstone. At first his left eye would begin to flicker with rapid involuntary movement, then followed a set of what would be dubbed "chromatic abberation" (etho would be the only one to experience this and no one can confirm what he saw was accurate due to the mental state he was in), and the onset of vision loss. But this wasn't the first and last effect, he would begin to develop a second tail and unusual pelt coloring akin to the color of the newfound material. Much like the later steps of his changes the second tail development was not a pain free one. As the months continued his mental state worsened, this was due to the psychoactive effects of redstone and already altered vision. He would begin to see things that weren't there in a translucent red glow often accompanied by intense localized migraines behind the left eye. It would get so intense and unbearable that in the middle of developing the infamous etho hopper clock he began to claw at his left eye but the fingernails weren't enough and instead used a screwdriver to try to get it out. However Doc and Tango would find Etho moments before a prosthetic eye would take the permanent place of a redstone scarred eye.

Although Etho did wear a mask during the initial stages of redstone development and technology it wouldn't be enough against the sheer intake the 4 went through. Therefore under the careful guise of Xisumavoid, who'd later become the main caretaker/medic and manager, and Doc they would make several changes to how redstone was regulated. Making a mandate that all personnel, consumer, mechanic, and who ever else would have to wear a respirator and gloves during the usage of redstone. You'd think this would be easy to get the crew to swap into using respirators at the very least but it was met with much hesitation and backlash due to the blukiness that came with them. It was already tough to pack around the canisters of redstone, glowstone tubes, and iron baseplates and now they also had to squeeze into tight spaces with a clunky mess? But again Doc and Xisuma found ways to make sure that each member found a way to have their own variation of resperation based upon needs. It wasn't too hard to make one for Etho because he already had a mask but his stubbornness rivaled Doc, and took a near fatal pass out due to lack of blood production, aka just more extreme anemia, and bloody nose to convince Etho to finally add that respirator onto his mask.

Despite however the apparent dangers of redstone it sent the world of hc2410 into a new world of technology seemingly overnight, from clunky 60s-70s style tan and heavy clunk switches into an age more similar to thin touch panels and streamlined designs of now but with the flair of the iconic synthwave/cyberpunk style deemed by the 80s-90s. Yet it was met with strife due to how time consuming redstone was even with several engineers helping out on one project and most innovations were only available to the richest before being thrown out for the latest and greatest.

Also you may recall, if you've made it to this point, that I mentioned that the 4 were basic hybrids. Well much like Etho the effects on the rest weren't simple nor painless, and varied quite differently from each other. But those will be covered once their designs are finished.

I thank you if you've made it this far and I'll see you on the next hermitaday posts! :3

Edit: I also want to include that one of the main design inspos is actually Snakeyes from Gi Joe because that man is absolute gender to me. So why not combine my two favorite guys into one character.

Edit #2: Added more text breaks bc I no longer have 5 am involuntary eye movement. Which is odd because you'd think I'd need more text breaks but it's the opposite.

[randomalistic]

Anyways here’s a rambling infodump thing about all the similarities between Spamton and Turbo and then some. (you should bully me for this)

My fixation on both of them… they feed into eachother.

3 foot tall FREAK !!!!!

THE INSANE SMILER…

Glitchy and pixelated

Full of envy, pent up hatred, DESPERATELY CRAVES REVENGE.

Kinda ugly </3

Or at least. Unconventional!

Used to drive a car when he was popular

I know there’s a difference between being a car spokesman and being a racer but it’s close enough <3 Spamton would not know how to drive a cungadero they just told him to pose in there and smile. Ok Headcanon OVER !!!!

Had it all in the 80s/90s before losing the spotlight

Turbo did his bullshit in 1987 (actual road blasters release year) and Spamton did his bullshit in 1997

Only really known as an unspeakable rumor and lives in infamy

It’s more like everyone “moved on” from Spamton and forgot about him (or at least tried to forget about him…) where with Turbo what he did was so bad that he’s only known for that ONE thing

Goes in hiding for decades

Spamton has his alleyway dumpster, and maybe other areas of cyber city with low traffic. Turbo’s hiding was implied to have been in the depths of game central station until Sugar Rush was plugged in. (Which I think was asked about in an AMA) Both are like. ~30 YEARS of hiding 💀

Would go any length for the same attention again

The interesting thing about this is Turbo DOES win. He does get that attention back by disguising as King Candy and being able to race again, and he keeps it for however long Sugar Rush was around for before the events of the movie. Spamton never gets it back…

But at least Spamton doesn’t get INCINERATED so I’d say he’s better off, even if the best outcome is him becoming an item

Dependent on some kid for his plan to work

Although Spamton’s relationship with Kris (dependent on them helping him) is pretty different than King Candy’s relationship with Vanellope (dependent on her not interfering) I still think it’s funny that they both have beef with children

Later attempted murder of said kid

Quality villains out here not even hesitating to kill kids to get what they want !!!

Imitated/fabricated identity

Spamton imitates Swatch, Turbo fabricates (?) King Candy

Stupid catchphrase

NOW’S YOUR CHANCE TO BE [TurboTastic!]

BOSS BATTLE FORM IS FUCKKKKED

They essentially have the same monologue of “THANKS TO YOU I'M MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER!! But it's not enough... so I'm going to kill you anyways"

I think King Candybug’s Face resembles SNEO in a weird way. Mostly just the big eyes and weird nose and THE SMILERRRRR. They have very similar vibes! I will stop myself now!

Virus/malware adiacent

Turbo literally claims he’s a virus by the end of the movie and Spamton is Spamton

Critically Acclaimed Tumblr Man (and hated)

From my RESEARCH. (Aka. Looking up art of him) Apparently a lot of people on tumblr liked Turbo in 2013. And those people have since become spamton people (perhaps ……) I guess that is me now too. Really unfortunate

Lore ties into a real life video game (Petz & Road Blasters)

In the sweepstakes spamton was kinda confirmed to come from a Petz game. I also didn’t know road blasters was Real until I started looking into it . (TurboTime is fake tho) But there’s a very specific similarity for you. Fucked up characters blurring the lines into real life my beloved

Rivalry/broken friendship with Those similar looking fellas (I’m running out of brain power here)

Spamton had the Addisons, which were like his friends? Fellow advertisers. Looked a bit like him, just taller with different colors. Spamton left them after becoming a big shot because he thought he didn’t need them anymore…

Turbo had the “turbo twins” (the 2 other blue racers in his game) idk if that’s their official name cuz they kinda barely exist in canon.. I think it’s popular fanon that Turbo is shorter than both of them, but that’s actually not true. But I’m still gonna count it. Anyways he KILLED them when he got turbotime unplugged. THEYRE DEAD.

Extreme temperature related death (is this a stretch)

Less of a similarity and more of an interesting contrast

Turbo burns to death when he’s INCINERATED in diet cola mountain. I could ramble about this a lot but. That’s for my second account

And Spamton NEO (in snowgrave at least) is FROZEN SOLID by noelle. He shouldn’t have asked for that ice cream man

Anyways I get similar vibes from those guys..

I hope they explode.

Also thinking more about this is making me realize how similar in concept deltarune and Wreck it Ralph are. As in, those apps and computer programs in the computer lab ? Yeah they’re alive and theres a whole ass cyber city and mansion and theres a ton of little guys living in there! (And same goes for the card kingdom in chapter 1)

Like if there was a dark world created in an arcade, it would probably look something like the WIR world. In a way, lightners would be the “players” because everything the game characters (darkners) do is to serve the players. I’m just saying !!!! These pieces of media are both Really Good!!!

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 31-35 author notes

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

The chasm in their understanding of what makes Vivi tick.

The stakes in this scene seem low and the twins are just overdramatizing the danger for the sake of unwinding and being silly, right? Yesn't. One wrong move or word, and they join those leafmen scattered all over the place.

Finding the line between bad actor and caring sister.

Of course Alisaie wants to hang out with Vivi. She doesn't want to admit that to herself, let alone risk looking desperate in her brother's eyes. Tsundere moment. It's been a while since they've. Had a rest. Between rescuing Minfilia from Laxan Loft and making their way to Il Mheg. Alphinaud, at least in my hc, isn't as physically durable, but definitely as stubborn and proud as Alisaie, so he wouldn't simply agree to chill out for a moment. Alisaie makes him tunnel-vision her bad (?) acting and openly throwing the game for supposedly selfish reasons, while she gets what she wanted, AND forces Alphi to sit his ass down.

I’m sorry but I really need to point out that her ahoge did, in fact, launch into the stratosphere.

More under the cut~

....Can you blame her tho.

Vivi’s shirt’s a bit more plain than usual, he needed to wear something practical under his crystarium guard disguise in Laxan Loft.

The flashback in episodes 32-33 has no dialogue per se, only monologues, to emphasize how disconnected they are.

Technically both vivis are real, but Exarch’s memories are definitely heavily skewed. He’d only known Vivi during the CT quests, in this story it’s a month or two in summer, during which literally nothing bad happens, sans the finale. Alisaie, however, got lucky to experience Vivi during Stormblood, his absolute low.

Exarch and Alisaie sit on opposing sides of the bias, one wears pink glasses, delusional and bluepilled, the other one’s (heh) redpilled, perhaps a bit too much. Hence Alisaie feels the whiplash when her jerkass woobie friend suddenly acts mellow (back in the present), still she has the expertise to tell that he’s not affected by a fae spell or anything.

Full page because I’m so proud of the paneling here, simple as this trick is, these speech bubbles blocking Vivi from sight neatly illustrate that Alisaie just babbles away, paying no heed to his state.

With the power of flashbacks and stories told by one character to another, I’m able to revisit any moment in their past whenever I please. I didn’t commit to a linear story because there was no story! Well, just the outlines. Vivi as a character began in ShB because I really needed to fuck that old man, I started writing down the lil scenes loosely connected by the canon plot, and that’s how the whole concept of Fragments came to be.

It may not work for everyone, but my secret sauce’s that you don’t have to begin at the beginning. Make a guy, put him in a situation, then ask a lot of whys and hows to expand his story backward and forward.

Keeping the past events for later allows me to flesh things out at a leisurely pace. This Alisaie flashback is actually an iteration, originally I’d planned to have Vivi stand alone and just think the broody thoughts, and that was supposed to be the transition between ARR and ShB arcs. I grow more writing muscle as I go, and I’m infinitely happy that I avoided that angsty infodump.

Okay this’s becoming a big fat tangent, but I wanted to acknowledge another pitfall: overusing a character as a mere exposition tool. I wouldn’t do this for, say, Tataru or Y’shtola. Being THE flashback haver makes sense for Alisaie because a) they’re close with Vivi, b) her worldview and opinion on Vivi are changing in ShB, she’s a smart lil thing who would slow down and reflect when appropriate, c) she has a distinct arc in my comic, and knowing what’s going on inside that elf brain will give you the most entertainment out of her actions in the present moment.

I’m new to writing and very excited about the story that comes together as we speak, so I like to show around my kitchen. Please lemme know if you enjoy this. I don’t know if I’m parroting the boring 101s, or if this’s actually useful to someone.

“Meals made for me” YEA HE CAN’T COOK. Well, barely.

New sharp outfit, procured by our most magnanimous branch. The “tail” will help me draw the upcoming Titania fight, it adds fluidity to his movements.

*presses the upgrade button*

There's a lot happening in his head that's not being shown. I hope at least some readers wonder who or what he leaves behind in his mind's eye in this moment. What we know for sure is that he doesn’t take too long to make a decision.

Not sure if subtle, but I did try the breadcrumbing:

Unfortunately for everyone, including himself :’>

I love this one especially because, instead of telling that about himself, Vivi asks Ardbert, kinda gauging his wol experience against the other wol’s.

Episode 34 really shook people awake and reminded that we’re off the msq rails with this story. I loved the response it evoked in the tags, lots of thoughtful rambling about being a hero.

Fae temptation jokes and all, but Feo Ul really says what Vivi needs to say out loud to himself.

Normalize prioritizing self-care over world-saving.

Vivi genuinely cares about Feo Ul. That’s unusual. It might be my storytelling mistake that I didn’t show much of his typical indifference before this scene, unless you count the episodes where he does this

instead of hurrying the fuck up with the msq. Or, perhaps, it’s okay, since this gets plenty of attention later on. You won’t miss the fact that he isn’t eager to set himself on fire to keep others warm. Feo Ul just lucked their way into his heart, and, as a result, he approaches the Titania fight with unusual consideration.

/srs mode on ^

Remember how I just talked about developing this story in all directions at once? I planned Vivi to have this demeanor during the early days of writing Fragments. Like, most of the time. He’d be a broody bitch, get slowly thawed by Exarch’s kindness, and... That’d be it. In veeeeeery broad strokes, this’s still the case, but the current iteration has much more nuance.

Vivi and Titania’s likeness has no deep meaning, take it or leave it. Vivi cares about appearances, he was bound to notice this. Feo Ul can see souls, visuals are secondary to them. But Vivi, being himself, must doubt and question everything.

He moves fast and thinks a lot as the adrenaline speeds him up.

Notice how he lets Titania speak and remains quiet. This’s common in most fights: he doesn’t indulge with chats or banter those who he sees as mere targets to destroy. There’s like a point of no return, if an enemy poses no threat and can be talked out of dying, Vivi will speak, sadly he enters this fight knowing that Titania has to die no matter what.

Once he’s familiarized himself with the situation, and realized that Titania’s more than just a mindless husk, things change up a bit. But for now, he just runs in circles, analyzes the situation, and overthinks about their visual resemblance :’>

Sorry not sorry but unintentional reference x’DD

To be fair Vivi IS being a magical boy in this miniarc so this works lmao.

Wrapping up on this note, thanks for sticking with me and reading till the end~

[kayatoastkkat]

infodump time!

this is for my TOH au, some basic information for the big three of the cast and what their roles are! aaaand maybe also a sketch dump since I have too many pencil drawings of this au...

Dr. Henry Jekyll

Leader of the Secret Society for Wild Magic. Also a part-time potions seller. 

After graduation from Hexside, his initial aspiration was to join the Emperor’s Coven. As such, he began trying to test out his magical prowess and became a curse researcher, collecting rare curses (akin to Eda’s) and began looking for cures. While some of his methods proved effective, during this time Jekyll was deeply absorbed into his work and started neglecting his own health, leading Lanyon and Rachel to become very worried for him. 

One night, while researching a particularly gruesome curse, Jekyll believed he finally worked out a cure. With no other subjects, he could only test it on himself. Thus, potion in hand, he decided it was a great idea to go curse himself with a cure that he believed was mostly effective.

Lo and behold, that was the first transformation. The curse lashed out in black ribbons, enveloping Jekyll before diving straight into his heart, issuing several screams from the brunette until all that was left was a bundle of loose clothes, shattered glass, scraps of paper leftover from the curse and research, and one tiny blonde gremlin among said loose clothes. Thus, that very night, Hyde was born. A curse that should’ve killed Jekyll, torn his very body apart, taken control over the leftover scraps, now resides in his body as half of himself, shares his memories and would become the mask Jekyll uses to indulge in activities he finds unacceptable for himself to engage in. The potion that failed to cure the curse is now the key to transforming into each other.

With Hyde, Jekyll quickly realised that joining the Emperor’s Coven is no longer a feasible choice for himself and instead, with Lanyon’s help (due to his family being super wealthy and influential) was able to pull some strings and fake a Potions coven sigil, thus taking suspicion off of him while keeping his status as a wild witch.

His palisman is a crow named Crowley. His staff also never initially had the red gem lmao, he stuffed it in himself to try and give it a more sophisticated look. He also has ear piercings! First made just to get Hyde to stop whining, he later decided he may as well wear something, namely tiny black diamond studs.

Mr Edward Hyde

bithc.

Jekyll’s personal “assistant”. A trader and scammer at the Night Market. He often enjoys committing petty crimes and also trades his potions for rare ingredients required for more powerful spells. Sometimes he’d even bring a few of the Lodgers to sell their inventions too, to make sure the Society still has snails to spare for basic necessities. Most of what Hyde earns in the Night Market goes to his nighttime adventures, but whatever’s left by the time he transforms back will be used by Jekyll to keep the lights on in the secret Society. Besides the Night Market, he likes to go drinking at the sketchier parts of Bonesborough, often getting into skirmishes and bar fights. He relies on Jekyll’s magic and rarely ever uses his palisman to avoid divulging his identity. For transportation, he prefers teleportation spells or magic some wings to make a quick escape. No, he’s not a bird beast. I’ve long decided he is not some crow beast or something, he’s just an amalgamation of Jekyll’s worst traits.

He has about the same relationship with Jekyll as in TGS, perhaps even more tense as Jekyll is very concerned about ensuring that Hyde keeps a low profile and does not reveal the fact he’s a wild witch. Hyde hides it about as well as you’d expect, and eventually the information that he doesn’t have a sigil is picked up by the Emperor’s Coven. He’s never gotten caught before though, oh, and he also idolizes Eda the Owl Lady very much, but never goes to find her, since he’s terrified of Hooty.

The oopsy-doopsy arson will still happen, which I will cover eventually but bottom line is it’ll make Belos strengthen efforts into finding and tracing Hyde’s roots. Through the following disagreements and punishment from Jekyll, Hyde learns he can block Jekyll from using his magic for short bursts of time, and eventually with practice, longer periods spanning from hours to days.

He also has silver ring earrings. Every time he transforms he takes the time to take off Jekyll’s plain black diamond studs to replace it with them and I find that funny.

Dr. Robert Lanyon

A master illusionist, one of Jekyll’s closest friends and co-runner of the Society. Also helps around Jekyll’s potions business.

He’s the reason Jekyll was able to stay a wild witch in the first place. He was able to use his Illusion magic to fake a sigil for Jekyll and using his position of power, pulled some strings to prevent the scouts from investigating further. His father is a prosperous Constructions witch who helps Belos strengthen the castle and fortify bases for scouts throughout Bonesborough, earning him a position of high rank in the Isles. Lanyon despises it though, and took Illusions to spite his father, who wanted him to take a more “useful” track in school such as Abominations or Constructions so he would have more job opportunities. Outside attending dinner parties or finishing errands for his father, he does whatever he wants, usually sneaking off to parts of Bonesborough or to the Society to see Jekyll. He doesn’t even necessarily attend dinner parties, often preferring to have an illusion of himself attending. Lanyon Sr pretends not to notice this.

Unaware of Jekyll’s curse, he hated the idea of Hyde being affiliated with him and yet always so dangerously on the brink of exposing his identity as a wild witch, but so long as Hyde continues helping the Society stay afloat and doesn’t get caught, Lanyon keeps his thoughts to himself. That is, until the arson changes everything. While he helps sort out the paperwork and aids Jekyll in keeping the Society hidden, he is not close to any of the Lodgers and prefers to pretend he isn’t associated with them, mostly out of concern and to keep suspicion off him and by extension, his dear friend.

He has the most insane piercings too, with large gold spheres resembling Eda’s, along with two more piercings further up his ears.

also, minor thing but I've finally given this au a proper name lol, it's now called The Crow House after Jekyll's palisman, which is a crow! I've also updated the tag for it in my pinned post so not to worry!

[decepti-thots]

☕ MTOs & specifically what do you think they were going for with that?

MTOs are an interesting narrative thing to me in the sense that they really are so localised to only one part of the canon; they're very clearly Roberts' idea and only really matter, inasmuch as they do matter, in MTMTE. It's pretty clear to me that's the case for one specific reason: they'd actually fit SUPER well into the narrative arc of exRiD, especially early-to-mid RiD, but they basically never come up! You'd think 'neutrals and soldiers stuggling to cohabit socially and politically' would be prime fodder (lmao) for taking advantage of a narrative about mechs born of and into war coming back to a civilian life on a planet they really don't know. And yet.

What they're doing in that comic, in MTMTE, is a little headscratching to me at times. It feels, to be honest, somewhat like worldbuilding put in to make the texture of the backstory of the war feel grander than IDW had really managed up to that point in actual on-panel stuff, without a lot of thought when doing so in the moment as to the knock on implications going forward. MTMTE does this a few times, tries to use vague gestures at important sounding stuff to bring a greater sense of history and depth to the war in the face of the actual stuff we saw in phase one being. Mmmm. Basically just twenty dudes we already know shooting at each other across parking lots. LMAO.

(Sidenote: I know for a fact Roberts watched original flavour nuWho, and this is PEAK Russell T Davies doing worldbuilding when he was on Doctor Who, and I fully believe he was cribbing from that playbook. Every damn episode RTD would make them just sort of say stuff about the Time War that made it sound incredibly vast and textured and complex but which, crucially, never made any actual fucking sense. Good examples of stuff like this would be the Crucible, the Simanzi massacre, etc. This is, to be clear, a neutral observation, not praise or criticism per se.)

I say this because MTOs should probably be a bigger deal in terms of the impact on our cast, and their outlook on life and reasons for joining the quest, than they wind up being. An MTO is a character with no experience of living in peacetime at all, likely no experience of Cybertron, no sense of kinship or home necessarily to the planet they came "back" to. All of this provides a really clear motivation, given the implication most surviving non-neutral Cybertronians are now MTOs due to huge numbers of deaths, to join a quest like the Lost Light's! But it tends not to come up much, and I think it's because it wasn't really part of the plan. Later on, there's room to slot in some details here and there- Riptide talking about his experiences with being infodumped at by the 'training' comes to mind- but it takes a while for the comic to come back round to that.

The two big exceptions, of course, are Getaway and Brainstorm. The idea is definitely interacting with their characters more, though again, it... tends to come up later. Especially for Getaway, who I'm not convinced was originally conceived as an MTO, but had it slotted in a bit later as 'well that works' stuff tbh. (And it does, so that's fine!) Which leaves Brainstorm, who lies about being forged to throw off suspicion, who it's implied never got the time of day from Quark in a way I wouldn't be surprised we're supposed to assume is some kind of remaining bias, perhaps. Who didn't see a future for himself 'back on Cybertron' and so concocted a very weird plan to avoid having to. Who never got a choice about his 'side' in the war, and wound up with no real loyalty for anyone.

I think if there's any avenue I'd have liked to see more about MTOs via, it's Brainstorm. I wish there'd been more room to focus on that instead of (I'm so sorry shippers) his thing with Perceptor as the way to talk about his sense of inadequacy, tbh. What did it feel like, lying to Chromedome about remembering a pre-war life he never got a chance to experience? Being made to shoot people and be shot and escaping the fate of having that be the only thing he ever knew by the skin of his teeth? Not being able to imagine an end to the war, so all he wants to do is save one guy and run off with him as a pipe dream? That seems like the character where a lot of this stuff should naturally lie, to me. And I think it's a shame I've seen very little talk in fandom about it!

[katapotato55]

How to write a good metaphor

yall seemed to like my post on "how to write good horror" so i figured i should make another one of these.

1- do. not. explain. the. metaphor.

don't.

"oh but how will the audience know my deep and meaningful message- "

SOME PEOPLE WONT GET IT. if you explain what you mean then suddenly the metaphor won't be deep anymore. it becomes a generic forced message.

i know you are tempted to make a character infodump about everything, fucking don't.

followup on this:

2- a good metaphor should potentially have multiple interpretations.

"but i don't want people to get the wrong impression of the story!"

then you either need to make damn sure its an elegantly written metaphor, or none at all. the death of the author is the idea that everyone has their own vision of a story they read, rearguards of authors intent. you need to come to terms with this or else you won't improve your writing skills.

you need to trust that your audience is intelligent enough to understand the metaphor on their own without bashing them over the head with it. sometimes people misunderstand meaning, it is a fact of life.

The game little inferno was thought of as a metaphor about pollution, in which later the creators went out to say it was actually about capitalism and wasting your life with things like exploitative mobile games. you just need make it SUBTLE and hope for the best.

3- The story/gameplay/etc should inform the metaphor(and sometimes reference real life examples)

To mention little inferno again, the "you must wait x amount of time for in-game item to be given to you" is a mirror of mobile games in the real world that use timers to leach money from you.

another example: analogue horror.

broken old technology is scary on its own, but many good analogue horror artists tend to use this to the advantage.

analogue horror can be used as a metaphor for dying trends and technology, like how in the 30's through 70's we used asbestos in the walls. Analogue horror makes a great parralel to this idea (see Blue_channel by gooseworx for a good example.) . the audience questions WHY this is on an old CRT tv and not just a smartphone, perhaps to imply this was an event that happened years ago.

undertale is another example, where most RPG's encourage you to fight and to level up, undertale uses this as a simple metaphor about obsessive control and being cruel to get an arbitrary achievement (i recommend the escapist's video on "why i didn't review undertale" on youtube for way better examples)

tldr: a metaphor is stronger if you lightly reference real life occurances and implement your metaphor in the medium presented.

4- the curtains are blue because they are blue.

not everyone is going to understand your metaphor

and not everyone is going to notice every single little metaphor you add to your story.

remember those teachers that would constantly stretch to imply something in a story is a metaphor and that the curtains are blue because of some deep metaphor for death and sadness and shit?

those teachers are full of it. ignore them.

metaphors are allowed to be simple. not every metaphor needs to be a hyper deep depth defying world changing thing. I could even argue a bunch of small metaphors connected to each other can be better than one big metaphor depending on your story.

relax. don't think too much about it because your average audience member won't.

5- study movies, tv, books, games, etc and understand why their metaphors work.

don't fall into that "the curtains are blue because of a deep message" English teacher mindset mind you.

"but how do i tell what is and isn't a metaphor?" you may ask

simple. trust your gut. you won't understand everything you come across but the human brain has a way of telling what is and isn't a metaphor in stories.

(spoiler about bugsnax)

I could argue Bugsnax is a metaphor about drug abuse and addiction. The characters have personality traits commonly associated with people vulnerable to drug addiction. An athlete, a hippy, a married couple going through a rough spot in their marriage with the threat of divorce, a mentally ill person with trauma and paranoia, etc.

It isn't obvious, many people may disagree with me, but you can't deny that there are signs i may be right.

(end of spoiler) the point i am trying to make: don't stretch to find a metaphor when you don't see one. if you are curious google other people's theories and make your own opinion. metaphors are hard and you will learn over time. and finally 6- do not ever do "it was all just a dream" or "the character is secretly in a coma" etc this applies to writing in general but it is still related to metaphors. the only time i have seen this done well is driver san francisco, but what it did right was A- make it so the players can guess ahead of time the mystery, such as the radio saying voices of your character in the hospital, or if you zoomed out you could hear a heart monitor. and B- it didn't completely un-do the entire story. that is my core issue with this trope. it either wastes your time un-doing the entire story readers worked hard to finish, or it is just nonsensical and terrible. "dora the explorer is actually in purgatory!" "spongebob is a metaphor for the 7 deadly sins!" "ash is in a coma and that is why he never ages! " ooooor it is a cartoon and you are forcing meaning that doesn't exist in something that doesn't even imply it. the world being a bit weird is not enough to be a metaphor for anything. If you want to make a good metaphor: do more effort than just slapping a lazy "it was all a coma" thing at the end. Like horror, stuff like this needs to be built up properly. also consider authors intent. I understand death of the author and all of that, but do you really think a retired marine biologist made spongebob to be a complex metaphor about sinners in hell ? (rip Stephen Hillenburg btw. we didn't deserve him.) thank you for reading, hope this helps. and please, learn to understand the tropes of metaphors before you attempt to make the story of a generation. edit- adding a couple more things i forgot 7- "the darkness is going to destroy the land or whatever!" i see this used all the time. spooky wookey dark shadowy bits going to destroy a land and is the hero's generic bad thing to fight. stop it. it is not a deep and complex metaphor about depression or whatever the hell you are on about. its lazy and stupid. 8- a story should stand up on its own regardless if audience members understand the metaphor or not I don't like Gris. it is a very pretty game with lovely visuals But also the entire story is just the main character moping about artistically and shit and go on about how artistically sad and dramatic this all is. if i don't understand the story without understanding the metaphor, then your story and your metaphor sucks. an example of a metaphor done well: spiritfairer without the metaphor, it is a simple game about running a traveling boat. even if you didn't care too much about the deeper meaning it is a cute story and the gameplay is fun (spoiler) if you look deeper, it can also be taken as a metaphor about greif and learning to accept your loved ones will one day die. things like the boat being filled with empty houses you can't remove is a good example of this. (end of spoiler) your story needs to stand up on its own to be good. don't use a metaphor as a crutch.

[utilitycaster]

You mentioned previously that Bell's Hells going to Yios earlier in the story or starting from there (I don't remember which) would've fixed most of early campaign issues. Could you elaborate on that? Which issues would it have fixed and how?

Hi anon, sure! It was going to Yios before Bassuras, but I actually have two separate pitches after talking through this with some people: Either have them go to Yios, or, alternately, get rid of Yu (either to show up later or, frankly, Erika can and has played far better characters).

The issues to be addressed:

general lack of party interactions. I've covered this before but basically...bonding is a subjective and nebulous term so I'm deliberately not using it, but there is, objectively, a culture in this campaign of doing far fewer check-ins, group conversations that aren't "what do we do next" or rehashing the same theological discussion, taking watch together/having conversations before bed, or just...little moments, honestly, than compared to the past two. I think this is because the foundation was not laid earlier, and, indeed, may have been disrupted.

pacing. the Bassuras arc is an overstuffed slog with no real wins and two entirely externally driven missions, both of which go rather badly. I say this as a person who advises people to still watch the first 27 episodes of Campaign 1 and who refuses to give C1 and C2 abridged versions: I would happily put together a "what to watch and what to skip" for C3.

related to the above, infodumping. It is somewhat unavoidable in this campaign, but chunks of the Bassuras arc and then, much of the Yios arc, are just Grim Verity Wizard or Fey Says Things About The Apogee Solstice At Bells Hells.

The fact that Otohan Thull holds the dubious distinction of being the most deadly villain CR has had, while having said about 10 lines total of which zero were remotely interesting. Everything that is intriguing about her is, well, infodumping that has ultimately been entirely irrelevant to the plot.

Letting the party choose where to go next rather than sending them directly to Bassuras after the Heartmoor would likely have sent them either to Yios or to where the Gorgynei are, on their way to Yios; those were the two main hooks. (A third is the caravan for which Cyrus Wyvernwind was blamed for the robbery, and if the party followed that hook, one could very easily have the trail lead to Yios.) This would not have been on business for Eshteross, so it would have likely been slow travel. The party had already shown some promise in the Heartmoor and on their journey there so this would have kept up that momentum of taking watch together, sharing information with each other, and making decisions on their own steam, without a guiding patron. I think it would have laid that stronger foundation of a culture of, well, talking to each other, by giving that nascent 20s and 30s episode period far more time to breathe. Upon arriving in Yios, they already knew to seek out the Grim Verity and Kadija Sumal; the same exact outcome could have occurred. The one major wrinkle is Ludinus, but that could be set in Bassuras, with him coming to talk to Otohan (thus introducing him and giving a much richer insight into the Vanguard generals' dynamic). The party wandering around a city themselves and learning of Liliana and the Vanguard and perhaps getting hints of the Grey Assassins would set the groundwork of the core apogee solstice plot. You could even, and this is very much a hindsight is 20-20 situation, have Planerider Ryn give them some sort of favor a la J'mon Sa'Ord - use this sending stone and I'll come get you out of a sticky situation, with a price (the price being destroying the Feywild Malleus Key). You could also achieve the lore drops from Ira here; either move him here or have someone else show them a telescope that has been enchanted to see the city. And, of course, you could have Otohan in Imogen's dreams.

While in Yios, having had some time to get their bearings as a party and to more slowly lay out the moon plot, you could then have Eshteross have someone message them or send word via the airship that Treshi has escaped prison and fled to Bassuras, etc etc, please infiltrate the Paragon's Call. From there you could run it roughly as before, with the party having more information about the Vanguard and the Paragon's Call as a front for it and thus acting with more subtlety and caution and giving the party more time to interact with Otohan so that she possessed literally any interesting features that weren't just told to us out of character. Honestly I think saving Yu for later in the campaign would still be wise (or playing a different character but honestly, introducing Yu on the moon as a disgruntled Zathuda underling? could have been great) but I think the party and the plot would have been better able to accomodate them. It's worth keeping in mind that by the time Yu left (episode 29), there had been a guest in over half the campaign's episodes. No shade to Dorian, who I think was great, but the party needed some time to readjust and figure out who they were.

In Bassuras, the party could then have Ryn as their Otohan Fight Hail Mary should that come up, which would send them to the Feywild, and things would proceed from there roughly as they did before;

Which brings me to option 2, which is that actually, I think just not having Yu there would have done wonders. Think about how much time the party spent talking to them and their story instead of like...to each other. There were some good early conversations on the ship over and their first night in the city! And then they spent most of their time in Taste of Tal'Dorei talking about someone who, ultimately, served to introduce Fearne's parents and nothing else. Imagine if they'd just...talked with each other.

In this scenario, I'd have the party focus on FCG and Ashton's connections. I think you could have introduced the Calloways later, in the Feywild (in this scenario the Yios arc still unfolds roughly as it did, so just...have them there at Morri's the way they were there in episode 78), but if you did want to include that, you could have just had Imahara Joe notice that Fearne looked a lot like Birdie and say something, since going to Joe's would be easy to guide the party into doing. You also, by focusing more on FCG and Ashton, could explore the culture of Bassuras and the Stratos Throne and therefore actually get a sense of what "Legend of the Peaks" actually means.

As before, I really think having Yu show up either as the party made their way to the Feywild Malleus Key, or on the moon, would be a much better showcase for the character and would fit the story better. As is, we learned nothing about Zathuda from them other than that he exists; the Moontide Crown was yet another MacGuffin in The MacGuffin Slog and as discussed Ira's role could have been achieved in Yios (he also could have shown up causing problems at the Material Plane Malleus Key to establish the enemy of my enemy is my friend so that he could be in the same position as the moon mission); and the Calloways could easily have been introduced by Joe or when the party went to the Feywild.

I also really think you could just save all the infodumping for Yios; I think one giant lore drop would have been stronger than two decently sized ones. Naturally I still think going to Yios first would be more graceful, but truly, just a little more breathing room in Bassuras would have done so much.

As an aside: I think one thing that would have mitigated the pacing of Bassuras/Whitestone is, well, not going to Whitestone. In the Yios-first model, theoretically they would go to the Feywild (perhaps Morri could bring people back had that been necessary, which would have been fun as hell to explore) but in the Bassuras w/o Yu scenario, Whitestone would still be an option. Now, what's done is done. However, I do want to point out, if any Crown Keepers fans are in the audience, I strongly suspect that the Jiana Hexum connection not being leveraged in favor of going to Whitestone is a major factor in the Crown Keepers not coming into the story, because the hook for them was via Cyrus being sought after by Jiana and they went with Keyleth.

Obviously this is D&D! As mentioned above, hindsight is 20-20, Monday morning quarterbacks are a day too late, and so forth. I still think that a session zero would have also been very helpful (not the typical CR main campaign "play out a scenario with your pre-existing companions," but one like they showed for Daggerheart and for the various Candela seasons; I have separate thoughts about how the screen test strategy vs. a more traditional session zero has twice now had less than impressive results). But either of these changes would, I think, have made it a much stronger campaign.

[sad-eyed-lady-of-the-paperbacks]

We’re finally starting our read along! This is Book I of Part I (there are four parts and an epilogue). First, something about the title of Book I.

Constance Garnett simply renders the title of this book: “The History of a Family.” But looking at the Russian (I don’t actually speak Russian, I’m just trying to learn, so take everything I say with a massive grain of salt!), “История одной семейки” — a literal rendering of which would be “The History [or story] of One Family” (I think). Remember that Russian does not have articles, so if it was simply “The History of a Family,” it would be “история семьи” but it’s not. That “одной” is serving a function. So, in line with that, McDuff gives us “The Story of a Certain Little Family” while Pevear and Volokhonsky render it, “A Nice Little Family.” (I would really love to read about what nuances of the Russian text made them choose this rendering.) MacAndrew says “A Peculiar Family History.” I’m surprised that no one has rendered it “The History of a Singular Family.” I wonder if “singular” might be a good adjective to establish the strange nature of this family while also reflecting that “one” from the literal rendering.

But anyway! Moving on, because although the first chapter is very short, there is so much here to discuss!!

For those who are wading into this novel for the first time, I want to say: please do not be intimidated or put off by Book 1. Dostoevsky is going to dump a ton of exposition on us in a way he doesn’t normally do (at least, not in the works of his that I have read so far). It’s a little jarring and strange and kind of overwhelming, but it serves a purpose. By doing it this way, he is able to drop us immediately into the thick of the drama in Book II. And I really mean that. Book II is going to be kind of insane, and you’re going to want to have paid attention in Book I and really digested the information our narrator is giving us on the background of these characters and who they are, before he unleashes them all on each other. This infodump also seems perfectly in character for the narrator, which I think shows real skill on Dostoevsky’s part.

This chapter is named after Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, and we are told three things about him right in the first sentence:

He is the father of three sons, of which Alexei Fyodorovich—the hero of the novel, as introduced in the preface—is the youngest

He is a landowner

His death is still remembered 13 years later, and there was something not only tragic but also murky and perhaps mysterious about it. (“Gloomy,” Garnett; “dark,” P&V; “fishy,” McDuff.) We know that this novel is going to be partly concerned with that death, because the narrator promises to speak of it in its proper place. 

Fyodor is introduced to us as a landowner, and it is emphasised that this is how everyone refers to him. This novel is set shortly after the emancipation of the serfs. (13 years before 1879 publication date = around 1866 or 1867, and the serfs were emancipated in 1861.) Land and wealth are still measured in terms of “souls”—how many serfs used to belong to the estate, even though at this point they don’t actually own those human beings any more. Things are still very messy as society tries to restructure itself. In some ways it reminds me of the Reconstruction era in the American South, although in Russia, we’re talking about the abolishment of a centuries old institution. That’s foundation-shaking for the country. The emphasis on Fyodor being a landowner, though only a petty one, places the Karamazov family within their class context within this society that is undergoing all of this change and upheaval and modernisation. Class is very important in this novel, so keep note of that.

Besides being a landowner, what sort of man is Fyodor Pavlovich?

…he was a strange type, one that is, however, rather often encountered…

—(McDuff 1.1)

I cannot help but think back to the preface, where our hero is introduced as “a strange man, an oddity, even.” But Fyodor Pavlovich is not an oddity, because his type is “rather often encountered.” We learn that though he presents himself as nothing more than a pleasure-seeking airhead, he’s not actually stupid—there is cunning and calculation there, and even deception.

At this time there were quite a lot of Russian nobles who were practically penniless, and they survived only because other noble families were willing to host them. Sometimes it was a symbiotic relationship: their name had such prestige attached that hanging out with them benefitted the host, or they were simply charming and entertaining to have around. Other times they were more of a parasite, and allowed to hang around out of sheer pity. Regardless, there is a definite negative connotation to “sponge,” “sponger,” or “toady” as it is variously translated here. We will end up encountering another character who is in this social position later on. This is how Fyodor Pavlovich presents himself to his fellow landowners, but after he dies, it’s discovered that he has been hoarding money away the whole time he was taking advantage of the generosity of others. Not only is this slimy, but it tells us something very interesting about Fyodor Pavlovich. He does not care about being respected, he is willing to be looked down on or viewed as ridiculous. He does not have a sense of honour, he cares only about seeking his own advantage.

Another significant thing about Fyodor Pavlovich is the narrator’s insistence that this type of person is uniquely Russian. During the 19th century, Russia was flooded with European influences, with some of the Russian people trying to wholeheartedly adopt what they saw as the enlightened and superior European customs, ideas, and philosophies, while others pushed back, desperately trying to hold onto everything that set Russia apart. In The Brothers Karamazov, we will meet characters who fall all along this spectrum. Dostoevsky did have a deep love for Russia, and there were many European ideas and philosophies which he regarded with apprehension—a good deal of his work consists of plumbing the depths of these ideas and philosophies, interrogating them, examining the potential consequences and outcomes that could result from the uncritical embracing of these European imports, and from throwing the baby out with the bathwater as far as Russian culture was concerned. It could be tempting, therefore, to suppose that for Dostoevsky, Russian = good and European = bad. But this would be incredibly misguided and reductive. Dostoevsky’s work is never so one-dimensional as all that. Here, Fyodor Pavlovich is being presented in rather a negative light, and yet he is emphasised as being uniquely Russian. He embodies many things which are backwards and ugly about old Russia and her class of landowners.

I’m going to talk about Adelaida Ivanovna—his first wife—in a separate post, because this is getting long and I only covered the first couple paragraphs!

[jebbaks]

so. Larssen! he is Certainly a guy!

(aka my wynncraft oc/repurposed oc from another universe who i've occasionally posted scribbles of here)

heres the rest of the scribbles. Mostly old art.

i have like a LOOOOOT to say abt him but basically

hes pretty much a living weapon type character. or rather he regards himself as one. being around other soldiers who fully believe in their cause and a failed attempt to recover his memories (rtp moment), he internalizes this over time and fully believes that the only thing he was born/made for was to fight, to be used as a weapon against the corruption. he can be thrown away at any moment, he can be replaced

this subsequently damages his ability to form relationships with other people; he thinks he has no business doing so. he consciously puts up walls in the beginning but he eventually almost becomes unable to strike up *anything* at all with another person. from rtp onwards everybody he meets, no matter how attached the other becomes — they all become fleeting figures in his mind. BUT he cannot deny that he very much desires connection. the root of the reason why he even internalized the role of the soldier in the first place is so he can fit in better with tasim and aledar!! he just . unfortunately loses sight of this as he progresses. to the point where he cannot even recognize his humanity

so his entire arc is him struggling internally w both sides, the one that is nothing but a soldier and the other that is very much undeniably human. pretty much. Yeah

some other things

secret library enthusiast. despite everything he'll still go out of his way to dig around and find more hidden spots to simply vibe in and forget about the world for a little bit. his personal favorites are the lusuco hidden library and the cinfras grand archive (which. he may or may not have yoinked a book or two from)

perhaps one of such books ft. rusty bartender

music guy!! he frequents mt wynn a bunch bc of the performances there. this is also smth i wanna get into at a later date. all yall gotta know 4 now is that he sings pretty nicely and he is prone to rambling/infodumping about whatever cool obscure ballad hes just heard/read about in the libraries

like dare i say atp he finds it easiest to connect w other ppl thru music and even then he still feels out of place among tasim and aledar after this.

he often frequents the rusty recruit just to talk to the rusty bartender about whatever he's been up to. it started as a one-off thing until he noticed after a while that the bartender actually *does* care about his adventures. so he just kept coming back. on and on and on until one thing led to another and now we're um. here. shoves aside barssen drawings

cat person. massive cat person. he will pet u like u are a cat. he will dump a cat in your lap out of nowhere and start spitting cat facts out of nowhere or something

id yap more but thats for another post

for now thank u for coming to my oc yapping session

[spineless-lobster]

Alright so I was reading the wikipedia article for the limpet mine because I am Very Normal™ about the antics my favourite characters get up to, and I went down a rabbit hole about this guy who I believe to have somewhat inspired the character of the Captain. (long post warning, TL;DR at the end)

I present to you, Cecil Vandepeer Clarke, the man who helped develop the limpet mine. (the last name Clarke might ring a bell to those who have read There’s A War Going On by Glowinggreeneyes)

Born in 1897, (which could’ve been the Captain’s birth year) he first served in WWI as a second lieutenant. He did quite a few things but the main thing that I want to focus on was his achievements. He was rewarded the Military Cross medal for his part in the battle of Vittorio Veneto in Italy in 1918. If you’ve seen my other infodump post you know that in the Captain’s pilot design, he had the Military Cross (underlined in red) and the Italy Star (underlined in blue) as medals (which later changed). Now, the Italy Star was specifically for WWII but I feel like we can excuse that because of creative licensing and all that. I just think the link between Italy is interesting. The France and Germany Star and the War Medal are part of his canon design, so which ever part of his story that relates to that must’ve made it through the cut which is 👀

Clarke married Dorothy Aileen Kendrick and had three children, which isn’t that important but my brain won’t let go of “a friend of Dorothy” so there’s that.

Clarke developed the limpet mine during WWII with his friend Stuart Macrae. They had to think of a detonation technique (remember, they had to attach the mine to the hull of the ship. You can’t have your frogmen blowing up) they found that an aniseed ball (a type of candy that resembles a gobstopper, only smaller) left by Clarke’s children in his office disintegrated at the perfect rate in water in order to detonate the mine.

While they were testing the limpet mine, they had to make sure it didn’t get damp in any way lest the aniseed ball starts dissolving. So naturally they wrapped it in a condom while not in use.

I initially made this post because the thought of the Captain being all flustered next to Havers while handling a detonator wrapped in a condom was sending me into hysterics but uhhh I got a bit carried away.

The Captain mentions that the limpet mine used suckers to attach to the side of the hull. But in reality they used magnets to attach them to the ship, which was the idea from the start. So tbh I have no idea what he’s going on about.

Now here’s something interesting; Clarke worked on improvements with the limpet mine in a country house called Aston House, which was acquired by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1939. The mine was being manufactured by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the house was handed over to them by the SIS where it was known as Station XII (hm, oddly close to Button House XI don’t you think?) Clarke also developed many other weapons at the house. Aston House is in Stevenage, Hertfordshire which means literally nothing to me but it might mean something to someone else.

While developing the limpet mine Clarke had come up with the idea of an underground tank (which sounds cool as hell) and proposed his idea twice, the first time to the Ministry of Supply (which was rejected) and the second time directly to Churchill himself (who essentially said “that’s great, but we’re making one of those already”). Although he was put in charge of the “trenching machine” as he was made assistant director in the Naval Land Section, he grew to hate his job and was called for military service shortly after he left. (Hm, who else absolutely despises the navy? Perhaps our favourite little army man?)

Clarke was later promoted to captain (but acted as a major) and was stationed at Brickendonbury Manor (Station XVII) where he trained SOE agents. There he suffered a bone fracture due to a rough landing during parachute training. The wiki article doesn’t mention where the fracture was but if it was in his knees I might punch a wall.

Clarke was released from the army in November of 1945. He returned to Bedford where he joined the Territorial Army as a captain and served there for six years before being transferred to the Intelligence Corps. Later he ran as like a counsellor or something and was part of the Labour/Liberal Party, but I don’t think that’s very relevant. He retired as a major at the age of 60 and died in 1961. The wiki article doesn’t mention a cause of death (which is just poetic irony at this point) but it does mention that he had a non fatal heart attack. But non fatal means he didn’t die from it so ?????

TL;DR:

- Possibly same birth year?

- Similar(ish) medals

- Developed the limpet mine with a close friend

- Stationed at a country house (twice in the case of Clarke) during WWII

- Hate the navy (though that seems to be common amongst soldiers)

- Fucked up bones

- Worked in intelligence and weapons development

- Prominently known as a captain

- Died under mysterious circumstances apparently

I am leaving out A LOT of other information so there might be more connections that I’m missing. If you wanna learn more about Clarke and the limpet mine I found this article which delves further into the development and it was a very fun read.

I… I need to lie down

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Concepts for the Pokemon x RC9GN AU

Alright, this is officially take two of my attempts to explain this... weird crossover no one asked for!

as for the descendant Randy AU, that's going to be done completely separately so, let's get right on to it!

General Infodump

The Pokemon AU takes place in a fictional region that is supposed to replace Norrisville- and Norrisville is one of the towns of said region, but we start off with our two title leads - Randy and Howard - about to head off on their journey to become Pokemon trainers. Randy's parents are a little bit miffed about it for undisclosed plot reasons, but they don't stop him when he does decide to leave. I like to think the Sorcerer isn't literally a disheveled frog-looking thing but more so something else (brain isn't brain'ing right now-)

McFist and Viceroy are both part of an organization that is a little like, say Team Rocket but with more merit to what they're doing- and are one of the many foes that Randy now has to face, but to add onto all of this-

I literally don't know how to incorporate the Ninja lore into this unless I decided to have the Ninja as this protector of the entire region, instead of just Norrisville. Thinking that the bond between the Ninja and their Pokemon team is going to be more... ahems, magical? No- a word I can't think of right now, fuck English right now

The tengu was either a legendary or mythical bird Pokemon, of course with an element of fire because hello? We can't have anything less, but moving on! The whole thing with the stone still went down though I'm still trying to tie this all together to say the least

Additional Lore Bits

Stanked monsters don't exist in the same way as the RC9GN canon- that's all I got right now to be honest

The group that McFist and Viceroy are a part of- their goals are wanting to use Pokemon as their own personal army, and make them stronger and better in order to take on the Ninja. What they don't realize, however, is that there's actual significance behind the Ninja's appearance (tying this into cultural aspects perhaps? we'll see how this works out later-)

So, how does the Ninja work in this, you ask? I like to think that there were always warriors protecting Norrisville from imminent danger but nothing was ever as strong and dangerous as the Sorcerer. When Finja and his clan came to be, the Sorcerer was utilizing dark relics in order to take over the entire region but of course, like anything- this began going south which led to the intervention from the Norisu 9. Unfortunately, this ended up going extremely dire and Finja was the only one left- no one quite managed to figure out what happened to everyone else but using the feathers of a legendary Pokemon, he managed to create something no one had ever managed to do before

Now to keep this from being too similar to the RC9GN canon, I'm not sure what to do after this- but I still want to reference some stuff honestly? I can't tell you what that is yet, this is all just a prototype idea for now but this is where things get a little interesting...

Finja and the Sorcerer face off in a great battle, and the Sorcerer meets his demise- imprisoned- but Finja is left horrendously weakened and injured, and his fate- for now- will remain undetermined

Skip to modern day, and this is where we're introduced to Randy and Howard, the pair are heading off on their Pokemon trainer journey- Randy wants the glory of being a trainer, but he also just feels he needs to do what's right and getting to face the gym leaders gives him that sensation; Howard is only going because he doesn't want to be alone hahah, he hasn't quite figured out what he wants to do yet

As their journey continues, Randy ends up catching a lot of fighting and fire types, including one that's a poison type while Howard's tend to be a little different- i'm thinking fire at the very least but there are others

i'm going insane trying to write this in a way that actually makes sense, was too focused on finding trainer card templates and now i have to pick their Pokemon and add it to the card-

but okay, let's move on

Character Concepts

Randy Cunningham: 14 years old. Randy's the son of a retired Pokemon trainer, though he knows nothing beyond that- coughs, and his mother's a nurse for Pokemon! He starts his Pokemon trainer journey a little bit late, but he's determined to take on the gym leaders, like it's something he has to do. As he and Howard embark on the adventure, they end up having to deal with a weird... metallic Pokemon, and Randy's kind of losing his marbles (but he also is weirdly ecstatic about the whole thing-). Sometime during this, he encounters an ancient relic which apparently is a book and has everything about how to be a better trainer, how to fight with your team, all of it. The author's not written anywhere in it but he eventually gets the hang of it- even if he constantly misinterprets the lessons and takes twice as long to figure it out.

The deal with this kid is he's extremely impulsive and likes to blindly rush at danger- also the fact he immediately jumps to conclusions when something happens, because he'll accidentally warp the lessons into something that benefits him. Though, his bond with his team continues to strengthen- and if he happens to accidentally realize exactly how he can utilize this to his advantage, well, let's just say something interesting is going to happen. (my current plan is that he create a link with the Pokemon and active their powers for him to be able to use as well-)

Howard Weinerman: Howard is around the same age as Randy. He's not very interested in a lot of things- but he despises being alone and decides to tag on Randy's trainer journey with him, embarking on the strangest adventure he's ever had. Unlike Randy, however, he only seems to care about things that benefit him which isn't entirely the case as he seems to also worry about Randy's safety- especially with the amount of times that his friend just blindly gets into a fight with their enemies. Howard is exceptionally stubborn, though at the end of the day, he manages to do what's right too- albeit a little reluctantly.

And yes, I'm going to link him to the tengu- things might work out a little bit differently in this version for obvious reasons, but I will manage a way for it to work.

Debbie Kang: Debbie Kang is one of the other Pokemon trainers that accompanies Randy and Howard on their journey- unlike the boys, she's not trying to take on the gym leaders and seems more interested in becoming a reporter, attempting to grab the latest scoop on things happening around the region. Unfortunately, she gets involved in the current ploy McFist and Viceroy are doing- and, well, Debbie has no idea what she's getting into and she and her liepard are about to uncover something much bigger is happening. She happens to be relentless in her endeavors, preferring the sense of danger but needing to reel herself back in or risk endangering the entire party. [Details are still pending]

Theresa Fowler: On the other hand, we have Theresa- unlike Debbie, who's completely willing to throw herself into a path of danger for a scoop, Theresa is a little more cautious. She worries constantly about her friends, not wanting to see them get hurt and sometimes acts as the voice of reason (Debbie can be, but she also wants to expose McFist and Viceroy, and that gets in the way at times-). She frets a lot, but she also is a good fighter and will intervene if the rest of her team is injured.

I like to consider these four as the title characters, and that the other Norrisville High students are more in the background- although I'm also trying to figure something out with Julian.

Undeveloped Ideas

The Nomicon is an ancient relic- as mentioned before, it's a training tool for the current Ninja, or whatever adjacent theme is being followed; unlike the canon, however, the book has more of a connection with the user and can interact with them even via dreams and has a human form (though this isn't something that happens too often-). [Details still pending!]

Tengu - Legendary Pokemon/Fire Type. The tengu was always more of a neutral party in all of this, but things changed... and this led to certain events taking place- even before Finja managed to infuse the tengu's feathers into... something.

Shadow Warrior's Temple - central theme to the storyline. details still in the works- potentially some of the things from it will be used by Randy, but this is about as far as I got.

Unfortunately, this is most what I have- the idea came to me out of nowhere and I need to develop it more because this sounds and looks like garbled nonsense- I kind of would like some thoughts on it-? Though this isn't inherently necessarily at the same time-

I'm going to be fleshing this out eventually, just please be patient! Because apparently, I don't know when to quit-

I'm kind of more excited for building the Pokemon teams than the lore though hahaha

[koreanbibliophilegirl]

Do you perhaps want to info dump about your DSMP superpower AU?

Totally not asking to procrastinate on literally writing my own. Nah. I don’t even know what procrastination is.

SKLFDJSJHDJFLH INFODUMPING ABOUT MY AU? ALWAYS. I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED.

Okay so! Where should I start? *rubs hands like that one evil toddler cousin on Christmas*

The background setting!

So the fic already has a name, but I'm keeping it AND the MC secret as a lil surprise for when the fic is eventually published. All I will say about it is, it's not Tommy. *gasp*

Tommy does appear though, so I'll start there to avoid detection I think.

He works at the bakery(yes, it's owned by Niki Nihachu), which is right around the corner from the hero headquarters. So heroes are always stopping by for baked goods, especially since Niki's girlfriend, Puffy, has a son who's one of the top heroes, and he told all his friends about how good the bakery is.

And, of course, true to all the clichés, Tommy and his two roommates work as vigilantes. They don't work only at night, though. They work at lunchtime as well, since they all get an hour of lunch break & a lot of villains are out and about around that time. Counterintuitive, but then again, there are a lot of people in the streets to nab as hostages, and some villains actively seek out heroes to fight anyway. Like Redrum, known as the sharp-clawed, since he's apparently a catshifter (or general shapeshifter, who knows) who goes around stabbing heroes.

Tubbo works at the mechanics, his boss is retired hero/hero trainer Sam Dude(known as Warden during his time)! Sam retired among controversy though, because of issues surrounding the Hero HQ's former resident healer/ex-licensed hero, Lemon Balm. Tubbo couldn't care less though, Sam's nice and lets him take spare parts home for inventing(read: making vigilante gadgets).

Ranboo helps out at the local library, with Technoblade(last name unknown) as his boss! They're also the first out of the vigilante team Bench Trio to find out that Techno is the Blood God, one of the most popular vigilantes currently active, and one half of the elusive Emerald Duo.

Phil runs a bird shelter, and when he's out as the Angel of Death, he sometimes lets the crows from the shelter follow him around!

Kristin is a hero-turned-vigilante, formerly Miss Trixtin, currently the Goddess of Death. She's a bit busy with her day job atm though so she's taking a bit of a break from her vigilante job.

Wilbur is their son who left home after an argument about vigilantism not helping reform the corrupt hero system. He's a villain called Silver Tongue now. He keeps stealing important stuff from the Hero HQ with Fundy. He gets pretty close with Tommy after regularly visiting his (adoptive) son's workplace :D

Bench Trio's vigilante names are Aerie(Tommy- telekinesis + singing to plants to make them grow), Bee Bomb(Tubbo- honey colored explosive energy balls & metal manipulation), and Endgame(Ranboo- teleportation & compression, plus they can bite through anything)!

(Double powers are uncommon but not too rare, triple powers are EXTREMELY rare.)

Tommy's bakery coworkers are Fundy Soot(villain- helps his adoptive father, Wilbur, on his little outings. Ability to go unnoticed by everyone and anyone. It works on technology as well. He's also a general shapeshifter in theory, but he can't transform into animals bigger than a fox.), Badboy Halo(civillian- he can make red vines grow out of the ground! This saved Skeppy's butt once, cuz they used to live in the same neighborhood & went to the same schools, and one time Skeppy fell off the flagpole of the middle school. Bad's vines caught him midair.), and later on Ant Frost(🤫).

Niki herself is actually a former hero who resigned, she got too much hate about her power(copying others' powers for a short while). Puffy, who was her partner, retired a few years later, since she'd decided to adopt the orphan boy who had applied for the hero training program, and she'd need more money than she was making as a hero who had lost most of her popularity. She became a therapist, and fully supported her new son Foolish throughout his hero training!

Puffy and Niki never really talked about their relationship, but since Puffy's power is reading minds & emotions, and Niki can copy her power, they didn't have to. One day they just started telling people they were taken, and that was that.

Foolish is a popular hero who can call up storms & has the additional power of building anything in the blink of an eye! His partner(both work AND romantic) is Eret, who can control people's actions if they catch sight of her glowing white eyes. Their hero names are the Golden Shark and Monarch respectively.

Tina is also a hero, she graduated the hero training program with Foolish, but her powers(always landing on her feet when she falls, enhanced senses including night vision, and stealth) coincide too much with the top hero, Dream(can't get hurt from falling, slowing down time to give himself time to think, some enhanced agility), and she didn't get very popular. This will soon change though, Tina is the GOAT and everyone will know it.

Speaking of Tina, Hannah Rose the retired hero! She runs a flower shop! She retired after one of her wings was ripped during a fight, the physical therapy took a while and her popularity dropped like a stone. She realized how unfair the hero system was to unpopular heroes and decided to retire. Her wings still haven't recovered, her flight balance is too off for her to even consider flying more than a few feet off the ground, and more than a few seconds.

Las Nevadas! Quackity! He's one of the rare triple powered people! Golden duck wings, can manipulate card-shaped objects(a form of telekinesis), and has the ability to control odds(only if he's aware of all the variables though. It won't work very well if there are unknown factors).

Charlie! May be an elder god, may be the devil, who knows! He can turn into green slime, create green slime(with various properties), and additionally, knows everything about everyone. Nobody actually knows if this is a power or not, but it's certainly terrifying paired with his cheerful, optimistic personality.

Purpled! His skin is basically invincible, fireproof, acidproof, poisonproof, you name it. He also has perfect aim, which is very handy since he's an assassin. His sibling Punz is also an assassin, but they has flight trajectory manipulation and his eyes can zoom in on anything.

Skeppy. He's not part of the mafia, but he might as well be becuase he's literally always there. Nobody knows how he does it. But. He. Is. Always. There. He can summon diamonds though so nobody's complaining😊 lol

(But seriously, he's also fun to hang out with and plan pranks with. The mafia world is full of people who want something from you/have ulterior motives, and it's nice to hang out with someone who doesn't want anything from you other than keeping him company and talking with him.)

Sam, Foolish and Punz are friends! Sam suspects Punz is mafia but keeps quiet about it(he isn't about to make the same mistake as last time), Foolish is oblivious. Punz loves his homies, but is stressed bc Foolish has a v strict moral code and would not be happy if he finds out Punz is mafia.

Uhhh who have I not talked about, KARLNAP. Sapnap was a vigilante(he failed the training program interview) who quickly got recruited by the heroes, Karl was the same but a while later! Sapnap got patrols with Dream and GeorgeNotFound(all three go by their actual names as heroes, though Sapnap's vigilante name was Flame) and immediately gained a huge following(besides his fans from his vigilante days), but Karl(a.k.a. Timekeeper) wasn't that well-known even as a vigilante. He didn't give up though, and trained extremely hard every day. Then one day Sapnap saw him in the training area and got an instant crush. They talked, Sapnap began asking to be paired with Karl for duo patrols, they started dating, and now they're both famous & known as the ultimate power couple :3

Hmm, it feels kinda anticlimactic to end like this, so have a codename compilation!

Tommy- Aerie(place to rest suspended in the air. Tommy can float things in the air so I thought the name fit.)

Tubbo- Bee Bomb(Bee Bombs are wildflower seed balls that you leave out in the garden/in pots to grow wildflowers. I thought Tubbo would like the name, since his energy balls are supposed to smell sweet like wildflower honey.)

Ranboo- Endgame(They're so overpowered with their teleportation and compression that Tommy and Tubbo insisted his appearance alone would signal the beginning of the endgame. Nicknamed Ender.)

Technoblade- the Blood God(obviously.)

Philza- the Angel of Death(also obviously.)

Wilbur- Silver Tongue(for his silver tongue.)

Fundy- either Nonexistent or Ghost, haven't really decided yet

Kristin- (formerly) Miss Trixtin, (currently) the Goddess of Death

Foolish- the Golden Shark

Tina- Carrot Cat

Eret- Monarch

Niki- (formerly) Copycat

Puffy- (formerly) Captain Puffy

Karl- Timekeeper

(Mafia Codename explanation here)

Quackity- Rey Club, King of Clubs

Purpled- Tyrian Spade

Punz- Lapis Lazuli Spade, Ace of Spades

Hannah- (formerly) Faerie, (currently) Bitterbriar Diamond

Skeppy- Adamant Heart(since he's always there anyway, they just gave him a codename.)

Charlie- Dresden Diamond, Jack of Diamonds

Ponk- Lemon Balm/Sorrento Heart(they still go by Lemon Balm as a vigilante)

Ant- Redrum

Eryn- Demon

Aimsey- Daisy(star and Eryn are villains who want to reform society as a whole by blowing up buildings. Only when they're empty tho cuz Aimsey doesn't want to kill ppl)

Velvet: Red Flag

Welp, that's all for now! If there's anything else you'd like to know, please feel free to ask further! I really enjoyed answering this, thank you so much for the ask! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

-Lilly xx

(P. S. Almost forgot; HBomb is the owner & sole employee of a cat café with a maid event on Saturdays.)

[iconuk01]

Doug's first appearance in New Mutants 13 was, fun what with accidentally blowing up a Sentinel, but his second appearance is also worth mentioning.

X-Men 180 is perhaps better known for A) the scene where Kitty and Storm discuss Kitty's issues with Storm adopting a new appearance and attitude (Her leather jacket and mohawk punk phase) and B) The lead in to the X-Men going to be part of the Secret Wars maxi series, but there's

This scene is before Doug was revealed to be a mutant. He was just the kid from Salem Centre Kitty was spending a LOT of her free time with, and what would these two computer nerds be doing in the mid 80's? Yup, going to the mall!

Specifcially, the arcade!!

That is THE most spaciously laid out arcade I have ever seen, but that's not really the important bit here.

Though I'm pretty sure you can't actually DO that with arcade games just by scoring too high, I can easily believe these two being the bane of anyone trying to crank out a buck from video game addled teenagers with rolls of quarters!

And this is a slightly earlier version of Doug, since he doesn't know he or Kitty are mutants, he's cockier than we would see him once his inferiority complex kicks into high gear as Cypher. Here, he's Doug Ramsey, computer software genius, nerd and video game ace who is out having fun with the most amazing girl he's ever met before.

...but first and foremost, he's a good friend. (He'd have to be to deal with this level of emotional baggage infodumping. Good grief Kitty!)

Awww! These two are so sweet together!

Meanwhile, someone else is brooding, this time over Kitty and Doug... and not in an especially wholesome way

I should point out that at this point in time, Kitty is fourteen (confirmed in the previous issue where Storm specifically notes that Kitty was not yet fifteen), and Piotr is somewhere in that vague are of late teens/early twenties.

I believe, at the time that it was possible for 14 year olds to marry in the USSR, but it was far from the norm.

I should also add, in the interest of fairness, that during the slightly earlier BroodWar arc, thinking they were both going to die, Kitty asked if Piotr would become her first sexual partner, and Piotr gently turned her down (I know that's a very, VERY low bar to clear, but it should be mentioned)

This is setting the scene for Piotr falling for someone else during Secret Wars, an alien woman named Zsaji, who is a sort of walking, healing, plot device rather than a character with any agency, who is regretably fridged to give Piotr some angst, and also to confirm the breaking up of Piotr and Kitty as a possible couple and being anything other than team-mates for a great many years. There's an interesting article on Zsaji's story here, if you're interested.

So Piotr does seem to have some resentment towards Doug for taking HIS Katya (Even Wolverine, rarely the world's best agony uncle, tell's him that if that's how he views the situation, he's already lost Kitty and that's definitely for the best)

Later, as Doug has recently been invited to become a student of the Massachussetts Academy, a school the X-Men know is run by Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club, even if she is currently believed to be comatose (long story), the X-Men consider a course of action, and Chuck Xavier once against shows us that to him, "Ethics" is something for other people...

Now look, if Chuck knows that Doug is a mutant, that's one thing, he has a mutant detecting machine in the basement after all. But to casually "out" someone else was a mutant, without having any intent of ever telling the person themselves, that's just... not cool.

And yes, it may be a "quiet" power, but I don't think a Sentinel will give a rats ass about that, Doug has just as large a target on his back as anyone else.

Also, this is some years before the World Wide Web was a thing, though Doug was already established as a superbly skilled hacker on the still new and shiny thing called "The internet", thanks to his powers, so you'd have thought SOMEONE on the X-Men would have considered that a viable talent to develop, even if only as a support operative.

Kitty's comment does reference the precsse situation when Doug actually WAS inducted into the wild and wacky world of mutant-dom... When Warlock crashed on Earth, Xavier was out of town and the New Mutants REALLY needed someone to be able to talk to the confused and desperate alien (and ironically, as it turns out, Xavier would have done no good, as Warlock is telepath-proof)

But it does allow me to post these amazing bits from New Mutants #21, as Sam rockets off to break the news to Doug about, well... his entire life... whilst wearing only a towel.

Whilst allows for Doug's gloriously snarky introduction to X-plots.

He DOES have a point!

Oh, and as for the resentment towards Doug from Piotr I mentioned earlier? You might be asking if that lingers?

Well, one has to wonder, as in a much later story, Uncanny X-Men Annual #10, where the X-Men are de-aged by Mojo, and the New Mutants have to step up as temporary X-Men, the first time they meet in combat, what's the first thing mini-Colossus does?

Yup, punches Doug right in the crotch!

Methinks the Russian lad has some unresolved issues about our little omniglot.... LOTS of issues!

[captainnait]

Go ahead, infodump about Bob from Headrush. No one is stopping you

3:11 pm, 5/20/2024

You will not believe how big of a smile I got when I first saw this ask 😭😭 Like I'm genuinely so happy to talk about him, thank you,,,

Anyway, you don't need to ask me twice 💥

(Yeah, a lot of rambling under the cut, hehe)

— One of my favorite canon facts about Bob is that he REALLY hates emoticons. He mentions it two times: one time in a question, where he refuses to read out loud the category name, that is just an emoticon, and instead just calls it "that. . . thing" or smth, and the other time is in the "Don't be afraid to express your emoticons" Headrush category, where he just straight up tells players to be cautious of people who use emoticons 😭

Either he had a terrible experience with someone who used emoticons. . . Or his old man brain just doesn't understand them. Or both idk.

— I don't know if it's just an Andy Poland thing or not (it's probably is, but still—), but I just really like the way he can change up his voices so quickly. My man can literally go from "uwu im so silly" type of voice to LITERALLY the most brutal and manliest voice imaginable in just a span of a few seconds, and I think that's INCREDIBLE.

If we talk about Bob specifically though, I really like how silly his voice sounds at the end of the round, when he says "bye-bye" or other similar to that lines. It just makes me giggle, okay,,

— I don't remember the full context behind this image and the question it is from, but. Yeah. Huh.

[For some reason Tumblr just doesn't let me put this image in, but it just a screenshot of the game with red words written on the screen, saying "Bob has a "thing" for Barney"]

It's also pretty funny, since a few rounds later I got another Barney question ("Even Purple Dinosaurs Have to Die... Someday"), and Bob didn't sound really amused by it lol

— There are a lot of lines in the game, where Bob jokes/admits that he feels pretty lonely and/or isolated, which is very interesting, considering that he doesn't seem as a very introverted person or someone who doesn't go outside much.

I don't have any specific speculations on why he is like that, but I think (headcanon, I guess) that it's something that he grow up feeling like and, perhaps, still haven't grown out of it.

— In "None of the Smoke & All of the Cancer", Bob says that he finds smoking to be "sexy". It isn't very clear whether if he meant it as a joke or not, so. Eh.

— A lot of people said it way before me, but. . . This man has major dog vibes. Like, I can't pin down specific things that make me think like that. It's— It's just the overall vibe I get from him lol

— I'm pretty sure I've seen someone already make a post about it (I'm not sure though), buuuut it's pretty fascinating to me how little sexual interest Bob shows in women (compare to other hosts in the series, at least) and how little he cares for "mushy" stuff in general, valuing friendship/platonic bonds a lot more.

This probably could stem from what type of game Headrush is, since it's aimed for a younger audience - teens, who probably don't really care about love in that young age. But yeah, just an interesting thing to thinking about while in a shower.

— His relationship with Old Man is pretty weird, because he both shows extreme violence and, yet, somehow, some type of respect towards him? Like, there are moments were he shouts, yells and doesn't mind kicking Old Man for his annoying shenanigans, maybe even having a way easier time with it than other hosts. But then there are a few rare moments, where he actually doesn't mind Old Man at all and would even listen to his stories with a genuine interest.

Of course it's not something completely new to the series, but it is also makes me fairly curious, since I feel like this is the game where we get to see a lot of Old Man's personality and how he influences those around him (in the case of this game (99% of it) - Bob lol)

. . . That's it, ig. For now, i feel satisfied)

I also would really like ranting about Milan and his weirdly homoerotic relationship with Bob, buuut I need to get all the TTwM clips first, so. Yeah. That'll have to wait 💥