#this just somehow checks out to me

[thischerik]

tag yourself xx

[leopardom]

07/07/24 // Ruisrock Festival - Turku, FI

📸: Roosa Vilkanen

[voluptuarian]

I love trying to do historical research, you want an answer to a simple question like "could Jews serve in the British army in the 1880s" and you get back

Jews in the American Revolution

Jews in the American Civil War

Jews in World War I

Jews who fought for Nazi Germany

Thanks, that absolutely covers the time period and country I specifically asked for, couldn't have done it without you

[edwinisms]

wait yeah hold on how the hell did edwin open a door from hell to earth? like if powerful beings like the night nurse or certain demonic entities are necessary to open and close doors to other planes (especially hell where souls being trapped there is kind of the point) then what the fuck did edwin manage to pull off? did he somehow trick a demon or whatever into opening one? was one opened for one reason or another– maybe upon a demon’s return from retrieving a soul– and he timed it, booked it, and jumped in? there certainly isn’t just some constantly open ever-accessible door at the top of The Endless Staircase considering that would make hell kind of pointless. did edwin payne manage, somehow, over the span of 70 years, to figure out how to open a door from limbo/the staircase to earth by himself? am i just missing something here?

[tj-crochets]

Went to the doctor just for a check up and he basically just told me "your body just processes sugar very well! :) :) :) It's a good thing! :) :) :) It can't possibly be the source of your symptoms even though eating fixes it :) :) :)" But there was also a moment when talking about my iron deficiency that is possibly one of the funniest things a doctor has ever said to me, up with the cardiologist who said "you're a medical mystery": He was going over my blood test results, and said "Your iron levels haven't gone up at all, they are still extremely low, but you're not anemic anymore" And I was like how am I not anemic anymore??? And he said "Your hemoglobin levels have gone up...somehow..." while frowning at the blood test results on his computer. It was very "somehow, palpatine has returned" lol

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

You ever think about what's gonna happen when the Welcome Home website updates in December? Hopefully, at least for what I think, we'll get to see the fabled Julierella! Or any visual parts of the show in general. Probably something fit for the holiday spirit.

Maybe wondering about their relatives and loved ones living outside the neighborhood, and the fact that the residents haven't left to see them in some time.

Stuff like that! Maybe even some new recipes!

i try not to think about it or i'll become so nervoucited that i'll get nauseous

[weirdlybeans]

My favorite autistic trio <3

[moonilit]

Ok but the entire Dawn winery staff jumping around informing each other that kaeya is here so all of them get a chance to see him was very sweet, like i knew the staff cared about him but it’s nice to get a confirmation and few childhood stories lol

[fishareglorious]

I think it still makes me laugh that Madam Z and Tennant share the same CN voice actor. i don't know what would be more funnier: a role swap or a personality swap between the two.

[darkcreamz95]

Baby boos just double checking facts but Jure has an engineering degree right?

[alluralater]

super long rant incoming:

the joegoldbergification is super weird. like please please if you’re obsessed with me to an unhealthy and dangerous degree, just keep it to yourself. just don’t tell me, please. the amount of times someone has gotten like this with me and escalated things when i’ve told them to stop is seriously wild. and like wtf is this about saying how you didn’t want to have parasocial interactions like hello?? is my existence a performance to you? am i content created to be fed and consumed by you? and why WHY would you ever think it’s alright to take my kindness as an avenue to then start talking shit about femmes you had falling outs with?? what do you gain from that? certainly not respect from me and that’s why i called you out repeatedly on that shit. so so fucking weird. do you think you gain my pity or my sympathy?? you’re not a beaten dog so please stop. like oh my god the dog metaphor makes me wanna slam my head into a wall. like as someone who has literally been forced to watch animal cruelty take place, shut the fuck up. shut the hell up. your relationship ended and now you wanna demonize people and rewrite history thinking that if certain people don’t know the full story that they’ll just believe you. legitimately how the fuck and why the fuck would i do that when you position yourself as a blameless victim?? it’s so weird and odd. and on top of aaaaaall of that, to obsessively text me and try to like corral me into a corner and say all of this weird stuff like as if you’re spiraling about me when we’d only texted for three days (two of which i wasn’t even responding to you for) is seriously bonkers. like seriously thank fuck something told me not to sext you because i just know things would have gotten awful. it’s not normal and it’s not okay and it’s not healthy. please stop idolizing me. i’m just a person and i am no more interesting than the next person. your obsession is not my responsibility! to try and manipulate me with the way you talk about your ex is super super weird. like extremely weird. i have a mind of my own?? hello?? i make my own judgments myself and i use intuition for a great deal of that. took me all of five seconds after blocking you to check the femme discord and see that i should have already done so but i haven’t because i’ve been busy with family emergencies for like two months. very uncool. very weird, very strange behavior. not my job, not my problem. i am not all of these weird deified titles you like to call me. i don’t have to be ‘omnipotent’ to know that you are trying to bury her and scream your lungs out into the fucking grave as if she deserves it. god i fucking hate when people do this shit. like can toxic mutuals maybe just instead leave me alone?? ‘why are you mutuals with them if they’re toxic” BECAUSE I DIDNT KNOW AND I HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO BE SOCIAL AND FIND OUT UNTIL NOW. like fuck dude i hate it here sometimes. if you’re just haha obsessed with me, GREAT. but please don’t start dumping all this weird shit about how i *make* you feel when im not doing anything and i’ve stated that im not encouraging anything and ive communicated that’s a you thing. i literally told you to focus on yourself and stop talking shit about her and you just kept doing it. the whole obsessed with me thing can be what it is, at this point it’s so normal irl and on here that i’m too exhausted to try and do it all, but the decision to keep going and keep talking shit about her and demonizing them and making yourself a blameless victim is fucking gross and no i actually won’t just sit there and listen to it in exchange for your attention or some weird shit like that. i find it super super weird your constant asking of me to tell you what i think about you and what i think about ANYTHING and everything about you. what the actual fuck?? and then to be like ‘i want to take accountability’ after i’ve already told you everything you’re doing wrong and locked my boundaries and said how uncomfortable i am?? that’s hilarious. anyways ugh okay that’s it bye

[cuteniarose]

The consequences of my poor financial decisions are here!!

[eerna]

live footage of me finding a new Hadestown boot every year or so

[ofbardsandmen]

greetings fellow genshin enthusiasts and fanatics!! once again, i'm generously presenting and offering my most beloved mondstadt character spotify playlists, free of charge and yours to consume, if you will.

[kurim-chis]

"Never a Choice" — Kafka

AKA Elio offered Kafka a choice to spare the Trailblazer of their fate, and she turned it down.

This is also how I slingshot myself into the abyss of "overthinking on some random thing"

Something that just occured me is, WHY did Silver Wolf say that Kafka could choose between "two receptacles"?

There are several fanon interpretations as a result of having this at the start of the game: 1) Ppl joke that it makes Kafka our Mom. 2) It means that Trailblazer never had a gender to begin with because Kafka could've always chosen to have them be female or male. 3) Test tube baby Trailblazer! 4) Everything is fake THE SKY IS FAKE EVERYONE /bonk and it's just a game mechanic.

However, as it turns out, this was more likely just point 4. It isn't meant to have any relevance to the story, and is just there to make it convenient for new players to choose their preferred Main Character at the start point. I say this because Blade remembers Trailblazer from BEFORE the Prologue and seeing them tagging along Kafka for a long, long while. Whatever receptacle player chooses, they have always been that receptacle. Caelus and Stelle are VASTLY different from each other despite similarities, so he wouldn't be confusing Caelus for Stelle and vice versa.

However, because my brain wanted to think too much about it, what if we were to take this into a SERIOUS context:

Kafka's choice didn't matter. It was a predetermined fate in the "story" of Honkai Star Rail. Why?

Well, Blade remembers seeing the Trailblazer before. The Trailblazer had already existed prior to the prologue as "Stelle" if you chose Stelle or as "Caelus" if you chose Caelus, it's unlikely he would've said he recognized them if they were Stelle in the past but then Caelus in the future because, as I said, Caelus and Stelle look, well, different.

So why did Elio tell Kafka and SIlver Wolf that Kafka could choose? And it was only Kafka. Silver Wolf knew the Trailblazer but not as anything more than perhaps the Receptacle or an existence that Kafka knew, since she is indifferent to the choice of Receptacle X or Y, but then says that the Trailblazer will remember Kafka at least.

Kafka: Elio said this decision will bring about lots of changes. Silver Wolf: He also said it must be you who makes it.

After Kafka's companion quest and how the Trailblazer has ALWAYS been the Trailblazer you choose, so "making a choice" doesn't make sense or matter. (Unless well, gender change shenagians... But that is an another whole can of worms.)

BUT this made me think. To us, it's just a convenient game set up for us to choose a preferred MC. In the story however, perhaps the choice Elio was giving Kafka was to choose the "protagonist" of the story. Say for example that I chose Stelle, so Stelle is the person that used to travel with Kafka and was glimpsed occassionally by Blade in the past. Something happened to Stelle, maybe she died or her role was always to become a Stellaron vessel, and that's the deal she made with Elio; so, she willingly resets most - if not all - of her memories and becomes the Stellaron vessel in exchange for something. So the time came, she vanished, the Stellaron Hunters set up everything to steal Herta's Stellaron and house it inside Stelle, and so on.

Which brings us to The Choice. In this brainstorming (and totally WRONG IT'S ONLY FOR FUN!!!) interpretation of the scene where Kafka is choosing the receptacle, it could be that at the start of the game is Elio basically telling Kafka:

"You have a choice. Choose if you want the person you have travelled with to be the main character of this script. She will be the hero of this tale, the centerpiece to this plot, the protagonist of this story; but she will suffer. I will continue to use her as per my deal with her, just like I use all of you."

"However, you can also choose to give her fate to another. To an all-new vessel. Stelle will continue to be dead, but she will no longer be the pawn in this game, and she will not need to go through what the script entails. Instead of Stelle, another Receptacle will take her place."

"The choice you make will decide the future, and it will be the right one."

And Kafka will choose Stelle anyway (the same applies if the player chooses Caelus and Caelus is the predetermined MC).

Because she is Kafka and she does not understand many emotions, but most importantly she does not know fear, and thus cannot fear for Stelle's unknown destiny. She subconsciously loves Stelle, but she does not fear for Stelle's future. She regards Stelle very preciously, but she also trusts in Stelle. She knows that destiny will not be kind, but she will choose for Stelle to undergo destiny's trials anyways.

Becaue—

Because...!

Kafka: Listen. In the future, you will encounter all kinds of perils and hardships, but you will also have many wonderful experiences. You will meet companions who treat you like family, and embark on surreal adventures with them. Kafka: At the end of your jouney, all that perplexes you and troubles you will resolve. This is your future that Elio has forseen. Do you like it?

Elio says that if Kafka chooses Stelle, then Stelle - despite her hardships and suffering - will get the ending that she deserves.

Happiness. Family. All her troubles and woes, resolved.

Stelle's ending will be a happy ending.

And well, it's known that of the Stellaron Hunters, Kafka is probably the one who most zealously believes in Elio's abilities to see the many branches of the future.

However, perhaps it could be argued that the ending does not validate the process. Too much suffering would make ending too bitter to swallow. So much lost in the name of the greater good tends to make for a bitter victory. Moreover, this is only IF everything goes well, there's always the possibility that they will not be able to script the future in the best direction and everything will have been for naught. Like how in Kafka's Companion Quest if we refuse to help her, the future will go in the direction of Sam and Silver Wolf needing to bail both of them from Xianzhou, Blade being gravely injured, and relations with Xianzhou broken beyond repair probably as a result of Sam and Silver Wolf's less than peaceful methods.

The future is uncertain, but destiny will never be kind, and they both know it. That's why Elio still gave Kafka the choice to spare Stelle, and somehow, her choice will always be the right one.

Kafka chooses Stelle anyways.

Kafka believes in Stelle their destiny, and that's why she made that decision to not spare her on that day in Herta's Space Station.

(Because Stelle is her destiny. Hers.)

(Subconsciously most likely, even if Elio were to present her with the choice, Kafka will not accept anyone or anything else as her destiny.)

And perhaps, this is something that Elio had forseen anyways.

.

.

.

Anyhow, I chose to write Trailblazer as Stelle just to make it easier to explain my thoughts AND because I love Stelle and am unabashedly biased towards her. But like I said, this is a brainstorming that is in relation to the Trailblazer, and also applies to Caelus if player chose Caelus at the beginning.

AKA me making shit up. Thanks for reading all that brain vomit.

.

[claire-starsword]

Authentic Story of the Shining Force - Saint Fencer Max - Chapter 5

Translation notes:

All enemies so far were recognizable from the game, but here they seem to be original.

This might be Boken?? The only character in the game with a big backpack and hair. And he does show up in Dragonia in-game.

About the Ancient names. Mega Max is clearly alliterative in both languages. Giga Cain is almost that. K sounds in japanese become g sounds once you add a dakuten (ﾞ), so they're associated. And in english it kinda works out accidentally, because a G is basically a C with extras too. Vega Darksol though? No link. The pattern is lost. I'm kinda mad about it.

From an author's comment: "These two also appear in Tanuma-sensei's Shining Force (lol). Are they official members?" Yuichiro Tanuma is the artist for another Shining Force manga, Descent of Great Intention, whose scans I only found today (warning for a lot of ecchi/nudity/nsfw, i'm still going through but what i've seen is pretty horny already). And yes, these background characters also appear there. This manga was published before that one, though, so this is their first appearance.

"But Claire you're dodging the main topic, Cain just did exposition of the whole lore" yes yes, the similarities between it and the GBA version are what made me interested in this manga to begin with, but I've decided there's so much to compare between all versions of Max and Cain I'll make a whole huge ass post about it instead. Look forward to that.

I will mention however that Cain's bodysuit here reminds me a bit of the manual picture with Max being brought into Guardiana for the first time.

I did say we had to talk about Prompt (and then promptly forgot it in the first draft of these notes). Like Waral, Prompt is not seen anywhere in the beta map. And here, it is depicted as only ruins instead of the country it is in the final game. That in itself wouldn't mean much, however, Chapter 7, where Prompt is, has a lot more weirdness in it. It has peculiar unused content implying a whole deleted cutscene with Cain, Adam, Chaos and Darksol in Metapha, and it freezes the Debug Mode's Battle Test any time you Egress (also, Chapter Selection won't even load it from a save file of another chapter, which doesn't happen for any other chapter). Of course, I don't know the actual code of the game, but this gives me the impression that this Chapter 7 had some other Egress point that got removed later. Basically, if there's one part of the game you can expect to have changed late in development, it's Prompt and Metapha, so it could have been only ruins as the manga depicts here, and as I mentioned in the last chapter, some place or machine called Tenochtitlan could have existed.

Oh boy I keep forgetting notes this time! The goddamn chapter title. Both times the Chaos Breaker is mentioned here, it is written with the usual katakana, but also the kanji 対暗黒魔法剣 (Anti-Darkness Magic Sword) as furigana. I felt it was too clunky to mention both sword names in the dialogue, especially when Cain was already pushing the limits of a lot of speech bubbles this chapter. But anyway, yeah, it's supposed to be a bit of a title drop there.

I. forgot. yet. another. note. When Otrant recognizes the robot using an explosion spell, the manga actually says 核爆烈, a mix of 核 (nuclear) and 爆烈 (explosion). However, I couldn't find this exact wording in dictionaries, only fictional works, so it might just dramatic flavor, since nuclear explosions Don't Work Like That. I kept it ambiguous in the translation to not raise questions in the middle of the action, but it's worth noting since both the aforementioned Descent of Great Intention manga and the UK Sonic the Comic version of Shining Force bring up nuclear themes at some point.