#speaking in dunce caps

[artcalledtheewhip]

All The Dunce Caps In My Head & Drinking OJ All the dunce caps in my head sprouting outwards What’s left for us? Thinking in Social Pondering Business Into the mind left Mental That leads into The lead pipes take from here On the street The lead was made into piping Not in water at all Until chemicals contaminated See in Appendix Flint Flint is not only for starting fires It’s the place for contamination in the water The parts per millionths Not safe enough to drink Or to grow upon At least by the Humans The green grass is resilient Stages in college degrees even in beginning All this stuff eaten up Collegiate Where have you been n Studies You missed a whole bunch of sectors still grounding you in good food music fashion apps sneakers and the class your sorting with it’s just easy as A E I O U Affecting Effecting Infecting Oh live You, U & you other in emotional atmosphere Affecting Effecting Infecting Oh live You, U & you other in emotional atmosphere Where do we all belong Pounds or prisons Refugee in dollars And Leaders in stands Bombing Ukraine Stiking a Strip And his face causes turmoil Is all Trump The sand friends Didn’t do his killings Fore the love of rich Golf All precessions for MAGA Married with Communistic conspiracies Who couldn’t? It’s all dunced capped Smarter than most I knew where I began And the affiliates or opposite afflicted Speak on stand more Spoiled orange Don’t eat Can you get this done faster than OJ? Dear Trump Please get done faster than OJ Please get done Look for a picture Just get this done faster I’m fine you looking at something Just get it done faster than OJ J is vowel So is V Throbbing shacket never mind the retailers It’s what he wears Just not without and buttonlessness If it was up to him He would be horseback shirtless Trump would stopped bathing in the suns Had he one With Putin The Middle is all confusing from here Where do the both sides Land Is it bunker or walled A Cardinal flys over A Phoenix flys around Thinking of clubs in the apps I grab Albatross Where’s your hit posted PostTragicJan6 PostTraffickedSexDeny Well talk about Wife already Dear Donald

[daughterofsarenrae]

do you ever feel bad for accidentally spreading misinformation? like telling people something you thought was true only to find out later was wrong? for example, i used to tell people ferrets were smart. but then i met sparrow, who is perhaps one of the dumbest animals alive,

[artcalledinsect-ieunts]

Immunity should be granted for insect holding

Chips to Society?

All Trumped lined

He spouts independently

Don’t cross tha Trump!

[occasionaltouhou]

Touhou Fangame Concept:

Western Science Interrogating Wonder(title could be workshopped)

The bit is that a bunch of greek philosophers have washed up on this side of the Hakurei Barrier, after the Yama assigned to their collective case(which has gone on for thousands of years) decided that it wasn't worth trying to continue to argue with them kicked them out of the afterlife in frustration. And so you, local Hakurei Shrine Maiden, are set to clean up the mess. By Yukari.

Your first encounter is, after having been drawn to a ruckus going on in the Human Village, being interrogated by a short, grumpy woman in greek looking clothing, and a dunce cap with a sprig of hemlock pinned to it. After defeating her in a danmaku battle that mostly consists of her criticizing you and interrogating your faith, your justifications for your actions, your sense of personal morality, your fashion sense, and if you lose your skill in danmaku. After you beat her she then introduces herself as Socrates, clarifies she puts the dunce cap on herself, and follows Reimu around for the rest of the game to provide commentary.

Your next encounter is a slovenly doggirl with floppy ears in a dirty tunic, who gets out of her barrel to spit in your face after she identifies you as a local religious figure. Reimu then decides to beat the tar out of her. Her mid-battle dialogue consists of complaining about you in particular. After the fight, she gets stuffed back into her barrel and rolled out of town. You get her name from Socrates after the fact, that being Diogenes, who assures Reimu that she's always like this.

Interrogating a nearby villager points you in the direction of the next philosopher, Pythagoras. She's wearing a golden wreath, trousers, and the kind of smile that makes you want to wipe if off. She (flirtatiously)asks if Reimu wants to join her following, expounding upon both her own virtues and the virtue of her teachings. Her spell cards are themed around various legends from Pythagoras's life, like an arrow gifted by Apollo, a bear convinced to never again harm a living being, and that one time they supposedly descended to the underworld and came back. Her danmaku projectiles are specifically rotating triangles. Notably after you defeat her she's still trying to proposition Reimu, even if she's given up on recruitment.

Moving on you find a very tall, broad, woman with a great deal of jewelry(no idea on an appropriate hat) speaking with Keine, and then after having her identified as Plato(another philosopher) by Socrates Reimu proceeds to beat the tar out of her. Her Spell Cards are themed mostly around the Theory of Forms, and defeating her reveals that she was teaching Keine about platonic philosophy with the intent to integrate it into her school's curriculum.

There's this whole bit where Reimu explains how teaching humans to interrogate the world around them like that would just repeat the course of the outside world, and that that would lead to an escalation of conflict between humans and Yokai to maintain the existing balance and preserve Gensokyo. So, very dangerous and likely to lead to a lot of violence. Turning Keine away from all of Plato's ideas. Socrates is being her usual self during all of this and keeps interjecting with interrogative questions and asking why why why before getting a seal slapped over her mouth to shut her up. But not before mentioning that if you're trying to stop the spread of "logic" and "common sense" you should really be going after Aristotle.

So off the shrine maiden goes and indeed, she manages to track where her next target is by a seeming aura of sensibility and "reality". Reimu needs to float outside the boundaries of common sense to keep moving forward, and eventually she encounters a woman in noble ancient greek dress outside the village, talking to a crowd of villagers who were previously working the fields. After beating her in a fight and having it explained to them that they were being lied to by a malicious yokai, things start going back to normal and balance is preserved. Yukari pops in to scoop up the unconscious Aristotle and points you in the direction of the last remaining disruption, while Socrates laughs at and mocks her fellow philosopher for being so confident in her understanding of the world around her because of things like "logic" and "reasoning" and "observation".

The last boss of the Incident is a second fight with Diogenes, who's gotten group of villagers to listen to her about how being human is overrated, and that they'd do well to stop caring about pretense and belief and live like dogs. Effectively the opposite problem presented by Aristotle. It's shown that she originally wasn't even trying during the first fight, and now that Reimu is actually trying to stop her from speaking she actually fights back.

After the fight, you get an epilogue where Yukari asks Reimu about her impression of them all, and eventually decides that they can be permitted to stay now that they've all been shown to be mad, and Socrates' constant insistence that you truly know nothing is more helpful to the preservation of belief than it is harmful. So the lot of them are allowed to set up a school a ways outside the human village, which nobody seriously attends. Partly because of their bad reputation, partly because they're always arguing, and partly because none of them can deliver a straight answer to any question.

Mechanically it's part visual novel and part boss rush, as the setting of the human village doesn't really lend itself to stages full of mooks trying to stop you. And of course there are some design concepts that could be workshopped if this would ever be seriously made. As it stands it's just a fun idea to rotate in your head and laugh about.

really good idea but i especially love the idea that after you beat all these fucking transgenderised clowns they're allowed to stay because if there's two things that the ancient greek philosophers were it was completely wrong and completely deranged

[ghostoffuturespast]

hey ghostie i was gna get specific for the ask game but I wanna know *all* of it now, the acronyms, the full names, all of em! are they for cyberpunk or other fandoms? no matter how much there is to know, i wanna know! talking about an idea helps a lot, i speak from experience! thanks for the mention, ill get on the wip game soon, too! ❤️

WIP Game Here

Thank you for the ask! I appreciate it :) They are all Cyberpunk 2077 things lol. I’ve largely been a lurker in other fandoms until this one, and this is the first one that finally compelled me to make stuff and that I’ve had the bravery to share. Don’t have many snippets at the moment, all of what I have so far is already out there. Since you asked for all of them though, I shall dish and give you a bit of a peak behind the curtain on how all this got started…

(I’m sorry, this got very rambly.)

And def tag me when you do yours! I will come find you and your wips! 🧡

SIG - So It Goes

(The title is based off the radio song from the game that you can listen to on Morro Rock. Never officially released and credited to the fictional band Fingers and the Outlaws in the game. Officially sung by Ryan Kattner, the front singer of the band Man Man.)

SIG is my current V/River conspiracy theory long fic that I’m working on, and the project is coming up on its two year anniversary. It’s also my first fic. I’m hoping to wrap it up this spring so I can move on to other creative endeavors. There are a lot of art projects, fandom and non-fandom related, that I’ve held off on because of this and I miss those hobbies. I also feel like I’ve been missing out a lot in the writing corner of the fandom too because a lot of new writers have popped up on the scene since I started (back when there was still a monopoly on the tag, but that’s a different story) and everyone else seems to be having fun reading everyone else’s fics, except me… Reading’s complicated for me right now. Writing this had a lot of ups and downs, but overall I’ve loved telling this story, learned a lot, and I’m really proud of it!

I think most people get into fic writing for the ships, the romance, the smut, the processing of internalized trauma, a more satisfactory ending, weird niche interests… And don’t get me wrong there’s a lot of appeal with all that, and definitely those aspects in my own work. But this whole thing got started because of conspiracy theories. I fucking love mysteries and puzzles, so after playing the sun ending and then I spotting Mr. Blue Eyes on the balcony during the conclusion of Dream On, I just about lost my damn mind. I went down the rabbit hole, spent hours reading shards and messages in the game, combed reddit theory posts, and started picking up on all the hints and foreshadowing of something larger looming throughout the game.

I initially didn’t have any answers when I made the decision to start this fic (fuck, high probability I still don’t), it was largely me brainstorming and trying to figure out what kind of story I wanted to write. Seeing if I could even piece things together. But in the process of thinking all that through, I came up with this little theory. I thought it was pretty mind blowing at the time (still think it is) but it’s been my little secret since I got here and I’m very anxious to finally share it.

Most people probably would have just written a theory post and been done with it, but I decided to turn mine into a fan fic lol. Which may or not have been a mistake, we’ll see. This is either gonna be game changing or everyone is going to think it’s dumb and I’m gonna be wearing a dunce cap for the next fifty years.

River Ward. The other half of my reason for writing this fic. I actually wasn’t sure if I liked him at first, it took me a while to warm up to him. But the more I got to know him, the more I started to like him. The more he grew on me. He got hotter over time. Plus, I’ve got a fondness for detective characters and unusual coats, so I should’ve seen it coming.

River’s gotten a lot of flak from this fandom. People claim he’s boring. He’s a cop, so acab. Being unemployed and living in a trailer park with your sister, niece, and nephews isn’t a particularly redeeming quality. I don’t agree with most of those statements, but I do agree with the folks who do appreciate his character, that in terms of development, he absolutely got shafted in the game. This fic is also an attempt to rectify that.

For as underdeveloped as his story arc was, there’s a lot of nuance to his character that I think gets glossed over by the game and most people. We didn’t get much, but out of what we did get, it’s been interesting trying to piece a story together that’s in line with what we got. And I did mention earlier that I like puzzles.

I’ve noticed that a lot of folks tend to lean very hard into the cop aspect of his character, but as far as I’m concerned, River Ward doesn’t give a shit about the law. Conducting an off the record investigation, intimidating a confidential informant, illegally obtaining evidence, breaking into a restricted lab, committing arson for your ex so she can pass a medical exam, conducting another investigation after being suspended; those are not the actions of a man who holds the letter of the law above all else. Those are the actions of man who is determined to get to the bottom of things, and protect people, all while navigating a system that is anything but equitable or fair. They are the actions of a man who is willing to go above and beyond for the people he cares about, even to his own detriment. His own safety. For River Ward, it was never about the law, it’s about justice. And pursuing that sometimes involves breaking the rules.

River is also Pomo. Which is something that was only added in subsequent patches, heavily glossed over in the game, and is only disclosed if you choose to actually romance him. But he’s Indigenous. Native American. And yet he still made a conscious decision to join the NCPD. Given the historical participation by law enforcement and government institutions in North America, and around the world, in the cultural erasure and mass genocide of entire nations, tribes, and communities of people. And given the current state of issues regarding law and judicial enforcement on tribal lands, I think River's character is a rather poignant reflection. Of wanting to good, of wanting the world to be better, but being confined in systems that simply won't allow that. There's a billion other little details I could ramble on about, but his character had the capacity to walk a very fine line of complexities which the game never really did justice to.

Diversity and representation in media are important to me, and I want this fic to reflect that. Being bi-racial, I didn’t get very much of it growing up, so if I can provide representation, even in some small capacity, I think it’s better than nothing. And while I don’t know if I’m achieving that, well, shit if I’m not trying.

I wouldn’t say this story was really meant to be original, but rather to fill in the gaps on the story we got and for me to practice writing. Practice telling a story. CP2077 is a violent game set in a violent world. And I somehow managed to start writing a story that accidentally ended up being a love letter to aikido. (Much to my chagrin. It’s everywhere. In everything. I cannot escape it.) Aikido is a martial art that translates “to the way of peace” or “the path of harmony.” Yet again, another study in dichotomies. How can a martial art, an art form designed to inflict violence, be peaceful? Aikido is as much of a martial art as it is a philosophy. We train to practice and learn that philosophy.

One of the major themes I’m exploring in this fic series is the nature of violence. What it is, the forms it takes, how cyclical it is, that it is a relationship - violence requires your participation. So the question ends up being: how do you break cycles of violence when you live in a world where you are beholden to it? V and River are very much two characters that are caught up in cycles of violence. Will they find peace? I don’t know, but maybe they can find out together.

From The Top

(This one isn’t named after a song. I just decided to start from the beginning.)

From The Top is the VP project I started up last spring where I’ve been taking storyboard style photos of all the main missions. Plus whatever else I feel like. I take all of my photos on PS5 in vanilla photomode and randomly started snapping pictures just because. I did landscape photos, shared a few. Got a bit of nice feedback from people who cared to look and then started branching out. I eventually got to the point where I started a new playthrough for the sole purpose of snapping photos.

Taking VP is very different from writing for me. I don’t have to think about. I don’t agonize about making sure every tiny detail is just right, because for the most part I don’t have very much control It’s candid, intuitive, experimental, it’s straight up play. I simply wait for opportunities to present themselves and capture whatever I think looks or feels interesting to me. It’s easy for me to walk away from it if it doesn’t do well when I post. Unlike my writing, there’s no ego attached to it.

I’m getting to the tail end of this project, I still have a couple of the base game missions to get through, but I’d also like to do Phantom Liberty as well. Not sure what my VP career is going to look like after this, might go into soft retirement. But that’s okay.

NR - Night Running

(Named after Night Running by Cage the Elephant)

Is a sleeper wip that’s currently in the notes, brainstorming, and kitchen drawer phase. It’s part 2 of my Nothing Comes Before Night City series. So It Goes is part 1.

It takes a long time for me to mull over and ruminate on ideas, so this document is largely just a repository for notes and thoughts. Jamming the utensils in the drawer until I’m ready to organize them. I have a very broad idea of what I’d like to happen in this fic, key moments I’d like to hit, but there’s still a lot of refinement that needs to happen, and stories this involved require me outlining. I do already have a running set list of songs to draw from though.

Les Preludes

(Named after Les Preludes by Franz Liszt)

Another sleeper wip, also in the brainstorming phase. These are meant to be one-shots or short stories from the Nothing Comes Before Night City series. Moments I mentioned in the series, but can’t fit into the larger story. Character studies and background lore from V, River, Johnny, Jackie, a couple of OCs and whatever else I can think of.

I will probably start casually working on these after I finish SIG and while I’m outlining NR. I’d like the series to go in chronological order. Should be fun. And I think it’ll be good practice for being more concise. Unlike, this response...

If you stuck around for this TedTalk and made it all the way to the end, thank you! 👻

[screemnch]

The Pathologic Russian and English analysis: Clara Saburova the Changeling Part 2

I am finally free to have a single month of summer vacation, so I'm taking this opportunity to finish up the last of the healer to healer communication analysis. Are you excited? I sure am.

As the Haruspex: I uhhh… Don’t have much to say specifically about the differences between Clara in Russian and English that I haven’t already said. Like yeah, she acts differently with Artemy than she does with Daniil, but that is present in both of the versions - she is much more vulnerable and emotive with Burakh, while she is a lot more deceitful with Dankovsky (which is sorta muddled by the fact that he’s the only one of the two to meet her "twin"). She refers to Artemy using exclusively the informal “you” and has a very stubborn and argumentative way of speaking for most of it. The instances of the “biblical” way of speaking that I pointed out in the Bachelor route are less frequent here, and Clara comes across as, well, just a girl. I uh… Also think that the dialogue website I’m using might be missing the bit of dialogue on day 11 when Clara actually offers to help Artemy? It has the dialogue for when he’s already in the Kaiur, but not beforehand (and the wiki tells me that they do talk in person before that. Correct me if I’m wrong). Sooooo yeah, that’s about it. This analysis is a bit more… Explaining the references and intertextualities within the dialogue rather than discussing what translational differences imply, but I think it’d be a cool insight nonetheless. So let’s get started!

This is… Completely unrelated to any translation stuff, but I did want to provide a little bit of intertextual context for “Suok” to allow all the fans that don’t speak Russian to speculate about this on their own. I tried to look up and see if there were any other potential sources for this name, but haven’t been able to find any alternative ones. So here goes. Suok is a last name, which served as inspiration for a character name from the Russian story book “the Three Fat Men” by Yuri Olesha. Very briefly the story is about a town being held under the oppressive rule of the titular three fat men, who had each taken control of one of the town’s resources (that sure reminds me of someone). Suok in this story is a young circus performer, who pretends to be the previously broken doll of Tutti - the Fat Men’s heir. She does so to free one of the leaders of the revolution that has been captured and sentenced to execution. It is revealed in the story that Suok was actually the twin sister of Tutti, which is why the doll looked so like her - it was made to replace her. It’s not the most well known of Russian stories, but it’s recognizable enough for an expat like me to remember. Thematically I do think it’s funny that there’s a reference to a story where three powerful people attempt to squash a revolution (which is by the way led by two men), and a little girl with a twin ends up saving one of those revolutionaries from certain death. And the doll theming. However, if I’m just ignorant and there’s actually like… A Buryat or Mongolian name or entity that’s also called Suok and it’s actually a reference to that… I shall wear a dunce cap, or something, Idk.

I really wish that I could convey how… Story-like Clara’s way of speaking becomes here? Like, yeah, she does talk somewhat… “biblically” but this is not that. She’s not just reciting the events, the way the story is phrased and the language flows feels like she’s restating it word for word. Especially in the part where Clara talks about how Suok was unkillable by anything - it’s all one continuous sentence. It reminds me of, and this is truly truly obscure Russian stuff, that one cartoon about Kutkh the Raven and the four silly mice that kept annoying the life out of him (it’s on Youtube I believe, so go educate yourself on some fairytales from Kamchatka). Those stories have a way of being both lyrical and conversational at the same time - it uses improper grammar (like starting your sentence with “and”) and feels very casual in its sentence structure, but the words it chooses and the matter it discusses is grandiose and epic (in the literary sense). Also a fun little detail is that rather than saying that the abyss couldn’t claim Suok, Clara says that she “did not wish to return to the abyss.”

Adding to my collection of “Clara and Artemy are a comedic duo, actually” is this moment in which (while the English version makes it sounds a little ironic and cautious) Artemy just casually goes “wow, that’s just like us…” as Clara is telling him the Kin’s creation myth. Though you can’t tell me that he wouldn’t be the kind of person that looks at a Bosch painting and goes “that’s so me.”

More from the “fun Russian idioms” world…While we do have a translation of “a little bird told me” in Russian - it is exactly that - a translation. From English actually. The idiom used here is, as far as I know, an originally Russian one. Namely “a dog barks, the wind carries it” which is essentially just “yeah it’s gossip I heard on the street.” Nothing particularly significant about this difference, just thought y’all would appreciate it.

At this point I’m becoming painfully aware of the fact that calling these an analysis of a specific character is silly, because there’s always two people involved in the conversation, but the format has been set already sooo… I could wax poetic about how much more laconic Russian is in terms of threats (partially due to the fact that we don’t use articles and stuff) but also I can’t help but feel like this was much easily translatable? Like, the line is, essentially “let’s hope you don’t regret this!” which is very much a threat already. But I guess the translating team decided to take the road less travelled.

I think I may have peaked. It doesn’t get better from here, this is the ultimate achievement of this analysis. In the last instalment of the madness project I spent a whole paragraph trying to explain why the Bachelor calling Clara “trash” was actually a scathing, humiliating insult that was translated as “little tramp” for no apparent reason, which made it seem (at least to me) a lot less cutting. I’d ask you to look at that screenshot in the previous analysis to see if you spot anything familiar, but I don’t even have an exclusive tag for this madness project (I totally should tho) and I won’t subject you to the other stuff I’ve written in my ramblings. I’ll just cut the suspense here: In this dialogue Artemy uses the exact same word that was translated as “tramp” for Daniil. The word “дрянь” (dryan’), meaning trash or something too worn out and torn to be useful. I understand this must’ve been done because the Bachelor and the Haruspex are supposed to have very different vibes about them and because, as previously stated, the Bachelor doesn’t get to be nearly as aggressive as he is in Russian but like… Wow. I think I need this in a meme format or something, because it’s just so funny to me. To clarify, too: “дрянь” isn’t an explicit swear word. It’s an insult, but it doesn’t need to be censored or anything. Neither “tramp” nor “bitch” fits the translation more or less. And I think that’s hilarious that they translated it so differently for the two characters.

And we’re back in the realm of “interesting” instead of “baffling” and “confusing”. Instead of “dying” or “letting people die” the two of them specifically talk about “killing”. Artemy asks if Clara wants to kill Taya, making the situation a lot more malicious from Clara’s perspective (this is the whole quest with figuring out how the story that Clara started telling Taya ends). Pretty short for a note, but it’s also just interesting in terms of like… How malice is attributed to Clara in the Russian version, but seems impersonal in the English version.

Just as fascinating (and probably just as short of a note) is this line, where in Russian Artemy calls Clara “daughter” with a diminutive. A lot of Russian words have diminutives, but it doesn’t necessarily make them appear kinder. Actually with words like “daughter”, the non-diminutive version – “дочь” (doch’) – is used a lot less and usually feels colder and more distant. The version with the diminutive – “дочка” (doch’ka) is the one used in everyday conversations. If you want to add endearment to the word, you’d have to put in another diminutive, making the word “доченька” (dochen’ka). That being said, I guess calling someone who isn’t related to you “son” or “daughter” isn’t too uncommon (though I usually picture it being said by like… grandmas on a bench, or helpful fairytale entities), though your everyday person is much more likely to just say “girl”, “boy”, or “kid”.

Not a translation difference, but I’ve already included a bunch of intertextual references in this particular analysis, so why not one more, huh? The story that Clara tells about the crystal flower, while obviously being an allusion to the town and the polyhedron, specifically referring to the utopian ending (cutting down the living flowers instead of the crystal flower -> razing the town and leaving the tower to stand) also reminds me of a specific story within the “Malachite Box” collection of the fairytales by Pavel Bazhov (check them out if you can, it’s a bunch of folk tales from the Ural mountains and they’re fascinating and incredibly dark). Specifically “the Stone Flower” - a story following Danila - an orphan boy that becomes a master-stone carver, but struggles to finish an order that doesn’t fit his own particular standards. He is told of the Stone Flower in the lair of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain (a force of nature entity that’s recurring in the “malachite box”) and how seeing it will allow someone to understand the stone and how to carve it. However he is warned that all who’ve seen it have always remained in the mountain, working for the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. Danila does, indeed, manage to see the stone flower and return to his bride, but what only manages to stay for so long before he destroys almost every single one of his creations and disappears without a trace. It’s left up for debate whether he simply went mad and perished in the woods, or if he returned to the Copper Mountain. I do think there are some parallels to be drawn between this story and Pathologic’s polyhedron – specifically in how it relates to Peter Stamatin. Not a one to one comparison, of course, but there’s something to be said there about the madness that comes with creating or trying to create something bigger than yourself, to the point where it’s less of the human world and more of the world of miracles and myth.

Not a particularly drastic difference here, but just wanted to point out that the whole “your lies are so crafty…” bit of this dialogue isn’t… actually present in the Russian version? I think the translating team kinda got used to the fact that this dialogue is almost the same as when Daniil talks to Clara, so they’ve added in this line even though Artemy just says “I’m fed up with you”.

To sum it up: yeah, I don’t have much. Clara is a fascinating character to me, but I do think that she is fascinating in both English and Russian. She’s a multitude of contradictory things, and she is condemned by those around her for either not fitting into the category they believe her to belong to, or being exactly what they believe her to be. She doesn’t get a break. Most of the differences between English and Russian have been just slightly “vibe altering” ones, and it’s a bit difficult to place a finger on the reasons why those changes I made. Like, with Daniil I could generalise that in an attempt to make him seem cold and detached, he accidentally lost a lot of his emotiveness. I have made the argument that Clara’s Russian dialogue makes her come across as more meta-aware (and there’s something to be said about how I argued that Clara and Aglaya are very idealistically opposed about the exact same belief and how that notion is echoed in Clara’s dialogue with Artemy) but at the end of the day… Yeah, the translators did a pretty good job with this one. I’ve said before that it’s not really a good idea to have every piece of dialogue include a footnote explaining what every word means (at least in a game like Pathologic. A game focused on education would be soooo fun with those. Like Martial Law, for example) but to add to that: I think it’s pretty cool that Ice Pick Lodge managed to create a game that is so distinctly Russian, that even a city boy like me can understand, despite taking place in the steppe. And at the same time, you don’t have to be Russian to understand it. I’ve provided a bit of intertextual context here, but you don’t actually need it to feel and understand what makes it so compelling, as seen by the fact that this game is beloved both in and outside of Russia. And I love that for all of us.

And that is it, folks, at least for the three healers and how they interact with each other. Up next (and hopefully not several months later) I'm gonna examine the shared dialogue that the healers have with the townsfolk. I guess that one will be both comparing the similarities and differences between the languages and between the three of them. Yippeee.

[cloudbattrolls]

Digging Deeper

This drabble is preceded by The Waiting Game and followed by Dead Silent.

You can see her slip, can't you? Start to reveal how paranoid she really is? It's a wonder she holds together, but I can't say I admire her for it.

--

Ullane calls a woman who works for her once in a while, one of the few people she trusts who isn’t fully troll: Zanzul Varzim, who for various reasons is a better reason to call than her signmate to the clinic proper.

The violet comes in several hours later, fortunately not too far from the clinic at the moment, walking in quietly and going to the yellowblood’s office.

The medic has asked the horrorterror hybrid here to use her marvelous ears; her bloodline’s various abilities include hearing ghosts.

The violet closes her eyes, focusing, her iridescent fins twitching slightly as her spots softly glow. When she opens her eyes, they are glowing slightly whitish violet as well.

Zanzul, notepad at the ready, asks Calcit’s ghost if he remembers how he got injured and who attacked him, what tip he was investigating, and how he acquired the information.

Unfortunately, shades of the dead are not always coherent; few hold onto their minds fully in death.

The blueblood’s remnant rambles that they took from his veins what they could not take from his purse, his pockets empty when what they sought was silver. 

Riches flow toward those who copy, he says. This crime was slight, their others greater. He was led astray by promises of truth and justice, but was delivered only emptiness and invisibility.

Ullane has Zanzul question Calcit about his silver further, but he becomes more incoherent, yet still somewhat eloquent. 

Before he fades entirely, he asks what killed him, if her tools were not the cause? 

His lyrical speaking style reminds the medic of her ex auspicitice, and she tries not to think of Widsth Orpheo; there is work to do, and Zanzul has to go.

She returns to the information Yarrex give her about her employee, Halvir Urtyop; the nurse who was the last to see Calcit before he died.

He’s worked for the clinic for several perigees and is noted to be calm and good with patients, with a polite but distant mannerism toward his coworkers, with a perfect legal record and good references.

Ullane dryly comments that she can’t decide if it’s a false lead or if Halvir is way too good at covering his tracks. Yarrex remarks that she might want to decide before the trial, and Ullane deadpans that he’s so wise.

To rule out sabotage from one angle, though she knows it unlikely, Ullane checks the medical machines Calcit was hooked up to that night just to be on the safe side; they are all perfectly in order, her part-time mechanic Priori Poster keeping them well-maintained as always. 

She discusses her next course of action with Xrumon and Yarrex privately in her office, wondering if she should have Halvir followed as she did with Jixill instead of trying to talk to him. 

Luckily, both men point out that this is a bad idea and that if word of it got out, things would become very tense in the clinic. 

Yarrex asks her if she knows any fortune tellers or tarot readers, and as Xrumon wears a pained look Ullane tells the brownblood to go in a corner and put on a dunce cap.

To her surprise, he actually pulls a dunce cap out of his sylladex and does so, leaving the mediculler a bit flummoxed. She asks him why he has that, and he states that he needs to be prepared when working for her.

Ullane had no idea he had one and looks at him as if he fell through the ceiling. Xrumon points out, reluctantly, that she did tell him to do that.

The woman briefly covers her face with her hands and tries to continue onward.

To avoid seeming as if she’s singling Halvir out, the administrator asks all the staff on duty that night if they saw or heard anything suspicious, and receives a variety of answers: Halvir himself says he was surprised at how fast Calcit deteriorated, someone else mentions graffiti on the wall outside, yet another person mentions that the back door was strangely unlocked, and last of all, an entire cellphone was reported thrown away in a trash can.

The final scrap of news catches Ullane’s immediate attention, though she makes note of the others as well.

It may be nothing.

It may be a piece of evidence she sorely needs.

--

The phone, the phone.

If it weren't for me, it would have been useless.

Though I have to give credit elsewhere, too.

[plaindangan]

Miss Yukizone? I've heard Makoto likes to stop by after class for extra tutoring? Though I heard somewhere you do private special tutoring, where there's spanking, breastmilk and a duncecap?

I've seen not only Makoto, but Komaru, Seiko, Chihiro and even Sonia leave the room in a dazed stupor! Care to comment?

-Plappu, investigative student, recovering from the Tojo incident

Disclaimer: R18 material! If not to your liking then please do not view!

“Hm? You seem pretty ‘interested’ in what my private tutoring has to offer, huh? Then…why don’t you come take a look. Stick a while and you might even want to sign up~” 

As one enters her room, the first thing you noticed was that Chisa was sitting on her desk. Not only that, her enormous boobs were exposed, and one was being eagerly drank from by a very thirsty Chihiro. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing to take note of. After all, it’d be hard not to notice Chisa also using her hand to jerk off Chihiro’s hung programmer cock too!!

“So, as you can see, you have Chihiro enjoying his well earned reward for getting every question right from tutoring today. A nice, long, nutritious drink from Mom-erm…Mrs. Yukizome’s own boobs!! A perfect afternoon snack and a great way to take some of my own load off as well…and speaking of loads!! For being such a good boy in responding to my tutoring, he gets to have nice, hard, stiffy, tugged and tugged and tugged until-ohhhh!!! Well, until that happens~” Chisa giggled as Chihiro came hard from the teasing that she was doing.

“Ms. Y-yukizome…” Oh? Turning her head, Chisa saw Seiko standing uncomfortably in front of her. With quite the erection at her skirt to boot!! 

“Oh my, I can’t forget the second student to do well either! While she can’t get my milkies or best student cock treatment, I can at least help take care of her ‘issues’ in a jiffy!” Chisa jiggled and beckoned her closer. Placing a sleeping Chihiro off to the side, she placed Seiko over her lap…and inserted quite the lubed up finger into the pharmacist bottom. Moving around it gently and stimulating the geeky futa’s prostate.

 “Even if my hands are unavailable down there for her, I can still help her juuuuuuuust fine~” Chisa said, and as if one cue, the moaning, trembling pharmacist let out a cry before exploding white hot semen all over Chisa’s apron. 

“Good girl!~ Keep up the good work!!!!” Chisa said proudly, hugging Seiko as she bashfully stood to her feet to allow Chisa to carry on the inspection.

“But…there will always be students who can’t quite perform, optimally. Not yet, at least. And with those I need to bring out some good discipline…isn’t that right? Makoto? Komaru?”

Both of the Naegi siblings were currently bent over desks…in varying degrees of undress. For Makoto, he was on the left, legs spread apart and cock leaking directly into a bucket. His butt was splotched red with the word ‘DU’ and ‘NCE’ on his left & right, ass cheek respectively. To top it off, he had a bib orange dildo rammed down his ass, as well. Naturally, he was a blushing mess that was panting quite a bit. 

“This naughty boy failed half of his answers this session, so I had to punish him. Right, Makoto?” Smack! Smack!! Two strikes to his big ruby booty had him moan ever so girlishly before cumming a bit again. He nodded feverishly to Chisa. “Y-y-yes, maa’aaaaaaaam!!” he said.

“Good boy! Though, Makoto is still way better than his sister who got nearly every question wrong! What do you have to say for yourself…Komaru~” Komaru was bent over on the right desk and it was clear Chisa had a field day with her - if the fact she had a ball gag in her mouth didn’t tip you off. She was stripped down to just her striped bra and legs spread similar to Makoto. Though, unlike him, Chisa saw fit to place a mini-bath tub underneath her…which evidently was necessary given it was half-full. Similarly to Makoto, the word 'DUNCE’ was well spanked onto Komaru’s booty, alongside an actual dunce cap for good measure. In addition to all of this, Komaru also had to deal with not only two dildo’s back there (one in her ass, the other her pussy), but Chisa seeing fit to tie a vibrator right along her cock~

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such naughtiness needs loads and loads of correction. I hope this time you learned your lesson Komaru…right?~” SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Swats, harder than Makoto’s, slapped against her chubby butt, causing a muffled Komaru to give her best moan before cumming hard into the tub again~

“That’s my girl! Oh, but, as you can imagine, this isn’t all the students I had for today. You see, unexpectedly, the last one actually failed all my mocks~ And we can’t have that now, can we?~” Chisa beckened you closer…to a side room?

Once it opened a blast of musky air would hit your nostrils and you would be very surprised at what you saw. Inside wasn’t really a classroom but a thick bed that had a naked Sonia Nevermind bent over it. She had a blindfold on, also was wearing a ball gag and was clutching the sheets in anticipation. Her phat royal ass swayed from side to side and you could see her erect cock grinding a bit against the sheets.

“When it comes to naughty brats who fail, only the strictest punishment must be taken!!” Chisa claimed and it was than that you noticed another thing. Of Chisa flipping up her own skirt, and hitting you with that stench by proxy. Of her musky, foot long cock, pointed straight and erect at Sonia’s royal hindquarters~

Before Sonia could really register what that smell was, Chisa had not only gripped her by her hips, but had penetrated her ass with her dick!!!

PLAPLAPLAPLAPLAPLAPLAPLAP!!!

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

It was a strong double act. Chisa’s ‘correctional cock’ was rapidly fucking Sonia’s tight ass thoroughly, and she following up with heavy slaps from her hand that had the princess’ tushy redden considerably. Between the fucking and the spanking, it had become too much for Sonia to bear, and you’d watch as with seemingly each thrust from Chisa into her bottom, Sonia was cumming hard into the sheets of the bed. Or on the floor!~ Depended on fate itself at this point.

And fate decreed Chisa would be fucking her for a straight fifteen minutes before finally cumming herself, filling Sonia’s ass with own dommy spunk that it overflowed and spilled out onto the floor when Chisa was all done. Not that Sonia mind the mess! She was too busy in her own afterglow and practically unconscious with pleasure. 

“Discipline complete!~ Study harder next time~” Chisa said, stamping Sonia’s ass with a giant black ‘F’ before turning around, looking at you slyly. Her cock was still oozing cum and a look at her balls still told you that she was very much not fulfilled yet.

“So…care to join my little tutoring sessions? I’m always willing to help my darling students in need! In fact…why don’t I give you a private session. Free of charge, of course!!!” As Chisa giggled and approached, you soon realized that you were in for a long tutoring ahead.

[justices-blade]

back at it again at garreg mach // edward + edain

starter for @ulirblood

Though the training grounds are often set up for practical spars with other people, there's a wealth of training equipment that can be set up in any of the yards when the area isn't occupied by anyone else duking it out. Edward himself managed to haul out a training dummy and drag it over to an unoccupied sector of the training grounds to smack around, repeat the drills everyone back home taught him, just to keep them fresh.

"Hrah!" he lashes out, training blade striking true against the dummy's chest, before slashing out to the side, then spins on his heel to deliver a second strike to the back of the dummy's neck, before stepping back to try a different maneuver — He isn't paying any mind to observers, or whether there are any at all, but if there were any, they'd note that his form is distinctly not one taught in Fódlan; But his confidence speaks of experience, his strikes quick, strong and surprisingly precise.

A pause, as he tests the heft of his training sword, before frowning. The impact feels all off, though. The dummy's built real sturdily — Might be because some of these students actually are crazy strong, and axes are a thing, too, so it's throwing him off. The recoil's all wrong, messing with his momentum. Soooo... Does he have to approach this like he's banging up an Armor Knight? He readjusts his grip, takes a ready stance, and lunges again —

The thing with training dummies of foreign make, though, is that they won't be weighted the same way that other dummies might be at home. They're also weighted differently from people, and that's all he's had his core experiences with. Wood isn't flesh, and the way the dummy's designed to withstand blows instead of move with them...

It's a recipe for disaster. Disaster is what strikes. Or, really, what strikes back. Edward scores what would have been a considerable hit, a blade wedged between the breast and shoulderplate, which simply passes by under the dummy's arm, before he turns to rip his blade free of imagined flesh and bring the pommel of his weapon against the dummy's temple, hard.

Crack. The sound is unbelievably satisfying, but instead of crumpling like a person would, the dummy s w i n g s backwards, then springsrightback—

SMACK!

And hits him straight in the nose. He doesn't even get the time to curse as his body flinches back from the impact, throat emitting a pained yowl, then falls, flailing, backwards into the dirt.

"Augh, fuck!" Oh, there's the cussing. His face has turned into a single nexus of ow, ow, ow. He can taste blood, too, but quickly licking over his teeth reveals that he hasn't knocked any out, and that his tongue is quite intact. Oh Goddess, that's his nose doing the bleeding, isn't it.

Distantly, he can hear laughing. Edward rolls over with a groan, a hand pinching his nose closed. Ohhh, he's gonna die here. Just like this. Vanquished by a training dummy. Who's the real dummy here. It's him. Put a dunce cap on his coffin, for good measure.

(Well, he's not dying, but he might as well be. He won't but, ugh. He can do his walk of shame to the infirmary in a few minutes...)

[adultswim2022]

Clerks #2: "The Clipshow Wherein Dante and Randal are Locked in the Freezer and Remember Some of the Great Moments in Their Lives" | June 7, 2000 | S01E02

This one starts out with a very funny gimmick. I say "starts out", notably, because it's usually my instinct to do what the episode does, and pretend as if it's going to sustain this gimmick for it's entire thirty minutes. It doesn't! The gimmick is this: Dante and Randal get stuck in the freezer at work, and one of them mentions how their predicament is like a premise for a clip show. They then actually begin reminiscing about past events in their lives, ACTUALLY turning this episode into a clip show. Trouble is they find themselves unable to remember anything beyond the previous week. That's because this is only the second episode, and they only have one other episode to flashback to.

Back when the show was new and I felt the need to sell it to people, I would always indulge in describing this episode exactly in that way: A second episode clip show where they only flash back to episode one. Technically, that's true, I guess. But the episode effectively drops this premise and flashes back to previous, newly animated moments in Dante and Randal's lives. The first non-episode one "clip" they flash back to occurs at 4 minutes and 22 seconds in, which is when they effectively drop this premise. To put things even further into perspective: Randal finishes delivering his line about how "if this were a sitcom" at 2 minutes 48 seconds. That means that the episode truly only runs with this premise for 94 seconds! There's at least one instance of callback after that, possibly two (I don't feel like rewatching the entire thing, sorry).

It still makes for a really funny episode. They refer to various things like their participating in the MTV's The Real World, Randal ordering a mail order bride but ordering a strict Japanese mail-order HUSBAND instead, the first times they met (once as children in the 70s and once as young adults in the 80s, each flashback beginning with a very funny gag where the then-current president is seen walking past during the establishing shot) and movie fans are tossed a bone with various flashbacks of Caitlin Bree cheating on Dante with house painters. They even flash back to earlier in the episode, but with Randal's inaccurate and self-aggrandizing version of the events. This is the start of a recurring joke in the series where he envisions Dante as a dunce-cap wearing simpleton wearing a diaper.

They eventually escape, only to get locked in RST Video, where Randal suggests they watch Flintstones List, a combination of the Spielberg-produced Flintstones movie and his own Schindler's List. It's one of the funniest jokes of the series, and it was cut from television for being too tasteless. I think the part where Randal suggests they watch it was left in, but they cut out the clip from the movie. At one point I had the episodes taped from ABC, but I don't think I hung onto them after the DVD came out. I also probably cut out the commercials immediately after taping them. Sorry, everyone. If I knew then what I know now...

Speaking of them airing on television: ABC made the odd choice to air episode four, the courtroom episode, first, and then air THIS episode, which heavily references an episode that hadn't aired. What a bunch of jerks!

[chicago-geniza]

If my IQ is exactly 70 & I have diagnoses of 99.9th percentile severity ADHD and ~moderate autism where neuropsych says my ability to care for myself re: independent living, ADLs, and hygiene is roughly that of a 12-year-old, I may just take the L and apply for Enforced Poverty Cripple Allowance and let the government put a dunce cap on me that says TOO RETARDED TO WORK because it's about 500x more documentation than I've got for anything else and nobody who speaks to me will believe I can hold down a job lol. Especially if I also have EEGs and the MRI from when I got the TBI/TIA in high school. Also neuropsych testing from when I was 6-7 that said, like, "Raya is a freaky language savant & in the bottom 1-5% for math and spatial orientation. No eye contact or reciprocal conversation. Delayed motor skills and proprioception. Will only respond to questions if I make them relevant to toucans or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Has a stuffed toucan and three identical figurines of Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

[yxp-poetry]

forgiveness on the wish list

piss poor, never been this

yoda talking on

yoga mat stretches

falken brand tires

dirt on the pavement

falco red jacket

he's gonna tame them

we reign on supreme

a paleo alias

aqualeo fading the opps

chalk it then cough it up

you was talkin mighty tough

'fore you landed in them cuffs

mind chambers or mind prisons

you make the calls

we came to achieve fission

the mission simple

win the Wimbledon

avoid the simpleton

temples for meditation

keep your medication

slap on the pavement

biting the snake heads

till the perfect serpent rolls through

silhouettes of gold and blue

i mean black and white

whatever you perceive

prescient warnings finally heeded

never too conceited nowadays

way a ways

10 miles away from a long way home

lone struggles

got a dunce cap and dog cone

don't condone and they still follow

bright beams but hollow dreams

ready to be filled

with hogspit and horseshit

unfit and unsung

hold your tongue before you speak rash

hit you with a gash

take the cash

then do the digital dash

never forget whose really there for you

dishing out the theraflu

take care to bloom

planting seeds in June

missed the April season

it's open season for a reason

population control

hold on don't let go or let up

you'll get wet up

fathers wept for their children

mothers slept with the milk men

spilt on the silk robes

acquired from his troves; the former

that's fucking nasty

you're getting warmer

now you're hot

throwing the flames

the fire doesn't hurt any more

going from rich to poor

back to rich again

everyone pitching in

to atone for your sins

in the end

the righteous will always win

~m.j.

6.28.23

10:02a

[mizsoto]

Just want to put my thoughts down hopefully it might help another displaced Puerto Rican. First generation born in the USA. Even being born here doesn’t make it easier, actually the opposite. In the 50’s and 60’s in New York City it was awful . People actually hated us, made no excuses for such hate. I spoke only Spanish and learning English was almost impossible for me . Being treated as if i had no right be in this country, there wasn’t any interest . I actually wore a dunce cap until the 5th grade. I was invisible to everyone. Including my family. I’m 100% Puerto Rican, my only fault was my skin and hair color. I’m the blonde in my family. Very pale , which has given me lots of grief. Always wanting the beautiful color of my race. The turmoil it caused was so strange. I had no right being white, so saying I wasn’t accepted in either world. This has caused so much confusion . Not feeling that I belonged . Not having roots anywhere. That’s what I believed. Hearing adults speaking about fear and always afraid .

This is my first blog , I will put my memories here , I might jump around a bit. Lots of stuff was happening, I’ll try to write things in order .

[ilopisara]

17.05. 22:53 | Ilo Pisara vs Brunker Bulldogs 2 - 6

Alright, folks, let's break down that disaster of a game against the Brunker Bulldogs. We got spanked 6-2. It's like we showed up to a gunfight with a water pistol. First off, Teppo Winnipeg—our so-called "Puck Moving Defenseman"—had more passes than an overcautious driver on the highway but couldn't find the back of the net if it was lit up in neon lights. Zero points? Come on! Konsta Terde was our only saving grace with two goals and perfect shooting accuracy. If everyone played like him, we'd be planning victory parades instead of pity parties. And then there's Macho Fantastico... or should I say Macho Mediocre? Eleven giveaways! He handed out pucks like they were free samples at Costco. His faceoff percentage is barely better than flipping a coin. Historically speaking, we're as inconsistent as my Aunt Marge's cooking: one day it's gourmet; next day it's dog food. We've had some highs (like thrashing WWWC 8-1) and lows (getting creamed by Banana Split). Looking ahead? Well, if this trend continues, we'll need divine intervention—or maybe just fewer turnovers—to stay competitive. In summary: Konsta gets gold stars while Teppo and Macho get dunce caps for today’s performance. Let's hope we can turn things around before our season looks more tragic than Shakespearean drama!

[viejonardo]

I would definitely jot Shelldon down as either incredibly territorial or perhaps like a cat that's scared of the vacuum. Two polar opposite sides of the spectrum, but he could be either.

Knowing Donnie's work though, it's probably the first one

Speaking of the slobs, how's Lee doing?

-🐚

it was FOR SURE a territorial thing, he’s a mad scientist in the making like his dad :P

little bratty blue is fine! he’s back on his feet. it’s not healed yet but i’m not gonna keep him in bed for months, that would be just cruel

honestly i was mostly just making an example out of him. dumb little turtle brats get put in the medbay if they hurt themselves while they’re still healing 💙

maybe i should make them some dunce caps too

[artcallednaturalviews]

Just Went Off The other Worldly billionaires can talk about taxes Trump can’t find a guaranteed It’s economical power We can watch it on the Television Speak up very wealthy people Can’t find a loan Wealth Tax In tax we trust In Euro DW News Not all leaders created equal Or just waiting for The bloodbath Elizabeth Bathory Trump antics That taxing would run into Actors Talk Show Hosts Musicians & Singers News clothing the shoes Improvement stores Not the airlines But unless Lest not forget Bloody automobile industry Insurance Weather over the People Young and old People The adults in between See things In artcalledcinema Artcalledsinema De-Hynotized is old like in 15 years The Durham cigarette A past from 30 years ago and she Was thirty something I was 20 This channel of blog Should be discovered Rather than gold & diamonds Gold oh diamonds Just kill Think universally Who Wear’s What in WWW3Rd My World Wide Web for 3 decades People are Hungry I spoke upon my self And others in the same turmoil Termed Oiled Term of Love 50 years going Some sum don’t feel the same way! Kay Kontrolled Khaos I dunce capped Trump I didn’t want to leave the picture Up More could’ve loved I never wanted to leave any one The dis armed The leg lessed The paraplegic The blind The deaf Those mind concussion effects Also in bombing Harshest tag poetry Harshertagpoetry A following or really just above Picture before the writing The dog Is barking It spontaneously happenly happens Dog don’t want to be spent as meals Dogs don’t want to become a meal Dog don’t want be eaten The dog barks Feed the hungry What’s Famine? Can one of you! Due to picture first Answer That! (Imagine the picture you saw at top, but didn’t really in imagination, then you read all above and witnessed the hashtag poetry afterwards, or you could’ve read it all as you did and there is no way an issue in the way you view things, we are all humans, those standing on the sides all carrying some projectile of some kind ready to fire at something anytime all decent noun human beings) Harshertagpoetry Will be all up above Only a few will be added below Unless I go back And re-read and there’s some space I may add I could’ve If I go back I’m not tested, its a continue as I can go Ole darn schucks Hashtag Picture Above Went from there trickled through Billionaires Millionaires Rich to the poor Poet hashtag style And carry through shucking Salisbury and gravy with string fries It’s a tasty meal Not a blood bath Breaded filets of pork and gravy with string fries One can add Cornmeal to thee ensemble assembled entree the sweet cornbread kind Not the bland needing mayonnaise Is it tasty in your mouth? I hear barking dogs All of the time