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pastorfutureletthembe · 12 days ago

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Checkmate ♚

Apparently a temporary AR (Otome) game is coming soon and the artwork for it is just breathtaking! It is also full of details I want to explore OF COURSE. My brain is doing tetris things again, oops.

Looking for a senseless meta about chess pieces? You're in the right place, come on in~

>> Chess Theme

White vs Black

The first topic is obviously the chess theme. Of course, this part is to be taken with a grain of salt since the pieces aren't correctly disposed on the board. However, the characters themselves are walking on their respective squares except for Vein (because he's all powerful and he's above your stupid rules. Probably). Notably, Liu Xiao himself seems to be leaving a white square. And if there is any meaning to it, I'd like to believe it makes a gray character out of him.

Now, what can we say about the chess pieces themselves?

White: rook, pawn, knight

Black: rook, mystery piece, king

Each character is paired with a chess piece.

The most reassuring clue to me is that a white piece has been given to Xia Fei. Which, there is a fat chance this makes an ally out of him. He might be only a Pawn ♙ for now. For those who are not familiar with chess, a Pawn can only move ahead, never back, one square at a time. It has some cool moves too but it depends on the game you want to play. If the path is open, a Pawn can reach the other side of the board, turning it into a Queen ♕. If a Pawn can only move ahead in small range, a Queen literally rules over the whole board. She's quick, vicious and dangerous once she has enough space to move as she pleases. Of course, he can also be a mere Pawn, a tool to manipulate Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi.

[Edit: since I always turn mine into Queens because I like to inspire fear and admiration from my brother, a Pawn can also turn into a Rook, a Bishop, or a Knight. I like to think of Xia Fei as a Queen but it's very interesting that he could turn into either Vein/CXS, Liu Xiao or Lu Guang by the end of Yingdu Chapter. ]

Cheng Xiaoshi and Vein both getting paired with a ♖ Rook ♜ could mean they use the same kind of power or are equivalent in some ways. Rooks have a large range, can move horizontally and vertically, ahead or back. They are better used when paired with other pieces, though, cause a lonely Rook ♖ is an easy pray. I think the main focus here is the similarity more than the piece itself. Lu Guang seems to be the one being punished and haunted, but Vein probably offered his power to Cheng Xiaoshi (or Lu Guang, according to the last Yingdu Chapter PV). My personal theory is that Vein mirrors or shadows Cheng Xiaoshi's shape because he is the source of his power. Vein's position, if there is any relevance to it, keeps Lu Guang's Knight ♘ from moving at the center, his natural and most efficient position.

Toppled King

Liu Xiao has two pieces by his side, a King ♔ and a mystery piece. The merch revealed the later to be a Bishop ♝.

Note that only amateurs tend to topple the King. It is regarded as some kind of pop culture-only approach to chess. Because of this, let's take a look a what an actual checkmate is (where we don't get to step on the vainquished).

Checkmate is any game position in chess in which a player's king is threatened with capture and there is no possible escape. In chess, the king is never actually captured. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. The player loses as soon as their king is checkmated. In formal games, it is usually considered good etiquette to resign an inevitably lost game before being checkmated. (cf. wikipedia)

If Vein, the current character we might recognize as the ultimate villain of the season, is only a Rook ♜, equivalent to Cheng Xiaoshi, who does the King ♔ represent? My personal opinion is Time, Fate itself. The song "Mastermind" supports this theory, and Lu Guang himself really is defying the natural order to save Cheng Xiaoshi, after all. It would make perfect sense. Stopping the clocks at a tournament is the sign of surrender. So basically, the game is over when one gives up and stops when the King has nowhere to go.

The character of Liu Xiao is given a lot of care in this specific artwork. He actually always stood out, since his very first appearance in the season 2 artworks, walking past Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi's portray, looking away from us. Here, again, he's not interested in the audience, focuses on the photograph of what fans reckon as Lu Guang from "Dive Back in Time".

The truth is, he's playing the long game, he has no time to spare, and he regards people as puppets. There has been theories about him having a hidden agenda, independently of Vein, using/working with Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi for his plan. His intervention in "Trial Train" speaks volume of his strategic mind, "they wanted to escape but didn't realize I blocked the exit a long time ago". Also, one hundred years wouldn't be enough to escape.

This merciless sharpness makes the Bishop perfect for Liu Xiao. Funny story, the Bishop ♝ is not actually a priest, but it represents a war elephant. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. That's fitting.

Another possibility regarding the toppled King could be that it refers to Liu Xiao's background. The fallen piece could be a resolved situation but the motivation behind Liu Xiao's intent to manipulate the timelines. Perhaps he played this game before and lost. Does Lu Guang know him or is Liu Xiao a mere stalker? Did they play this same game together or against each other?

There's a lot that can be speculated but it is hard to say what these pieces represent for now. As I said before, this read is based on popular imagery of what chess is, not on the actual strategy on the board itself. Secondly, these three new characters we have yet to meet, they don't have a defined role in the canon, not until Yingdu Chapter finally aires.

>> Tokens

Each character is giving a object. I guess it might be relevant to the type of gameplay the AR game will offer but for the sake of this meta, we're still gonna try to understand why those in particular.

Cheng Xiaoshi has a camera. I don't think it deserve further analysis, his powers exist through the lens after all.

Xia Fei has a clock. Guess the time? 10:10. For those unaware, it is a very recurrent time. Put the promotional poster aside, I recommend you pay attention to the time on the clock in the Studio, above Lu Guang's head, right before the gang gets a ominous call from Xu Shanshan's phone at the end of 1x09. If it should mean anything about Xia Fei himself: I won't say it enough but, really: DO NOT TRUST HIM. Or, you know, perhaps he's doomed: it is worth mentioning that except for Xia Fei's Pawn ♙, each character is affiliated to a piece which can move forward and backward on the board.

Liu Xiao has a gear. I find this one intriguing because, so far, this object has belonged to Cheng Xiaoshi's imagery (cf. "BREAK!"). For someone on an ambitious project such as controlling timelines, he is giving a small tool that cannot be used on its own, is part of a machine. Could be relevant to the way he does things, never getting his own hands dirty, working through others. Or it could be that he's himself just another player, played by Fate. Or perhaps, he has the missing piece that Lu Guang needs to save Cheng Xiaoshi, who knows?

Vein is already using his own item: the pipe. He's the only one owning his object and aware of it.

>> The Case Study of Lu Guang

Because of course, our favorite character is actually the shadiest of all, I will dedicate a whole section about him specifically. Why do I insist on calling Lu Guang shady? We know and we see his chess piece is white. But you have to take a closer look to make out the White Knight ♘. The value of a Knight ♘ is equivalent to the Bishop's ♝. But ultimately, its worth less than Cheng Xiaoshi's Rook ♖.

L shaped path

Moving only in an 'L' shaped path, Knights ♘ are the most effective from the center of the board. This is because they get a broader reach in all directions from the central part.

Now, this is very important. Why should it be a mystery that Lu Guang's piece is a knight? What is a Knight ♘? The answer resides in the mechanism of his maneuver.

Part of the idea of the knight maneuver is to flank. And since the Knight is not a horse but a man on a horse, the odd maneuver reflects the knight's ability to guide the horse he's riding (to an extent). In other words, since the Knight comprises two entities (the man riding the horse), the move should sensibly consist of two parts as well, to reflect the added agility of the athletic horse. Conversely, the Knight has access to a maximum of 8 squares (as opposed to the "equal" Bishop's maximum of 13) because the horse is still an animal with a mind of its own.

Note that if you place a Knight ♘ somewhere on the margins, its efficacy will diminish exponentially. Additionally, if he only moved two squares, straight or diagonally, the Knight ♘ would always be restricted to the color squares that he started the game on.

Lu Guang being the Knight ♘ doesn't only means that he moves unconventionally. It is reflective of his duality. Perhaps, the fact he's using his power and Cheng Xiaoshi's. There is another aspect of him we could address here:

Burning Palace

youtube

For one thing, "BURNING PALACE" brings back the theme of strategy board game with the checkers this time (you see black pieces falling). It also introduce the Four Heads from playing cards. The fact they bothered to mention it implies a Fourth character.

Xia Fei: ♠

Liu Xiao: ♣

Vein: ♦

The fourth color ♥ is missing and I'm secretly convinced that it's Lu Guang's color.

Enygmatic Tokens

The portray behind Lu Guang is Lu Guang himself, from "Overthink". This image appears in the first bridge, when the lyrics goes "how did my sight got stolen once more?", superposing Lu Guang's face with mysterious shapes, erasing his eyes/power. This particular line comes to confirm what we already know: Yingdu Chapter isn't a resolution, let alone a happy ending, but a repeat of a tragic event in an unchangeable node. The end is the same, once again. Lu Guang's hope and happy ending has been stolen once more. And STOLEN also implies that there is an intent behind this failure.

A portray is still a photograph though, and it can be used to dive back in time.

What is the most curious to me is the familiar eagle on Lu Guang's chest. Eagles belongs to Cheng Xiaoshi's imagery so why does Lu Guang is wearing them here?

An interesting take would be that Yingdu Chapter isn't actually from Lu Guang's perspective, but from Cheng Xiaoshi's, diving in a picture taken by Lu Guang. This would be some kind of plot twist and would definetely makes the big reveal easier but not less painful.

I'll probably make a whole meta about this symbol at some point but in the meantime, I'll let you know the eagle is associated with strength, power, wisdom, and freedom. The eagle's ability to soar high in the sky was believed to be a symbol of divine protection and spiritual guidance. Additionally, eagles are tied to the sun. Some people see them as signs of a bright future on the horizon. As a symbol of light, they embody both the intensity and heat of the sun as a fearsome force of nature and the warmth and benevolence of the heavens.

This positive symbolisms are deeply rooted in Cheng Xiaoshi's nature, but if Yingdu Chapter actually brings us back to one earlier repeat, we can assume that Lu Guang had initially a brighter outlook on his mission.

The glasses are back and I'll say it again: once is weird, twice is a coincidence and thrice it's a pattern. The portray shows Lu Guang without eyes but his item is a pair of glasses. Might be a subtile hint of denial there. As far as glasses go, pink is a peculiar color. It helps to 'voir la vie en rose', as the french says: "look at the world through rose-coloured glasses." Meaning, being delusional.

Might it be the eagle or the glasses, I'd say they're both representative of Lu Guang's state of mind at the time: hopeful.

[Edit: I recommend you take a look to these threads regarding this very same artwork: | X | X | X | I don't agree with everything but it's always cool to have other perspectives.]

#link click #shiguang dailiren #时光代理人 #lu guang #cheng xiaoshi #meta #liu xiao #xia fei #vein #yingdu chapter

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caffeinelemur · 7 months ago

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Stolitz Communication Styles

I feel like I need to talk about this.

Stolas’ high education and verbal gymnastics, versus Blitzø’s lack of equivalent education, dyslexia, and difficulty expressing emotions, especially through words. Because it plays a huge part in why they haven’t been, and still aren’t, communicating effectively. Also both of them are neurodivergent as fuck and communication is a bitch for us anyway.

Specifically, this is a dive into that different classes/mindsets dynamic, leading up to a look at that text conversation at the end of Western Energy, and how it leads into their possible growth.

From the very start of the series, Blitzø shows that he has difficulty with writing/spelling and prefers verbal communication. (Even if we look outside the instagrams, which are not technically canon.) The first episode has the billboard that was entirely speech-to-text and not proofread, (he’s too uncomfortable writing that big of a message out, and he thought it was easier to just say it, and was thus not equipped to proofread or edit it, as that would mean he was capable of knowing how to write it out correctly in the first place), his text messages and notes are generally short and often full of typos and phonetic spelling, and his whiteboard is usually covered in doodles and small attempts at writing that varies in levels of spelling prowess. He uses pictographs to help in proving his point or explaining his thought process. He has trouble expressing himself verbally, as his true feelings are expressed through actions, but his direct, vulgar, and often angry or insensitive wording and tone make it difficult for most people to see past this to his actual true feelings, (not to mention he often lies to others and to himself about those anyway). Issues with tone and blunt speech are a big thing with neurodivergent people, autistic and ADHD people especially, of which I think Blitzø is both. Stan an AuDHD king.

Stolas is rich, highly educated, and spent much of his life, especially early on, reading books instead of socializing. His house basically doubles as a library. He said himself that he “loves words”, and got excited about reading legal documents. He uses flowery, posh language and carefully talks around other people using this skill. His emotionally abusive past, both with his father and with Stella, make him a careful people-pleaser, and so he’s constantly giving others the upper hand in a conversation, more give than take, in attempts to not anger or have his intentions misunderstood and then incite said anger. A common thing in both abuse victims and neurodivergent people, especially autistic people, which Stolas clearly is. He does also have issues with tone and knowing when he should and shouldn’t say certain things, and he can often misunderstand others’ points and questions, and then answers or responds too bluntly or literally. Hashtag Just Autism Things.

Blitzø is an imp, the lowest class alongside hellhounds, and was raised in a circus. He clearly did not grow up wealthy in any respect (as his father resorted to selling his son and stealing from the fucking Ars Goetia so quickly, though that could also be attributed to just being living trash), nor is he particularly affluent now, as his small apartment has literally one bedroom, for Loona, and he sleeps on the couch. He outright says he can’t afford art classes. He hasn’t had the same level of educational opportunities as Stolas. On top of that, he’s also dyslexic, based on how, when he does write, it’s either written phonetically, as he would say the word, or he gets letters flipped around. He can write coherently, he’s not illiterate, but usually only when he tries really hard. He mixes capitals and lowercase in the same word sometimes. He’s even worse at texting than he is at writing by hand, with many typos, and resorting to text-speak abbreviations and emojis to lessen the amount of time he has to take trying to type shit out, and, again, doesn’t proofread.

Taking all of this into account, Blitzø is not going to understand a lot of what Stolas says when he uses larger words and talks around a point, especially since, unlike Stolas most of the time, Blitzø is very direct and uncensored when he talks (as in, no brain-to-mouth filter, but also he uses vulgarity in place of more eloquent speech), and when he is trying to say things with actual forethought, he ends up stuttering and has trouble finding the right words (ADHD brain fail ftw), and then gets angry at himself, and occasionally takes it out on others too (poor Moxxie). Stolas tries to talk around the point and backtracks his own words even more in stressful or emotional situations, giving more ground to the other, and this difference in stress response plays a part in their misunderstanding and inability to see from the other’s perspective.

In the first episode, during Stolas’ inopportune phone call, Blitzø thinks he’s being insulted when Stolas uses the word “grimoire,” because he doesn’t know it and always jumps to this conclusion, then has to get Stolas to stop using flowery language to talk around the point by telling him to “stop using your fancy ass rich people talk,” and Stolas has to change the way he’s been speaking to be more direct and clear. (He doesn’t retain this information for later, sadly).

All of this, to talk about the post-Ozzie’s text conversations. We know several things now:

1) Blitzø is not good with spelling and is more comfortable using pictographs to make his point, which you can’t do in a text. He’s also uncomfortable with honest emotional expression and has problems with tone.

2) Stolas uses overly flowery and complicated language to express himself, leading to paragraphs of talking around the main point in an attempt to explain his meaning, often to the extent that it’s extremely unclear what the point is that he’s actually trying to get to. This gets worse when he’s trying too hard to express himself or is thinking too much about the other person’s response.

3) They both have little experience with conversation of an emotional nature that’s not coming with some sort of protective front (Stolas’ open-ended people-pleasing statements, Blitzø’s use of false anger and vulgarity to push people away), so when they do try to say something without the mask, the other is unequipped for the change and misunderstands the intentions, especially when it’s through text.

Blitzø is uncomfortable with writing and especially with texting, and so says very little, using short abbreviated text-speak and emojis to express himself, like he would with his drawings. Stolas overexplains and writes paragraphs of vague statements and loquaciousness in an attempt to get a point across. These are very different approaches to the situation, and from the other’s perspective they come across differently than they intend, due to the conflicting communication styles.

So.

In the text conversations we see in Western Energy, Blitzø says very little, and doesn’t initiates the conversation. Stolas sends walls of text, overexplaining and going back and forth on his intent and the purpose of the text.

Now, we know that Stolas is trying to give Blitzø space and options, and clearly cares a lot about his feelings, and is going out of his way to make sure he’s comfortable with the situation. In doing so, he gives him several outs, minimizes the entire experience at Ozzie’s at his own expense (and therefore Blitzø’s, but he doesn’t understand that yet), and pokes at the idea of talking emotionally far too soon for Blitzø, who is freshly re-traumatizing himself from said experience at Ozzie’s.

Stolas, from his own perspective, is giving so much and getting very little in return (a common theme in his life). He would see this lack of reciprocity in communication as lack of interest or being upset. A common thing irl, it’s easy to read a “K” after a long emotional message as a negative or indifferent response, regardless of the other party’s true feelings. (Which is possibly why a lot of people get upset on Stolas’ behalf in this moment, thinking Blitzø doesn’t care as much about Stolas as Stolas does him. It’s a common thing to experience. It’s not true, though.)

Meanwhile, Blitzø already hates writing, is bad at expressing himself in general, and reads into everything as negative. He thinks that when someone says something he doesn’t fully understand that they’re insulting him or making fun of him, or he misunderstands the intention and wording to be an insult (tonal and indirect or vague speech issues), like with that first phone call with Stolas, the “that’s what she said” joke Loona made, and Crimson’s mention of hearing things about him. He has a lifetime of evidence to back up this thought process. He is constantly demeaned and insulted by larger Hell society, and was treated as unworthy and lesser since childhood. He also just fucking hates himself and blames himself for everything. He’s not gonna suddenly gush his feelings, especially over text. He’s also gonna read into others’ words extremely negatively, until the true meaning is explicitly explained to him. Which isn’t very likely in a text conversation, when he’s not going to ask for proper clarification and the other party can’t tell that he’s misconstruing the intention and so doesn’t know they need to explain more anyway.

So, he isn’t going to initiate a text conversation unless it’s for a serious reason. He clearly doesn’t use it as a method of conversation as much as a quick way to get in touch with other people and exchange information (ex- his seemingly “impossible to misunderstand” text to Loopty in C.H.E.R.U.B. & his conversation about the portal with Millie in Seeing Stars). In Blitzø’s eyes, Stolas says "hey this is/isn’t happening", and he says "ok got the info" and he moves on from there. Information exchange. Then Stolas starts trying too hard, after Ozzie’s, to take his feelings into account without fully understanding Blitzø’s feelings to begin with, and starts backtracking and talking around the point again. He already got Blitzø’s reply, but then backtracks, which doesn’t give Blitzø the direct information he needs, leading to him misunderstand the proffered options as a dismissal instead of a clear confirmation with the option for him to refuse. Blitzø already is going to have issues reading/fully understanding the long wordy messages Stolas sends, he isn’t going to understand the nuance that Stolas’ specific phrasing is trying to say, and is going to see a “but you don’t have to/only if you want” attempt at giving him autonomy and boundaries, as a “don’t/I don’t want you to” full negation.

Stolas is also downplaying their experience at Ozzie’s, which is not only negating his own traumatic experiences with being shamed and insulted (not the healthiest mindset), but also minimizes Blitzø’s feelings and experience then as a result. Blitzø is going to see this as confirmation that it wasn’t as important/emotionally painful to Stolas as it was to Blitzø. Stolas making light of a situation that started a breakdown for Blitzø just proves to Blitzø that he’s the one overreacting, and that Stolas does find him less important, as the entire situation was already about Stolas valuing him less, in his eyes.

Stolas trying to overexplain and backtrack in the lack of access to Blitzø’s own thoughts is hurting them both in this situation. None of his pushing and flip-flopping is going to make Blitzø more eager to initiate a conversation or respond more, especially through a form he’s uncomfortable with using. And this makes Stolas feel unheard and undervalued, which leads to him try even harder, which leads to Blitzø shutting himself off even more, and so on. A lovely miscommunication feedback loop.

And knowing all of this is what makes that last text so important.

Blitzø initates the conversation for the first time. He writes what is, for him, a full sentence, with an emoji. He’s expressing himself as best he can, and is showing his actual feelings in the message. He’s going out of his way to say something to Stolas.

Which then… Stolas overwhelms him with more emotions and words. He’s not comfortable with emotional conversation and too much at once would freak him out, and the immediate upfront honest thoughts Stolas sends in the wake of Blitzø’s own emotional expression aren’t what he necessarily needs or wants to deal with, especially so soon after that worldview-shattering realization, the following guilt spiral, and the subsequent opening up that the first text is.

Yet he then, in spite of these hurdles, starts to reply.

But he gives up.

We don’t know for sure what he was going to say, but an easy read of his thoughts would be: he tried to express his feelings again in some way, was failing to do it right, was overwhelmed with feelings he didn’t know how to handle, and angrily gave up. Probably cursing himself out for even trying.

It’s not callous or uncaring or lacking reciprocity. It’s the full opposite. He’s trying so hard, but failing again. He cares so much and is incapable of expressing it verbally and unable to receive similar care in return.

Look back to the other time he tried this hard to write something emotional. The letter for Fizz. The love letter. And see how that situation went? He got overwhelmed, angry at everything and at himself for thinking he could try at all, and it all ended in fucking disaster. That he blames himself for. That he hates himself for. But here he tried to do it again anyway, while thinking, again, what happened to Stolas was his fault. That one message means so fucking much.

To Blitzø, the idea of visiting Stolas in the hospital was out of the question entirely, and him being asked to so immediately and candidly would make his guilty brain fall over itself even more. He’s never been allowed to visit his loved ones in the hospital, and the entire reason they were hospitalized to begin with was because of Blitzø, so how could this situation be any different? He wasn’t allowed to visit Fizz or Barbie, people who at least at one point he believed cared about him, so he’s definitely not going to be allowed to visit Stolas, who he already thinks doesn’t really give a shit.

That text was the best he could do at that time.

To really communicate effectively, these two need to sit down in front of each other and actually explain where they’re coming from. The lack of knowledge of the other’s position and situation, both in their past and currently in this relationship, is hurting them, and making understanding each other more difficult. The class difference and the differences in upbringing, despite both having garbage fathers and fucking meeting each other as children, are impeding their understanding and view of the other. Both Stolas’ obliviousness toward the actual differences in station and opportunity between him and imps as a whole, and inability to realize Blitzø’s personal difficulties with communication (based in the same place he’s blind to), and Blitzø’s (valid) disdain for the upper class and his view of the stronger, and especially of Stolas, as too good and important to bother with him and too powerful to feel actual pain, are the things they need to fucking address.

Blitzø already got this worldview fucked with, between seeing Stolas worry so much over his daughter, and then actually getting badly hurt. He now knows Stolas can care, and that he can feel pain, and that makes him at least peripherally aware that he’s able to be emotionally hurt.

By Blitzø.

Stolas, meanwhile, is vaguely at the point of comprehending he holds more power in their dynamic because of their differences in status, and him holding the key to Blitzø’s entire business and livelihood. He now knows Blitzø didn’t think he wanted anything other than sex, because of his hasty and overly selfish attempt at keeping him around. And it was a sex deal! He realizes he was wrong for holding that over Blitzø and that his actions and words in the past helped cause the misunderstanding that he didn’t care for Blitzø past getting sexual favors.

Stolas is gonna try to fix this power imbalance by giving up the entire premise of their current relationship, in the vain hope Blitzø will understand and then reciprocate his actual feelings, while Blitzø is now vaguely trying to actively prove he gives a shit about people, even while unsure of Stolas’ feelings toward him, and the result of these intentions clashing is gonna be a goddamn mess, unless miraculously they can communicate around the inevitable misunderstanding.

Please somebody let them explain themselves and have the other fucking listen.

They both love each other, but are fucked up from trauma and are neurodivergent, so they express themselves differently and can barely figure out their own shit, let alone explain it to the other. Get therapy and try new communication styles.

But they are slowly learning. They have the tools and ability to figure this out if they both try. It’s not futile. It just might take some fuck ups and more time to fully get there.

Sincerely, an AuDHD emotional abuse victim that sees themself in both of these idiots and wants to scream.

#caff rants #helluva boss #the fuck are the tags even #stolitz #helluva boss blitzø #helluva boss stolas #blitzø has too many spelling options i dont want to tag all of them #helluva boss blitz #helluva boss blitzo #im bad at tagging #i just saw the trailer after i wrote this so like im pulling it out if my drafts before the emotional shitstorm that approaches #I hope this made sense

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lucent-nargacuga · 2 months ago

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newly rewritten pikmin wraith headcanons because one theory being confirmed completely destroyed what I had

obligatory disclaimer that this is not canon nor a theory, this is my interpretation and also my pikmin au (but everyone is welcome to use my headcanons 👍)

note that the following are ocs: thermo wraith, the mudwraiths, the ghoulid classification, phantoms, and (technically) the revenant

wraith types

there are two types of wraiths: wraiths without a core and wraiths with a core. (as all wraiths are liquid, each type has two subtypes, cold wraiths and hot wraiths. this only has to do with what a wraith's body is made of. both the waterwraith and plasm wraith are cold wraiths.) coreless wraiths originate from beyond pnf-404 in meteorites, while wraiths with cores originate from pnf-404 itself.

what are wraiths?

all wraiths are souls of sapient beings trapped inside liquids. these souls can never move on to the afterlife as being trapped inside a liquid for hundreds of years corroded them beyond recognition.

wraiths with cores are specifically human souls, and the core is the soul itself as well as the memories from its past life. there are two notable artificial wraiths with cores, those being the plasm wraith and the thermo wraith.

coreless wraiths are souls from alien races that are not humans.

wait, artificial wraiths? how is that possible?

pnf-404, once known as earth, became a living being countless years in the past. the resident humans did not leave the planet for about a hundred years after this apocalyptic incident occurred until the planet was too unstable to be fit for living. this gave human scientists a long time to experiment with the new lifeforms and new laws of nature.

why there are multiple waterwraiths (and mudwraiths)

a giant meteor containing countless trapped souls due to a bizarre mining accident broke up near pnf-404 and the pieces fell to the planet's surface, one by one. as the meteor was full of water, all those souls became multiple waterwraiths.

upon landing, the waterwraiths were significantly weaker than the ones seen ingame, only having a physical form that is easy to destroy. some of these wraiths had their bodies destroyed and were able to go to the afterlife- but due to their souls being corroded they were swiftly rejected and were sent back to the mortal realm, where they gained an odd, invulnerable form. however, they are not entirely stable and gravitational waves will make them temporarily revert to their former form. interestingly, when this body is destroyed too, the cycle will only continue.

mudwraiths are waterwraiths that landed recently enough to have not experienced having their body destroyed (or they may have landed longer ago but got very lucky and avoided danger). they cover themselves in mud or another substance as armour of sorts for protection. interestingly, they outnumber the "reborn" waterwraiths by a vast amount, yet they are seldom seen as they are anxious, shy, and nocturnal.

do ghoulids still exist?

yes! this is just a classification given to all creatures that are not organic/biological (with the exception of glow pikmin and the mechanical creatures, such as man-at-legs).

what about the phantoms?

phantoms are the supernatural equivalent of convergent evolution. they are almost the same as they were (before my headcanons had to change) and have no connection to wraiths, other than being coincidentally similar to wraiths with cores.

phantoms originate from another dimension. they are not trapped souls, but some theorize they may be reincarnations of otherworldly beings. nobody has a single clue as to why they can be found on pnf-404 in the first place, and the phantoms themselves don't seem to know either.

what about the revenant?

pnf-404 will still be considered the revenant until there's more canon information revealed.

wraith cores and "wraithstuff"

wraiths with cores are notably stronger than coreless wraiths due to their ability to regenerate; their bodies are impossible to destroy. the core, while being the soul and memories of the wraith, constantly generates a substance known as "wraithstuff". this substance is an extension of the core and is bound to the liquid that makes up the wraith's body.

in coreless wraiths, "wraithstuff" is the soul itself.

glow pikmin, glow sap, and what they have to do with wraiths

glow pikmin are extremely similar to wraiths. their bodies consist of glow sap with a pikmin soul within, yet they retain some features of still-living pikmin such as eyes and a stem. they are able to fuse their bodies together into an amorphous ball to perform a powerful attack known as a glowmob. however, despite the similarities, glow pikmin are not wraiths.

glow sap affects wraiths differently than organic beings. while it is still unknown what exactly happens, being touched by glow sap makes all wraiths react as if it causes them physical pain. wraiths avoid glow sap whenever possible due to this.

#lore tag #pikmin

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uraberika · 9 months ago

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AreOri and nostalgia

I read a hot take the other day on Twitter that said something along the lines of "AreOri isn't worse than all the other series, y'all all just blinded by nostalgia", and after a lot of pondering, I have to agree. I have not seen the later part of Ares, nor Orion but I think the way they utilised nostalgia was what made it kinda flop. Objectively speaking Ares does a decent job at being a soccer anime, but by so heavily bringing in elements that aim to make fans nostalgic and then fails to handle this nostalgia well is what makes the series lag behind all the others in the franchise.

Ares wanted to do too much all at once by making it into an alternate universe with the og cast included. While at first I was very excited about the reappearance of some of my faves, they did a poor job at handling characterisations. The og characters became bland and uninteresting because obviously the plot had to favour the development of the new main characters. This also ruined many Ares characters since it immediately invited the viewers to compare and contrast Asuto's gang with the og guys; and not only Asuto's team had more personality (which made fans who were hoping to see the og characters disappointed) but they seemed to have eerily similar traits to guys in the og series. Asuto, the sunshine boy, Haizaki with his anger issues and sick-loved-one-in-the-hospital problems, Nosaka the genius, emotionless tactician etc. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with using a formula that seemed to work in previous installments, but the development of Ares characters 1) came at the detriment of the og character's development who just seemed to be background actors standing around without any real advancement of their own character or of the general plot and 2) was impossible not to compare and contrast the two groups of characters and find way too many similarities which makes the viewer (i am myself included xd) unable to appreciate the Ares characters as their own.

While this was going on, Ares also tried to use some tropes and themes that were already familiar to the audience. Yet again, a great move if executed correctly. My biggest issue with the execution here is that these tropes never fully made use of the full potential of Ares being in an alternate universe. We learn of Akane pretty early on in the series, Akane and Haizaki basically being the equivalent of Gouenji and Yuuka (or Gouenji and Yuuka with a different sort of relationship). Making a slight change in the trope of having a loved one in the hospital (like Haizaki and Akane being childhood friends) should have been enough, had Ares been a series on its own. The audience would have acknowledged that "haha this is a nod to the og series, how clever". But when Gouenji is right there, having gone through the same thing (especially if we considered how similar Akane is to Yuuka and Haizaki to Gouenji) the opportunity for these to bond (or hate, or whatnot, just to interact in any way) over this fact offers itself on a silver a platter, yet the series does not do anything with it, depriving both Haizaki and Gouenji from a potential character development.

The anime decided to create an alternative universe yet it was hesitant to harness the full potential of its alternative universe-ness. They could have used og characters to help them build the main character's personalities through interaction which they seemed to be doing, but at the same time, the og characters only seemed to be hollowed out shells of themselves, only there for a three minute appearance to draw in fans who started watching only to see this one character.

I think that's why I like Victory Road's premise so much. It seems to handle nostalgia much better than Ares did: the characters seemed to be very distinctly unique so far, no og characters to compare them to and a change in the protagonist's general attitude will also serve the game well, in my opinion. It alludes to previous series just enough for it to make fans want to pick it up while also introducing new, unique characters and a plot that replicates but also goes against the established story arc of Inazuma series. (I am aware that the fact that all the charas of previous series will be playable is also a big drawing force and that is the main reason that ppl are excited about this game haha).

So, in my opinion, the main reason people find AreOri the worst series in the franchise is because it establishes that it is going to rely on nostalgia and then does an abysmal job at making use of this nostalgia of the audience. It relies solely on the fans' dedication to their og characters - putting in og characters in the series as dummies with no real purpose, just so fans can say that their fave is in it - and completely forgets about the potential that fans can grow fond of new characters, can appreciate a storyline that is different from what they are used to.

I have to make it clear that I don't hate Ares, I just think that it was not well executed, due to in part in the way it relies on nostalgia, but I myself had enjoyed some parts of it when I was watching. And at the end of the day, it is a soccer anime which is mainly concerned with fancy hissatsus and high-stake matches and not the intricate details of their characters' personalities. I am also grateful for Ares because it was successful in making me nostalgic and indeed pulled me back to the franchise. Despite all the issues I think it has, a lot of characters turned out decent and I was very invested in the story when it first came out. What I also love about Ares is how it revived the fandom here on tumblr: the sakka fridays of watching the new ep without understanding anything, the long analysis posts, the fanarts and fanfics, I will always be thankful for its community-building.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. xd

#“labs write your thesis”#me: is this my thesis?#labs talks #inazuma eleven #inazuma eleven ares

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gotstabbedbyapen · 2 months ago

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I don't know the story of Cadmus. But why was he turned into a snake? I don't want the pjo that its say after cadmus killed ares dragon. Ares is so angry that he turned him into a snake together with his daughter harmonia (because hes angry she marries him thats why he turn her into a snake too or something like that?? can't remember)

I haven't read the PJO series so I didn't know that. But please keep in mind that the series, and many others, are a modern works based on Greek mythology. They should not be considered legitimate sources like actual texts from ancient Greece. I'm assuming you've also read my Harmonia headcanon post, so please know that those ideas were also purely my imagination.

With that aside, let's get in the myths!

For the full story of Cadmus' life and heroic adventure, I recommend you checking out this video. It's a fun summary/illustration of the myth that feature excerpts from the literature texts (I know the title sounds weird but trust me, the guy did his homework)

youtube

Now, I can get why PJO would choose the route where Ares turned Cadmus and Harmonia (his daughter) into snakes out of rage. That was one version recorded in "The Fabulae" by Hyginus.

Cadmus, son of Agenor and Argiope, along with Harmonia his wife, daughter of Venus and Mars, after their children had been killed, were turned into snakes in the region of Illyria by the wrath of Mars, because Cadmus had slain the dragon, guardian of the fountain of Castalia. - Hyginus, The Fabulae 6.1

If people prefer this version, it's their choice. I may not agree with it but hey there is no "right" and "wrong" source in mythology.

I'm going with Apollodorus' version more, and this is the one where I based my "Cadmus became Ares' servant and Harmonia had a crush on him during that time" headcanon on (if you've read my Harmonia headcanon post)

But Cadmus, to atone for the slaughter [of the dragon], served Ares for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our reckoning. After his servitude Athena procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus gave him to wife Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. - Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Bibliotheca 3.4.2

As for how Cadmus and Harmonia got turned into snakes, I know not everyone likes Ovid for his reputation with certain unsavory myths, but I really like his version of their transformation.

After many years of tragedy befalling on their family, Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes. Cadmus cried that their misfortune must have came from the time he killed the dragon and wished to become a snake. So the gods turned him into one (it wasn't specified who did it). Harmonia, in turned, wished to become a snake as well.

[...] Cadmus spoke; “Was that a sacred dragon that my spear impaled, when on the way from Sidon's gates I planted in the earth those dragon-teeth, unthought-of seed? If haply 'tis the Gods, I only pray that I may lengthen out, as any serpent.” Even as he spoke, he saw and felt himself increase in length. His body coiled into a serpent's form; bright scale's enveloped his indurate skin, and azure macules in speckled pride, enriched his glowing folds; and as he fell supinely on his breast, his legs were joined, and gradually tapered as a serpent's tail. And his wife bewailed, and smote her breast, “Ah, Cadmus, ah! Most helpless one, put off that monster-shape! Your feet, your shoulders and your hands are gone; your manly form, your very colour gone; all—all is changed!—Oh, why not, ye celestial Gods, me likewise, to a serpent-shape transform!” So ended her complaint. Cadmus caressed her gently with his tongue; and slid to her dear bosom, just as if he knew his wife; and he embraced her, and he touched her neck. All their attendants, who had seen the change, were filled with fear; but when as crested snakes the twain appeared in brightly glistening mail, their grief was lightened: and the pair, enwreathed in twisting coils, departed from that place, and sought a covert in the nearest grove. - Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.7

Even though they were turned snakes, they were at least soothed from their pain and, in the end, were taken to Elysium to live happily ever after.

But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia, turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus to the Elysian Fields. - Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Bibliotheca 3.5.4

And there you have it!

#cadmus #harmonia #cadmus x harmonia #greek mythology #excerpts #ask me anything #tumblr ask #anon ask #long post #my ramblings #The Pen writes answering letters #The Pen explodes with ink

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howtofightwrite · 1 year ago

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How big would an army of conscripts, armed with Dragunov pattern marksman rifles and iron sights, with between 1 and 3 magazines each, a radio headset that allows them to take orders on a platoon level (50 troops to be specific), and a single platoon artilleryman armed with an RPG-7 with 5 rockets, with assistance from a Mitsubishi Type 89 IFV (35mm autocannon, 7,62mm M240 pattern coaxial machine gun, tracked) and an aerial command/reconnaisance/attack/close air support aircraft, need to be to deal with an army of 1000 heavy pikemen, 50 elite knights, 200 heavy cavalry, 100 light cavalry and 200 longbowmen? The pikemen are armed with a pike and wear breastplates, pauldrons, gauntlets, a helm and chainmail. The heavy cavalry are armed with a heavy lance, a sword, cuirass and helm. Longbowmen use English yew bows and wear gambesons and a chainmail on the head. Light cavalry are armed with a spear, a short bow, and a small sword. The elite knights are armed with a heavy lance and a sword, and armoured in a full body suit of plate and horse barding, and they will move with the heavy cavalry.

Okay, so, for the record, you're not really supposed to use an SVD's iron sights. (SVD is short for “Dragunov Sniper Rifle,” so, these are formally called, “sniper rifles,” rather than just DMRs.) They were (supposed to be) issued with PSO-1 scopes. This can be a little amusing, because once you know what a PSO-1's range finder looks like, it's absolutely unmistakable, and you will see films and TV shows use them on other scopes. I bring this up, because the SVD has an effective range over 600 meters. (Specifications say it's good to almost 1.3km, but, that's very hopeful.)

However, with optics, those SVDs are going to massive out range any archer.

Your infantry have somewhere between 1k-3k packed rounds. So, if they were the only participants, they would need to be a little careful about ammo conservation. But, when you start factoring in the IFV, it doesn't matter.

This scenario isn't extraordinarily different from early battles in WWI. Where cavalry and infantry charged entrenched heavy machine gun fire, and were annihilated.

This is also a moment when the whole, “elite knight,” bit really doesn't matter. You have a minor noble, who spent almost their entire life training to be a better melee combatant. You put them in the best armor you've ever seen. And, then a bullet fired from a mass-produced sniper rifle, designed to be easily fabricated by anyone with a basic machine shop, and simple enough to be maintained by a barely literate conscript will drop them in less time than it takes to read this paragraph, before the knight even knows that someone is aiming at them.

I will say, this is a little bit of a weird combination, the Type 89 IFV, is a Japanese vehicle. The JSDF (to the best of my knowledge) has never used SVDs. These days, I think their DMR is the H&K 417. Until a few years ago, their primary infantry rifle was the Howa Type 89, which is basically a redesigned AR-18. Prior to that, they used the Howa Type 64, which was a 7.62mm battle rifle. (As far as I know, the Type 64 was domestically designed.)

The Russian/Soviet equivalent to the Type 89 IFV would be the BTR-80. As with the SVD, because it's a Romanized translation, BTR stands for, “armored carrier.” Somewhat obviously, these don't work particularly well if they're not maintained, or if the motor pool Sargent is stripping them for spare parts and siphoning gas to sell on the black market, because the government hasn't paid any of you in six months, but it's still going to have a fairly similar effect on those elite knights from the 11thcentury.

The 50 SVD rifles is weird. Full stop. It's a specialist weapon, not a general infantry weapon. In a situation like that, you'd expect to see conscripts armed with AKMs or AK74s, maybe a few SVDs and RPKs.

Now, if you were looking at a contemporary NATO unit from the 60s or 70s, then, yes, you would likely see battle rifles like the M14, FN FAL, or H&K G3. And, when you're describing using an SVD's iron sights, that's more how you have used one of those cold war era battle rifles. Also, while those rifles do have automatic settings, they're intended for semi-automatic fire.

If you're wondering why I'm not even addressing things like the areal support or the RPG, it's because they really don't matter that much. Areal reconnaissance means never having to wonder where the enemy forces are, but basically anything on this list except the RPG, could probably deal with all of the enemy forces on their own. Stacking them together would be absolutely devastating.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you could use pretty much any modern IFV as a one-size-fits-all siege breaker if they're dealing with medieval forces.

When you're looking at modern military forces time traveling into the past, the biggest logistical issue is long term depletion of supplies. There isn't really a question of, “who's going to win? A guy with a rifle that's effective at a range of over a 1km, or 10 guys with pointy sticks. The issue is what happens in six months, or a year, when there's only three or four rounds left for that rifle on the planet, and, there won't be any more for another six hundred years.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #starke answers #how to fight write

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mystieris · 4 months ago

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Urban Gods' plot and world details

So, I did post one synopsis here on Tumblr back when I started posting my Greek mythology comic, but it's kinda changed plots about 2-3 times since then, so I thought I'd post the most recent one.

Often times, the gods grow bored with their own existence, at which time they choose to reset their lives to experience them again through fresh eyes. The following story is an account of one such instance...

The story is basically a retelling of several popular myths, adapting them to a full 21st century setting, including Mortal Realm locations. The premise of how this is possible is that every once in a while the gods will just erase their own memories and relive their youths again.

I hope to eventually do several other shorter comics going deeper into other myths that will be briefly mentioned in the first story, which is an adaptation of the Abduction of Persephone.

Kore had grown up happily on her mother's farm, but dreamed of more, showing particular interest in the Underworld, specifically its king. A dark secret bars her from entering the realm, but that doesn't stop her as she continues to interact with Hades.

Other myths to be touched on include Minos and the Bull to Theseus and the Minotaur (which of course includes the Fall of Icarus and Dionysus and Ariadne <3 ), the 12 Labours of Heracles, The Myth of Sisyphus, Eros and Psyche, and the early years of Hermes.

As stated in previous posts, in this world, animal sacrifices have fallen out of fashion with mortals and in turn gods have started opening retail establishments or working in the entertainment industry, which mortals can patronize as a form of worship.

Some of my personal favorite establishments is the big three own bars in the heart of Athens, Hades has a nightclub near the flea market, Poseidon has a tiki bar on the beach, and Zeus owns a chain of hotels, the flagship location overlooking his major temple in the city.

Athena runs a university also in Athens, Aphrodite owns a chain of adult toy stores with the flagship location in Sparta, Demeter and Dionysus have a farm shop/farmers market in Sicily, Apollo is a pop idol, Ares operates this world's equivalent of the UFC, and Artemis runs a hunting blog.

#greek mythology #modern mythology #comic development #greek gods #worldbuilding #persephades #poseidon #zeus #plot summary #hades #persephone #plot stuff #comedy #romance

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ohplagg · 1 year ago

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I Love Yoo Timeline Part 3/4

Math and connecting the dots

This is part 3 of 4 of my I Love Yoo Timeline as of Episode 241.

Part 1 and 2 consists of laying out all the detailed evidence with descriptions, screenshots and episode number.

Part 3 consists of explaining the evidence, connecting the dates and some math because the I Love Yoo universe (the Yooniverse, if you will) uses letters instead of numbers to represent official years.

Part 4 is the I Love Yoo Timeline.

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Now that all the evidence has been laid out I can now go in depth about how the dates add up and what the heck does 20XX stand for.

I will mostly be making reference to the evidence rather than showing it and pointing it out. If you wish to see the evidence yourself to know exactly what information was presented, I encourage you to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this I Love Yoo Timeline post.

(disclaimer, whenever I say "today" or refer to the present I mean in Yooniverse, specifically talking about year 20XX)

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Well, the years start coming..

So I want to start with explaining what year 20XX is since that's our starting point.

If you check the exact dates we are given + the November and December calendars we are shown you will see that it doesn't make sense. But! don't leave! just because it doesn't make sense in our universe it doesn't mean it doesn't make sense in the Yooniverse.

Year 20XX is not the equivalent of any year that exists in our universe. Septermber's calendar matches with (just to mention 3) 2011, 2016, 2022; November's calendar matches with 2012, 2018, 2029; December's calendar matches with 2013, 2019, 2024. All this to say that year 20XX is it's own thing that exists and makes sense in Yooniverse and not our own, which is one of the reasons why I won't be converting the Yooniverse years to an irl equivalent.

The other reason why I wont be converting Yooniverse years to irl equivalent is because the Yooniverse keeps track of their years with letters unlike us that keep track of years using the decimal number system. In other words, Yooniverse uses the basic English alphabet to keep track of the years and we use numbers.

With that information stablished, lets now figure out how many years appart are each year is in the Alphabet "Number" System (ANS to make it short).

We know from what Kousuke told Shinae in episode 155 that "roughly 6 years ago" Nol got out of the mental facility and he spent "almost 2 years" inside of it. This means that the day Nol got taken to the mental facility was 8 years ago, and if you remember Nessa died the same night Nol got taken to the mental facility.

The news articles from episode 222 tells us that Nessa died in 20XP.

With this information we can see that 8 years ago from today (20XX) is the year 20XP. And if we look at the letters in the alphabet, the letter P is the 8 letters behind letter X.

"20XP is 8 years ago from 20XX"

Now that we have figured out how ANS works, we can figure out when the rest of years take place. Let's try it with the following:

Randulph became Chairman of the Board in 20WZ

Let's apply what we've learned. W is 1 space before X so that means Rand became Chairman 1 decade ago, right? WRONG. Decades don't convert directly from ANS to decimal.

Imagine that the alphabet repeats itself over and over again. Each full alphabet list is named after a letter. Each time it starts over, the name for the alphabet changes to the next letter. So for example, letter R in the first alphabet would be represented as AR, letter F in the next alphabet would be BF, and so on. So letter X in the list X is XX.

Having that idea in mind, how far back Z from X? If you go back in the list, X is 24 spaces from Z and Z is in the "previous" alphabetic list meaning that WZ is 24 spaces from XX.

20WZ is 24 years from 20XX.

I'll save you from the math for the rest and I'll just put here all the results:

Young-Chul Kim was Chairman from 20WA to 20WY = he was chairman for 26 years. He was chairman 50 years ago from today until Rand took his place

Rand became chairman in 20WZ = he became chairman 24 years ago today.

The prestigious prep school SA investigation started in 20XW which was last year. In which it states that it was investigating 50 years of SA reports.

Nessa died 8 years ago in 20XP

And they don't stop coming.

So that's all for the "what year does the letters mean". Now we'll start adding dialogue together to connect the dots and see how many years ago different events happened.

Everyone's age when following Nol's backstory

So we know the the brother incident happened December 20XP which was exactly 8 years ago making Kousuke 16 and Nol 10- turning 11.

Nol got out of the mental facility the year he turned 13 (meaning when he was 12) and Kousuke turned 18 (Year 20XR)

Nol met Dieter when he was 15, Kousuke turned 21 and Dieter turned 14 (i dont know when Dieter's birthday is). (This is the perfect moment to remind everyone that the ages do make sense because Dieter started hitting puberty at 14 and Nol at 15 so it's fine that Nol looked very childlike in the flashbacks and he looks Dieter's age in that flashback as well)

Nol was 15 when he met Soushi (14) and Alyssa (15)

Nana and Yui's last encounter was when Nol was 13 and Kousuke was 18.

Conclusions so far:

Nol lived with the Hirarahas no more than a year, Nana arrived very shortly after he got out of the mental facility

Nol went to Middle School for 2 years and made absolutely no friends before he met Dieter.

Everyone's age when following Kousuke's backstory

Kousuke graduated high school at 14 years old in spring. The year he was 14 in spring was 20XO which was 9 years ago. Nol was 9.

Kousuke's college friend group started when he was about to turn 15 (assuming he started college the same year he graduated high school)

Kousuke was about to graduate from his master's degree when Meg was 20 years old, and Meg and Kousuke share birth-year meaning that when Kousuke was 20 (Year 20XU) he was still studying.

When Kousuke was 20, Hansuke didn't know the college friend group had fallen apart meaning that that flashback memory Kousuke had of YuJing and Hansuke arguing must have happened after Meg's flashback (unless it happened before and Hansuke was just completely oblivious about the extreme animosity between Kousuke and his friends, which I highly doubt so I won't be considering it for my timeline).

There is absolutely no way that Kousuke being 24 years old today could have had 20 years "about 5 years ago" making Hansuke's recollection of events unreliable (and I don't blame him. The poor guy has permanent eyebags, he was busy studying to become a doctor.)

If Kousuke started college the same year he graduated high school then he did his BS and Master's in a total of 6 years more or less which is surprisingly a pretty normal pace.

Kousuke and Yu-jing knew each other since Kousuke was 14 or a bit younger.

Kousuke playboy era was between 14-15 and 20 years old.

Conslusions so far:

Nol was not in the mental facility when Kousuke graduated high school.

It's very likely that one of the reasons Nol didn't make any friends during his 2 years in Middle School after he got out of the mental facility was because Kousuke was babysitting him during that time and Kousuke kept telling everyone that he was very violent.

Kousuke partook in underage drinking and underage.... adult activies with the oposite sex....

Kousuke's friend group lasted 4-5 years

Everyone's age when following Yui and Rand's backstory

Rand became chairman in March 27th, 20WZ and at the same time he had "been seen in public" with Yui

Yui is in her 40s right now meaning she had Kousuke when she was 16 at the earliest and 24 at the latest (My personal opinion is that she had him in her 20s meaning she is closer to being 50 than we thought unless Kousuke was an absolute accident.... or something darker than that.... because I can't see her choosing to become pregnant in her teens)

Kousuke was conceived during Rand and Yui's honeymoon in February

Kousuke turned 24 years in November 8th, 20XX meaning he was born on year 20WZ, the same year Rand became Chairman. I KNOW. I WAS SHOCKED TOO.

Conclusions

Yui and Rand really got married in secret from the public and Yui hid her pregnancy from the public too. This really broke my brain.

And as a final thing to point out while considering Rand and Yui's backstory: Rand and Yui's marriage reconciliation happened 1 year before the brother incident/Nessa's death. Also, high school graduation flashback where Nessa appears happens when Kousuke is 14 (he will turn 15 later that year) and the brother incident happened when he recently turned 16 meaning that whatever happened in that high school graduation flashback will most likely be relevant to what the press calls "marriage reconciliation between Yui and Rand"

Everyone's age when following Shin-ae's backstory

Finally something that won't break my brain. Future me speaking here, it did break my brain.

Shin-Ae, Maya, Dieter, Soushi and Rika all turned 17 in 20XX and they are in their final year of high school. Min-Hyuk is 19.

Shinae's fall incident was on Min-Hyuk's last school year as a Middle School student, but during Fall Autumn. Min-Hyuk graduated in 20XT so that means the fall happened 20XS.

In 20XS Min-Hyuk was 14, Alyssa 13 and Shin-Ae was 12

Shin-Ae graduated Middle School and started high school at 14 (year 20XU)

Conclusions:

Alyssa met Nol the year everyone started high school meaning that it had been 1-2 years after Alyssa pushed Shinae to her death by accident

High school in the Yooniverse lasts 4 years just like in the USA school system (felt the need to point this out becuase "high school" in a lot of countries last 3 years)

Final words for Part 3

If you feel lost while reading all of this, imagine how I felt having all this information going round and around all day every day in my head without the brain power to see it all at once and connect the dots. Not to mention that what you just read is the version that makes sense and adds up. I had to re-write this so many times because I kept finding new information breaking the timeline over and over again.

Up next I will lay out the timeline in order with dates and time gaps between each event.

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This is just part 3 of 4. Go read the rest:

Part 1: The Evidence Part 1

Part 2: The Evidence Part 2

Part 4: The Timeline

#i love yoo #i love yoo webtoon #quimchee #shin ae yoo #kousuke hirahara #nolan lochlainn #nol hirahara #yui hirahara #yeong gi hirahara #webtoon #rand hirahara #ilyoo #nol lochlainn #i love yoo timeline

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murfpersonalblog · 1 year ago

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[book!Lestat is the carbon copy of Marius, but on meth. The ultimate narcissist misogynist racist imperialist colonial neoliberalist hell demon]

I'm unfamiliar with anything VC past Merrick so I wanted to ask since you mentioned that Lestat gets something of a redemption arc in it - what is the tone of the Prince Lestat trilogy, specifically in how it frames the establishment of a vampire monarchy? Because some of the most hair-ripping parts of TVL are when he pontificates on his secular, rational, progressive quintessentially 18th century mind that rejects superstition & tradition. Plus Marius giving that white supremacist monologue on the value of human life in the west doing away with monarchy ofc.

OMG I've been wanting to talk more about the Chateau Era! 😭

"some of the most hair-ripping parts of TVL are when he pontificates on his secular, rational, progressive quintessentially 18th century mind that rejects superstition & tradition"

You'll be seeing a LOT more of this, my friend! XD The Prince Lestat trilogy & its tone encapsulates precisely how AR felt about Lestat (who was inspired by her husband Stan Rice): Lestat's her golden child, her favorite character, the main protagonist & hero & Aryan white savior of the entire vampiric/human/alien-replimoid/Taltos/angelic/demonic race. The Chateau is the Savage Garden going back to Eden/paradise--it's AR's final chapter, the New Heaven and the New Earth after the apocalypse--21st century vampires twirling around in LITERAL 18th century ballgowns as they celebrate the New World Order under Lestat. The last book, Blood Communion, was actually illustrated, and this is the final page, showing the Chateau & the Vampire Court as they were in 2017:

The Chateau is the perfect happily ever after fairytale ending, cuz that's how AR imagined her vampires: romantic, opulent relics/encapsulations of the Old World, and all that implies. (Which is why I NEED to see AMC!Louis become the Prince Consort in France; I'm gonna crack up and die; the Meghan Markle parallels are too good to pass up! 😅)

AR's vampire covens of the Old World Europe are microcosmic monarchies--each coven leader is effectively the king, the Master/Maker of his Fledglings and hangers-on. What's wild is that AR THOUGHT she'd totally removed vampires from religious irrational backwards thinking and moved them into the scientific "Modern" age. But look at the TOP HATS & BALLGOWNS they're wearing in 2017. 🤦 TBF, Lestat said people could wear whatever they wanted, but VELVET was the fabric of the Court--a la Marius & Lestat, as Marius had painted on the Chateau's ballroom ceiling.

Lestat had adopted Benji's philosophy about vampires being one Tribe/family (which is Judeo-Christian at its core, esp. since Benji's an Israeli and the "tribes" are Biblically inspired); a family that should live under one roof (his) & follow one way of life (his) & answer to one God/Voice (his/Marius). AR's books had been leading up to PL & BC the whole time.

The establishment of a vampire monarchy started with Akasha herself, queen of Egypt who wanted to make a matriarchal empire of undead. Naturally, being a mouthpiece of the white patriarchy, AR made the black woman the villain of the VC and had her killed (same w/ Replimoids TBH)--ultimately for Lestat's benefit.

There's 3 main vamps who defined what a vampire monarchy looks like: Marius, Armand, & Lestat. Marius isolated himself from his vampiric peers to keep TWMBK safe. His painting workshop/studio full of little human boys is no equivalent of a vamp court, but it's an intentionally stark parallel w/ legit covens like Santino's Children of Darkness/Satan. Marius lived in his art-nerd "court," in the "light." The image of the vampire Marius in his opulent red velvet cloaks was such anathema to Santino that he burned down Marius' villa. The image of "Master" Marius had Armand reeling when he saw Lestat prancing all over town in his red velvet--The Once and Future King reborn--Marius 2.0.

After being brainwashed by Santino, book!Armand became the coven leader par excellence, a "real, monstrous" vampire--controlling his coven with an iron fist; killing young vamps on sight & "purging" the territories he claimed. From Night Island to Trinity Gate, Armand was always making mini-empires for himself, a modernized neocapitalist take on the Old World regimes he had been born under (AMC moving Armand to Dubai is genius). Armand's dark where Lestat is light; not afraid to get his hands dirty (as seen in PLatRoA when the Replimoids start becoming a "threat" to the vampires).

Vampires are inherently a product of the Old World's fears & flaws. It's no coincidence that Castlevania Nocturne depicted the French aristocracy as a bunch of hedonistic bloodsucking vamps, draining the lifeforce of society to fuel their voracious appetites & unsustainably lavish lifestyles--the Savage Garden indeed.

The Chateau Era is AR's literal Versailles, and Lestat is AR's literal Sun King--(I'm surprised there aren't more Loustat/Monchevy AU fanfics). But the twist I've pointed out several times is that Lestat is actually nouveau riche. Son of a Marquis, he was born to the Old World nobility, but the Marquis was a bum and DIRT POOR. Lestat never grew up like the French aristocracy did--he didn't know what it was like to let them eat cake. The crumbling Chateau was a relic of a bygone era, back when the de Lioncourts actually had a COURT status & could afford their castle.

And just like it was Amel who told Lestat to go home and make the Chateau his court in PL, it was also Amel who told Lestat to win back Louis and ask him to be his Prince Consort in PLatRoA--Lestat had been being guided by Amel for decades without even realizing it, cuz Amel had already chosen him (and Louis) to lead the vampires.

The topic of Inheritance and White Privilege is a big one, cuz in death he got EVERYTHING with The Dark Gift--vampirism from his Maker Magnus (Latin for "The Great"--Alexander the Great, Ptolemy the Great, Pompey the Great, and the horror of all of those white imperialists who "inherited" the ancient AF empires of Egypt & Persia; who ransacked Africa & Asia for treasure & bled the land dry till they crumbled the second they died (a la Alexander's rabid Diadochi, the busted inbred Ptolemaic dynasty, etc); the dragon (Devil/Dracula) Smaug sitting on a mountain of gold not doing a effing thing good with all that money; the deadbeat Marquis who let the glorious Chateau fall to ruin).

And TWICE they had this French White sitting in a room FULL of black folk talking about how privileged he was while trauma-dumping at the same time; ugh it's hysterical; AMC ifs feral! XD

In TVL we got BOTH Lestat & Marius backstory, and just as Armand noticed, Lestat & Marius are polar opposites, but eerily similar when you think about where they started vs where they went. 👀

In life, Marius had been a LITERAL Brat Prince, who pranced around without a care in the world except for his books; traveling the world, charmed by the unwashed peasants.

"Plus Marius giving that white supremacist monologue on the value of human life in the west doing away with monarchy ofc."

LOL, Marius is full of SH!TE. 😂 First of all, the sheer irony of Marius "de Romanus" being born of a CELTIC woman in GAUL (FRANCE), a colony the Greek AND Roman imperialist machine CONQUERED. Marius is no moralist agonizing about the value of human LIFE--Marius is a hedonist & an aesthete who cares about human ART--he was GLAD that imperialism preserved Roman values.

Marius is an ARTISTE. He doesn't GAF about the plight of conquered enslaved persecuted oppressed peoples--not even his own MOTHER. He talks about the destruction of civilized society & the Roman Empire ad nauseum, while not batting an eyelash to how those empires were built on the back of destruction & death: THE Savage Garden; BEAUTIFUL ROME. Monarchy & imperialism was the vehicle pushing human "progress/civilization:" and for him it peaked in Rome & the Renaissance.

Rome only claimed it didn't want a monarchy cuz the SENATE (that had KILLED the last Roman King) was monarchy enough. Julius Caesar knew democracy is hypocrisy, and was like eff all y'all, make me EMPEROR. 👑 Lestat's no Pompey or Alexander--he's CAESAR, the one who "inherited" ALL of Magnus' empire and became Dictator for Life (until he was backstabbed ofc, LOL).

Marius had nothing on Lestat--the ARCHITECT obsessed with building homes for his whole family; the patriarchal overlord. Louis XIV built Versailles to keep a close eye on all the nobles, moving the entire court to literal Nowheresville France to orbit around him as the Sun King, the absolute monarch.

Every single VC book was a smaller scale rendition of Lestat as the savior, Lestat as the Brat Prince, pater familias, king, and GOD. Even moreso than Louis (i.e.: AR herself), Lestat's the Prime Mover whose antics pushed the narrative forward every time.

In PL Lestat renovating the Chateau happened at the same time that he took his son Viktor & his ward Rose in. (Rose's entire arc is like night & day compared to what happened with Claudia--Loustat looking after her was like a do-over for Claudia.)

This is where the Redemption Arc starts, cuz what Lestat had always wanted was to make a change & have a family & REBUILD. His life was TRASH, and he'd HATED that Chateau and all it represented--it was the tomb he was scared he'd die in. But Lestat HAD to die in order to finally GROW UP.

Marius dubbed Lestat "the damnedest creature" and the "Brat Prince" for a reason--he's impossible to control, or reason with. He's very much a giant walking manchild--there are 12 year olds way more mature than he is; just look at Benji in TVA onwards. AR is NEVER subtle about her hard-on for Lestat, but she also doesn't shy away from how incredibly immature he had been for so long.

To his credit, in PL Lestat right away chose a Vampiric Council of Elders for himself, knowing full well he was in over his head. Lestat called Marius his Prime Minister--NOT in the sense of today's PMs that lead the gov't for monarchic figureheads the way the parliament/senate/congress does. Instead Lestat namedropped Richelieu, Mazarin, & Colbert--the famous supporters of Louis XIV.

But in PLatRoA it started dawning on Lestat what it meant to take REAL accountability for his actions; that the careless things he did actually had serious consequences for everyone around him (sunbathing to get a tan, etc). He'd finally earned Louis' forgiveness, and they were basically engaged. Things seemed peachy...until ish got REAL in BC. Lestat had royally effed up by underestimating Rhoshamandes back in PL, acting like everything was a laughable game--little Lord Fauntleroy PRETENDING at being king.

SPOILER: Lestat only became Prince cuz in PL Rhosh killed Maharet & Mekere was too sad to go on, so she gave the Sacred Core to Lestat. Lestat forgave Rhosh even when everyone said he was being too lenient, caught up in everyone being a loving Tribe, Rhosh included, when they're KILLERS. Then everything went down with Rhosh vs the Replimoids in PLatRoA. Then in BC Rhosh kidnapped Gabrielle & Louis. When he came for Marius & Marius fought back, there was a HUGE battle that nearly burned down the Chateau & its village.

What Rhosh's goons said about Lestat's Court was just like the Children of Darkness. Like what Marius said to Santino, & Lestat said to Armand, the Court told Rhosh's coven that the Court (a microcosm of the world) was there for the benefit of vampires. Lestat's DUTY was to protect vamps from ANYONE who threatened them--including other vamps, whom they'd literally CANNIBALIZE.

Just like the Theatre of Vampires, the Court was a horror with a beautiful veneer; Blood and Gold. When the court ate Rhosh & ate Baudwin, it was like ANIMALS/demons. It did nothing to help find Gabrielle, Louis & Marius, and served no real purpose but for the mob to act in Lestat's name, shoving a signet ring on his finger in the shape of a MONSTER (Medusa) while the vamps danced & Lestat was busy grieving.

He hated what the Court was turning into in Marius' absence, in the wake of Rhosh's war, renovations happening beyond anything he'd planned before as they needed to repair all the structural damage to the Chateau. Like Armand told him afterwards: the Court/Coven gave them all the illusion of purpose on what Louis called "The Devil's Road." (What was REALLY cool is that Armand was begging Lestat to kill the Replimoids, but everything he said ALSO fit when applied to vampires themselves--they're ALL monsters, but as Lestat insisted with the human dungeons:

"There is killing and there is killing. There is murder; there is massacre; there is slaughter. And what I willed for this Court was something that was now in great peril.... We are not barbarians."

"some of the most hair-ripping parts of TVL are when he pontificates on his secular, rational, progressive quintessentially 18th century mind that rejects superstition & tradition"

So yeah, AR pretty much tries to have her cake and eat it too? The Prince Lestat trilogy stresses that vamps will rise above the religious/superstitious castigation of both humans AND vampires who see them as nothing more than uncivilized monsters, living with Lestat & feasting on the Evil Doers locked up in the Chateau's dungeons, dancing all night and never in-fighting again. But ironically, this is NOT the secular Enlightened Age of Science AR though it would be in PLatRoA. The Chateau was fully restored by the Winter Solstice--the start of the New Year; the Chateau decorated to look like Christmas. Marius gives a big speech explaining that Lestat had fought Rhosh fully expecting to have died, and that because Lestat was willing to lay down his life for all of them, he deserved to be their Prince forever--the messianic Christ figure. They celebrate having become one Tribe. Leading the Court, Marius is the Prime Minister, Gabrielle calls herself the Queen Mother, Lestat is the Prince/King, and Louis is his Prince Consort. (Even Lestat's favorite architect is turned into a vampire, LOL.) NGL Anyone who doesn't like Lestat should probably never read the PL Trilogy, cuz AR basically creams herself every other page over Lestat--he's her GOD.

It's not a plea of sympathy for monsters, but rather a celebratory paean to the Vampiric Court; "We take what we must have to live and we do it without regret." 💀 God & the Devil don't exist, cuz AR retconned Memnoch by making all angels AND vampires aliens from Atlantis. Everyone cheers & dances as Lestat declares "May we never drink the poison of self-loathing!," the way Nicki did, and Rhosh, Santino, even Armand & Louis. Loustat dance in the ballroom before taking their places, Lestat sitting on his golden red velvet throne, Louis standing beside him, and everyone cheering on their Blood Communion.

Sorry this was so long, @undecimber-of-joy XD

#lestat de lioncourt #the vampire lestat #marius de romanus #the vampire chronicles #prince lestat trilogy & the chateau era #iwtv tvc metas #undecimber-of-joy

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notjustanyannie · 10 months ago

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The White House has its own pharmacy that, until recently, could perhaps best be described as a hot mess, according to a recent investigation report from the Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General.

For years, the White House Medical Unit, run by the White House Military Office, provided the full scope of pharmaceutical services to senior officials and staff—it stored, inventoried, prescribed, dispensed, and disposed of prescription medications, including opioids and sleep medications. However, it was not staffed by a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy support staff, nor was it credentialed by any outside agency.

The operations of this pseudo-pharmacy went as well as one might expect, according to the DoD OIG's alarming investigation report. The investigation was prompted by complaints in May 2018 alleging that an unnamed "senior military medical officer" was engaged in "improper medical practices." This resulted in the OIG's investigation, which included 70 interviews of Military Office officials who worked in the White House between 2009 and 2018 and covers the office's activity until early 2020. However, the investigation heavily focused on prescription drug records and care between 2017 and 2019 during the Trump administration.

During that time, staff at the White House pharmacy kept handwritten records of prescriptions, the OIG found. The records frequently contained errors in medication counts, illegible text, and crossed-out text and lacked medical provider and mandatory patient information. The pharmacy let White House staff pick up over-the-counter drugs from open bins, in violation of Navy medical regulations. It didn't dispose of controlled substances properly, increasing the risk of diversion. Staff provided prescriptions without verifying patients' identities and provided prescriptions to people who were ineligible for care. And it dispensed pricey brand-name products freely, rather than generic equivalents that are considerably cheaper—also a violation of regulations.

In one interview, a White House pharmacy staff member said an unnamed doctor asked "if I could hook up this person with some Provigil as a parting gift for leaving the White House."

Provigil is a drug that treats excessive tiredness and is typically used for patients with narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and other sleep disorders. Brand-name Provigil is 55 times more expensive than the generic equivalent. Between 2017 and 2019, the White House pharmacy spent an estimated $98,000 for Provigil. In that same timeframe, it also spent an estimated $46,500 for Ambien, a prescription sedative, which is 174 times more expensive than the generic equivalent. Even further, the White House Medical Unit spent an additional $100,000 above generic drug cost by having Walter Reed National Military Medical Center fill brand-name prescriptions.

White House baggies

Another White House pharmacy staff member gave clues as to what the staff was doing with those brand-name prescriptions. The staffer told OIG investigators that ahead of overseas trips, the staff would prepare packets of controlled medications to be handed out to White House staff. "And those would typically be Ambien or Provigil and typically both, right. So we would normally make these packets of Ambien and Provigil, and a lot of times they’d be in like five tablets in a zip‑lock bag. And so traditionally, too, we would hand these out. ... But a lot of times the senior staff would come by or their staff representatives... would come by the residence clinic to pick it up. And it was very much a, 'hey, I’m here to pick this up for Ms. X.' And the expectation was we just go ahead and pass it out."

In addition to the excessive costs of Ambien and Provigil, the White House Medical Office may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on health care for ineligible staff members. White House Medical Unit senior officials estimated that its Executive Medicine clinic has 60 enrolled patients, but it provided care for 6,000 employees, potentially billing the DoD. Between 2017 and 2019, officials also offered senior government officials a patient category code for care at Walter Reed, such that the facility was unable to properly bill them. In the three years, Walter Reed waived over $496,000 in outpatient fees because of these patient categories.

Overall, the OIG concluded that "all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit’s reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards."

The report does not mention Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, who served as the physician to the president from 2013 to 2018 under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Stat, which first reported on the OIG's new report, noted that Jackson had been accused of fostering a toxic work environment, engaging in alcohol-fueled misconduct, and misusing Ambien, specifically. OIG received those allegations during the first part of 2018, around the same time when the pharmacy complaints came in. And some of the allegations against Jackson were confirmed by a separate OIG investigation released in 2021.

Though a draft of the new report on the White House pharmacy was completed in 2020, it sat under review in the White House Military Office until July 2023.

The OIG laid out a series of recommendations, including establishing oversight of the White House pharmacy, creating a policy to determine staff eligibility, and implementing pharmaceutical oversight. DoD officials have agreed to the recommendations and are working to implement them, the OIG report noted.

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sketchfanda · 2 months ago

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A Little Moxxie Love Lore: The 101 basics of Hell and those who call it Home.

Hell is often said to be what you make of it, Jean Paul Sartre once remarked it was being trapped for eternity in a room with all of your friends but really of course he'd say that. Given that all of his friends were French but I digress. Many of course when they hear of Hell, no matter their religion, often think of the first thing that comes to mind in the form of a wasteland inferno. A deep black pit of torment and agony where the damned souls of murderers, rapists and all sorts of the worst life had to offer would go and forever suffer torture and punishment for an eternity for all the horror and bad choices they'd made in their time on earth.

Well that's only rather partly correct, but not the full story for you see, Hell had tiers or layers so to speak at least in this universe. Much like how Dragonabll, you had the vast universe, divvied into sections from north to south, west and east, planets like earth, the afterlife, heaven, hell,the realms of the kais that oversee the universe, this Hell had sections. In the deepest levels of course you had the common knowledge aforementioned hell, reserved for the worst of humanity and some demons who were just generally too unpleasant and not worth dealing with or tolerationg which left them to take their aggression and frustration out on the damned, the rapists,child molesters, the Hitlers, Stalins, Kim jongs, guevaras and Epsteins of the world all through nine cirlces.

And then you have the more surface level so to speak with which many you may all be more familiar with, a 7 ring levelled warped, twisted demonic mirror version of our own world and societies. Due to its proximity towards limbo and how fickle religions can be as to what constitutes and qualifies as sin, on top of not even Heaven itself knowing how a soul gets into either place. So many a soul can often wind up in Hell as one of many Sinners for who knows what minor offence could be damning, some theorise that the bureaucracy within the afterlife’s limbo is often to blame due to all the red tape and paperwork involved in processing a soul. This also applies to the possibility that The Pride ring, especially pentagram and it’s proximity to purgatory make this surface level of hell equivalent ti probation period of certain sinners, Chen why some have the possibility of being redeemed and getting into heaven.

The seven rings of heaven are of course occupied by a constant shifting population of Hellborn, demons who are natural born and raised natives of the inferno with many a flora and fauna alike, and the sinners, whose appearances or species form often vary in terms of looks and shape. Though some gather they can reflect an aspect of a soul’s personality as well as how they had died in the living world and while Hellborn are free to move about in between the other circles of Hell, Sinners are confined to the pride ring, hence the often chaotic nature of places like Pentagram city, where sinners are often especially targeted during the infamous Extermination day. Some sinners and demons alike are also said to share the potential to become Overlords should they manage to amass enough soils for a power base though where this puts them in the social pecking order with the Sins or the Ars Goetia in terms of power is debatable. The rings of He,l are as follows.

Pride, the designated home for sinners, with Pentagram City as its capital and ground zero for the exorcists in extermination day. Overseen by the fallen angel lucifer and his daughter princess Charlemagne “Charlie” Morningstar, owner and operator of the Hazbin Hotel, her persomal passion project to house and redeem sinners. Current success record:1 redeemed soul.

Wrath, overseen by Satan, the redneck central hkme to many farms, a veritable desert wasteland of dust, volcanoes and the middle of goddamn nowheeee.

gluttony, overseen by queen Bee-lzebub,her home a regular hive, pun unintended, for her parties, popular among many a Hellhound and imp alike. A veritable hot spot for those looking to indulge in some good food and chug down Bee-lze-juice, however those with a self-destructive streak are politely but firmly sent away for fear and concern of drinking themselves to near death.

greed, overseen by Mammon, a chaotic cesspit of crime where the only thing cheap is life. As green and dirty as the money it carries. Among the many crime families and gangs which occupy and run this dive include the Knolastname family and yes loan sharks are literal around here.

lust, the pornographic hub overseen by Asmodeus, aka Ozzie, the central ground zero for Hell’s adult entertainment. Home to the infamous Skullfuck productions,a studio with a sizeabke fanbase among Hell and even the living world and Heaven, and many a succubus and incubus. A porn store and sex shop on every corner and block, love hotels a plenty to choose from and home to both Ozzie's personal night club and his factory which produces and distrivubtes many erotic products.

sloth and envy, overseen by leviathan and belphefor. Notable about sloth is that it’s hospitals are slow as fuck,given it takes five years for hellhounds to get their annually required Hellbies shots. you think healthcare on Earth is a nightmare?

Hell’s societal hierarchy stands as so from top to bottom: Fallen Angels (Lucifer chief among them), The other six of the 7 sins,the Ars Goetia who are the cream of the crop among Hell’s elite wealthy class, Overlords, Sinners, native demons such as sex demons like succubi and incubi, possessors and baphomets, and the bottom rung of the ladder, Hellhounds and Imps. Hellhounds of course stand just a little higher above the latter due to their value in suecirtynwork as bodyguards. It’s seen by some as taboo for anyone outside of their station or species to be seen in a sexual and or romantic relationship with an Imp but some say otherwise.

Then of course there are enigmas like Mr.Sketch, who seem to be similar to sinner and demon alike yet something different entirely given that unlike sinners they can move freely about the other circles. Some theories and rumours abound such individuals are souls in the afterlife who wind up in heaven or hell by chance on their way to occupying a phsyical life in Earth, with exposure to the energies of either realm having skme shape and influence in them overall thanks to their being basically blank skates that had nt experienced virtue and sin alike. Making them peculiar paradoxes akin to the theory of Schrodinger's Cat. They shouldn't be and yet they are, they think and feel and thus they exist. Mr.Sketch is of course just one of those particilar Enigmas that has come to call Hell home and made quite a living for himself and if osften seen in the company of what may be some of his fellow breed. That is when he isn't busy enjoying the company of female demons, especially succubi who no surprise make up a large chunk of the talent roster in SkullFuck productions.

Coming up next, a little spotlight into a few of the demon breeds and species that make up some of Hell's Hellborn natives. Stay tuned.

#sketchfan #sketchfanda #sketchfan85 #Helluva boss #hazbin hotel

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blind3dbylight · 9 months ago

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Light's recommended emulators: macOS standalone

Well, I've had a Mac since around November 2023 and it's high time I wrote this.

If you're looking for my previous posts: [Windows standalone] [RetroArch]

Preamble

Full disclaimer: I am writing this running a M2 MacBook Air on macOS Sonoma 14.2.1. Your mileage may vary on other CPUs or older versions of macOS. Some of these will, if you're using Apple silicon, require Rosetta 2 if not already active.

I'll be using a significant amount of color coding throughout this little primer. Blue: Notable information Green: This is a good thing Orange: Go with caution Red: Warning!

You should generally always check if the emulator you are using supports Metal as a graphics backend. macOS doesn't support Vulkan, but some may try to use the MoltenVK translation layer, which doesn't always have Metal equivalents. Additionally, OpenGL on macOS is forever stuck at the outdated version 4.1, and may someday be removed entirely. For this list of recommendations, I will denote which ones support Metal and which use MoltenVK or OpenGL.

As before, if you need BIOS files (or just want a more comprehensive information source than a Random Guy™ on Tumblr), EmuGen is the place to go.

Most systems

OpenEmu is an excellent Mac-exclusive multi-core emulator (much like RetroArch), whose cores use code based on other open-source emulators. It can emulate everything up to the fifth generation of consoles (PlayStation, N64, Saturn), but standalones will be required for anything past that. I strongly recommend OpenEmu based on personal experience, especially if you're not a fan of RetroArch's clunky UI. * OpenEmu's graphics backend is unknown at this time.

ares is another multi-core emulator that might do you just fine. Its cores are quite good, particularly its SNES core as that was derived from bsnes (when Near was still running the ares project). Others aren't quite as good or are outshined by standalone emulators. * ares uses OpenGL on Mac.

Remember that you'll need BIOS files for the FDS, Sega CD, and Sega 32X.

Standalone emulators

Nintendo

NES: SwiftNES is a cycle accurate NES emulator built in SwiftUI. The advantage of this is that it will run natively on Apple silicon. It is a bit resource hungry (dev admitted they made some design decisions ever), but it will emulate nearly everything about the NES--although it is not at the full NES library yet in terms of compatibility. I'd just use ares or OpenEmu for the time being. * SwiftNES uses Metal.

SNES: bsnes is available on Mac. If you're using Apple silicon or the last Intel Macs made, it'll run well. Recommend the nightly builds. * bsnes uses OpenGL on Mac.

Nintendo 64: Mupen64Plus is available for Mac. As with its Windows version, it's command-line based, and any plugins written for Zilmar's spec won't work with it. Recommend using a frontend. * Mupen64Plus uses OpenGL on Mac.

GameCube & Wii: Dolphin again remains your best option here, but it's as legendary on Mac as it is literally anywhere else. It includes a stripped-down version of mGBA to emulate GameCube/GBA connectivity for those games that support it, and can connect to a real Wiimote + accessories via Bluetooth. GameCube specifically has a version of this core in OpenEmu, but I recommend you use the standalone version of Dolphin since that is more frequently updated, as I am currently aware. * Dolphin supports Metal as a backend.

Wii U: Cemu has a macOS version in its experimental releases. I haven't messed with it much, so not currently sure how well it runs on Apple silicon (will test further later). * Cemu uses MoltenVK on Mac.

Nintendo Switch: Ryujinx has a Mac version. As the Switch is not perfectly emulated yet, don't expect things to run 100% perfectly--glitches will happen. Many commercial games are fully playable though. You will have to supply any needed keys or system files yourself. * Ryujinx uses MoltenVK on Mac.

Game Boy line: Use mGBA, VBA-M, or SkyEmu. SkyEmu and mGBA can emulate real-time clock features (gen 3 Pokemon games) and Boktai's solar sensor, but not the e-Reader. VBA-M can emulate the e-Reader alone but cannot link it to other GBA games. They'll all emulate the DMG and GBC. * mGBA and VBA-M use OpenGL on Mac. * SkyEmu's status is unknown at this time.

Nintendo DS: Use either melonDS or DeSmuME. BIOS files aren't required, but are heavily recommended. melonDS can emulate DSi features DeSmuME refuses to. Creative differences, you know. * melonDS and DeSmuME use OpenGL on Mac.

Nintendo 3DS: Citra, along with yuzu, had its development permanently halted following yuzu’s settlement with Nintendo. However, its source code has been archived and it is still quite functional in its current state. Other devs have since picked it up again—a notable fork being Lime3DS, which also has a Mac version. * Citra uses MoltenVK on Mac.

Sony

PlayStation: DuckStation is your best bet here. If you have ever used Dolphin before, this will feel very familiar. You shouldn't need to muck about with settings too much except in very specific cases. You'll need BIOS files. * DuckStation supports Metal as a backend.

PlayStation 2: PCSX2 is available for macOS. You'll need BIOS files, but it works about as well as it does on Windows. Recommend you use the nightly builds. * PCSX2 supports Metal as a backend.

PlayStation 3: RPCS3 has a Mac version too. You'll need official firmware libraries to run it. Since PS3 emulation is quite resource hungry, I'd recommend you run it on at least a fairly recent, decently spec'd Mac, like a MBP or a Mac mini/Studio. MBAs are fanless and might heat up a bit. * RPCS3 uses MoltenVK on Mac.

PlayStation Portable: PPSSPP is your only real option, but it's a good'un. Make sure you get the system fonts installed, or else text is gonna look weird (MHFU, anyone?) * PPSSPP can use either OpenGL or MoltenVK on Mac.

PlayStation Vita: Vita3K, your only option, has a Mac version. Note that this platform isn't perfectly emulated yet, your mileage may vary. * Vita3K uses MoltenVK on Mac.

SEGA

All systems prior to Saturn: Your only decent options for most Sega systems are either ares or OpenEmu. BIOS files are required for 32X and Sega CD emulation.

Sega Saturn: Mednafen, in my opinion, is the king of Saturn emulation. You may also see it referred to as Beetle. As with its Windows incarnation, it is command-line based, and it is very picky about what BIOS files to use. Get them from EmuGen and they will be properly named. Bear in mind that there aren't any Mednafen frontends available for macOS. Use OpenEmu or RetroArch with Mednafen as a core if that's an issue for you. Mednafen will require a CUE sheet to know where the music data for a game is. * Mednafen uses OpenGL on Mac.

Sega Dreamcast: Flycast is your only option here, but it seems to be alright. BIOS files aren't required for Dreamcast alone, but are recommended. They are required for NAOMI/AtomisWave emulation--use the MAME ROMs for those. * Flycast uses either OpenGL or MoltenVK on Mac.

Microsoft

Xbox: You can give xemu a shot. Some setup required. * xemu uses OpenGL on Mac.

Xbox 360: There's no emulators for this running natively on macOS. You'll have to use Xenia on a Windows machine.

Other systems

ares can emulate the Neo Geo AES/CD.

ares, OpenEmu, and Mednafen can emulate the Neo Geo Pocket.

ares, OpenEmu, and Mednafen can emulate the WonderSwan/Color.

ares, OpenEmu, and Clock Signal can emulate various first and second generation consoles.

Same CDi and MAME can bomb Dodongos emulate the Philips CD-i.

Phoenix and MAME can emulate the 3DO. 4DO is only available outside of Windows as a libretro core.

MAME can emulate most arcade hardware. Believed to use OpenGL.

Old/obscure PCs

Clock Signal can emulate various old OSes, such as those of the Apple I/II/III and the MSX/MSX2, among others, and can emulate floppy drives as required. You will have to supply disk images yourself, however. Uses Metal.

TRS80GP can emulate the Tandy TRS-80. Graphics backend unknown.

VirtualC64 can emulate the Commodore 64. Uses Metal.

UTM is a virtual machine app based on QEMU, made specifically for Mac. Useful for running obscure games and software since it can also run classic Mac OS. It's free if you get it from their site (Mac App Store version is paid). Their website has a few images ready to go (such as Windows 11 ARM, a couple distros of Linux, and classic Mac OS 9. Others will need to be user-supplied and properly configured. Uses Metal.

86Box emulates old x86 CPUs primarily to run MS-DOS. There is also the Staging or X forks of DOSBox. Uses OpenGL.

Running PC games on Apple silicon

Most games are developed with x86-64 architecture in mind or simply never get native macOS versions. Additionally, Apple completely dropped all support for 32-bit apps as of macOS Catalina.

And while this isn't usually an issue (most Mac users, myself included, don't really buy a Mac for gaming), if you want to run a Windows-only game on your M series Mac, use Whisky.

No, I'm not telling you to take shots (unless you want to)--Whisky is a modernized wrapper for Wine built in SwiftUI that makes it easy to create and manage bottles, install and run PC games with almost no issue, all with no technical knowledge required.

The GitHub page also lists any edge cases that may impact certain games. As it states, Whisky is designed purely for Apple silicon running at least macOS Sonoma. If you are running an Intel Mac, just install Windows via Boot Camp.

Platforms not currently emulated

THERE ARE NO EMULATORS FOR THE FOLLOWING PLATFORMS THAT WILL RUN COMMERCIAL GAMES/SOFTWARE. ANY YOUTUBERS CLAIMING OTHERWISE ARE SCAMS!

iOS/iPadOS (Some iPad apps can be run in macOS if you are running Apple silicon, at least macOS Big Sur, and their devs have allowed for it in the App Store)

PlayStation 4 (some are in development but can't run games in a playable state yet)

PlayStation 5

Xbox One

Xbox Series S/X

Last updated on August 7, 2024. Please reblog from source when possible to make sure you have the most recent version of this post.

#light says a thing #emulation #macOS #apple

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wickedcoeur · 10 months ago

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people say things like that as if we aren't talking about a show with 8 ep that have thirty-ishy min each

the book is a BOOK, it has space to develope so much more things than a TV show does, charon show up in the screen so little, while in the books we see days worth of interaction between percy and charon, how do you expect him to have a full developed personality??? and to be honest I kinda like some things better in the show than in the book. like grover for example, he's so better developed in the show than he's in the book and I will trade his arch for charon's in a heart beat, not because he's more important but it makes more sense that the guy that percy sticks around more is more developed than the one who show ups for 2 seconds

it's just the first season, guys, chill, we will have more time to see those details being desenvolved. and I feel personally offended in Rick's behalf for you to say that the fact they didn't mentioned that charon likes Italian suits is equivalent to they changing the whole plot line in the movies, like??????? percy is 16 in the movies, the very same age he's supposed to fulfill the profecy, so why the whole history exist then???? makes no sense

and I personally think the show is so fucking funny, I crack up at every silly joke and interaction, like percy thinking annabeth is akaward bc they huged??? the whole "we are good, thanks " with ares???? "the animals will be fine" "I was talking about the people" GUYS, seriously?? are you sleeping on that???

I think Rick is making such a good job at reinventing the story and still preserving the skeleton of it, there are so many things that makes more sense now, how they show up Sally's past and make her a more deep character and not only Percy's mom, how they make grover more active in the question, not just the guy who is always afraid, how they start from day 1 to developed annabeth's whole persona and her feelings/ beliefs

the show is amazing, so much quality in the effects and the scenarios, such chemistry between the actors and each one of them fits their role perfectly, Rick said from the beginning that he was going to change something to make more sense in our world today and to insert some narratives that he ignored at first

I will gladly miss the fact that they don't mention charon like Italian suits BEACUSE ITS NOT THE TIME YET, charon gains more depth and more significance in the second book, things that are missing now are missing bc it's not their time yet

and it's super valid being upset that some details that you like don't show up, I was super sad that the scene from the aqua park changed, but that's alright bc we got so much more in return, it is so much better than it is in the book, so more profound, and it develops the characters so much faster than it would do if it was like in the books, which is super necessary given that it's a series with just 8 episodes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, no hate to anyone, but be more understandable that the show is a show, don't have the time to include everything, and Rick's playing the long game, I'm sure that the who create the whole thing and fought tirelessly for it to be properly represented it's gonna make sure that it's properly represented, we just have to be patient.

Rick Riordan constantly trashing the movies for not sticking to his books then releasing a show in which he rewrites everything and loses the spirit of the books entirely

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stardust-falling · 26 days ago

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Zhuixing's Whumptober 2024: Debriefing

Longest Fic: Day 24 | As an Echo Returns (5,090 words) Total Wordcount for the Month: 76,441 words …… Read the full series on AO3!

It is done-- at last, I've completed a full series of 'tober prompts! I had a great time, actually, even though some days were more difficult than others to make work since I challenged myself to include all three listed prompts for each day in some way.

I got to write new characters and fandoms that I haven't posted for before, and explore various plots and ideas without the full stakes of my usual longfic-writing tendency. Some of these ended up having continuations, and some became ideas I actually would maybe like to keep writing or polish up into proper fics (stay tuned, there might be a poll for that later 👀).

Anyway, below the cut is a list of all of the daily fics (which includes series and victim(s)), as well as a list of the ones that became series, for anyone who missed my AO3 posts and would like to check them out! Please be sure to read the warnings, as some of the fics deal with potentially triggering topics.

* this work is part of a series ! this work contains significant mature themes and/or a major archive warning

A Cruel Lesson | SVSSS - Shen Jiu !

Collapse, Continue | MDZS - Mo Xuanyu *

Shroud of Dreams | Genshin - Zhongli

Blind Testing | Genshin - Scaramouche

A Fraying Thread | SVSSS - Shen Jiu

Rot and Ichor | Genshin - Zhongli, Ganyu, and Xiao !

While the Warm Blood Flows | EPIC/The Iliad - Odysseus

The Finest Prize | Genshin - Zhongli * !

Wrath of the Sea and Sun | EPIC - Odysseus *

Phantom Sensations | EPIC/The Odyssey - Odysseus !

What Lies Within | SVSSS - Shen Jiu

Liminality | Genshin - Zhongli * !

One Last Gamble | SVSSS - Shen Jiu & Yue Qingyuan * !

One Step, Then Another | MDZS - Mo Xuanyu *

Equivalent Exchange | Genshin - Zhongli * !

The Price of Survival | EPIC - Odysseus *

Requiem for the Betrayed | Genshin - Scaramouche

Total Eclipse | Genshin - Zhongli *

The Gilded Casket | SVSSS - Shen Jiu & Yue Qingyuan * !

A Little Setback | MDZS - Xiao Xingchen

You Never Know What You Have Until It's Gone | SVSSS - Shen (Yuan) Qingqiu

An Eye for an Eye | EPIC - Odysseus & Telemachus !

Fever Dream | Genshin - Zhongli * !

As an Echo Returns | Genshin - Zhongli * !

What It Takes To Survive | EPIC - Odysseus

Highly Reactive | Genshin - Scaramouche

Across the Stars | Odyssey - Odysseus & Penelope

There Are Many Benefits to Being a Demon Lord's Husband | SVSSS - Shen (Yuan) Qingqiu

What Cannot Be Erased | SVSSS - Shen Jiu

Seeds of Strife | EPIC/The Iliad - Odysseus

Our Final Stand | Genshin - Zhongli & Xiao *

……

For works that are part of a series, a list and order of series is below!

No Time for Farewells

SVSSS - Yue Qingyuan saves Shen Jiu from the water prison and Luo Bingge. 1. No Time for Farewells 2. Maybe We Can Just Pretend 3. One Last Gamble 4. The Gilded Casket (Series is Unfinished)

Equivalent Exchange

Genshin - Zhongli's retirement is interrupted when he is taken captive by a Fatui Harbinger with a grudge, who seeks to extract "payment" from him for the world's misfortunes. 1. The Finest Prize 2. Liminality 3. Equivalent Exchange 4. Fever Dream 5. As an Echo Returns (Series is completed, but will eventually be rewritten/modified into a longer, more fleshed-out fic)

Total Eclipse

Genshin - Zhongli is overtaken by Abyssal power, which causes him to destroy Liyue Harbor. But this is only the beginning of a larger catastrophe. 1. Total Eclipse 2. Our Final Stand (Series is unfinished)

The Road Ahead

MDZS - On the way back from Jinlin Tai to Mo Village, Mo Xuanyu suffers a chance accident that may well change his fate. 1. Collapse, Continue 2. One Step, Then Another (Series is unfinished)

The Price of Survival

EPIC - After being tortured by Poseidon, Odysseus is cast adrift without his memories. 1. Wrath of the Sea and Sun 2. The Price of Survival (Series is unfinished, may be reworked into a modified/more complete fic later)

There are also a few other fics that I would like to potentially explore in a longer form later on-- but more on that later.

Anyway, thanks again for reading, leaving kudos and comments, etc. on all these fics, it was an endeavor for sure (especially when they escaped my 1.5-2k range and got into the 3-5k range for a one-day fic) but I'm glad i made it all the way!

#zhuixing updates #zhuixing whumptober #me looking back on my epic fics after vengeance saga release just like... lmao a lil bit tbh #whoops #my poseidon is too OP and my ody is too wet and pathetic #oh well #twas enjoyable nonetheless

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