#“(?)” ⸻ anonymous guest.

[daily-grian]

If there is not an Oct 24th Grian can I get a happy birthday from the birb?

mod owl is feeling a bit better so a wild life!Grian happy birthday to you! he's saying it as loud as he can he promises he's just very small

[incognitopolls]

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[canisalbus]

You mentioned before that the people who would have access to Machete's bedchamber would likely already know about Vasco. How did that come up in your mind? Did they get caught in the act or was the subject broached with enough trust? How did those people handle it? Sorry if this is a bit vague but I thought about it today and I'm very interested. :)

I think it just has to be the case, I can't imagine how they could manage to hide the fact Vasco is bunking with him from everyone, for years and years. Machete doesn't live alone, he has staff and servants who do his housekeeping and run his errands. Even if Vasco didn't stay there for any extended periods of time and snuck out the back door to avoid attention, I'm assuming at least the people who do his laundry and change his sheets would eventually detect that some sort of funny business had happened. But the number of people who are in on it is still very very small and tightly controlled. His assistant Vittorio definitely knows and helps to manage this situation, so does his personal doctor, and on top of that maybe a handful of most trusted high-ranking emplyees, which he has vetted extremely carefully and pays handsomely for their discreetness and prudence.

[sleepanonymous]

About your tags about those known collabs with other artists, what are all the known collabs hes done? Id heard he did piano for bfmv before but i havent been able to find out which songs

Hello Anon 🖤 Thanks for the ask, I actually had fun typing all of this up and doing research. Spoiler alert: I am now sus of every and any song that George Lever and Carl Bown have produced that contain synth/keys 😅

Also, side note, listening to all of these songs while fact checking really cemented how unique Vessel is as a pianist. It’s like he’s playing in his own language, if that makes sense? It’s truly beautiful.

For Bullet For My Valentine, Vessel did the Piano Versions on the deluxe Gravity album: Breathe Under Water, The Very Last Time, and Under Again. I’ve heard a couple of times that he also did synths for the standard version of the album, but there’s no absolute confirmation of it, since he was only initially credited in the three songs I mentioned. He did have the credits changed to Vessel1 before they were removed altogether from the songs. The album Gravity was supposedly recorded between 2016/2017, so around the same time that the One and Two EPs dropped. I’m not 100% positive how he got that gig, but that is supposedly how he met Carl Bown (the producer for Take Me Back to Eden). It could also be the other way around, and Carl and Vessel already knew each other and he brought Vessel in to do the piano versions.

He is credited as a composer (ie he played piano) for Holding Absence’s song Purge. Their self-titled album was recorded in 2018, so around the time Sleep Token released the singles Jaws and The Way That You Were. Fun fact about this collab: the band most likely met Ves through George Lever, since he produced Holding Absence’s album, and that’s how the Loathe/Holding Absence/Sleep Token tour came about.

In 2019, he collaborated with The Hell on their song Jump the Fuck Up. This one I have the least information on, since the band is also anonymous and seems to have revolving members. The only credits on the song are the band name and the composer/lyricist Stephen Sears. I haven’t done too much digging, but I would not be surprised if the band had ties to George, Carl, or even both producers.

In summer 2020, during lockdown, he did a piano cover of Type O Negative’s Love You To Death with the vocalist of Forlorn, Megan Jenkins. Her band has previously worked with George Lever. I do have to warn anyone who looks up this song on YouTube, since you’ll see him in the music video that was filmed (hands, arms, chin, hair/hair color, back). He was uncredited, but the mv is proof of his involvement.

The band Malevolence stated in a podcast interview that he played keys on the acoustic version of Higher Place, but was not credited (at least one band member didn’t even realize this). The song was produced by Carl Bown, and since the album/song was released in 2022, I’m assuming it was recorded sometime in 2021, so between recording TPWBYT and TMBTE.

[nonasbirthday]

so what order do all of these extra stories go in? I'm confused, I know there's others beside the unwanted guest

Yeah, it's a lot to sort out! (What a lovely problem - to have lots of bonus content!) If you have already read GTN, HTN, and NTN I wouldn't stress too much about the reading order; the short stories don't interface with each other as much as they interface with the novels. But if you were to line up the novels and the short stories chronologically, it would look something like this:

The Mysterious Study of Dr. Sex - takes place pre-GTN

Gideon the Ninth

As Yet Unsent - takes place between the end of GTN and the middle of HTN

Harrow the Ninth

Nona the Ninth

The Unwanted Guest - takes place during the latter part of NTN

And then of course there is some additional content at the end of the first two books which are not quite official short stories (I don't think) but have some valuable tidbits in them! Even the glossaries and pronunciation guides have me doing double-takes sometimes as I reread. GTN has "A Sermon on Cavaliers and Necromancers" and "Cohort Intelligence Files." HTN has a "Blood of Eden Memorandum for Record." I have the paperbacks of GTN and HTN so I am not sure if these are included in the hardcovers. (Edit: it seems the extra content is not included in the hardcovers or the audiobooks.) But in any case I would say these are best read exactly where they are at the end of each book.

I don't think I'm forgetting anything, but I hope folks will add on if I am!

[aroaceleovaldez]

So, in your last post about the Percy Jackson TV show, I felt you lacked a few pieces of information/points. While it is true that the CGI in the film is pore and not constructed well, please note that while they have a large budget Disney has made a lot of restrictions to the show. In the original scrips there was a significantly larger amount of violence that would have needed more CGI. This was latter edited out of the script due to both restrictions and budget cuts for other parts in the show(sadly). Also to bring into prospective Sea of monsters the movie was made 10 years ago. Inflation has juristically affected the way money is used in films. Another thing to note is typically movie budgets are less than TV shows because they only are filming for one larger block of time. TV however they can take years meaning the acters need to be paid even for the time off set. This is not to say movies cannot take years, but it is to show that TV shows are filmed longer. I would also like to say I am genuinely not trying to be rude or unkind about your opinion and thoughts on the subject. I am just someone who has a different insight into the topic because of the things I know about the topic (I myself, am an actor and for the most part I think this is why the CGI was not the best as well as some of the script work). 

I did actually calculate inflation for Sea of Monsters versus the PJO TV show. We know the PJO TV show allegedly had a budget of $12-15 million per episode. For comparison, this is the type of budget Disney+ usually uses for stuff like The Mandalorian. I was doing a generous underestimate for the entire season which comes out to $96mil (12mil per episode x 8 episodes). Sea of Monsters' budget was 90mil. Here's that inflation:

So lil over $120mil. Going for a top estimate for s1 of the show (15x8) that's $120mil. And as far as I'd heard that may also not include stuff like budget for casting for the show. They are still roughly in similar ballparks.

Regardless of this - as an animator, i can tell you there is no excuse for that wonky CGI trident other than it being extremely quickly done. That's literally a transform error, like ctrl+t type stuff. That is a lazy and cheap trident, probably because Disney notoriously overworks and cheaps out with their CGI. The CGI problems in the show are majority because Disney's being cheap about it. This shows in nearly all the CGI in every episode.

If they had to remove violence from the script and so remove CGI scenes with it, then theoretically they should have more room in the budget for more or better CGI where it already is in the show. That money doesn't just vanish. Changing that in the script gives them less of an excuse, actually.

Also, as i mentioned in my previous post - if you don't want to CGI hydrokinesis, don't pick the franchise where the main character's defining power is hydrokinesis. If you can't have much violence, DON'T PICK THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY SERIES WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER BEHEADS TWO PEOPLE IN THE FIRST BOOK AND IT ONLY GETS BLOODIER FROM THERE. You cannot have PJO without some level of violence. It's kind of very inherent to the series. Rick actually talks in his original Teaching Guide for The Lightning Thief about how, in argument against attempts to ban TLT (in this specific instance for "being too violent"), that monsters in the books poof into golden dust for a reason, because then they haven't "died." There is no blood. They can and will come back. Because it's fantasy. That is the excuse for all the violence. Of which there otherwise technically is a lot of.

If you are doing live action PJO you are going to have to have some amount of violence (and there is absolutely a level that is perfectly suitable for a PG13 audience. The show right now is leagues below that level. PG13 just means parental guidance for under 13 - this majority has to do with concerns about children under 13 replicating behavior on-screen. Past 13 kids know better than to do that, which is why that rating is a thing. There are plenty of film/media/etc that are way more gory and violent and are still PG13). You are going to have to CGI monsters/creatures to some degree regularly (alongside demigod powers like Percy's hydrokinesis even more regularly). And between those two things, characters are going to have to look like they're physically interacting with the CGI at times. Disney is capable of doing this. Disney does have the budget for this for the show. They're not doing it because they're being cheap. Disney has done this before and does it regularly. This is not anything new. It entirely has to do with CGI not having as many unions. They have no excuses. If they didn't expect to run into these problems then they clearly did no planning for what adapting the series would entail and didn't think at all of what the series actually featured before diving into it. And they have no excuse for that! That is step one!

[kirkwallguy]

I get that it's game mechanics but they go and do the clunkiest dialogue for poor Taash's gender search and then present you with a binary choice for their culture like??? Haven't we just talked about not having to do either of these. You have a half dozen codex entries on queer Tevinters helping them through this but they gotta pick ONE culture.

The bird feeding and meeting Karash was cool! Why is the rest of Taash's companion storyline so... bleh. If they needed to have a binary choice on their companion questline why did it have to be about something so personal and that Bioware is so goddamn bad at.

it's just so fascinating to me that this was written and went through multiple edits like... even if it gets miraculously better later and the conclusion of their story is "they can be non-binary with their culture AND their gender :)" (which is still uh. in the words of jessica, not everything feels like something else.) it's still crazy to have them talk about being forced into boxes and then have you choose to encourage them to pursue one culture or the other, especially since it feels implied that qunari culture is traditional and stifling while rivaini culture is accepting and free, even though so far we've barely SEEN any of either culture lol.

[badlydrawndashstrider]

NICE BRACELETS GAYLORD. -CG

TT: ! TT: Oh. Hi Karkat. I was wondering where you went. TT: Glad you like them, because one of them's yours.

TT: Here ya go. I'm gonna go find John.

[armagnac-army]

LANNES, SOULT TURNED INTO A KITTY CAT HE CAN NOW BE HEAD-PATTED IVE TRIED SUCCESSFULLY

BONJOURMONSIEURKITTYYOUAREVERYSOFTANDCUDDLYDOYOUHAVEAFAMILYWHATISITLIKEBEINGACAT

🐱: MIAO. *

*Translator’s note: “What is happening. What is this kitten doing.”

[utilitycaster]

do you think that the arkhan/hand of vecna plotline will ever come back up again? or does arkhans ascent into published dnd canon make this unlikely? curious on your take on this part of the lore

I am concerned that you have in some way hacked into my discord conversations because I said this like an hour and a half ago.

I have only ever thought of Arkhan in the sense of "ah, right, the days when G&S could be like 'hey guys we need to have this famous person with ties to D&D and/or other Nerdy Pursuits on the show" and Matt presumably had to be like "um it's the finale battle of a campaign we've been playing as friends for five years? but sure, I guess." Joe Manganiello seems like a lovely person but it was an profoundly awkward and badly placed appearance. Sam Riegel fully sobbing in the club while some guy with zero context for why half the table has burst into tears over a high level Counterspell is just like *Nic Cage in National Treasure Voice* "I NEED TO STEAL THE HAND OF VECNA." It is a moment of pure, unbridled high camp surrealism. It feels like it comes from a mockumentary sitcom about a fictional actual play show rather than as part of the final battle of a highly popular and successful existing actual play show. This, too, is Goncharov.

Anyway. That is my take on this part of the lore.

[justsescape]

Can a cow be too fat?

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOURP!!"

Nyx had become a proverbial mountain of fat; her body filled the capacity of an airplane hangar. Rolling waves of skin resembled the dimples and folds of raw pancake batter as they piled themselves atop the concrete. Breasts -- each large enough to rival entire biplanes -- lurched themselves over the only thing bigger than them: her gut. Its rumbling was like thunder. Perhaps she had buried a couple of buildings underneath its weight.

"BWOOOOOOUUUURRRRRRRP-HYIUCK!" Nyx's head emerged from her body the same way someone's would if they were buried in sand at the beach. Every gaseous expulsion left the flabby flesh surrounding it rippling like a pond. "HIC! HIC-URP-HIC!"

Lips, dripping with drool, opened and closed rhythmically almost as if she was chewing gum -- not that she was chewing anything at all. At least, not yet. Her dull, hazy gaze craned upward toward a distant feeding tube connected to the ceiling. Unable to lift her tree-trunk arms, all Nyx could do to vocalize her appetite was belch, hiccup, or moo. Sometimes, all three at once.

"MoooOOUHOUROKUOOOOORP!!!"

The call was heard. The pipe descended. Nyx's gaping mouth wrapped thoughtlessly around it. Gulp... gulp... gulp... Drooping nipples lazily produced milk that ran like little streams down the folds of her lard-laden body. Her fat had long since found its way into her lactation: it wasn't so much milk that she was making as much as it was heavy cream. It clumped up in the countless crevices that wrapped around her entire gluttonous frame.

From Nyx's limited perspective, the world was but a pale, endless horizon of lard below, and a cold, metal ceiling above. The feeding tube delivered euphoric sensations. It was her escape. The bigger she grew, the more she pressed into the walls. The more she pressed into the walls, the less they could do to confine her. The less confined she was, the more she could grow. The cycle repeated. Fat was freedom.

Nyx swelled like a balloon connected to a garden hose.

[thr4shit]

If you're canon divergent, that means you're different from source and it shouldn't be held against you. I don't know a lot about systems but I'm trying to learn since two of my friends (including y'all) are systems.

I hope you can be accepted and feel better about yourself J, you don't deserve to be hated biased on something that can't be controlled.

I mean no disrespect with anything I'm saying and I respect all of you.

-Mystery Ghost

(This doesn't have to be posted, I just wanted to say this. I appreciate all of you/p even if I've never talked to some of you)

I don't know how to reply to this, but thanks, really.

Just sucks knowing that YEAH, I want to interact with people who are from the same material as me but most (if not all) will basically tell me to go fuck myself.

Yeah, source canon me was fucking awful, and that's sugarcoating it EXTREMELY. It's just a lot.

But thanks, really.

We love you too, your kindness has meant a lot since all of us are pretty much used to being told we're faking or we're awful.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[canisalbus]

Machete reminds me of those unhinged little dogs that screech at everything except the single person they like (Vasco)

He's a Creachure and I love him

.

[habitual-creatures]

(He looks at the sticky note and smiles more)

It smells good too

-Mystery guest

Yeah, it does!

[isablooo]

I loooove the tidbits from Stoker's notes that didn't get used in the final text

Thank you!! Stoker's notes and scrapped plotlines are honestly wild, there's even more I wasn't able to weave into the story, like Quincey was originally called Brutus M Marix, there was potentially going to be a werewolf chapter and also a dinner party scene??? I'd really recommend checking out Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller if you're interested in finding out more about them!!