#that's an offshoot of a bigger cult

[radiosummons]

The Armorer: Welcome to the family.

Bo-Katan: I literally didn't ask for any of this.

[vethbrenatto]

If you haven't seen episode 20 or 21 don't read this until you do.

So. Ashton saw the Hishari ceremonial armor and thought it was familiar to them, and upon Orym's history check this episode, it was revealed that they [the Hishari] worshipped the elements. Matt even described them as kind of a dark Ashari.

I have this theory that they saw genasis as this indescribable perfect beauty (it was a cult-village) and embodiment of the elements themselves, but they had a mostly human population. So they, in reaction, began to investigate if there was a way to turn a human into a genasi beyond murdering them and casting reincarnate, which only has a chance to work.

However, they are theologically motivated in this, so some demon or something big, bad, and scary decides to take advantage of it and somehow propose themself as a solution to their lament. This entity promises that some day down the line there will be someone born a human turned into a genasi (like an Elemental Anti-Christ if you will) if the Hishari do what the entity wants them to do. (Un)fortunately, the village is descrated before they get to see this come to fruition. The entity decides to take pity.

Sometime later, Ashton is born from a person who barely survived the desecration of the Hishari, but was around to see it happen. They either die while giving birth to Ashton or give him to the Greymoore state home. Upon turning 12, Ashton experiences becoming the earth as he is a descendant of it's cultists.

So this is really long, and I'm sorry (only a little), but I saw a post about someone asking if they could ramble to you about their theories and you saying yes, so I sent my buckwild, crack theory in to put you to the test lmao.

I definitely think Ashton has some sort of cult ties and I also think that the "I was soft once" has some significance. Them being human once is definitely something I've considered, though I wonder if maybe it's a bit too simple for a Taliesin backstory. But then with the cult backstory on top of it I supposed it wouldn't be that simple.

I'm totally with you though on wondering exactly what "Dark Ashari" means because it's such a specific way for Matt to phrase it, and because of the Hishari/Ashari thing, I think they obviously must have ties between the two tribes. I'm going to be real that I zoned out over the lore for a second so maybe this was answered already, but I wonder and I'd think that the Hishari possibly stemmed as an offshoot of the Ashari? Like Ashari members who became extremists in... some way (like you said, could be elemental worship, or could be something even crazier) and then defected from the Ashari to create their own sections.

I also really like this as an expansion of the Ashari because I've always kind of felt like Ashari didn't totally fit in Exandria. They always felt very specifically tailored to Keyleth's character, pretty tangential to the plot of Campaign 1 (other than where it was relevant for Keyleth, of course), and unsurprisingly considering Keyleth's origins- very Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm really enjoying that Campaign 3 is finally picking the Ashari back up and hopefully making them something bigger and more unique.

And as for Ashton, I'm very curious as well about their backstory before the Nobodies, particularly about that shift from soft to rock. It could just be a genasi puberty thing, but it was important enough that Ashton (Taliesin) brought it up, which just made me feel like it has to be something more.

[theliterarywolf]

Honestly, I really hate how people will say shit like that. Ie "Black men are the white men of ...." etc etc. I feel like it builds a much bigger wall between actual unity, and makes it easier for racists, and homophobes to attack people openly. I've also seen people argue that TERF'ness is just inherent to white women, or that it's Quote "It occurs when a group sits at an intersection of privilege & marganlization" No, TERF's happen when you have people use a cult mentality to recruit people.

It's all just offshoots and re-applications of Racial-Triangulation Theory and I haaaaaaate that said phenomena/term is still applicable in our modern society, but people keep reinforcing it! Making it easy for genuine bigots to find points of weakness to exploit.

[highway-stars]

My partner and I are having an ongoing discussion that goes a little bit like this:

We were thinking about online movements like the Snapewives and TJLC. How they started as normal fandom groups and then got uhhhh pretty unhinged.

Idk, I argued at first that stuff like Snapewives and TJLC are things that could only happen on the Early-ish Web: nerd stuff appeals to such a wide audience now, and SO many people are on the internet. Fandoms aren't hidden corners of the web for nerdy people anymore - they're massively available to everyone with an internet connection and mainstream social media.

I said that with a bigger audience comes a larger filtering system - stuff that is "weird" or "too much" would get quickly ridiculed and dismissed before it got carried away or could accumulate members. Saying something whacky might have a chance to snowball in the secluded corners of Livejournal, but would never stand a chance under the rather brutal eye of Twitter crowds.

My partner argued the modern web will actually make stuff like TJLC and Snapewives MORE prevalent. 1) a massive amount of internet users today are literal children and are more likely to get convinced by adults to champion for weird stuff and 2) having a larger audience means that, maybe for every 100 people that think your thing is fuckin weird, maybe 2 or 3 enjoy it. The bigger that first number gets, the bigger your followers are going to get too. Once you have enough, you can run off into your own corner and let your movement grow without the scrutiny of anyone else.

Idk, maybe it's because I'm not on Twitter and it seems like most hardcore fandom discussion (and uhh arguing) happens there now?? But idk? I feel like the days of "weird fandom offshoot grew into a cult-esque group with entire belief systems and violently loyal supporters" is kind of a thing of the past? I could also very much be missing something because I'm uhhh an internet hermit now lmao

[fratboycipher]

it doesnt like me @ ing ppl in replies BUT cult i found was the summit lighthouse. apparently an offshoot of another bigger cult. their havw their own wikipedia (like not an article but an actual encylopedia site for stuff) n its . smth

lmao wait a minute i looked them up and hand to god i got their violent flame book shoved at me by some new agers on campus like two years back. cursory check shows they are in my state/area so, lmao weird coincidence

[demoisverysexy]

An Open Letter to the Person who Blocked Me for Being Mormon

For context:

If you’re reading this, I hope it finds you well.

This letter is mostly for me, so I can get my feelings out. I’ve already talked about this with a few of my friends, and I’m feeling better than I was than when you blocked me. I’m still upset. Mostly because of general trends I see on tumblr of hatred for Mormons. A lot of it comes from ignorance and misunderstanding. Some of it comes from a place of genuine hurt that can’t go unaddressed. I don’t want to be dismissive of those who have faced trauma at the hands of my church. I am one of those people, and I know how deeply pain associated with my church can be. After our interaction, I felt that talking about it would help me process this.

Before I go on, I must be clear that this is not an attempt to get you to unblock me. As nice as it would be to be able to see your blog again – you’re very witty, and I enjoy your content! – I can live without it. This is more a response to the trend on tumblr specifically of hatred against Mormons, and assuming that they’re all bad people who are complicit in every single bad thing that the church does. You just happened to force me to be a little introspective about my church and my relation to it. Thank you for that.

First, however, I would like to clear up some misconceptions:

Your initial joke that prompted me to tell you I was a Mormon was a joke about Mormons and polygamy. The largest two organizations that can be classified as “Mormon,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Community of Christ (which incidentally allows for gay marriage and has female clergy, though I am of the LDS sect), both disavow polygamy. There are other, smaller offshoot Mormon groups who do still practice this, which is where horror stories of polygamists marrying teenagers arise. These people are also Mormons, though I wish they weren’t, in the same way that problematic Christian groups are Christian, though many Christians wish they weren’t.

I do recognize that mainstream Mormonism has been labeled as a cult by many people, though the reasons people provide generally don’t hold up. Often the proof that people provide of my church’s cult-like nature is to take note of corruption that can be found in almost every church. These issues – such as racism, homophobia, and misogyny, to name a few – while real and important to address do not a cult make. Sometimes the proof is to point towards practices that are demonized in my church, but are practiced in other religions with no comment, or even celebration. Other times people will point to their own experiences with toxic church congregations, and while those issues are very real, they are by no means universal. My experience growing up Mormon was a lucky one in many ways. I personally don’t think that most people who study my church from an academic vantage point would call it a cult. I would consult them on this matter. After all, someone in a cult is rather hard-pressed to be able to tell whether they are in one or not.

Another point often levied against Mormonism is how it leaves its queer members with religious trauma due to its homophobic teachings. I understand this well. I have experienced deep religious trauma associated with my political stances in favor of LGBTQ+ rights (though that wasn’t the whole story). I won’t go into detail about this right now, but suffice it to say, I had a very traumatic time on my mission that led me to a very dark place, and ended with me contemplating choices I would never be able to take back. I’m fine now of course, but I carry those memories with me.

So why would I stay despite all this? Is it because I’m brainwashed? You would have to ask a psychologist about that, but I would say probably not. I knew, and know now, that the ways I was being treated were unfair and wrong. I don’t have time to go point by point to address every grievance I or anyone else has with my church and explain my position on it, as much as I would like to clear the air once and for all on this topic so there is no misunderstanding. Here’s the reasoning that has kept me here so far:

I think that every person of faith must, at some point, deal with the problematic aspects of their church’s history and doctrine. This comes with the territory. Whether it be disturbing stories in scripture, imperialist tendencies, doctrines that chafe against us, or problematic leaders, no person of faith is exempt from wrestling with the history that accompanies their faith. I have studied my church’s history in depth. Many of the horror stories I heard were provably false. Many were true. Where does that leave me?

I believe that God is bigger and better than us. We make terrible, awful mistakes all the time. But I don’t think that makes God less willing to work with us. If anything, I think it means he wants to help us more. He wants to help us move past our histories and become better. My church has a long way to go in this regard. For too long we have been silent when it mattered, and people have been wounded by our silence. Or even the words we have said out loud! If you look at my Mormonism tag on my blog, you will see some examples of what I am talking about. I have been wounded by the things my church has said and not said. It hurts awfully, and I ache for those who have been wounded more deeply than I.

But at the same time, I cannot deny the healing my faith has brought me. Whatever problems my church has – and it has many, deep and pressing issues – it is because of my faith that I am the person I am today. I can draw a straight line from my religion to the positions I hold today. Because I am a Mormon, I became a Marxist. Because I am a Mormon, I became nonbinary. Because I am a Mormon, I became a leftist. I cannot ignore that my religion, flawed as it may be, has led me to where I stand now. I am at the intersection of the hurt and healing the church offers. It is a difficult line to walk. But I hope that in walking it, I can bring healing and love to those who hurt in the ways I do. To let them know that they are not alone, and that they have a friend who can help them wherever they choose to go.

Yes I am queer. Yes I am a Mormon. I am here because I am trying to fix things. If at some point in the future I realize that I cannot change things, perhaps I will leave. I hope it does not come to that. And things are changing. They have changed before, and they can change now. I am confident that my God is willing to lead my church where it needs to go. I hope I can help speed things along. We shall see.

But spreading unequivocal hatred and disdain for Mormons does not help those of us who are Mormon who are trying to fix things. Yes, those who have left Mormonism due to trauma need a safe place to be away from that, and acknowledging the church’s many faults can be helpful to those people. I myself have criticized my church quite vocally. But refusing to listen to the stories of those of us who choose to stay, telling others that we are evil or stupid or what have you, is also quite traumatic to us. We are people too, with thoughts and feelings. It is easy to dismiss us out of hand if you assume we aren’t.

I try to be open about my religion and political stances on my tumblr. See for yourself: It’s a mix of Mormonism, LGBTQ+ activism, Marxism, and pretty much every other leftist political position you can find. Along with all the furry stuff, of course. But despite all this, I am still terrified every time someone follows me to tell them I am Mormon. More than I am to tell them that I’m queer. Tumblr is not representative of how things work in the “real world,” of course, but I have received hatred for being a Mormon there as well. And it’s mostly other Christians. So on the one hand I’m hated by LGBTQ+ folks, on the other hand I’m hated by my church for being queer, and on the third hand (as apparently I have three hands), I am hated by other Christians. I do not face hatred to the same degree from other Christians. I saw it most on my mission. But still, it exists.

(Incidentally, Evangelicals, who you seem to have problems with, and perhaps rightly so, though I have not done a study of the matter myself, largely despise Mormons, from what I have heard. Something to consider.)

I want allies. I want help. I want understanding. If I am to push back against bigotry in my church, I need your help. I need everyone’s help. Fighting bigotry wherever we see it is a worthy pursuit, I think. And if we can succeed, we can make the world a better, safer happier place. I want to fight off the ghosts that haunt my church. You don’t have to fight them with me, but I would appreciate it if I could have your support. It would make my job much easier.

We aren’t enemies. At least, I don’t think you’re my enemy. We both have been hurt by homophobia and bigotry. We live in a capitalist hellscape where police brutality and racism are on the rise. Fascism is looming over the political backdrop, along with the ongoing threat of ecological disaster. I think we would be better off helping each other than going after each other. I ask that you please listen to us when we say you are hurting us. The Mormons you blocked knowingly followed you, an openly queer person who calls out racism and bigotry and pedophilia. Yet you assume we are in favor of those things. Someone can at once be part of an institution while recognizing it’s flaws. (Aren’t we both Americans? Why not move if we hate it so much?) And perhaps we have used the “No true Scotsman” fallacy to justify why we stay. I don’t believe I have. I don’t feel I need to.

I hope that you consider what I’ve said here. I hope we can work together. And I hope that no matter what, you find peace wherever you end up.

Yours truly,

Demo Argenti

[grandhotelabyss]

And the mode of expression, too, is the exact same: for a long time now media has been overtaken by a cult of expression which forbids any style or mode other than contemptuous blank irony. It is remarkable how uniform and homogenous the style of writing is on Twitter, which is where media culture is defined. It seemingly hasn’t evolved in a decade. Condescending, sarcastic, amused that you would think to say something so dumb, endlessly superior, contemptuous of all sincere values except the one being used as a bludgeon in the fight at hand. Absurdist in an entirely prescriptive way, novel in a tired way, funny in a humorless way. All of it is a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a strange and highly mannered form of humor that flourished in an obscure offshoot of an internet forum which migrated to a bigger platform and metastasized into something called Weird Twitter, and was subsequently popularized and imitated so frequently it took over the forum completely. For reasons that boggle my mind, it’s been the dominant style on the world’s most influential social network for going on a decade and appears often in published commentary as well.

Fredrik DeBoer, “If You Want to Make It as a Writer, for God’s Sakes, Be Weird”

(Has anyone written the genealogy of this style beyond its origin on 2000s message boards? Taking McLuhan’s hint that the old medium becomes the content of the new medium, I suspect it must derive from late-1990s television. For example, the advertising concept of the “water-cooler show,” in which jokes and scenes from the television replace a vanished communal culture as social lubricant in work places and other impersonal meeting grounds, already seeds the idea of TV as social model. Whereas an older show might show an aspiration toward mimesis, a new one proposes itself as the thing to be mimicked, a Wildean transition from, say, the loveably observed foibles-in-the-round of Archie Bunker to the emulable flat amoralism of Jerry Seinfeld, easily replicated in everyday life through a mode of blandly outrageous speech. Or compare the dialogue of pre- and post-Buffy teen dramas, from the sometimes mawkish earnestness of Beverly Hills 90210 to the everything-in-quotation-marks quippiness of The O.C. Ground zero of Weird Twitter’s style of political engagement, though, is surely The Simpsons, which, if I recall my youth and adolescence correctly, incited my generation’s replacement of conversation with memetic bytes of pop culture. More than that, though, is the show’s pure virtuality as animated groundlessness, plus its ironic nostalgia for the lower-middle-class nuclear family, capped by its mind-altering tonal schism between cynical nihilism and sentimental affection. This non-negotiable sentimental core, intellectually hard to defend or even shameful, no longer materially rooted in any extant institutions, and therefore armored-by-disavowal in a carapace of anti-dialogic sarcasm, produces the deranging and annoying Weird Twitter style of a wholly unargued absolutist politics advanced by aggressive verbal nihilism. I fear this ain’t it, chief. DeBoer notes that this style is returning to imaginative literature, from whence it came in the first place, the TV having borrowed it from postmodern theory and fiction, so it is important to remember that it no longer possesses whatever critical force it had at its inception in someone like Pynchon. Such wounded sarcasm has become the mere adolescent whine of minors just mature enough to doubt their custodians’ plans for them, but without access to the adult affordances that would allow them to contest or alter their future.)

[radramblog]

WA election aftermath

The aftermath of an election is always a tenuous time, with seats in doubt for some time well after the election is called, and a massive number of people effectively gaining and losing their jobs. In a two-party system, there’s always a winner and a loser, and as a result at least one side is going to have emotions running high.

I’d like to delicately consider the results of this election, and the potential impacts of such on the state. With that in mind…..

Holy shit I knew this was going to be an easy labor blowout but I didn’t expect that kind of result.

I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger blowout in any election, ever. It’s absolutely farcical. I love it. I can’t stop grinning thinking about it. The Liberal Party got fucked. This feels like vengeance for all those years suffering under Premier Barnett, cunt as he was.

Alright, bit more seriousness, let’s break it down.

Labor

Labor winning this election was pretty much a matter of course. There was no universe in which they didn’t succeed, even the opposition knew that. The people have seen the state government’s response to COVID-19, and how well it went for us, and saw the opposition dragging their heels and arguing against them, which is not a good look. I think there are three big things that brought Labor so far forward this election, and I genuinely think that COVID-19 was one of them- it might literally have been the best thing to happen to WA Labor last year, and I mean that without a hint of irony.

The second big thing was Clive Palmer. More specifically, that WA Labor got to have Clive Palmer as an enemy. Now I don’t know about over east, but it’s presumably less pronounced since he got a couple seats there at some point. But Clive Palmer is monstrously unpopular over here, and his attempt at subverting WA border restrictions for his own ends was not something anyone wanted to see- so the current government completely shutting him out was very welcomed. I do genuinely think that the dislike for Clive Palmer gave WA Labor a huge advantage, since they were the ones standing up to him. We all saw his fucking annoying advertisements 2 years ago in the Federal election, and we kicked his farce of a party out then- it’s no surprise that we don’t want him around now.

Last but certainly not least, of course, there is Premier McGowan. Marky boy is probably the most approved-of politician I can think of in recent memory, cultivating a minor cult of personality that isn’t locked to one side of the political compass like, say, Trump’s. That does, of course, leave him as a bit of a centrist, which is not exactly great in my eyes, but it could be a lot worse.

Labor now has a massive amount of power, holding every seat they had and gaining many more. And while the opposition is rather weak, it’s likely that any influence the Libs/Nats would try to have isn’t something I’d want to see anyway. Regardless, now that the immediate threat of election is over, Labor does need to be held accountable for mistakes they make, because they are far from perfect- McGowan’s position on fracking is a good example.

Liberal

I never thought I’d feel any form of sympathy for a Liberal leader, but it’s hard not to feel sorry for Zak Kirkup. He’s a relatively young politician essentially thrown out as a lamb to the slaughter, becoming the first Labor/Liberal leader in 90 years to lose their own seat in a state election.

With that said, I feel no reason to similarly sympathise with the remainder of the party losing their seats. They’ve got to rebuild now, with a maximum of 3 seats to work with, which leads me to believe they’re going to need a complete redo of their positions/branding/policy if they want to succeed next time around. They might end up straying dramatically from their political positions, which could be good, or it could be very bad.

I’m interested to see what happens to the Liberal party in the coming weeks. But I suspect they aren’t going to be especially relevant in government for some time.

Nationals

The Nats look set to become the new opposition, a sentence I never thought I’d say or write, but it does sort of make sense. If the Liberal party continues to suffer, they may end up in that position for quite some time, which would make WA a pretty unique political landscape in the country as far as I am aware (hahah I don’t know shit about other states politics)

I’m not super aware of Nats policies aside from their regional focus, which doesn’t apply too much to me specifically. But if their regional focus includes big business operating in rural WA (which a lot of it does) then colour me disinterested. If they are the major opposition, though, then I’m expecting some amount of increased regional spending on Labor’s behalf as appeasement, or to get them to agree to other bills. We’ll see.

Greens

If you go by total vote counts, the Greens actually have a fair few more than the Nationals- but that’s not exactly how that works, is it. We didn’t have any seats, but hey, at least that means we didn’t lose any seats.

Maybe next time, folks.

Others

At time of writing, the third most dramatic swing in votes was in One Nation, everyone’s favourite xenophobes- except, it’s a 3.7% swing away from them, which is huge considering they now only have 1.2% of the votes. It felt like at the last election we kicked Pauline’s grotty arse out of the state, but now I’d be surprised if they made much of a reappearance here at all.

The fact that the No Mandatory Vaccination party has the 5th most votes total is both staggering and terrifying. They’re still about a third of the Nationals, but that such a fucking hellscape of a party got that high upsets me greatly- especially since I don’t want to know where their preferences ended up.

The WAxit party only has about 4000 votes, so I guess we aren’t seceding after all. But hey, apparently more people want to vote for that than to legalise weed (by ~1500 votes), so they’ve got that going for them.

At time of writing, the Animal Justice Party, the Daylight Savings Party, the Health Australia Party, and the Great Australian Party (which I only found out afterwards is an offshoot of One Nation) all have exactly 0 votes counted for them. Better luck next time, or better yet, just don’t bother next time.

[flyingkiki]

Curiosity, 2/?

Oh, hohoho. I am so gone. These two are giving me tingly happy feelings. We needs to build our TimRae army. 

####

Raven had shitty family members, Tim noted. Not that it needed to go into his files on her because they already established that with her father, but seriously. Her demonic brothers were assholes, to say the least. He grunted as he swung his staff with all his bodyweight into the demon’s back, saving Batman from loosing an arm. But, fuck, man.

Basically, this is what’s happening:

Some cult, an offshoot of the Church of Trigon, has made its way into Gotham. For the past few days, they’ve been haphazardly opening portals and luring in demons into the city. They were under the belief a new lord of the underworld would bless them. Unfortunately, none of the demons that came into the world were demon lords – just angry demons out for some blood.

And, as it later turned out, after a half-sibling who killed their father.

Raven faintly wondered where she got her luck. All she wanted was to have some peace and quiet for the week – things were going surprisingly well in Jump. But no, some assholes had to play church and worship demons. What the fuck. She grunted and blocked an attack from one of the more gnarly demons, and flipped over it. She sent a ball of black energy to its back just as it was about to turn to her, and she watched as the demon skidded across the ground.

Raven briefly looked over her shoulder, making sure Red Robin and Batman were still alive somewhere in the forest clearing. Good, they still were. She faintly wondered if she should take them out for dinner as a peace offering for having to deal with her shitty family. Raven watched them struggle with a bigger demon – did these demons grow over the past few days? She furrowed her brows. Grunting, she turned back to the demon she was fighting and frowned.

“Sister,” red eyes glowed and the demons arms twitched, as it stood in front of her. The demon growled, fangs baring and it looked ready to pounce again.

“I hate my family,” Raven breathed, hands glowing and with a chant let go of a large blast of black energy.

“You killed father,”

Raven’s eyes widened as she listened to the first coherent sentence from the demon. They never really said anything, aside from sister. This was a first.

The demon growled, noting her opening, and pounced Raven. Fangs bared and claws sharp, it made a swipe at the smaller girl.

Raven grunted as she barely dodged the attack. She felt hot claws dig into her back and blood trickle down her side. She inhaled sharply as searing pain flashed through her body and she stumbled away from another attack. This was not good.

“Die,” the demon growled and started to run towards her.

“Raven!”

She faintly heard Tim in the background but her eyes were focused on the demon that was charging towards her. This whole situation was pissing her off. This stupid cult should have never started trying to bring demons into the world. Her brothers should just fuck off. And if she got her hands on one of the cult members, she’d –

The demon yelped as Raven’s soul self rose from her body. Her energy pulsed, anger and frustration running through her system. Her demon brothers should not be here. They should be no where civilians. She growled as her eyes glowed red, and her soul rose higher. Inky tendrils flooded the clearing, crawling over the floor and towards the two demons who were frozen to the stop.

Tim’s eyed widened as he watched Raven turn into her soul self. She rose off the ground, black energy pulsing through the air and black tentacles slithering across the floor towards the two demons. He inhaled sharply as her red eyes glowed, her face hooded and a shadow if a raven looming over her. He had never seen Raven use this kind of power before in battle, his heart hammered in his chest as a black tendril slithered just past his boots and towards the demon he and Batman were fighting earlier.

“Don’t come back,” Raven growled and with pulse of black energy, the demons were engulfed in the black tendrils. There were loud howls of pain and the tendrils crushed the demons into the ground. Black dust billowed in the air before slowly settling on the ground. The black tendrils slithered on the ground for a moment, before retreating back into Raven’s cape. Nothing was left of the demons.

“Raven,” Batman stepped next to Tim, watching as Raven lingered in the air. Her eyes continued to glow red as she stared at the pentagram on the forest floor. She turned to Batman, red eyes furrowed.

“They’re gone,” Batman supplied, waiting on guard for Raven’s next move.

Red eyes blinked and they flashed white. Familiar large purple-blue eyes stared down at Red Robin and Batman and she let out a soft gasp. The black energy around her disappeared and she landed unsteadily on her feet. She sent them an apologetic look.

“Sorry you had to see that,” she mumbled. She glanced at the pentagram before adjusting the hood over her head.

Batman nodded, eyes narrowing as he surveyed the scene. The cult members that summoned the demons were long gone after making a run for it during the battle. His frown deepened. This cat and mouse chase had to stop soon.

“You’re bleeding,” announced Red Robin, looking at the blossoming red patch over Raven’s right shoulder.

She forgot about that. Drawing her left hand underneath her cloak, Raven pressed her hand against the torn flesh. She winced. This might take a while to heal. “It’ll heal,” she said.

Tim frowned. He knew about her healing abilities, but he also knew that the display of massive amounts of energy can slow down her healing process. “Let’s go back to the cave,” he said. “Ride the Batmobile with us,”

Raven made a face. “I’ll fly,” she said and began levitating.

Batman frowned. “You lost blood and your energy is low. Better just ride with us,”

She waved them off and spun on her heels. Like hell was she going to ride a car in a shape of a bat. She knew they’d drive like Dick – like lunatics. “See you at the cave,” and without waiting for their reply, she flew off.

Batman frowned. “Stubborn,” he clicked his tongue.

Tim chuckled. “Seems pretty familiar,”

They arrived at the Batcave in record time and found Alfred making his way down into the med bay of the cave with some medical supplies and a steaming cup of tea. Alfred stopped and watched his two charges jump out of the Batmobile and remove their cowls. “Miss Raven is in the med bay. She arrived a few moments ago and we’ve been working on cleaning her wounds. Some of the cuts ran in deeper than expected,” he supplied as the trio walked towards the med bay.

Tim nodded, long black hair falling into his eyes. Pushing it back, he offered Alfred a soft smile. “Thanks, Al,”

Raven looked up from tending to her wounds. She had peeled off the top of her uniform, leaving her in a utilitarian black sports bra. Her bloodied cloak hung over the end of the bed she sat on. A bloodied sterile gauze was in her left hand, fresh from wiping away some of the blood from the back of her shoulder. “Hey,”

Bruce noticed the bloodied gauze. “Are you alright?”

Raven shrugged. “I’ve had worse,” she said. She thanked Alfred when he set new supplies next to her. “My family doesn’t like me all to much. I can pretty much say the feeling is mutual,”

“Do you think they are after you?” Bruce asked. “The demon you fought looked keen in killing you,”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Most people, and metas, would like to see me gone once they know who and what I am,” she sent a knowing smirk at Bruce, remembering the first time she met the Justice League and asked for help. It wasn’t a warm welcome, to say the least. She shook her head when Bruce continued to stare at her. “Honestly, no. I don’t think so. I’m not really very welcome in the family after we killed Trigon. We’re just dealing with a ragtag team of cult members and blood thirsty demons who find themselves on earth for the first time with no idea what to do expect kill,”

Bruce nodded. He sighed and pushed himself away from the medical cabinet he was leaning against. “Okay,” he began. “We’ll keep our ears close to the ground and listen for any new activities. I’ll coordinate with Oracle and see what we can do,” he said and began making his way out of the med bay. “Rest and get your energy back,”

“Understood,” replied Raven, watching Batman leave.

“Need help?”

Purple eyes slid over to Tim, her stare heavy and calculating. Raven reminded Tim a lot of Bruce, he could barely read her emotions. He eyed the bloodied gauze in her hand and took a small step forward, faintly wondering if he was stepping over boundaries. She was after all, half naked and they barely knew each other. Emphasis on the half-naked.

Raven watched Tim take another step forward, a tentative smile playing on his lips. She could feel several emotions coming off of him – concern, interest, curiosity, attraction. Raven blinked. Tim was so different from all the other Robin’s she met. Dick was a mix of seriousness with a strong intent of proving himself, he was strong willed, guarded, and such a hardheaded asshole sometimes; Jason was a wild mix of chaos and charm, and Damian was, well, Damian. The young boy was practically a storm of emotions. But Tim, Tim of all the Robins was a sea of calm in all of the chaos that goes around them – despite of the amount of caffeine he kept on drinking. She knew that he was the smartest of the Robins; an excellent strategist – she could practically feel how fast his brain works. Yet, he was so different from all the wildly active Robins she knew in her life. This intrigued Raven.

She titled her head and offered Tim a small smile. “Okay,”

Tim paused briefly, surprised that she would let him help her. Nodding, he stepped behind her on the med table and took a look at the three wounds that ran along her shoulder blades. He whistled at the sight of the gaping wounds. “Yikes,” Tim made a face. “Remind me to never get on the bad side of your family,”

Raven snorted.

With nimble fingers, he finished cleaning the wounds and set out to stitch them closed. He noted a few other scars that ran down her back and sides and disappeared into her uniform. He faintly wondered where they were from and what stories they told. These were not in her medical files. He always taught she could just heal herself completely.

“Sometimes, when I’m too tired, my healing process is slower than normal. Sometimes some scars stay,” said Raven suddenly, tilting her head just a little bit so she could see Tim over her shoulder.

Tim paused, blue eyes widening in surprise as they connected with amused purple eyes. His needle hovered close to her skin. “Huh? I –”

Using her good hand, she tapped the side of her head. “You think pretty loudly,” she quirked her lips. “Also, empath.”

“Oh!” Cheeks warmed, blue eyes averted from her amused purple ones and Tim focused on closing the wound on her shoulder. “Sorry,”

Raven shrugged, a small amused smile playing on her lips. “It’s okay,”

Tim concentrated on finishing his patch up job, trying to slow his thoughts down. After a few more moments of silence and after finally, finally, taping the last gauze over the wound, Tim was done. “I’m sure Cyborg does a better job at the tower,” he said after stepping away from the bed.

Raven looked at her shoulder briefly and hummed softly. Cyborg did a better job, but Tim didn’t need to know that. She looked up at Tim and tilted her head. “Thanks for the help,” she said and hopped off the table. She looked at what remained of her torn leotard and wondered if it was even worth trying to slip back on. She let out an exasperated sigh. Just her luck.

Tim watched Raven struggle to put her torn uniform back on. He averted his eyes briefly when he caught sight of her sports bra. Also, abs!

“Oh, wait. Here,” he said trying to hide his flustered voice and quickly turned on his heels, rummaging through one of the medical cabinets. Making a triumphant sound at the back of his throat, Tim turned around and grinned, offering Raven a grey t-shirt.

“I keep this here for emergencies,” he said as Raven took the offered shirt.

Raven chuckled softly and slipped on the oversized Superman shirt on her. She practically disappeared into the shirt as it hung over her body and fell mid-thigh. It was nice and soft, very comfortable. She looked at the worn Superman logo and she lifted an eyebrow at Tim. “Nice merch,”

Tim laughed, desperately trying to ignore how cute (?!?!) Raven looked in his shirt – she looked so small! “We taught it’d be nice to annoy Bruce once in a while,” he said. Blue eyes twinkled. “Jason has a full wardrobe and, uh, boxers,”

Raven rolled her eyes, amused still. “Of course he does,” her lips quirked a bit in a little smile. She picked up her torn robe and nodded at Tim. “Thanks for the help, Tim. I’m going to rest now,”

“No problem. Good night, Raven,” Tim watched as Raven walked out of the med bay, movements slow and graceful. As he watched her, he quickly squashed down any thoughts of how good she looked in his shirt. Tim swallowed and looked away, instead focused on putting away all medical equipment they just used. Notes, Tim, notes. Raven’s healing process is slower when she is drained. May leave scaring when healing slows down. Scars dip down the small of her back and tiny waist – oh god.

“Good night, Tim,”

Tim paused from returning the antiseptic and saw Raven pause briefly at the doorway and glance at him briefly before slipping through it. Tim blinked.

So much for taking notes, Tim.

[saintmachina]

If someone were to ask you what you thought the Christian Gospel was about, what would you tell them?

I sat on this ask for some time, because it’s so…insurmountable. All I can do is bring a perspective, a tiny reflective shard of the mirror of truth to this issue, since there’s no way I can comprehend everything the Gospel is and does, much less fit it into one post. I will say before we begin that I think that God’s activity in the world has numerous facets, and people resonate with some of them more than others. This is why language of ransom, enlightenment, absolution, gift, acquittal, mercy, transformation, rescue, and paid debts clamor against each other in Christian hymns and poetry when people try to describe what the Gospel is about. 

Christianity is so many things: a social system that privileges the poor and downtrodden, a flowering philisophical offshoot of the tree of Judaism,a framework of power that orders the universe and our place in it, a liturgical heartbeat of repentance, feasting, fasting, and forgiveness that circulates through the year. But ultimately, I resonate most with Christianity in its aspect as a mystery cult of death and rebirth.

There’s plenty to be said here about the Hellenistic syncretism that led to this designation, and the interaction of Jewish philosophy and Greek ritual piety in places like Alexandria and Antioch, and while the historical-critical elements are important, I’m always going to be most concerned with the stories. The myths (here meaning a story that is sacred outside of its veracity, not one that is inherently false) that underpin the whole belief system. 

Christianity is what happens at the intersection of the eternal, unfathomable divine and the mutable mortal body. It’s the story of a God descending into flesh to instruct us and enter into relationship with us from a position of deep empathy. This relationship and instruction brings about transformative, supernatural rebirth in everyone Christ touches, and the Bible talks constantly of putting the old self to death again and again so the new self can rise. The cross is painted as one of the darkest moments in cosmic history, when the veil between heaven and earth is torn violently open, and the natural order of the universe is turned on its head and swallowed up in a lightness eclipse. The cross is the ultimate transgression, the ultimate taboo, the ultimate dark night of the soul. But it’s also the cauldron of chaos out of which new life emerges. There’s explicit, literal regenerative properties to the godly blood that drips from a battered human body, and Christ’s broken corpse is the verdant soil from which the vine of the church springs.

One my pet doctrines is the harrowing of Hell, a largely but not exclusively Catholic belief that Christ descended into Hell in the period of the time between the crucifixion and the Resurrection to proclaim good tidings to those who died before his incarnation on Earth. It’s an idea that’s echoed in so many other religious and mythic systems worldwide, and something about it resonates so deeply with me. Christ is the Lord of light, and of new life, but he is also Lord of death and commander of darkness. Because of this unique nonduality, because God deigns to step down from the numinous and embrace mortality, sensation, anguish, hunger, pleasure, and pain as well as death, mere mortals can transcend the bounds of sin and death as well. The Gospel (and I also think the entire Bible on this one point) is a story about nothing staying dead, everything coming back to life, and God never giving up on the material world. That to me is the crux of this whole religion, made perfect in the incarnation. 

So yeah. Maybe it’s because I’m a Scorpio and already closely aligned to death and rebirth energy, or because I’ve needed a God in my life that was bigger and darker and more wild and strange than a pastel-colored stained glass man hugging a lamb, but that’s what does it for me. That’s what makes me stay. The promise that death is merely a passage, that evil will never get the last word, that God waits in the darkest places of the world to transform and resurrect us again and again. 

[reikiajakoiranruohoja]

The biggest issues in the Silent Hill movies

I watched the two Silent Hill movies back to back, and I wish to give my thoughts on some of its biggest flaws. Not Pyramid Head, not the change of the protagonist because both have been discussed heavily already. I instead what to focus on some core level messes.

1. People living in the Otherworld. Here's the thing, unlike in the movies, Silent Hill the town is still very much alive. People live there in relative peace. Sure, the cult exists but most townsfolk aren't hyper-involved in it. However, in the movies, there are people living in the purgatory part of the town. Why this is baffling, is that the purgatory part is exactly that, a place where you face your sins. Generally, time does not pass there for you nor the people you meet. Everyone is stuck in limbo. Not to mention, the purgatory is different for everyone, so what you see isn't what another person might see.

In the movies, people very much live in the Otherworld. They are in fact stuck there and have been for years. They are stuck in a monster-infested place that doesn't have food, water nor anything to sustain yourself with. They raised Vincent in this town. Not to mention, the rusty and even more dangerous dark world is a townwide event.

In addition to the above, the cultists who might have been born in the town don't seem to get why the nurse monsters are dangerous, trying to chase them off with cattle prods.

I'm not one to scoff at changes in adaptations, but the movies seem to have missed the point of the Otherworld entirely. Enough that its original purpose is lost.

Though I have to admit I'd love to read the lives of the regular cultists trying to live in such a hostile world. How'd they coped?

2. Changed roles and motivations for the main antagonists. My biggest gripe about the movies is the entirely changed character of Dahlia. In the games, she is very much a mastermind behind the events of the first game and affects heavily the events in the third game (from which the second movie is based on.) She is not a good person and in fact personally had Alessa AND burned her to birth the god of her cult.

In the movies, they went for a confusing theme of motherhood, so Dahlia's role was given to her sister Christabella. Dahlia herself was treated as a victim of the church. Not only does this make things more confusing (a clear foe vs one that is really more bark than bite), but it robs the story from its theme of family being people who care for you and not the ones that you were born to.

Claudia suffered even worse. Originally, she was a former friend of Alessa's who got left behind thanks to the sacrifice. A result of Dahlia's brainwashing and her own broken family, Claudia seeks to get Alessa back so the god can be born. As well as get her friend back, in a desperate attempt to find some comfort.

In the second movie, Claudia is a mother and sister of Dahlia and Christabella. Which makes her son Vincent Heather's cousin. Yay. Her relationship with her father has changed from an abuse victim to one holding power over him. What made her sympathetic has been removed entirely.

In both these cases, the clear motives and goals of the female villains have been changed in ways that only make the story needlessly confusing. Especially Claudia, whose goals would have been fairly poignant, as she is stuck in the past while Alessa moved on. Now, she is a cenobite and little more.

Christabella, Dahlia's replacement, is a very weak character compared to her. She is a religious leader and source of Alessa's suffering, sure. But her motives are shallow, literally grilling a girl alive because she didn't have a father. In a mining town, where there is always a danger of losing one's spouse. In the games, Alessa didn't have a father because it was literally the cult's god, and such did not care to get involved in her life. In the movie, who knows.

What makes Christabella even more shallow, is her lack of proactivity. In the games, Alessa was quite happy keeping Cheryl the heck away from Silent Hill, it was Dahlia who forced her to call Cheryl to Silent Hill. Christabella and her crew literally just try to survive in the Otherworld, they had no power over Alessa. Her reaction to poor Cheryl as well is strange, burn her again and then ....what? Christabella is reactionary and seems to have no goal outside survival and calling people witches.

Dahlia was a great antagonist because she seemed like a crazy old lady, but in fact, she held a lot of power and control while being only human. This made a good foe and allowed the story to use her influence to inform the actions of future characters. Christabella is simply an overtly religious lady with no further goals.

3. Overly complicated themes. (I am only going to speak about the first movie here because the second has no true theme.)

The core of the theme in Silent Hill the movie is 'A mother is a god in the eyes of her child.' Which, given the events of the first game, is a little ironic. I am glad they tried to make use of the switch from Harry to Rose, though.

What ends up happening, is that these themes are then clouded with strange choices by the writers. For one, the usage of Silent Hill 2 monsters. These monsters are coded as male frustration and guilt. Going rather poorly against the mother theme.

Another is the change from the cult from a pagan offshoot of Christianity to a Christian one. In the games, the birth and then burning of Alessa is the plan. One that Alessa stalled by creating Cheryl. They bought hospital workers off to keep Alessa's body in agony for years. The goals of the cult were very clear in the games.

In the movie, they burn Alessa literally because she doesn't have a father. There is no greater plan, there is no bigger goal than getting the 'witch' burned. In general, the witch angle is extremely dodgy, given this is still a modern town. Burning Alessa has no greater purpose or theme, it is just what crazy religious people do. Thus our antagonists are left without a reason to exist beyond the backstory. There is no push to get Alessa back, there is no goal other than survival.

The only thing that feeds Alessa is her revenge. That is her goal to get Cheryl to Silent Hill, to kill the cult and then be free. In the games, the Otherworld was punishment enough.

Where is the theme of motherhood in all of this? Other than Rose trying to get Cheryl back, the theme doesn't go into the cult nor the surroundings. Christabella might as well be a stranger to Alessa, Dahlia barely matters outside calming Alessa down off-screen. Where is the god a mother is supposed to be?

The cherry on top of this Jenga sundae is the fact that Alessa's powers come out of nowhere. In the game, the come from her father, therefore the witch and the Otherworld make sense. Not so in the movie. There is no explanation why Alessa lacks a father or has her powers.

4. Humans, humans everywhere. CGI is expensive, I want to note this before anyone else does. Regular actors are cheaper, naturally.

But Silent Hill is a very lonely place, as it is a realm of testing and challenge. You meet people there when the Otherworld chooses to let you (or they manipulate the otherworld.)

In the movies, there are humans a-plenty just existing in the hostile realm. In baffling places as well, like the sanitarium. If they absolutely had to have Heather groped, merely arms could have served the purpose.

Most blatant use of complete randos was the Mannequin scene, where there are two random women there for the sole purpose of dying to showcase the monster. Remember, people don't just randomly enter the Otherworld. Most of these people have been either trapped with the original cult or were -born- in the realm.

Looking at the movies, despite over 16 years passing, there are still enough people to glare and attack Heather in the town.

These are simply my thoughts, but I feel these are important in explaining why the movies failed as adaptations.

[kai-borg]

Tyrant - Ruler of the outer lands

Tyrant is a merciless being, unless you can count the mockery of a merciful-death he grants to those who survive his initial attack as mercy, who rules over much of the lands outside of Creator claim with  iron-fisted control and a compliance born of terror and fear for what he does to those who disobey him. He is massive, standing taller than most, if not all, of the naturally tall mini-mayhems, and he wields a strength that is truly something that could be boasted of, allowing for him to wield his war-hammer, a weapon of choice, and take down mocs many times his size, an activity he has done at multiple occasions and enjoyed each time. While there are tales that he once was a peaceful, kind ruler, who controlled a much smaller, more peaceable kingdom, if said tales are supposed to be believed, the disappearance of his wife, soon followed by a lasting, crippling disease, and later death for his son have long since shattered the kind king and left naught but the beast that remains. Tyrant first came into true being after slaughtering the previous owner of that name, a wide feared moc who controlled a large area of the outer-realm, and the house of his creator, long since killed by his hand, kept as his kingdom. After ending the first Tyrant this king of unknown name took his name as his, along with his kingdom, and skull as crown. Since then he has begun expanding his land in what seems to be a plan to control all of it, quite literally causing a war between his armies and all mocs, from wild to those assorted house-mocs that choice to join in their attempt to defeat him, for his first, and final large scale attack. The last because he won that war, and took control of all the territory lost within it, and the mocs who'd once laid claim to it. So far he is continuing his expansion, aiming for both Creator-claimed land and not. Hiring criminals, thugs, the scum of society and those alike to form his armies and keepers of 'peace' for the lands he cannot always be in. But not even they are safe, for he is more than willing to remove those who attempt to take advantage of their position and break the rules he set for them. He is even more dangerous than the previous Tyrant who's skull he now wears as crown in his actions, carrying a greater fear than even him from both the rumors surrounding him, and the truth known of him, such as that he personally carries out the execution and punishment of those who fight, and that he leads all battles himself, and leaves none alive in his wake. He has even accomplished events not even the first was willing to take, the death of a Creator, and not just one. But, he's not idiotic enough to attack one in their territory, there they are strong, strong enough to kill him easily with their 'home-field' advantage. So he plans, waits and watches until a time comes that they leave, enter an area they can be killed, even if it is a difficult task, he will look forward to attending that battle. Now, despite how idiotic such actions may seem, purposely aggravating Creator's and all, he is in fact quite a genius. He is never without a plan, and despite a large portion of his army consisting of criminals of ill-report and suspicious alliance, an even bigger portion consists of 'blank'-mayhems, a 'moc' build he helped design, and he's forced the scientists he's encountered and captured to perfect, and mass produce. The blank-mayhems are in basic, blank, emotionless slates. Robots who can only follow commands and have no sentience, thus bypassing any need for creative energy, and giving him an army he's ensured can never betray him. He did once attempt to create a variant, a more sentient version of the commander build, a 'blank' coded to be able to distrubute his commands out to a group of the standard blank-mayhems. It was a failure, the sentience developing in a way that was unplanned for and leaving what he'd designed as a death machine as nothing more than a failure in his mind, a failure he quickly threw away, leaving trashed on the outskirts of his territory in a state that would most likely soon render it shutdown by his beliefs. He also, at a much earlier time, attempt to create a virus that would allow him to gain more 'loyal' subjects by overriding the infected Moc's mind and rewriting it into a more controllable state. Unfortunately, for him that is, it didn't work, the henchmen he'd sent out with the finished product for its initial test returning with many dead and reports that the virus proved to weak, managing to only overwrite the Moc's mind, a Mini-mayhem moc at that, enough to damage his mentality before being beaten down by the Mayhem's own. It did manage to form an offshoot of itself while they kept the moc in isolation, forming into a more aggressive, albeit seemingly mentally weaker, secondary personality, the Mayhem seeming to have relinquished control to it before it began attacking the group, slaughtering many before being stopped and the personality losing control, according to the reports. The Mayhem himself, after being reverted and shocked unconscious through loss of a leg, was believed to be dead after the remaining thugs disposed of him in the parts pile of a known Creator known as Essence near that area. Despite his cruelty and perceived mercilessness, he actually has loyal subjects, if very few of them. His head scientist, a moc 'freed' from a Creator who hated him, being one of them and more scattered around. (Not counting any cults based upon him.) He also has one, unknown weakness, child-mocs. He has never killed a single child nor allowed for injury so long as he can stop it in any of his battles, or any of the towns he's been in, quite literally killing those he find that abuse their child and personally selecting them a new family. But he hides it in ways, not going visibly out of his way to protect nor help them, but finding ways to excuse it in such a way that none suspect him. In fact most fear he is planning to kill their kids, his tendency to, at times, send an 'invite' for visitation to one of those nearest to his 'castle', does not help. Their safe return with presents, odd new skill at chess, and the temporary 'ignorance' of their family by Tyrant ignored from the account. He also holds a soft spot in his heart for his own species, if a one masked with his cruelty. From slaughtering near all of the wild monochrome-mayhem tribes, to enslaving the beast/feral-mayhems, both wild tribes that once highly opposed him, and other 'punishments. Yet that is it, he punishes them, he doesn't slaughter all/multiple of them like he'd do to any other wild-tribe that had continued resistance against him, only those who actively resist. Sure, said punishments are quite cruel, being the death of the individual in question, but he rarely ever carries out the execution himself, leaving it to his minions. Once he never participated in them but after an incident involving the unconfirmed death of an escaping youngling beast-mayhem and a cliff, he was forced to remove that hesitation somewhat, and the 'guards' involved with that incident. Currently there are three known goals of Tyrant: The first is to control all territory, all land. To be a 'king' who none shall ever oppose. And, other than the Creator homes, he has gotten close, very few free tribes remaining and many of the resistance forces cut down. The second is to find The Kingdom, a hidden mini-mayhem territory he has only heard rumors of, from the potential threats of a king near his size known as Albus to two who have overtaken him, and gained his size, to their uncounted army of mini-mayhems that they wielded the power to create, and that its rumored existence is located near the Creator who started his species, an entity he has yet to find, and wishes to either control, or destroy. And the third, and most known one, is to find a Moc, one he has asked of in every tribe of related species he has taken, a Mini-mayhem known by the name of Jetflare Personality: Cold, uncaring, cruel, controlling, vicious, aggressive, willing to do nigh-all to accomplish his goals, and intelligent on top, all the qualities that made him into the most-feared, and perfect Tyrant. He cares little for many of his subjects, and armies lives, and for those few he does he hides it. He personally leads all battles and will subject himself to anything, any amount of pain so long as it means he will become stronger and more able to reach his goals. Other attributes: He has purposely had his head modified to allow him to remove his standard Mini-mayhem head piece and replace it with his crown, keeping both removable, usually carrying his Mayhem head piece attached to his back for when he wishes to 'relax'. His right arm is actually unnatural to his build, a purposeful mutation he appeared to have put himself through before becoming known as Tyrant, for both the increased claws and a more powerful strength within it. He actually has quite a few pieces of removable armour on himself, attached to him for both protection and to make his form all that much more menacing, ensuring his reputation as the most feared-being shall remain. The pieces so far include his 'crown', shoulder mounted skull-based armour, and the clawed panels on his upper legs. Tyrant's legs have a permanent, slightly digitigradle bend to them, giving him a slightly animalistic air when noticed. The crystal on his right arms wrist is attached by a chain that has both been wrapped around his wrist, and wielded to it. The reason behind why he's done such, and why he keeps it is, as of yet, unknown, but he has shown himself to be highly protective of it, going so far as to kill a Moc who merely brushed across it. (Of course, I'm certain I know someone who might understand the importance behind such a crystal.) There are also rumors he once dabbled in cloning but they are yet to be confirmed. Weapons: Tyrants preferred weapon is his war-hammer, a weapon that assures death to his opponents when combined with his strength, but he will wield others as needed and understand the import' of being skilled in others. Due to this he has installed working kanoka disk launchers in his forearms, both in case of opponents behind him and for menacing design, and is highly trained in both double handed sword use, and dual wielded sword use. ================ This guy was inspired both from Toa-Shifter's amazing series and some of Jedder77's own crazy Mini-mayhem mocs and the ideas behind them. Really this guy just kind of randomly popped into my head a while ago when I was thinking of how a series based around my own Moc's, and understanding/beliefs of the MM au, but I didn't fully know how to utilize him/make him work out at first (the fact I didn't believe I had the parts to make him at first didn't help), but I have to say after reading some of Jedder's ideas, and watching a few 'house-based' moc series, helped me really develop him into what he is now! He speaks in a blood-red (RGB: 138,7,7) version of this font: www.ffonts.net/Zombie-Holocaus… (Also, as you may notice, I threw quite a few... 'references' to certain characters (including a highly blatant one), and how they may have come to be/ended up in their current states in there with his bio. I wonder if you guys'll get 'em. I hope you do.~)

[sntechsupport]

I have sent you each a very specific program with a very specific purpose. Don't use it just yet, it's made for emergencies only, a very specific one. And before you ask, no, I didn't code this. I've got friends on the other side, as they say. Friends much bigger and much more powerful than even you can comprehend, which also have the infovirus known as Sburb.

...Ugh, when are you players going to figure out that the only ones with th fully formed infovirus are currently in this building here in the SNTS? I’ve literally run tests checking every would be modder, every infovirus infectee, every fucking monkey banging on a keyboard that ever hacked the game (don’t laugh, I had to deal with more than should be possible) and every time I find out the sme reults in 3 options.

Option 1: The player has the infovirus by going into the games code but was not chosen by the game due to them not being part of the support staff. A player may gain a bit of knowledge about the basic game structure like this and the knowledge to modify the uppermost layer of code to fix things but you assholes just try to game the system so we banned that shit. The only time someone gains the full infovirus and the ability to read and understand the many layers of underlying code is by being a SNTS member.

Option 2: Most of the top 2 upper layers are written in ATH~ but the changeable parts from layer 2 and down are written in a way that only the fully infected can read because it constantly changes. Those ATH~ coders with high skill can once again mess with the top layer and read some of the 2nd layer but have only a minor difference in skill than the partially infected. 

Option 3: Those who stumble into it and are like “Hurr durr, let’s download premade mods or fuck with status values ourselves because it can’t be hard durr hurr.” And these players are called Cancer.

Oh, and BTW, we are those friends on the other side. Gear runs many sites and shit to either help players or collectively fuck up modders in giant mousetraps, Girl has offshoot blogs with personas, Atomik does whatever Atomik does, Gaze has gaming accounts where he drops help for those in his friendslist, Kitten occasionally asks me to fix a problem in her friends sessions, and I make side deals and run several sites that exchange favors or drop info and lab results as well as a cult following of players who know about the darker side of SBURB. And of course, almost none of us use real names on anything outside the tech support.

Sincerely,

SN Tech Support (Clown)

[dndsp-o]

some good thoughts to pin

big bad can be some kind of radical religion or cult that seeks to either “complete the cycle”, putting spirits back into bodies (of babies? maybe), or dissolve the veil between the other realm and the physical one. the first is sort of spookier as a principle, the second has a spookier climax and a more straightforward path

thinking about magic, why not just skin over dnd magic entirely and just figure out flavor as to why/how? don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. the world is thinly layered with echoes of the creation magic used by the great dragon, but the spirit realm where it has resided for the last gajillion years is soaked through with it (where more ebbs into the physical realm through the veil), so spirits are better at using it / have more access to it / their bodies have magical properties. same with plants, who simultaneously exist in both realms. problem solved why was this a problem

areas of wilderness often have giant ruins scattered throughout. this is because they used to be settled by great cities, before spirits banded together and tore them down (prevent deforestation / other natural destruction from whence their power stems / etc). this has created a fairly antagonistic relationship between City Folk and spirits, and also explains why some towns can kinda be in a perpetual “frontier state” — the only civilizations that can survive outside of the biggest cities is in a sort of uneasy harmony with spirits, not taking too much, paying their dues in worship and offerings, etc. this also paved the way for that city that is Completely in sync w spirits, with the canals and heavy vegetation, everything they do is to the end of peaceful cohabitation with spirits. that also might be the place where they do the tree planting for children, and the birthplace of that grandmother’s religion — idk if i actually want that to be super widespread. maybe most people think it’s a crackpot theory, considering how Dangerous spirits are, that it’s an insidious way to cede control and power to The Other Side. (side note: what religion do the bigger cities / their offshoots practice?)