#you guys are getting crab lore. i like musicals.

[official-crab-posts]

thoughts on maryland

never been. i think its cool they have a state crab though !! the color gradient on blue crabs is very nice. blue crabs ftw. look at them.

theyre so pretty!! theyre freakin blue dude!!!

[din0lover]

Funny post of all the little "ghosties" talking moments in the captions

(It's ccbbh but also there might be some missing I did the best I could in trying to get it all lol enjoy!)

-

Signs of Pomme and Ramon

/

"Fudge I missed the sign"

"Maybe bad should stay dead a bit longer"

"Stress never killed anybody, except for the people it did"

"Isn't that cannibalism " (referring to pomme apple die comment)

-

Zinc cave

"Richas is going to die" (richas digging straight down)

" Oh Fudge not this one" (referring to cave they went into go collect zinc)

"This is limestone not zinc"

"Look how pretty"

"Let's go mine proceeds to mine limestone"

"These statements are now canonical ghosty thoughts"

"The block looks chewable" (referring to the limestone block)

/

"Canonical ghosty bathroom break"

"And canonically left alone" (after he got back from the bathroom break)

/

"There are going to be so mad at us when the eggs die" (after richas digs straight down deeper into the cave)

"Ghosties have bad hand eye coordination" (after falling in lava)

"50 zinc that's enough to make 1/10 of a drill"

"Free stuff"

"Lucy what are you doing over there"

"Later peasants I'm warping away, what the Fudge, that's crazy" (referring to richas warping out of the cave)

-

Leaving Zinc Cave

"All your stones belongs to me"

"Give me your stone I'm going to eat it all"

"Nom nom nom nom nom nom"

(ramon and pomme digging up out of the cave)

/

"Well this is the end for me I'm afraid"

"Should've taken those swimming lessons"

(Water bucket was placed down for a split second this guy is so dramatic LOL)

/

"You know, I'm holding sugar cane, it's magic, but why am I holding sugar cane? Is it a coincidence Or is there a higher meaning to it? Not even caption viewers will find out"

/

"Yep some of you realized all stream it was me reading the signs."

"Yep what you thought it was magic?, no I was reading them."

"The entire time thats where the captions come from."

"No way /j"

"The poor people without the captions right now."

/

That's it Ramon takes one call, I'm going to narrate their actions"

"Pomme looks around aimlessly "

"Ramon thinks I'm done cave mining it's probably best to leave"

"Pomme thinks Fudge dirt that means we're close to the surface but I hate digging through it."

"Don't worry we're good"

"Now it's off to do more adventuring"

"Sorry I'll stop being silly"

-

Finally out of the Zinc Cave

"You got this

You got this

You got this

You got this

You got this

You can do it"

"Freedom of fudge, worst ad time ever"

"Actually no we had some horribly timed ads."

"Dumbo, the moon, why did it translate it to that? I think there was a mistranslation chat."

"And pomme sacrifices Ramon to the squids" (Ramon fell out of the boat)

"Hey guys maybe we should take that zinc to Badboyhalo house instead"

-

Repairing the town of Fobo farm

/

Richas : "I mean I am not human I don't know, that works with tio dad and my dad's"

Ccbbh aka "ghosties" : "he's onto something "

/

"Huh bird"

"Nosy ghosties"

"Lucy Hi"

"So wholesome"

/

"3 minutes till restart"

"One minute before void"

"Toxic not the backup"

"The lore killer"

/

"Sometimes I still hear his voice" (referring to bbh it's almost like we can still hear him in the after life)

/

"There comes a day in every pet owners life" (referring to richas killing his caged amethyst crab)

/

"It is a good way to keep memories, if only bad was doing that." (That vile man he needs to be put in a panini press)

/

"I'm running out of sad music"

/

"Guys stop trolling the Chatters and telling them I died IRL"

"I can still hear his voice"

/

-

Group hug for all

/

"And it's a group hug"

"Get down here richas it's group hug time"

"Oh my gosh he is dying"

"Okay now he is good"

"Group hug richas, don't let him go up"

"Don't let him wiggle his way up there"

/

"He can't get away from The Angst train,there's a train and it's full angst"

"I love angst"

"I'm going to be honest this has been a very wholesome night but it is a lot of angst."

"Choo Choo"

-

Richas getting down again

/

"Crazy people oh my gosh"

"Gave me a heart attack right now"

"Oh my gosh they actually just trying to kill him in front of me"

"That's crazy"

"Where's you armor ?! He's not wearing armor!"

"Oh my gosh just let him die, finish him now"

"That be the worst time for a creeper to just slither its way and explode right next to them "

"Like actual nightmare fuel"

"You're going to give me a heart attack"

"He's going to die chat like if we don't see the death and no one else is online it doesn't really happen."

"It's like a tree that falls in the forest, and no one around here it doesn't make a noise."

"Pretty sure that's how it works chat mathematically "

-

Slight BBH love <3<3

- "I'm sorry chat thus has been a long stream, I'm trying to keep myself chucking along, I'm enjoying it but it is a long stream."

"Two really long streams in a row"

(Peace and love ccbbh thanks for the long streams with the eggs and other memes <3<3)

-

Back to richas and his vendetta against group hugs

/

"Rebel Richas, no hugs, hugs are for the weak"

/

"Oh my gosh they're going to actually kill him, I need to make sure to look away before he dies"

*looks away*

"There we go"

"If I dont see the death it doesn't count"

/

"This is like a slightly unhinged nature documentary "

"Bros really going to fall and die literally if he's not careful oh my gosh"

/

*commentating*

"Quick everyone lets vandalize their building even more."

/

"Oh my gosh please just don't do it."

"He's going to drown."

"No don't die drowning underwater it will kill you instantly "

"Stop"

/

"Bro really said that I'm going to maybe die someday and choose that day to be today."

"He's crazy chat, oh my goodness."

"Oh my goodness please holy crap."

"Let me build or I will die, thats your only two choices here" (even after death bbh still having beef with richas that's crazy)

/

"Yippee!"

/

"Bro better-" ( looking to see if richas is wearing armor and then proceeds to find out he's wearing diamond pants)

"I've been wearing pants this whole time. "

"Someone who doesn't have their cosmetic armor off and they just see pants walking around."

/

"Mimi"

-

Back home

/

"Confused but following "

"Where am i?"

"He's still not wearing armor either "

-

Fin (I just realized that didn't bbh say he be recording his audio too? I just transcript all this for nothing I'm done on a serious note though it was fun to read the captions and hope you find slight entertainment in what I was able to capture lmk if I missed any which I probs did well im off) (also forgive me if I did some misspelling I did this really late)

Extra clip:

[swisselytyson]

If I could have one wish I would truly spend it on some batshit insane Ghost lore. Picyure it - ROME 2024 Sister Imperator and Mr. Saltarian chasing Papa IV to the ends of the earth. Dude is in his low key disguise but also still the papa makeup. So whatever costume to blend in that you would like. He’s crab crawling backward from them and having the penultimate back and forth about right and wrong and how Sister had his brothers killed and Nihil is a ghost and he allowed it to happen. Then on their side of the argument - his time at the project is finished. Death is imminent. It is the only way for a truly fresh start. He won’t go out with a bang but a whimper, running and hiding and groveling.

He thinks of all the ghouls and Papa’s that were taken away. And he’s even running out of room to scoot away from them, from what is coming, his execution…. And then…

A single white rat comes to him. He gently picks up the rat and eskimo kisses it. Remembers the fun he had as cardinal with all his rats. And the fun with his ghouls and ghesties. He’s coming to peace with the end. Another rat scurries to him. This one is grey. He scoops it up. He tells his 2 rats goodbye and he is ready. A third rat comes up but crawls up his back. Then a 4th enters the scene.

Saltarian and Seestor share a look like “is this guy serious wtf” and “the fuck is with these rats?”

Papa gets to his feet. Asks to die standing and not on his knees. One last act of dignity for all he did for the ministry as Papa. They allow him up and more rats arrive. He puts out his arms and the rats pour up his legs and onto his arms. The squeaks are deafening.

Now more rats are passing by him heading toward Saltarian and Seestor. It’s horrifying the flood of rats taking over. And footsteps and the complete army of rats fall completely silent.

Primo steps out of the shadows. Without saying a word he takes his place on Papa’s left. Then Secondo steps out, the rats part around his footsteps and he stands at Copia’s right.

Seester and Saltarian are bewildered and not sure what to make of it and then Terzo passes by them and stands in front of Papa.

Each Papa back from the dead are holding the Papa staff, cane, and the incense on a chain. They tap them on the ground which begins to tremble a little. Mr. Saltarian and Sister Imperator are now backing away and disturbing the rats at their feet being bitten and clawed at the ankles causing some panic and distraction on their parts. And the ghouls are now marching - every ghoul that was cast off into the pit - arriving in full uniform and mask, growling or hissing. Sister and Saltarian are surrounded by rats and papas and ghouls respectively.

I want the Avengers assemble lighting! And I want some really epic instrumental music. Papa has nothing to say.

Terzo points at the two and starts walking toward them menacingly that triggers the rest to also close in on them.

[sheep-from-rad]

Genshin Characters as Sky COTL players Notes: Not an ‘x-reader’ for once? That’s new. X-readers will be back in a few business days and I will be writing for Twisted Wonderland and Tears of Themis. I have been playing a lot of Sky COTL lately after I found my veteran acc. Login so I thought why not make a headcanon post. So far we have few one shots and 3 series in the ‘currently’ writing. I should probably plan things and make notes so I won’t lose anymore ideas and drafts oof.  [Grand masterlist]

The Musicians - These players probably have a huge collection of instruments ranging from the local spirits to seasonal spirits. They might also probably own a musical instrument that is no longer available because of an ultimate gift. It’s not unusual to see them playing at places like above the pipes at the graveyard or at the second floor of the vault because the music key they needed are located there. They also probably strayed for days in the Harmony  hall when the season of performance got released.  ---Kazuha (this guy is prolly always straying either in Prairie or the forest), Xinyan, Venti

The explorers - These players know where the winged lights were located in each realm starting from the easiest to get to the hardest ones. Need help in locating spirits? They can go with you and lead you. These guys have probably come across one or two bugs while exploring and like oob exploring too and makes easy routes for others to use. Sometimes they travel alone and sometimes in groups, they might also pair up with oobers from time to time. If you have time to listen they have the compiled theorized lore for them to tell you too. ---Mika, Aloy, Lumine and Aether, Kazuha, Kirara, Tighnari, Zhongli, Beidou

The Loners / Solo Flyers  - Either they leave the game once one of their in-game friends go online or they immediately hop to another map when they hear the online notification. These players take their sweet time exploring alone and they might also go ninja mode from time to time just to avoid other players. Inventories either have several instant recharge spells or they carry an item that helps them charge. Given that they fly solo, they know just how to converse their flight power and know where every campfire and lamps are located. These players might also help you if you need help but after that they will just disappear and you might never see them again. Ps, they never get to finish those quests like holding a friend’s hand or following a friend. ---Diluc, Rosaria, Wanderer, Shenhe, Xiao 

The Ikemen/Ikejou -They get followed by moths. They get followed by chibis. They either get flirted on or they flirt. Pretty chill players from time to time and most of them are flexing their seasonal or cosmetics that are not obtainable anymore. If their followers are unavoidable, they’ll light up, bow and then maybe an emote or two, and then leave. Might be tiktokers.  ---Kaeya, Ayato, Lyney, Heizou, Childe, Yun Jin, Dehya

The uncoordinated players  -Hits wind barrier. Gets trapped inside the Prairie cloud tunnel. Gets trapped like clothing inside a washing machine in Wind Path cloud tunnels. Runs out of flight power mid-air. Randomly losses flight control and goes crazy mid-air. Gets kidnapped by mantas at Prairie villages. Gets hit by a krill. Gets hit by a crab. Gets hit by players randomly passing by. Land on dark water after losing flight power. Land under acid rain after losing flight power. Land on, wait, did you just land in the middle of the graveyard without flight power?  ---Benneth, Razor, Collei, and surprisingly, Chongyun (someone tell him that krills can’t be exorcised) 

The helpful ones - Normally holding the hand of a moth or two that they randomly adopted at the lobbies. Deep calls to recharge players that they come across or those we find on random places with high density of dark waters and enemies. Initiates plant burning and makes sure crabs won’t touch their adopted moths. They carry lighting props as well if deep calls are not enough or if there’s a lot of people in the group. They usually travel in groups and most of the time if they are not winged light running or collecting spirits, they are finishing quests from past seasons. It’s rare to see them alone and their friend list is so long.  ---Thoma, Amber, Jean, Candace, Aether, Lumine, Noelle 

The krill chasers - They are beauty. They are grace. They love the krill’s warning light on their face. If they are not saving other random players from krill attacks by making them the krill targets and then they are just randomly flying around messing around with krills. They have the map of the wasteland memorized at the back of their hand and they are the players to stay on the battlefield once the gates open. They also collect crabs from time to time but nothing tops the thrill of dodging krills. If the wasteland krills are unavailable or if there are innocent players around that might become collateral damage, they can always go play fetch with the krill at the forgotten ark.  ---Hu Tao, Childe

[crabknee]

Crabs top 10 video game soundtracks

This here is a list of my top 10 favorite video game soundtracks from games I have played (for the purposes of this ranking, franchises will only have one spot on the list so I can't just fill the whole list with fire emblem)

10. Deemo

Deemo is this little obscure and niche rythm game that I have played on and off for many years now. The entire game is just a vibe, but the songs are all very awesome and there are SO MANY to pick from, it's honestly pretty surprising just how many bangers there are, taking into account the sheer amount of songs. My favorite will always be "Metal Hypnotised" even if it doesn't really match the vibe of the rest of the game.

9. Sly Cooper 2

Sly Cooper is a series from my childhood, I played this a lot back in the day so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. My favorite game in the series just so happens to be the second game which is filled with so many great tracks, ESPECIALLY the paris level. That's where all the good stuff is at, "Paris rooftops" especially is great for a nice chill theme, but I cannot deny that all the versions of the "Nightclub" track including "Nightclub", "Dimitri Battle" and "Following Dimitri" just cannot be beat.

8. Hollow Knight

Hollow knight has some great music, especially for the bosses in the game. I really like the orchestral vibe and a lot of the boss music fits the fights very well. I really like that the music for the titular Hollow Knight has a bit of a sad vibe, it's a great song and it gets even better when you learn the lore of the guy. That said, I gotta shout out my guy Grimm with his awesome battle music "The Grimm Troupe" It just goes so hard and is so extra in the best way.

7. Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 just has some great music in general, especially octo expansion, which I have been playing a little bit on and off recently. It's all just so unique and I haven't quite heard anything like it. It really is almost just it's own genre. Always gets me pumped and is very hard not to bop to. My favorite track is probably "Fly Octo Fly" but the others like "Calamari Inkantation" and "Bomb Rush Blush" also just slap so hard.

6. Dark Souls

Every game in the Dark Souls series has great music, including Elden Ring and Bloodborne, but I have chosen the first game for my list because all of the music in that game is so iconic. The tracks are all so hauntingly beautiful and all fit the vibe of the game so well. It's all so melancholic in the best way. While "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder" always hits the feels and "Firelink Shrine" always makes me feel safe and nostalgic, I have chosen "Dark Sun Gwyndolin" not only because I love the guy, but because the theme itself is just so calm and haunting in a way I really enjoy.

5. Child of Light

A quaint little rpg with heavy fairy tale vibes, and the music heavily reflects this. It is such a beautiful soundtrack and I just can't help but love it, even if a lot of the melodies are the same. But come on! People have won figure skating competitions to these songs, you gotta love them. My favorite is definitely "Off to Sleep" that plays at the end of the game but "Final Breath", "Aurora's theme" and "Pilgrims on a long journey" all slap also, the last being the before mentioned figure skating song.

4. Fire Emblem

Now, am I cheating here by not picking a specific game? maybe. Do I care? no. Do you care? probably not, and if you do, bugger off! Anyway it had to be here, it's my favorite franchise ever and the music is great. My biggest problem is that it isn't on spotify and that I wasn't into fe when I listened to music on youtube and that's why it isn't higher. The music in all the games are hype as fuck but the highest points in the series are probably FeEchoes and Fe3h. My favorite track of all just so happens to be from echoes, that being the theme of the one and only Berkut, known as "Pride and Arrogance" It just fits him so well and it just goes so hard I cannot deny it it's spot here. "Lady of the Plains" is a classic tho and "Fodlan Winds" go hard as fuck.

3. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Now, all the shantae games have fantastic music, but Pirates curse is just a cut above the rest imo. The vibes are great, they're mostly upbeat and are all fantastic, especially all music from zombie island. I also have a lot of old great memories with this series which also helps quite a bit tbf. I mentioned zombie island and that's because they have three great tracks in "Rave in the Grave", "Run, Run Rottytop" and "Rottytops", while I love all, I am choosing rave in the grave here, but do feel free to listen to the others, and also just the rest of the ost, they're all bangers.

2. Katana Zero

An absolutely fantastic soundtrack to an absolutely fantastic game, the general vibe (idk what to call it, synth maybe? for most of it?) is just fantastic for this game specifically and there is just such a wide variety of emotions and vibes that this collection encompasses. My favorite however that I keep coming back to however is "Rain on Brick" the title theme, it is just so fantastically melancholic in exactly the way I need it to be, I will however also recommend you to go listen to sneaky driver, that is also a great track.

Oneshot

And it's not even close, this soundtrack is so damn good it's the only thing I listened to for, like, at least a week after I finished the game and I still listen to it regularly. The whole album for the soundtrack is my go to study music, my comfort playlist has 32 songs and 6 of them are from oneshot and I could definitly add more AND I'm pretty sure that the track called "Niko and the World Machine" is in my top 3 songs listened to of all time, that said the song I have decided to show you is the song called "Eleventh Hour" which is also very great.

[just-pineapple-responses]

Just curious, how many shower thought (response) blogs are there? I just dived into this side of tumblr (not gonna make any posts its fun to read though) and I'm already losing my mind

Well there is

The. Literal. Sun.

Plasma...

S p a c e

ALL HAIL THE LIGHT

The void. It shall consume ALL.

A typewriter incase anyone wants to write their will before they die

Also some ink, not related to the typewriter

Also some words, I wonder who'll use them

A hat with no maker and a maker with no hat

The pen is mightier than the sword. It just so happens that this one is evil. Luckily I can summon multiple

Anyone order some coffee?

Ooo, an author

The literal embodiment if of fanart

A fork, nom noms

B҉ r҉ o҉ k҉ e҉ n҉ 

Soap

Soap(for hair)

Toothpaste

🄵🄰🅄🄲🄴🅃

Towel

Bath mat

Washcloth

Bathtub

Bathwater

𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕓𝕠𝕞𝕓

Bubblebath!

One (1) bath boi

Some M͓̽o͓̽l͓̽d͓̽ (anybody got some strong disinfectant?)

Nvm, the mold has already caused a plague (gettit?) (although user misspelled it)

Nevermind, there's already a parasite here

Mirror

Door!!!

Some curtains

A denim jacket

Blackout

Rainbow

✨ Magic ✨

*Tree poses to assert dominance*

Coconut

(obviously me)

I think popeye dropped a tin of spinch and it became sentient?

Tost

Hummus. dip tost?

Criss Cross applesauce

Wibbly wobbly Wibbly wobbly jellyo

Mmmm océan s o u p

Some poison, a great addition for my soup

Smol bean

Potat

Shower magpie who I haven't seen in a while

Bird (brain)

Frog(×2:Electric Boogaloo)

An axolotl!

Ferret

*looks at smudged writing on hand. Squints. * a raccoon

Stinky bastard man (I just had to put the two next to each other)

Rat.

Becometh crab 🦀 (x2: Electric Boogaloo)

Nya~

Edgy Nya~

Tripod of dog

Brain

Nina i found one of your neurons (if you understand this reference, good job you)

A rotted brain, keep it away before it infects us all, I only have 2 braincells left

Did... Did someone drop their spinal cord?

The almighty binch

The titanic

Narrator

Water based introspection

Existential crisis

Dumbass

Also a pacifier (get it because they're also called dummies and their name is dummy)

A foolish thought to say a sorry sight join the shower community (as you can tell we did Shakespeare in English so many times i pretty much can recite everything lady macbeth said)

ADHD

Ominous

Anonymous

Anxious 🥺👉👈

Some edgy bastard

A person of culture I see (although obsessed with tweed for some reason)

1 Dapper boi

Sarcastic

nice

All smiles and sunshine

HAPPY! (why isn't there yellow 😔)

Affection (Derogatory) (I'm sorry I just felt like it)

~Petty~

Idiot

Disaster

Chaos and Order

Comebacks

'vanishing'

Defences

Threatened

Op is on drugs

All the F s

And F-general

Get out of the shower

Shower responses

Dry

The horny and the simp

Shower sins

Thower shoughts

I take quick showers

Shower thots

Last responder *countdown music*

You have shower thoughts?

Your shower thoughts are stupid

Wtf shower thoughts

Another shower responder

MORE

Just shower responses... responses

Response shower

NO SHOWER! only thought (×3)

Mmm, showery

Penny for your thoughts?

Hello darkness my old friend...

Llawyer

Beepbeep

Prussia

Haywire!!!

furry OwO

A Pigeon got in through the door, who left it open?

I'm feeling devious

You're looking glamorous, let's get mischievous, and polyamorous

Gay is stored in the ass

Gay

Trans

*opens door and walks through with you exaggeratedly* Fellas we got the whole LGBTQIA+ community right here

Enby

Hahaha gender go brrr

Lesbian

Lesbian-thot

Lust

Someone who thinks it funny to clown around

Joker (derogatory)

Haha straight

Dead inside

Some supervillain idk

News. Literally a shower news style responses

r

I cannot believe that I forgot Her Greatest Majesty, the Queen. All Hail Royal

Isaac newton?

M megamind?

Fiftieth

Crackhead

Some Phoenix Wright kinnie

What is a Dean Winchester and why does he have a tentacle fetish?

Well well well, if it ain't a homestuckian

Did someone kill/rob The Doctor or something, their TARDIS was left behind and its blocking my pretzels that I left in the shower

Mined crafts uwu

Well well well, if it ain't- *accidentally makes eye contact and is then killed by some unknown shadowy creature holding what seems to be some sort of cube of dirt*

GOTTA GO FAST

Mishamishamishamishamishamishamisha

Gen Z and ready to throw hands with OP

Not puki

Nom noms

Dip dap

Kensa

B͓̽u͓̽n͓̽g͓̽e͓̽r͓̽ ..........

Someone broke their space bar or something

It's time to d-d-d-d-d-dshower

The magical deity of sleepovers

DON'T FALL ASLEEP. NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YOU-

The muffin man genuinely left drury Lane for this

Txmblr

Moonlit nights on a winters day, stars glimmering gently

A child?

🟥

The fae. Just all of them. Every single one.

Crocus? (What on earth does that mean)

*sings* baba blacksheep have you any wool? Because if not you will be killed (this fits the tune perfectly. If not I have failed in everything)

The theatre itself is here... Somehow

Ahoy-hoy

boo

REEEE- *epic geometry dash gameplay to DanTDM's old intro music*

Yardale, not to be mistaken for riverdale and differs to lawn ale or front porch ale or even meter ale

I'll finish this list later

It's gonna be a long one folks

I'm including a ones that haven't spoken since ages ago because

Boy howdy there's new ones tell me who I'm missing now

Please stop thank you very much this is too many i keep having to add to this any new responder must kill a responder to continue the purge shall claim y'all as I will win i recently started watching Danganronpa

Seriously though everyone after mirror must have a battle royale it's too much i doubt all of you will even last longer than today also happy birthday me -dated:28th- do you even realise what sort of commitment you've made to sell pieces of your soul for entertainment and ability to make such epic retorts each and every post?! I sacrifice many souls DAILY to be throwing such bangers into this stuff y'know?

We have a tap guys we can finally wash our hands of all the blood of our enemies

Seriously though who left the door open I don't want a Pigeon pecking at me (the mishapocalypse got them lol)

So many responders so little time before the end of the world

If I'm missing someone please tell me very thank

There are not enough colours for me to assign a different one to each person 😔 also, wtf is on there twice on purpose

WorldHealthOrganisation IS MISSING (note: you may have a joke in place of name or under a category of names)

So there's lore without me?

ALL HAIL THE LIGHT *moth noises*

Okay now there's alternate timeline versions of responders for the benefit of myself they ain't going on the list bud

There is an incorrect role play blog quotes blog and I am crying. Not of laughter. Just wiuwhdhsjhshjxjabjsjdhdjsj

If any new people join I will go back to causing shower wars for the sake of killing you all I'm done I have snapped my laptop is updating 3 times in a row

I will commit crimes.

Does being a shower responder or role-playing seem encouraging to people to join this "community"? Because I'm pretty sure it's the latter

[hatchetfieldtheories]

Return to Hatchetfield-Town - TGWDLM Part 3

Have I been putting off this part because of sad Bill? Maybe.  Or is it because of all your amazing Ridiculous Hatchetfield Theory submissions? Yeah, you were right the first time.  I just can’t deal with sad Bill.

We left part 2 of the TGWDLM rewatch where the Scooby Gang had turned up at the spooky mansion, which can only go well, and we come back in part 3 as they’ve left the tied up resident bad guy alone with the one person who has a weakness for said bad guy.

Links to previous parts

It’s Ted loving time and I make no apologies for it.

Am I the only one who saw the scene with Ted and Charlotte and immediately got sent back to MAMD’s Joey and Sally?  It’s so good seeing Joey and Jaime acting opposite each other like this again, they both bring the same amount of chaotic brilliance.  

I have no jokes to make for this, I just needed a gif of the “slap” here.  Beautiful.  Iconic.

Here we see a bit of the true Ted, the Ted we see in Time Bastard.  He’s an idiot sure, but its obvious he is actually a hopeless romantic who really cares for Charlotte, underneath an exterior of “sleazeball”. 

When I originally read what happens in Time Bastard I will admit it didn’t really fit with the image I had in my head of Ted.  Ted is first and foremost played for laughs.  He’s selfish and arrogant and funny.  But rewatching TGWDLM, especially with Time Bastard in mind, you do see where Joey let’s Ted’s façade drop.  You see it at a greater extent later when Charlotte dies and Ted goes off on one to Bill.  But you also see it here (I’m sorry Ted fans):

Serious gifs, who is she?

Now. What’s happening in this next little scene? Are we ready for some tin foil hatting?

What do you want Charlotte?

Continuing our theme of characters explaining what they want in clear and certain terms, Charlotte starts praying to God, then Sam wakes up.  Was Sam waiting for everyone else to leave before “waking up” in order to target Charlotte?  Or were Charlotte’s prayers answered by an Eldritch being with the capability to control the Creedy Chorus?  Later Sam says that he “saw god”.  

In Black Friday, Linda attempts to issue in the “birth of a god.”  God is certainly a word the Devil Dolls are happy to attribute to themselves.  Somehow I don’t think it would have mattered if they had gone to a Methodist or Presbyterian church.

Opinion time: Tied Up My Heart is a full on rock bop and deserves way more praise and acclaim. You could have told me this song was from Rock of Ages and I would believed you.

“Don’t you twust me” – serious Wiggly vibes there Sam.

This is kinda catchy Sam!

In part two we briefly discussed when Hidgens became infected, and there is some theories that believe he was infected from the moment he touched the blue brain goo, leading to Show Stopping Number happening.

Charlotte was infected the minute she touched Sam’s brains.  Like Hidgens, it happened slowly, but its very clear it had begun to take root in this song.  Tied Up My Heart is to Charlotte, what Let It Out is to Paul.  They both find themselves dancing without meaning to, they both begin to hear the music.  I’ve mentioned previously that Tied Up My Heart is the only song in which there is an offstage chorus, which would be strange unless for the first time we’re hearing the show as Charlotte is hearing it – she’s beginning to hear the rest of the Hive.

 The only difference between Charlotte and Paul is their wants during these pivotal numbers.  Paul is trying harder to fight the song because his want is to destroy the meteor.  Charlotte isn’t able to fight the song because her want is Sam… and the song is giving her that. 

I think this is the part of the musical where most people pause and proclaim… what the hell am I watching. Which, you know… valid.

Can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?

Ted just casually predicting the ending of the show.  Take out the head and the whole thing falls down – an historically inaccurate statement in the proceedings of Hatchetfield’s apocalypses.

Exhibit A – Taking out the meteor does not stop the hive.

Exhibit B – Sending a Nuke into the Black and White does not stop Wiggly.

I don’t know what Nerdy Prudes will be about but heads up to the characters – maybe don’t try and destroy the root of the issue as your solution.

Obviously there is a lot of story in Emma and Paul’s discussion here, a lot of which gets unpacked and revisited in Forever and Always, but I’m not really going to delve into the specifics of it here.  My biggest take away from this conversation is that Emma explains her past, and her intentions for the future, but at no point is it ever clear what her want is. 

In a musical where character’s are killed because they want something, is it any wonder Emma is the one who survives at the end?  She doesn’t have any big, ultimate want.  She’s jaded and tired, until the end… when what she wants is for Paul to have survived.

This shows a clear distinction between how Pokey and Wiggly operate (and the others, but we’ll discuss them when we get to Nightmare Time.)  Both of these Bothersome Brothers use wanting as their tool of chaos but in very different ways.

Pokey wants you to want something, in order to tempt you with that in order to destroy you.

Wiggly wants to find holes to fill with exaggerated, artificial echoes of a want.

The new game at Toy Zone – Bop Ted

Does anyone else forget for a bit how amazing Jaime’s voice is and then finds themselves entranced when Join Us and Die happens?  I’m sure there is some lore in this song but I’m far too distracted.

If we refer back to our Violence over Time chart from part two of the rewatch you will see we have now fully arrived at the point where the Hive has stopped trying to just entice everyone with fluffy feelings before murdering them, and are now just resorting to “we’re gonna kill you and it’ll hurt a lot.”

I know there is plenty of discussion regarding whether Hidgens is good or bad, infected or not infected etc – but none of that matters.  What matters is he makes the same crappy puns I make in inappropriate situations and I think that’s beautiful.

“The Charlotte you knew and loved was gone the minute a note came out her mouth.” – Snape’s back with the foreshadowing again.

Hidgens then proceeds to subject our heroes to a very intricate test to find out who is human, and who is the musical Doppleganger (one of the AJ Holmes fans there).  I’ve seen Moana once, and I became obsessed with the bioluminescent crab so I don’t remember any of the other songs apart from Shiny.  This is a problem because the only other song I know from Moana has now become Paul’s version of whatever it is he is singing. I refuse to believe there is any other version of that song.

“Their tactic is to hide amongst us, and as their numbers grow, they become more bold.” – yes Hidgens – we’ve all seen the chart.

Acting Masterclass with Corey Dorris

Bill gets a phone call from Alice, she’s stuck at Hatchetfield High and her girlfriend and the other kids have become singing and dancing zombies.  Is this a prequel to High School Musical?

Its worth noting that Alice has locked herself in the Choir room – Hatchetfield High’s number one place to hide when things are going badly - x

Look what happened Nightmare Time.  

Corey Dorris’ face pulls on every heart string I possess.  Not Your Seed is a fantastic song, with some superb singing by Mariah, but the heart of this song is Corey.  Bill is a broken man from the moment he echoes Alice’s words that Grace Chastity is a Nerdy Prude. And the voice crack!

Small warning here for a very brief discussion about suicide. If you want to skip past scroll to the next gif.

The song is an attempt to bring Bill to the Hive, but I think the plan from the start was to push him to shoot himself. Bill wants his daughter back, he wants her to be a part of his life, but unlike with Charlotte, where Hive!Sam attempts to convince her he’s not really dead and wants her, Hive!Alice uses Bill’s want to break him further and further, swinging between Alice’s love and disdain for her father.  This isn’t an attempt to lay a trap and kill him when he falls in it, it’s a blatant push towards him killing himself.  The Hive only picked up the gun because Paul was there to stop him.

I also find the mirror of this moment to later in Watcher World very fascinating.  We obviously know Pokey and Blinky are brothers, and I wonder if the set up leading Alice to point a gun at Bill in Watcher World is Blinky’s twisted humour, echoing what he knows happened in another timeline.  A horrible joke that would be lost on Bill and Alice in that timeline, but very recognisable to all of us Watchers.

Once again the Hive could have easily killed Paul, but they don’t.  They make a big song and dance (get it?) out of how the guns not good enough to kill him with and then they start singing at him just in time for the army to turn up.  The Hive had no intention of killing Paul yet, though obviously they can’t let him know that.  Paul has been chosen as their Hero.  He’s got work to do.

Hatchetfield High Homework

Just the one this week, I’m currently doing an Ask series where I attempt to make ridiculous sounding Hatchetfield Theories make sense.  You can find them by searching Ridiculous Hatchetfield Theories.  Go and have a look and follow the wonderful people sending them in.

When the rewatch returns, we get our first peep into the world of PEIP.

[gnomebud]

i've seen u post about thatskygame a couple times on twitter and it looks really neat (fairies in a big forest? maybe?) could you tell me more about it? :O

cracks knuckles ohohoho yes i can!!!!!!!!! i am so sorry this is going to be so long i love sky a lot tysm emma

sky: children of the light is a free mobile (and soon switch as well!!) game about community and sharing and restoring light to the world, in sort of. the broader thematic strokes, i guess!! it’s by the same folks who made the game journey, thatgamecompany (hence why sky is usually tagged with thatskygame) and is very similar if you’ve played that one, but also a lot different!!! sky is much more collaborative and encouraging of interacting with other people — throughout the game you collect winged light (to grow your flying ability, like in journey) and candle light (to unlock friendship levels, spirit bonus cosmetics, etc) but Primarily you are visiting and freeing spirits, and playing with other people makes a lot of this both easier and more fun!

image description: my sky character, wearing a blue manta cape and antlers, stands in a grassy cave area watching one of the spirits, in a yellow cape, pose and glow brightly. /end id

there are lots of areas that require multiple players to unlock, it’s really easy to make friends or acquaintances with people, and also you can hug your friends in game. what’s better than that!!!!!! when you free spirits you get an emote that is unique to that character, and while sky has an in-game chat system you have to advance friendship with another player to use it, so you’re encouraged to find spirits & get their emotes to use at other strangers in the game to then help find other spirits or just explore together!!!! which is how u get people lighting each other’s candles and then just doing, like, crab emote at each other for a solid ten minutes. it’s also a nice low pressure way of interacting with people both across language barriers and without the stakes of Becoming Friends And Having To Talk

one of my favorite parts of the game is using candles (which you collect as you play) to unlock cosmetics (hairstyles, outfits, masks, different capes, instruments, etc) from the spirits you visit! it’s a very fun way to customize your character in this very specific way, and honestly i just love. getting on and deciding hmm what little outfit will i put my little guy in today!!!! what’s better than that!!!!! my current pfp is one of my favorite outfits in the game (as drawn by one of the friends i play with now, @/REVERIEQUE on twt) but i have a lot of favorite capes and hairstyles!! u can also get spells which allow u to change ur height, set off fireworks, wear a special cape, etc etc

image description: my sky character wearing a cherry blossom petal cape and antlers sitting under a small cherry tree in a sandy area. /end id

u don’t use candles for this, but unlocking spirits can also allow you different voices for your character — when you tap on your character in sky you Yell, basically, which initially is a sort of musical tone but you can change to be more like a high pitched bird chirp, or a warbly jellyfish call, or just. a fish. yelling in sky lets other people know where you are, tells you where to go if lost, helps butterflies recharge your light, and also recharges your friends’ light when playing with them! basically the game encourages you to scream

the big forest u are referring to is one of 7 main areas in sky- hidden forest! it’s a lovely little rainy forest area in lots of blues and greens, i also really like daylight prairie, which is a nice sunny field area that also features an island w geysers, and valley of triumph, which is this snowy/sandy obstacle course/colliseum type area? you unlock the different areas as you progress when you start the game! and every day there are four little quests to get bonus candles in one of the areas! tangentially relevant but movement is Such a delight in the game — flying feels cool, running feels cool, and you can slide down hills and skate on ice and different surfaces in a way that is SO satisfying to do

image description: my sky character, wearing a green cape with a blue backpack and an orange on their head, standing in a rainy, tree-filled river area. /end id

the music is also. fuckign gorgeous. volume 1 of the soundtrack was only released a bit ago and i play it Constantly it is such gorgeous orchestral music for a free mobile game.... it sets the tone of each area so well and also Slaps!!!!!!! it’s amazing

to an extent sky has lore, and sort of a plotline/story progression, but it also isn’t necessarily focused on Following A Story to play — there are very broad ideas and things you know happen, but mostly it is like. you exist in this world. here is what you are doing. have fun & make friends doing it. and i think that’s very neat!!!! i don’t know if i can parse in a understandable way what sky means to me thematically, but it deals a lot with helping others, honoring those who came before you, making friends and sharing experiences, sacrifice, and in general making the world a better place through kindness and helping others, even in miserable places, and i think it works wonderfully as very simple concepts conveyed incredibly well in game. the “”last”” area (eden) made me cry the first time i went through it because it was just. oh man!!! this is about connecting with people & helping them & doing it as many times as it takes to help as many people as we can, even when it is almost impossible. and it’s lovely! one of my best friends got me into it, and i usually play with them, and now i’ve successfully gotten @diapensia into it, and it is so fun to share with others too :’) like a little secret. here take this free game that is so simple and yet so beautiful

image description: two sky characters holding hands and glowing softly while floating in the boughs of a cherry blossom tree with glowing pink petals. /end id

ALSO one of the ways sky makes money is by doing seasons — usually two-ish month events that you have to pay to play and offer bonus content, new spirits, and new areas! the seasons usually have a cute little storyline — past ones have been about helping a little figure skater spirit train for a performance, the current one is about helping a kid and their friends build a treehouse in hidden forest! usually it’s like $10 for a pass or $20 if you get one for three people, but they’re lots of fun and usually the bonus cosmetics are Amazing! they’re doing a little prince themed season this...summer i think? that i am so excited for

i have talked about sky for so long so here is a few final fun facts. crabs will try to knock you out in the game and in retaliation you can just pick them up and hold them forever. there are jellyfish and manta rays and other fun ocean creatures. you can PLAY INSTRUMENTS IN THE GAME, which is how you end up with shit like hatsune miku songs getting covered in-game by folks with way more patience for a tiny phone key layout than me

[foryouthegays]

spreading propaganda [Dream SMP] liveblog yall lets go. this is so long i am sorry but the end is an actual summary of what happens asldkfa

sellout timer pog: 00:30:20, 01:00:40, 01:31:35, 02:02:03 (for like a second), 02:03:00, 02:34:35

time spent reading donations: 10 minutes, 20ish seconds. 

fanart credit he puts up (all from twitter i think): snumkt, reinneart, lihnsu, sestqr, jester_u, Brigade_Lost, natonyy

also taggin @antarctic-empire-technoblade​ :) theres an actual summary at the end that isnt just me ramblin so,,,,,,ye. i am so sorry its so long a;dkfja i dont know how to condense things 

00:00:35 “i stole a lot of sand recently,” ah yes, a casual conversation starter, the admission of theft 

00:03:55 hE HAS A VILLAGER TRADING HALL CHAPEL IN THE VILLAGE SIR THAT IS ILLEGAL 

00:04:13 

tubbo: -..--...--- 

ranboo: that means beans right

no, ranboo, not it does not (i put it into a translator and it just. it doesnt mean anything. i didnt see any spaces so im just. what was mr tubbo trying to say

00:04:35: relationship advice with technoblade! [reading donation] “‘techno, my boyfriend said he’ll never sub to you, how do i handle this travesty?’ uh, clearly you need to break up with him, and send me more money, is the most- that’s the most unbiased opinion I can give you, it’s just a good life decision, alright? It’s just a good life decision.”

00:16:00 ranboo hi!!!! him garden :D 

HOUND ARMY HOUND ARMY 00:18:10

00:20:15 ‘i have not made a tier list [for dinosaurs] yet’ Y E T? ? ? ?? ? 

00:20:55

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

00:21:25 imagine believing in airplanes, couldnt be me

00:21:35 SKLDJFAK a dono is like, hey can u call my new cousin a nerd, and technos like [claps] yOUVE COME TO THE RIGHT MAN im all about bullying infant children 

lakjshdfl 00:26:15 ‘philza this does not sound lore at all please’ poor techno

00:27:30 HKJSFDL :crab: TUBBO IS GONE :crab: also i cant tell if techno says ‘KILL HIM DEAD’ or ‘KILL HIM, DAD’ 

00:30:20 ‘we should have a grinch episode, where i go around stealing presents from l’manburg’ DO IT

also i was in chat at 00:31:25ish and i said ‘subscribe to technoblade’ and RIGHT AFTER techno said ‘did i hear subscribe to technoblade?’ and i felt so heard 

00:33:25 why is his only response to being seen in enemy lines to just stay realllyyyyy still a;lkdfjasf 

00:39:45 ‘this is crucial information coming to you live from anarchy news’ A;LSDKFJA;LSDF

00:46:25 :CRAB: RANBOO IS GONE :CRAB: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 

alkdfja; 00:47:55 techno talks (sarcastically) abt how great it is when chat tells him where his stuff is

00:48:50 awww techno showin his not-dad his hound army!!! so cute 

00:55:30 techno specifies that theyre all characters/roleplayin!!!

techno talkin to phil is literally like a kid talkin to his dad after not seein him for a while. like yeah yeah family isnt canon in this but KSJDFLA hes like ‘phillll tommys being annoying also look at this new poster!!!!’ its so cute

01:09:20 A;SDJFADSL THE VILLAGER JUST. FALLS THROUGH THE FLOOR

techno nd phil reference smp earth at 01:19:50!!!!

(ik some people dont like enbyctechno so heres ur warnin, its just for this line tho) techno says ‘no one man should have this power’ but he HAS that power. therefore. mr c!blade is not a guy 01:35:00ish idk im not goin back to check

01:38:35 alright gang lets split up and look for clues 

01:45:20 ‘my chat’s sayin theres a 0% chance this is gonna work,,,,thATS A CHANCE I’M WILLING TO TAKE, CHAT’ skjdflasl;dfjaf (also, bit after, after readin the wiki say its 0% chance: ‘i like those odds’) 

01:48:15 [abt the zombie villager baby] 

Techno: on the bright side, we may have inflicted the optimal amount of trauma onto this child for it to become funny? 

Ranboo: ooooh yeah! it can become a minecraft youtuber!

techno: yeeeeeeah!!

pls get some therapy

a;ldkfassa the mental image of techno ownin an orphanage,,,,paldkfajslfasf 01:51:35

a;ldsifjasdklf ranboo is canonically a villager now, pog 01:56:50

01:57:50 ranboo: ‘they say that im built different, i am built different, in the fact that i have no moral backbone.’

01:58:30 BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD also why is techno so good at the bow like WHAT he looks in third person and turns nd shoots in like a second and hits most of the time its scary literally look at ranboo a;ldsjkfadsf hes like a porcupine 

ASKLJDFASLDF RANBOOS ‘OH NO HE KNOWS HOW TO OPEN DOORS’ AT 02:02:25 JUST HAS SUCH TECHNO SKYBLOCK VID VIBES ADLKJFALSDFJA OH MY GOSH

02:06:35 “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” "no thats just how we greet each other in our country” nether lore pog?

02:08:45 why does techno casually type at 120 wpm?????  god i hate him so much why is he like thisssss ugh (also it took ~3 seconds to type 7 words (34 characters) which is 140 wpm and 680 cpm if i know how to do math i hate it here) /lh

nd then he types ‘punz we’re all outside your house get over here’ which is 47 characters nd 9 words nd it took him 5 seconds to type which is 564 cpm and 108 wpm so his average (from these two samples which. isnt a lot. should i do a post abt this in the future?) is 124 wpm and 622 cpm. hes so fast. 

SDA;FKJASDF PHIL WHY R U SO VIOLENT 

02:17:00 PUNZ POG ALSO MANIFOLD KILLED IN THE HOLY LAND

technos complainin bout the fights bein boring,,,,,,,fight them all, techno. do it. 1v8. do it, coward. 

02:24:02 ‘maybe the real combat was the friends we made along the way’ 

02:25:16 i love that technos first instinct when someone dies is to check what sword/axe killed them nd what enchants r on it aldskfjads

i love how techno calls the manhunt music ‘dream music’ its so funny to me

right before he ends the stream he says ‘p e r h a p s’ to techno plushies and i just,,,, wa n t 

if ya just want an actual summary and not that MESS:

Technoblade starts the stream in his house. the first thing he does is put another piece of fanart in his house, this one by snumkt on twitter. he goes to l’manburg, where he sneaks around very sneakily (/s) and replaces anti-techno propaganda with pro-techno fanart, stating that “If they take it down, it’s ‘cause they hate fanartists.” (00:09:18). 

While placing posters, Techno checks in on his hound army, and reveals that he thinks someone had been in the area, because a wolf teleported to him while he was home. He thinks someone placed water, the dog stood up, and then teleported. (00:18:25)

After breeding the dogs, Techno reads donations and one of the questions is about the SBI family dynamics. Here’s what he says at 00:20:55 

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

He then meets up with Philza, who is being escorted by Tubbo. Techno goes to Philzas house, and hides in his new basement. He joins their VC and finds Phil, Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo. talking about birthdays. Tubbo goes to the basement and sees Technos invis particles, hits him, and he is revealed. Techno kills tubbo, and declares it canon as a joke. 

He goes back outside, deafened on Discord, and puts down more propaganda. Philza joins his call, and they meet up to try and find Technos stolen items. They don’t find the barrel, but they do find a hidden room under the podium. Techno puts a piece of propaganda in the room. (00:43:30)

While Phil is killing an enderman, Ranboo finds them, and is killed by Techno. (00:46:25) 

Techno takes Phil to see his Hound Army, but they’re stopped by Tubbo. Techno tries to pretend to be Ranboo, but Ranboo goes up to them, so his cover is blown. Techno’s chased to the portal. Phil and Techno meet again in the Nether, and they go back to the house. 

At the house, Phil and Techno talk about the SBI characters, the sellout timer goes off, and then they go downstairs to cure a zombie villager. While it’s curing, Techno gathers books to make a new bow, with Power V, Punch II, Unbreaking III, Flame, and Mending. 

Philza reveals that Ranboo is coming over to give Phil a present. Techno seems excited at this, mostly at the fact that Ranboo can be his new bows test subject. 

Before Ranboo arrives, the villager is cured, and they find out it is a nitwit, meaning it can’t trade or get a job. Techno and Phil start working on a tunnel to bring the villager to a lava pool, so the other villagers won’t gossip and raise their prices. 

Ranboo joins the call at 01:15:35, right before they’re going to bring the villager to the lava pool. He gifts Techno and Phil four Netherite ingots.

After struggling to get the villager to the right height, Techno forces Ranboo to boat the villager into the lava. Ranboo escapes by throwing a pearl, and the villager dies.

Ranboo, Techno, and Phil talk about duping Netherite, and the current plot, and then Techno finds a zombie baby villager. It’s caught in a boat, and Techno nametags it ‘Orphan.’ They talk about the cobblestone tower, Philzas’ death to a baby zombie, and how if you don’t see a child's parents, you should assume that they are an orphan and attack them. 

Techno talks to Jack Manifold through chat about his axe. Techno, Philza, and Ranboo go around and look for zombie villagers. Techno finds an igloo, with two villagers. Techno was going to try and turn them into zombie villagers, but decides to not when he finds out that theres a 0% chance of that happening on Easy mode. 

They all go back to Orphan, and bully it when they find out it still hasn’t grown up. Techno and Ranboo make a joke about how it’s traumatized, so it’ll be funny and can be come a minecraft youtuber. please get some help. (01:48:15)

After Orphan grows up, Techno trades and gets the Bottle of Enchanting trade for one emerald. They all joke about Techno owning an orphanage at 01:51:35.

Phil, Techno, and Ranboo decide go to the Hound Army, but Techno remembers that Ranboo is part of L’manburg, and tries to kill him (with his new bow) when they enter the nether. He doesn’t succeed, and he continues fighting until he drinks and invis pot on the Prime Path. Techno and Phil meet up in the Bee Dome, where Ranboo finds them. Techno tries to kill him, but runs out of arrows. 

After reading donations, Techno, Ranboo, and Phil are back together at the Bee Dome, and they decide to team up in case someone finds them. They go outside of the Dome, and chase Jack Manifold out of his own country.

Manifold joins the VC, and they try to blame Punz on his attempted murder. After Manifold says “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” Techno says that that’s how he greets people in his country.

Manifold asks if they want to help him get revenge on Punz, and Techno agrees. They gather more people, and by the time they get to Punz’s tower, their party is Manifold, Techno, Phil, Ranboo, Fundy, and Antfrost. Punz is in the Nether, so they wait until he gets back. 

Ranboo and Techno have a whisper conversation:

Ranboo: are you just going to jump fundy

Techno: no im gonna make jack 1v1 LMAO

Ranboo: good plan

While Fundy is taking a screenshot of Techno for his thumbnail, Philza attacks Fundy with a crossbow and his sword. He claims it was because he was getting bored. 

In the same spirit, Techno asks if they could kill Manifold to pass the time. The mob, which now includes Fundy, chases Manifold. He runs to the Holy Land, and the mob boos him.  Techno tells Antfrost to kill Manifold, and that the mob won’t tell that he was killed in the Holy Land. Manifold hands Antfrost his sword. 

While Antfrost debates killing Manifold or not, the mob chants ‘peer pressure!’ at him. Techno quickly realizes that Antfrost isn’t in the VC, and is extremely confused. The sword gets handed to Fundy, who gets into a battle with Manifold. Philza tells Fundy that he’s forgiven, if he can kill Manifold. The battle calms, and neither of the contestants die.

Techno convinces the mob to go to the pit trap, and tries to lure someone onto the trapped blocks using rotten flesh. Fundy takes the bait, but moves out of the way before the button is pressed. Antfrost sneaks up behind him and punches him into the pit. Fundy survives the fall, but is shot by Manifold to death. 

During the commotion, Punz makes his way back to his house, and the mob moves towards him to end his life. Manifold says that he’s going to kill Punz, and Techno says that the mob’ll have his back. He tells the mob to not have Manifold’s back. 

at 02:17:00, Punz joins the call, and is confused as to why Manifold wants to kill him. Manifold explains that Punz tried to kill him, siting his source as Technoblade. 

also, 2:17:15 technoswear!

Techno encourages Punz, saying “Punz, he actually dropped his sword by accident and now I have it, so it’d be really easy to beat him up,” and “he also just killed in the holy land, so you have a sort of...religious motivation to take him out.”

Punz tries to fight Manifold without armor (Manifold is wearing a full enchanted set of armor, with a Netherite chestplate and everything else Diamond), which fails miserably, and Manifold is killed. 

Techno decides to fight Manifold with his goons (the mob) for the audience retention, and Manifold’s quickly killed. The final hit was from CaptainPuffy. Ponk rushes in and grabs some of Manifold’s items. Puffy takes the rest.

Manifold complains about getting bullied, so Techno gives him his sword back and tells him to avenge himself. While looking for Ponk (or Punz? this is kinda unclear), Punz swoops in and kills Manifold in two hits. 

Manifold finds Ponk and chases after him, trying to kill him. The mob follows, and Ranboo kills Ponk with thorns. Manifold takes Ponks stuff. 

Right after respawning, Ponk was blown up by a creeper, and Techno claimed both as canon. 

The mini fights continue, and Manifold is killed by Punz. 

Ranboo changes the ‘Days since last war crime’ sign to 0.

Phil tells Techno that he’s going back to the base, and the L’manburgians question him as to what base he’s talking about. Phil tells Fundy that he ripped off his ankle shackles and left. While they talk, Techno starts running back to the base, and Ranboo whispers “lets run back” to him. Ranboo follows Techno, but quickly looses him.

Phil and Techno join a separate VC together and they go back to the base. 

At 02:29:15, Phil says “I trust you” to Techno and I am going to cry. 

Right before getting to the base, Phil drinks some honey, and Techno says “that’s the only thing we have honey for, now that we’ve uh...uh I guess you don’t know about that.” He’s referring to the Vault, I think, because the redstone required honey to work properly. 

Philza responds, “the honey- wait, what did you use the honey for?” 

“uhhh....food.” Techno, for some reason, doesn’t want to show Phil the vault. 

Ranboo whispers to Techno: “My alliance isnt with lmanburg, its with the people who help me. phil helped me.”

out loud, Techno laughs about it with phil, saying, “well, I’ve stabbed him like twelve times this week, so, I [laughs] I don’t know if that entirely qualifies here.”

Techno messages Ranboo back with “new phone who this” 

Ranboo replies, “no one,” and then, “:)”

Going back to the honey talk, Philza asked if Techno had been hiding anything diabolical from him, and Techno asks if he would do such a thing. Philza guesses several things he could use honey for, such as a flying machine, TNT dupers, and a door.

Techno takes him to the vault. 02:32:00. i LOVE peoples reactions to the vault, it’s always so good. Philza responds with a surprised ‘HOLY SHIT’ and some laughing. Techno also confirms my math of 55 withers. 

02:34:10 “i’ve seen this government, on the server, and everything to do with government is just bad. I’ve watched it completely destroy and tear down people’s wills and change people, I’ve seen it change the nicest people into complete and utter tyrants, so...I think it’s about time--”

“We need revenge. [sellout timer goes off] and more importantly, we neED SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE DOT COM” phil joinin anarchy pog? 

anyway that was it ;alskdfjas;f

[ghosty-schnibibit]

new taz graduation ep liveblog! ^u^

i haven't seen any spoilers but i did see a tweet from travis  about how he's excited for us to hear this ep because a lot of stuff happens and i am hyped!!!

i have never heard bursar pronounced with that hard an “a”

wait do they not... get to keep their items??? jesus that sucks 

fitz my sweet boy

ilu firbolg buddy

play in this space with us justin

fitz is so done and i am as well

literally no one has ever said this firbolg

am i the only one who is getting mad evil vibes off this guy

"snippers, honey-" he loves this dear sweet crab

"i set him on my lap" snippers ilu

HOLY SHIT this is big! go fitzroy :D

ooooh shit, on no, oh my poor boy

this music is ominous and i am worried as hell

are you sure villian doesn't fit you fitroy because wow

i was not assuming the dynamics were going to change this much only six episodes in, hot damn

...huh. this is because of what happened last episode isn't it. hieronymus is giving him a promotion in order to keep him from suspecting anything's wrong with the school. i am very concerned about this

i would very much love to learn about trees from bud

firblog and argo's friendship makes me so happy

i legit thought he said "throat"

"now here is a hungry boy for bark" justin you've killed me

argo what the fuck

he was trolling him the entire time oh my god

oh fun we're doing argo's scene first

OH SHIT, it's the water and stone thing from the second ep

well that's not great :|

never mind, back to bud

how much time has passed exactly??? because with all this talk of new semesters and the baby pegasus having grown so much it sounds like it's been months since the first ep. i like having concrete timelines for things, idk if that's important or not but it feels like it

aww, buddies :')

this background noise is wonderful

i'm gonna cry, firblog my baby

"breeze through the willow" pretty

i cannot overstate how much i love firbolg’s emotional intelligence

demons??? how the heck do demons work in dnd, i need to look this up

this music is so beautiful but i am so worried

travis you are destroying me emotionally

"scarred and beautiful" t r a v i s

aaand theres the ad break! yes it is great so far travis, i am loving this!

i still haven't listened to the live candlenights ep, i need to do that 

yes give me your thought process griffin i want to know the inner thoughts of my boy, give me that emotional complexity

what the fuck is this scene even

i love the idea that fitzroy got told specifically "hey maybe don't tell anybody about this" and he immediately decided to turn around and tell his friends 

TURTLE BUDDY :D

aww poor clint, feel better soon :(

"always" ilu firbolg

a quasit??? the fuck

i was halfway to google already there trav

YEAH THAT'S NOT GREAT

oooh that's some interesting lore there, filing that away for later

firbolg has a better record for remembering library books than i do lmao

i love this so much

"i give you permission to speak as justin" pfffff

i love you agro, also clint you're murdering me here

wait didn't hieronymus say they were coming together

oh dang, good to know there’s less of a hench/sidekick split

i'm glad on a narrative standpoint that fitzroy is sharing the fact that he has misgivings about being villian typecast with argo, and i'm also nervous that argo is so worried about being a villian

justin what the flying fuck are you talking about

i can hear justin trying not to laugh

thunderman of the sea

what the fuck is even going on with this, i have no goddamn idea

"it's what i do best!" so gary is a bug essentially

griffin what the fuck has been the last 10 minutes of this podcast

oh yay, the raccoon :D

oh fun, ranier's birthday :D

why does fitzroy have jellybeans, i want to know this

how would a perception check in a dream go, that's wild

oh what the fuck that is creepy

there's only like ten minutes left in this ep and i am worried for argo

that's a good ol' merle roll lmao

oh god i forgot how much i hate the jackal voice holy shit

is it just me or are some of the mics cutting off at the end and going quiet in places, clint's and travis’s in particular

i just had flashbacks to that one fucking scene in amnesty where the shifter took boyd's voice mid sentence and i'm really not a fan of that

so mom is shebry and the ship is the mariah

what happened, i want to know so bad

what the fuck is going on holy shit i am so intrigued

blood and bone, rain and stone

so his mom is gone, and she wanted him to eventually get him to join, and jackal is involved... oh i cannot wait to see how this goes

i am so worried for all of my sons

well that was a significantly funnier post credits scene lmao

so a lot of things happened in this episode! dang!!! only six episodes into the new season and we’ve already hit some major shakeups in terms of the boy’s situations at the school, it seems like the plot is really starting to gain some steam and i’m still super excited to see where it goes from here

see you all next right thursday! 

[sailor-cresselia]

Kamen Rider Zi-O 49: Finale

…You know what? No preamble this time. Let’s just do this.

Kamen Rider Zi-O episode 49: Season Finale.

Let’s go.

––––

We re-open with Tsukuyomi’s transformation into Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi!

Geiz is surprised, he didn’t see this coming. Woz and Sougo are both impressed, and Tsukuyomi… throws her hand forward… and… pauses everything…

Except Swartz.

Um.

She goes up to him, and.

Um.

Bows. To him. Dropping her transformation.

And says that she has obtained the powers of a Kamen Rider, and that she will be useful to her brother. That she’s royalty, too, and will do whatever it takes to save the world.

Um. Tsukuyomi? You are pretending, right? This is part of a plot to catch him off guard, right?

Because, uh, your expression isn’t one of, you know, devotion or satisfaction, or even resignation. You look like you don’t want to do this, so. Uh.

Please be faking?

Please?!

––––

If she’s not, and if she doesn’t transform again, this is the shortest Female Rider stint we’ve had. Didn’t think anything would beat Alia’s ‘literally one fight before becoming a prisoner’ run as Necrom-P, but…

––––

Woz’s recap – Oh HELLO.

The recap vault? You know how it has an appearance in the opening, with burning pages falling from the ceiling?

Guess what’s starting to fall around Woz right now.

The contents of his recap are simple. Thanks to Sougo’s efforts, Tsukuyomi’s become a Kamen Rider. And then she defected, which nobody saw coming. This is the last page until the end of the world.

––––

There are no opening credits today. We go right from Woz’s vault to the show title, to the sponsor segment, and to the episode itself.

––––

Tsukuyomi and Swartz stand on a rooftop at night, under a blood-red moon. He asks why they had her become a Kamen Rider.

Her answer? It was part of Tsukasa’s plan, because, according to him, her and Swartz’s world is trying to end because there are no Riders.

Swartz looks… I don’t know if that’s confused, frustrated, or ‘oh shit, I didn’t think of that.’

––––

It actually kind of works with Decade’s lore, too. If a world enters a Kamen Rider season, it has to have Kamen Riders, or it will start to collapse in on itself… even if that world isn’t supposed to have Kamen Riders. The Sentai-verse got a bit screwy when he crossed over with Shinkenger, to the point of the monster-of-the-day becoming Another Diend.

I wish I were kidding about that, but that MOTW was the OG Another Rider.

And we’ve only ever really visited one world that doesn’t, technically speaking, have Kamen Riders in the series that I can remember – during Heisei Generations FOREVER. At which point, Futaros’s actions in bringing Riders there started to mess with the fabric of space-time, to the point of old monsters just showing up, uncontrollably, with nobody there to stop them.

You know.

Like has been happening here.

––––

Okay, so I don’t think they told Geiz about this plan, but Woz and Sougo both knew.

Can… can Geiz just not lie? I mean, he’s super blunt about everything, and Tsukasa did say that his acting was horrible… Did they realize that he would somehow spill the Rider Tsukuyomi part of the plan, and not tell him that part? Because that’s the only reason I can think of for him to not know.

It does also allow us our exposition, though, so that’s something.

Tsukasa starts to detail the plan. By making Tsukuyomi into a Rider, her world could be restored. Thus, as Geiz points out, creating a ‘World of Tsukuyomi,’ not unlike the AR worlds in Decade, that they could use as a refuge from the currently-ending world they’re on now.

Woz says that she’s become a rider, so that means the plan is a success, isn’t it?

Tsukasa isn’t so sure. There are billions of people here. How could they all make it to another world?

(Sougo sort of slumps back at that. Geiz and Woz are still rigid, but Sougo seems resigned.)

Tsukasa continues. Right now, they’re in what could be called the ‘World of Zi-O.’ With Zi-O on one end, and Tsukuyomi on the other, the two powers could resonate, and create a bridge.

(Sougo draws in on himself. My ‘someone has to be there to close the door behind them’ theory is looking increasingly likely.)

There’s a visual of the plan, too. Two Earths, side by side, with a beam of light coming from each and meeting in the middle.

––––

Tsukuyomi is describing the plan to Swartz at the same time, saying that for it to work, both worlds would need ‘many Riders.’

––––

However, according to Woz, it’s all for nothing, because Tsukuyomi betrayed them.

Geiz wants to know why she would do that.

…Sougo looks like he’s thinking of something.

If they need one of them on each end, and the only people we know who can go between the two worlds are Tsukasa, Daiki, and Swartz…

They need some way to get Tsukuyomi to her World without Swartz constantly trying to kill her, now don’t they? What better way to do that then have her working on the inside?

––––

Swartz asks if she will acknowledge him as king, to which Tsukuyomi replies that his ascending to the throne is divine foretelling.

Toki No Ouja’s orchestral version starts to play as she kneels, while she has that same wide-eyed, almost hollow look as before.

––––

The music continues as Sougo stands up, and says that they’ll just have to hold them off, even if breifly.

Tsukasa points out that they’re speeding up the destruction of the world. Is he ready for that?

We cut briefly to the outside of the shop, and then to Junichiro working on cleaning a small gear of some sort. We don’t get to see what it goes to when the shot draws back, showing that he’s working at the front counter, with only the lights above him on. Whatever he’s fixing, it’s hidden behind the box he was holding last episode.

The music hits its final note as that shot closes.

––––

It’s daytime, now. There’s monsters everywhere.

I have no idea who this guy is that’s summoning a smoky cloud over a valley, but he’s got to be someone’s final boss… hang on… I have an idea… I saw this sort of cloud in Decade, during the World of Kuuga arc, so…

Yeah. Yeah, this is Kuuga’s final villain, N-Daguva-Zeba. This is fine. The world-destroying has progressed to end-bosses now.

That’s made all the more apparent by Evolt summoning a black hole and destroying three buildings in the process.

Geiz, in his Time Mazine’s mecha form, is beating up a giant crab…. YUP, same one from Hibiki that they fought off in Decade, a Bakegani.

Geiz is pissed, shouting that none of them are going to get away with this.

As he literally kicks the Bakegani away, those dragonfly like monsters start to swarm him, but he’s just shooting them down with… uh, okay, apparently the Time Mazines have missiles. This is fine.

Ah, and looks like I was right earlier, those dragonfly things are the swarm of mirror monsters that showed up at the end of Ryuki, Hydragoons.

––––

Woz and Decade are fighting against a plethora of mooks and named enemies, including Revol, the Katana Ganma (y’know, the one what did the thing in episode one), a Lion Inves, and Argus, one of the Phantoms.

They use a pair of finishers to defeat the mooks, but it doesn’t do any good – the larger enemies survived, and the mooks just respawned immediately.

A hail of gunfire comes from the other direction. Sup, Diend?

He’s all smiles right now, since he and Tsukasa get to ‘enjoy’ the end of the world together. Now that’s the greatest treasure he can imagine.

…

Rider-Time. Rider-Time, did. Did Tsukasa actually say ‘Enough flirting, and fight!’?!

Because. Uh. I don’t think he actually said that, but my Japanese isn’t good enough to pick up that sort of thing, but oh dear lord if this is how we get confirmation in-show that Daiki and Tsukasa are a thing…

He doesn’t reply to Tsukasa telling him off, and everyone just keeps fighting.

(But seriously, Daiki, this is not the time to flirt. I get that it’s kind of a ‘now or never’ situation, but come on, read the room!)

––––

At 9-to-5… Sougo’s almost finished a meal that Junichiro’s barely started. (Oh no.)

He’s not… taking his time, but he’s getting all that he can out of it.

Junichiro asks if everyone is fighting, and Sougo nods.

He finishes, and thanks his uncle, formally, in a way that he usually doesn’t do.

… oh shit. Junichiro picked up on it, too.

Shit.

“Sougo, you weren’t planning on this being your final meal, were you?” The shot switches from a very justifiably scared uncle to Sougo. “First off, you still need breakfast.” Sougo nods, making an affirmative noise.

He’s definitely agreeing to the first part.

Sougo gets up, and starts heading out – but Junichiro gets him to wait for a moment, and goes behind the counter to get something.

…You know how Junichiro was looking at the broken Build Watch a few episodes ago? And how the stand was empty when everyone headed out last episode? And how I said that the box he was carrying was about the right size for a pile of broken watches? And how he fixes clocks for a living?

Tokiwa Junichiro pulls out a tray, with a soft velvety fabric as a cushion… and eighteen disks, with the mask of eighteen different heroes.

All in full color.

Sougo’s astonished – how?

His uncle is tense. Why wouldn’t he be? His nephew is going off to fight, and potentially die, and there isn’t anything he can do about that. But these are Sougo’s and his friends’ precious watches, and there is no clock that he can’t fix.

“Ask everyone what they’d like for dinner, alright?”

Sougo pauses, smiling. “Got it. I’ll be back.” He looks up at Junichiro, determined.

Sougo may or may not be planning to make it out himself, but… he’s going to make sure that his friends do, at least.

(Seriously, my ‘he’d hoped that they would all keep each other company after he was gone’ line from the 22nd wasn’t supposed to happen, come on…)

––––

With Decade and Diend, Woz starts a Ginga Planet finisher, which starts to rain mini-planets down- and everything freezes.

Tsukuyomi emerges from behind them, hand outstretched, telling them that they can’t avoid the worlds destruction.

Swartz, as Another Decade, comes on scene, calling Woz disappointing. Or calling what he’s doing disappointing, it’s a little unclear. Either way, he blasts all three riders; Decade and Diend being thrown off screen, and Woz being frozen mid-air.

There’s no background music what-so-ever.

Swartz readies an energy blast, the same type he killed Tsukasa with, saying that he’ll make sure that Woz dies.

A second hand ticks, and a golden gate opens to the side, labeled 2017.

Build!

Swartz gets blasted by the Fullbottle buster, as wielded by Build in his TankTank form.

Drive!

He gets triple-struck by Drive: Type Formula running past.

Ghost!

He takes an Omega Drive Rider Kick from Ghost, in his base form.

Ex-Aid!

Five hits from Ex-Aid in Maximum Mighty X.

“Impossible! The history of Riders is supposed to be gone!”

The four summoned riders pose in a line, before turning to light and being de-spawned, the lights going back to the newly-recreated Grand Zi-O Ridewatch.

Sougo, untransformed, wearing his Ziku Driver, strides forward. “It’s not gone.” He holds up the watch. “Erase history all you want, but Kamen Riders are forever!”

There’s one big ol flaw in Swartz’s plan. Well, aside from Sougo’s determinator status. He had all of the riders coalesced into one, saying that it took away their histories. But even Grand still didn’t, since Sougo summons them out of their shows. We could see one of the canyons behind Build when he was summoned just now, and there’s the ‘OOO being summoned along with the column’ from Grands debut.

They’re not gone. They’re just tucked away, nice and safe in a little pocket of time.

Slowly, Sougo activates his two watches, places them in his driver, and, after what feels like a slight hesitation, starts his transformation.

I can’t complain about them using the full Grand transformation. Not in the last episode, not when it counts this much. It’s not nearly as bad as Decade Complete, it gets to the point way faster. This? This is good.

“One last showdown.”

––––

The orchestral battle version of Toki no Ouja plays. I specify that, because it feels… important, this time. Toki no Ouja is used as a battle theme with the higher level Zi-O forms a lot, but here it feels… more significant than usual.

Grand Zi-O and Another Decade trade punches, and knock each other back. Furious, Sougo tells Swartz to feel the power of the Riders.

OOO!

OOO Tajador swoops in, taken directly from an episode. I think it’s the episode Tajador debuted in, too – they’re definitely using archival footage, with OOO flying down and using the medal shield to block energy blasts, before he uses a Scanning Charge and claws Swartz with the Condor talons.

Sougo goes in for a quick sword attack against Swartz, moving him into the path of-

Wizard!

Wizard Infinity delivers a Shining Strike, which I think comes from that forms debut, too. He gets some damage in, but the giant fucking axe is still shoved away.

Gaim!

Gaim Pineapple Arms (this is fine) delivers a kick, but since he’s not anything more than a mode change, it’s easily deflected.

Grand Zi-O and Double CycloneJokerXtreme team up for another, powered, pair of energy slashes, which break through the shielding that Another Decade raised, throwing him to the ground.

(Okay, that’s almost all of the phase two’s accounted for, now where’s our Fourze appearance?)

Two can play at this ‘summoning the past’ game, though! They’re not just fighting Swartz, they can feast their eyes on the… Rider’s Rogues gallery.

Okay, Rider-Time, I really don’t think that’s what he called the endbosses that he just summoned, but it’s accurate enough.

So he’s opened a wall, and pulled through… uh. Not sure who that first one is, then N-Daguva-Zeba, Gamdeus, someone else, and Evolt.

Oh, wait, hang on. Still can’t tell who the first one is, but the person between Gamedeus and Evolt is Saggitarius. I couldn’t tell until he started moving, and I could see the zodiac symbols on his belt.

So, everyone charges forward. Evolt versus Wizard, Saggitarius versus Double, N-Daguva-Zeba versus OOO, and whomstever the fuck that guy is against Gaim.

And it seems that the Riders summoned by Grand can stick around as long as they need to, since they’re actively fighting now. Not that it’s a surprise, we saw this happen with Drive sticking around during the Grand vs Oma fight a while ago, but it’s good to have confirmation.

Swartz and Gamedeus team up against Sougo, and start promptly kicking his ass, knocking his sowrd away. We cut to Kuuga end-boss and whomstever taking out OOO and Gaim, and then to Saggitarius and Evolt doing the same to Wizard and Double.

(Seriously,who is this guy?! Is he one of the Lords from Agito? Because I can’t find a picture of him there, but the belt and weapon style says he would be…)

All six villains start charging attacks, which merge into one huge purple fireball, which strikes Zi-O. He’s tossed back, to the ground, where his transformation breaks and he lays gasping in pain.

Swartz charges a sickly green-and-purple fireball. “Now, die!”

He fires, and Sougo curls in on himself, bracing.

Typhoon!

Geiz Revive Typhoon blocks the blast, holding it off for a moment, before it overpowers him and flings him backward… his visor breaks as he’s thrown back, before the armor dissolves.

I don’t know if his armor broke before or after he hit the wall in an explosion.

But either way… Sougo runs to an untransformed Geiz, who’s lying on the ground, and pulls him into his arms, begging Geiz to stay with him.

Geiz is having trouble speaking, but he’s still managing, somehow, even as he’s in obvious agony. “Zi-O...” (Use his name god damn it) Geiz forces himself to grab Sougo by the shirt, as the piano version of Toki no Ouja starts. “Become Oma Zi-O… become the king of time. You have what it takes… to become the most beloved overlord.”

Sougo shakes his head, barely holding back tears, begging Geiz not to die. (Rider-Time translated this as ‘don’t leave me,’ but he’s straight up saying ‘don’t die,’ come on, guys.)

“I was so happy… to have come to this time…” While Sougo is sobbing, Geiz is staying as stoic as he can, he doesn’t have the energy to have emotions and give his last words.

“Sougo…” (We see the first tear actually fall from Sougo’s eyes, and I start crying in full as well.)

“I’m happy to have been… your comrade… and friend.”

As Sougo (and myself) beg for this to not be happening, Geiz’s hand drops from it’s deathgrip on Sougo’s shirt.

Miyokoin Geiz dies in Tokiwa Sougo’s arms.

Sougo sobs, his whole body shuddering. He turns a cold, hateful gaze in Swartz’s direction…

As sparks envelop his belt, turning the white and black driver into gold.

––––

Another Decade watches as Sougo emerges from the smoke.

Glaring, Sougo crosses his arms, and screams in rage as he throws them down. A clock emblem appears on the ground, dark golds and reds and black, seeming to crack the pavement as magma surges around.

Oh, or maybe it’s not magma, or lava. Maybe it’s molten metal. It would be appropriate for the metallic armor, after all.

The haze of the heat can be seen rising up as Sougo growls the word. “Henshin.”

The transformation is dark metal circles, and shadows and smoke. A deep gong rings out when it completes, and the sheer force of the energy pushes all the villains back a few steps.

Woz runs up, just saying ‘my overlord...’

I don’t think Woz thought that Sougo would ever actually do this. Not this Sougo, the one he’s come to know.

Especially given his shock when Sougo… when Oma Zi-O orders him to rejoice.

It’s the voice of Tokiwa Sougo, but he’s cold and empty, there’s nothing there but a calm fury. And he ordered Woz to make his speech.

The final line of which is “We are now within the moment of history’s final chapter!”

Swartz starts to laugh. (Also, in the background, Evolt’s posing it up, one hand on his hip, and whomstever the heck that unidentifiable guy is tucks his staff under his arm, and is briefly clapping sarcastically.)

Swartz laughs, saying that he’s cornered Tokiwa Sougo for all this time, for this moment. Now he can claim the power of Oma Zi-O for himself. Sending out those energy waves, he starts to draw the powers to himself.

Woz runs back, the energy there is way too much for him, but Oma Zi-O… doesn’t move. He’s standing stock still, not reacting as Swartz drains him.

Swartz is gleeful as he does this, the golden light coursing over him, eventually glowing in the gaps between the ‘cards’ of his Another Decade form. Now, he can finally surpass his sister, now, he can take the throne for himself!

The power stops flowing to him, suddenly, with a burst of fire at his chest as it cuts off.

Oma Zi-O is fine, not even having to really shake anything off. “you think someone like you can take on my power?” Ridewatches start appearing in the air – Build, Ex-Aid, Fourze, Faiz, Wizard. “i have the power of every single rider!”

And he means it. OOO, Gaim, Beast, Decade, Ghost, Kiva, Necrom, Ouja, Drive, Baron, Blade, Zeronos, Kuuga, Agito, Double, Den-O… Kabuto, Mach, Eternal, Cross-Z, OOO Tajador, Genm, Knight, G-3… Sasword, Proto-Drive, Garren, Kaixa, Rogue… and even more that I can’t identify, and more that aren’t any more than multicolored lights in the background.

And each and every one of these Ridewatches turns to pure light and draws into him.

Oma Sougo has not moved a step.

Evolt and Mystery Villain charge him, but are immediately taken out with firey punches. He turns, and a swarm of bats from OG Oma Zi-O’s Kiva attack takes out the swarm of Hydragoons that tried to divebomb him.

Kuuga’s kick takes out N-Daguva-Zeba, and a single burning punch dissolves Dragblacker as it tries to bite him.

Gamedeus gets the ‘ticking golden ball of pain’ treatment that Sougo received from OG Oma Zi-O when they met, and Sagittarius gets punched into the sky, where he promptly explodes.

Oma Sougo has only turned in order to attack. He still has not moved from his spot.

Just like when he fought himself the first time.

Swartz is impressed. But he’s gotten some of Oma Sougo’s powers, at least. He’ll go back to his world, and rule as king. He summons a wall to escape-

“HYA!”

A white blade of energy pierces him in the gut from behind, running him through.

Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi is the one wielding it.

Oma Sougo makes a small sound of surprise, as Swartz makes little choked sounds of dying.

Furious, Tsukuyomi shouts. No one needs a king like him!

“You little wench. You’ve been after my blind spot…”

Swartz turns, shoves her into the air, and blasts her, point blank, sending her flying into the far wall.

Sougo screams her name, and, furious and shaking, activates a finisher.

Demise Hour

An ominious ticking noise accompanies him as he rises into the air. Not jumps. Rises, surrounded by gold light and black swirls of smoke.

Another Decade activates his own finisher, as Oma Sougo descends, screaming in rage and despair, the clock-hand cape spreading like wings as he attacks.

The Overlord’s Decimation

Gold light from Oma Sougo’s kick meets the purple light from Another Decade’s punch, and we circle the balanced attack twice, while the deep gonging of an old bell sounds in the background.

Oma Sougo’s kick breaks through, sending Another Decade flying back, and leaving a torn ring in the air just behind where they connected.

The scene freezes, cast in the green light of the usual freeze.

––––

Tsukuyomi, with her original outfit glowing a bright white, and Swartz, in his black-and-white outfit, smoke rising from him and staggering in pain, appear.

Tsukuyomi steps forward. “This world… is already mine. Brother…”

“Sister… Spare me your words!” He’s barely able to talk, as he’s slowly dropping to his knees, juxtaposed in his human form behind the face of his paused, soon-to-be-defeated Another Rider self.

She turns to face Oma Sougo, frozen in time, as she starts to fade to transparency, pink lights rising from her. “Sougo… the two worlds are now in your hands.” She smiles, sadly and fondly, as the two Earths pictured before are shown again, and merge into one.

The royal siblings both fade. Her by quietly turning to lights as she looks at her friend. Him by crying in pain as he is turned to smoke and what looks like ash.

––––

Time resumes, and the explosion of Swartz’s destruction creates a wave of time energy that engulfs the area, spreading outward and erasing the monsters that filled the sky.

Oma Sougo stands up, and Woz approaches, arms wide. “You’ve done it, my overlord. The world is saved, and you may now reign over it for eternity.”

“No. That won’t be happening.” Oma Sougo’s tone is just shy of despondent. “Because I’m going to be tearing down space and time.”

––––

“So, this is the path you choose.”

Tokiwa Sougo, bruised, bloodied, and burned, stands in a black void in front of his future self, whos face is still obscured in light.

“You have the right to rule the world, you’re the one who saved it.”

Sougo disagrees. It wasn’t him. We cut from the wide shot of the two, to just Sougo’s face. He’s absolutely dead inside, trying not to break down. “The ones who saved the world are Geiz and Tsukuyomi, and the powers of every rider.”

Shots from throughout the show, of their lives together at 9-to-5 – of Sougo, his uncle, Geiz, Tsukuyomi, and Woz. Not as heroes or soldiers, but as people. As themselves.

Tokiwa Sougo, who was so lonely before these three time travelers came into his life, won’t accept living in a world where he rules as king, but none of them are around.

He asks his future self again. “Can the powers of Oma Zi-O only be used to destroy?”

Oma folds his hands. “Destruction… must come before creation.”

(Sir, either you’re trying to give yourself a clue, or you’ve been reading too much Fullmetal Alchemist lately. Just saying.)

Sougo firms his resolve. He’s going to bring about creation, and rewrite history.

Leaning forward, Oma has one last point to make. “You’ll never be a king again.”

Sougo disagrees. “I think it’ll work out, somehow. After all, the hands of time can only move toward the future.”

Over Quartzer starts to play.

“It may seem to move back, but time only goes forward.”

Sougo smiles, real and true, as he reminds his future self of the advice his uncle gave him, way, way back at the earliest points of the show. You can move a clock backward, but it still advances.

Oma chuckles. It’s been a priveldge to see his younger self.

Oma Zi-O, his face still obscured by blinding light, fades into golden motes and disappears.

––––

In the real world, Oma Sougo raises his arms out, and a pale gold wave of light, encircles the planet, little golden clock faces accompanying it.

Tsukasa and Daiki stand on a hilltop, as the Fuuto and Yggdrasil towers, and the Skywall, dissolve.

Daiki comments that time’s being rewritten.

Tsukasa says that it looks like a new journeys starting, and they both smirk as he opens the viewfinder of his camera and takes a picture.

The one Earth is shown glowing, before diverging into 21 separate Earths.

(It’s still only one reality, Toei, nice try. But also nice nod to the fact that there’s a new rider in town. … oh my god is the World of Zero One also the World of Tsukuyomi nah i’m just kidding but that’d be hilarious)

The worlds glow, and the TV-size version of Over Quartzer ends on a shot of the outside of 9-to-5.

––––

There’s a sign saying ‘Rooms to let’ on the door.

Tokiwa Junichiro calls upstairs. “Sougo! You’re going to be late for school!”

…wait, what?

Sougo narrates. “September, 2018. Summer vacation’s over, and the boring school days have begun.”

Wait. What?

Sougo’s on his way, walking his bike down the stairs, when some of his classmates pester him about saying he’s going to be a king, as he always does. Three of them jog past, and the fourth…

Wait. What.

The fourth says he’ll wake Sougo up, just like the anonymous one from the first episode, and flips Sougo onto his back, just like in the first episode.

Except it’s not the student from the first episode.

It’s Geiz.

Or, as schoolgirl Tsukuyomi calls him, Miyokoin-kun. Please note that they do not use her name at all. Thanks.

She tells him that he’s always too rough, grabs him by the collar, and yells at him to just be nice… before flipping him onto his back. She didn’t have to get back up like he did, and flipped him over her, as opposed to how he sent Sougo below where he was.

Sougo is recovering a whole lot faster than Geiz, who is on the ground in pain as Tsukuyomi dusts off her hands and walks away.

Schoolgirl Hora – wait what – comments that they’re always like this, and schoolboy Heure – who looks happy and that makes me happy – says that he sure admires ‘Ou-sama-sempai.’ Or, as Rider-time translates it, ‘Upperclass King.’

Hora asks what that names all about. Heure replies that well, he’s always said he’s going to be a king, right? He’s kinda dumb, but Heure thinks he can do it.

“…Whatever.” Hora checks her watch, and incidentally reveals that she’s got a little toy rabbit keychan hanging from her bag. “I’ve got some bad news for you.”

“Eh?!”

“We’re going to be late.”

All five of them start taking off – and nobody helps Geiz up, because being Geiz is suffering.

––––

They’re all running into the courtyard, and Woz watches from on top of the building. Regular, brown coat, book-carrying Woz.

He says that for Ordinary High School Student, Tokiwa Sougo, a future where he becomes Oma Zi-O is waiting for him. …Or, maybe it isn’t. Time will tell. From here on, a different history from the one in his book will have to be written.

He closes the Oma Advent Calendar decisively.

Our closing shots are of Hora and Tsukuyomi laughing to each other, Heure smiling, and Sougo and Geiz running together.

The end screen has the Zi-O and Geiz watches… and the Zero One watch in the center.

––––

So. That. Sure was an ending.

It was going great up until that world-changing maneuver.

I’ll have to try and write up some proper thoughts on this eventually, but for now…

I’ve never been a fan of the ‘it never happened’ ending for stories. It cheapens the struggles, for me. I’ll have to find a way around this when I finally get there in ReUnited, but that’s beside the point.

This is… I don’t know if I like the decision of how to save everything that Sougo came to. But the others – Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Heure, and Hora – get to have normal lives now. That’s… that’s good. They never had a chance for that before. So I’m happy for them. But…

It still feels hollow. It feels wrong that they don’t remember what happened, that nobody but Woz is around who remembers, and that he can’t even interact with them. They aren’t the same people anymore, anyway. They may be better off, they have the same quirks, but… it’s not the same.

And time even reset back to before Sougo met any of them, so this entire year may as well have never happened for the World of Zi-O.

Hm.

That’s Kamen Rider Zi-O. 49 episodes. A metric boatload of cameos from previous seasons. Two metric boatloads of re-used monster suits. A second season for Decade, and possible confirmation that Tsukasa and Daiki are a cou- okay, sorry, disregard that last bit, it’s not relevant.

But this has been the 29th season of Kamen Rider. On to season 30, Kamen Rider Zero One.

(Toei, I am begging you, find a better naming scheme, and stop using hyphens in your season names. Please.)

EDIT, MANY HOURS LATER: UTOPIA. THE VILLAIN I COULDN’T FIGURE OUT IS THE UTOPIA DOPANT. IT’S KAZU FUCKING JUN. SCREW THAT GUY.

[deckspair]

May’s Musical Director’s Commentary

Hey guys! I'm May. You might remember me as "the one who did those nifty chatlogs and the roster page" or "the one who did all the music" or "that one mod who never said anything." Los and Mints agreed to let me write up this "director's commentary" on the music I did for DECK. There's no secret lore tidbits in here or anything, but if you liked my music you might find this an interesting glimpse into the process.

A Note On Sampling

Sampling is the practice of using preexisting audio to make new music. When I talk about what I've sampled here, I'm only going to mention particularly interesting cases. Almost all of the music I've done for DECK features audio from Free Wave Samples, so I figure that's not really worth mentioning except here. It's the other stuff that's interesting. EarthBound was an influence on my decision to pull in a bunch of audio from outside sources. I've always admired that game's use of sampling.

The First Chatlog

The chatlogs have consistently been pretty fun to do. I knew from the start that I didn't want to edit this together by hand, so I wrote a Processing sketch to render the video. It's not the most elegant thing in the world, and adding new features is a massive pain, but it's a lot easier than putting these together any other way. All I have to do is swap out the script and background shader and write a new song and I can just let the program churn away rendering a new video. (Of course, fiddling with the shader until it looks presentable takes so long that it kind of eats into the time savings.)

There's not much to say about this one. The typing sounds were graciously provided by Mints. Those with careful ears might notice the instrument playing the chords in other chatlog songs.

The Second Chatlog

One of the only interesting things about this one: the melody is actually a musical cryptogram! What it spells out is an exercise for the reader. ;) The miscellaneous background sounds are all distorted versions of stuff I recorded myself one day when my film teacher let me wander the halls with a microphone. Film school has its perks.

Rio Hachimitsu's BDA

Doing the first body drop music was pretty intimidating. The body discovery music in Danganronpa has a particular instantly recognizable quality to it. If I wanted to go for that style, I'd have to get it down perfectly. (Otherwise I'd come off as a cheap imitation.) So I decided to be original. After school PSAs would be proud.

The melody here is probably pretty familiar to you all by now. Every BDA has used some variation of this melody because I'm a sucker for leitmotif. The melody itself is a slightly modified version of the Dies Irae. (Yes, I know I'm very pretentious, but being pretentious is fun.) This is also the first instance of what I call the "death rattle." I put that strange scraping sound into every BDA and execution for consistency's sake. You can see it as the moment the soul leaves the deceased's body or the moment the onlookers realize somebody's just died... or something. The really fun part is what it is - it's a bell tree! Yknow, those tinkly whimsical things. It's just been reversed and slowed down and drenched in reverb. It's fun how malleable audio is.

Minnie Minami's EXE

This was fun! Despite being a film student for a while, I've never had to write music to sync up with a video before. (I still haven't - I'm pretty sure the video was edited to match up with the music and not vice versa.) The overall tone of this one was pretty obvious. Of course a ringleader's execution would be accompanied by messed up circus music. Anything else just wouldn't be right. There's not really much else to say about it other than that it includes samples from my toy accordion and slide whistle.

Sampled:

An old recording of Auld Lang Syne

Yasu Kozakura's BDA

The body drop's usage of mirrors really hit me in the art gut, so I figured the BDA jingle should have something to do with mirrors. This is why the melody plays forwards and backwards simultaneously, because mirrors. (Some call that kind of thing a "crab canon.")

My incredibly good and quality cat piano is also in here. A stretched out meow recorded from it forms the basis of the background chord.

NANIKO's EXE

For this one, I gave the video editor three different tracks, one for each "segment" of the execution. I did this as a cop-out because I didn't want to have to try to sync my music up with the video - this way, the editor could mash it all together.

The segment with the mirrors was an exercise in what's called "phase music", where two lines drift out of sync with each other, creating different rhythmic textures over the course of the song. (Piano Phase and Clapping Music, both by Steve Reich, are two classic examples of the form.) For some reason, echoey piano lines phasing in and out of sync feel mirror-y to me. They also form a nice musical callback to the BDA.

Sampled:

Me switching frequencies on the radio

Sayuri Nishi's BDA

Shoutout to Free Wave Samples for having a heartbeat sound. I didn't want to try to make that sound myself with drums. 

Kosuke Nakamura's EXE

This execution is significant because it's the first non-video one. Execution art wasn't my department, so I'm not going to speak on how that change affected the artists, but I found it liberating to be able to follow the more general emotional arc of the execution rather than being tethered to the pacing of a video.

When I asked Angela for guidance on where to go musically, we came to the conclusion that the proper genre would be "Tom and Jerry noir." That description alone is why I loved doing music for DECK - where else do you get the opportunity to write something with that as guidance? The most natural interpretation in my view was a song that starts out jazzy and segues into slapstick-esque classical to mirror the transition from the safety of noir to being mauled by a giant robot cat.

Also, the Slack notification sound is in there, since Los suggested a social media notification sound in the background somewhere. (Slack's basically social media for tech dorks, right?)

Sampled:

Slack

Tom and Jerry

The Missing BDAs

Unfortunately, I got preoccupied and neglected to do BDA music for the deaths in Chapter 4. Generally, there's not many interesting things to say about stuff that doesn't exist. The plan was to sample Pomp and Circumstance for Law N... but I didn't. Sorry, Froggy. I didn't have any other plans for this one.

Ukiyo-Maemi's EXE

This one relies so much on sampling it almost makes me feel bad. I got so much mileage out of the clanging percussion and the spooky background sounds that it's basically cheating. 

Sampled:

My lovely girlfriend 💕

OFF

Akira Akatsuki's BDA

I was in a very percussion-heavy mood when I wrote this. (Can you tell?) Listening to the FLCL soundtrack had me jonesing for some dramatic cymbals.

Sampled:

Earthbound

Genko Junshu's BDA

Junshu's body was found in the Navigation Station. This called to mind sonar beeps and garbled radio messages and such. This is another one that wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the sampling. Hopefully this is transformative enough to not get me labeled a hack.

Sampled:

Earthbound

Law Kiyuu's EXE

This execution actually freaked me the hell out the first time I read it. Freaked me out for like a week - something about the combination of incredible writing and the subject matter. It honestly felt calculated to scare me specifically.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this one. I wanted to write something as unsettling as the execution it was accompanying. The intro is supposed to represent Law thinking he's already dead. Next comes his terror (evoked with the hilariously dissonant Altered scale), and then the final spooky arrhythmic section is supposed to be him being cut apart. (Note that part of the music drifts out of sync with itself to represent Law, uh, going to pieces.) The return of the piano is supposed to evoke the flashback section. That kind of piano sound always sounds spooky and/or sentimental to me.

Not much else to say now that I've dissected (heh) basically all of the decisions I've made for this one. I'm really proud of Law's execution song - it might be my favorite out of all the ones I've done for DECK.

Sampled:

Earthbound

Persona 2: Innocent Sin

The Doug Theme

Death Note

"It's a Long Way to Tipperary"

gamer butt song

Frogbot's EXE

The original plan for this one was start this one off with a hocket-y medley of all the previous body drops and executions. However, it would have been really tedious to export then import all the relevant instruments, so I didn't do that. Instead I remixed the typical BDA theme. It's supposed to convey the shift from FrogBot's reign of despair to the triumph of getting them executed. I realized part of the way through that this segment was far too triumphant given how many people died and the fact that the submarine is about to explode, so then I just ended it by lingering on a diminished chord. I'm not a very subtle person. Frogbot's execution lacks the death rattle 'cause there's no horrifying realization that one of your classmates is dead. (Exercise for the reader: find where I hid the Flintstones theme in this song. Good luck.)

Conclusion

DECK was a lot of fun to work on. I wrote some extremely messy code, made some sick as hell videos, and wrote some pretty baller music. I got to see some wonderful artists do their work, and I got to skim some pretty intense roleplaying. Thank you to everyone who said nice things about my music and to the mods for being really cool dudes. Special thanks to Mints and Los for letting me put this long-winded rant on their blog, and thank you for reading this whole thing.

See you on the flip side, y'all.

[noro124]

hey everyone it’s my frog collection + other cool things i had on the shelf at the time! i have 57 frogs (counting the packaged ones as one unit), which is 45 more than the last time i took a picture of my frog collection. enjoy!  

under here i will tell you where i got each frog & why i grouped them like that! the groups can also be read in the captions. all pics try to go from left to right, from the back row to the front. 

i. frogs that are big

Summer relaxin’ - my dad got him for me at a yard sale a few years ago. 

HAPPY FROG - my dad also got him for me at a yard sale, but closer to 6 months ago. He’s hanging over my bed right now on my Wall Of Stuff.

Paper frog - my sister ripped him off the bulletin board at the Starbucks where she works to give him to me

White frog - picked him up at TJ Max when my mom took me dress shopping.

Dark green frog - i don’t know...i think from a yard sale? he’s hollow & i keep a semicircle paperweight in the hole in his stomach.

ii. 8 frogs that will break if you drop them & 3 that won’t

Yoga frog - my dad got him for me, maybe from Goodwill? 

Ol Chumbo - got him at the flea market for $8. He is solid iron.

Just Eat What Bugs You!! - got him from a thrift store in a small town in Colorado. he’s got beans in him! if you shake him he rattles

Blue glass - he’s a candle holder! I got him from an antique store in Tennessee & then saw another one of him at the flea market years later. 

Bronze goofball - crooked eyes. very endearing. also very heavy. got him in a shop that sold lots of bronze things outside the Louvre. 

Gold - a gift from my boyfriend!!!

Sassy Frog - i think my dad gave her to me? or maybe i bought her at the antique store. 

Little brown frog - more fragile than he looks, missing his front right leg so i got him discounted from the antique store near school. 

Glass frog king! - got him in prague! he was overpriced, but worth it

Teeny glass frog - also got him in prague for $3! 

Another glass frog - got in the same store that I got tiny frog in.

iii. frogs that are minerals

Chunky brown frog - got him at the antique store near school. i think my boyfriend bought him for me on one of our first dates! 

Black frog - $35 but worth every cent. smooth, elegant, made in Japan. gotten from the antique store near school.

Flat brown frog - got him from the flea market. 

Malachite frog - bought him online from Bekkathyst! Expensive, but I took advantage of a sale.

Rose quartz frog - got from a really cool mineral shop in Prague! I did a project on that shop, about redesigning the storefront.

Pink frog - got from a yard sale a long time ago, only recently rediscovered in my room & added to the collection.

Little frog on a leaf - got from a gift shop at the end of a long 14k altitude hike in Colorado.

Frogs 8-12 were all given to me by my boyfriend after he came back from NY. They’re a big family!!! 

   13. Tiny frog bead - got from the flea market! 

iv. frogs that are squishy

Mint green frog loaf - picked this up from a recent con!! my boyfriend paid for half of it because he said this was something i needed to have, & he was right! 

Webkinz frog - my dad got him for me at a yard sale because he liked the mischievous look in his eyes. 

Little frog orb - part of a set of 3 round squishy things my boyfriend’s parents gave me for easter. 

TY Beanie Baby Frog - a beanie baby original my sister got from a yard sale. he might be worth a lot of money since he’s an original. i’m looking into it. 

Dark blue sand frog - I’ve had this since I was a child. he’s got stitches in his armpit because he used to have a big hole that let all the sand out.

Stripey sand frog - got her at a yard sale when i was maybe 9 so the dark blue frog could have a friend! 

Green and orange beanie frog - picked this up from a “Night Market” in Vienna. having seen real night markets in Taiwan, I was kind of disappointed, but the frog was a good purchase.

Green beanie frog - got in belfast from a cool museum. has a pink twin owned by one of my friends. all frogs have sweet dreams

v. frogs that are toys

Skeleton frog - one of my roommates got him for me from a halloween store.

Glowing frog - he changes rainbow colors! my sister gave him to me for my 20th birthday last year.

Slime frog - my boyfriend got him for me as a Welcome Back present after i returned from Prague! he’s nasty. he’s full of yellow goo & he has a cap on the bottom of his body that you can undo to take out the goo. it takes hours to put the goo back in. 

Keychain frog - also a flashlight that croaks when you turn him on! I saw him in Milan & had to have him. 

Lime green frog - my dad gave me 3 frog bath toys for Christmas. I have one in my collection (this one), one at his house, & one at my mom’s house.

Blue frog whistle - I think one of my friends gave this to me but I’m not sure.

Wooden frog - bought him from a nice lady at the night market in Taiwan in 2017.

Wooden frog 2 - he rolls! picked him up for $4 in one of the Golden Lane shops in Prague Castle. 

Frog rubber band - got him as a reward for being good at the dentist in like 2007. 

vi. frogs i have not unwrapped

 boblende fro - a frog bath bomb with a toy frog inside that i got from a weird store called Flying Tiger in prague. i don’t want to open him because he’ll be crumbly & i like the packaging a lot, & also i don’t want to use him yet.

Grow Frogs - another gift from my boyfriend’s parents for easter. I haven’t used them yet because I’m lazy & I don’t know if they’d crumble & I don’t know where I’d put them if they were unwrapped.

Frog King stickers - got these in northern ireland as well! i haven’t used any yet because they have layers & the things I’d put them on (my phone case, sketchbook, my laptop) move around a lot & the stickers would get destroyed really fast. 

vii. frogs with jobs

Candle holder - one of my friends gave it to me for my birthday.

Green frog - got him from the local crafts store my roommate used to work at. He can hold onto the outside of cups or flowerpots or my finger! 

Frog thimble - a different roommate gave him to me after he got back from his trip to Spain. 

Frog clip - one of my friends gave it to me for no reason! really nice of her!!!

Mosaic frog - the roommate that went to Spain got this for me there too! he doesn’t have a job, he just doesn’t fit into any of the other categories.

Keroppi pin - got this for 50 cents in Taiwan & then lost it for a year.

Tiny rubber frog - given to me by one of my roommates for Christmas. he got it in Florida. he doesn’t have a job either.

Milan eraser - picked this up in a stationary store in prague called McPen.

viii. miscellaneous items on the frog display shelf

Fat cat with big poofy cheeks - i went to the flea market with my dad & saw this funny man.

 Round unicorn & pink fish - the other 2 round things that came with the frog my boyfriend’s parents gave me for easter this year.

Crab ornament - given to me alongside the tiny rubber frog. he’s missing a leg and is EXTREMELY fragile - pieces of his shell fall off all the time.

Red wooden painted egg - got from an easter market in Prague.

Eggplant container - I keep souvenir pressed pennies in here. 

Stone egg with stand - I got this for my dad from an antique store, but my dad said I could keep it.

Golden pig - gotten somewhere in Prague. I was gonna give it to one of my roommates, but my mom said “You should keep it for good luck, it’s the year of the pig!” & so I did.

Snake carving - my grandma used to give me little carvings made of the same material all the time before she died. I don’t know where I got this.

Little glass crab - a gift alongside the crab ornament & tiny rubber frog!

White rock - looks very pretty in the right light. got it from a mineral store in Cesky Krumlov.

Smooth rock - smokey quartz I think? got it from the same mineral store. 

Carnelian scarab - got this from a really cool mineral store outside the Louvre. I could have spent all day in here - they sold really expensive frogs too. I had my eye on one made from turquoise, but it was 160 euros. Maybe next time. 

Labrodorite heart - my boyfriend paid for half of it when he came to visit me in Prague! it’s very blue & very gorgeous. 

Labrodorite chunk - my boyfriend got this for me at a hippie music festival!

Chunk of limestone - got this in northern ireland where there was a cool bridge near an old limestone quarry. I thought this rock looked cool, like mochi. You can’t tell from the picture quality.

Glass lizard - part of the gift with the crab ornament & the other things.

Turtle - got him from the flea market. not sure what he’s made of, but he’s handcrafted!

Shiny turtle - this was on the ground at the flea market. it probably had fallen off a display & cost money, but i put it in my pocket. please don’t arrest me

Stone turtle - got this guy from an aquarium that’s 2 hours away from home! we went as a group over spring break to the beach, but half of us immediately went home & half of us went to the aquarium. i got to touch a shark there. 

& that’s all, folks! thanks for reading my frog lore! 

[bangtan]

[Article] Meet BTS, the K-Pop phenomenon breaking world records

We speak to rapper RM of BTS, the seven-member boy group whose ultra-dedicated fanbase have made them the most prominent South Korean act to break the west

The phone line crackles out of Seoul where it’s nearly midnight, and where RM, the leader of seven member South Korean group BTS, is looking back at a crazy month in which they broke records – some their own, some they never even thought they’d achieve – one after the other in a relentless wave.

“I feel like we’re a balloon…,” RM says, surmising the time period, and there’s a tinge of disbelief in his voice. That’s unsurprising given their latest mini-album Love Yourself: Her is the biggest selling K-Pop album in pre-orders ever (over a million in domestic alone), and with the lead single “DNA”, they’re now the fastest K-Pop group to hit 10 million, 20 million, then 100 million YouTube views. Then there are those killer chart standings – #14 on the UK album chart, top 10 on the US Billboard 200 album chart – while DNA not only reigned over worldwide iTunes charts but rose to #67 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest position ever for a Korean group.

Expectations had, naturally, run high for their comeback; BTS (rappers RM, J-Hope, Suga, and vocalists Jimin, Jin, V and Jungkook) reached ‘phenomenon’ level last year with their second studio album WINGS and moombahton-style single Blood Sweat & Tears, yet 2017 has already provided an almost unbelievable new layer of success. Every day now brings another milestone, another article or another Western radio station playing the frisky, echoing electro-pop of “DNA”, adding to the feverish atmosphere around them. If their powerhouse fandom, known as A.R.M.Y, even felt momentarily overwhelmed by it all, then they’re not alone.

“Everything is going so fast,” RM adds with a small laugh. Intriguing and charismatic in conversation, he’s a rapid-fire lateral thinker who can whisk you on the mental equivalent of a gigantic wood-track rollercoaster. “We don’t know where that balloon is going but I’m just trying to enjoy it because there was so much suffering before. I’m trying not to lose (sight of) what we’re doing.”

Over the weeks since its mid-September release, pre-empted by a series of trailers bridging from the previous concept for the The Most Beautiful Moment In Life double album, Love Yourself: Her became trickier the more time you spent with it. Saturated in double entendre (both an exploration of love and a direct letter to their fans), its sound, for the most part, strides in a confident, glossy groove, yet peel back its shimmery surface and bruises and scratches lie along its limbs, even on the sweetest of tracks such as “Serendipity”.

While it’s not often that you get to step into an album’s lifecycle where hindsight begins to glimmer and perhaps shape an artist’s next phase, it’s a curious, illuminating and slightly vulnerable experience. But, without a trace of hesitation, we dive into Love Yourself: Her to explore the parts instantly indoctrinated into BTS lore, its impact, shadows and the wider reaching effect on its owners.

On release you called Love Yourself: Her a ‘turning point’ and BTS’s ‘chapter two’, pointing at the music as the primary cause. Have further reasons for these descriptors emerged over the past month?

RM: The concept of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, that was chapter one for us, it feels like that because we were starting from the bottom but on this concept, Love Yourself, we started to talk about some brighter things, like the real things in life. Professionally, we got on the Billboard and UK charts, and our stadiums are getting bigger… so both inside and outside, it’s a turning point for BTS. I’d like to say we’re just in a different universe now, I think, like a crab, we got a new shell.

Two of the album’s most emotional moments are the hidden tracks, the spoken word ‘Skit: Hesitation & Fear’ and ‘Sea’. They both deal with struggles in your early days as well as current concerns about fame and success. Why was it important to have them on the same album?

RM: We add hidden tracks when we want to add details, right? ‘Skit’ was necessary for ‘Sea’ to be explained. I think they’re reacting to each other. I actually first talked about those fears, happiness, the sea and the desert on our first album (2 Cool 4 Skool), they were the hidden tracks – a skit called ‘On The Start Line’ and a track called ‘Path’. Four years has passed and I’m talking about how we dealt with it, what is the sea and desert inside of us and what’s the future.

You’ve come full circle and, damn, I didn’t realise. So over those four years, using this latest concept, what have you had to accept or learn to love about yourself that you didn’t like back then?

RM: Ummm, I’ve had to accept that that everyone cannot love me. Because when there’s love there’s hate, when there’s light there’s dark. But it was really hard to accept as an artist that there’s a lot of people that hate me but, on the other side, there are many more people who love me. I think everyone goes through that.

Do you recall when you were able to say, ok, I can deal with this?

RM: Actually I’m still on the way (laughs). I don’t really feel like I’m really out of it, but I’m getting used to it. I’m like a surfer, first you just paddle and fall off the board but as time goes by you can stand up on the bigger waves (laughs).

Themes of fate and destiny run through this album. Have you always believed you have a set path?

RM: Nietzsche… one of his famous phrases was amor fati, or ‘love your fate’. Let’s say, me who is born in Korea, and you, Taylor who is born Australia, we can’t change that, we cannot have the same life. Amor fati isn’t just saying leave everything to fate, but to first accept things we can’t change. Love our fate, and our environment, then (think) we could do something with fate and turn directions. We’re on some path that’s set since we’re born, but I still believe we can change some things. So I believe in my faith but I still don’t believe in my fate (laughs).

The huge success you’ve experienced off this album, how is that impacting your creativity? Can you think ‘I’m gonna write a song and see how it goes’, or it is ‘I have to write a song and it can’t be anything less than amazing’?

RM: That is a pressure actually, I can’t say I don’t feel it. What’s happening is so much for me, and everything around BTS moves so fast, like making ten songs in half a year. Sometimes (it’s) too much, but I always remind myself of things back in 2007, I started this because I wanted to say something. There was a message inside me and I wanted to spread it as music, so when I’m in my studio writing I try to take it slow. I’m trying to take a deeper look, like what am I really trying to say?

Except with people knocking on the door going, are you done yet, have you got a song for me?

RM: (laughs) Ah yeah, that’s why people call it a deadline, cos you feel like you’re dead.

‘Mic Drop’, both song and performance, is already classic BTS. ‘My bag’s filled with trophies… / Haters are already giving up / My success is already so golden… / You’re rushing to run away.’ BTS have always stood up for themselves but what’s made this track integral to your new chapter?

RM: Hitman Bang (the group’s CEO/producer) wanted us to let out anger and pain on this track but it was hard ’cos there isn’t any anger or jealousy left inside, I’m satisfied right now (laughs). I love our fans, so many miracles are happening every day. I have no time for the haters. I think this goes with why Her is a turning point for BTS and ‘Mic Drop’ (helps) say that – we drop the mic and chapter one is over. It’s a lot of fun.

How many mics has Suga broken by throwing them down at the end of each performance?

RM: (laughs) Oh, no not (the good ones) yet, we buy cheap ones from the market, karaoke ones that cost like $30.

You’re clearly enjoying life right now but there’s darker emotions lurking on this album, so might we see more of those on the next one?

RM: Those (emotions) are still inside, they’re not going away but they’re now a different shape. I think love isn’t just made up of happiness and compliments and light. Love includes scars, a little bit of hate and some dirty things inside us.

And I guess no one is ever 100% happy 24/7, even when everything is going well…

RM: We do have darker emotions and sometimes we feel so heavy with these records and the articles and people going ‘Oh, you’re representing Korea, you’re, like, making Korea famous!!’, and every second we’re like ‘Thank you so much’, but, you know, I’m still just here in my small studio and I try to write some lyrics and that’s all I do. I’m still trying to deal with it.

So what, outside of BTS, makes you happy?

RM: Thank you for this question, not many people ask it! (long pause) I have no driver’s license, so I ride a bicycle beside the Han River. That’s what I really love because no one gives a damn about me for that moment. I feel so free. I also love to collect figures and watch a midnight movie ’cos I can watch it all alone and in the best seat.

Do you have to wear hat, sunglasses, and a face mask to avoid being recognised?

RM: I don’t wear a face mask, I just wear a hat because my hair is too colourful, it’s too shiny (laughs).

Critics had a conversation online that centred around the possibility of BTS being nominated for a Grammy. It didn’t happen this year, but next year… you never know! How does that make you feel?

RM: I’ve heard people are talking about it, I try to not think about it. If I start to expect something, I get disappointed. A Grammy is a whole other level, it’s a whole other world for us!

If you guys won, you’d have to wear seriously waterproof makeup.

RM: Of course. Everyone would cry. I think we’d have to prepare a waterproof suit as well.

Maybe just wear plastic from head to toe.

RM: (laughs) Yeah, we’d have wear a spacesuit or something.

You’ve had a gruelling month’s schedule in Korea, plus two concerts in Japan for 80,000 fans – what’s still the hardest thing during that, and who keeps you sane?

RM: Sleeping. No sleep makes a human into another human (laughs). Culturally, Koreans are used it, but still it’s really hard. We get used to but we can’t ever get used to it. J-Hope always tries to cheer us up and I’m so grateful. Actually I like to call him a new leader for the group.

After being together for years, who in BTS can still surprise you?

RM: V. His words are crazy and his English is crazy too. He makes new words and new grammar and he always surprises me. I feel like he’s quite good at English too because he can speak to everyone, he’s got confidence, he’s got the guts.

They say when you learn a new language you can’t be afraid of making mistakes.

RM: (sighs) I’m always afraid of making mistakes. I think I was born with that.

I’ve always wondered what BTS do before an album drops, is there a ritual?

RM: We gather in our living room, have a little drink and talk about how we should deal with the schedules and how we’re doing. It’s really nothing but it makes us feel different, it keeps us running and it keeps our attitude because we always remember when we were sad and poor (laughs). Popularity is a bubble. It’s a mountain, you can go up really hard but walk down really fast.

Okay, last thing… you are the king of high fives and handshakes that go slightly wrong.

RM: (laughs) Yeah, that’s what fans from Europe and America say! But they love those moments, right! It’s a cultural thing? I don’t know why, but no one pays attention to my handshakes and high fives. My hands are really big and I’m like six foot, so they can see me really easily. It’s very sad, isn’t it (laughs).

Source.

[loftyloftyloftyloftylofty]

#getbacktowork

Here’s a quick look at what got done this year!

New game features:

Controller Support Every single input handler in the game supports keyboard/mouse and controllers now!

Custom gravity in maps Low gravity? No gravity? Stuck to the ceiling? BELIEVE IT.

Weapons / Abilities Framework Fully implemented a system for adding weapons and abilities to Cat Story using easily-organized and easily-modified assets files. Weapon upgrades!

Destructible terrain Those blocks had it coming.

Enemies Enemies deal damage to the player, and take damage from weapons. Enemies can knock the player back when dealing damage. Enemies can pathfind to chase the player and return to their home locations. Enemies have programmable drop tables. Enemies have programmable patrol paths. Enemies are able to raycast-line-of-sight to detect and interact with the player! We have bats now! They’re flappy. I like to imagine they have little spade tails.

Cat Story’s darkest caverns are home to RamSpiders now!  Do they goat noises? Do they spider noises? YOU DECIDE.

Critters We’ve got wandering harmless critters now! Terrestrial critters include crabs and snails! Aquatic critters include cute rays!

Directional shooting Left-, down-, up-, and right-ways projectiles! Open fire!

Two playable characters Play as Tilde or Ceil. One shoots, one goes fast. 

Better ramps and slopes Physical objects slide down steep ramps now. Sloped floors, walls, and ceilings supported at all angles. Raycasting handles sloped surfaces as intended!

Climbing Climbable ropes are working properly now. Climbable sections of wall are working properly now. 

Better collisions Completely overhauled the way the physics system handles collisions to make scripting more useful for weapons, enemies, and pickups.

Dynamic Minimap Get a rad preview of the map you’re in by pressing TAB. Updates automagically based on the physical objects present in the map!

Rocket Jumping I am being propelled upward, and your argument is invalid.

The story is being finalized After 962 days of drafting, coding, testing, debugging, and playing Cat Story, I finally nailed down the story I want to tell. This includes some new characters! We like characters, right?

Jumping / falling animations Bounce in style with fancy jumping-up and falling-down framesets!

Loot Chests can be opened that contain weapons and collectibles! Health, ammunition, and gems can be collected now!

Steam Steam integration is working! You are now playing Cat Story. Steam Achievements are working! Good luck, everyone!

Alpix Terminals Cat Story contains miniature mock-linux terminal systems that you can access and tinker around with! Virtual filesystems! Installed minigames! Lore snippets! Activate machines, open doors, and interact with the environment!

Save Points Sick Save Drills to save your game in, each containing an Alpix Terminal!

Did we mention minigames? RiriCatch is a game! Save vegetables before they hit the ground! FloorIt is also a game! Outrun missiles pointed at the city’s core!

New text rendering engine New fonts! New dialog boxes that look way better! More responsive dialog controls! Text colors! Text fading! Text effects! Text scrolling! Branching dialog! Sound effects! Easily-configured asset formats for everything! Recompiled SDL TTF to fix a bug with text wrapping adding dead pixel space to the bottom of the surface. @_@

Localization for all strings Support for as many languages as you want to translate! Fallthroughs just in case you miss something.

Map image exporter Because showing off the maps you make with the sick updated editor is rad.

Huge scripting and documentation overhauls Script caching. Save your hard drive! Privileged scripts that persist across maps! 80+ scripting functions updated and documented! All of Cat Story’s file formats documented, with examples! Accidental multiplayer?

UI / performance improvements Clearer HP display! Graphics options adjustment! Dynamic FPS adjustment to keep things smooth! Sprite intersection improvements - performance and scripting! Optimized a ton of other stuff and removed thousands of lines of vestigial code!

28,789 lines of code as of 30 December 2017. Oof.

Level editor changes:

Category nesting Organize your sprite library into folders for working efficiency!

Sprite layer positioning Adjust the position of sprites relative to other sprites on the same layer with a single click!

Sprite swap Swap the source of a sprite in the editor for another sprite with one click!

Images aren't locked while editor running  It was really annoying and doesn’t happen anymore!

Duplicate sprite button Increase your working efficiency infinitely with this convenient copy button!

Music happened ♪

Exploration A slower jazzy piece that takes inspiration from Quest64′s music.

Pressure A faster organ piece that’s all about urgency of motion.

Catch! Terminal minigame music.

My music was on Spotify! Technical difficulties occurred, but it should be back soon!

I'm a Twitch Affiliate now.

New Twitch overlays look good. New mascot is cute af. Shoutouts to @telivesion for the adorable art!

Got my first Twitch bits donations and subscribers this year!

Twitch emotes are a thing now! :loftylHi:

Social Media happened. Let’s be friends!

Facebook Twitter Discord Instagram Steam Twitch SoundCloud YouTube NicoNico Spotify Flickr Patreon (Soon™) Minecraft server ...and Tumblr. 

800 followers!

We also got this sick awesome banner art from @thefeaux!

...and a lot more awesome character portrait art from @telivesion!

Other things that happened in 2017:

TwitchCon ended up being way too expensive. Maybe next year.

Zerg took Blizzcon! I’m always rooting for Z.

One of my cats ran away. I still occasionally see her wandering around the neighborhood.

New house. New roommates. New job. Finances stable again. 

I’ll be resuming my paused college in the beginning of 2018. Degree soon.

Played some awesome games! If you haven’t played these yet, you should!

OneShot Rain World Ori: Definitive Edition 2064: ROM Hyper Light Drifter

As we leave 2017 and enter 2018, I’d like to share one of my favorite videos with all of you.

You guys are rad. 

Thank you for helping to make this year awesome, and let’s make 2018 the best year yet!

Cheers nerds, Lofty

[lichlairs]

Checkout our new post over at https://lichlair.com/daily-monster-36-giant-crab

Daily Monster #36: Giant Crab

Crabs. Literally just giant crabs. Granted, as far as crabs go, the giant ones are at least kind of fun, I guess. I suppose a DM might use them for a bit of comedic relief or as a small encounter for a party of first level adventurers. Truly though, like Horses, don’t expect much from these guys.

Giant Crab

The basics

The Giant Crab’s highest stat is their +2 DEX followed by their +1 STR. You definitely want to watch your fingers with this one. Their CON is an average +0 and everything else kind of goes down the hill for there. Their WIS sat is a -1, CHA is -4, what’s worse, their INT is a -5. Over all not great for these crustaceans.

Thanks to their shells Giant Crabs have an AC of 15 despite being medium sized beasts. Their hit point pool is also acceptable for a CR 1/8 creature with 3d8, though granted it’s a bit of a gamble to roll for HP since there are no pluses on this monster.

Surprisingly, Giant Crabs have a +4 to their Stealth. Slightly less surprisingly, they have both a walking and swim speed of 30ft and can breathe both air and water. Who could have seen this coming?

The only attack that these monster get access to is, well, their claws, which to be fair, at least trigger the grapple condition.

The lore

It’s…a crab. You can find them in all crab places.

Actually, you know what? I refuse to leave this section blank so instead I will tell you about Sheldon.

Now, you might be asking who the hell is Sheldon and why are we reading about him in an article about crabs?

Well, Sheldon was, to put it mildly, a senile old man who kept a small army of crabs in his beard and would occasionally turn into a crab himself since he was a druid. Need I say more?

When my player first brought this idea to me I was very reluctant to allow it into our campaign but, turns out crabs can be kind of fun.

Anyway, crabs.

The execution

Part of me wants to believe that out there exists a Dungeons and Dragon’s player whose character got horribly mauled and killed by a Giant Crab. I don’t expect this to be a common occurrence based of their pretty measly statblock but, let’s see what we can do about making at least a somewhat interesting encounter with these creatures.

Perhaps your players are exploring some sort of underwater cove where they discover a buried treasure. Unfortunately for them, as they approach the pile of gold, they watch as it rises from the sand, a few coins spilling from the back of a Giant Crab’s shell. Here’s the part where you might choose to add in a musical number about shiny objects, or not before asking your players to roll for initiative. Since it’s unlikely that the Giant Crab will live past a couple of rounds at most, consider have a bunch of regular sized crabs spill from within it after the players valiantly slay it.

Alternatively, you could have them as some sort of exotic mount for some of your aquatic races. Mounted underwater combat sounds kind of fun now that I think about it. And it could work pretty well with adventures like Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss out on any of our future ones, make sure follow us on our social media to be informed whenever we post new articles. We write new content every day!