#two generations of outlaws killed by their own way of life

[arthursfuckinghat]

I will never be normal about the red dead redemption protagonists getting caught in the cycle of revenge for their loved ones

[heavenlymorals]

How would you describe Mary’s personality? I always feel like this fandom portrays her to be this very classy, serious, goody-two-shoes but I think she has to have some form of rebellious nature in her considering she’s a “high-society” girl that fell in with an outlaw and brought him home to her daddy. Yeah she may not be as free and spirited compared to the camp girls, but everyone always talks about Arthur’s type being a woman who’s sophisticated - but on a general scale comparing her to the women of her social status, she must fall more on the rebellious side of things no?

Mary is many things. She is melancholic, feisty, calm, rational, thoughtful. She's a person with many emotions and dreams and honestly? She's a delight in the little time we got to know her, even if the circumstances were rather sad. But mostly though? I think Mary is a woman who grew up.

She met Arthur when she was young, super young.

"Oh, we were so very young. Think of how different life could've been."

I mean, she doesn't even look at day over 18 in that pic she had with Arthur. In fact, Arthur looked to be a couple of years older than she was, but that's neither here nor there. The fact is that she was probably way over her head when she fell in love with Arthur and when she agreed to marry him. She realized that love wasn't going to be enough for her in that society and that's a very realistic approach to it, honestly.

If she married Arthur, she'll probably be ostracized from her family, from society, from the people she knew. She'd most likely also be shamed for dishonoring her family and shame back then was no joke, especially for women. People tend to forget this. She'll lose any connections she might've had and that's not even mentioning the lifestyle upheaval because what's the likelyhood that Arthur, still young and foolish, would be able to settle down and live a normal life instead of this nomadic, dangerous lifestyle?

Mary had to think about all these factors. People end relationships for less.

When it comes to fandom, people are too in love with the idea of love that a real reaction to such a situation backfires on the character and strips them of their personality.

Is Mary classy? Sure she is, but she can also be crass ("Don't be a pompous ass, Arthur, it doesn't suit you."). Is she serious? Yeah, she is in serious situations, like all people, but she is playful and joyful with Arthur ("It's sort of beautiful in a tasteless and gaudy sort of way." "That's the only way I know." "Thank you." "Oh I didn't mean it like that-" "I'm sure. You silly man."). Is she a goody two shoes? Most people are, but she also defies her father in the end despite knowing that her entire life would flip upside down if Arthur does decide to run away with her.

She's definitely a high society girl- her family is rich or at least well off, she has servants, she dresses nice. She isn't as "free spirited" as the other girls but why would she be? She didn't have to go through poverty, or her parents getting killed, or having to live an unconventional lifestyle with a bunch of hucksters. She was a law abiding citizen who lived a normal life where culture, etiquette, and roles mattered.

So is Mary rebellious or sophisticated or any of that? Not really. She's just a normal woman. I don't like putting her into a box of being sophisticated or whatever because that's just a disservice to the very realistic writing of her character.

She's just a woman who our main character fell in love of with for one reason or another who is still her own person. She's not a "type" or any of that because she is many things and a realistic woman is one of them.

Thanks for the ask anon 🥺❤️🫶🏼

[public-trans-it-deactivated20240]

i would love to hear your dark spore rant. i didnt even know spore had a sequel.

Oh anon. Poor sweet anon. I’m so sorry.

So, the thing about Darkspore is…

… it was a really REALLY… mediocre game.

Like, the moment to moment gameplay was… fine. Just fine. Not incredible. But not BAD! Really, it only had two major flaws:

The first, it was buggy as hell. One particularly nasty bug was present in the games launcher, and on certain systems the game would fail to install at all. They were unable to ever fix this bug, which I speculate was a major reason the game was abandoned by the devs so quickly and lead to it being taken down from every major digital distribution site. You could still install and play it if you already bought it though! If… it actually installed for you.

Which leads us to the second flaw. It’s right there on the box.

“Internet connection required”

The game has Always Online DRM. All the levels, enemies, loot, your entire account, was all stored server side. And servers are expensive. So, when the games bugs became unwieldy and not worth fixing, and they took it offline… it became a money sink. It was a game generating ZERO revenue, but had huge server maintenance costs. So eventually, they just shut down the servers.

It is now very difficult to obtain the game, requiring you to buy one of the few unopened physical copies remaining. And even once you do have it, it is IMPOSSIBLE to play. There is a project called Resurrection Capsule in the works, some fans trying to create a private server for it. But with so much info stored server side, they basically have to recreate entire subsystems from scratch. It’s… not going very fast, and to my knowledge hasn’t been touched in over a year.

Story

The story of the game is pretty basic. A progenitor race of alien super-scientists create a new, synthetic form of DNA, called Exponential-DNA, or E-DNA. This rapidly mutates to create new life, and can be guided to create specific, specialized organisms, condensing thousands of years of evolution to a few hours. It can also be injected into existing creatures to alter them and make them more powerful. However it also linked everything affected by it into a hivemind. So it was outlawed. The creator of it decided to respond by creating a E-DNA virus, called The Darkspore, infecting himself with it, and spreading it across the galaxy and conquering it, wiping out his own race.

You play as another member of that race, who has been in hibernation for 1000 years while that was going down. Your ship AI has woken you up because it has managed to stabilize E-DNA and also keep it disconnected from the hivemind, and needs you to go kill the guy who took over the galaxy. That is how the game starts.

…

And how the story ends. There is not really any more story past that part. You get a cutscene describing each of the games 6 planets the first time you visit it, and a final “Hey you won!” cutscene after killing the final boss which ends with the cliche “implication the villain isn’t really dead” trope, and… that’s it. That’s the entire story. Not really the selling point of this game. Its not even entirely clear if it takes place in the same universe as Spore! It’s just set dressing for “Run through these 24 levels and beat everything up”

Gameplay

Darkspore was created by Maxis. This alone was HUGE. This was a team of developers who only really made lifesims like The Sims and Sim City, taking a stab at making a diablolike game.

And I GENUINELY BELIEVE every single studio out there needs to do shit like this. Designing for something so outside your wheelhouse creates SOOOOO much innovation so quickly. You get fresh new ideas injected into the genre so quickly. The final product won’t be good! You don’t have any damn experience in the genre! But it will create something unique beautiful, and god damn I wish we lived in a world where that alone was enough and devs weren’t focused on chasing profits instead.

Genesis

Genesis is just a fancy way of saying ‘Element’. There are 5 of them: Plasma (fire and lightning), Bio (plants and animals), Cyber (machines), Necro (death and fear), and Quantum (space and time) and the way they interact is… certainly a choice I guess. Each Darkspore you face has a genesis it falls into, and each of your heroes has one as well. If your Genesis matches that of the darkspore you are fighting at the moment, you take double damage and they take half damage. If they don’t match, all damage both ways is neutral.

The system itself is kinda mediocre. The biggest part of it, however, is the Variant Skills. Each Genesis has 4 unique skills tied to it that represent the common elements of that type.

Heroes

There are 25 heroes in the game, which each have one Genesis and one Class (Sentinel which are the tanks, Ravagers which are the DPS, and Tempest which are the Casters/Support)

Each hero has 4 total variants, with the first one you unlock being Alpha, and as you level up your account (heroes do not have their own levels) you eventually can purchase their Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants, with each variant having slightly different stats, and a different one of their Genesis’ 4 variant abilities.

Each hero has a unique basic attack, which USUALLY has a little extra to it. For example Sage shoots a bolt that hurts enemies it hits, but heals allies it hits. Zrin alternates between two different punches, one of which has a short duration DoT and the other of which has a 10% stun chance. Stuff like that.

They also have a passive effect that is always active while you are playing them. Collect a soul from each enemy killed for a 5% damage boost, 10% damage bonus when attacking from behind, a stacking defense buff every time you take damage, stuff like that.

Finally, a character has 2 unique abilities. One that is unique to them and can only be used while you are playing that hero, and a second ability that is everyone in the squad can use if that hero is present.

Squad Decks

Which brings me to the first rant and something I am SO AUTISTIC ABOUT (positive). SQUADS. The game had you craft Squad Decks, collections of 3 heroes that you can swap between during your missions, for a total of 883.2k squad combinations (I think my math might be off on that). Swapping between them is on a cooldown of about 10 seconds, but otherwise is don’t instantaneously and as often as you want without penalty. You always have 5 abilities active:

- The unique ability of your active hero

- The Genesis ability of your active heroes variant

- Hero 1’s Squad ability

- Hero 2’s Squad ability

- Hero 3’s squad ability

The first two abilities change out every time you swap heroes, but the last 3 are fixed. So you have 3 abilities that you always have access to, and 6 abilities that are paired up and you can swap between which pair of those abilities is active.

Your heroes do NOT share a health/energy pool, but DO share healing pickups. Any time you pick up a health or energy restoration pickup, it refills a chunk of the respective health pool of your currently active hero, and a smaller chunk of each of your inactive heroes in the squad.

So the core loop of moment to moment gameplay becomes swapping situationally between heroes both offensively and defensively, to get access to your other heroes skills and also to mitigate damage from enemies based on their genesis or control where your healing is directed.

Loot

Loot in Darkspore is fairly standard for your average Diablolike. Item drops have 4 tiers: Common (Item Level=Account Level-5), Uncommon (Item Level=Account Level), Rarified (Item Level=Account Level+5), and Purified (Item Level=Account Level+10)

Items of higher tiers have more chances to roll on a table to gain beneficial modifiers.

Each item fell into one of a few different categories: Weapon, Hands, Feet, Offensive, Defensive, or Utility.

Each hero has one of each slot, plus an additional slot based on their class. Ravagers have an extra Offense slot, Sentinels have an extra Defense slot, and Tempests have an extra Utility slot. Any hero can equip any item you gain, with the exception of Weapons that are hero specific. Some heroes also lack Hands or Feet, in which case their weapon has extra stats and can get the same modifiers as hands and feet can.

The items you equip can then be added onto the Hero in the Hero Editor. The Hero Editor is often equated to the Creature Editor in Spore, which is BULLSHIT and was a pet peeve of mine the ENTIRE DAMN TIME THE FAME WAS LIVE. This is a FALSE EQUIVALENCE. It uses the outfit editor from the Tribal/Civilization phases of Spore instead. Importantly: this means you cannot alter the overall silhouette of your hero. It will always maintain the same basic profile and animations. However you can freely place the extra parts you equip anywhere on its body, and can also place multiple copies of them.

Additionally, old parts can have their stats stripped, converting them into ‘Detail’ parts with no stats, of which you can equip 6 different parts, each of which you can include 10 copies of on your hero. So you could get some pretty cool looks from it!

However all this loot is garbage and you likely would not use most of it outside of appearance. Which brings me to…

Cash-out Loot

Usually if you mention the word ‘cash’ in any sentence involving a game published by EA, it would be a call for concern. Luckily this isn’t that! It’s just gambling! Everything is fine!

The main progression in Darkspore comes from gear, and the best gear comes from how good your ships engines are. These come from account upgrades as you level up your account, determining how many levels you can do in a row. Every time you complete a level, you are given an option: Keep going, or ‘cash out’ and get a guaranteed piece of Uncommon gear, with a 10% chance of it becoming Rarified, as well as all the gear you picked up in the level.

If you choose to keep going, you have to complete the next level. If you die, you lose ALL the gear you picked up, including that guaranteed piece. If you make it to the end, you are given another choice: Risk it all again and go on to the next level, or stop here and get your TWO pieces of guaranteed uncommon loot, which each now have a 20% chance of becoming rarified and a 5% chance of becoming purified.

You can only go another of levels equal to the number of Engine Upgrades you have earned by leveling up your account. So at first, after the second level you HAVE to cash out. As you progress you can start to do many more levels at a time, getting a dozen pieces of gear that are practically guaranteed to be the highest rank.

But of course you have to play these levels in order, and you don’t get a chance to upgrade your character with all the cool new loot you found on the way, so you can’t just jump straight into this. You have to slowly build up to being able to push yourself this much, and once you can, you have a readily available source of some of the best gear in the game.

And that ties into my absolute favorite system of Darkspore:

Catalysts

Many diablolikes have a mechanic called ‘Sockets’. The gear you equip has its own type of equipment slot, and you put gems in there that give you small bonuses. Every game does it a little differently, but it’s kind of a staple of the series.

Darkspore uses a similar system, but utilizes it VERY differently. While you are running levels, enemies will rarely drop Catalysts instead of loot. These come in 5 colors: Purple (boosts your base stats), Red (boosts offensive secondary stats like damage or attack speed), Blue (boosts defensive secondary stats like health regen or damage resistance), Green (boosts utility secondary stats like movement speed or lifesteal), and Rainbow (can contain any of the bonuses of the previous categories) They also come in two sizes: Big and Small. This determines how big the bonus from them is.

You have a 3x3 grid on your HUD that the catalysts you collect go into. You can rearrange them however you want, and if you create a line of 3 of the same color (Rainbow is a wildcard and matches with all of them), it will double the bonus of all Catalysts in that line. This stacks, meaning if you create multiple lines over a single catalyst it could get a x3, x4, or even x5 bonus if it’s the center piece of the grid and forms a line in every direction.

However, you can’t save Catalysts. You can equip it to the grid or drop it on the ground and move on. That’s it. You have to decide now. Do you keep that Big Purple you have for the big buff to your most important stat, or do you trade it for that Small Rainbow for a mediocre stat you just found that you can plug in the middle and double everything else in your grid?

“Surely that only matters early game, and once you have good catalysts you don’t swap them out that much, right?” I hear the diablolike veterans asking, because that is how socketing works in most of those games. And normally you would be right. Except for one major change: All your catalysts only last until the end of your run. When you get to the cash out screen, and choose to keep going? You keep them. But if you choose to cash out, or if you ever die, your catalysts all vanish. Every new run you have to go through and collect them again, which results in you playing your heroes in new ways and adopting new strategies based on what catalysts drop for you each run.

It’s an INCREDIBLE easy to learn system that adds SO MUCH depth and replayability to the game. I love it so incredibly much. Each mechanic flows elegantly into the the next. The catalysts help you do better runs which gets you better gear which upgrades your heroes which lets you do better runs, the entire spiral being locked into your account level to give a quantifiable metric of how far this spiral is gone. It was so good!

And now, it’s gone forever.

Man that sure was a long post. Friends have heard me go on this rant SO many times. Thank god I never got into a second mediocre game filled with novel innovations that are ultimately lost to time and can never be experienced again due to Always Online DRM making it unplayable. Can you imagine if I didn’t learn my lesson and did that a second time? Ha!

… I never did that again. Right?

… right?

…

HEX: Shards of Fate

Hex was a digital TCG legal battle with TCG elements created by Cryptozoic. It was originally put up on Kickstarter, advertised as a digital card game with both PvE and PvP modes, a unique focus on the design space opened up by being a digital game, and gameplay damn near identical to Magic: The Gathering.

The thinly veiled truth was that this game was never meant to succeed. They had hoped it would, and it would be great if it did, but I’m fairly certain that was always a secondary objective. The first objective was to get sued by Wizards of the Coast over the similarities to Magic: The Gathering.

Now, that might sound strange to an outsider, but to anyone in the industry, they are probably nodding along and going “Yeah that tracks actually.”

You see, Wizards of the Coast is… bad. Really bad. They do everything in their power to choke the life out of the industry and have resorted to a lot of questionable tactics to do so. One of these is against anyone who develops any form of trading card game. You see, WotC has a patent on booster packs, customizable decks of cards, and turning cards sideways.

Literally.

U.S. Patent No 5,662,332 (A)

It is not a coincidence that the second two biggest names in TCGs don’t involve turning your cards sideways. Konami contested that Yugioh was different enough to not violate the patent.

WotC responded by suing them. They settled out of court.

Nintendo actually hired WotC to design the Pokémon TCG to NOT violate the patent in return for WotC getting to distribute the first few sets. WotC gladly accepted, distributed the game, got their cut of the sales, and as soon as that was over….

WotC responded by suing them. They settled out of court.

Every single other game out there ended up paying royalties to WotC. Because the cut of the sales to WotC was cheaper than going to court even if you won. WotC had their fingers in every pie, but was smart enough to make sure not to piss people off so much that refusal was ever a viable option.

Cryptozoic was a company that, at the time, was making several licensed TCGs. The big one that jumps out was the World of Warcraft TCG, which they were in charge of (though it was originally made by Upper Deck). Cryptozoic was begrudgingly paying royalties because having the WoWTCG license was too good and they didn’t want to give that up. Then Hearthstone happened and Cryptozoic was going to lose the WoWTCG license as it got discontinued.

So Cryptozoic set up their new game, Hex, specifically to bait WotC into suing them, so they could get the patent overturned.

See, the patent isn’t actually valid. You cannot patent a game mechanic. There are certainly aspects of the patent that ARE valid and CAN be enforced, but the parts about mechanics can’t actually be enforced. WotC uses it because people can’t contest it, but if it actually was used in court it would get overturned VERY easily, and WotC would be declawed.

So Cryptozoic created a game that was a clone of MtG, used a Kickstarter to build up a large amount of legal funds, and got sued by WotC! Yes! Exactly what they wanted!

… and then they settled out of court.

Sigh.

I guess I’ll talk about the game now.

Lore

The lore of the game was solid. Pretty typical fantasy setting. Humans and elves and sort of racist orcs (better than most other orcs I’ve seen at least) and extremely racist tribal coyote people make up the good guys. Undead, spider-orcs, dwarves, and also pretty racist samurai rabbit people make up the bad guys.

There are two types of magic in the world: Blood magic and Wild magic. Elves are adept at wild magic. Shin’hare (the rabbit people) are adept at wild magic as well. The Shin’hare tried to take over the world, forcing the Orcs, Humans, Elves, and Cyotle to ally together to drive them underground into the underworld.

There the Shin’hare met and allied with the Vennen, an all male race descended from Orcs. They were adept blood mages, and they procreated by kidnapping orcs and using them as incubators for spiders. I fucking love the Vennen. I’ll focus on them a lot in this. The Vennen taught the Shin’hare how to sacrifice their young for more power.

The two then allied with the Dwarves, a genderless race of sentient stone statues who excel at creating machinery, and who believe the world itself is a giant machine. Specifically, a weapon of mass destruction, and they are trying to set it off. They believe blowing people the fuck up to be their natural calling.

The underworld and overworld forces go back and forth a bit, with the Elves doing a large chunk of the work as the only overworld race that can use magic.

Then Hex happened. Hex is a massive meteor made up of Diamond, Emerald, and Sapphire. Hex punched clean through the world, scattering gems all across it, before stabilizing in orbit on the other side, becoming the worlds moon.

These gems were incredibly magical, allowing every race to now use magic. Diamonds were restorative, bringing life to things. Rubies were extremely destructive and burned bright and hot and quickly. Sapphire allowed finesse manipulation and control over water. These

Yes this is just the MtG color pie.

Eventually, humanity stumbled into one of their old crypts that was very close to the impact site of Hex, and found it CRAWLING with undead. They were taking the Diamonds from Hex and putting them into the eye sockets of human corpses, causing those corpses to reanimate. These were NOT actually undead, but an alien consciousness that existed within the gems that were using human corpses as a host.

The Necrotic sought a peaceful and symbiotic relationship with humanity as thanks for the use of the bodies. Humanity responded by getting really pissed off that the Necrotic were grave robbing, and went to war over it. Eventually the Necrotic retreated deep into the underworld and allied with the other races instead, eventually helping the Shin’hare with a second attack on the surface.

The lore has a lot more depth than that, but that’s the basic. I liked it a lot. The Orcs being good guys who just really liked tests of strength was a refreshing take on orcs. I liked them a lot. The extremely racist caricature that made up the Cyotle and the Shin’hare? Less so.

Digital Design Space

As for the actual gameplay… it was MtG. Like, almost 1:1.

Like…

Seriously.

Shards work similarly to Lands, with there being 5 basic shards, Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby, Wild, and Blood. You can only play one Shard per turn and when you do you get 1/1 Resource. 1 resource to spend on this turn, and 1 permanent resource. You spend that resource to play a card that costs 1, and you go down to 0/1 resources. Start of your turn, you would go back up to 1/1 resource.

Pretty straight forward stuff. Resources are a card type like in MtG, but once it’s played it acts as a perpetual resource like the Mana in Hearthstone, with no need to care about where the resource is coming from.

… wait a second though, this is a MtG clone. It uses the color pie. Caring where those resources come from is KIND OF a big deal in MtG.

Which is the first really cool difference between Hex and MtG! THRESHOLD! Each time you play a shard you gain 1 threshold in that color. To play a card, you have to have at least as many threshold as are displayed below its cost. See that purple dot below Murder? That means you need 1 blood threshold to play it.

Threshold is NOT consumed when you play a card, which DRASTICALLY alters deckbuilding and how feasible multi-color decks are.

For example, in MtG, if you had 4 swamps and 1 mountain in play, and 5 cards in hand that all cost R…. You can play 1 whole card this turn.

In Hex, if you have 4 Blood and 1 Ruby, and have 5 cards that all cost 1 and have a single Ruby threshold, you can play your entire hand that turn. This made it incredibly viable to splash colors in relatively smaller amounts. It also opened up cool new design space, like cards that cost 1 but still required 3 threshold in a color. Or cards that require 1 threshold of every type to activate a bonus effect (very common among Necrotic) or… for sockets!

HEY WE ARE COMING FULL CIRCLE!

Remember how I mentioned Diablolike games having sockets, but how Darkspore didn’t use it? Well Hex DOES. There was a pair of keywords called Socketable Major and Socketable Minor. Each set, there would be 10 gems (two of each color) that rotated out for Socketable cards. Cards with Major sockets could equip any gem, while minor sockets could only equip half of them. So for example the current rotation might have the Sapphire gems be “While you have at least 1 Sapphire Threshold, this card has Flying” for its Minor gem, and “When you play this card, if you have at least 3 Sapphire Threshold, target player draws 3 cards”

You chose which gem was in each Socketable card during deckbuilding. Different copies of the same card could have different gems equipped, or you could have the same gem equipped across multiple different cards. It was basically a way to go “This card was designed to be splashed in other color decks. You pick what that other color is.”

It opened up a lot of design space! This was something Hex did VERY well. They knew they were making a MtG clone, but they weren’t beholden to the same restrictions a physical card game did, and they THRIVED in those areas.

For example, REPLICATORS GAMBIT, a one cost card that creates six copies of a troop (read: creature) that just… could not exist in MtG.

Another example of this was in my favorite archetype in Hex: Mill. Now, I’m not normally a blue player. I’m not a big fan of the ‘you don’t get to play the game’ archetype. Even mill isn’t really my thing. But the way it worked in HexTCG? God I loved it. I wish I could see my opponents faces as they reached a trembling hand out to their bloated, grotesque deck, a cruel mockery of what it once was. They had started the match with only 60 cards, but now it held twice that number. Knowing every draw was more likely to bring their own skittering death out.

…

Maybe I should back up a bit.

There the Shin’hare met and allied with the Vennen, an all male race descended from Orcs. They were adept blood mages, and they procreated by kidnapping orcs and using them as incubators for spiders. I fucking love the Vennen. I’ll focus on them a lot in this.

Vennen are, in MtG terms, tribal Blue/Black with a focus on control. Specifically an aggressive form of control. Your wincon is still ‘beat your opponent to death’, but the means by which you do it is… spiders.

Lots of Vennen cards work by still allowing your opponent to do the thing that you blocked, but it now creates Spider Eggs in their deck. Lock down a creature as it enters play with ‘Everytime this creature becomes tapped, shuffle 3 spider eggs into your deck’ or ‘Whenever an opponent draws a third card this turn add a spider egg to their deck’ or ‘When this creature is destroyed add a spider egg to your opponent’s deck’ and when they DRAW a spider egg… well… the effect of a spider egg is more or less ‘When this card enters your hand or graveyard, draw/discard another card into that zone and destroy this one. Your opponent creates a Spiderling and puts it in play. “

Spiderlings are 1/1 Unblockable creatures.

The Vennen win con is to just fill your opponent with spiders and then shred them apart once the spiders start hatching. It was a DELIGHTFUL playstyle.

PvE

Hex also features a fairly robust PvE mode with a point crawl encounter map that was quite delightful. There were cards unique to PvE, but all PvP cards were also legal in PvE. In general, all your staples came from PvP and were the same core staples everyone uses to win (they were very generous with handing out common/uncommon PvP cards in the single player mode, which in turn also made Pauper a very popular format), however you also had PvE cards which made up your win cons. PvE cards weren’t balanced as tightly, and allowed to just be dumb overpowered bullshit just because it’s fun to use dumb overpowered bullshit sometimes!

There were also equipment slots that would modify the cards in your deck, turning PvP cards into PvE cards. For example, Replicators Gambit made it so that EVERY copy of that card gained that text.

PvE started with character creation. You would create a character that was one of the 8 races, and one of 6 3 different classes. Warrior, Cleric, or Ranger. I think there was a late update that added Mage but I don’t recall too clearly, and it isn’t document online anymore as far as I can tell!

Each class had a unique talent tree that you could customize and change how you played. Your race determined what colors you could play, and your level determined how many of each rarity you could play.

I played a Vennen Cleric. Cleric’s whole thing was that you would gain Blessings, 0 cost cards that would rise in your deck each turn, and could be played to draw a card as well as additional effects based on your build. My blessings put more eggs in the enemy deck, to the surprise of no one.

As you went from encounter to encounter you would earn new cards to modify your deck, swapping decks between fights. Then there were dungeons, long laborious streaks of a dozen or so encounters, with branching paths and decisions to be made, earning you tons of new packs and equipment and experience to boost your character. One especially fun encounter was crossing a desert with a pack of… I think it was gnomes? There were 20 of them that needed rescuing. The way you rescued them was putting them in your deck, and then leaving the desert through a single combat encounter. Except they were AWFUL. Like 3 cost vanilla 1/1’s level of awful. The more you had in your deck, the harder the encounter became. It was a really nice way to portray the logistical challenge of trying to fight while protecting all these useless tagalongs.

There were plans to even introduce Raids, 3v1 PvE encounters, but they fizzled out as the game got sunset.

The game was good. REALLY good. It relished in the digital design space in a way I haven’t quite seen since then. A few games, like Legends of Runeterra, have come close, but always fall short, and that’s so sad! I DESPERATELY want to play a TCG with this level of customization again!

Luckily that was the end of it. I finally learned the error of my ways, never touched anything ‘always online’ again, and now can live a life without regrets! … except Legends of Runeterra a little bit like I mentioned above but THATS IT! There are no other always online games I have regrets about!

…

ToonTown Online

Okay no, not seriously. I’ve never played toontown. But honestly it looked kinda silly and like a shitpost in video game form. I think it would have been fun to try at some point with a few friends. Not seriously, just to screw around in for a bit.

Never going to get that chance. Just like nearly everyone reading this will never get to play two of my biggest influences that shaped how I think about game design.

Always Online DRM is an insidious beast. It doesn’t just kill games, it kills *archival*. All we have left of these games is a relatively small number of gameplay videos. I was planning on having a lot more pictures in this post of all the interface elements I was talking about as I talked about them, but there just… aren’t any good pictures of them. Even these details are based on my own memory cross referenced with a couple of wikis, and even those were sparse.

Some games can’t feasibly avoid Always Online. MMO’s are a big example. But by adding it into a game that has a single player experience involved, and not making that single player experience a standalone thing on its own, you are destroying any hope that your game will be remembered. It will fade into obscurity. There will never be a cult revival. Your work will be discarded and forgotten and it’s… so incredibly sad to see.

I jokingly titled this section being about ToonTown, but really this section is about Kingdom Hearts: Union X. It was a mediocre and disgustingly predatory gacha. It was horribly managed with horrible issues around localization and it was just… a mess. But it was part of the world of Kingdom Hearts, and it’s story was important and mattered.

The game is no longer playable, but it’s also not entirely lost. The devs created a new version of it, as a gallery to view the cutscenes. The single-player side mode, Dark Road, is also included. The devs didn’t have to do this. They could have gone the same route as Darkspore and HexTCG, and had their work be forgotten. They chose to save it. Not in full, but at least the parts the deemed important.

It also makes me wonder how much this happens in other mediums. Ludology is a pretty new field, and it rarely goes into specific games and their impact on the medium, mostly just focusing on the impacts they have on humanity, rather than the mechanics themselves as these beautiful pieces of art. And it makes me wonder how often this happens with say… film critics. Are there any indie film makers who are deep in the paint of indie films and critique of not just the films themselves, but the very techniques being used, just sitting there going “It’s so upsetting that this big studio managed to do something this beautiful and all of us in the scene recognize it’s beauty, but no one else seems to, and now it’s gone?”

… as I’m writing this I actually realize that this does happen there. It’s how I found out about what became my favorite film of all time, The Man From Earth. It’s a small film that flopped horribly in theaters, and only gained any attention by being pirated by a lot by indies who wanted to talk about it. It’s a good movie, highly recommend. Not for everyone though.

I don’t know. I’m sure I had a point with all this but… seeing it happen again and again and now with streaming services taking stuff down it’s just… I can’t help but seeing not just more and more games, but more and more of EVERY artistic medium ending up in this area. How many digital artists entire portfolios have vanished off the face of the earth because their tumblr got deactivated? How many movies are going to be gone forever when Netflix eventually goes out of business? We can’t even rely on piracy! Many old pieces of media is just lost forever. Just ask the Doctor Who fandom. They probably know more about that than anyone else at this point.

But mostly I just really wish more developers would consider what parts of their games are important, and what kind of legacy they want to leave, instead of just what will generate a short burst of profit, with no care for what happens after.

… I should start doing video essays with how long this got. It’s like some kind of text based video essay. A text essay. Those are a new thing I just invented.

[freezingmcxn]

hihihi!! sooo I was wondering for a while, how many creeps/zalgoids(if any) have you put into your AU? do zalgoids even exist in your AU, and do the creeps and zalgoids have like that enemy vibe to them or is it another story?? I love your writing by the way please don’t explode and turn into a marketable plushie☹️

THE CREEPS IN MY AU

Tw: gruesome and dark, mentions of both child murder and murder in general, sacrifice, abuse(childhood included), cannibalism, torture, gore.

Hiii, I’m glad you enjoy it!! So there’s no Zalgoids because Zalgo is a fictional God in my AU rather than an actual entity!

I can totally tell you what creeps and proxies are featured though, I’ll give you a small **summary about their purpose and who they are too ;)

There is some more that I want to add but this is what I have for now

PROXIES

Proxies' true names are unknown, identified instead by a prominent feature or possession.

They are deceased individuals whose bodies have been inhabited by fragments of Slenderman's consciousness.

Proxies exist solely to hunt sustenance for Slenderman, devoid of any need for human interaction or other basic needs. They are single mindedly dedicated to their assigned task, with no distractions.

Boots

Nicknamed “Boots” due to her signature steel-toe hiking boots, she stands out among the Proxies for her relative lack of hostility.

Unlike others, Slenderman’s influence over her corpse is tenuous, resulting in a lingering sense of emptiness and detachment.

She remains mostly unaware of her situation and existence in general, only occasionally acting on his commands.

Shiner

Nicknamed “Shiner” due to the black eyes he often inflicts on his victims before delivering them to Slenderman, he is the most violent and ruthless among the Proxies.

Slenderman’s possession of his corpse is extremely strong, leaving Shiner singularly focused on capturing victims.

Bagsy

Nicknamed “Bagsy” for the shotgun always slung across their body, they take hunting for victims with grave seriousness.

Bagsy remains quite enigmatic, appearing far less frequently than the others.

Constantly wearing a burlap mask, they are often spotted lurking in bushes or trees, meticulously searching for “prey” to satisfy Slenderman.

KILLERS

These are the people living in Maine who have either a secret hobby or a full-time lifestyle centered around killing. Some are in plain sight, while others remain hidden behind the trees.

Jeffery Woods (Jeff The Killer)

Jeffery Woods is a complex twenty something year old man who thrives in the isolation of the forest, deriving extreme pleasure from the suffering he inflicts on others.

Constantly evading the law, he is driven by an insatiable hunger for death and haunted by severe issues and scars that came from “the incident.”

Jeffery roams through towns across Maine, leaving a trail of terror and death in his wake. His extreme god complex fuels a sense of invincibility, making him smile at the wanted posters that adorn telephone poles and store windows.

Tobias Erin Rogers

Tobias Rogers, a self proclaimed outlaw at thirty, fled from home at seventeen and has since made the forests his refuge.

Plagued by a multitude of disorders and an awful past, Toby resorts to murder as a release for his pent-up anger, often turning to cannibalism as a sick comfort.

When he's not burying his hatchets into someone's skull, he wanders endlessly through the forests and towns, a restless and tormented soul.

Natalie Ouellette

Natalie chose a life of isolation, drifting away from society at fifteen after her home life became unbearable.

Now twenty two, she resides in an old camper deep in the forest, rarely seen and shrouded in mystery. Uninterested in human interaction, she often exhibits animalistic behavior.

Driven by an obsession with gore and art, Natalie seeks out campers, typically men, to torture and gruesomely murder.

She dismembers their bodies, scattering parts throughout the forest or creating her own scarecrows, leaving a chilling mark on her secluded part of the forest.

Laughing Jack (Jack Aurand)

Jack Aurand is widely perceived as a happy, upbeat, and kid loving local who runs a store called “Hetty’s”.

His warm demeanor and infectious laughter make him a beloved figure in the community, especially among children.

However, behind this cheerful facade lies his sinister alter ego, "Laughing Jack." Disguised as a clown, he dons colorful costumes, exaggerated makeup, and a big red nose.

His clown persona, complete with an uncanny smile and demeanour, allows him to gain the trust of unsuspecting children who stay out way past their given curfew.

He is the unseen hand behind most of the child murders and kidnappings that have plagued Durham for decades.

GHOSTS/DEMONS

The demons and ghostly residents of the forest are the most human among the creeps you might encounter, which says a lot. Some are fairly neutral toward humans, some see them as prey, and others may fear them.

Sally Williams

Sally Williams, a 12 year old spirit, resides near the deepest parts of the forest.

Her body was tragically dumped in a ditch by her sick uncle and had decomposed before being discovered. Missing posters for her still hang around to this day.

Sally appears to lost campers, attempting to deter them from encountering Slenderman and other dangerous beings.

She remembers every detail leading to her death and has never fully accepted it, though she has learned to cope.

Sally wears a pink, frilly dress that is dirty and torn, her thick curls are knotted and matted with blood and there are visible bruises on her arms and head.

Lyra Rogers

Lyra Rogers, sister of Tobias Rogers, tragically died in a car accident at the age of 19.

She lingers around the outskirts of the forest, hiding whenever people walk by.

Deeply distressed, she still struggles to comprehend what happened, even after all these years.

Lyra misses her baby brother and her mother dearly.

Benjamin Lawman (Ben Drowned)

Ben was forced into Purus because of David Newton’s affect on his mother. His defiance against the cult leader led to his tragic death, and his body was disposed of in a lake.

Ben’s spirit now roams the Durham forests, tethered to the lake that became his final resting place. He appears dripping wet at all times, his clothes cling to his gaunt frame.

His sunken eyes now reflect a deep sorrow and confusion.

Unlike Sally, he has little to no memory of what happened and misses his mother deeply.

Ben is extremely timid, often hiding in the shadows of the dense forest, making him an elusive presence.

Jack Nyras (Eyeless Jack)

Jack one of the demons of the forest (more human than demon) who is living quietly among the trees.

His age is unknown, as he has long lost count. Jack has been in the forest longer than any of the other human creeps.

Once a victim of a satanic cult(not Purus), he was sacrificed, but the ritual went wrong, leaving him half blind and hosting a starving, flesh eating demon who is more of a nuisance than a nightmare.

Jack only kills when necessary, if animal organs aren’t enough, he will seek out a human and consume it whole, bones and all, always making sure to cover his tracks.

David Newton

??Mystery man for now…what’s he doing here.??

That’s all for now!! There is more creeps who are in the townsfolk catagory, let me know if you wanna hear about them too :))

[thirdtidemouse]

pretend i havent been inactive for 100 years. i've been watching renegade nell and its giving me a new sketchbook au idea/accompanying doodles. essentially: fae highwaywoman johanna is on the run, kaisa is Out To Get Her with dark magic

you have to cut me some slack with how silly i sound. its the hyperfixation. im ill

i'm casting these freaks like actors. Johanna is Nell:

it is 1705, and barkeep Johanna has found herself a highwaywoman on the run for a murder she didn't do, accompanied by her daughters and aided by a little spirit named Alfur. she has found fae-like abilities, and despite her good intentions, she is now feared across half the country as an invincible murderess.

Kaisa is Sofia:

hunting her down is Kaisa, a lady whose family owns Johanna's pub, whose father Johanna is falsely accused of killing, and who is obsessed with catching her. she uses dark magic to fuck with Johanna's life remotely, summoning things to attack her etc - she may be untouchable when it comes to human enemies, but not magic. Kaisa herself is lonely, surprisingly empathetic, and is desperate to prove her worth and have control over her life.

other character notes:

give Johanna a gun

she is a painter and illustrator still. she is struggling to find time for her hobbies

she would rather not be robbing people but has no problem if she needs to. the rich ones have more money than they know what to do with anyway, and if she has to take a horse from some poor guy, she leaves him with stolen valuables in exchange. she's a little robinhood about it.

i think it would be so fun to keep the mythical creatures around. watch out for Devilwoman Johanna who is strong enough to kill a troll!! (she would never)

yes Lauren (belonging to @blaithnne) is included. Nell is accompanied by her two little sisters, brave & helpful older sister Roxy, and funny & inquisitive little sister George. Lauren & Hilda take their place, and maybe Frida and David tag along hehe.

Lauren & Hilda keep getting taken hostage in attempts to get Jo to turn herself in, but they always get out of it. until they do, Hilda probably talks their ears off about dragons and Lauren makes terrifying threats.

no one else REALLY specifically fits character slots like Amadin, Thomas, and Charles (there aren't a lot of men in hilda lol) so i'm going to wing it and the other characters can fill their roles when needed maybe

Thomas is Sofia's brother who killed both their father and Nell's father, and is generally reckless, careless, and easily badly influenced. i'm actually thinking of putting 18yo Dylan (oc of mine who is Kaisa's younger sister) in his place. she is a lot sweeter in regular hilda universe but i think the plot & i could fuck with her character enough that she gains these insecure, irresponsibly cruel tendencies. sorry Dylan

both Johanna and Kaisa were witnesses when her father died. Kaisa knows she's innocent, but goes along with the accusation to save Dylan from being arrested and keep the family (and their place in society) from falling apart. I'm thinking of making Dylan a boy in this, to keep the dynamic of the land going to him when papa dies > he would be a terrible landlord > Kaisa gets to take the reigns and keep everything in working order because she actually cares and enjoys having things to watch over and work on

in general Kaisa is very lonely, has to work twice as hard for the power and respect men are given automatically, and yearns for the kind of freedom and support that Johanna has despite being an outlaw from a poor family.

i think David and Frida could fill Amadin's role as friends they pick up along the way. David's loyalty and voice of reason, and Frida's fierce protectiveness and determination to prove herself both remind me of his character.

i'm inclined to draw a blank for Poynton, the main villain, a Jacobite amongst the royal guard, the siblings' traitorous mentor in black magic, and the indirect reason their dad died in the first place. Tildy is Kaisa's mentor, but not an evil one. the closest Hilda has to real villains is Erik, and the head witches maybe, but none of them really hit the nail on the head for this guy. an au oc may be in order!!!

the Bellkeeper can be Charles maybe lol. he is an established highwayman leading a double life as both a wanted criminal and a aristocrat. he is suave, a little campy, and a firm believer that with confidence, you can sweet-talk anyone into believing you are anyone. he annoys Johanna into letting him tag along and help with disguises and plans just because he finds it fun.

Lady Eularia Moggerhanger runs the newspapers, and i'm splitting that between two characters for a couple reasons. Erik is the owner of the presses (not putting him in the royal guard because it wouldn't make sense for him to be a Jacobite rebel) who generally enjoys fearmongering and controlling the public.

Victoria is the head editor with a taste for dramatics but seeks the truth above all else, and happens to be the Bellkeeper's 'friend in high places' who begrudgingly bails him out of trouble.

Gerda replaces Polly, a good-hearted writer and believer of justice who falls head over heels for Jo when she gets highway-robbed by her and mistakes her for a man. is later appointed assistant editor of the newspaper.

this happens i guess

this isn't meant to stick to the plot of renegade nell, there's a lot going on and it would be easier (and more interesting) to figure out an original plot with this different cast of characters. i just thought it would be fun to put sketchbook into an 18th century highwayman period fantasy drama with dark magic and pixies. and enemies to lovers. okay thanks

i might add onto this at some point if anyone has any questions or additions LET ME KNOW!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU

[brothermoth]

1890s America and Red Dead Redemption

Part One: Violent Delights and Violent Ends

-----

The latter half of the 1800s was a time characterized by struggle. Off the back of the Civil War, a country divided in not two but four by the rising industry to the east and the stubborn pastoralism of the west. The southern portion of the country beaten down, burned and disgraced, and the northern portion rolling in gold and prosperity. Whether they knew it or not, the common American had their life ultimately shaped by these divisions.

As the opening lines of Red Dead Redemption 2 state: "The age of outlaws and gunslingers was at its end" (Rockstar, 2018). Yet contrary to the following text, America was far from becoming a "land of laws". Laws for the poor, perhaps, but the wealthy still thrived and skirted just beyond the boundaries of human decency.

From the 1870s to the 1920s, miners and railroad workers unionized and carried out often violent protests in the hopes of gaining better working conditions. The poor had little but their fists, and they had no qualms about using them. It is in this turmoil we find Dutch Van Der Linde with his Robin Hood-esque visions of a crumbling elite and prospering poor. The struggle between workers and their iron-fisted overseers was bloody, and Dutch would not have it any other way. Those he took under his wing were the beaten down lowest tiers of society. How could they not see him as a shining idol of American idealism? What he wants, what he fights for, it is for them. Outcasts with nowhere else to turn, given a cause and a home and something that perhaps felt real to them for the first time in a long time.

Race is a topic not wholly explored, but touched on certainly within the game. Tensions rose as racial divisions were made even clearer, black Americans fighting for their own foothold in a world that has just opened up to them and their children. Lenny Summers is the first in generations to be born free of slavery. Javier comes from a country that has been terrorized by colonialism and corruption, yet he still dreams of returning. 1890s Mexico (and what we see in RDR1) is a topic of its own, though the spirit of people downtrodden by colonialism is echoed throughout both games. Sean, who was chased from the country his father fought for. Whose father was killed in his own bed, likely in the same room as his son. Violence in this world is inescapable, a swirling vortex that consumes everything in its path.

Dutch embraced this, as many leaders of the past and future have. If you cannot fight with peace, then sticks and stones make for much better conversation. I can't say I disagree with him, in all honesty, and that is what makes him so fascinating. He's right. He has a point, a cause. What went so wrong? Do heroes not get a happy ending?

In 1892, railroad employees of Carnegie Steel in Pennsylvania's Homestead plant went on strike when chairman Henry Frick cut their pay dramatically. 300 agents of the Pinkerton detective agency arrived, escalating tensions. Violence erupted, the Pennsylvania national guard was called. Sixteen men were killed.

Leviticus Cornwall is Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie is Leviticus Cornwall. The Pinkertons are rightful villains in our narrative, the gang is a thorn in their side which must be cut free. Law and order, right? Dutch was right, his killing of Cornwall was arguably deserved. Yet what makes it so wrong?

Dutch's actions are selfish, in the end. Not because he doesn't care for the people around him, as I believe he truly does. He sees things getting worse and worse and only digs in his heels. Dutch is the American Dream. The bloody messiah to the poor and disadvantaged. He guts them the same as any railroad magnate. Power corrupts, this is what we learn. Power and vitriol and paranoia. The people left struggling in his wake are the common folk who get caught in the crossfire, used and abused only to prove a point. They know nothing but violence, and who is to tell them otherwise? Even Arthur in his end of life maturation cannot pry himself free. He kills and kills and in the end he dies for it. Even John, who tried to leave it behind. Even Sadie, who was ruined by it, embraced it in the end.

The American dream is indecipherable from the American nightmare. They are lovers and companions. There is nothing to do but fight, and even then you have no hope of winning. It's a beautiful tragedy, is it not? All these people who never had a chance, yet who tried anyway. Workers who gained little and lost everything still took their signs and marched for what was right. Black Americans who were beaten down again and again still got up each and every day and did whatever it was they had to do. Native Americans, who were nearly erased. Who still cling to their heritage and claw back what has been stolen. Red Dead Redemption is about the small people. The forgotten in the annals of American history.

[laufire]

it's very funny (read: not funny) how after the new 52 reboot, dc altered two of my favourite first meetings (you know how much I care about first meetings) in a very similar war.

first you have batman incorporated vol. 2 #2, that more or less reproduced the first meeting between bruce and talia in detective comics #411 in a few flashbacks (league dude fighting it off with ra's kidnaps talia, bruce is fighting it off with him and ends up wounded and in her medical care, etc. the flashback doesn't include the very best part of the first meeting, at the end of the story, so: read 'tec #411 it's great. there's a facsimile reprint coming on march if you think you'll be into it). but then... makes it as if that meeting, and talia falling for bruce during it, was all orchestrated by ra's.

then you have red hood and the outlaws vol. 1 #0. its first sin is that it changes bruce and jason's first meeting completely: instead of occurring on the anniversary of the death of bruce's parents, involving a kid showing the gumption to steal the batmobile's tires and making bruce laugh in such a momentous anniversary... it's just batman catching jason as he tries to steal some prescription drugs (not even for his now presumed dead mother) from leslie's clinic. then it commits the BIGGEST sin of saying this was all... orchestrated by the joker, who one day saw jason and decided to manipulate his whole life (taking dad away, faking mom's death, putting him outside the clinic) to make him, somehow, become batman's sidekick.

in the first case, I don't mind it as much, if only when compared to the other. it annoys me that talia's feelings are rewritten as the result of manipulation, but a.) ra's is a mastermind type, so they're not just elevating his character for no reason, and b.) given this is the very comic that made talia a rapist, I'm gonna pick my battles. plus I only recently read 'tec #411 so as much as I love it, it's not part of my Psyche the same way batman #408 is lol.

but the second one profoundly aggravates me lmfao. first, because of just how much I love their new earth meeting!! lobdell's version focuses on what a lot of writers afterwards have tried to use to smear jason's name, aka, "he's just some juvenile delinquent". he's also made jason part of a gang, when new earth!jason clearly had very clear lines about what he was willing to do (boost what he needed to survive) and what he wasn't (becoming "a crook", joining ma gunn's gang).

and like... to be blunt, in no logical universe seeing some rando steal from a clinic would make bruce up and make him robin. it's the sequence of "shameless enough to go for the batmobile" + feisty against bruce + "ready to prevent crime on his own when it looked like batman wasn't going to" that did it. of course making any random kid robin wouldn't be logical anyway lol, and bruce's own loneliness was the deep motivating factor... but one of this versions make jason distinctive, someone who WOULD trigger bruce's baby robin fever. and the other is generic and makes me feel pretty sceptical about the whole thing.

and that's not even getting into the joker's supposed role in all this because FUCK THAT. good GOD do I hate the idea that the freaking joker is some super genius mastermind playing five dimensional chess with the bats and orchestrating events years in advance. my first story really reading joker was aditf. the guy beats robin to near death (which he manages thanks to the element surprise, deceit, and having goons help him), blows him up to hide the evidence because he's scared of what batman would do to him, then immediately admits he killed robin to taunt batman the next time he sees him. I can't ever buy him as anything other than a coward dumber than a bag of rocks that just Does Random Shit to people who can't fight back because he's a sadist, and gets away with it because unlike the people he faces, he has not an ounce of sense or morals or apprehension that could stop him. I'm not gonna lie and say I've ever enjoyed the joker as a character (I think he's trite and uninventive and his utter lack of inner life bores me), but this turn has made him completely unbearable, and his continuing survival all the more inexplicable the more dangerous he gets.

tl;dr the new 52 tried to fix a lot of shit that wasn't broken but these two examples make me want to ask for financial compensation.

[thedawningofthehour]

Galios making splinter seem like the abusive parent was an odd favorite line because like yeah you don’t like it when someone calls your parent abusive but it also opens the can of worms that no matter how much I hate draxum he’s still a better parent than splinter in a way

I know that physical abuse being frequent in Asian parenting cultures is somewhat of a stereotype, and Japan at least recently outlawed corporal punishment altogether, so I do try to be mindful about not playing into stereotypes. But at the same time, Splinter is shown to physically discipline them. It's played for laughs in the show, but still-he never does it to April, so he's well aware that he shouldn't be hitting other people's kids.

And I also have to factor in, Splinter's older than the average parent of teenagers. I've been ballparking his DOB somewhere around 1960-65, which would make him around sixty now, so he was raised in the 60s and 70s. And raised by his grandfather, no less, who would have been born around 1920 at the latest. Grandpa Sho would have grown up in pre-WWII Japan, in a relatively rural area in a very traditional family, and was probably more than a little resistant to modernization. He definitely used physical discipline while raising his daughter and then his grandson, because That Is The Way To Rear Children. That doesn't mean he was a bad father or anything-especially when you factor in the generational trauma and Hamato Family Fear-Mongering stuff, like, he'd been told his entire life that if he and his descendants didn't unquestionably carry out their 'duties' then the world would literally end. This man watched his daughter die to somehow protect the world from the Shredder, and he never questioned that. He wouldn't have shied away from physical discipline.

I talked about this a little bit with some people in the last chapter, but the thing with Splinter using the same methods on his sons-even if he objected to the way his grandfather disciplined him, even if he never wanted to hurt his own sons, he probably didn't know what else to do. Yoshi was an only child, as was Atsuko, and it doesn't sound like he had a relationship with his bio father or any half-siblings or cousins he might have had through him. Lou was partying and fucking and doing drugs in Hollywood from early adulthood to his mid-thirties, when Big Mama abducted him for the Nexus. He never wanted kids, never planned on them or thought about how he'd parent. He has no experience with children. No other parents or pediatricians to answer his questions, no resources, can't even drop them off with a babysitter to get an hour to himself.

Not to even mention that his kids are genetically enhanced super soldiers and he has to worry about shit that no other parent would. Like, ideally yes you would sit down with your toddler and explain to him that he needs to be careful when playing with his little brothers. Splinter has no idea how to phrase that in a way a toddler could understand. He's gotten three hours of sleep in the last week, is wondering where he's going to get more food because he has enough for exactly two more meals if he doesn't eat himself, one of his other kids is already crying for him and he still has to patch where Raph put Leo through the drywall, and if the next time Raph does that he's just a little more forceful, or if he does it with Donnie-if he doesn't stop this now, one of his kids could end up getting killed.

So he hits him. He hates it, he cries afterwards, but Raph gets the message.

[rooigseix]

Ok, about Vongola Primo cause I note myself I gonna be back at him.

Honestly, Primo's memory in manga (because I hate the anime filler, ok gonna back to that later) doesn't show us much of Giotto's personality. Sociable or shy? Extroverted or introverted? Talkative or silent? We don't know anything. What I got from eight memories was that he was loyal, had a strong sense of justice.

And reckless, noone could take this from my dead cold body that Giotto, Vongola Primo, was reckless as fuck, and this is why:

- In his 1st memory, he chased a total stranger for God-know distance just to give back a wallet.

Righteous, yes. But also reckless, considering that their town was "paradise of outlaws." Cozart could be a gang member and following him could be extremely dangerous.

Did Giotto consider that? No, he just saw someone "drop the wallet" and immediately chased after them, no thought whatsoever about that person's identity and whether it may bring trouble if chasing that person.

- So, we knew from Nono's words that Giotto found Vongola at about Tsuna's canon age, which is 14, right? Which is, kids. And I bet Cozart and G couldn't be much older than that, considering that a 4-year difference in age normally caused a generation gap in conversation.

But okay, just talk about Giotto, then. He was a kid in every sense and he found a vigilante group to fight back larger gangs that can kill someone for not discounting the merchandise and from that, of course not gonna hesitate to kill kids. Keep considering that those "larger gangs" had enough firearms to destroy a house to brick, and we see so much difference between the two forces.

If Giotto found Vongola in 14 is not reckless then I don't know what is.

- He was the don, the very symbol of existence of a famiglia, and the first reaction after the shock when hearing his friend being in the battlefield was to run to that battlefield to save him.

Ok, at this point we can all agree he was a loyal friend that would give you his all, but that's not the main point in this scene.

The main point is Giotto stayed at home, alone, with Daemon, who at that point he knew was a traitor and just planned a whole scheme to kill off his best friend. Stay at home, alone, because the guardians that time were at the battlefield rescued Cozart.

I don't know whether Giotto was confident in the possibility that Daemon wouldn't attack him directly or confident in his winning even if Daemon chose to attack, but you can't tell me he was reckless with his own life as a chip at that scene.

- And the oath with Cozart too, a gamble on life. With his own children and blood. Giotto solely trusted two families won't conflict and no one had to be in jail when he had no way to control how things would turn out in the future. He didn't even control how Daemon ghosting over Vongola, I don't know if he even think his Mist could exist until more than a centure later. (And if Giotto could control that, what a real lookover we need to do, see how Daemon directly killed all of Enma's family. If Giotto could control his Mist guardian and he let that Flood of Blood incident happen, did that change the whole impression we have on him from the beginning? No, I don't think Giotto even had any control over Daemon's ghosting)

Vindice warned. But he still made the oath while having absolutely no idea what the future may be. Second to ninth gen of Simon were Giotto and Cozart's losing chips and Tenth gen was a win. A close one, because Simon Decimo Gen almost went to jail, all of them. And considering that seven children were all what Simon had, if Enma and his guardians went to jail then this oath was completely done in the worst way possible.

- Now to the smaller hints. Like his conflict with Secondo before retiring to Japan. It was brilliant. It was smart. It was the biggest "fuck you" I even see. Giotto conflicted with the next boss and he had to retire? No, he retired AND CUT THE FAMILY IN TWO. Vongola-Cedef. "No, you are the boss but don't even dare to think for one second that you got the whole power I used to have. You are the boss but your choice on the next boss will and can be affected by my own people. Oh and the rings. Lady Sepira gave it to me. Now split them in two and give half to my people. If your people want to be heir, they need to get agreement from my people and had the other half of the rings."

The founding of CEDEF was badass as hell don't anyone dare to tell me otherwise.

Even smaller details. The forth memory shows that he was in a strategic meeting with his family. Talking about a war. A war that according to Adel, "attempt to conquer all the lands of Europe". (Chapter 297) Okay, we can't say for sure how much the "conquer Europe" thing was true or just a lost tale of history, but the forth memory shows that Giotto had a strategic meeting, this can't be argued. He fought in war, a pretty big one.

And anyone remember his smiling yet fiery words "Give that Mare boy a scare"? Childish, I tell you. Giotto had a personality of a blazing flame with sarcasm under his tender and (appear to be) youthful face. Every single manga panels of his appearance can shown how fiery can he be.

And oh, Giotto was an emotional little teen too, just look at the second memory.

Did anyone gonna talk about his holding flower, punching wall and shouting about justice while drenching in rain? I will and I gonna say he was emotional as hell. And the other moments when Giotto accidentally knocked the ink bottle over when knowing Cozart was in the battlefield, or when he shouting at Cozart's decision to "going into shadow". You can't look at all of them and tell me Giotto's emotion was not overdrive so many times when he was alive.

On HDW mode, he was a solemn, overpowering authority figure, with a soft sadness in his eyes that somehow contained something unreachable. I really like how in eight memory in Inheritance Ceremony Arc, not a single time Giotto was in HDW mode, and he appeared to be lively and much more human than the symbol Vongola made him to be - there is much more to him than a title and a single number attached to it.

But damn his "more" is so :))) I literally don't know what to say when I finished reading about his scarcely past screentimes. I like his whole new reckless with a bit childish characteristics but that not mean it would cause a whole turnover to me, damn.

[starlight-matrix]

I don’t normally post original stuff here but part of me just really wants to put my ideas out in the world, so that they exist even if I never end up turning them into a full story.

Anyways, here’s a Life Series pirate au!!

- technically based in 3rd life, but follows other dynamics from later seasons

- scar and ren are rival pirate captains. ren is a seasoned pirate, he’s been doing it far longer and is far more feared. scar is new to the trade but very quickly made enemies and a reputation for being impossible to kill

- scar’s first mate is grian, of course. they’re best friends and it’s undecided whether or not scar begged grian to become a pirate with him, or grian lost a bet of some kind and being a pirate is his punishment

- also on scar’s crew: cleo and bdubs, his mom and brother; tango and impulse, mutual friends of cleo; scott and jimmy, allies of scar’s

- affiliates to scar’s crew include mumbo, who is an engineer friend of scar and grian’s who is terrified of the open sea. they keep trying to convince him to join their crew, with dubious success. also gem, who is either a bounty hunter/assassin/guard for hire who has her own beastly reputation and whom scar constantly tries to scam (unsuccessfully)

- ren’s ship is called the scarlet hound and his crew is generally referred to as the hounds (but meant like “hound’s” bc ren is a werewolf and they’re all “his”)

- martyn is his first mate, is one of if not the only member of ren’s crew who has been around since the beginning of ren’s pirate career. their crew has changed many times due to deaths in the field

- other members of ren’s crew include: skizz, etho, and bigb (of course); pearl, who was an outlaw in a similar vein to gem before she became allies with ren and martyn; Joel and lizzie (Joel was an enemy of ren’s but lizzie and ren got along and became allies, which forced Joel to put his opinions aside so he could follow lizzie)

- hybrids/fae exist! ren is a werewolf; lizzie is a pixie/fairy; scott, grian and Jimmy are avians; cleo is a zombie (she was revived from the dead by a necromancer); tango and impulse are both different species of dragon/netherborn

- there’s a little bit of empires crossover in that Rivendell is a real place with a lot of influence in this world; xornoth isn’t evil (yet) and is the current ruler. the cod empire either does not exist or is not affiliated with jimmy. other empires may exist but aren’t relevant to the story

- after xornoth rose to power, he and scott had a falling out and scott ran from Rivendell to pursue his own life, and either met jimmy afterwards or brought him along (this would make Jimmy a Rivendell citizen)

- Scott and Jimmy then met scar and grian, who invited them to join their pirate crew. they accepted for the thrill

- cleo and Etho are exes, in the same vein of limited life where scar and bdubs are their kids and Cleo took them in the divorce. no idea if they’re biological kids or not, don’t think it really matters. a large amount of the beef between the two crews is bc of this

- another point of contention is impulse, who was childhood friends with skizz. they went down different life paths for a while and met again after skizz had joined ren’s crew; impulse joined as well, only to betray them months later and steal valuable information from ren’s office on the way out

- impulse had joined scar’s crew during their time apart and they’d already planned on getting impulse into ren’s crew to steal, they just hadn’t planned on impulse being friends with one of ren’s crewmates

And that’s about all I have so far!! I have some vague plot ideas for a maaaaaybe 2 part fic someday, but who knows if it’ll ever exist for real. Feel free to comment any opinions or ideas for this au <3

[aces-and-kings]

It was dawn by the time Thor's outcries had ceased. The mage promptly departed and Semex came out of the laboratory to rouse the crew that slept in an array of uncomfortable positions.

Red was the first to wipe the sleep from his eyes and no sooner than he had did he slide the clingy viera off his side. "Doc?" Semex stopped, towel in hand, wiping away some sort of ointment. "The procedure was successful." The others began to find consciousness a bit quicker, everyone glad to hear of Thor's general outcome. Perhaps too eager a reaction considering the Doc hadn't yet explained the complications.

"However." "However?", Red echoed the wildwood's words.

True to his nature the Doc's recount of what had occurred was void of emotional investment. It simply was. At least he used his name and not 'subject'. This time.

"Thorstyr's aether was already something of a mystery. I've long since suspected it a common condition of those born, 'hybrid'. A genetic limitation much like the Garlean. The infliction he suffered was dark in nature. His disrupted aether combined with the cleansing would have terminated his life." Karma sat up and poured a glass of whiskey sliding it over to Red before taking the rest of the cobra infused bottle across the room to Greyson. "Forgive me Doc but I'm failin' to see how this was a success", Red countered, downing the glass in one pull. Spectacles adjusted and towel set aside Semex went on to explain further. "The corruption is now dormant. Trapped within his aether, but non-affecting as far as present tests have shown. You see white crystal... never mind... "

The confusion on Red's face was mirrored in everyone else's as well. Was Thor cured or not? The Doc exhaled, audibly annoyed at the ignorance of his inferiors. Holding up a finger he turned and went out to the patio, returning with two flower pots and one empty container. Setting them on the table he separated the pots, the empty one dead center. "Were Thorstyr to draw upon his own aether, given the manner in which he's cut off from the flow, he would surely die. Thus he neither replenishes it, nor de-pleats it. What exists cycles within itself, maintaining his present form. His existence if you will. Sure a bit trickles in and out, but not to the degree most know it." Both the white and black rose were gestured to. "Light and dark. Too much of one or the other and you're lost to it. And yet, with proper aetheric flow it is always possible, though painful, to cleanse one or the other and restore balance." This time only the black rose was displayed. "This is the void. It feeds off aether. Given his unusual circumstances, the corruption ought to have seen Thorstyr lost to us. However, as we could could not cleanse it without killing him we instead adjusted his aether." Semex reached up to his own ear and tapped the side where an earring ought to be. "Vacant crystal accessories serve as a storage of aether for the void to regularly pull from. Similar to what he's used previously but tailored to draw it inward at timed intervals. Essentially feeding the corruption just enough to sustain it and keep it amiable, but not so much as to enable it the power to break free of its confinement."

Red rubbed the back of his neck, "Doc. Is he fixed or not?"

Absolute neanderthals. Semex sighed and threw up his hands. "In a manner of speaking. Provided he keeps the crystals charged, the corruption has been modified in such a way that it should remain dormant and sated. Co-existing within his form with the aether that drives him unaffected." No one liked the uncertainty. Should. Surely there had to be a way to separate it and get rid of it for good. Though if there were, such skills were lost to this lot. It was confusing and frankly it gave the outlaw a right and proper headache. "Fine. I'll head in to see him now. We can discuss that hoopla later", Red said, half way to the hall before Semex held up a halting hand. "I'm afraid that won't be possible." "And why not?" The Doc looked, matter of factly at Red, "Because the patient is in a coma."

And we're back to subjects and patients. "The fuck Doc? Ya couldn'ta led with that?"

The pair went off down the hall, leaving the rest of the crew behind to twiddle their thumbs and wait. The few present anyway. Where the other half had wandered off to was still anyone's guess. Meanwhile on some unconscious plane of existence, Thor and Dkota were in the thick of it, full sail with a vicious sea monster in pursuit. Bag pipes began to scream as the conflict drew closer. Though save for the pair of them, no other crew seemed present. Thor's voice bellowed out from the helm, "Hard-a-port! Let 'em have it booger!" "Ayeaye Papa", she cried out. The fuse was lit and Dkota plugged her ears, ducking down until the canon fired off. A single shot was no match for the creature's strength and speed, and it broadsided amidship, sending the young miqo'te overboard, sinking into the depths of the ocean.

Diving in without a second thought, Thor swam hard and fast, occasionally reaching out his hand in an effort to grasp Dkota's.

Gone was the sea monster. Gone was the ship. Gone was any sound or sense of reason. All that remained was his daughter, just out of reach. Her voice a muffled whisper. Her words wise beyond her handful of years.

"All I have left is you, and all you have left is me."

[katzengesicht]

rdr2 verse facts for oz: 

the diamond dogs are a gang of outlaws, most of them affected by the aftermath of the civil war in one way or another, trying to pick their lives back up. there’s no end goal of outer heaven, no secret army being built— they exist on a much smaller scale, want to live freely and take care of their own people

most of them are just outlaws, free to earn money how they want to, taking care of their own business. ocelot is the only bounty hunter amongst the crew

his primary job is very simple: figure out any jobs that the van der linde gang would be interested in, and getting there before them. oz makes it a point to either agree to work together on a job, or take it for himself. of course, this is not just because he’s being petty— working with these people lessens the animosity between their gangs, and he gets plenty of information about them by watching them work

ocelot also occasionally works with the o'driscolls, though big boss generally dislikes their way of doing things, and only sends oz there if absolutely necessary. oz, additionally, goes there of his own accord to be able to have information he can offer the van der linde gang, further supporting their relationship with the diamond dogs

their hideout is located on the eastern land masses on the flat iron lake, near rhodes. they’ve got several boats to get to land, and a small outpost at the coast where the horses are generally kept, with one or two people stationed there

his horse is a perlino andalusian that he caught himself. her name is konj ii, named after the first horse his mother got him, konj. 

oz was originally born in russia. he lived in alaska for a majority of his childhood, however, when russia sold alaska to the united states, his mother essentially left his life by deciding to stay here, his father taking him back to russia, where he’d continue to exist as a middle class citizen, the son of a bureaucrat

eventually getting tired of this, and after the death of his father, ocelot emigrated to the united states at 20 years old, where he met john, already big boss at that point, who had, unbeknownst to ocelot, killed his mother after years of her training john’s skills as an outlaw

(oz doesn’t know about this, but big boss sure does, because the resemblance between oz and his mother is uncanny)

they spend the next 15 years building the diamond dogs, oz himself building a reputation with the law enforcement as a bounty hunter to keep them off the gang’s trails

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Blind Dog Canyon by Brett Cogburn

A Widowmaker Jones Western #5

I don’t usually come into a series on book five and did not see in the book description that this was not a standalone story but part of a series. That said, I had no trouble following the story. I am curious about what Newt did in the previous books and when he met Mr. Smith but otherwise was fully invested in the story and how it would turn out.

What I liked: * Newt: survivor, pugilist in the past, has his own set of ethics, good friend, generous, cares for the weak, does what is required, a survivor, scarred, steady, an interesting man

* Mr. Smith: Mohave Indian, travels with Newt, has seen the world, educated, wears a suit, tattooed, wise, older, multilingual, quiet, believes in clan and family

* Zuri: young, daughter of shepherd killed early in the book, survives the wilderness and evil men and bitter cold, goes on a quest at the end of the book, curious about how her life will unfold

* Rufus: Happy Jack’s rescue dog, old, has cataracts, might be deaf, really wondered if he made it through the winter

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* That I was invested in the characters and hoped the ones I cared about would make it to the end alive

* That the bad guys were exposed and that most were handily dealt with

* Thinking about good vs evil and the shades of gray in between – men are men and not always easy to classify as one or the other

What I didn’t like: * Who and what I was meant not to like

* Thinking about how difficult life must have been in the time period of this story and how much effort must have been needed to survive

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington-Pinnacle for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

Two-time Spur Award winner Brett Cogburn revives the true grit and glory of the Old West with a hero as glorious as the author’s real-life ancestor Rooster Cogburn — master gunman Newt “Widowmaker” Jones. But when the Widowmaker agrees to guard a mountain of silver against an outlaw out for revenge and a cold-blooded hired gun, has he signed his own death warrant? They call him “The Cutter”… Famous for his fancy bowler hat, striped shirts, and double-holstered revolvers, Kirby Cutter is no ordinary gun-for-hire. He’s a cold-blooded professional. The best of the best—and the deadliest of the deadly. Which is why one of the nation’s biggest silver companies hired him. His latest job: To locate a silver claim in the Colorado mountains—and eliminate the competition. His biggest obstacle: The silver is guarded by Newt “The Widowmaker” Jones, a legend in his own right. But Cutter has a wild card up his fancy striped sleeve. His hatchet man is the outlaw Johnny Dial, who’s itching to slaughter Jones for killing his brother. It’s not the only showdown Widowmaker Jones has to deal with. A crazed grizzly is prowling the area, too—and it’s developed a taste for human flesh… One way or another, someone is going to meet their maker. But it sure as hell won’t be the Widowmaker…

[mainsmaximum]

Lethal league blaze screaming to 1 mill

You are given the task of finding the hidden heir to a throne that sits empty, the previous emperor having been killed by an unknown assassin. Oblivion is a single-player game that takes place in Tamriel's capital province, Cyrodiil. Along the way, players experience the heat of gunfights and battles, meet a host of unique characters, struggle against the harshness of one of the world’s last remaining wildernesses, and ultimately pick their own precarious path through an epic story about the death of the Wild West and the gunslingers that inhabited it. Utilizing Rockstar's proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), Red Dead Redemption features an open-world environment for players to explore, including frontier towns, rolling prairies teeming with wildlife, and perilous mountain passes - each packed with an endless flow of varied distractions. The story of former outlaw, John Marston, Red Dead Redemption takes players on a great adventure across the American frontier. ĭeveloped by Rockstar San Diego, as a follow up to the 2004 hit game Red Dead Revolver, Red Dead Redemption is a Western epic, set at the turn of the 20th century when the lawless and chaotic badlands began to give way to the expanding reach of government and the spread of the Industrial Age. The game's daring new art style features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date. Team Fortress 2 - an all-new version of the legendary title that spawned team based multiplayer action games. Portal - a pioneering type of single player action game that rewrites the rules for how players approach and manipulate their environment – much like how Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun reinvented the way gamers interact with objects in the game. Half-Life 2: Episode Two - the second installment in Valve's episodic trilogy advances the award-winning story, leading the player to new locations outside of City 17. Freeman reconnects with Alyx Vance and her robot, Dog, as they continue their support of the resistance's battle against the Combine forces. Freeman, who must immediately face the repercussions of his actions in City 17 and the Citadel. Half-Life 2: Episode One - The player reprises his role of Dr. And a lot of people - people he cares about - are counting on him. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. Games included in The Orange Box compilation: The original Half-Life 2 - The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Make meaningful choices and mature decisions, ultimately culminating in the grand question: do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture.or save them? Experience truly next generation graphics that vividly illustrate the forlorn art deco city, highlighted by the most detailed and realistic water effects ever developed in a video game. Explore a living world powered by Ecological A.I., where the inhabitants have interesting and consequential relationships with one another that impact your gameplay experience. Genetically modify your body through dozens of Plasmid Stations scattered throughout the city, empowering you with fantastic and often grotesque abilities. Upgrade your weapons with ionic gels, explosives and toxins to customize them to the enemy and environment. Take control of your world by hacking mechanical devices, commandeering security turrets and crafting unique items critical to your very survival. Now the city is littered with corpses, wildly powerful guardians roam the corridors as little girls loot the dead, and genetically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Constructed as an idealistic society for a hand picked group of scientists, artists and industrialists, the idealism is no more. After your plane crashes into icy uncharted waters, you discover a rusted bathysphere and descend into Rapture, a city hidden beneath the sea. Going beyond "run and gun corridors," "monster-closet AIs" and static worlds, BioShock creates a living, unique and unpredictable FPS experience.

[xoverworkedandunderpaidx]

Drop the Genghis Khan 10 hour monologue

Okay so a few years back I somehow got really into Mongolian history and I bought literally every book that has ever been written about it - spoiler, that's not a lot of books. About 20.

I don't know exactly what first drew me to Genghis Khan - maybe that no one has EVER conquered so much of the world so quickly, and it is very unlikely that anyone ever will again. Maybe it was that quote - "I am the punishment of God," he said to hypocritical religious leaders and corrupted kings. "If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you." Metal as fuck.

Genghis Khan was a feminist in his time - he outlawed the tradition of trading women and girls for livestock or land (and once challenged his superior to trial by combat for offering to pay for Genghis Khan's sister instead of observing the traditional Mongol custom of the groom to live with the bride's family for a number of years prior to marriage to prove his character), outlawed forced marriage so that women could refuse to marry any man for any reason, he outlawed the marriage of girls under 12 and the consummation of marriage under the age of 16 (this meant by law that the ger belonged to the wife and husbands/men had to invited in), he placed his daughters in positions of power and made them queens of his empire (by killing their husbands whoops), often saying that women made better leaders than men. There is a part of the Secret History of the Mongols that is missing, and this last is believed by some to be pertaining to Genghis' last will and testament re:his daughters. His four sons ended up running his empire into the ground because he never bothered to teach them to be leaders - he preferred his daughters for that. Some people think that he actually tried to leave the empire to the girls, and then the boys took care of that by removing it from history, removing their sisters from power, and starting a petty bitch fest amongst their families that ultimately destroyed the Mongol empire in arguably two generations (it's me. I argue. The empire was toast pretty much as soon as Genghis died because his successors didn't have the same roots. They had affluence and luxury and they liked that, they took the empire for their own gain and not to better the world for the less fortunate).

Genghis Khan was bisexual and you cannot change my mind. He had a wedding ceremony with his blood brother, Jamukha, who later went on to betray him and Genghis spent the rest of his life lamenting their lost love. They also shared a ger everywhere they went, so convince me otherwise.

Genghis accepted any children his wives had as his own children, even when they very obviously were not his kids. He also was chill with his wives taking lovers, though they couldn't take another husband.

He loved religion and was the original pioneer of religious freedom - seriously, no empire had done it before. He believed that ultimately everyone served the same higher being/s but in different ways, and that everyone had the right to choose what they believed and how they worshipped, so long as they didn't force their beliefs on anyone else. What he HATED were religious leaders that punished people for blasphemies and crimes that the religious leaders were themselves committing - hence the above quote. He hated hypocrisy. Whenever he sacked a city and found it's leaders wanting, he would punish them the same way they had punished their own people for the same crimes. Oh you cut off the hands of your citizens for stealing but you've been pilfering from the treasury? GUESS WHICH MOTHERFUCKER IS ABOUT TO LOSE THEIR HANDS. You're the local religious leader and you whip people for "perversions" but you're engaging in the same perversions? GET YOUR ASS INTO THE SQUARE, WE'RE HAVING A WHIPPIN'!

Mongols valued tradespeople and artists - if your entire value to a society was that you were noble, the Mongols didn't give a fuck about you aaaaannnnnndddd you were probably going to die. They weren't interested in ransoms or property. What made them so impossible to stop as they conquered was that they didn't make conquered cities their strongholds, they didn't barricade themselves in seige cities and wage slow wars - they just kept coming because they were a nomadic people used to living a life on the road, a life that most armies found unsustainable. It got to the point that political and religious leaders would just run for their lives as soon as the Mongol army hit their horizon because they knew they were royally screwed.

Mongols took in the people they conquered as their own - Genghis himself adopted a number of children, and many people in his inner circle were actually from armies and cities that he had conquered. And these people legit LOVED him. They would (and some did) die for him. I've always been so curious about what kind of person could inspire that type of love and loyalty from former enemies.

Genghis came from nothing, he didn't recruit his inner circle based on social stature or connection. He based it on bravery. Men and women, and in one instance a child that straight up took a up a knife against two bandits that tried to kidnap Ghenghis' young son. He had mad respect for people that would own their shit, people that were honest and selfless. Those were the people he recruited to help him rule his empire. As a Mongol, he believed that the most powerful currency in the world was knowledge. All records that were kept during his reign were brutally honest about him and his failures and shortcomings. "Warts and all" probably would have been one of his favourite sayings. The Secret History of the Mongols was written after his death but honoured this ideology (regarding his flaws, not so much regarding his genaealogy).

He was absolutely ruthless when it came to betrayal. If a conquered city rose up against him, he would burn it to the ground. But if you were presented as an individual before Genghis for a crime (such as theft) each judgement was based on your character and circumstances, and almost every first time offender for crimes such as theft were pardoned.

Anyway I think there's more to this but I could go one forever 😅

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

I was hoping you could rec some circus sterek fics similar to The Circus at the End of the World by mikkimouse & Holding Your Own Weight by zjofierose. It makes me wish there was a cape 2011 au I like the tight knit community, how the new member(s) becomes enveloped into the fold, how moving around helps them evade the hunters. If that's too specific I'd be happy with any great circus aus. Thank you for all that you do

Hi anon! Let's see.

Holding Your Own Weight by zjofierose

(7/7 I 59,753 I Explicit I Sterek)

Stiles Stilinski is the best trapeze artist west of the Mississippi, but that doesn't do him much good without a catcher. Enter one quiet roughneck who calls himself Derek and knows maybe a little too much about circus arts for someone who was hired to schlep tents. But Derek has his secrets, and so does the new girl, Allison. Who's being hunted and who's being haunted, and will Stiles ever be able to convince Derek to help him fly again?

The Circus at the End of the World by mikkimouse

(25/25 I 91,049 I Explicit I Sterek)

Three hundred years ago, the world ended not with a bang or a whimper, but with magic.

Since then, magic has been outlawed, and the world has clawed its way back to some kind of stability, with people and shifters alike divided between living within the walled safety of the Havens, or the small, less protected outposts dotting the frontier.

Derek Hale and his sisters, Laura and Cora, are the proprietors of Hale's Circus of Magic, Monsters, and Mystical Wonders, known colloquially as the Circus at the End of the World. They and their ragtag pack ride the rails between the outposts and the Havens, performing for those who can pay (and some who can't). Their circus is a small haven in and of itself, a place of safety for those who have nowhere else to go.

It's a quiet life...until Stiles Stilinski joins the crew.

The circus has something Stiles needs—a ticket into the Haven of Santa Francesca. His father has been abducted, and Stiles is determined to get him back no matter what he has to do.

But Stiles has another secret, one that puts him and every member of the circus in danger. And if he's not careful, it could get them all killed.

***

Aller by Elpie (Horribibble)

(1/1 I 400 I General I Sterek)

There is no feeling quite like flying: The catch and release of a strong, open palm—of being swung high, into a spinning arch.

-

Stiles and Derek have been partners for long enough to master the art of catch and release. But mistakes can always be made.

Sometimes you need nets, and sometimes you don't.

Send in the Clowns by antpower

(1/1 I 697 I General I Sterek)

Derek is a clown. He's not very good at it.

Everything You Ever Need by StaciNadia

(1/1 I 1,666 I General I Sterek)

After losing Derek and their two girls, Stiles goes to apologize and win them back.

Marvelous Miss and the Magnificent Mischief by twothumbsandnostakeincanon (somanyofthekids)

(1/1 I 3,346 I Teen I Steter)

“Marvelous Miss and the Magnificent Mischief!” the carnival barker shouted just outside the corridor with all the food tents. “Come see Miss Paige do amazing tricks with her talking raven! He not only speaks, but he jokes! He teases! He philosophizes!”

(4/? I 4,028 I General I Scira)

Derek and Peter travel the country making a living as cage fighters, after his family are killed in a fire. After a serious injury and a chance encounter with Scott McCall and his circus, Derek thinks he's escaped his violent and sociopathic uncle. Peter still has leverage over the only other thing in the world that he loves more than his new life: his sister.

Step Right Up, You'll Be Shocked and Amazed by Cousin Shelley (CousinShelley)

(1/1 I 28,942 I Mature I Sterek)

Stiles convinces Scott to go see the circus that's in town, and they discover that nothing's quite what it seems under the Cirque d'Argent big top.

Timent Magicae by Melpomene49

(6/? I 29,052 I Teen I Sterek)

The pack has lost hope of finding Stiles, gone missing without a trace two years ago. However, in a trip to San Francisco to the world's most famous circus things change when they find their friend where they least expected. As they try to figure out what happened, the pack realizes there might be something wrong keeping Stiles inside that circus. A circus that hides more than performers capable of doing the impossible.

Cirque Du Freak d’Argent by DutchNDorky, Teddybears

(27/27 I 194,000 I Explicit I Sterek)

Surviving the fire was perhaps the worst thing that happened to Peter and Derek Hale. Captured and taken to a godforsaken place, where their worst nightmares had become their reality. Treated like savage animals they were to perform at a travelling circus owned by the Argents.

What if the one thing keeping Derek and his pack captive was designed and produced by Stiles, his mate.