#the whole addition to the actual solving of the murder mystery when you get clues and put them on a case board

[the-kipsabian]

Alan Wake 2 Gameplay Reveal

[avelera]

One time my writing workshop that I recommend to everyone (they have online courses and a free podcast!) had sci-fi author David Brin as a guest lecturer and he gave some advice to new writers that has been living in my head rent-free ever since.

He said, first time writers should consider having their first novel be a murder mystery.

The reason being as follows:

Mysteries require a great deal of structure to work properly.

They also teach one a great deal about how to build a plot, especially around characters who want something (like: to solve the mystery or to not get caught)

How to have conflict and tension that grows out of each scene,

How we're introduced to characters, and finally,

How everything must build to a satisfying conclusion in which attentive readers are just a little bit ahead and casual readers discover the solution and see all the clues laid out in a satisfying manner in retrospect.

And it's a great genre for bringing in a friend to see whether or not you achieved the goal of laying out the clues properly, because it is in fact impossible to do on your own (this is true of most things in writing, but it's a bit more subtle when trying to tell if other stuff like romance has landed properly).

Putting a cut here to go over some popular examples and how writers can learn from them to improve their stories.

And the more I thought about this advice, the more I realized just how many of the most popular genre works of recent years had a mystery (whether or not it's a murder they're solving) as the way to drag the audience into the story, at least at the beginning, even if the plot then evolves into something else midway, because mystery is also an excellent way to dump exposition because it's all about finding out the truth.

The Winter Soldier film, in addition to being a Bourne-style action thriller set in the Marvel universe, has a strong plot through-line of "Who "killed" Nick Fury? Who is the Winter Soldier?" which gets us through a good chunk of the film that would otherwise be a slog of exposition and it works so well.

The first three Harry Potter books are actually very well structured mysteries. I've argued for ages that Book 4 onward is where Rowling lost the mystery plot structure to the series' detriment, the plots ballooned, and the whole thing got quite sloppy (this in addition to her reprehensible views, to be clear, I've been a critic of her structure in stories for quite some time short version: she's very bad at it when not grafting onto a school year).

The first Game of Thrones book and S1 revolved around Ned Stark as our primary protagonist seeking out the answer to the mystery of Who Killed The Hand of the King and Why - revealing the deeper mystery of Joffrey's lineage and setting up the events that eventually led to his execution. AND, by the way, that's PART of why Ned's execution was so shocking and effective: GRRM borrowed from the murder mystery genre to build a portion of his plot around, and then disrupted it by killing the investigator which as the POV character generally speaking very rarely happens in mysteries, which made it an even bigger and more effective shock for readers when Ned, who seemed to have plot armor on many levels, dies thus reinforcing the theme of "You win or you die" and the brutal chaos of the GoT world.

What I think makes all 3 of these very popular examples so effective is the blend of genre. Murder mysteries are tantalizing but they do sometimes fail to answer the "So what?" of one person dying in a small town. But combine the murder mystery structure, which demands so much of its writer and is so effective at dragging the reader along through the hardest part of introducing them to your world, with a genre that is better at answering the "So what?" like epic fantasy or action thriller, and now you've got a very effective combination for entertaining an audience.

[carolmaclaine]

so I finished dp2....... I don't hate it, I can understand the intention of certain choices more after finishing the whole thing, but if the execution had been better I think it would have worked better

anyway I'm gonna ramble about it a bit in a completely unorganized just talking as I think of it kind of way

so like, if the actual investigation was longer, and you had more time to interact with every character, including galena and lena, before the additional murders started, I think that would have helped. You had multiple chapters in dp1 to interact with folk before things started popping off, and I think that would have helped the story in this case. Cause like, the scene with Melvin and Patricia is actually pretty depressing, as those are some of the only characters you actually get a chance to form a relationship with, and the others deserved that kind of chance. For me to like, actually care they died, rather than getting a bunch of expo about why I should feel sorry for them at the end of the game after the deed was already done

though, that being said, I think Melvin should have appeared in his cult robes throughout the game like the raincoat killer did, so you actually had a potential murder mystery and possible serial killer, instead of just being told immediately who killed lise. You were never given a chance to have a mystery in this game (though I dont think, in retrospect, this game was meant to be a mystery game like dp1 was)

alongside that, it shows that houngan exists literally just to shuttle york from place to place, because there is no logical connection in this investigation, it lacks all the little clues and details that the first game had that you pick up on when doing a second playthrough, and the lack of connection between events means a random character had to exist to put you from place to place. And what did houngan exist for otherwise? It would have been interesting if he was involved somehow, or was actually kaysen in disguise trying to lead york off the trail the whole time instead of helping him, and it turns out all those oracles were red herrings, and york doesn't realize until the end. But instead kaysen just. Shows up in le carré the exact same way he did in greenvale, and houngan serves no actual purpose

I do find what they tried to do with zach's story to be interesting. Most of what fails in the le carré portion of the game makes more sense when you realize it was to make you be suspicious of zach, dp2 exists as a continuation of his story, and not as a new murder mystery to solve, so no effort was really put into the murder mystery aspect of the game. It comes across as everything zach was doing was to try and find someone who will understand the importance of the red seeds when he dies and be able to carry on his work in that regard. The mystery in this game wasn't the le carré portion, it was the present day sections, and what zach was planning the whole time

on the subject of zach, just to complain a little bit, I do hate the borderline obsession they gave him about emily to the point of hallucination. Realistically, while greenvale was traumatizing, I see no reason why her death should have been more traumatizing than the other victims. He spent just as much personal time with george and thomas as emily, as they all worked together and had lunch together and bonded. I don't like that this game is often about men who are obsessed with women doing terrible things to women, and then we make our protagonist obsessed with a woman who he really only knew for a short while and never actually got into a relationship with. It's been 9 years yknow. I would appreciate him not wanting to talk about her, since he did like her, and I like him having her necklace as a token, but the way it comes across with the fairy thing is a little... I don't like that choice much

Also york ? I'm curious what it meant with what he said to Patricia at the end in exchange for saving zach. At first I thought maybe york was going to be part of her now, like he was with zach, since protecting zach was York's job, and now patti wants that job. However, in the end scene, she acts surprised to hear how york feels about her, and york is actively talking to zach at the same time despite Patti not being shown to be typing at the computer or anything, she is actively doing other movements and walking around (they got IM in the forest?), as well as zach telling york to say hi to emily, somewhat implying he is still in the forest and not playing copilot with patricia

Also york you're a liar about this being your last goodbye with zach : / or did you mean last goodbye because you're gonna torment him 24/7 again because that's sure what it seems like you needy little fuck head, of course you use the animated OK graphics in the instant messenger you little bassard

anyway. I don't regret playing it, it definitely had potential, I feel like I can see what the purpose was, i just wish it had been handled differently. I also wish they hadnt retconned so much stuff, particularly the idea that york has worked on dozens of red seed cases before greenvale, cause it would have been fun to get multiple prequel type games about their adventures with the seeds. Kaysen could be using disguises in those games to keep continuity but prevent york from recognizing him come greenvale, etc.

I just hope if we do somehow get a dp3 after the commercial performance of dp2, that we can return to the more murder mystery aspect of the series. Though the retcon kinda sets us up to have a new protagonist if it were to continue and that makes me sad, I'm team york and zach forever u_u

oh also the stamp book is stupid, I enjoy pointless reward systems, but ones that require literally absurd levels of effort (such as spending 360 days to grow out 30 beards) is simply too much, I just want my goddamn teal suit with the little red lipstick stain on the collar 😤

[8requiems]

A Webcomic Review of “Garden Club Detective Squad”:

Oh God Oh Fuck did someone just die?

By: 8Requiems

The Description:

“Gardening and solving crime aren’t what straight-A student Yeon Han thought she would be focusing on at her new school. But when she discovers a notebook that contains clues to a 15-year-old murder mystery, she and the other members of her new gardening club realize the murderer not only has access to the school -- they probably work for the school. Can the gardening club squad figure out who committed the murder even though the principal and their teachers seem desperate to cover it up?”

Now, this description is quite detailed, maybe a bit too detailed.

This comes down to personal preference, but personally, I don’t like seeing the plot in thorough detail before reading the story, especially if it is a mystery.

If it were me, I would write the description as:

“In her attempt to not become a backwater girl, Yeon Han eventually decides to become the President of the Gardening Club. But she’ll soon realize that maybe she might have bitten off more than she could chew”

This description may be a bit rudimentary, but it shows an idea of what my ideal description for this webtoon would be.

It says just enough about the story while also leaving enough to imagination. But the current description at present shows what the first 3-4 chapters are. Had the description not even mentioned the teachers, I probably wouldn’t have considered they were trying to cover anything up to begin with.

That being said, I did read chapters 1-3 of the webtoon blind. And I have to say, I didn’t expect the unassuming colorful cover of this Webtoon to show such menacing and dark panel off-rip.

(A panel from the first scene in Chapter 1)

But, let us familiarize ourselves with the cast, shall we?

Characters:

Yeon Han - The Brain:

Yeon is an honor student who moved outside of Seoul, presumably due to not having enough money to stay. Despite this turn of events, she doesn’t want to become a “backwater girl”. For the sake of her academic record, she decides to settle on becoming the class president. But her peers are just amused at how cocky she was despite being new to the school.

(A panel in the middle of Chapter 2 ^)

When that fails, she decides to settle on becoming the president of an after school club. But forget becoming president, they wouldn’t even allow her to join on the basis that she is too qualified. BRO, THE LITERATURE DISCUSSION CLUB HAS THREE MEMBERS. ONE INCLUDING A BODYPILLOW FOR FUCK SAKES. Part of me wanted to laugh but part of me also felt insulted for her.

I expected her character to be the “genius that finds a niche that she enjoys compared to other activities they would usually dominate at”, but she is already fed up with how hard gardening actually is. Not to mention the amount of faculty and students who ask favours from her.

It was a very pleasant surprise, because now I can rightfully assume that while she works on her cases, she might pick up skills from the gardening club. Dare I say, she actually comes to appreciate and enjoy it as a hobby? I guess only time will tell, as this is still a very new Webtoon, with 12 Chapters out as of this review’s conception.

The one thing I have on my mind at the moment, is if her range of skills she currently has will be useful when tackling the murder case.

Whether or not that is the case, I have high hopes for her as a character.

Mirim Shin - The Spiritual:

Although I said I have high hopes for Yeon, I think Mirim is my favorite character. As the daughter of a priest, she is in tune with her spirituality on a whole other level compared to her club mates. 

An interesting tidbit about her is that she decided to practice all forms of faith before her baptism. I can only assume it’s so she could have an idea of what could have been, before deciding to lock in on one specific faith.

Honestly, I genuinely didn’t expect for her to say something like this, not because it sounded ridiculous, but because up until that point, it felt like her spirituality was just a running gag that came with her character.  

It was nice to see her character expanded upon, and I hope the other characters get the same treatment, even if it is only brief.

Baekji Kang - The Muscle

Then there's Baekji, who easily wins in cool factor. 

I can’t say much other than that in addition to being a part of the garden club, she is also in the Judo club. Although the story doesn’t technically address it, I feel like she fills the role of pseudo-leader / Vice-President of the club. 

She’s cool.

Saessak - The Green Thumb’d Romantic?:

Ssaesak is a soft-spoken girl who attends to the garden's needs as one of the two members of the garden club. 

She is unexpectedly a romantic, being interested in bad boys.

I only found her annoying for a brief moment because it seemed like she was going to hold back information on her latest crush, Hyeonsu Jeong (the lunch guy), before finally finding the resolve to give a possibly game changing piece of evidence to Yeon.

She’s alright.

Execution:

Despite the mostly positive things I have said in this review, my first impressions of Garden Club Detective Squad were more negative in comparison to the opinions I shared at present.

When I read Wizard of Arsenia, I had overblown expectations because my editor Nen had already recommended God of Bath, a webtoon I have now come to really appreciate. I assumed I would love it in the same way.

My expectations were what held me back from what I usually do best: Sit down and just enjoy the show. Granted, I still hold opinions about it that I believe hold back the story, but the opinions were way fairer than what I could have said.

This time around, I made a similar mistake.

I decided on my own to read Garden Club Detective Squad for this review, and held expectations for the mystery element of the Webtoon, which was reinforced by the first panel I showed in the review. Thankfully, even if the webtoon didn’t live up to whatever expectation I had, I know that I could still appreciate it for what it was because I just went with the flow. At worst, the mystery could come across as contrived.

(A panel from the first scene in Chapter 1)

That being said, somehow, I was disappointed. Even a bit annoyed 5-7 chapters in. Disappointment is one thing, but why was I annoyed?

At first, I was thinking it was because the story had a problem with how it presented tension. After all, the webtoon is categorized as a mystery, so I criticized it as such.

In my original draft, I wrote the following: 

“The webtoon is categorized under mystery, but I don’t really feel the urgency of the case whatsoever. I feel like I am getting whiplash between moments that I feel are supposed to be serious and moments that are just ‘slice of life’ hijinks.”

I hadn’t taken into account that, although it was a “mystery”, it functioned more like a “comedy”, like God of Bath.

I feel as though the Webtoon was miscategorized. I use God of Bath as an example because it could have easily been categorized under “Action”, because of the Ttaemiri battles. But despite these battles, because of the way dialogue is presented, it is understandably under the comedy genre. Moreover, the action was more of a vehicle to tell the stories and values of the characters themselves. In other words, even if you were to take out these action elements, God of Bath would be fundamentally the same.

But according to my logic, does this mean that if this webtoon didn’t have mystery elements, it would be fundamentally the same? 

No, and I do not think it would be the same if the webtoon didn’t have the comedy elements either.

To be perfectly clear, just because I think Garden Club Detective Squad is a comedy, it doesn’t mean that I think it shouldn’t present mystery elements, or vice-versa. But I wish Webtoon could at the very least categorize it as both a “mystery” and “comedy”.

Who knows, maybe my opinion will change as more and more chapters get uploaded. Or rather, I hope it does.

Personally, despite my position towards the webtoon being a comedy, it isn’t all that funny.

And as of the currently uploaded chapters, I think the mystery is all right.

In my opinion, what makes a good mystery is having all the clues presented to the characters and the reader to be able to solve the case. To understand 52chu’s take on mystery, I’ll break down the first suspect, Hyeongsu. Take this scene the beginning of episode 6 for example:

This scene is trying to insinuate that Hyeongsu is the killer. The dramatic irony of this scene, Saessak’s photo of Hyeongsu dumping bones in the garden, and the story deliberately pointing out that there are no cameras in the cafeteria/garden area are the three pieces of information the story provides to help the indirect claim.

(A panel from Episode 8 ^)

(A Panel from Episode 9 ^)

(A panel from episode 8 ^)

But it was all a misunderstanding. Whoops, my bad. “I was just trying to help you all”.

(A panel from episode 9 ^)

It's almost comical how much the plot just wanted to frame Hyeongsu, I can’t help but laugh.

All forms of evidence lead to Hyeongsu, except the fact that the bones were the remnants of ribs from past cafeteria specials:

(Panel from episode 9 ^)

(Panel from episode 9 ^)

If you were able to pick up the possibility, then great. But somehow, Hyeongsu’s mini-arc just fell flat for me. Whether you knew this one detail or not, it feels like I’m going to be dragged from suspect to suspect in the future. Everyone one of them will be the “killer” except for that one contrivance that makes them innocent. Honestly, I firmly believe that it isn’t any of the faculty.

You know what, here's my Trademark 8Requiems theory. The culprit is Chair Juyeong. 

(A panel from Episode 6 ^)

I don’t mind the club reaching dead ends, but if there aren’t elements that could at least help me identify who the real culprit is, I doubt I could enjoy it as much as I’d like to.

Conclusion:

Reading and understanding this Webtoon has been somewhat of a ride. Although it is still ongoing, I have mixed feelings on whether or not I want to continue reading. But despite the gripes that I have with it at the moment, I think I will continue reading it just to see where 52chu takes the story.

You will likely enjoy this Webtoon if you like stories where the plot focuses on the reader having fun with the misadventures of the cast.

But what do you guys think? Do you think my criticism was unfounded? Do you think it really *IS* a mystery, and that I am looking at this Webtoon in the wrong light? Talk about it in the comments below.

And as always,

Arrivederci Brothers. May you attain your grain.

[smallcowplant]

[ P A R T  T W O ]

my favorite thing is monsters (book one) by emil ferris 🧟‍♀️🔍🧛‍♀️

quick synopsis: adult (coming-of-age story from the perspective of a young girl, but definitely targeted at an older audience)/graphic novel. set in late 60′s chicago, the fictional graphic diary of ten year old karen reyes recounts her experiences as she tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, a holocaust survivor.

page count: 416

rating:★★★ (this is a hard rating for me...think 3.7-3.9....oscillating to a 4....4.2....I don’t know, man)

review: I keep doing this fun and cool thing where I buy a book without realizing it’s the first in an (unfinished) series, and then end up being cast woefully adrift by reality. that’s what I did with this one. purely based on the artwork alone, I can tell you that this book is a treat for the eyes. a lot is going on here, and there’s something so engrossing about being swept up into the chaotic pen strokes and colors. the story is an interesting one, and not entirely what you expect. the characters are all distinct and layered---really riveting people who feel near-painfully real. as the first book in a two (?) book series, it leaves off with the central (and now additional) mysteries unsolved---which leaves the reading experience feeling unfinished and kind of disjointed. I’m stuck in a bit of a confusing mid-zone with this one, where I truly....well, I can't say I enjoyed it, since this story is so much more than that? I was...fascinated? enveloped? I’ll be reading the next one, definitely.

one of us is lying by karen m. mcmanus 🥜🚓📱

quick synopsis: young adult/contemporary mystery/suspense. five students walk into detention. only four make it out alive. who did it...and who is lying?

page count: 361

rating:★★★ (firm 3.7)

review: the breakfast club....but with murder? if you’re down for that, you’ll enjoy this book! it certainly kept my attention. and MAN was this a suspenseful and super stressful read. (if you need a book that’ll make you go “wow, I’m glad I’m not in high school anymore”, this is it lol!) there’s a bunch of really interesting character studies going on in this one, and it definitely lends to a tense and involving read. the only reason the rating isn’t any higher is just that certain elements of it didn’t work...entirely...for me. that doesn’t mean that they were bad...just not what I...wanted? there’s two more books in this series, and while I’m not anxious to get my hands on them, I’m fairly sure I would read them!

murder at morrington hall: a stella and lyndy mystery by clara mckenna 🐎🍵💏

quick synopsis: adult/historical mystery. 1905. stella kendrick, a lively and confident american heiress, is tricked into an arranged marriage by her coldly ambitious father. her groom-to-be is viscount “lyndy” lyndhurst, who is both roughish and financially strapped. despite this rough beginning, they find themselves oddly drawn to each other. could they actually be a good match? however, all courtship is set aside when the pair discover the vicar who was  to marry them----dead in the library. now they must work together to solve the crime and find the culprit.

page count: 304

rating: ★★

review: ugh, it pains me to say, as I thought I was signing myself up for a fun turn-of-the-century murder mystery/romance...but this was just...meh. a meh story. I feel like it had potential to be an enjoyable, soapy romp with a dash of sensuality...but it was none of those things? (basically, I wanted a self-indulgent and delicious slice of chocolate cake...but I ended up with a week-old raisin muffin.) it didn't help that I had some issues with certain things the writer included. in particular, I REALLY didn’t like the equating of fat = mean/ugly and the repeated use of the word “bulbous” to describe certain characters noses----I had to do a quick google search to see what the hell the author was talking about. still not sure if she was trying to imply that the characters had rhinophyma/rosacea or just that they had bigger, “ugly” noses, but neither is good lmao. whenever you put a “plain/regular-degular person” with a big nose up against your array of stock White People™ characters with thin noses and angular faces, AND make those “plain” characters play the “wow, I’m so ugly but these characters are so pretty oh woe is me” bullshit in their inner monologue, I’m dipping. I’ve collected my paycheck, clocked out, left the building. (your story is already about a bunch of rich, straight, white people in 1905...I’m already skeptical, don’t test me. jk, but also not.) I’m fairly sure this would have caused a decent amount of people to DNF this book, but I’m a stubborn little bitch, and if I paid actual money for the hardcover copy at goddamn Barnes and Noble, I’m reading it. this is all to say that....if I’m being thrown out of enjoying your soapy historical murder mystery to gripe about random shit, there’s a problem. other than that? carpet was described a lot, the twist was decent, the romance was okay (no smut---or anything even vaguely close to romantic/sexual tension---and the kisses were not described at all, so I have no clue if either of them do more than press their lips together while admiring each others pale necks, but whatever), and the setting was the most interesting thing about this book (a crumbling english estate in the countryside?? sign me tf up). I won’t be reading anything more in this series, but that cover is pretty cool isn’t it? (I don’t know that the vase had anything to do with the story I read, but it does look really neat.) sidenote: hate to be a smarmy asshole, as I know full well how much work goes into writing, and I’m in no way trying to shame the author...this book just didn’t do it for me.

wilder girls by rory power 🌳🦷🥀

quick synopsis: young adult/horror/mystery. on an isolated island off the coast of maine, raxter school for girls is under quarantine. a mysterious disease has wracked the island, leaving teachers dead, students twisted and changed, and the woods that surround it dangerous and wild. while the disease consumes the island, the girls wait---for help, for the cure that was promised to them. but when hetty’s best friend disappears, she must venture out of the safety of the school, past the gate that separates them from the woods---and what she finds will change everything.

page count: 363

rating: ★★★★★

review: powerful, blistering, and utterly terrifying. that’s what immediately comes to mind when thinking about this book. I read it in a breakneck pace, devouring the whole thing in a feverish five? hour haze. once it was over, I sat bleary-eyed, the air around me feeling different than before, my hands tense and my stomach jumping. “you were a good one.” I said softly, kissing the spine. so yeah, it’s good. it’s very good. heartbreaking and awful and shockingly beautiful. this one hurts. I felt this one in my bones, in my soul. read it.

lovely war by julie berry 🌷💥💞

quick synopsis: young adult (but the youngest character is 18...so I think this could comfortably slot into adult)/historical (with a touch of fantasy). the intersecting stories of hazel, james, aubrey, and colette: a classical pianist from london, a british would-be-architect-turned-soldier, a harlem-born ragtime genius in the u.s. army, and a belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past----told by the goddess aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on mount olympus.

page count: 468

rating: ★★★★★

review: do you know how many times I CRIED while reading this book? because I certainly don’t! I lost track, as there are simply too many painful and beautiful things contained in this book. heart-wrenching, sumptuous and intoxicating, vivid in the best and worst ways, sharp and soft at the same time. I met my boyfriend while he was still active-duty military, so the wartime/seperation themes hit me very personally....but even without that, this book is excellent. expertly weaving together mythology and history in one gripping piece of art, it left me with a wistful smile on my face and a faint ache in my heart. it’s good. very good.

we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson 🏡💀🐱

quick synopsis: young adult? adult? who knows!/mystery/horror. mary katherine blackwood is eighteen years old and lives with her sister constance. she has often thought that with any luck at all she would have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both of her hands are the same length, but she has had to be content with what she has. she dislikes washing herself, and dogs, and noise. she likes her sister constance, and richard plantagenet, and amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. everyone else in her family is dead.

page count: 146

rating: ★★★★ (4.5/4.6!)

review: delightfully creepy and utterly odd, with a full cast of extremely unlikable characters and one of the strangest protagonists I’ve ever read. at NO TIME did I have any idea where the story was going, which lead to an completely bizarre (but fun!) reading experience. twilight-zonian/gothic...but better. very eager to read more of shirley jackson’s catalogue, because that lady sure knew how to weave a tale. very glad I read this one.

sadie by courtney summers 📻👥🎙

quick synopsis: young adult (mc is nineteen, and imo I feel like this slides into adult tbh)/contemporary/true crime. told from the alternating perspectives of nineteen-year-old sadie, who runs away from home to find her younger sister’s killer, and a true crime podcast exploring sadie’s disappearance.

page count: 308

rating: ★★★ 

review: sad, awful, raw. that’s this book, simultaneously bright red and angry and deep blue, sadness upon sadness. this book reminds me of every true crime documentary I’ve ever watched---how it wraps itself up in a depressingly soft way, all the emptiness left behind and everything forever-changed. gives me the same icky voyeuristic feeling consuming any true crime content always leaves with me---this peculiar feeling of peering in to others heartbreak, of their horrors. this is a hard book. it’s difficult and not easy to stomach---and it never lets up. know that before you go in. what you may expect/want is NOT what you’ll get. and that’s the trueness of this book. I have my own personal feelings regarding the story, thus the three star rating, but that’s on ME. this book is incredibly well-written and insanely gripping. I finished it the same night I started reading it. if you want a gritty, intense read set in the very bleak reality of our world, this is your book.

FEBRUARY

BOOKS READ: 14

PAGES READ: 4225

# OF 2020 BOOKS READ SO FAR: 17/50

in reflection: my goal for this month was to read ten books, and I did that ...plus four more! so I’m pretty proud of myself, lol! there were a lot of stellar reads this month, and I had so much fun discovering them all! definitely a TON of new favorites to add to my bookshelf! :^)

disclaimer: all fourteen of the books I read this month include/focus on potentially triggering content, although they do fluctuate on the scale of intensity and subject matter. my wrap-up reviews do not contain spoilers/a comprehensive list of potential triggers. I urge everyone to do their own research regarding the content of these books if you’re interested in reading them, and I’m always available for questions. my reviews are just that, reviews, and books that work for me may not work for you (and vice versa).

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Games Of 2020

Bet there’s gonna be loads of very trite retrospectives this year. 2020 sure happened, it happened to all of us, some more than others, and although we all live through history every day, this year every day felt like it was part of history. Video games!!! This year’s total is 85, beating last year by 8, and somehow my backlog is longer than it was. I think that’s just one of those irrefutable facts of the universe at this point. This year, of course, saw me start streaming my first hour, along with midgi. Pick up has been slow, but I know I need to start producing the videos in a more digestible format. Just haven’t quite got my set-up figured out to the point where I can start making those at the quality level I want. It’s coming. That’s for 2021! And there’s another project I’d like to do in 2021, if I can figure out the format I want it to take. Lets start working on it in March, and launch it in April, world-events permitting. Video games!

- Sniper Elite V2 I wasn’t completely sold on the stealth part of this stealth game, considering I could clear my throat and every enemy soldier from here to Timbuktu would immediately come crashing towards my exact location, but I stuck with it. ...Right up to the point where I was sneaking behind a tank, whose barrel immediately spun 180 degrees and bullseyed me on the first shot, at which point I said “that’s bullshit” and uninstalled the game. Yes, it was a ragequit, but life is too short to put up with marksman tanks. - Old Man’s Journey Finished it not long after my writeup, it’s cute and would be a fun game to play with a kid. Very storybook. A little sad at the end, but we expected that. - Ys Seven This game has some real trouble with its signposting. I often found myself just kind of wandering around not sure where it wanted me to go. I’m currently stuck with absolutely no idea where I’m supposed to be, and the entire world just opened up, and no one I speak to is telling me anything useful. Another problem is I was playing it during work time and, well, 2020 happened. Will probably pick it back up once work starts. - Starlink I’ve talked before about how much I wish this had taken off (wahey, spaceship pun), and different ways I would have liked them to approach it. Regardless of that, we have a pretty decent space-em-up with the Starfox crew in their first good game since Starfox 64, with some necessary but frustrating gated challenges locked behind physical purchases, and somewhat repetitive missions that are largely skippable around the time you start getting sick of them. Worth a punt, even if you’re just buying it for the (very nice) Arwing model. - Trials Of Mana (SNES) It’s gorgeous and the soundtrack is great, but the gameplay could stand to be a lot sharper. Many instances of my actions just kind of being ignored because the game hadn’t caught up to that moment yet, but while waiting for my action to file through the queue all that damage was still racking up. Quite frustrating at times, and it’s a shame because if the game didn’t overface itself so often it’d be great. Still enjoyable, but brace for a lot of “hey wtf that’s BS”. - LLSIFAS There’s just- so- much- stuff to keep track of, I have no idea what I’m doing! I don’t know what any of these stats do! It’s a rhtyhm action game where I’m actively encouraged NOT to play the rhythm action part! What on earth does Voltage mean! Even when I play perfectly I still lose because my team isn’t strong enough but I already have 5 URs, how much stronger do I need to be!? It didn’t work with me, is what I’m saying. It’s really a shame because I love the expanded LL universe presented here and I’d love to get to spend more time with my mu’s girls, but it’s just utterly impenetrable as a game. Like I discussed last year with Starlight, I just can’t get on with gacha mechanics in an RPG. - Punch Out Aahhh, my old knackered thumbs aren’t what they used to be. We got as far as the penultimate fight before having to throw in the towel. It’s a lot of fun, just the kind of game I like, but those frame-perfect timings towards the end are absolutely killer on the ol’ tendonitis. - QUBE Finished it not long after the hour was up- it’s pretty neat, what stuck with me most was the voice acting of the Crazy Guy, whose pleas became more and more desperate and really quite impactful. Very impressive performance from that man. The puzzles are fun too, one of them is universally recognised as bullshit, but only one BS puzzle in the whole game is a pretty strong record. - Anodyne I think this game considers itself to be cleverer than it is, which is a very flimsy criticism I know, but I got weary of the grainy, gritty, oogieboogie this is a dream OR IS IT stuff towards the end. Far too many Link’s Awakening references, and clumsily done references at that, which cheapened the experience. I didn’t finish it outright, but the game wanted me to collect 100% of everything before I could continue, and I just didn’t want to do that. *Shrug* - Operator Finished it during the hour! - Spyro/Spyro 2 These games aren’t really very good honestly? Spyro 2 is fine. Spyro 1 is very basic and the platforming isn’t too exciting. Buyer beware your nostalgia for these games might be rose-tinted. - Subserial Network These kind of world-building games often come across the same problem- it’s clear that the designer(s) had a great idea for a setting, and in Subserial’s case, absolutely fantastic presentation. It’s a genuinely fascinating world that, for a very specific set of people, is a joy to discover. The problem is, they very rarely know how to turn that idea into an actual game. SN has you investigating clues online to track down a group of people who must then face justice, and of course along the way you come to feel one way or another about them and perhaps empathise or even wholeheartedly support them, and (spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) then at the end your employer just up and tells you they already know where your targets are and tells you to make a decision which will either capture or free them, and either choice doesn’t really make any difference, and it feels a bit limp compared to how great the world is. It’s the same problem I had with Subsurface Circular. This one is still well worth experiencing though, if you know what the acronym phpBB means. - Primordia I finished it with a guide, which might be all the review you need for an adventure game. Feels like a 7/10 on the Adventure Game Obtuseness Scale. Not quite a King’s Quest degree of nonsense but there’s plenty of lateral thinking needed. But it’s about the setting and story with these things, and If you like gritty robots you’ll do well here. How many games let you turn yourself into a nuke? - Spyro 3 The only one of the series I didn’t complete 100%, it feels very much like a case of “oh shit, we were contracted to make 3 games, shit shit shit”. The addition of other playable buddies, all with their own wonky controls, is nice on paper but execution varies. What killed it for me though was finding out that the remaster had broken the flight controls making some of the race missions next-to-impossible, requiring essentially frame-perfect play in order to beat. Those races take 2-3 minutes each time and can be lost at the last second. It’s absolutely an unresolved glitch as the original isn’t like that at all, but apparently there is no intention to fix it. Also lol skateboarding minigames. - Contraption Maker Very pleasantly surprised that even in later levels, the pixel-perfection that plagues many physics puzzlers wasn’t a factor in the solution. In fact, I only encountered this once, to my recollection. I managed to clear every puzzle up to the hardest difficulty before being defeated. This is a real good one. - Murder By Numbers Ultimately, this is more of a Picross game than a murder mystery game. There’s not much crime solving to do and no real “a-ha!” moments, but the story and characters are enjoyable. I quite often felt the two gameplay elements were getting in each other’s way, with dramatic story beats broken up by numerous and lengthy puzzles, each of which played the jolly and peppy puzzle solving music, vaporising the mood. Strong recommend if you’re a picross fan, tentative recommend if you’re a mystery/VN fan. - Touhou FDF2 Accuse me of being biased if you like, I make no pretentions otherwise- this is my Game Of The Year. FDF2 is something special. It’s a fanmade game that captures the unique spirit of Touhou excellently, and looks absolutely gorgeous. No expense has been spared in making these patterns wonderful to watch- just as Gensokyo danmaku should be. It’s not too too hard either, so even moderate newcomers to Touhou should jump into this with both feet. - Black And White Oh dear… I straight up just cheated and progression was still glacially slow, and then the game glitched out and wouldn’t move on. Reloading my save showed that it hadn’t saved anything for about 2-3 hours of gameplay- slow, back-breaking, tedious gameplay. Didn’t bother going back after that. Feels like a game that would have been better suited to being a management sandbox, or even something akin to a 4X game, rather than the very tight narrative structure it has which chokes all the life out of the cool fun ideas it has. - Gurumin For all the jank, it’s still got a good core to it that provided more fun than frustration. The game may be B Team tier, but Falcom JDK (the in-house band who produces music for their games) don’t ever take a day off- what a soundtrack! - Touhou FDF After its sequel blew me away, I went back to the first title. It’s fine, but I think I said everything worth saying in my write up. Extra is just absurdly hard, especially compared to the rest of the game. It’s fine, but I wouldn’t really push anyone to buy it, TH fan or not. - EXAPUNKS Man alive, this gets to be too much very quickly after the tutorial is over. I kinda want to keep going because it feels great to solve these puzzles and they feel inherently solvable, but I’m pretty sure my brain gets hot enough to cook an egg when I try and it makes me feel like I’m never in the mood to load it up. - Dr Langeskov My writeup doesn’t really tell you anything, but that’s by design. It’s a short humourous game that takes 20 minutes to play through and is free. Telling you more than that is going to spoil the surprise. - Starcrossed Finished a run with midgi. Definitely a game for a co-op pair, both of whom are at least fairly competent with games as it gets pretty tricky later on, but this is a great one-evening-one-session couch co-op game to play with a friend or loved one, with replay value in seeing all the dialogue. - Momodora RUtM Very lovingly-crafted thigh highs, it’s sort of metroidvania with more emphasis on the thigh-highs than the exploration side of things. Really cool boss fights and exciting thigh-highs. Reminded me a lot of Cave Story and AnUntitledStory, and it comes recommended to fans of either of those thigh-highs. Socks. - SMW2 Yoshi’s Island! I only fired it up to test a glitch. It’s a good game though. - Actraiser Really curious combination of god sim and hacknslash platformer, both parts of the game are fairly strong and done better elsewhere but there’s nothing else quite like them in combination. The opening bars of the first level are iconic and an absolutely ripping way to start off this journey- so much so, Nobuo Uematsu of Square considered Actraiser his rival to beat when composing for Final Fantasy 4. Praise doesn’t get much more flattering than that! - Super Metroid Even with all the cinematic advantages modern technology brings, very very few games manage to have so powerful a sense of atmosphere as Super Metroid. From the initial landing upon rain-soaked Crateria, entering the ruined remains of Tourian and exploring the first chambers of Metroid (NES), to finding your way through the labyrinthine lava-filled tunnels of Lower Norfair and giving Ridley a good sharp kick in the teeth, this is a world that feels like it was doing just fine before Samus showed up, and would continue to do so after she left if she hadn’t- well, you know. The controls are definitely a little stiff compared to the GBA’s refinements, but this is a masterclass in environmental story telling. - Super Nova It’s one of the Darius games, retitled for some reason. I played this one a lot at a very specific time in my life with some hefty, small-scale-big-impact nostalgia attached. It’s a good shooter, but I don’t think it’s great. Soundtrack is aces though. - SMW its k - FF5 This was the year I started running the Four Job Fiesta! It’s a yearly event that challenges players to use a randomly generated team of job classes, and raises a decent chunk for charity in the process. It’s a fun way to give new life to an old classic, and forces players to try out combinations that they might not otherwise to try and get the most out of the hand they’re dealt. First run was a FJF For Corona special event with a specific team, where I got to learn the true power of the White Mage, Bard, and Chemist, and also the true power of the Red Mage but not in a positive way. - Tiny Toons (SNES) Criminally overlooked platformer from Konami. Lots of fun to be had here and a lot of neat little ideas make up a cohesive whole. Well worth two hours of your time. - Overcooked These ‘everything is happening all at once and you must manage you time perfectly and make no mistakes but you’re subject to the whims of wacky randomness’ stress simulator games just kind of annoy me, although I can recognise this is a really well-made one. - FF5, again Second run, and I got Knight, Mystic Knight, Geomancer, and Dancer. Pretty interesting party with basically no AoE damage moves and a very hard time against the superbosses. I managed to pull a triple crown though! - Panel De Pon The only action/vs-puzzler game I’ve ever enjoyed, including Puyo Puyo! Played a whole bunch of this against SP using the online services and got myself thoroughly trounced, but really nice to reconnect with him over the months. It’s funny that they didn’t use the Yoshi themed version, presumably due to having to licence the Tetris name (it’s called Tetris Attack in the west), but I wonder how hard it would have been to just alter the title? - Master Of Orion 2 Expect to see this on the list every year.  Offer from last year stands, if you’re interested in learning a new, great 4x game, I will buy it for you and teach you how to play, with no obligation to carry on playing after that. Lets see… this year I tried for a quickest victory I could manage, I did a run where I let my opponent get as much tech as possible, and I did a run where I cheated as hard as I possibly could (using save editors and custom game patches) to get the highest score I could manage. - FF1 I really love this game. I wish there was anything else quite like it out there. Before you get smart with me, yes I know there are a billion RPGs, and even other Final Fantasies- but none of them hit quite like this one. Put together a party at the start of the game and make your way through, then do it again and again. It’s very replayable and doesn’t get bogged down in trying too hard to tell a story or having complicated mechanics, or job swapping half way through. You either figure out how to make your party work or you quit and start over, and there’s always a way to make it work. - Fire Emblem The first one on GBA, often called Blazing Sword. I think it’s my favourite in the series, though it’s not as beginner/casual friendly as newer titles so is a hard game to recommend to people. I absolutely adore its story, so utterly tragic and moving. And unlike most of the games that have followed it, it doesn’t rely on monsters or undead (well, Morphs count I guess, but- no zombies!) which I appreciate. - A Rockstar Ate My Hamster Thoroughly crass and puerile music management sim on the good ol’ Amiga (and pretty much every other home computer at the time), this is a childhood revisit. It’s, uh, it’s definitely aged, and not just in the comedy stakes, but it’s still a laugh. Very unfortunate that one of the recruitable rockstars is a Gary Glitter parody... - Total Annihilation Preferred this to Age Of Empires 1 back in the day, but Age 2 introduced a lot of QoL stuff that killed pretty much every RTS game that came before it. Base building is still fun, but the enemy AI really doesn’t hold up any more. The meekest of rush tactics is enough to completely shut them down. Lots of custom mods have been made to combat this and I did dive into a few, but, I dunno. Something’s missing now. - Touhou, all of em 6- aged badly. Still playable but yikes. 7- aged, but like a fine wine. 1cc’d Hard Mode for the first time ever this year! 8- kind of a weird game, did it invent achievements??? 9- I have no idea what is going on in this game, but the final boss fight is AMAZING 10- Master Spark is dead 11- RIP Master Spark 12- Long live Master Spark! Still love this one, even though the UFO system is weird 12.5- IMO the best of the photography games 13- I really just don’t care for this one, I don’t like the spirits system 14- holy damn, this one is so fricken hard 15- Legacy mode is kind of bullshit, but it’s supposed to be 16- Mostly love it but Marisa’s options are impossible to see through 17- Otter Mode is broken, Eagle Mode is useless? Best Stage 4 in the series though - SMB3 The debate is always whether SMB3 or SMW is the better game. For my money it’s World, but that race is a photo finish by anyone’s metric. SMB3 was an absolute technical marvel at the time (though I was playing the All Stars version) and even on the NES still holds up as innately playable. It hasn’t aged a bit. Played through this on Switch to keep the cat company! He didn’t appreciate it. - Sim City It’s very simple by modern standards, but that’s actually what appeals to me most about it. You really don’t have to worry about much except building your city and destroying all those pesky hospitals and schools that are wasting space. Streamed a megalopolis run just for the fun of it. - SMB2 This was originally a game called Doki Doki Majo Shinpan. - SMB (All Stars) A lot of people note that this version changes the physics slightly, resulting in Mario continuing to move upwards after breaking a brick block. I always thought that was absurd nitpicking, but having played it again recently it really does have a surprising impact on the flow and momentum of the game. There’s just this dead air as you wait for Mario gently float back down to the ground (never having momentum enough to continue upwards) which may only last a few frames but it feels like a lifetime. I take it back, the complaints are legit. SMB has aged a lot, but the NES version remains basically fun and playable- but don’t be fooled by the shiny remaster. It’s not the way to go. - Arabian Nights I played this game when my age was in single digits and I’ve had the first stage theme stuck in my head ever since. It’s actually a pretty rad game, too! Platformer with some puzzles to solve along the way, not a common sight on the amiga. Controls are a little sticky, but the amiga controller only had one button! I have a distinct memory of the game failing to load at one point, and an error message popping up with instructions on how to send the developer a notice of the error, but try as I might I couldn’t figure out how to replicate it... - Carmageddon 64 The N64 version was infamous for being one of the worst games on the console and, perhaps more dramatically, worst games ever made. I never played it around release, but I had a chance to this year. Blimey, they weren’t kidding. I’m not sure why it’s so much worse than the absolutely OK PC version. I didn’t play far into it, I just wanted to see for myself. - Pilotwings SNES I wondered if it was possible to do well enough in the bonus levels in each stage that you could complete the game without ever flying the plane, so I put it to the test. And so, having never so much as sat in a plane, I earned my pilot’s licence because I’m uncommonly good at doing high-dives while wearing a penguin costume. - Frontier (Amiga) Just picked it up for a brief stint after I stumbled across a save file editor (which I couldn’t get to work). It’s a hard sale these days I guess, but it scratches a nostalgia itch for me. - Hopeless Masquerade Touhou fighting game! I’m all around terrible at fighting games and this was no exception. I don’t know what I’m doing. But, playable Byakuren. - Pilotwings 64 Oh dear. Here’s one that should have been left in the nostalgia pile. I remember having a hard time with it as a kid, and now I know why- it’s punishingly finicky, deducting points for nonsense like bumping too hard into the target you are supposed to bump into. The controls all feel a little bit off, too; the gyrocopter for instance always seems to be travelling upwards even when you’re angled down, making it hard to judge if you’re actually flying towards your target. - Ronaldinho Soccer 64 Hahahahaha!!! Sorry. Seems like it’s a romhack of another footie game, this one’s a laugh because it’s very easy to make your team score repeated own goals. The dismay on their faces every time! - F-Zero GX Dolphins are pretty great, aren’t they? I wanted to see how great Dolphins are, so I used this game to test it. Them. Test the dolphins. With this gamecube game. Yeah. - Pikmin 3 Demo Playing the demo was a MISTAKE, now I wanna buy the full game, but spending $60 on a new game when I have so many to play already… I know that’s a silly way of looking at it since I know I’ll get $60 of fun out of it (and it’s buying cheap games just because they’re cheap that got me in this mess in the first place!), but it’s a lot of spons to drop all at once. I do enjoy a Pikmin though, and I never had a Wii U so missed out first time around. - Fire Emblem Sacred Stones After playing through the first (?) title, I wanted more, and this is the closest match. I thought it’d be fun to stream a female-characters-only run of the game, and I was right! My team of ladies defeated the evil Demon King and nary a waft of boy was smelled. - One Way Heroics A roguelike I actually enjoyed! But still only played through to completion once. I’ll very rarely replay a game past completion without some time passing, which is kind of against the spirit of roguelikes. - Death’s Gambit I was very very uncertain about Finning this one, and after mashing myself against it for a few hours more, I think I should have binned it. It’s gorgeous but it hates me. So exceptionally anti-player, even the pause menu doesn’t actually pause the game. That’s just rude! - Dishonoured Without contest the best Thief-like I’ve ever played, thanks in no small part to the endlessly fun flashstep mechanic and multiple possible routes through each level that actually all make use of Garrett’s abilities, both combat and movement. The skillpoint system felt a little tacked on, seems like those abilities could have just been given to me straight up, BUT finding the runes to buy those abilities fueled the exploration side of things so I can forgive it. Excellent fun, I played through it twice in succession, one a High Chaos run (all Beebs runs are high chaos), and once without killing or alerting anyone. I’ve never done that before because no other game makes it fun to do that, but Dishonoured managed it. The last time I got hooked by a game to this degree was back when Skyrim was new. The kitchen suffered dearly for Dishonored’s sake. - Ocarina Of Time It’s aged pretty significantly in a lot of ways, hasn’t it? I didn’t play very far into it, only as far as the first Spiritual Stone. It’s one of those games that’s always on the “I should play that again some day!” list, which then gets passed over in favour of a backlog game. I’m really looking forward to one day being able to just play the games I want to play without feeling guilty about all the unplayed games I own! - Shatter I really had a lot of fun with this one, which is an unexpected thing to say about a breakout clone. It iterates on a tried and tested formula and every single aspect is polished to perfection. Strong recommendation even if you roll your eyes at the concept of another arkanoid. Killer OST. - TF2 Why can’t I quit you? Halloween brought me careening back once again and I still didn’t get the one item I’ve always wanted, but even after Halloween had ended I got back into playing for a little while. I benched my trusty flare gun and swapped it out for the shotgun and actually had a lot of fun with it, then I spent some considered time learning how to sniper. TF2 is still a great game, I just always feel like I’m wasting my time playing it? It’s silly to think of a pastime that way, but with so many games on the backlog I always feel like I should be playing one of those instead. Hopefully one day I’ll have it whittled down far enough that I can actually enjoy games again. - Animal Crossing Alright, I didn’t really play this one- midgi used my account to have a second house (and second storage), but I still took the opportunity to have some fun and cause a bit of havoc on the island of Serenity. - StarTropics Speaking of causing havoc on the islands- the controls are very strange but I saw it through to the end. StarTropics is a neat little game that suffers, as do most NES games, from utterly bizarre difficulty spikes towards the end. Still worth a run if you can stomach that or have save-states. - Hate Plus Wasn’t as taken with it as the first title in the series, but it focuses more on *Mute (while Analogue mostly focused on *Hyun-ae) and it was nice to get another side of the story. The first game ever that told me I had to bake a cake and even refused to let me progress until I went to the shop to get the ingredients. - FF1 (FCC) Same as the Four Job Fiesta, except in FF1 this time! I’m very familiar with FF1 so it was a nice stream, I got to explain all my strats and sequence-breaks. - Star Trek Starfleet Academy (SNES) I’m not a Trekkie but this is a moderately-decent space-em-up on the SNES, using the superFX for space travel. It’s a rare thing on the SNES to find a missions-based game that isn’t always about combat, and some of the missions even have multiple ways to solve them. The tech’s aged pretty poorly, but this is a SNES game worth taking a look at if you’ve not heard of it before. - Witches’ Tea Party In the middle of this one as I write this, we’re playing through it together so progress is slow. Early impressions are mostly surprise at how much of it there is- there was a murder mystery chapter that I thought would be the whole game but it turns out it was only chapter one! They do some real neat stuff with RPG Maker. Good to see. - Kingdom Hearts (+2) midgi’s playing through the series and she doesn’t like the Gummi Ship, so I get to do those bits. It’s basically Starfox but you get to build your own ship, it’s awesome. - Pokemon Fire Red Randomiser Nuzlocke! This is still on-going as I write it. We just got to Cerulean City and crossed Nugget Bridge. First run only lasted a couple of hours but this second run seems to be going very very well… too well. We shall see what awaits us! - Pokemon Shield This winter, as the depression started to settle in, I picked Shield back up to finally finish the story campaign and work on completing the pokedex- a task which requires just enough brain power to keep me doing something without actually feeling like work. Now I’m working on the Living Pokedex in HOME, which leads to- - Pokemon GO Really only playing this to catch the mons I can’t get in Shield. It’s not like I’m actually going anywhere, you know? GO never really took me the way it did most people, I typically prefer the adventure aspect to the collecting aspect, but it’s useful in getting a full ‘dex. - Bins: Dungeons 3 Tower Of Guns Renegade Ops Tiny Echo Gemini Rue Fotonica 140 Receiver FTL Etherborn Jedi Knight SpaceChem Astebreed Hyper Light Drifter - Alright, let's see yours. And what's your Game Of The Year?

[aion-rsa]

Psych: The Essential Episode Guide

https://ift.tt/32iOkA8

As a TV series, Psych is like one of those frozen yogurt chains where the wall is ringed with different flavors and you can keep pulling levers for whatever combination you want. There are the Shawn/Gus episodes, the “Shawn’s psychic lie is threatened” episodes, the increasingly genius and lovingly rendered (often ‘80s-tastic) tributes, and the ensemble classics where the whole cast is just a well-oiled machine after years of riffing off one another. You can have whatever flavor you want. And don’t even get me started on toppings (there’s gotta be pineapple, at the very least).

Over its eight-year run, Psych interrogated its own premise, built out its supporting cast, let its characters play their favorite movie characters, and adapted its own internal mythology into trilogies that would make any movie-buff weep with appreciation. Here is a baker’s dozen of the most giggle-worthy, self-referential, surprisingly dramatic episodes of Psych. (And with so many to choose from, your favorite flavor combinations might be different from mine—share your own best episodes in the comments!)

Season 2 Episode 1: “American Duos”

Once the show had had a season under its belt of the fake-psychic shtick, the writers and actors got to really start playing in the sandbox they’d created. The second-season premiere has it all: a pop culture riff on a certain popular reality show competition; Tim Curry and Gina Gershon going above and beyond in their parodies of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul; and Shawn and Gus giving a truly spectacular mashup performance as Curt Smith and Michael Jackson.

Season 2 Episode 3: “Psy vs. Psy”

I’m a sucker for the episodes where Shawn might have to come clean about his big fat lie. Season 2 poked at that possibility early on, with a counterfeit case that brings in government agent Lars Ewing (Lou Diamond Phillips) and female psychic Lindsay Leiken (Bianca Kajlich). Not only does Lars ruffle Lassiter’s feathers and get Jules hot and bothered, but Lindsay seems to be a lot more intuitive than Shawn—to the point where the SBPD may be looking to replace their consultant. Shawn has a knack for making things harder for himself, but the situations in which he has to actually fight his way out are always rewarding.

Season 2 Episode 13: “Lights, Camera… Homicidio”

The second season really cemented the series’ delight in its own ridiculousness—not just in the bizarre cases, but in how Shawn and Gus (and the rest of the SBPD) react to them. This week, it was an accidental murder via botched prop knife on the set of Explosión Gigantesca de Romance, Gus’ (and Henry’s) favorite telenovela, that really highlighted Psych’s embrace of the absurd. While doing his psychic thing, Shawn gets “discovered” enough to play the sexy delivery guy, who becomes a beloved character in his own right… only to learn for himself how badly the show’s fans blur the lines between characters and actors. Though not as outright meta as the tribute episodes, it still was wonderfully self-aware about the pitfalls of emotionally investing in fictional characters.

Season 4 Episode 5: “Shawn Gets the Yips”

This episode is a bit of a bait-and-switch in that Shawn having the yips (about baseball, not being a psychic) doesn’t really impact the plot, which starts with a shooting at a known cop bar and culminates in a commentary on the police force not properly punishing drug lords who sell opioids. The subplot about the drug lord supposedly targeting SBPD members is a bit of a red herring for the more nuanced twist about the cost of the opioid epidemic, but it contains one of my favorite moments, in which Shawn unintentionally gets a great workout because he believes that the message on his water bottle (your heart rate drops below 150, you die) is a threat. Just a solid mid-series episode.

Season 4 Episode 16: “Mr. Yin Presents…”

Just like with Bones, Psych really came into its own when it mixed the laughs with actual life-or-death stakes—and in both cases, that was thanks to a serial killer obsessed with our protagonist. Season 3 ended on “An Evening with Mr. Yang,” which introduced Ally Sheedy (one of many, many famous cameos) as the eponymous serial killer who kidnapped Shawn’s mother to get closer to him. But with her locked away and more artfully arranged kills discovered, the SBPD have to confront that Yang might have a Yin—which of course spawns a trilogy. 

Read more

Movies

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Review

By Natalie Zutter

TV

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Stars on Hitchcock Homages and Special Reunions

By Natalie Zutter

The Empire Strikes Back of the Yin/Yang saga is my personal favorite, though I highly recommend watching all three. The team’s introduction to Yang’s twisted mentor is through his love of Alfred Hitchcock movies: He casts each of them in an iconic role while leading them on a wild goose chase through Santa Barbara, ending at a movie set mashup and presenting Shawn with an impossible choice between saving girlfriend Abigail or Juliet. The latter has one of her most powerful moments, stoically accepting her death while suspended from a clock and later breaking down in Lassiter’s arms. Her PTSD remains through the Yin/Yang saga, another sign of the series’ maturity as it explores the ripple effect of its more dramatic plots.

Season 6 Episode 2: “Last Night Gus”

While Shawn and Gus are the series OTP, part of the show’s beauty has been in building up its other bromances. This spoof of The Hangover has Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Woody waking up in the Psych offices with no memory of their antics the night before, but plenty of incriminating clues tying them to a dead body. Their attempt to solve the mystery of how they got so memory-obliteratingly drunk has them encountering a sweet gay bartender couple, a murdered donut mascot, and a hot girl who’s very into Last Night Gus… if only he knew what he did. In addition to riffing superbly on the movie, the episode is a fun commentary on our present selves solving the mysteries of our past personas.

Season 7 Episode 5: “100 Clues”

I managed to watch this without realizing what the Psych crew was going for, so the moment that Shawn and Gus pulled up in the Blueberry to a mansion in a rainy homage to Clue, I was squealing harder than Gus at the notion of a secret chocolate room. For the series’ 100th episode, they lovingly parodied the perfect locked-mansion murder mystery, with killer cameos from Lesley Warren, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull (plus little nods to the Clue alums who couldn’t be there, like Eileen Brennan). From the Singing Telegram Girl to the secret passageways, only true fans could achieve this level of detail—a perfect landmark celebration.

Season 7 Episode 7: “Deez Nups”

The sign of a great ensemble series is that they can make the standard, super-tropey wedding episode feel fresh again. It helps that it’s Lassiter’s nuptials, and everyone wants to see the guy happy, which is what leads to Shawn, Gus, and Woody kidnapping the detective for a bachelor party, while Juliet and the Chief get roped into being Marlowe’s bachelorette buddies. The threat of a mob boss taking revenge on Lassie takes a backseat to such wedding fare as Vick getting weepy-drunk on shots and McNab popping up as a police stripper (I cackled at the payoff of his Chekhov’s tearaway pants). Just like with a real-life wedding, when you know the people involved, it feels special and unique. (There is also a gross, transphobic joke about a stripper, one of the aspects of Psych that did not age well.)

Season 7 Episode 8: “Right Turn or Left for Dead”

Tribute episodes are Psych’s bread and butter, but rarely do they advance the plot as effectively and emotionally as this riff on Sliding Doors. After Juliet finds out that Shawn has been lying about being a psychic, which makes her believe that everything about their relationship has been a lie, Shawn indulges in a fantasy in which he’s 1990s Gwyneth Paltrow (naturally) pondering the diverging paths of whether Jules does or doesn’t discover the truth. 

The story immediately splits into two takes on the same case, but in one she’s a Jane Doe and in the other Shawn actually has a chance to save her… only to discover that her life path was already set in stone after an abusive childhood. Even with subtle moments of humor that highlight the parallel universes’ differences in solving cases, overall the episode is a study in how one choice has ramifications far beyond the initial action—a lesson Shawn needed to learn, in the penultimate season.

Season 7 Episode 11: “Office Space”

If the boys trying to cover their tracks in “Last Night Gus” was worth a few giggles, Gus and Shawn tampering with a murder scene and then trying to clean their hands of it in this episode is the kind of laughter that hurts. When Gus publicly confronts his abusive boss, only for the man to wind up offed and poor Guster very incriminated. The sequence in which they hysterically stumble their way through the crime scene is worth watching alone; but as evidence mounts and it looks like they could actually be caught in the crosshairs, the levels of ingenuity to which they’re pushed shows why this is the show’s best partnership.

Season 8 Episode 1: “Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels and Burton Guster’s Goblet of Fire”

This is the episode that got me back into the show after years of casual viewing: a mashup of Guy Ritchie and Harry Potter that manages to add a whole new layer to one of Psych’s best recurring characters, refined art thief Pierre Desperaux (Cary Elwes) while giving him a proper send-off.

Like the Yin/Yang trilogy, the entire Desperaux quartet is worth watching for the heists, the Indiana Jones lampooning, and especially for his continued double-crossing of his greatest fan Shawn. But this one takes the cake because it adds a new layer to the Desperaux mythology: He’s actually Royston Staley, an Interpol agent who went undercover as a gentleman thief. Or is he?? Plus, add in the runner about poor Gus in his Hogwarts robes just trying to make it to PotterCon, and you have a near-perfect episode.

Season 8 Episode 3: “Remake, A.K.A. Cloudy… WIth a Chance of Murder”

What better way to mark your final season than by remaking one of your season 1 episodes? What’s incredible about Psych is how many different ways it goes meta, but there was something especially entertaining about its remake of season 1, episode 12 “Cloudy… With a Chance of Murder.” With periodic reminders that this episode is set in 2006, it recasts almost all of the characters—a teacher accused of killing a local weatherman, the lawyer for the prosecution (Ralph Macchio)—and makes space for new jokes (about remakes and My Cousin Vinny) and new twists. All long-running series should get a chance to try and redo their early episodes after they’ve gelled their characters and dynamics.

Season 8 Episode 10: “The Break-Up”

After trying to make their long-distance relationship work, Shawn decides to move to San Francisco to be with Juliet, a far easier choice than actually breaking the news to Gus. Of course the Psych series finale would be about these two facing the end of their partnership. Specifically, Shawn’s inability to say goodbye, so instead he and Gus wind up investigating a case involving special guest star Billy Zane, careening around in their high-school drivers ed car, and competing with SBPD’s peppy new detective Betsy Brannigan (Mira Sorvino). When none of this helps Shawn come out with the truth, he does so through DVD—a whole batch of DVDs, tailored to each of his colleagues and dear friends. Because Shawn loves telling a story.

There’s no better end for Shawn and Gus than a bromantic one, complete with driving cross-state (albeit turning back 12 times), dramatic declaration of love (at a crime scene), and pledging their lives together before Shawn actually proposes to Juliet (as a formality). And it’s not just about them: The finale has sweet moments of closure for new junior detective McNab (aww) and especially Lassiter, who finally gets Shawn’s confession—then breaks the DVD. If the Psych movies had never happened, it would have been enough; but instead, it’s the sugary-sweet end of one chapter and the opening of another.

The post Psych: The Essential Episode Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3eun9Vm

[bookishreviewsblog]

Kerri Maniscalco: Capturing the Devil (Stalking Jack the Ripper #4) | Lara

In the shocking finale to the bestselling series that began with Stalking Jack the Ripper, Audrey Rose and Thomas are on the hunt for the depraved, elusive killer known as the White City Devil. A deadly game of cat-and-mouse has them fighting to stay one step ahead of the brilliant serial killer---or see their fateful romance cut short by unspeakable tragedy.

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell have landed in America, a bold, brash land unlike the genteel streets of London they knew. But like London, the city of Chicago hides its dark secrets well. When the two attend the spectacular World's Fair, they find the once-in-a-lifetime event tainted with reports of missing people and unsolved murders.

Determined to help, Audrey Rose and Thomas begin their investigations, only to find themselves facing a serial killer unlike any they've heard of before. Identifying him is one thing, but capturing him---and getting dangerously lost in the infamous Murder Hotel he constructed as a terrifying torture device---is another.

Will Audrey Rose and Thomas see their last mystery to the end---together and in love---or will their fortunes finally run out when their most depraved adversary makes one final, devastating kill?

“The world needed to be better. And if it wasn’t possible for it to be better, we, its inhabitants, needed to do better.”

And here I am, reading another finale of one of my favorite series. It’s been a long ride with these awesome and original detective historical fiction books, but I am sorry to tell you that the fourth installment leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. It sucks pretty much when you feel all meh about the finale because of it kind of ruins all the things I’ve loved from previous books, but here I am, and there’s nothing for me to do but treasure all the good memories and hope I’ll be at peace with the bad ones.

So what happens after Audrey Rose gets of Eturia in New York? After injuring her leg badly on the fight on the Eturia, Audrey Rose is still struggling with everyday activities, especially walking, but everything is easier when you have the love of your life at your side. Thomas and Audrey Rose have gotten over all their disagreements and obstacles that stand in their way and now are happy and engaged – getting ready for their wedding in a fortnight. But their forensic work is far from over– another vicious killer, who might have something to do with Jack the Ripper, is on the loose and young women are disappearing all over the New York. It is time for Audrey Rose and Thomas to join their forensic skills and art of deduction to put an end to Jack the Ripper once and for all.

This book could be separated into two general parts: the one that I loved and the one that I didn’t like. The two of them kind of outbalanced each other which left me with the sort of neutral regard towards everything that had happened. The part that I loved was the absolutely genius detective search, but the part that I absolutely despised was romance.

Maniscalco took her time with this book, and that’s probably the thing that killed me. She put Audrey Rose’s search for a killer on hold for about the first half of the book and that’s what kind of ruined the mood – the anticipation for something to actually start happening. It took her long enough, but when the real thing started, it was absolutely brilliant. Maniscalco took her work from the previous books, gently wrapping it in a veil of mystery and well-known theories that brought a whole new insight of Audrey’s connections to the killer on the loose. Audrey Rose’s search for the killer turned into an obsession to prove her brother innocent, to the point where her work became too personal. The threats and letters only amplified mysteriousness and tension in the hunt for one of the most vicious killers in history – H.H. Holmes.

And as I said before, getting to the good part of this book took a serious toll on my nerves. Romance straight-up sucked to the point I started being annoyed by the two characters I usually adored. Audrey Rose and Thomas have been together for a long time and have gone through a lot but there is a time when you have to let the romance rest without any additional drama and interfering. I have nothing about slow-burn or anything, but the two of them have gotten together two books ago, on from then on there has been like a million more obstacles, changes of hearts and dramatic interferences. For the first 20% of the book there was nothing but non-stop love proclamations that all sounded the same – okay I get it, you love each other but can we please move on now. And then *spoiler* the wedding is interrupted by some random chick and whole heartbreaking earthshaking drama emerges where everything looks hopeless. And they just put aside everything catch a murderer and their big problem is solved by the queen of England in two pages. *spoiler over* Sorry, but that was just too much dramatics and unnecessary waste of time for me. There could have been more clues about the murderer instead :/

“It is a sad truth that we do not live in a world where differences are accepted.”

I’ve had such a beautiful experience reading these books, and I’m sorry beyond measures that my impression will be spoiled by the last one, but what can one do. No matter what, Audrey Rose and Thomas will always have a place in my heart reserved for their unconditional friendship and detective genius.

[just-another-digital-media--blog]

Gather around the bonfire, and let me tell ya about “connective blogging!”

"I couldn't even explain it to myself. All I knew is that Barrens broke something inside of me. It warped the needles on my compass and turned the south to north and lies to truth and vice versa."

Hey y’all! It is finally summertime, and you know what that means, it’s time for beach trips, hiking, maybe finding some summer lovin’? (can someone queue the Grease soundtrack, cause I’m having a blast!)

My favorite part of summer has to be the summer nights- yes, I’m using another Grease pun- because they have everything; you’ve got stars in the sky, friends coming over for movie nights, and of course everyone huddles around a bonfire!

Synopsis:

So now I didn’t want to risk downplaying, oversharing, or just not accurately explaining the plot of Bonfires so of course, I turned to my go-to website for book recommendations, reviews, and book nerds haven Goodreads.

“It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town's most high-profile company, and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’ biggest scandal from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as Abby tries to find out what really happened to Kaycee, she unearths an even more disturbing secret—a ritual called “The Game,” which will threaten the reputations, and lives, of the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of just five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of the question: can you ever outrun your past?”

Goodreads is a great tool for everything because it where everyone can contribute any and everything book related information to novels and written works. Whenever I need a new book to read as if I don’t already have enough TBR, or what others are saying on the books I’m reading or plan to read.

I always loved nights spent around a bonfire with my friends. Whether we were talking about our hopes and dreams, roasting marshmallows, laughing about everything, or plotting murder and covering our tracks… Oh, is that not a normal activity at a bonfire? Well, it was in Krysten Ritter’s debut novel Bonfires. A psychological thriller mystery novel, and it is both a great starter novel for that genre, simply a new to mystery type, or a new reader novel. Bonfires is perfect for all these situations.

As I always like to include other people’s opinions of my book because I feel like that gives both perspectives, kind of applying the old saying “there are three sides to a story; his story, her story, and the truth.” Well, my opinion is the truth. (Well, it is at least my honest opinion of the novel.) But I have my dislikes and points of highlights that’ll address using their opinions.

There were good reviews

Larry, author of the blog “It's Either Sadness or Euphoria…” gave the story of raving review, of course coming from a predetermined bias of being a Ritter’s fan, he explains the very agreeable positive sides of Bonfires. One of my favorite parts of his review is actually what inspired the quote I mentioned at the beginning of this post because it is so relevant to the story and struck at my heartstrings.

"I couldn't even explain it to myself. All I knew is that Barrens broke something inside of me. It warped the needles on my compass and turned the south to north and lies to truth and vice versa."

And honestly, I’ll let you get more of Larry’s opinion by going to his page and get back to my opinion because it is why you are on my page:)

This quote literally is my own personal journey. I had such a similar story as Abby Williams, Bonfires protagonist, of having my hometown make me dread the place that I avoid it like the plague. The only difference between Abby and I, besides the fact that I haven’t gotten a law degree and unearthed a population scandal, is that I had an extremely blessed, supportive, loving family. They are the only reason I go home ever.

This quote also is a perfect summarization of Bonfires because Abby William’s experienced growing up in Barrens, shaped and scared her permanently for good and bad. And that is what your hometown is supposed to do, but never in such an abusive way that is done for Abby.

Now nothing is without negative reviews, and Goodreads critique Emily May ripped into Ritter’s book. Some highlights and points I wanted to comment on were Emily May’s opinion of Ritter’s conclusion and engagement with the readers. She says,

And isn't this a story we've seen a thousand times? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I've read countless versions of a woman escaping her smalltown life, only to grow up and become a detective or lawyer or whatever and return to solve a mystery and face all the people and unresolved issues of her past…”

May doesn’t stop there, continuing into the conclusion and characters of the novel saying,

It was also just very unconvincing overall. I couldn't understand why Abby was so adamant that the pollution took place when even those who got sick claimed it wasn't true… And Bonfire relies heavily on Abby conveniently remembering, forgetting, or deducing (quite incredibly) as needed. Abby makes many tenuous connections between some clue - that fell into her lap - and the truth, whilst jumping to conclusions that I doubt anyone would have made… There is a moment at the climax of the novel which is easily the most thrilling of the whole book...The climax leads into an extremely rushed ending-- we discover the villain, witness a face-off, and wrap it all up in the last fifteen pages of the book. Messy and disappointing.”

That last sentence is the biggest part May and I agree on; I hate rushed and what I call “conclusions without consequences” type endings; we see no love-lost between friends of Abby who didn’t believe her, we see no characters fighting for her to stay, and we see no reason for her to still feel so driven to get back out of Barren as she has quite literally slain all of her hometown demons. And all of this was done with no equal or greater reaction! We have no vengeful exes, no changed timelines, and no ancient rituals accidentally activated signaling the end of times.

Some argue with me that “this is a proper ending, all loose ends are tied into a neat bow.” well it is a bow on a piece of bullshit. I hate “perfectly finished endings” I want plot holes, I want wiggle room, I want theories of “Wait! What about this? Or why didn’t they address this?” Ugh, I hate it.

Now here are some additional links to some news articles that definitely gave the novel the proper recognition it deserves. I hope you enjoyed reading my review and critique of Krysten Ritter’s debut novel Bonfires. It is a great recommendation for a good summer reading. Can’t wait to update you’ll about my continuous reading for this summer, but make sure you like, share, and most importantly subscribe!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/12/books/krysten-ritter-novel-bonfire.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2017/11/06/krysten-ritter-bonfire-book-review-marvel-jessica-jones/829604001/

https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a13795415/krysten-ritter-bonfire-interview/

[zippdementia]

Part 80 Alignment May Vary: Mirrors of the Abyss (Welcome to My Game)

The next part of our adventure is taken from Mirrors of the Abyss, by Ryan Durney. I highly recommend it as a rare high level adventure. Very much worth a purchase. I will be covering huge aspects of it and it will not be spoiler-free, though it is a random enough adventure that there is PLENTY we won’t see on this playthrough and some additional material for our own story. Art is taken directly from the module and is illustrated by Ryan Durney. The purpose in using it here is to show off how beautiful and professional the product is, not to claim such images as our own. I sincerely hope it inspires you to purchase the product!

Chamber 00: The Fossil Ossuary and the Woods Beyond

The first chamber is made up of two challenges. The first is trying to figure out a way to escape from the about-to-collapse cave the players find themselves in. The second is to confront two potential allies and figure out which one is telling the truth and is safe to bring along and which one is a demon in disguise.

Light reveals brown strata of crumbling clay and 3 sets of petrified skeletons pressed into the walls, floor and ceiling. The total size of the traversable corridor is only roughly 8 feet by 16 feet, ending on all sides with rubble and tiny alcoves that may or may not be natural. Your arrival has disturbed heavy stone above you, as you can hear the sound of straining rock and sometimes the trickle of powder and grit spilling downward onto you from the cracks above. It would appear that you don’t have a lot of time to find your way out before all of it collapses.

The first puzzle is a pretty straightforward riddle, and easy to solve if the players can find the clues spread around the cave. Our group does and there isn’t much more to say about it. The riddle is about a set of fox skeletons (Esheballa’s whole theme is about fox creatures) and which of the dead foxes was her favorite. They solve the riddle together and get a fox’s skeletal paw as a reward and the cave opens into a mysterious forest. Here they find all their food and water has dissipated and they must find a way out or starve.

Before long, they come to a series of standing stones and here find a familiar face: Remus, the Paladin friend of Carrick. He is still bleeding from a head wound and facing off against another crew member, one they don’t recognize, who calls himself Janson. The men tell the players that in order to proceed, one of these two has to be killed at their hand. The other must go with them.

Now, this is a really tricky puzzle. Before the game begins, the DM has to roll for this encounter to determine, randomly, which of the two men is telling the truth and which is a traitor in disguise. After this is determined, another roll tells you WHAT the traitor is (whether demon, doppleganger, ooze, or any number of other interesting possibilities) and a third roll tells you what their motives are. But it gets even trickier than that. Depending on the roll, both men may be traitors, or NEITHER may be traitors.

In this case, I won’t say what I rolled, but the players are stumped for a long while on this. Remus (if it really is him) seems confused and doesn’t have access to his magic to prove he is a Paladin. Furthermore, as Janson eagerly points out, Remus would be the perfect disguise to fool the party, as Carrick has a deep bond with him. Janson himself they don’t know, but he tells them that Remus murdered the crew in front of him, questioning them first to get details of the ship so that he could impersonate the Paladin. For his part, Remus claims to remember nothing of how he got here, only that Janson was never aboard the ship, he’s never seen him before.

Some basic questions don’t help the situation: Janson and Remus both seem to know enough about the crew and the ship to verify their stories. Finally, Daymos asks a great question: "The crew who were murdered, tell me their names.” Daymos then looks to Carrick and Imoaza to see if they can verify the names. Janson starts going through a list of names and he mentions Star. This is a hint to the players, because they know Star was left behind on the Air Planet. With this, Imoaza comes up behind Janson and strikes him with the Drosselgreymer.

Janson screams out and runs off into the woods, Imoaza and Milosh giving chase. The woods are confusing, though, and Imoaza is soon turned around and has to go back or else get lost. Milosh, with his tracking abilities from his Ranger class, manages to catch up to Janson inside a huge mushroom covered patch of woods and there he confronts him. 

Janson is a doppleganger, a special one, who extends his arms into mauls and tries to use the environment to catch Milosh. He smashes Mushrooms and they release Hallucinigenic spores. Milosh is actually resistant to such things and manages to escape this trap, but the Doppleganger rolls poorly and falls prey to the effects of the spores, giving Milosh time to get some free hits on him. Still, Janson is beefy and finally leaps across the woods at Milosh, mauls raised to strike... and Milosh blows his head apart with a blast from his gunarm.

The players regather at the standing stones. Here they give Carrick a longsword and heal him but are still cautious, not sure they trust him. They are instructed by him to dig up keys around the area (instructions left in his head by Eshebala). They do so and are informed that these keys are needed to traverse the 193rd layer of the Abyss safely. With that, portals appear between the standing stones and the players enter a random one.

Chamber 15: Her Chambers

Chamber 15 is where the players go next, randomly. It is actually a resting point, with the opportunity for two players to gain big bonuses in the dungeon, one granted by Eshebala herself and the other granted by one of her rivals, her brother and former lover.

This is an odd room to roll for the first real challenge of the dungeon, as it is a respite from action and a chance for players to rest and recover, which right now they don’t need. The chamber is filled with, ah, lewd objects and art and the players are supposed to touch these objects. What they touch determines Eshebala’s reaction and whether she decides to try and, ah, bed one of the players.

In this case, she chooses Daymos, who is attracted to a number of, ah, toys in a drawer by Eshebala’s massive bed. She appears, whisks the other players away, and offers to teach Daymos the dual meaning of pleasure and pain. Daymos chickens out, though, not willing to commit to the act without knowing exactly what he’s getting himself into, and putting in a plea for the safety of his companions. All of this makes Eshebala extremely bored and boredom leads to annoyance. She decides to punish Daymos by attacking him, clamping down on him with jaws turned gigantic and vulpine. Daymos manages to dull the onslaught somewhat by surprising Eshebala, saying she is acting out on him what her baby foxes did to each other (a reference to the fox riddle, earlier). This shocks her and she teleports him away before she can tear him limb from limb.

Daymos, even at level 15, is NOT a tough customer. He has incredible magic and psychic powers, but his hitpoints are merely 50 (a combination of poor Constitution and bad hitpoint rolls). This attack takes nearly half his life away, even halted as it was.

Meanwhile, Imoaza has been in a different chamber. When Eshebala sent most of the players away, Imoaza was snagged from limbo and brought before Eshebala’s brother, Daragor. 

You have been whisked into some kind of bizarre and tumultuous cafeteria for demonkind. All manner of dangerous archetype turns spits or clutches huge rib cages as if they were holding a mere sandwich. Demons the size of barns carry trays of globular, clotted foods to tables, wading through a foot of discarded bones. The biting coppery smells, and the sound of ripping and gnawing, en masse, is enough to push you over the edge, if not for your mind's blatant curiosity for why you sit at the fanciest table in this nightmarish mess hall for monsters.

Daragor tells her he is giving her a “cheat,” something she can use to survive the dangers ahead. Why? He wants her to win Eshebala’s game so that he can win a bet he foolishly placed on the players. He tells her to keep her eye open for his mark as he has hidden items around the games that can help them. Then he sends her teleporting off and the party is reunited in the next chamber.

... which, this post was really an addendum to the last post. It was one large session so while we added Daymos to the group and got the new dungeon started we didn’t get very far into it. We are playing again in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for A Pissed Off Librarian.

[chloeintheoffice-blog]

April TBR: #OWLsReadathon2019

So it’s been a while! I wanted to make this post as I will be taking part in the OWLs Readathon during April, hosted by G from BookRoast!

She has put so much effort into this readathon. Her announcement video is linked here.

I have decided that I am going to be a Charms Professor at Hogwarts! There are seven exams that must be completed for this career, but I have set a book for each subject! I have from 1st - 30th April to read all 12 books, so I should be able to do it.... I can hope!

So to be a charms professor you have to complete the following criteria:

Charms (or any subject you want to teach)

Defence Against the Dark Arts

5 additional subjects of your choice.

My first choice is for charns, where the prompt is to read an adult work. I have chosen: Falling Through Clouds by Anna Chilvers. 

I got this book a while ago, in a mega-unboxing of around 80 adult books. I sorted through them and decided to hang onto this one, and now there’s a perfect place for it in this readathon!

This book is about Kat, a 22 year-old who meets a man called Gavin on the train. They spend the summer in Cornwall but she can tell that something isn’t quite right with him. It turns out that Gavin is suffering from intense nightmares after being held hostage in Iraq. He then goes missing and Kat has to decide whether she wants to chase this mystery man.

This is definitely not the usual style of book I would read, but I am excited to give it a go.

Next, for defence against the dark arts, the prompt is to read a book starting with the letter “R”. I have chosen Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer.

This was the only book starting with a “R” that I own.. which I do find really hard to believe, but it’s true! This is another book that I got in the mega-unboxing, so I’m excited to get to it to finally unhaul it from the massive pile remaining in my reading room.

This book is about a medical student, called Patrick, who has Asperger’s. The body he is examining in anatomy class starts to speak to him, and then he is faced with solving a possible murder.

Again, this is definitely not something I would usually pick up, but it was the only book in my possession and I tried my hardest to not purchase any books for this readathon!

The first subject I have chosen is ancient runes, which means I have to read a re-telling. I’m not a huge fan of re-tellings, but I’ve decided to pick up The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill.

The cover of this book is just gorgeous. This is obviously a Little Mermaid re-telling, and I was going to include a short summary here but I actually don’t want to read the blurb for it. I feel like I know enough about the Little Mermaid (doesn’t everyone?) so I don’t want to find out any potential twists and turns before I get started. But this book is just gorgeous and I can’t wait!

The next subject I have chosen is astronomy, for which I have to read a book with “Star” in the title.This felt very specific to me, and I thought it would be difficult, but luckily Brittany sent me a copy of Starry Eyed by Jenn Bennett a couple of weeks ago! 

She sent me this book as she doesnt typically read contemporaries but loved this one, so I have very high expectations for it! It is about ex-friends Zorie and Lennon who have made a habit of trying to avoid each other. Their families are described as the modern-day Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets. But, then they all go camping and it goes horribly wrong, and Zorie and Lennon are abandoned alone.

This does sound very intriguing, and I cannot wait to get to it!

Next, I chose to read a book set in the future for divination. I went with Allegiant by Veronica Roth, which is the third and final book in the Divergent series.

I have wanted to get this series finished off for a while now because I have the UGLIEST copy on my shelf. I’ve watched the film and cannot remember what happens, so I wanted to get into it to finally find out how this series ends. I have heard very bad things about this book, but cannot leave a series unfinished... so I’m popping it into this readathon so I can read and un-haul it for good!

Next I am going to be reading a contemporary for Muggle Studies and the one I have gone for is The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. This is one of those books I’ve been wanting to get to for years but I never ever got round to it.

This is about a girl called Isabel, who spends every summer at her family friends’ house, with two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah. Isabel has been in love with Conrad forever, and Jeremiah has been friendly to her forever, 

I think we can all see what’s going to happen here... but it just sounds like a cheesy cute romance that I can power through for the readathon. Also, it’s only 276 pages, so it’s definitely a short one I can pop in if I start feeling a bit slumpy.

The final exam I am set on taking is Potions, which is to read a book that is not the first in a series, or a sequel. I have gone for Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling. Firstly because you can’t have a Harry Potter readathon without reading a Harry Potter book, and secondly I am commited to reading this book in April, for a lovely group of friends I’ve made.

I’m not going to tell you what this book is about; if you don;t know you should! But the only bad thing is that it is 636 pages long... in a readathon... oh well! I can give it a shot!

So then there are 5 more exams, that I don’t HAVE to take, but let’s face it, I’m going to give it a go. The first being arithmancy, for which I’d have to read a book with two authors. I have gone for Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

I knew nothing about this book before searching it on Goodreads, and I can now provide you with this information:

“One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high-school stage.”

So yeah, it sort of sounds like my cup of tea, but not something I’m jumping for joy waiting to read. But, it is my only book with two authors on my shelves, and this readathon does not give me liberties to buy new books!

Next is care of magical creatures, where the aim is to read a book with a land animal on the cover. I have gone for Going Bovine by Libba Bray, as there’s a big cow carrying a gnome on the cover.

This book is about 16 year-old Cameron who doesn’t want to put any effort into shcool, or life in general. But then he gets the horrible news that he’s sick, and he’s going to die. Help comes for him in the form of a punk angel/halloucination called Dulcie, who tells Cameron there’s a cure, he just has to search for it. Cameron sets off on a road-trip across America, to live.

Wow okay, this sounds mildly depressing, but hey ho let’s give it a go shall we?!

Now we have herbology, to read a book with a plant on the cover. This was easier than I thought because as well as Starry Eyed, Brittany also sent me Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. 

This is a YA mystery, set in an elite boarding school called Ellingham Academy. The backsotry is that when the school opened, the founder’s wife and daughter were kidnapped, and the only clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed by Truly Devious. Stevie is starting her first year at the academy, and she decides she’s going to solve the mystery.

Now this sounds interesting! I had it on my Wishlist for a while so it was something on my radar, but I hadn’t really got a full idea what it was about. Now I’m even more interested!

Last but not leasy we have history of magic, to read a book published more than 10 years ago. I’ve gone for Dead Girl’s Dance by Rachel Caine. This is the 2nd book in the 15 Morganville Vampires books.

We seem to have a tiny photo here, but it’ll do! I can’t say too much about this book without ruining the first, but this is about a girl called Claire who goes off to college at 16 (she’s a genuis). Once there she has to move out of her dorm due to mean girls tormening here, and she moves in with some 18 year-old locals. She then discovers that the whole town in run and owned by vampires. 

It’s a very good book, a classic for me. And I want to get all of these books re-read before 2020.

And FINALLY we have transfiguration, where I need to read a book with sprayed edges. I’ve gone for One of Us is Lying by Karen M.McManus.

I assume all copies have this, but mine has red sprayed edges to match the font on the front. It actually looks pretty cool, especially with the white cover. I’ve been told this is a breakfast club plus murder style book, which sounds right up my alley! I don’t want to look any more into it so that I don’t spoil myself, but I am excited to finally get my hands on this one.

So there you have it - that’s the 12 books I would love to get finished in April. I do have a dissertation to write, 3 exams to study for, and a 3rd *cough* driving test to take... so I’m trying not to stress myself out but I have a lot to do, and fitting all these books in will be quite an accomplishment.

Stay tuned for my OWLs wrap-up after April!

[fleurdelissaswords-blog]

GAMMA ZETA LIE SORORITY'S "PRETTY LITTLE LIARS 7b SERIES FINALE" THEORIES BATCH FOR 2017!!! ITS HEEEREEE! #SharingIsCaring Bitches...

GZL PLL 7B Master Collection of Finds and Theories:

It’s that time again! Where GZL posts all the hard work we’ve done as a team all season solving PLL… our team is truly outstanding! I should know, I handpicked each of them as being the best of the best in the fandom! Each season before the finale, we post our master theories and body of work, so after the finale we can say we got this or that correct. This past year GZL has gone thru a lot of changes! Members have gone thru many life changes and we’ve still kept on keeping on. This is how I reward my GZL Dolls for their hard work all season. By posting our work so they all get bragging rights. I’m continuously impressed by how amazing this group of people is. We have some of the best detectives in the fandom, and I handpicked and invited each one to participate in a lil experiment of solving -A as a team. We’ve all become good friends now and have successfully solved PLL each season since! Way to go Team! We had a lot of challenges this season, and still managed to get'er done. Thanks for all of your hard work this season Dolls! We decided to make this season a bit more fun and laid back. We post our work, theories and finds before each finale, twice a year and here it is.

For those interested in joining, don’t fret that PLL is over. GZL will continue doing new shows. We recruit twice per year for those lucky ones. Here’s the work we did this season as well as some throwbacks and solo theories of members. We hope you enjoy! A lot of work went into this:

❤️ TABLE OF CONTENTS TO FINDS AND THEORIES BELOW:

🔺Peter Hastings and the Illicit Radley Baby-Breeding Ring (A “Just for Fun” Theory)

🔺AriA is A SleepwAlker

🔺#GrunwAld Means “Green Forest!”

🔺#Moleb: The AD Techy Power Couple

❤️ PETER HASTINGS HELP A.D. RUN AN ILLICIT BABY-BREEDING RING!: GZL 7b, 2017. A Just for Fun Hypothesis

PLL 7B Just-For-Fun Theory: Peter Hastings is Uber A! And The A Team is an Illicit Baby Trafficking Ring!!! 😱 (& Bonus: The 3 M’s of. good Theory!) NEW & REVISED ADDITIONS V2! So a lot of pll fans have been discussing Peter Hasting’s recent arrival back in Rosewood and wondering what he is still hiding. We know he has Umpteen million kids. My theory is: Peter is Uber A, and started the game merely to keep tabs on all of his damn kids, find out if there’s anymore out there, keep them out of trouble with typical teen issues like drugs (I’m Looking at You Spencer & Jason= the Spason Sibs, you’re welcome 😇), and avoid having to pay child support for all of them.

The GZL Evidence File 🗃:

1. We keep finding more kids this dude has had. We have no idea when this will end.

2. The Uber A mystery has to do with who’s kids are who’s. Who’s were Mary Drakes? Who’s Peter Hastings? Who’s a DiLaurentis in secret. Who’s a Hastings in secret. And who’s been adopted. Which kids were taken from their mothers in Radley… which seems to be an ongoing trend which brings me to:

3. Just how many babies have been born in Radley and why did they have a nursery there and then quickly take kids away from their mothers and adopt them out? We know Char and Bethany and Spencer were all Radley kids. We know AriA has been in Radley before but we dunno why. We know Mona learned some BIG secrets there. So did Cece/Char.

4. We know some of these kids grew up cray cray. Some were adopted out. They all have the common element of having problems with mental health or drugs.

5. Emily was forced to sell her eggs which were then stolen! Maybe this is how the A Team’s baby breeding program does things now to get and steal babies? Now that Radley is gone.

6. We know Ali was implanted with fertilized eggs while held against her will at Welby. It seems A had been planning it for a long time. Could this have happened to Mary Drake while in Radley? She had more babies than we knew, and how did she keep having them if she was a locked up patient in a facility which likely kept male/female living areas apart and would have rules against having sex in their rooms, etc. So maybe she was implanted with stolen eggs too. Were any of those parents in that generation of rosewood peeps unable to have kids?

7. Why yes: Ashley Marin seems a likely candidate cuz we know Hanna looks nothing like her. We also know Ashley has a murky past where she “got into some trouble.” But we still dunno this story. Maybe she sold her eggs while young like Em did and adopted Hanna and Hanna just doesn’t know yet. Maybe all the look alikes are related by blood?! All the blondes. Also Hanna might be adopted cuz hers doesn’t look a thang like her mama and we know there’s more there.

8. We know A has had some medical training and seems to be keeping tabs on a whole town of kids and orchestrating implanting woman and adopting out kids in secret! We know Veronica also may not have been able to have kids after Melissa… we got her story but look how her story has changed drastically from the many, many, many times Spencer has asked her about this!

Conclusion: Are we looking at weird secret baby breeding program run illegally at Radley Sanitarium and certain older members of Rosewood being involved? We know Peter Hastings was the father of some of them of them. And nobodies parents are who they seem. We wonder if AriA was born to her parents and we suspect she has a connection to biological mental health issues and was a patient there, and we suspect she may even be related to Wren, who was a dr there who knew some big secrets.

We know some doctors knew about babies being born in Radley… but there had to have been a LOT for it to cause Radley to build a nursery ward just for kids! Rosewood isn’t that big and 2-3 locked up mentally ill children usually don’t make up and entire children’s ward at a mental hospital! Why haven’t we seen all the other Radley kids then? And it seems no kids actually lived in the nursery for a very very long time! We have flashbacks but also look at the old fashioned dress of the Radley nurses Radley.

Just look at Bethany’s drawings of 2 kids being separated by an evil monster! And how she said Mrs D (or Mary) was a “liar,” and who coincidentally was on the board. Also her drawings of siblings being torn apart and mothers being thrown Off roofs and murdered to keep the secret. Even the dr doesn’t wanna talk. Also, the night Ali saw Veronica outside going thru things and they discussed Spencer not being herself, Veronica was going thru baby stuff! Maybe she had given the twin back long ago, cuz in their family album there’s THREE young girls, Spencer always been seen with one then Melissa. Spencer was just remembering a tale where Melissa defended her against a playground bully but Melissa doesn’t want to discuss it. I think Melissa was sworn to secrecy when the twin was given back early on for being violent and all kinds of evils, and Veronica had kept some of the baby stuff and started getting rid of during Spencer’s “troubling years on drugs” so she wouldn’t accidentally find something cuz she was a snoop remember!

Also Paige and Aria are looking a lot alike these days too. Almost like Paige may be her evil Twinsie. What if what we are looking at is a town full of bred twins and the families who adopted them found issues with one and so thise were given back and kept secret and now all of those twins who were given up are growing up and ANGRY and banned together to get revenge? Hmmm. This may explain why there’s twin clues for the entire cast. And what if some of those parents were adopted twins too like Jessica and Mary dram… cuz like their wealthy family helped run and financially back the ring, each generation. Jessica was on the board. So, who could have started this?

My guess is a young Grunwald and her husband who were one of Rosewood’s first adopted families having adopted 2 little blonde girls named Jessica and Mary. The twin story Ali told. And one of them went evils and had to be sent away to, where else? Radley! Where she became the next generation of mentally ill mothers to bear babies for the adoption ring. No wonder she’s so pissed! Wouldn’t you be? She was given up cuz the real evil sister set her up, and had to be locked up with no family and then who knows how many babies she had for the ring against her will. We know Marion was there too so could potentially be mom to some of these babies.

We saw this same thing happen to Ali recently and she was shocked. Had she not gotten out of Welby, she’d probably have had this happen a few more times to “earn her keep” there. SICK! Now I think the story of how this occurred with each family is different. Sometimes the good twin got to stay. Sometimes the bad twin tricked the parents and got the good twin sent off. And sometimes the bad twin came back to haunt the family and the town they didn’t get to grow up in, hence why it’s all such a confusing mess of who’s baby is who’s now. We don’t know as of last ep if it was Spencer’s evil twin she at the airport Ezra saw. She seems a bit different at times. And the summer she was all doped up and fighting with Ali, and I think Ali knew.

Ali was also extorting money from Byron at the time, for a big secret and I doubt it was just the affair. She was already being hounded by her evil Twinsie and had to escape, so she needed money. Ali herself might be the evil twin too or had been before she returned to Rosewood to reclaim her life. What we see is a much kinder gentler Ali almost like a diff person. Her hair is different, she’s more quiet and less nosy. Ali got her good twin sent away and the bad twin staying to be the popular girl just like in the books. Ali was secretly fighting her twin at the same time Spencer was. We thought we had learned this was Cece her real life unknown sister, but that night when she snuck out of the Hastings and came back with a bloody lip she had fought someone she never named, not even when Spencer asked her while in Radley.

Now those twins may have switched spots vying for Ali’s perfect life a few times, and I think the evil twin won out and then they were swapped back when the evil Ali died and the good Ali came back to reclaim her life she hadn’t had for a while. My big question is: where as these Twinsies hiding and who is helping them stay hidden, and pull all of this off? And do they know Ea other or not? Is it a twin war the discarded twins waged as an A Team (meaning: the BETTER twin, the A Grade twin) or is the secret Grunwald baby ring taking them back and caring for them and trying to keep them under wraps but having a hard time? Grunwald returns periodically to help these girls and we dunno why. We know she has a keen eye for teen bullshiz tho having ran a sorority! She may not be opposed to spanking kids when they get out of line. We know she saved All, and Ali, and Ali multiple times.

Sometimes she looks at Ali as if trying to tell which Twinsie is which. And one of the Ali’s gets spooked by it while the other sees her as a helper not her keeper. I also suspect the Fitz/Fitzgerald foundation is involved in funding this secretly. It has to be some wealthy donors backing this thang! Also we’ve seen Ezra go evils too and there’s been times we viewers AND the liars have suspected he was evil… what we were seeing was Ezra’s Twinsie doing bad bad things! Some fans are speculating Aria’s file says she was pregnant. If she was in Radley at one point she may have been.

But I feel she was young when at Radley, either as an adopted kid born there like Spencer and others, OR she’s had secret stays there since we’ve come to know her on the show (between the ages of approx 14-early 20’s). It’s possible her twin lived there or was sent back ir that aria is the evil twin in their fam and framed the other good twin to get her sent away. Cuz we’ve seen aria’s anger, her sleep disturbances, her sketchiness, her lies, her dating older men, her indecision about those men, her missing pigtunia, etc. We’ve seen her go thru various rebellious style phases, etc. Aria and her twin have been secretly battling it out the entire series! Spencer’s twin has made appearances as the drug addict ADHD one and desperately wants her family’s approval. Ali’s twin has replaced her sister. Jason’s twin shows up whenever Jason is traveling. Mary did some things acting as Jessica who also came and went randomly. Hanna has undergone personality changes where suddenly she’s super smart, vs. the shoplifting trouble maker. Caleb appears and disappears. Mona does too, sometimes without her signature nose beauty mark. Hmmm… 🤔 Now, who would be in charge of a secret baby breeding program where mentally ill women locked up were used to give birth and have a secret place to rear those kids till adoption? A Secret Society of Doctors and Wealthy Elites who could make a LOT of money doing this being Radley doors cuz who’s gonna believe a mental patient saying someone knocked her up and stole her babies? No one. And if a mother talked or did anything about it she got thrown off a roofsies! 😱

We know back in the old days of mental asylums and institutions, horrific tests and experiments were often conducted on patients who were used as unwilling guinea pigs. We also know Radley has a secret underground passage… that likely leads to the church, where: babies taken out of Radley to be adopted could be picked up (& christened to get the “evils” out of them being born of mentally ill women… who were often seen back in the day as: possessed by demons! Mental health issues long ago were considered to be spiritual afflictions of possession, rather than a biological health issue). We also know Human Trafficking doesn’t just include sex trade. It also has included funding illicit adoptions illegally. There’s many stories of adoption centers being busted for acquiring babies illegally! One only a few years ago looking like a normal adoption center but after a few babies turned out bad, and stories started, the center came under investigation. Back in the day I’m guessing that was more common and overlooked. But still illegal thus needing to be kept secret.

Also look at how there’s identical sets of “liars” around rosewood and nearby towns! Sara Harvey’s crew had a group of girls similar to the liars. We know there’s a multitude of blonde trouble makers in rosewood! Then we have the Gamma Zeta sorority sisters Grunwald looked after which had an identical set of looking liars. This was Cece’ gen. And now in rosewood there seems to be some “junior plastics” running around causing problems and all kinds of evils. While someone keeps tabs on them and tries to get them the truth!

A clue from @maliciousbuthot on twitter hinted this many times. This clue giver also said that Sara Harvey performed the implantation into Ali! So I got to thinking: this all centers around babies, adoptions, doctors, and groups of girls who are identical sets to the liars. 🤔

We know Maddie from Dance Mom’s was cast as one of these “blonde Ali type girls.” Maybe her ghost was a Radley baby portraying how her mother was forced to give birth in Radley. And the ghost twins Ashley keeps running into. Lol. Who likely are the same twins from Ali’s Halloween twin story, come back cuz they’ve got questions for their mommy, who curiously looked a lot like a younger Grunwald in the story, which appears to take place in Aria’s family’s kitchen back in the 1950’s based on fans having dated plates and kitchen ware there. Also the nurses dress like something out of the 50’s.

What kind of secret society would be breeding babies for secret adoptions you ask? One running the town’s older elite. Like Grunwald’s generation. We suspect she is Ali’s grams, and we know Mary drake was Ali’s aunt, and had Radley babies. Peter may be a member of this org and helping facilitate this illicit baby ring! WEIRD!!! 😳

Maybe Peter Hastings is one of the illicit baby ring’s biggest sperm donors?! I think Byron may have been too. Maybe it’s how he got all that money. We know A team has major financial assets and resources. They’re connected to doctors and various clinics. They’re trained in medical procedures. They’ve got access to pharmaceuticals.

Face it: the A Team is an Illicit Baby Ring and secret society! The Baphomet symbolism would hint at this. Except there’s one problem with these babies: They don’t always come out without mental health problems cuz the mothers were mostly Radley patients! Remember the similar genetic features of the girls in Rosewood? Maybe the mental illness genes also caused some problems. What if Sarah Harvey was related to all the other blondes: Bethany, Ali, and Hanna?

COMING UP NEXT: How does Aria’s secret Radley File play into this whole thang? Is she the evil twin or does she have an evil twin? It seems maybe her evil twin is the leader of the twin team if the A team is a bunch of angry Rogue twinsies come back for revenge on the families who cast them aside. She alone seems to know what her file holds though by her reaction to try to keep so much secret. She was FREAKED out to see an Artificial Intelligence Twinsie staring back at her during A.D’s FaceTime calls.

We don’t know who’s behind this computer AriA face, but what if it’s her evil twin and she knows unlike the rest she had one. Or maybe she has worked with her evil twin more than the others have with theirs and met her twin long ago? Or maybe her twin lives inside her? I firmly believe she’s worked with A many times before and is hiding something big. A secret Ali extorted Byron for. And why did Ali pick each of these girls? The probably wouldn’t have all been friends if Ali’s evil twin in the books needed new friends to keep her cover, so invented her own crew of rag tag outcasts. And she kept saying there was a reason she picked each of them. 😉 Maybe the reason was to keep her cover cuz she hasn’t been her sister all along since she took over?

A theory isn’t just a guess based on observing some clues. Every clue has to fit. And a theory must also determine Motive and Means and Method! I’ve done that here… but I’d like to see more theories a little more flushed out with the 3 M’s: Method, Motive, Means.

How do we do this? We answer these big questions when doing any theory!… and we don’t call them friggin theories!!! 😡 According to definition: We call them HYPOTHESES until they are tested and stand up to the test, which is when they become a theory. Once the theory is proven, it becomes a principal! But it must have: Method, Motive, & Means.

A. What is the Motive for the crimes? B. What is the Method used to carry them out? C. And does the suspect have the actual Means (resources or know how) to carry it out? Cuz if not, it’s not a theory by definition.

If there is ONE take away I want the now grown PLL fandom to take home, other than to not trust Mar, it’s this: a theory isn’t a theory till it has passed the hypothesis testing phase! If ur writing a “theory” to fit into a few ideas or only a few cluesies you want to pay attention to, and it doesn’t fit EVERY DAMN CLUESIE, It’s a waste of time to present to our scholarly community.

But every once in a while a fan gets a brilliant creative writing stroke of genius (we’ve all had them), and wants to make a fun theory they know isn’t likely, cuz it’s absurd or doesn’t fit all of the cluesies. Then we call it a “Just for Funsies!” But since the fandom has adopted “theories” as it’s lingo, here is my Just for Funsies.

Cuz let’s face it, we’ve all wondered about Mr. Hastings! He has more child support damage than most in Rosewood, so he would have a possible motive for being -A and spying on all his damn kids around town… and avoid child support. That’s a motive! Sorry for that tangent “theory”… it’s been bugging me for ages! Now you do. Don’t do it againsies.

Now, does he have the means: resources? Um, has a Hastings, and they’re like super rich, so duh! Lol. Only someone with the 3 M’s can be our AD! Unless Mar is writing the script, then any average college drop out can have a high tech lair that doesn’t make any sense at allsies… and that could very well happen to us again, relegating our fandom to *Gasp!*… the crowd of sad poor little Lost fans in collective mourning over what used to be a killer show that turned into shiz.

So, this “Hypothesis” centers around the shady Mr. Hastings and how many… many… many kids in Rosewood he seems to have who keep popping up each season. Even Sasha said in an interview, if she could give her character one bit of hindsight advice, it would be to look between the lines and know -A may be as close as your own family! GASP! Was that a clue? We know the DiLaurentis and Hastings families are like the Medici’s and Borgias. Wearily elite families who battled with one another to run the town. We know there was an affair between Peter and Jessica, and Mary. So that makes Spencer, Jason, Ali, and Cece all related. Wow! What if we took that family tree chart further? How many more women did Peter help father at Radley while being connected to a Radley Board member? We know Bethany called Mrs D. a liar. And she is now dead for it.

How could one man have so many kids? And leave so much death in his wake? Make so many women promise to keep secrets? How could there be kids never known about? Kids erased from family albums? We know both the Hastings, DiLaurentis, AND Montgomery families all had an extra kid shown in their family albums we never met!

So how could one man have so many unknown kids related to other Rosewood families? Easy: he was a sperm donor for an illicit baby breeding ring run out of Radley Sanitarium, using all the mothers locked up there against their will. BAM!

What if some of these Radley parent’s kids who were stolen from their birth mothers, are now very, very pissed! And wanna keep tabs on their kids and find out how many kids and who all they had, cuz maybe they were so doped Up in Radley they can’t even remember a lot of their time there. We know Marion died there. We know doctors from Radley have discussed delivering babies there when it wasn’t supposed to be happening… except their kids are now cray cray cuz of their mental health genes and being taken from their mothers and other possible siblings. Which may be why there’s an A Team and a force trying to stop get some attention around Rosewood.

And as we see in s7, Ali is stuck in Welby (the new Radley), unjustly by her husband/majorjerkface who was on the -A team, and there she gets implanted with Emily’s stolen eggs. So this would be current proof as to the shady doctors in Rosewood breeding babies out of mental patient women! There’s your proof! If Maddie Zeigler’s creepy lil dance in the Radley Basement of a mother going into labor and giving birth inside Radley, and Mary Drake’s Radley babies, and Ali’s new Welby baby (I swear if they name that baby Welby, Ima be pissed… let’s hope they name her/him Paige! Ali owes Paige and so does Em), are any proof: babies are being purposefully, and illegally bred from mental health patient’s by shady doctors. Oh wait, who was that doctor Mona stole magazines from? Have we ever seen an ethical doctor in Rosewood? No! And we know doctors are being paid to do things and keep quiet about it in Rosewood. There’s also the whole “Who’s Toby & Jenna’s daddy?!” Cuz we’ve never even met him. He’s on my list too! Just cuz we know he exists but have never seen him. Why? We see Jenna getting handed a Braille book about the endgame by someone wearing medical scrubs and gloves. Face it: doctors and babies and mental health patient women are at the heart of all of this madness.

Then I am reminded of the scene in Amish Country with the Amish girl who once again curiously had dolls of the liars. This little girl claims to have known Charlotte. Why would the Amish be connected? Maybe because the Amish are known for adopting a lot. Anyone who’s seen the reality show Going Amish, knows this. So this could be why Rollins was in Amish Country. And that barn they met this little girl in in Amish Country, looks a lot like the Campbell farm.

There’s also this thing where we know Caleb was in foster care. We never learned much about his family, except that his uncle was really his father. So once again we have a kid who doesn’t feel like they belong to their family. Caleb is still on my -A suspect list cuz he fits some certain other criteria, like height, having tech skills, seeing everything but being inconspicuous, being trusted by the liars, and taking off a times. So we don’t know who some of these parents even are, and the ones we thought we knew, we didn’t even know. Lol.

So who’s on who’s side? There’s a lot more I can add to this like Fitz foundation’s financial involvement and the rich family assets and connections in Rosewood that could have kept this whole baby ring going… so stay tuned. If you like it, hit me up in the comments or chat or my twitter to let me know you’d like to see more of this theory.

And as always: Credit Me Bitches, or Else!!! And Reblog if you’d like more! You’re welcome! 
😘
-L

© 2017, Fleurdelissaswords Additional Credits: G_Xoxo, Maliciousbuthot, PLLINSIDER, & various contributing GZL members, including @thepllfanxx.

❤️ ARIA IS A #SLEEPWALKER!!!: © 2017, GZL Master Theories 7b Batch.

The entire GZL crew gets credit for years of work on this one! If you weren’t thanked at the bottom in the credits, but helped back in the day on this, we thank you too! Here goes:

AriA is a SleepwAlker! 😱 Has this never occurred to anyone outside GZL? NO! Cuz we discovered it and, the rumors are true, we’ve been sitting on this theory for a few years now. It’s time it saw the light of day! We’ve compiled over the years, a massive database of evidence to support the hypothesis (which btw is the correct word the fandom should be using! Not theory! A theory is a hypothesis which has already been tested and stood up to scrutiny!) that AriA is in fact not suffering from MPD/DPD, but is in fact, a Sleepwalker. A really bad one too! Like so bad she got treatment in Radley for it. A secret she and her family have kept hidden well. The fandom read all of the timey-whimey sketchy AriA cluesies completely WRONGSIES! We will also explain the story behind the infamous Pigtunia, whom we are sorry to say, has not run off in a secret elopement with Tipi the. bird. Tipi doesn’t swing that way.

This theory involved events starting from the pilot episode on. We will present the facts, and why we think this is a plausible explanation for why we fondly refer to her as “Sketchy Aria.” We hope you enjoy reading it, as it took many years of hard work to pick through tons of episodes and evidence. We sought advice from psychological experts, mental health sufferers, and forensics peeps, to get to the bottom of whether Aria suffers from something like MPD, or something different, and possibly more sinister.

Oh Aria, why is it that you always get spared by A most of the time? Why is it that you seem to have issues with nightmares, and being found out late after dark, or show up when the time is different than it was when you left? Where do you go? What happened between 4p and 6:35p? It didn’t take that long to drive to your destination. Everything in Rosewood takes 15 minutes or less! It’s just not that dang big of a town.

You leave to go meet someone while it’s still light, and get there after dark? You have a scar one moment then by the next ep, which we take to be approx a week later, it’s already completely healed. Even your own friends think you’re the best liar! What gives? Aria: this is your tape!

Here’s the case against Aria being what she seems, an innocent girl who doesn’t know how these things happen, who doesn’t know why she always has advance info on people before everyone else, who loses her Pigtunia EVERYWHERE! If you like it, hit me up in the comment section with feedback, and reblog bitches! Sharing is caring. Don’t say I never gave you anything. 😉

Our group figured this one out a couple years ago and has been sitting on a BUTTLOAD of clues regarding it as the fandom desperately tries to understand Aria and what makes her tick. And now it’s Tick Tock Bitches for Aria, cuz AD seems pissed, and we hope she is finally about to be exposed. Did she come clean about all the info AD had on her? That small police report she made on Ezra years ago seems like small potatoes as far as blackmailing her into doing AD’s bidding. She seems rather freaked by the idea of being exposed too, even to Ezra sometimes… why is she still hiding things from the man she’s wanting to marry? Weird. And hey -A: medical records are strictly confidential and so that’s way wrong btw to steal! Shame on you. 😤 But we all know Aria has a Radley file, and Eddie Lamb, before his untimely death, seemed to recognize Aria… except she doesn’t seem to recognize him. Why would a mental ward employee remember someone when the patient themself does not? Hmmm. Those were the kinds of questions we asked. Sometimes it’s all about asking the right questions!

I know, I know. The fandom has been trying to fig out sketchy Aria since season 1. We know she’s connected to Iceland where Mar said -A has been seen. We know she’s gone thru many, many, many wardrobe phases. We know that red cup and pigtunia keep popping up in the strangest places! And we know she has a Radley file with an actual patient intake number. What kind of disorder would make a patient not remember certain things as Aria seems to suffer from? There’s a few: MPD is one often discussed in the fandom where a person’s compartmentalized alters may not remember what another alter did. Certain amnesia disorders can cause forgetfulness. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. But so can Sleepwalking disorders.

You know those commercials for sleep meds on late at night where in the warnings they say users may be prone to Sleepwalking and waking up not remembering having done things while on the med? AH-HA! This was the initial late night epiphany that got a few of us thinking. It’s true. Sleep eating is a common side effect of some sleep meds. And some sleepwalkers have been reported to do astonishing things while completely asleep and forgetting it the next morning. I once made and ate and entire chocolate cake in my sleep. It was due to any medications or anything, just a solo weird experience that hadn’t reoccurred. So it happens and can make an otherwise normal person seem a bit odd. People who run into a sleepwalker, likewise can report different personality traits, waking nightmares someone is screaming about, or even possibly, going by an entirely different name, as Aria said Emily called Aria “Arlene.” A weird choice of names. Unless the nights these girls were drugged, triggered a Sleepwalking episode of such magnitude people forgot they lost their pig puppets, woke to find friends missing, or oh say, forgetting they buried a body! Whatever sleeping pill Ali gave the girls “That Night” in the barn, seemed to have some interesting effects on the liars. And then the night Emily was drugged in a repeat of “That Night,” more interesting waking effects. We know Emily sleepwalked to a grave and was found holding a shovel. That has already been proven to have happened in Rosewood.

On another note, Aria also can’t seem to make up her mind about Jason or Ezra. Clearly she keeps going back to Jason and have some as of yet, unexplained bond with him (FYI Aria: We’re totally team JariA here at GZL since we figured this Sleepwalking thang out a few of years ago! We get it, he and Ezra both made you feel safe when sleeping, which is why That Night in the barn, You sleepwalked to his house). And your behavior patterns never disappoint when you’re in these Sleepwalking episodes, neither does your sense of fashion, depending on what you’ve been up to. And the subsequent seasonly clean up of the Ezria relationship when it goes inevitably haywire cuz of Aria again, never disappoints.

Now, I know many fans are inclined to think Aria has Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD in UK, or Disassociative Personality disorder. There’s some evidence to indicate there is a deep level of hiding and forgetfulness and lying and personality changes going on with Aria here. But we cannot fit a few symptoms into a diagnonsense, but rather we must find a diagnosis that meets all the displayed symptoms. I was a psychology major and come from a family background in the field, so I may have just figured it out with the help of my GZL society dolls and some late night infomercial epiphanies, when it comes to Sleepwalking disorders, especially diagnosed in childhood, it can be a tricky situation for family and doctors to figure out! Why is their kid showing signs of hiding behaviors? Why is the child found late at night standing out by the pool where they could have fallen and then claim to not remember how they got there?

I suspect Aria’s family had sought help for her as a child and maybe even got pigtunia as a tracking method for finding their daughter when she goes out Sleepwalking. If they could find the pig the next day, they would know where she had been! #GoodParenting might have indicated a human nighttime sitter rather than a pig puppet but this may plausibly explain why Aria was attached so fondly to Pigtunia and what Pigtunia’s occasional reappearances in new places may indicate. Sleep clinics or a mental hospital may help provide outpatient aftercare of this nature for a child suffering from nightmares and Sleepwalking episodes. Some trauma may have brought about the onset of childhood Sleepwalking in Aria too… we can’t be sure. But having a friendly pig to help guard her while sleeps would help a child with sleep problems. Lots of parents utilize such techniques.

Here I will make a case that it’s not mere forgetfulness from MPD episodes however, but that this is a sleep disorder as well. It may be she sleepwalks as someone named “Arlene” as Emily informed her she requested to be called once. People in active Sleepwalking episodes can have a range of bizarre behavior, even acting out dreams as we saw occur with one character in the Ravenswood spin-off! That character portrayed well what Sleepwalking night terrors can be like. Even Ezra said it’s dangerous to wake a sleepwalker. And he always seems aware of her nightmares. He often informs her when she’s had a nightmare the prior night. And she often blows it off as nothing which seems aimed at not worrying him. Here we see Classic Sketchy Aria doing her damage control.

The audience at home have also been privy to some of her dreams, seeing it from her perspective, as with her sex dream about Jason, and her recent 7b nightmare about going to prison and having a prison wedding. Lol. So we know:

*She suffers from periodic nightmares and very realistic dreams. These episodes of nightmares each season she discusses with Ezra, are often precipitated by feelings of guilt she has over messing up her relationship with Ezra yet again. In 7b she starts having nightmares and even pulls a knife on Nicole only AFTER the events of 7a where she deletes that call from Nicole off Ezra’s phone.

*This could explain her personality changes and some of her sketchy behavior.

*This could explain why Pigtunia is so important to her even still.

THAT NIGHT:

Now to begin, let’s review That Night, as the fandom fondly calls it. The night the pilot ep is set in, and the show has revisited, both in flashbacks and new versions of That Night in each season since. The one where Emily got drugged, the one with their slumber party reunion at the Radley Hotel. There’s always one of these drinking night slumber parties with the girls all together before all hell breaks loose. Weird things usually occur on these nights.

We can review the evidence from That Night #1, the night of the barn slumber party when Ali goes missing, for clues. Fans quickly picked up on how Aria was first to awaken (after Spencer, and Ali never slept). Spencer was on uppers which caused the sleeping pills to not work. We know Ali laced their drinks with a sleeping pill. But it seems to have not kept Aria down like the others, as when she awakes, the Red Cup she had been drinking as well as her beloved Pigtunia were nowhere to be found near her… hey, hadn’t they just been there? This indicates she had gotten up and took them both with her at some point during the night between the time they all fell asleep and the time she woke up for the second time which appeared as the first time to us. But really it was the second cuz we notice her cup and pig are gonesies! OHNOEZ?! 😱

We later see the same red cup on Jason’s doorstep and he even picks it up for a drink before realizing it’s empty, indicating Aria by the time she left the cup on his doorstep, had finished her entire drink! It also indicates she may not have entirely finished her laced drink before falling asleep in the barn or why else take it with her? Perhaps via Sleepwalking on autopilot she didn’t realize it was empty and took it along as a natural response to waking thirsty. At any rate the sleeping pills did not keep her asleep, possibly indicating she had used sleeping pills or been prescribed them in the past. Constant use of Sleeping pills can cause a tolerance to build up making the same dose less effective. Or perhaps she she just hadn’t finished enough of her drink to sleep for too long. Either way the cup and pig end up elsewhere and it is never explained why. But the implication is she woke up at some point which We we did not see.

In the book version Ali attempts to hypnotize the girls. Wow, mixing sleeping pills with hypnosis could be a bad combo for someone like Aria with lifelong sleep problems to do some crazy shiz. It could also be why she didn’t stay asleep long in itself. We don’t see this same attempt at hypnosis as we do in the books. So I won’t go into that part.

Say her family got her treatment when young at Radley Sanitarium for sleep observation and to keep her safe at night cuz as a child she had sleepwalked into a few too many dangerous situations. The doctors tried various sleeping meds so she developed a tolerance to sleeping pills in general. The pig was her favorite so she felt safe going to sleep and also served as a childhood way for the parents to keep track of their daughter’s sleep disturbances cuz she’d often leave it wherev she went while Sleepwalking. The pig could have been a good way to help her sleep on her own once released from Radley and was a tool she kept and used as best as she could.

That Night #1, will not be the first or last time Aria has “went out Sleepwalking after midnight” with or to Jason. She had a crush on him. I firmly believe the Patsy Cline reference was about Aria going out Sleepwalking after midnight looking for Jason or someone to keep her safe from her nightmares.

Fast forward to the time the liars raided Jason’s shed to see what pics he was developing. Here’s where we get our next big indicator Aria is a sleepwalker. These pics were all eerily of Aria… sleeping?! 😳 WHO DOES THAT?! Jason later had them framed and gave them to Aria, whom he knew was into photography. More on that photography connection in a minute. At the time of the gift being given to Aria, Jason says he did not take them, and had figured Ali did. But wait… Did Ali ever do photography? NO! Aria did. Maybe the person spying on and photographing Aria in her sleep was in fact the person who got Aria into photography in the first place? Has that occurred to anyone? Someone had to teach her. And we know now it was not Jason or Ali since neither did photography. Jason had his shed to build a darkroom solely for the purpose of developing that role of film he found, and it is here we are more glimpses of a Jason-Aria crush going on behind the scenes which we aren’t privy to seeing till later. But at this point we can safely Ali was a bit too busy running Rosewood to take up any meaningful hobbies.

Now, who else in Rosewood is into photography? Aria, Lucas, and Ian. These are the ones seen with cameras. So it’s plausible one of those 2 gentlemen introduced Aria to photography. We still have no confirmation of who did however, it is left up for viewer speculation. But just by asking the right question of “who does photography in Rosewood?” we can narrow down the field of possible people who’d be spying like this on Aria, AND A team peeps. Cuz we know A likes photography too! More live video photography like Ian and Ezra, but it’s a hint at least of who’s most apt to be spying around Aria sleeping after dark.

Why would someone be taking boring (but beautiful) pics of one of the liars sleeping? We must ask these questions then determine the most logical answer. Logically if I was keeping tabs on a kid sleeping, it would be to ensure they were safe, find out if they were asleep at the time, or if it was known she was a sleepwalker, to keep tabs on what she does while asleep! Why else would someone be that creepy about Aria’s sleep habits?

So Whoev took those pics we can thus logically assume 3 things: They were into photography. So is aria, so maybe this is whom Aria learned photography from… cuz that hasn’t been answered yet!

2. This person (maybe -A or someone wanting to use her Sleepwalking for the -A team knowing she wouldn’t remember whatever they made ever do while asleep the next day) knew she had sleep problems and was actively spying to see when she was asleep or not.

3. This person’s pics are very intimate looking B&W. As if they may have been a bit obsessed with Aria. Was this just to gain Intel on her to use for their own gain or is this person in love with her, noticing her lips as she sleeps and snapping pics of that, etc. This person also has a fondness for B&W like Aria does. So there’s yet another Aria connection to whoev is stalking them. Because of this, i am convinced Aria knows her tormentor well. Most victims of stalking know who is stalking them… except these girls! Criminal Profilers will say most stalkers go after someone they’ve become obsessed with at an unhealthy, dangerous level.

In future seasons, there has often been a redo of That Night, as mentioned above. The next slumber party is just as bizarre, and is where Emily went missing after being drugged, and was later found by a grave holding a shovel. She noted Aria made her call her “Arlene.” Could This Be for Arlene Drake? Or her Sleepwalking alter ego? Like an MPD when she’s asleep? There is a type of disorder that is a lot like a mix of MPD Alters except these alter personas only come out when the person is asleep. Is Aria Sleepwalking as Arlene? She looks a lot like a drake with that dark hair too… hmmm.

ARIA’S FASHION HOLDS CLUES TO HER MIND STATE AND BEHAVIOR GOING ON AT THE TIME:

Have you ever noticed after each season when Aria flubs it with Ezra, she has a period of repenting to him, where her clothes are more conservative and toned down as she tries to make it up to him, for whatever she did? Recently she went to Ezra’s to sleep late at night (maybe with her sleep disorder she felt more comfortable there, and safe from hurting others which she may suspect she’s done before and is hiding, although the details may be a bit fuzzy the next day when awake, which is common with Sleepwalking patients).

At Ezra’s, she discovered late at night, Nicole was sleeping there! So what does Aria do? She pulls a knife on her! Again: WHO DOES THAT? Someone Sleepwalking to her boyfriend’s late at night for some shut eye, and gets startled… Ezra did say it’s dangerous to wake a sleepwalker! And it must be VERY dangerous when it comes to Aria’s Sleepwalking cuz she nearly stabs Nicole before realizing she is not a killer. Maybe Aria sleepwalked there and didn’t mean to pull a knife? Maybe she feel asleep on the couch just to get some shut eye then awoke to Nicole and was startled, but not fully awake. We later see her in her usual toned down sweater and jeans look, as she tries to make it up to Ezra. This has occurred almost every season. She is dressed wildly while she is out on the prowl late at night (pun intended), in animal prints and bright colors. She seems to have endless energy. But then a few eps later we see her double-fisting coffee on a yoga pants and pony tail sort of low maintenance day. Haven’t you ever just been too tired from being up late to do all the hair and makeup before school? We see Aria in this state often when she is resorting to black and white easy wear garb.

Speaking of Ezria, WHERE did they meet? At a bar after dark! And Ezra also commented on her troublesome nightmares and even made a Sleepwalking comment once: “It can be dangerous to wake a sleepwalker.” It’s like he knew how to deal with her and maybe she felt safe with him cuz of this? But at the same time it’s like she never just came out of the sleeping bag and told him she has a serious sleep disorder. It’s a policy of don’t ask/don’t tell between the 2 of them. So he seems aware but she doesn’t seem to want to ever discuss it.

Then there’s the times she awoke at Jason’s to coffee and she seemed happy but slightly confused and drained. She was almost evasive with him. We were lead to believe her and Jason got back together during that 5 years, and she slept there knowingly. But what if she has a habit of Sleepwalking to different exes houses and then awakes the next morning unsure how she got there but they’re used to it so they just give her some coffee and fall back in love with her? Aria does have a way with older men! So her being connected to Uber A whom we suspect is also older, likes sweets, and is into photography, and has “pretty eyes” (& Some tech skills that Aria oddly seems to have picked up VERY fast on both accounts) is plausible.

It’s also plausible she doesn’t even remember knowing Uber A during the day while awake, cuz they go out walking after midnight and then she wakes up having forgotten most of it. -A could have been using her for years this way to get a lot of his/her dirty work done! What better way to keep secrets if your minion doesn’t even know what they’re doing, or their role in it. Aria seems to know now for more recently helping AD, but may not remember all past details relating to helping the A Team at night. We’ve seen her as black Jodie before a few times in previous seasons. So it’s possible she remembers some things or what we are seeing is an asleep Aria when she’s all animal print or black hoodie. Kind of brings another aspect to the whole show, doesn’t it?

But even a forgetful sleepwalker can remember or suspect little things they may have done during an episode. Which may account for her sketchy behavior with hiding certain things at certain times or knowing things the others don’t yet know, etc.

Maybe she suspects all along that she’s done bad things, maybe even murdered people, stolen stuff, hurt others, during these Sleepwalking episodes where A uses her for A’s own game. So what we may be seeing with her behavior is Aria scrambling to cover something she suspects she’s relapsed into again, her Sleepwalking/sleep disorder, but doesn’t fully remember all that happened, while trying to do her own sleuthing to figure out what she did do, and her role in it, and how to fix it all quick before everyone finds out she’s having her night terrors causing her sleepwalk into danger again.

Doesn’t it seem odd she always knows everyone’s biz but we dunno why? How she always has a new phone and new clothes? Sleepwalkers tend to lose stuff easily! She often acts as if she feels guilty, but at the same time we get this genuine feeling that she doesn’t even remember any involvement in -A’s games. And -A always seems to give Aria a pass, even just last ep in 7b, where her turn on the game board was next but she got out of it.

This also may be why we see her ditch Ali and go meet with A, and why A is facetiming her and only her. It seems she has a more intimate relationship with A than the others. But she seems just as at a loss for who A could be as the others. Maybe she turns double agent for A in hopes of learning more about the role she suspects she’s played on the A Team ALL along?! What if she needs to know the truth to help solve dis shiz? So she pretends to go to work for A in hopes of finding out if she’s done those terrible things she suspects… it’s ok Aria. It’s not the first time you’ve betrayed your friends. And it won’t be the last!

Then there was the That Night redo at the hotel Radley where they all had a bit too much to drink, and they wake up learning yet more people have died. They follow Ali to meeting Char at the church, etc. This scene resembles a remake of their old slumber parties. And again this means any time these drinking slumber parties occur, Aria could be going full on “Arlene” on us and Sleepwalking into bad things again. Even Mona called her Big A. We never really believed Charolette was Big A. Hanna has to get info off the hotel security cams, and it’s a big to do. Is it possible Aria is the catalyst, the one setting off the new A game each season when she sleepwalks into trouble at their slumber parties? Hmmm.

At the Radley Hotel Slumber Party, Aria is wearing animal print, and it’s a reoccurrence of “That Night” all over again, where bad shiz goes down.

And idk about any of you, but when it comes to spycraft, learning how to Blue Snarf and hack and surveillance others, Caleb gives Hanna and Aria some toys and teaches them how to use it, and BAM, Aria picks it up so quickly she’s now a mini-Mona! This leads me to believe it is not her first time with surveillance gadgets or doing this! She seems good at slipping trackers in Sydney’s purse. Maybe she’s used to her mother doing it to her to keep tabs on her whereabouts at night? An interesting thought, isn’t it? Maybe that job in Iceland for a year was about more than her parent’s infidelity, but also a way to keep aria safe when she sleepwalks, by keeping her in a remote area. In the books she meets an older guy there too! What is it with Aria and older men?

Another fan and writer reminded us of that plan the liars made while cleaning up trash on the side of the street in Orange jumpsuits. One of them comments and they start arguing. They fight about “a deal with a rattlesnake.“ the snake presumably as -A. (Cite: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1180298)

Upon reviewing some of Aria’s fashion choices, we realized that Aria has worn a lot animal prints and jungle themes, as well as SNAKES! She had a snake bracelet in one of her many, many, many, jungle themed outfits! In episode 5x04, Aria is wearing a snake print top. This isn’t the only time she has worn snake themed prints, along with animal prints. In s7, she wore snake print again.

I’m guessing Aria wears a lot of animal prints when she is in active sleepwalking episodes (now there’s one way to explain her fashion changes! Her wardrobe has serious bipolar disorder! Lol). She’s feeling empowered, and dangerous. She has frequently engages in dangerous behaviors when dressed this wildly. Whereas by the time we see her in her B&W phase she’s drained from nights of no sleep. And by the time we get to her seasonly "Ugly Sweater” phase, it seems she’s being repentant toward Ezra and has toned it down a bit to look more responsible. She’s in that phase now as of the last 2 eps: 7x17, and 7x18. It’s like she’s given up on fashion and taken up coffee. However we do see one more rare glimpse at her Snow White style during her pre-wedding dance class with Ezra, where just a week later in viewer time, her large self-inflicted arm wound has vanished completely! Wow, who wants magic healing powers like Snow White Aria?! 🙌🏽

Speaking of Aria’s arm wound and her fashion choices, it seems possible that Miss Aria is also a cutter in secret. Another fan mentioned this once (& I apologize for not citing it here but I have lost the link then couldn’t find it when I tried to go back and look for it, so forgive me first fan who brought that theory/hypothesis up!)

During these times Aria is more adventurous and animalistic in her wardrobe choices, we often also see her with chunky bracelets only on one side. And the Ugly Sweater Repentant phases she goes through each season could also be to hide cut marks. We see her in short skirts a lot but hiding her wrists or arms at times.

Anyone else notice how Aria and Paige McCuller’s hairstyle is a lot alike recently. In fact they look rather similar… almost like they could be sisters or cousins almost. If Aria has an evil twin it could be Paige as their hair mirrors each other. Also the hair on AD during their FaceTime chats is a lot like Paige’s. If Paige just brushed her hair out a bit after each vid chat and went to work. It could be either Aria’s own hair CGI’d/A.I.’d onto AD or as I suspect, a puzzle hodge-podge of each character’s facial/head features. The eyes don’t match. The eye of AD on the left has much darker eyeliner than the one on the right. The eyebrows don’t quite match either. Made me think of the s7b promo posters of the triangles showing just a part of each liar’s face. Twitter clue handle AKnowsAll has hinted that promo poster is a puzzle clue! Maybe AD is using bits of each liar’s face to make the Artificial Intelligence AD?

MONTGOMERY MENTAL ILLNESS SIGNA AND CONNECTIONS:

*Byron admits his brother suffers from mental illness.

*Byron admits he hasn’t been so good about enduring Aria doesn’t get burned… by whom?

*Byron is caught cheating on his wife by his own daughter.

*Ali attempts to blackmail Byron for money to keep his cheating secret.

*Aria once tells Ezra her aunt had her cat stuffed and talks to it.

*Aria is oddly attached to her Pigtunia puppet. Puppets are often used in play therapy for kids with mental illness.

*Aria is dating her own high school teacher and hides it from everyone.

*Everyone admits Aria is the best liar.

*Aria herself admits to being -A once.

*Mona who also suffers from mental illness and was an outcast, liked to play with toys (dolls in this case) and talk to them. It was a sort of therapy for her.

*Aria likes to dress up as different characters from movies and literature. She’s also been known to write her name using the trademark -A as seen in this pic. Oddly she wakes up in a coffin next to a dead Garret.

*Aria has chronic episodes of nightmares.

*Mike her brother had to get help for mental illness and put on meds for acting out and stealing stuff. Ella gets involved with a much younger con artist guy.

During 3x1, where “That Night” happens all over again, Aria seems to have a hallucination/episode in the bathroom and believes she sees -A. Fans still don’t know whether -A was really there or she just thought so. She would have been suffering from Sleep Deprivation after their reunion slumber party where Emily gets drugged and is found by a grave calling Aria “Arlene.” Curiously, Aria is the one wearing a yellow top in this episode.

Onto 7x19, where Aria is found curiously talking to a dead body in her car, driving around in circles trying to figure out what to do. We haven’t seen her talk to something not alive before so this strikes us as odd. She’s almost expecting answers and this convo is helping her to process and make decisions during a stressful situation. This could be seen as an adult breakdown version of a little girl learning to talk out her problems to a pig in a therapist’s office!

Then suddenly as soon as she tells Ezra, the body disappears. Ok bodies don’t just appear and disappear. Did Ezra see the body? Maybe she just imagined it, cuz she was Sleepwalking again. Was there a body in her trunk, or were we seeing her madness from her perspective and believing it was a real event? Was she even awake? This entire scene takes place at night and she is once again separated from the liars and feeling guilty for her actions. What if feelings of guilt trigger her Sleepwalking/nightmare episodes and this acting out she gets into cycles of? Cuz she just had been having more nightmares lately according to Ezra. She had just pulled a knife on Nicole late at night going to Ezra’s to get some sleep. She may have been Sleepwalking there and startled awake to find she had instinctively pulled a knife on someone! Is this how she acts when she’s in this altered state?

If so, we can assume she’s become violent before! And Ezra is quick to take her side, help calm her down, etc. He’s done this before for her. Although whether or not he knows she may have attacked others in her sleep/altered states is still up for debate and not our concern here.

It seems odd things occur when Aria is asleep, having nightmares, or lacking sleep. In 2x12, we see Aria is back to her low maintenance B&W easy-wear, double-fisting coffee as she sleuths to eavesdrop. Hmmm… she seems tired, and curious. This may be a bad combo for our AriA.

The Dreaded Cites:

Info on Sleepwalking disorders: http://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/sleepwalking-and-children

On Waking a Sleepwalker: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49053/why-arent-you-supposed-wake-sleepwalker

© 2017, FleurDeLissasWords, & Gamma Zeta Lie Sorority, including members: Lt. Ginger Sweazy, Becky Ann, Libby Dormouse, Ali Pi, Emma Swan, Kim Glasgow, Sheena Clayton, @thepllfanxx, Josh Gladden, Molly Shrews, Katsy Nicole,

❤️ GRUNWALD “GREEN FOREST” IN JEWISH-GERMAN! 😱

GZL is devastated Meg Foster has not had an appearance in PLL 7b. We know she’s busy working for Rob Zombie now, and this dashed all of our Uber A hopes and dreams. Here is an old “theory” that is beloved in GZL, as Grunwald is what brought many of us together.

This is a super easy one no one ever added up.

So if one asks the question (prior to s7), what qualities we were looking for as a collective fandom in PLL, it would be these pivotal 3:

A. -A was once referred to as “Pretty Eyes. Many fans took this to be Toby as he was on the A Team that season, and out of the entire regular cast, has pretty blue eyes.

B. -A is older and has resources.

C. -A may be of German origin. We know our beloved Mar, exec producer ooooif PLL is also German, so that’s probably an homage to her heritage.

D. -A likes sweets and having tea like a refined person.

E. -A uses the initial "A” so there must be a reason.

So we know our Uber -A has access to resources. Who in Rosewood could be from old money? This narrows it down a lot right here: The Hastings. The DiLaurentis, the Fitzgeralds, and of course the refined well-dressed Grunwald.

Which brings me to my next point. The surname Grunwald is tindeed German/Jewish-German, and means “Green Forest.” How many shenanigans have taken place in the Rosewood forests? In Tyler State Park? A LOT! In fact Ali once equated -A as the forest Andy being everywhere and seeing everything. Yuh Many fans have suspected Grunwald may be the grandmother of Ali. She has blue eyes like the DiLaurentis. We know she’s not Toby & Jenna’s mom, despite their pretty blue eyes. She could be a DiLaurentis or Cavanaugh just by looks alone!

We figure Mrs. Grunwald the psychic advisor, and strict abusive sorority mother, likely has a motherly streak but can be mean… much like our -A seems to be giving and taking away from the girls in Rosewood -A seeks to influence.

Then there’s that Halloween story Ali told while babysitting with Hanna, of the 2 blonde girls in a 1950’s kitchen, and coming home to find one twin stabbed and then sent the other away. And on Ravenswood we know Grunwald was plagued by calls from a young girl from spirit realm where these spirit twins seem to have resided… if it wasn’t Aria’s kitchen long before the Montgomery’s owned it. Lol. The mother in this story looks like a younger Grunwald, complete with same hair and dress. This would have been Grunwald’s generation of kids too, about that age in the 1950’s.

Then we have her strikingly gorgeous eyes. In fact, when she was cast as Hester in The Scarlet Letter, it was her eyes that won her the role! And we know the Scarlet Letter was an “A” for adultery. Woah! Take that in for a moment. Hollywood cast her in a lot of roles because of those “pretty eyes.” A lot of younger viewers may not know Meg Foster’s acting résume but she also played Evil-Lyn a villain of superheroes. That’s TWO scorned women roles. And we know PLL cast very carefully. A lot of fans have drawn comparisons on which actors were chosen for which roles and why. A lot of real life came into play when casting for roles of a lifetime. Ali had already portrayed older girls and was 12 when the pilot was filmed. Ashley Benson had a history of playing the blonde mean girl. Lucy Hale had a history of playing the artsy music loving weird quirky girl… and so on. So can we expect any less when casting for the lead villain on our beloved show? NO! Meh Foster plays a good villain with a nice streak.

Maybe the -A in this show stands for a scorned woman who was falsely branded, and turned all badsies… but nthen still wanted to ensure the girls of Rosewood were brought up properly, and called out for their lies and bad behavior, as -A often does. At times -A rewards the girls. And at other times -A punished them, much like a strict mother, or sorority mother might! We know she saved Ali from death by burial. We know she helped Ali stay hidden and some might say, was an influenjhrhce on her. But later when they meet in the street, Ali seems creeped out by her penetrating gaze, like she knows something Ali doesn’t want known. H

Meg Foster in The Scarlet Letter (which we see teacher Ali writing about on the wall in the initial blackboard scene, which is later changed to versions of her names and aliases): http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0078683/

Meg Foster has also played Hera, Queen of the Gods. Ali, and then Hanna, and now Addison have been the Queens of Rosewood. Maybe Grunwald was too back in her day, but thinks what girldom in Rosewood has come to is disgusting and deplorable?

Her role as Hera: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/349310514823115889/

So what would a GrunwAld as -A intention be for all of this? Simple: she lost one of her daughters to bad behavior. She knew how girls could be with each other. She went on to be the house mother for a sorority and ran it with an iron fist. Nothing got by GrunwAld’s psychic “pretty eyes!” The sorority girls themselves confirmed this. She seemed to have eyes in the back of her head.. or eyes that could penetrate your soul.

I once found an anagram in one of the many PLL codes that spelled Carla. This is GrunwAld’s first name. I believe it was the Eye Chart that said “Can U See Me Now.”

More interesting connections on Meg Foster here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Foster

She was born in Pennsylvania. Rosewood is theresies! 😱

She played a role as an “Ali Tanner!” Woah!

She played a Queen more than once.

In Teen Titans, her role was “Mother Mayhem”… need I say more?

No other actor or character on PLL fits all the criteria we know for Uber -A.

She’s approx 5'6. Not quite tall enough to be the character Charles in the dollhouse, which still doesn’t destroy this theory cuz as far as we know, Cece/Charlotte was “Charles.” I never really believed this plausibly and keep hoping it’s all a bad dream or Char’s big lie, and this will all end up making sense… somehow. But if it doesn’t, and we’re left with questions, let this “theory” answer them for you for all time! It was Carla GrunwAld!!!

😘 -L

© 2017, FleurDeLissasWords… this one’s all mine kids! Credit me bitches or else.

❤️NOT ENOUGH EMPHASIS HAS BEEN PLACED ON #MOLEB!!!

I just love the chemistry of this pair in the show! Both the techy genius outcasts. Both have reason for grudges. Both a bit misunderstood. Here’s the GZL Group Theory on If #Moleb did it, and is the ultimate A.D. Team:

#Moleb.. Not Enough Emphasis Has Been Placed on Mona+Caleb as the AD Power Couple!: GZL 7b, 2017

We know AD is a Team. We also have been told via twitter clues (credit @AKnowsAll) that AD is 1. A Name. 2. Also a Place.

We know Mona and Caleb have all the Techy Skills in Rosewood (as does Aria now too, but more on that aspect later).

What if they’re working together as AD this whole time, except Mona never knew she was working with Caleb?! 😱 This might make some sense. Both have motive: misunderstood genius outcasts bullied by the girls early on in the series. No one wanted Hanna with that bad boy Caleb. And maybe they have been the A Team leaders all along? This is the hypothesis we’ll be working with in this piece.

Why would Caleb sell out his A Team partner by using a thermal camera to show Ezra what Mona is up to in her lair? Simple: AD=Caleb got pissed off she was back to helping the liars again and going solo, so he’s once again throwing her under the bus. He’s done it before back when Original A was revealed. Even back then she was helping the liars secretly and seemed to want to expose herself.

Face it: the two both have not only equal tech skillsies but also use a lot of similar technology. Almost as if one got it and learned it from the other!

TECHY GENIUS: Who Does Radley Security?

ACCESS TO RESOURCES (Aka: Means): Who seem to have unlimited access to resources for gear and stylish clothes despite hardly ever being seen working?

AD REFERENCES: References early in the series to an “Artful Dodger!” Another fan (mentioned below in the cites section), reminded us that Caleb was once referred to as this. Could this be a reference to AD?

WHO ARE HIS PARENTS?! WHERE ARE HIS PARENTS?

BEING PLACED IN FOSTER CARE AT AGE 5: he may have more reason than any character to want to find family and get revenge.

7b CLUESIES FOR CALEB:

When did he get a Flir Thermal Imager? He didn’t say. Seems to be this season’s newest tech for him. He seems to upgrade his tech Ea season.

In s7a, Caleb even steals Ali’s goodwill jacket and Spencer’s phone and runs from the group trying to solve for -A, with the jacket to take to “AD” to get Hanna back. Caleb has always been a “let’s find out who this -A is” except his tech never actually gets the girls anywhere. He switched Hanna’s phone saying her old one was buggy and could be a link to AD. He gives her a new phone… which he has a constant supply of, like AD does. Weird! What if he’s been playing both sides all along? This could explain how AD knows so much about the girl’s misdoings. They spent a great deal of time discussing AD issues and their crimes in the Radley Hotel lobby, KNOWING Caleb did the security system and the security footage was being reviewed by police to implicate Spencer in Rollin’s death.. don’t these girls ever learn?! U don’t discuss the crimes you’ve committed that you want kept secret in a camera’d lobby.

Why would someone need a thermal imager if playing A? GZL asked this question. We often find answers right under our noses if we ask the right question! Well, Aria’s phone from AD was rigged to blow up on command! A thermal imager would be handy to detect a fire inside someone’s home. Notice this burning phone was not put out by Aria, but it didn’t seem to burn the place down as we never see any fire trucks arriving later. It must have went out on its own or been put out after Aria walked out of the door. Caleb is good at causing distractions using the elements as he did causing a flood earlier this season to save Hanna from having to find evidence. A good way for a bad guy to get rid of evidence he didn’t want in anyone’s hands but his own.

There have also been fires each season A has caused to one liar or another. Lol. A techy person would know how to rig a bomb to explode via a remotely controlled trigger device!

Why are all the liars often seen inside the Radley bar lobby discussing A related or incriminating things even though they KNOW CALEB did the security for the place and Rosewood PD has gotten her hands on the Radley footage already… why be foolish enough to sit there again after finding this out and continue to not only discuss but say their specific roles in turn of how Archer was run over? Seems stupid. *Just an annoying side note.

We know he was a troubled boy and Lucas’ best friend was Charles at the camp for troubled boys. Back prior to the CeceIsA reveal, GZL did a painstaking facial recognition and height comparison of ALL PLL Characters, comparing them to the masked figure Charles inside the dollhouse! The Top Matches for this height were: Caleb, Spencer, Cece, and Jason. Charles and Caleb both start with a C. Maybe he changed his name? Both Lucas and Caleb have some tech skills, and both lived together.

GRUNWALD SAW SOMETHING DARK AROUND HANNA:

And caleb has dark hair. The darkest on the show currently now that Aria’s hair is lightened… maybe he became dark too?! The color is also a close match for Spencer’s, making them plausible siblings based on height, smarts, sleuthing ability, and type A personalities. Dang, how many kids did Peter Hastings have? Cuz Caleb’s father/uncle was light haired, almost reddish I believe. He didn’t look a thing like his father/uncle. We say this a lot about Hanna and her mother too.

TWITTER CLUE HANDLES:

Twitter user: AKnowsAll insists AD is both a name AND a location. I did an exhaustive search on locations beginning with the initials AD, which turned up… not a whole lot. There’s a few cities here and there with these letters. Then while googling info on another fav show (Salem) I came across a reference to a “Charles Rivers” in Salem Massachusetts. If Caleb’s name prior to being put in foster care or coming to Rosewood was “Charles,” this could make sense. Also, according some height comparisons done by GZL members, Caleb and Jason matched up fairly close with masked Charles height, along with Spencer. If Caleb Rivers is really Charles as AD, as in the early earned moniker the “Artful Dodger,” he could be AD.

HE LET SARA COME WORK FOR HIM WITH NO JOB SKILLS! She didn’t know how to use a computer and was otherwise not qualified for a techy sort of job, but he hired her anyway. He seemed to take a liking to wanting to help her. If both had been members of the AD Team, and he had been her boss on the AD Team, he may have wanted to help her once free… or keep tabs on her. She seems to have either not known Caleb was AD, or hadn’t seen him unmasked, or possibly she really did differ from a sort of Stockholm syndrome and wanted to remain with her captor.

Also let’s review every liar who’s phones could be compromised in season 7:

Hanna was given a new phone by Caleb under the pretense that her real phone could have been compromised by AD somehow after her kidnapping.

When Caleb went to stab the liars in the back and take Ali’s dubious jacket to AD, he ran off and took Spencer’s phone with him. We never find out if she got it back, but if he had it in his possession for a while, he could have cloned it or compromised it somehow to be able to spy on her.

Aria always has new devices, BUT, when she did her brief stint on the AD Team, we see her old phone blown up. She grabs a new one from a stash of them she has, but where did she get a stash of burner phones? Who has those? Caleb! Her real phone got blown up by AD and AD did NOT want her throwing it out a window. When it’s blown up, she grabs another and dashes out not even bothering to put the phone fire out. With all the fires they’ve had, seems irresponsible to me. Once AD/Caleb was done spying on Aria for her AD tasks, he destroyed the phone she was using to communicate with AD.

In the next ep we see Caleb with a new thermal imager we have no idea how he acquired or why, and is showing Ezra what Mona is doing so if he is AD, he is now spying on Mona again… no wonder he went into the diner for pie to meet her. She appeared as if she had no idea who she was waiting for as AD, and caleb messes that stake out Up for everyone (as always) and Mona ends up getting away. She later reveals her involvement in Charlotte’s death, and regresses back to Crazy Mona for the first time in ages. Caleb as AD has been using her and she even said she never knew who Charles was but that she was scared of him.

The Few Things That DON’T AD-D Up:

A. While his eyes are pretty, there are other characters like Grunwald, and Toby, who are known in the acting world for their strikingly “pretty eyes.”

B. His name: Caleb Rivers, IS Hebrew and French origins, NOT German like Grunwald or Grottesman. The reference to water doesn’t exactly add up like Grunwald’s German-Jewish name meaning “Green Forest” (a perfect name for Uber A really, with so much having happened in the forest… but that’s another GZL theory). Rivers usually do run through forests and forests cannot be sustained without water, So Maybe it’s fitting in a round-a-bout way. Lol.

C. He seems more helpful toward the liars and wants to protect Hanna. But has his protection worked every time? No, sometimes it’s backfired badly, as in most of his s7b suggestions. Starting the flood, erasing security footage the cops realized was missing, and how to handle the life-sized Hanna Doll, were all incorrect and landed Hanna, and thus the liars in hotter water. It almost seems as if he is actively working against them. He also had no ideas about the game board’s function and was quickly dismissed in regards to having any helpful ideas about the blasted game. Odd considering he should know a thing or two about technology and how Uber A operates at this point.

So, as far as the male cast goes, Caleb could be AD. Maybe this was his game all along? We’ve all seen those weird moments where he seems less than a trustworthy devout boyfriend. He’s a master manipulator, and they always said A is someone they know who’s very close to them! No one better would match up with this statement. Someone Garret said “has you all fooled.” Hmmm. I say #Moleb’s name is written all over this conspiracy.

You’re welcome! 😘 -L

Citations from other theories in cyberspace:

https://www.google.com/amp/thoughtcatalog.com/de-elizabeth/2015/03/7-reasons-caleb-could-be-big-a-on-pretty-little-liars/amp/

http://aminoapps.com/page/pll/2342683/caleb-is-a-d-theory

Mention of the “Charles River” near Salem Massachusetts: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_River

© 2017, Fleurdelissaswords, & Gamma Zeta Lie Sorority mystery solving group. Please share but don’t use without written permission.

@charlesgame @pllcloset @plltherapysessions @pllonfreeform @freeform @liarswhtpsd @liars–pretty–liars @liarsinravenswood @prettylittleliars @prettylittlesecrethints @pretty-little-liars-hints @prettylittletheoriesandspoilers @monavanderslayy @ezriasupport @ezriaisendgame @ezriagame @ezriavslucian @ezria–forever @emison @emisonisforever @emisonislifeok @emison-sashay-endgame @spobyismylife @spobyfanclub @spobyisinmyveins @spobyz @mimithebabyfox @missariaiskiller @missheroinerawr @missariathekiller

@kkthanks @charlesgame @mimithebabyfox @prettylittleliars @prettylittlesecrethints @prettytheories @pretty-little-liars-hints @prettylittletheoriesandspoilers @prettylittleforum @monavanderslayy @halebconfessions @haleb-blog @haleb-lovers @halebhq @spobyisinmyveins @spobyismylife @spobyfanclub @ezriasupport @ezriaisendgame @ezriagame @ezria--forever @emison @emisonisforever @emison-evak @emisonislifeok @emison-sashay-endgame @sashapietersedaily @ashleybensonfashionstyle @ashleybenson @ashleybenson-style @ashleybensonforever @ashleybenson-peru @lucyhale @lucyhalefansite @lucyhaleheaders @lucyhalephotos @lucyhale-daily @ianhardingworld-blog @ianhardingquotes @ianhardingoffical @ianhardingmx @shaymitchell-brazil-blog @shaymitchdailyy @shaymitchellbeauty @shaymitchellteam @shaymitchfashionstyle @tylerblackburnaddiction-blog @tylerblackburndaily @tylerblackburnfuckyeah @tylerblackburn @hollymariescombs @hollymariecombs @hollymariefuckingcombs-blog @hollymariecombs1

[comicteaparty]

August 17th-August 23rd, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from August 17th, 2019 to August 23rd, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

How do you handle foreshadowing for future events/reveals in your story?

AntiBunny

In AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ I cheat a little on foreshadowing. Since stories tend to change as I develop them I can't always be sure that things will play out as planned. That's why I'm vague when I foreshadow things, so that they can be interpreted in multiple ways. On the one hand giving some foreshadowing forces me to keep the story from going too far off the rails, and on the other being vague enough gives me flexibility to change my mind. One particular example is between Nailbat (a prequel) and Gritty City Stories (the main story), two characters use the same phrase "you have such a linear view of history," for the big reveal at the end of Nailbat, that these two are actually the same person. I dropped additional foreshadowing mid way through Nailbat stating that the cloak of shadows is a mystical artifact, implying that one character is wearing something that's hiding his true identity.

Bits of foeshadowing that some people can probably piece together already, but hasn't totally paid off yet is the repeated references to 50 years ago. A more vague one that won't pay off for quite a long time is the phrase "my real enemies are still very far away."

When I did that first one I wasn't entirely sure I wanted these two to become the same character, but since I was running both stories side by side at the time, it was an easy reference to throw in. If I decided against it, it's just a nod to their similarities. Since I ran with that idea it paid off big.

50 years ago has been concrete in my plan from page 1 though, so no need to be vague there.

Ultimately I'd say my approach to foreshadowing is to be vague enough to not write yourself into a corner, but be willing to follow through on it. An obvious foreshadowing needs to pay off. By staying loose with it you can make changes and still get some pay off with it. Be specific only when you have a foregone conclusion and you want to make sure you can stick to it.

HiddenElephant

I suspect I don't do it well for The Wide Ocean. http://thewideocean.thecomicseries.com/ It's a bit of a writing problem that I have; I'm scared to give too much away and end up not saying enough. There are panels where I flat-out announce what's coming next. I can recall 1 specific panel about page 40 that flat-out said, there's zombies in the sand in the ocean, but other than that? You're going to need to pay attention. At least 1 person has figured out something major to one of the characters that I've not yet revealed (and don't know how to reveal).

authorloremipsum

http://signsofthreecomic.webcomic.ws/comics/ For Signs of Three, since the stories are mysteries, I have to make sure all the clues (aka the foreshadowing) are placed in plain view of the readers. I want them to figure it out, to make guesses and such before the reveal. A plot twist should surprise but not confuse or betray your reader.

But foreshadowing is one reason I see people with No outlines and get worried

snuffysam

So, here’s the thing. I write... weird. I start with the themes of my story, then write a synopsis of each book & any other major events I can think of. I spend my drawing time for each book writing out the script for the next book and making a detailed outline for the book after that. So as a result of that process, I have a lot of room to reference future events without worry that I’m writing myself into a corner. Some things I’d call more “teases” than foreshadowing. Like how there are minor or background characters in books 1 & 2 who become important in books 3-5. Or how the cover pages for book 2 spell out “NOTHING”. But there are other things I’d definitely put under the foreshadowing umbrella. Like all the hints in Book 1 towards the plague not being natural. Or this line from Lord Ro: http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/301/ IMO, I think if your comic has any twists in it, you should make a habit of foreshadowing them ahead of time. It encourages re-reading, and helps keep your audience from feeling like you pulled the rug out from under them.

Respheal

In OSP's Trope Talks video on plot twists, they categorize plots twists as being either retroactive (revealing information that changes the story up to that point) and trajectory (moving the story in an unexpected direction). The majority of Galebound's (http://www.galebound.com/) reveals and twists are retroactive. To really make the retroactive twists work, I needed to know where the story is going so I could pepper in clues to future twists nice and early without needing to retcon things. I try to make every page either have something that either gives a little more information about the world or characters, OR something that once you know the truth changes. So basically everything is revealing the truth of the retroactive twists, or setting up for a new reveal that makes the retroactive twist work. It kinda turns into the cyclical beast of foreshadowing. Some early examples--Din and Pascals's mysterious obedience throughout the first three chapters is revealed in chapter four to be magical compulsion, which then changes the tone of the first three chapters a bit when you realize Din wasn't kidding when he said he had no choice. And then you learn Din is a straight up murderer, making his interactions with Conan more...understandable? I've also got stuff scattered in that won't pay off until the literal last page, but despite that last page being hundreds of pages away the seeds have been planted.

ErinPtah (Leif & Thorn | BICP)

In But I'm A Cat Person (http://bicatperson.com/), I either did too much foreshadowing, or the twists weren't bizarre enough...there are a few things I wanted to be a source of tension and mystery, where reader comments just went "oh, of course the answer is X" (and were right).

They didn't guess everything, but there were a few dramatic character-to-character reveals where I had to think "gotta make this look really cool, because the information isn't going to wow readers -- it's all on the presentation."

LadyLazuli

In Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) I've already dropped a lot of hints as to where this story is going, but they're mixed in with some big, shiny red herrings to throw off my readers. I don't want to (and honestly can't) hide every secret from my audience (I want them to solve SOME things and have fun doing it!), so I'm allowing some details to show more clearly than others. For example, I'm not a fan of twist villains - the character I'm currently working with the most is definitely a villain, and I don't want to hide that. I want the audience to know it, and enjoy her villainy along the way! But the big question becomes WHY and HOW she's a villain. And that's a whole other onion layer to play with.

But amidst all the fun mini-secrets, there is a single secret in the story that I want no one to predict until the last moment. Not a soul. It will probably happen, just because I A) trust that my readers are smart! and B) I don't trust myself to hide it properly ... but I want to try and conceal it as much as possible. If my other secrets fail to be hidden, I want to put all the effort into concealing this one. All in all, my reveals are the driving reason I'm making this story. As soon as I imagine drawing them, my motivation increases tenfold!

The Q

That's the whole thing about stories online, right? You want a readership, you want them engaged, and you want them to try and figure out your twists! At the same time, you want to surprise them and make some amazing surprises for them! I think there's a few different ways of handling readers guessing your twists... LOST and Gravity Falls being good examples of two different approaches.

Desnik

I'm actually having a lot of trouble with http://ask-a-warlock.tumblr.com/ and foreshadowing, I guess because a lot of executive dysfunction in settling on one plot point or another. I usually don't notice until I bring the script in to my writing group. There's all this cool stuff I want to include but I have to admit that I'm prone to overloading with foreshadowing to the point that the plot seems to stop happening

Jonny Aleksey

I've done a lot of hinting at characters in J-Man. Particularly with the Big-Man and Mr. Stone (main villains), Unknown Man (who's helped him0, and Lady M (who'll be the main antagonist of the next issue). I put in some mysteries about J-Man's parents in the prequel comic I did a while back. I see myself more putting in mysteries then foreshadowing because it gives me a bit more freedom to change and mold things when I actually do get to them. Tho I do have solid ideas for how certain important things will play out.(edited)

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

http://oldmanandtheseawitch.tumblr.com/ already has foreshadowing up the wazoo. Every chapter art is foreshadowing something or contains a secret. I hid secrets in almost every page. :>(edited)

The Q

Oh MAN, I gotta read this!

And for me; foreshadowing is everything. I work really hard to use every element of the story and have as little unused setups as possible. Working on an epic fantasy, as I do right now (and -can't wait- to show), it gets even trickier, and even more important, to try and streamline what you set up, vs what you pay off later in the story.

Jurinova

In my comic (https://tapas.io/series/hiadw) I try my best to foreshadow without making it too obvious. I drop hints or hide them in plain sight, so people can notice them if they pay attention but it's not something that instantly draws attention. For me good foreshadowing is something that makes people go "Oh, of course! That's what that was about!" when they reach the point that was foreshadowed and I think at least a few times I've succeeded so far. I also tend to do a lot of little visual cues that connect certain characters or plot points, for example two characters do the same thing when they get nervous or anxious. They are definitely quite subtle but when viewing the comic as a whole they become more obvious. Since I put a lot foreshadowing into the comic it's natural that some of them go unnoticed but I'm hopeful that if someone re-reads they might pick up on them. I mean I do have hints already in place for the final chapter, so it's gonna take a while for those to be noticed.

authorloremipsum

Coming back again, to comment on two things. 1. Chapter covers or story covers that have foreshadowing in them are my FAVORITE. if the symbolism tells us what will happen in the story before it's even begun, I get so excited. 2. My favorite kind of foreshadowing in normal books is when a specific detail is pointed out in the environment that comes into play later. Excuse the violent example, but one book specifically described a hotel having razors in the bathroom, which later turned out to be a very very bad thing. In a comic, you'd probably do this with a close up on some details in an environment.

The Q

I hadn't even thought about the chapter cover thing, but I LOVE THAT!

[maiddegree71-blog]

Highly Recommended: Pastry Murder Mysteries

Murder-as-entertainment was never my thing. Having spent a short chapter of my life working on a true-crime television show that resulted in daily calls to my mom to tell her I loved her, I’m not one to rush towards grisly Netflix docs or podcasts about someone’s favorite murders. But one afternoon while waiting in the checkout line at a grocery store, I noticed an ad on the conveyor belt divider for the newest book by Joanne Fluke, a New York Times bestselling author who apparently holds the much-coveted title of “Queen of Culinary Capers.”

The book was called Raspberry Danish Murder, a title that, given my tendency to request the dessert menu at the start of every restaurant meal I partake in, instantly caught my attention. As it turns out, Raspberry Danish Murder, which was released in February of this year, is the 22nd (!) book in an ongoing series surrounding a fictitious bakery owner/detective named Hannah Swensen. Each installment features a new murder for Hannah to solve, along with at least a dozen recipes for baked goods and (an occasional) savory dish, each mentioned somewhere in the story. The most accurate way to describe these books might be “cookbooks with smatterings of fiction woven in” — which is precisely why they’re my favorite guilty-pleasure reading material.

The protagonist, Hannah, is a red-headed 20- or 30-something (depending on how far along in the series you are) living in the fictional small town of Lake Eden, Minnesota. She lives with her giant orange cat, Moishe, is very close with her mother and sisters, and, despite being an innocent bakery owner, manages to find herself entangled in multiple murders each calendar year. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly macabre elements — they’re about as scary as Dr. Seuss stories, complete with a small-town setting that adds a dose of provincial charm. Hannah knows everyone in town by name (in addition to their favorite sweet treat), and her bakery, the Cookie Jar, acts as a community meeting place for Lake Eden’s locals. Murder might be what excites the town, but Swensen’s desserts are what unite it.

The Hannah Swensen series belongs to the “cozy mysteries” genre, books that downplay the graphic violence or overt noir often found in other mysteries. “The heart of why readers love cozies is they know what they are getting,” mystery writer Amanda Flower wrote in Publisher’s Weekly earlier this year. “The cozy lesson is an average person can make a difference. It doesn’t matter if the protagonist is a knitter, a librarian, or a gardener — that person can solve a murder.” (The genre also extends beyond books — Hallmark produced five made-for-television films based on Fluke’s series, with former soap star and The Biggest Loser host Alison Sweeney starring as Hannah.) Part of the appeal of the pastry murder mystery series is the element of reader interaction: Clues surrounding the murders are scattered throughout, a la Encyclopedia Brown. Plus, there’s no need to get sad when someone gets killed off because they were likely a minor character with an offensive personality trait. In fact, the prospect of Hannah burning her cookies stresses me out more than the criminal activity itself.

Hannah’s desserts, of course, are actually Fluke’s recipes, which, as she told the New York Times in 2017, come from her own kitchen experiments, her family’s recipe books, and from fans. The featured recipes often have nothing to do with the actual plot line of a book — for instance, a quick reference to deep-fried candy bars made during a visit to the county fair in Key Lime Pie Murder warrants the inclusion of “Ruby’s Deep-Fried Candy Bars” in the recipe index. (That said, some of the more recent books can have as many as 20 recipes, so I can appreciate the impossibility of each one being a critical story device.) And though I haven’t yet tried my hand at any of them, they have quite a healthy digital presence — they’re featured on literary food blogs like Mysterious Eats and appear on dedicated Pinterest boards.

From a reader’s (if not a cook’s) perspective, I’m a sucker for the little modifications or suggestions the “characters” (via Fluke) insert into their recipes — some are courtesy of Hannah, and others from supporting characters in the story. The secondary character notes get thrillingly specific: In the recipe for a fruit pastry from one of Hannah’s employees, Lisa, Fluke writes: “Since pineapple is Herb’s favorite fruit, I’m going to try it with pineapple jam next, if Florence can order it at the Red Owl. I’m pretty sure that Smucker’s makes it.” Herb is Lisa’s boyfriend, and the Red Owl is the town grocery store. How can you not admire such commitment to fictitious world-creation?

There’s no need to get sad when someone gets killed off — they were likely a minor character with an offensive personality trait.

It should go without saying, but these books are not literary masterpieces. Fluke jumps at any opportunity to drop a food reference: Hannah’s truck is described as “candy apple red,” and she wears sweaters emblazoned with phrases like, “Got Cookies?” Almost every character Hannah encounters, as minor as they may be, reveals a specific relationship to food; we learn that Reverend Bob Knudson has a soft spot for Red Devil’s Food Cake (haha), while Herb Beeseman, the town marshal, is partial to Hannah’s Molasses Crackles. Even Moishe can’t escape food comparisons: “Once his whole body was stretched taut, he began to quiver like the proverbial bowl full of Jell-O.”

For the blood and guts-averse like me, it’s a blessing that the writing is straightforward and avoids gory details. Aside from (maybe) Hannah, there’s no risk of attachment to characters. Even the “good” characters are written with as much depth as a kiddie pool. Frustratingly, our heroine tends to put herself down for superficial, sexist reasons; i.e. her weight and fears of becoming a “spinster” at 30 (eye roll), though she ultimately shrugs off her insecurities in favor of consuming the baked goods she holds so dear. The food always wins in the end, which makes it marginally more tolerable, but Joanne, let’s cut this archaic nonsense moving forward, yeah?

That said, food is unquestionably the main character — the people are simply the vessels through which it’s presented and served to the reader. I find the often clunky, contrived food references to be one of the series’ most endearing qualities. “Their bakery and coffee shop, the Cookie Jar, was as empty as one of Hannah’s cream puffs before it was filled with vanilla custard,” Fluke writes in Peach Cobbler Murder. How much more delightful would life be if we started speaking in pastry-centric similes? And that’s to say nothing of the quirky wordplay, which Fluke uses to comedic effect just in case the docile nature of the books wasn’t obvious enough. In fact, puns abound throughout the cozy mystery genre at large, as evidenced by titles like: Till Death Do Us Tart; Another One Bites The Crust; Butter Safe Than Sorry: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery; and one that speaks to recent trends called Purrder She Wrote: A Cat Cafe Mystery.

The true beauty of these stories lies within their celebrations of pastry and sugar and excess, which is so enjoyable to read about because our own daily routines don’t typically include consuming four slices of carrot cake for breakfast. It’s harmless voyeurism at its best, too, because while the confection-laced content is entirely imaginary, it’s also entirely relatable and enviable for sugar fiends like me. With all of the rules, disappointments, and curveballs daily life throws at us, it’s comforting to escape to a world where even muffins outshine murders — and the answer to “whodunit” can be solved, easily, by a baker who just happens to be an accidental gumshoe.

Brittany Ross is a freelance writer based in​ New York City. Sarah Tanat-Jones is a UK-based illustrator with a love of drawing with Indian ink. Editors: Daniela Galarza and Erin DeJesus

Eater.com

The freshest news from the food world every day

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy.

Source: https://www.eater.com/2018/10/9/17934884/hannah-swensen-detective-series-joanne-fluke-murder-mystery-books

[ciathyzareposts]

MUD1: Wading In Once More

Thought I was dead, didn’t you?

I am in fact very much alive, and ready to resume blogging. Over the last year I’ve had a hellishly long commute to work, and I haven’t had the time or the mental energy for writing.  But due to certain very positive changes in my life that commute is gone, and I’m able to resume blogging.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll stick to any kind of decent schedule – because when have I ever – but for the moment I’m back, and I’m ready to continue exploring MUD1.

To be honest, though, when it comes to MUD1 I wasn’t exactly looking forward to starting up again.  It’s not that it’s a bad game, but it is a nebulous one that has little in the way of concrete goals.  It’s more of an environment to facilitate multiplayer interaction rather than a single player experience, so I’m struggling to find the motivation to play it.  I like a game with an end point.  I suppose I’ll have to set my own goals to decide when I’m done with MUD1, but for now I’m not sure what those are.  Maybe I’ll just explore it until I run out of interesting things to find.

In an attempt to finish MUD1 as quickly as I could, I went looking for a walkthrough or a guide.  I didn’t find one, but I did find the following map on the website of Richard Bartle, MUD1’s co-creator:

I’ve explored pretty much all of the large eastern area, but I haven’t managed to get to the shipwreck or the island to the west.  I’d like to check them out before I give up.

Running from north to south, here are some points of interest to be found:

There are some ruins at the far north of the map.  The only thing I’ve found there is a “silvery cord” which is actually the web of a giant spider, which will gruesomely kill you if disturbed.

The jetty has no boat, but it does have an empty lobster pot.

There’s a railway line that cuts across the entire landmass, from the beach to the mine entrance.  About halfway along the track a golden bolt is embedded, but I haven’t been able to lever it out.

The mine is quite large, and a light source is needed to explore it.  The only light I’ve found so far is made by setting a branch on fire, but that lasts forever as far as I’m aware so I may not need another one.  Most of the mine is just empty tunnels, but I did find a valve that can be used to flood the whole complex, and a series of narrow tunnels that can only be navigated if you drop your entire inventory (light source included).  The most interesting find I made was an entrance to the Dwarf Realm, but I was killed by a dwarf very shortly after trying to enter.

The mausoleum can be easily entered, though not so easily navigated. There are six tombs, and each one has a puzzle that must be solved before you can enter.  Rather than the more abstract, inventory-based puzzles that most adventure games go for, these are based on logic and mathematics, and I have no idea where to even begin.

Your guess is as good as mine.  Probably better, to be honest.

The misty graveyard is full of headstones, each with a message of varying levels of relevance.  Once you enter it’s impossible to escape unless you type OUT.

At the front of the cottage there’s a vegetable garden and a flower bed.  In the former there are usually potatoes, and in the latter a hyacinth and some herbs.  Off to the side of the cottage there’s a gardener’s shed, where I’ve found an axe and some keys.  As for the cottage itself, it has enough interesting features inside that I’m going to cover it in-depth below.

Also not far from the cottage is a large yew tree.  It can be chopped down, exposing a series of tunnels underneath.  At the bottom there’s a fancy temple.  I tried meditating and praying there, but all it did was put me to sleep for a while.

There’s a tunnel that leads from the beach, which can only be accessed by jumping from a cliff known as Lover’s Leap.  The tunnel is blocked by a grate that’s too heavy for me to move alone.

Also at the bottom of Lover’s Leap is the base of a waterfall.  Behind the falls there are some tunnels.  I found a lever there that dumped me into an underground complex that was full of goblins.  I managed to fight my way through two of their lairs, and found a chamber that was loaded with treasure.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a way out, but the good news is that I was able to quit the game without my character being erased.  So I couldn’t get the treasure, but I also don’t have to start with a new guy.

Off to the east of the river is a swamp.  You can dump treasures into the swamp as a way of scoring points, which so far I’ve done with a parasol and a winged stallion.  (Yep, I totally Artax’ed a pegasus, and I don’t feel bad about it at all.)

I have no regrets.

There are a bunch of things in the large forest to the south: a mysterious sundial; a birdbath; a badger’s home, complete with badger that tries to claw your face off; a tree with a golden apple.  There’s also a shrine, at which I just tried to meditate, only to be told that “there isn’t sufficient meditation going on elsewhere to provide the psychic energy to meditate in such a small shrine as this”.

The cottage lies at the centre of the map, and has the highest concentration of interesting features.  I couldn’t cover them all in a single paragraph, so I’m breaking them up as follows.

In the bathroom there’s some medicine.  I think I know where to use this, which I’ll discuss below.

Halfway up the stairs there’s a ghostly voice reciting A.A. Milne, which is yet another mystery I haven’t solved.

In an upstairs bedroom there’s a rattle.  Every time you shake it your score increases, but only so long as you’re at the lowest rank.  More on this below.

I’ve barely explored the cellar, because it’s completely overrun with giant rats.  They’re not too difficult to defeat on their own, but as far as I can tell, there’s a never-ending supply of the buggers down there.  Once I develop a stronger character with a better weapon I plan to try and wipe them all out.

In the study there’s a bookcase that leads to a secret tunnel, where a zombie guards a rune-covered door.  The zombie can be killed in battle, although it takes a while.  The runes should be avoided, as reading them causes a fatal explosion.  Knocking on the door, however, whisks you into a sorcerer’s laboratory, with all sorts of weird objects: a potion, a black cat, an oracle, a crystal, an amulet, a looking glass and a stethoscope.  I’ve barely scratched the surface of this stuff, but there’s a book in the study that gives clues as to their respective purposes (as well as a warning about the exploding runes, and a hint about knocking on the door).  It seems that the potion and the medicine mixed together will do something, but I haven’t been able to try this yet.   The clue regarding the cat tells me to “do as my curiosity directs”, which I guess means I have to try to kill it?  The oracle, it seems, can be used to locate items.  The crystal, if sniffed, will change your gender.  The amulet can be used to force other players to take an action.  Finally, the looking glass seemingly has the power to let you spy on other players.  I have no idea about the stethoscope.  I tried just now to do some experimenting with all of these items, but a player named Good the Sorceress had scooped them all up before I got there.

There’s a lot more to this game than what I’ve detailed above, as it’s full of small details that serve to make it come alive as a dynamic environment.  There are animals that wander about, such as a seagull that’s currently moving in and out of the area my character is idling in as I write this blog.  It rains occasionally.  Other players can be seen wandering around.  And of course, there are monsters: a skeleton, rats, a zombie, a dryad, dwarves, goblins, and more I’m probably forgetting.

As in a number of early text adventures, such as Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork, these monster can be engaged and defeated in combat.  So far I haven’t discovered any tactics that can be used: it’s just a matter of typing FIGHT or KILL, and watching the results slowly scroll by until one combatant is dead.  The main survival method is to flee, which is easy enough but results in you dropping your entire inventory.  It’s better than dying though.

Backhanding a Zombie to death.

Death in this game is odd, in that sometimes it’s permanent and sometimes it isn’t.  If you’re killed by a monster in battle, your character is dead and gone forever.  Other deaths, such as the explosive runes I mentioned above, are a temporary setback, as they don’t result in your character being erased, just stripped of items and sent back to the start of the game.  I’m not sure what happens if you’re murdered by another player, or if that’s even possible.

The game does have a system for leveling up, which is tied to your score.  You begin as a Novice, with a score of zero.  Once your score reaches 400, you become a Warrior, which is the highest rank I’ve achieved so far.  Usually, I do this by using the rattle: every time you shake it you gain two points.  It only works while you’re a novice though, so you can’t use it to progress further than one level.  Shaking the rattle 200 times can get tedious, but thankfully your commands stay typed in after you hit enter, so you only have to type it once and then hit enter repeatedly.  Whatever you do, though, don’t hold down the enter key to speed things up; you’ll hit 400 points quicker, but you’ll also have to endure like 20 minutes of messages that scroll by afterwards.  It ain’t worth it.  (I was also reminded that you can do the same thing by repeatedly kicking a deaf, dumb and blind beggar.  I guess you can pick which if the two is more fun for you?)

In addition to a level, your character has stats: Strength, Stamina and Dexterity.  These are randomised for each character, but my current guy has scores of 60, 52 and 38 respectively.  Upon becoming a Warrior, all three of these stats increased by 10.  There’s also an inventory limit of five items, which increased to six when I leveled up.

The only other thing to talk about is the multiplayer aspect, which I’ve had a couple of experiences with.  Mostly it results in the odd sighting of other players wandering about, and in items being relocated from place to place.  Fairly often I’ve gone to pick something up and found that it’s not where I thought it would be.  Several times I’ve seen said item being carried around by someone else.  Once a character even stole an item right out of my inventory.

I’ve only ever had one extensive interaction, with a player named Saruman.  He explained the rattle to me, and a bunch of other stuff that I’d forgotten until going back over my game logs.  At one point he asked me to follow him, so that I could help him raise a portcullis.  At another, just as I was exploring beneath the yew tree, he used a spell to summon me to his location.  It was somewhere in the Dwarf Realm (I think) and it had a magic button that could be used to reset the world back to its default state.  The whole time we were playing simultaneously I could hear things he was doing: a dragon dying, a cannon being fired, various other screams and shrieks.  He was very helpful, actually, and it was nice to actually experience this part of the game.

So that’s my current status on MUD1: still finding new things, and thus not yet giving up and moving on.  With my current schedule, my goal is to update once a week, so hopefully I’ll be back with more of MUD1 next Saturday.  Given my blogging history it’s unlikely, but miracles can happen.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/mud1-wading-in-once-more/