#I will digitise them at some point

[loganlermanstanaccount]

my college au Miguel fic has invaded my brain and i have so many little sketches of everyone and how j picture them it's just sososososfhfj

[colleyuriko]

::Genly Ai, finishing his "report" on Gethen::

Me, with a haunted look on my face:

"What do you mean it's always year 1?"

I work in admin

[chrattho1]

employee!matt x boss!reader

do you have a problem?

summary: matt has been working under you for 2 years now,you have a very professional relationship with all your employees but sometimes when you catch matt staring at you and checking you out—you can’t help but be intrigued by what goes on in his head.

warnings: use of pet names, oral (m.receiving),sub!matt

more of this au here

“so these have to go in today?” matt’s eyes squint as he questions you in your office.

you click your teeth before looking up at him from the computer screen. “yes matt,do you have a problem staying late and finishing them up?” your eyebrows in a knot.

“i guess not” matt’s voice lower now as he looks down at the files in his hands,his foot tapping the floor next to your desk.

“start working on them” you said,eyes not leaving the screen.

you can hear matt sigh softly as he walks out of your office with the pile of files he has to work on,the pile of files that’ll take at least 2 hours to get done.

its already 5 pm, everyone in the office has left the premise to go to their respective homes,families,maybe get a drink with their friends,but you and matt are stuck in the office.matt still working on those files and you on digitising them one by one as he comes by and drops each one of them off in your office. even though you could have more people wait back-you would rather have only one person stay back and do the work,so you chose matt. is there a specific reason behind you choosing him? maybe.

you walk out of your office,trailing down your way to matt’s cubicle where you hear him humming a song.

you lean on the cubicle wall,watching him bob his head to the song as he fills out some papers.

“i wanna share an apartment a room,-mh mhm mh-” matt spins in his chair as he hums the lyrics to a song,but the spinning comes to a halt when he sees you leaning on his wall,smiling at him.

“hey” you said,your arms crossed,your shoulders still leaning on to the wall.

“hi” matt returns the smile,but his expression soon changes watching you still stand there,why were you here? don’t you have work to do as well? his thoughts race up,just as any employee’s thoughts would if their boss stood there staring at them doing their work.

“what? can i not supervise you?” you spoke, playfulness lacing your words.you slowly make your way to his small desk,pushing up and sitting on it. you’re now right in front of his chair,your bare knees brushing against his clothed ones.

matt’s breath hitches but he can do nothing but simply shake his head at your question,his lips curl up when senses your playful tone.

“i like your earing” you said pointing at his ear with a smile on your face,a smile you don’t often give to people in the office.

matt’s hands involuntarily reach to his earing,touching it,almost not convinced that he just got complimented by you.

“uh—thanks-thank you” matt’s eyes never leave you. something building up in his chest,but he doesn’t really know what.

“lets take a break yeah?” you said bringing your face closer to him,your hand reaching to grab the hand rest of his chair,your faces inches apart. matt’s chest heaving,his breathing ragged and you’ve barely spoken two sentences to him.

to your statement of taking a break matt nods,his eyes fluttering not knowing what is happening right now.

“so matt,tell me about yourself,got a girlfriend? a wife? kids?” your manicured nails tap the hand rest of his chair. matt shakes his head to your question,to which you frown.

“really?” you ask in disbelief,feeling a rush of excitement as soon as you realise that this is perfect.

“i don’t” matt shrugs,he has a smile on his face making it very clear that he is embarrassed.

“how is that possible? you’re a good looking guy,well spoken,make good money at this company” you state facts about him that you know,sounding almost like you admire those things about him, and that makes matt suck in a breath.

you praising him,talking to him in this demeanour,he feels like he is in a wet dream that he’s definitely had before-so naturally his pants start feeling tighter around his groin.

matt shrugs,his eyes not batting away,he is not even blinking as much.

“i thought girls would throw themselves at you” you bite the inside of your cheek,matt’s non verbal,flustered state making you want to tease him even more.

matt shakes his head again,letting you know that girls in fact don’t throw themselves at him.

“that’s a shame,i personally think you’re a greaatt guy” you pout,your hands reaching down to rest on one of his knees.

“fuck” matt whispered under his breath,but the office being so quite made his voice almost echo in your ears,you smirk at his reaction. a reaction he gave from something so small.

“like when i touch you?” you spoke tilting your head down and looking up,matt nods frantically.

“gotta use your words matt” one side of mouth curling up.

“ye-yes i do” matt finally lets words out of his mouth-shaky,hasty words.

“want me to touch you more?” your hand now stroking his thigh,at an extremely slow pace. you can feel his skin radiating heat from underneath the pants he’s worn.

“yes- please—” matt couldn’t have sounded more desperate if he tried to,his hips rising and sliding down the chair.

you lean over him more with your hands moving up to his tie,loosening it.your eyes never leave his as you do so.

matt’s eyes scan all over your you,your tits right in his face. his hands go up from his sides to softly lay at your waist.

“is this okay?” shaky words from him fall onto your features with his breath,minty you think.

“mhm” you nod,his tie now almost fully loose.

“please-” matt’s voice low,but your receptors catch it perfectly.

you grab the end of his loosened tie,pulling him up with you.dragging him into your office,matt fully giving into your actions,loving every single second of what’s happening-even the walk from his cubicle to your office.

once you’re both in the office,you push him against the door,his body weight closing it on its own.the way you’re pressed onto him-you can feel the the rhythm of his heartbeat aligning with yours,his being just a tad bit higher than yours. you can also feel his throbbing dick press against your inner thigh.

your fingertips trail along his jaw,feeling the tiny hair from his stubble. “i see the way you look at me matt” you whisper. he looks at you with wide eyes,exhaling deeply. your fingers now making their way up to his mouth,index finger toying with his bottom lip.

“what do you have to say about that huh?” your finger slowly making its way in,and he opens his mouth for you to do so.

“always so quite,looking so innocent” your voice low and seductive,matt’s eyes flicker at the sound. his mouth still hung open with just the tip of your finger in it.

you lay small pecks on his cheeks slowly,before getting to his lips dropping your hand to his chest,pressing him down. matt complies immediately kissing you with hurry he’s never been in before. the room is filled with sounds of sharp breaths that were taken through matt’s nose while his mouth was occupied. as both your lips and tongues were tied your hands got busy untucking his shirt from under his pants. his hands rested on your hips softly.

you pull away to slide his suit jacket off of him-one shoulder at a time,and then his tie and then the buttons on his shirt. once his shirt slides off of his skin,you’re taken a back,a small gasp leaves your mouth.

“you have a tattoo sleeve?” you asked even though the proof lied in front of your eyes. matts eyes drop to his arm,and then on to you hoping that’ll give you the answer to your question.

“fuck-come here—” you said pulling him and kissing him sloppily again,flushed by the feeling of wanting him even more,the knowledge that him acting so quite and innocent is kind of for show did something to you.

your fingertips trail down his abdomen,deciding to rest right on his v-line.

matt pulled away this time,his lips swollen and mouth open catching a breath.

“can i take this off you?” he asked hesitantly,fingers toying with the collar on your shirt. a smirk grows on your face and you nod. matt wastes no time,his fingers got to work-unbuttoning your shirt as fast as he can.

you smile down at him as he does so,his desperate state making your panties wetter by the second.

“oh my—fuck” a small whimper falls from his mouth,the sight of your lacy bra that barely covered your tits making his knees weak,better than he’d imagine,or dreamt of.

you throw your shirt off somewhere,before leaning your head down to his neck. lips leaving traces down to his collarbone,sucking on it. with a moan matt’s head falls back making a “thump” sound on the wooden door behind him. you immediately look up at him to check if he’s okay.

his eyes on you when he notices the look of concern on your face. “im okay” he whispers,his voice cracking. you smile holding in a giggle before getting back to what you were doing before.

after about a good 5 minutes,you’ve kissed him all over his neck and chest,when you get to his lower tummy matt noticeably squirms under you. a smirk forms onto your lips as you continue to trail kisses down his stomach,getting right above the band of his pants. you look up at him once,batting your eyelashes.

“please—” he spoke between his teeth,his eyes half lidded but you can see the glint on them.

you unbutton his pants with one hand,the other rested on his chest stretched out.

his pants fall to his ankles,you’re met with the sight of his calvin clien boxers that have a small dark patch of precum on them.

your long manicured nails graze the skin over his hipbone while you slowly pull down on his boxers. matt’s dick springs out of them as soon as the boxers come off,his dick more desperate than he is. tip red and swollen,precum oozing. the sight making you suck in a gasp he is big-you thought.

you lean down even more,your face at his dick-level. matt squirms at the feeling of your breaths falling on to his dick.

“hmp-please—” every time he begs,you want him to beg more,but this time you have a feeling if you keep teasing-he might cry.

“such a good boy for me yeah?” you say looking up at him,to which he nods with his eyes closed.

“yes-yes—i am” you smile at his words that motivate you to do more for him. your tongue pops out of your mouth,kitty licking his tip a few times.

“OH—” matt’s eyes pressed shut at the small action. his hips involuntarily thrusting in the air past your tongue.

you bring your tongue from his tip down to the base of his dick and swirl it around.

“oh fu—d-don’t tease—i’ll cum—” whining and groaning,matt’s voice isn’t even his at this point,so cracky,full of pants and heavy breathing. his brain working in favour of the pleasure and not him.

you finally put your mouth around halfway through his dick,taking the rest in your palms. matt’s mouth focused more on whimpering than breathing.

“hmpph—just like tha-so good mama” moaning and whimpering matt’s hands fall into your hair when you start bobbing around his dick,your tongue covered in his saline precum.

“so-so beautiful—ahhh fuck—” matt tries his hardest to open his eyes to get a glimpse of you sucking his dick in a bra with your short skirt riding all the way up your thighs but his eyes betray him and shut once again.

“i cant—cant—” matt almost sounds like he is apologising when you feel his dick twitch in your mouth,you knew he was going to cum right then,so you pulled off of him

the whine that leaves matt’s mouth next made your breath hitch,he is so desperate.

“not yet baby” you got up from the floor and grabbed his hand,leading him to your desk.

english is not my first language !

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Do Necron Warriors have any semblance of sentience left in them? Are their minds simply locked behind powerful inhibitors or are they just irreparably wiped clean?

So, this is a cool question. Necron warriors are not supposed to retain anything in the way of real sentience. At all. The biotransferrence involved the effective digitisation and transition of Necrontyr consciousness onto engrams (basically fake brains) with the quality of engram and amount of personality and memory being retained coinciding with your position in society.

Nobles, Crypteks, Lychguard, Triarchs, and individuals with perceived importance or connection were usually given their full approximated suite of mental faculties and personality. Middling soldiery and servants (like Immortals) received a fittingly middling amount of engram quality. Basic soldiers, civilians and those without perceived merit were turned into warriors, their memories and personalities consumed forever.

At least, as I said above, this was the intent.

Necron engrams are one of (if not the most) advanced and complex pieces of technology in the entire setting. The complete and effective translation of the mind into data is unthinkably sophisticated, to the point that not even the Crypteks, the masters of physics and material science, fully understand how they work. It's not like the intelligence cores the Admech use, it's not like the AI the T'au construct. It is almost the synthesis and digitisation of the soul. It is properly fucking nuts.

So, are necron warriors supposed to be wiped clean? Yes, basically. Are they? Demonstrably no. Some will let out horrific screams when they're properly killed. Some will display tiny little ticks and flickers of personality or inkling. Most notably, warriors that become flayed ones have been known to target specific Necrons/people, as if holding unbound grudges or desires.

Between these events, and things like the destroyer virus and the assorted quirks and emotions that all Necrons can develop, it is abundantly clear that the full extent of the consciousness and wherewithal granted by engrams has exceeded function and intricacy beyond the comprehension of even the most gifted Crypteks.

Bit of a long answer, but I hope you found this helpful!

[finnlongman]

"And his hand in the hand of Láeg mac Ríangabra..."

My previous posts about the variants of Oidheadh Con Culainn were getting very long with all the reblogs and ramblings, so I thought I would do a summary.

Last week, I was idly paging through NLI MS G113 to check the terminology it uses for Láeg. This manuscript was written in 1703, in Co. Cork, by poet Uilliam mac Cartáin. I discovered that in this version of the text, Cú Chulainn dies "with his back against the standing stone and his hand in the hand of Láeg mac Ríangabra".

Although Láeg is usually present in this scene, I had never seen this particular detail before, and being the #1 fan of Láeg mac Ríangabra, I was obviously extremely intrigued and emotional. (Code for: I cried and then I screamed about it to everyone I knew.)

Not only this, but after Cú Chulainn's death, Láeg went back to kiss Cú Chulainn's body, hold him, and grieve for him, which is something he isn't given the opportunity to do in any of the versions that I knew. Wow.

Yesterday, I decided to check for other digitised manuscripts of this text, and I found RIA MS 23 M 25, a slightly earlier manuscript written probably in Co. Cork in the late 17th century -- probably 1684 for this section. To my amazement, it also contained this line:

Further investigation found it in two more Cork manuscripts -- a late 18th century one (RIA 23 G 21) and a 19th century one (Newman College O'Donnell II), both by scribes of the Ó Longáin family. The 18th century one isn't digitised, but I was able to read a transcription of it produced by Julia Kühns in her 2009 PhD thesis; the 19th century one is now held in Newman College in Melbourne, Australia, and looks like this:

All four of these manuscripts contain the detail that Cú Chulainn died with his back against the standing stone and his hand in the hand of Láeg mac Ríangabra.

All four of these manuscripts were written in Co. Cork, though chronologically they're quite dispersed.

There are two more manuscripts that Kühns groups alongside these in her study, one which has a strong Cork connection and one which doesn't. These aren't digitised and she didn't transcribe this passage, so I can't be certain it's there (her grouping is based on other elements, and she doesn't discuss this detail), but I would imagine it must be. I hope to go to TCD at some point and view them.

On the basis of the evidence I've got, though, it seems to me that this was a Cork variant of the story. The wording of this line is identical -- if they're not all copying from each other (and there are some other variations that might suggest they're not), they're definitely copying from a shared source. What that source was and how far it predates the 1684 manuscript, I don't know yet.

But so far, only G113 contains the scene where Láeg grieves and says goodbye to Cú Chulainn. Given that this MS was written by a known poet who wrote a lot of laments and emotional works, it may be that he added this to heighten the emotional experience. To my admittedly inexpert eye, it shows some strong signs of Munster Irish, which lends credence to the idea that it was locally composed, and since it's not in the other MSS, there's no reason yet to think it's not Uilliam's addition for the sake of feelings. In which case, it worked. Thanks, Liam, you made me cry 221 years later.

And now you're caught up!

[transmutationisms]

how'd you learn to read french? could you point me to some resources? ideally free, i don't got them dollars or euros.

i took it for about 7 years in school, but a lot of that was kind of useless as far as reading knowledge goes because they were trying to teach us conversational skills lol. i had three semesters in undergrad that exclusively focussed on reading, which helped a lot, but since then i've just gotten stronger by practicing.

what i would recommend is just to download a 'french for reading' book (there are 5 different ones on libgen for english -> french; i believe i used the palmeri in college, but they're probably all fine) and work through at least the basic grammar that way. then it's really just a matter of starting to translate things.

iirc my coursework started us on larochefoucauld's maxims and pascal's pensées, then we did some descartes and rousseau's émile, and then switched to literature: racine's phèdre, one of molière's plays, baudelaire's fleurs du mal, rimbaud, and passages from proust's à la recherche du temps perdu. but there's nothing magical about that sequence -- what would be most helpful to you will depend on what sorts of things you want to read in the long run (eg, for me personally it would have been more useful if i'd learned on biology texts or something, just to introduce me to that vocabulary set earlier, but oh well).

you can also find collections of children's stories (i did this for german and found it boring but often helpful; fairy tales might be fun but be aware of the literary passé simple tense vs the more common-use passé composé) or you can also start on news articles since those tend to be written in plainer language with limited tenses. we used to use le monde in high school lmao. in any case just try to pick texts that have translations available so you can check your work.

i'd also strongly recommend wordreference.com if you don't already use it (online dictionary, but it'll give you examples of the word in sentences and in unusual usages, plus there's a discussion forum feature that is actually useful sometimes) and linguee.com, which lets you search phrases and shows actual documents and websites where they occur. most of the corpus is things like government websites, but it still saved my ass a good few times when i was starting out and would run into usages i just hadn't learned in the classroom.

& if you're looking for historical sources, the french national library's digitised collection is free/searchable at gallica.bnf.fr, and includes texts that have translations available as well as ones that don't.

[mimicsapprentice]

The PPG [Pretty Pink Girlies]

Ooo mini redesigns of some adorable OCs I got recently!!! The lovely pink girlfriend trio <3 I call Carnage a variant but she's really from my own uh Swap&Fell AU; Swap&Fell Pink aka SwapFellTale. (Swap&Fell because it's not quite a Swap!Fell or Fell!Swap, it's more of a mix of Swap and Fell.) Her AU is also fairytale themed, fun fact!!

The 3 of them all work at Ccino's Cafe; the 'main' / OG Ccinos, since Milly doesn't have her own place. They live together in the OT! These are specifically the ShipKids verse versions of these OCs! Since some of them, mainly Carnage, exist in other verses too; having their own other paths ~!! (And yessssss, this means I may be giving them their own children at some point >:3 )

The 'AKAs' are their multiverse names, each usually going by their 'Or' sections. Milly & Rhell don't really have anyone to call them other names but Carnage's brother, Rosewood, does call her Neue.

I want to say 10 million more things about them but I also don't know what else to say.... I just know I love them <3 Maybe whenever I digitise them I'll say more ^^

Original designs are by @lovestuckstarz !!!!

[nitricaciddd]

I made a concept design for a Dark/Bug type Mega Yveltal as a possibility for Pokémon Legends: Z-A!

Now you may be wondering, why Bug? Yveltal is a Bird!

Well, if you check one of it’s dex entries,

Note the word choice of “Cocoon”. Now, I’m only looking at that direct word, not what it could possibly have been mistranslated from, and you know what cocoons are?

Usually they are a silky barrier created to house a larva undergoing metamorphosis! AKA, BUGS!

I haven’t noticed anyone else make this same thought process and found it interesting. I’ll insert my initial thought sketches below, I’ve got a Mega Xerneas idea in concept as well which I will digitise soon!

My personal favourite detail of this is turning the neck fur/feathers into a stylish swarm of flies! I thought it would be cool to also have it around the wrists, originally I was going to connect the cloud flies to the neck like chains, but I figured that’s be too complicated.

If anyone happens to know Gaismagorm from Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, I see the relationship between Mega Yveltal and its flies to be the same as Gaismagorm and the Qurio: The small flying things steal life force from other creatures, and then bring them back to the host creature. This would help make Yveltal’s destructive powers even MORE threatening as a mega!

Anyway, that’s enough yammering from me, if you’ve read until this point, woah thanks! And I hope you have a most wonderful day, stay hydrated and please don’t forget to check out some of the pages of Gaza families on here and repost and/or donate if possible!

Tara for now,

Nitric

[deadgirlwalking91]

Ooh for the WIP asks, how about a little bit about I Don't Dance? 👀 (Or dealer's choice if you get asked about it more than once ☺️)

Hey, Sloane! (and sorry for the double tag - I messed up the formatting of my original post because I was on the fly 😂)

Thanks for the ask!

I Don't Dance is about Adam convincing Lute to go out with him and the other Exorcists to the club, which she's not keen on. Especially because it brings up some memories she doesn't have the guts to talk about...

I'm planning for it to have three parts, and there will be flashbacks woven through as well! It was inspired by a tumblr ask about Adam and Lute dirty dancing at the club. The mental image of them grinding and getting handsy was too good to pass up!

Here's some rough dialogue from the opening scene:

“Fucking stupid, piece-of-shit reports,” he grumbled. “Why can’t we digitise everything?”

“Because,” Lute said, stifling a laugh as Adam bumped his head on the underside of the desk. “What if the computers crash, and we lose everything?”

“What if the office catches fire and we lose the paperwork and everything in that, huh?”

“Respectfully, sir, it’s Heaven. We don’t have fires here. Besides,” she added, pointing to the stack of files she’d managed to gather from the mess he'd made. “I need to take these home and work on them so we can meet Sera’s deadline.”

Adam snorted derisively. “Like fuck you are. Come on, come out tonight.”

Lute shook her head as she grabbed her bag. “No, Adam. Goodnight.” 

[several-ravens]

@jo1sstuff i'm going to reply to this in its own post so i can find it and add to it later more easily if i need to

also it's under the cut because it's a demonstation that's long af

tldr: technology

so here is the line of thinking that got me to this conclusion:

1) episode 65 presents something totally different from any other category we've met so far, and that is analog horror (so found footage, creepy videos, possessed digital devices, and the likes). usually it is about something that's old, or older than the person who uses it (just like tessa winters in 2017 who finds the (alleged) program made by sergei yshanka in the 1980's)

and analog horror has been a very important part of the 'new age' of horror as technology and the internet grew. there are some very famous things like the movies the ring and blair witch project, or mickey mouse whistling, or the scp foundation, or the new doom mod, or creepy pasta, you get the idea

my personal comment: it's very meta to have an episode on analog horror which is literally an ancestor and relative to tma itself, and i LOVE this

2) tessa winters makes a loooong monologue about the differences between analog and digital and draws our attention to jon's tape recorder

which reminded me of the very first episode where he explains why he records some statements on tape: "I plan to digitise the files as much as possible and record audio versions, though some will have to be on tape recorder, as my attempts to get them on my laptop have met with… significant audio distortions." (unofficial transcripts)

3) in episode 62, gertrude says: "Who does the book come from?" and mary keay responds: "The End, of course." (unofficial transcripts)

notice how she said 'who' and not 'where'. so my guess is the categories are not only there to classify the different types of fears but also have an 'entity' or a 'god' attached to it

my personal comment: i like the idea that they are similar to the great old ones from lovecraft, who also plays a very fundamental part in today's horror

4) i'm then reminded of american gods by neil gaiman (<3), where the gods of the old worships have a war with the new ones (technology, media, etc.)

which brings us back to our point no.2 (analog vs. digital), and the fact that apparently the only things that won't go into jonathan's computer are the statements that fit into the categories, so that are associated with our 'old gods' (the end, and the 13 others)

"why wouldn't they go digital?" you might ask. well, because they are at war with digital and the new technologies (or something of that kind). here i quote the unofficial transcripts from mag47: jonathan says: "You make it sound like there’s a… war." to which delirium michael responds with: "[heh] Then I will say nothing further. I wouldn’t wish to tarnish your ignorance prematurely."

5) the fear of our future being taken over by technology is a very real thing (detroit become human comes to my mind rn, also fallout somehow (even though it's more about capitalism but technology is still important, i.e. nuclear weapons), also the current discourses with ai, etc.)

so its just a draft for now, but my guess is something along the lines of 'technology' or like 'progress'

P.S. (i know editing a post after it has been posted is bad but honetly idc): you (jo1sstuff) said something about the 15th corridor not being there at the time of episode 35, which confirms this theory about 'technology' being a new, emergent deity

[elektrischemaidchen]

Bayreuth- Diary II: Wagner

The fever dream begins. And I swear, we didn't dream it. I asked Lacelove several times, if this experience was created from my sleep deprivation or Lisztober, but she assured me, everything was a real.

We have never experienced a museum like the Wagner Museum anywhere in our lives. And we really have been to a lot of museums, in Germany, Europe and also in the USA. And this was the freakiest experience we've ever had. By far. Fortunately, we had decided to come in civilian clothes and without costumes. When we took the first pictures of Wahnfried's outdoor area, we could already feel a museum attendant looking out of the window. So we dutifully showed our pre-purchased combined tickets in the entrance hall. ‘If you still want to see the „other“ museum, do that first. It closes at 12.’ ‘We've already been to the Liszt House.’ ‘...’ (WTF?) ‘Would you like an audio guide?’ ‘Gladly.’

‘We'll need your ID or driving licence as a deposit.’ We look at each other. Has there ever been a museum where we had to leave personal IDs as a deposit? Nope. The first exhibition - costumes and props - is in the basement. Everything is black. On the wall is a gallery of all the conductors who have ever conducted Wagner operas. Of course Franz and Hans von Bülow are missing, I say to Lacelove. We are alone in the room. A museum guard approaches us from the other side and says: ‘I'm sure you've noticed that a few conductors are missing here. The women (!?), for example, especially the lady from Sydney. (?) The collection is currently being digitised. Until then, the collection will remain as it is.’ Okay. Okay. He sends us on to the ‘Mensch Wagner’ exhibition, which is located in an empty corridor with a doorway to the left. It's there so that people outside can't look in. That alone is confusing. And the first thing we see there is this.

‘What you always wanted to say to Richard Wagner.’ LOL. Oh, that doesn't fit on any card. It doesn't even fit in a 3 minute song. And we do it. We tell Richard everything we ever wanted to say. In short form. And - thank God - we're not the only ones. ‘How does it feel to justify every immoral act with moral immunity?’, asks Pauline from Berlin. Hey, Pauline, if you ever read this, please get in touch with us. „RIP, Kitschbrother.’ Or critical questions about anti-Semitism, of which there is NOTHING in this exhibition, by the way, except one sentence. In any case, Richard's parasitism crops up very often, but he was just a little scoundrel. Uhu! Er hatte viele Schulden und er liebte alle Frauen!

And now it gets really weird.

Over to Wahnfried. Via a lift, all in black, with buttons that look like they're from a James Bond film. There are only the options ‘Wahnfried’ and ‘Below’, but maybe there's a secret swastika key that leads to the Führerbunker. We don't know.

  The lift ends in a black corridor with two corridors to the left (please take a look at the video from our post today and hear us laugh) and right. One of them ends in a Wagner bust and you are selectively bombarded with Wagner pieces. If there's anything more German than that, I don't know what it is.

At some point after this ghost ride with a lot of Japanese tourists nearby, you arrive at the ‘real’ Haus Wahnfried. And, God, @franzliszt-official , how nice it is to see your face. Please save us:

 

But everything in Cosima's parlour is covered with white cloths. Even in the library. Or under very important glass domes. Drama, baby. And I keep thinking: Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham would have touched herself for this:

 

Very important information on the first floor. Or not....

 

And, of course, Crazy Fritz is presented again:

 

 

And there are always museum guards everywhere. You're not even allowed to laugh. And we often laugh. This is a serious subject. A mausoleum of art. We feel like we're in a tomb that must be a tomb all the time. With all its German seriousness. So serious and arrogant that it's ridiculous.

At the end, when we go to collect our bags, the museum dude from the conductor's room stands in front of us again. ‘Have you looked at everything?’

‘Yes, of course,’ we say.

‘What did you like best?’

‘The library,’, says Lacelove, without batting an eyelid.

‘Did you look at all the books?’ (YES! LAME! Like we don't look at all the books...)

‘Yes, quite a few standard works.’ (Love you!)

‘More than that! Didn't you look on the right? The books on mythology! He read in 4 languages! And what he didn't understand, he had translated! Amazing, isn't it?’

No. Pretty much standard back then. And every humanities student today works with 4 languages. Can we please talk about what kind of cosmos Franz Liszt already had in his mid-20s without much schooling? No, we can't. Then we won't get our IDs back. And anyway....we shoot the rest of our video at home. Really. 

Weimar. I am really sorry, for every rant we have made about you so far. We love you. Please take us back.

And, @chopinski-official , if you ever talk to Wagner again...this is his heritage....

[saints-who-never-existed]

Hello! Hope all is well!

Did you ever find out more about the preservation process of the Peglar Papers? I've been looking into it recently, as well, but all I've found is elusive at best. Aside from one inconclusive Netherclift also linked with the Victory Point Note, most names that pop out during the search focus more on the skelleton and the pocket-book's interpretation :/

Best regards, wish you the best in this bit of research!

Hey there, mate! Hope all is well with you too, whoever you are! :D

As things stand, I haven't been able to find out any further information about the conservation of the Peglar Papers, no.

That's in large part because life has gotten somewhat in the way for me and I haven't had sufficient time to devote to any proper research these past few weeks.

But even before that point, I seemed to have reached the same impasse that you did - finding some information about this mysterious Netherclift figure and the Victory Point Note, but little beyond that. As you say, all information out there really does seem to focus on the discovery of the skeleton and on attempted decodings of the Paper themselves, rather than on their conservation.

I think perhaps I might try to enquire more directly for information from the National Maritime Museum in the near future, though I truly don't know what information that might actually yield.

I have a suspicion, from examining all the digitised images of the Papers, that the conservation work undertaken on them is really quite historic, and what that may mean is that said work was not well documented (as is often the case with conservation treatments of the past).

But then again, I could be entirely wrong, and no one will be more delighted if that's the case than I will!

Do keep me posted, anonymous friend, if you do have any breakthroughs in the near future. :)

[my-deer-friend]

Good luck on your source-finding journey friend! I am so interested in the process of tracking down sources and documents, but I've never done it before. Can you explain your process or do you have any tips?

Hi anon! Thanks for the ask. This is not a research guide, just some pointers I've found useful (as someone trained in other forms of academic research who learned how to work with archives).

First things first – forget google. Google scholar is decent for tracking down secondary academic sources (though hardly comprehensive), but with a few notable exceptions, archive databases that hold primary source materials are not indexed on normal search engines. Instead, you need to spend some time finding the repositories where your sought-after documents are likely to be, and then running your searches inside those.

The one thing google is useful for is to see if someone has already gone to the trouble of formally publishing the documents you're looking for. You'll want to search for things like "papers of...", "correspondence of...", or "writings of...". If you get a result, see if you can find that book on google books, archive.org, or at your local library (definitely don't check on libgen, because downloading a free book would be bad and awful and terrible of you 🤫).

These collected editions are not always reliable (especially older ones, since there was a lot of gratuitous editing going on). So, to be rigorous, you still want to see if you can find the actual, original source.

The easiest starting point for tracking those down is to find a secondary source that has already done most of the work for you. A reliable book or academic article will cite its primary sources, which should include which archive or collection the author found the document in.

If you are immeasurably lucky, you will find that respoitory online, and it will have a fully-digitised collection their holdings, and a reliable, searchable index based on keywords and transcripts. In that case, just type in your search term and enjoy.

(Note: the search functionality on these sites is often very wonky. Always try several versions of your search term, and play around with the filters and boolean operators.)

But those sites are rare. If you're less (but still a little bit) lucky, you'll find an academic institution or research archive that has at least published a document called a finding aid. There should be one for each grouping of documents in their holdings (for example for one historical figure's papers, or for a specific bequest) which gives a summary of the contents and is used for on-site tracking of the physical items (these will have call or accession numbers, location of the documents, etc.). Finding aids vary immensely in quality and level of detail ("miscellaneous other papers" my behated).

If you do indeed find a record for something you want to look at (and it hasn't been digitised), you need to figure out the process for requesting the document. This varies hugely depending on the institution (with differing lead times, querying methods, fees, limitations, and ensuing publication/reproduction rights) and is virtually always explained somewhere on their website. Mostly, they'll ask you to complete a form, or to send an email following a template. Don't expect a quick reply, and don't expect digital copies to be free.

Of course, this all presumes that the instituton that holds your materials 1) has a website and 2) has actually put useful things on it. Sometimes, you just need to enquire. I followed up on a footnote I saw in a hundred-year-old book that gave the location of some letters, found the local town library that was mentioned and emailed them about it. (Yes, they had them, and the librarian I corresponded with was simply delightful and very eager to help.)

Be courteous and clear when you email these folks. They will almost always want to know your name, your contact details, a clear description of what you are looking for (the more detail the better), a summary of your research project, and whether you intend to publish the documents you are requesting – so save a few back-and-forth emails by providing that information upfront. They are very happy to answer requests from independent or hobby researchers, so don't let that hold you back.

The least helpful of all, in my experience, are holders of private collections. They simply don't have any incentive to take time out of their day to help you, and usually aren't trained librarians or archivists so they don't know what they have, or where it is, or how to give you access. (I tear up sometimes when I think of all the documents that are lying in some manor house attic, because someone forgot they were there or thought no one would be interested.) Sometimes they will respond (eventually) to an email query; often it's just a black hole.

I hope that helps! In all frankness, much of this is dull, repetitive work that all-too-frequently leads to dead ends (but it's so good when you succeed). Persistence and patience are key.

[wilteddreamsofbaldursgate]

2. Writing Set Up: Where to Write Your Draft

Before you even start writing, you’ll need to find a writing program/medium you feel comfortable working with. 

I promise you—from start to finish—you’ll look at your draft for a couple of hours at minimum, so I suggest you choose a program/medium that aligns with your individual needs. Now it’s time for you to identify what those needs might be. 

Here are some options:

Creativity strikes while you’re cuddled up in bed or on your commute to work? 

Try writing on your phone/tablet (unless you’re the one driving, of course!)—you can use pre-installed apps like Pages (iOS) or your Notes/Memo app. You can also download free writing applications like Google Docs. Google Docs works on and offline on basically any mobile device, which is great for when you’re on the go! 

You prefer writing/typing on a computer? 

There are many desktop writing programs like LibreOffice (free for Windows, Mac and Linux), MS Word (needs to be purchased/subscription-based), countless online text editors or the browser version of Google Docs. 

You need to physically feel the words flowing through your body? 

Well, imagine you’re a classic author and write them down by hand on generously perfumed paper (preferably with royal blue ink)! Of course, you can also use Post-it notes or that coffee-stained notebook from 2013. Regular paper will do, too, though it’s obviously not as cool. 

Of course, there are many more options to choose from, but since you’re just starting out, I suggest you try free and more readily available programs first. Everything has its pros and cons, but digital writing is generally pretty clean-cut and saves you the trouble of digitising hand-written drafts (which you’ll need to do if you want to share your writing online! Unless you want to share scans of your beautiful handwritten writing, of course!). 

But before you settle for one (or more!) program/media of your choice, you might want to consider a few things: 

Is your writing easily accessible to you? → Can you add to your draft whenever and wherever creativity strikes? 

Does your writing program save your progress automatically? → You don’t want to lose hours upon hours of work because you forgot to save your progress! 

Is your writing secure? → Is your writing uploaded to a cloud? Will you still be able to access your writing if your computer crashes or you lose your login data/ phone/notebook? Can you easily create external backups of your files?

It really doesn’t matter what you need to write down at this early point. Be it an idea, rough outline, dialogue, stream of consciousness, mind map or a finished draft—you just want your entire writing process to happen in a secure, accessible location that you feel confident working in. There is no perfect writing program; whatever program works best for you is the best program for you! 

For example: 

I almost exclusively write on Google Docs since it meets all my personal writing needs: It’s a free cloud service that syncs my files all across my devices (phone, laptop, tablet) regardless of where I am. It has an intuitive interface with all the basic writing/formatting tools I need. 

Once a month, I download my most recent drafts as “.docx”-files and back them up on an external hard drive—so even if I can’t, for whatever reason, access my Google Docs account, my files are still secured in a different location. 

Sometimes, I make use of handwritten notes, too—though I keep losing them or can’t decipher my handwriting…This seems minuscule or even funny, but it’s hard to come back to an idea when you’ve literally lost the physical manifestation of it! 

Next: The Idea: Coming Up With and Developing Your Idea (with examples)

Masterlist

[archandshri]

22nd March ‘24 - [arch] Mad About Munch, Warm-up sketches and daaarknesss???

Good evening, Shri! I forgot that it is Friday, but at the beginning of writing this, I have an hour and 27 minutes until Friday is over, so I WILL be on time!

Wow, like a lot has happened? But I also don’t have tons to show for it. (it’s because I’m working on cool secret project that I’m not allowed to talk about which is fun!)

Stuff i have been doing

Museums :0!!!! I have been travelling and in my old age apparently, I like old art now???

Gathering a lot of reference images - photos, but also general inspiration

Finally organising my digital space a bit! I backed up like 3 years' worth of Procreate images and cleared out half my iPad

Getting some of my sketchbooks, especially comic development, digitised and onto Google Slides! I follow a similar process to when I was at uni still, with a huge PowerPoint for a project that contains reference images, inspiration, plot bullet points, and links to google docs where I write the scripts, development sketches and finals. It makes it super easy to go back to important parts of the development and be reminded of things I might have lost in the development process

Warm-up sketches because you bullied me into it (affectionate)

Continuing to explore colour

2 things I would like to tell you more about: 1) Edvard Munch!!!!!! If you ever get the chance to visit the Munch Museum in Oslo, do it!! I hadn’t seen a whole museum dedicated to one guy before, but seeing so much of his work in one place, in person really helped me understand it better. They also had a fantastic audio tour to rent that made it super accessible. I had just come from thinking about colour last week and becoming more comfortable with darker colours, and I had been thinking about personality and narrative in settings and backgrounds - both of which he does really well. In particular, The Sick Child, Eye in Eye, and The Sun stood out to me.

2) Play. AGAIN!!!!! I feel like I’m constantly having to fight myself, reminding myself to let go, play around, and explore without the expectation of a final outcome. You told me to try some 20 min warm-up and cool-down sketches - which I’ve been doing and has been going great! They’re not all perfect and aren’t supposed to be, but I’ve also had some really fun outcomes that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. I also feel like I’m getting more of a grip on colour :0

Plus, I’ve found that I haven’t wanted to post my terrible sketches or even my better ones?? Which has been nice to make without the need for sharing. However, I have found myself craving a final image to share with all of Tumblr and Instagram, thinking of possible images that would do well on those platforms. I think there is a small part of me that wants to create those because it would be fun, but I think it’s mostly to fix the number-shaped hole :/ Hank Green made a good video which mentioned the fact that platforms are EXTRA BAD with teaching creators to be addicted to them, even more so than consumers. Video here. It’s good.

I was listening to the Imp and Skizz podcast earlier (Episode - Rendog pt 1), it’s a great podcast, they chat about Hermitcraft a bit but mostly about what being alive is like and being a creator, I really recommend them too. Anyway, Skizz said he was once told to ‘create videos that he wanted to watch.’ And I think it’s a good approach to have when creating. What do I wanna see/ read?

I would love to chat to you about the balance between dark tones and silliness in storytelling too, but it is 11pm and I do have to get up early tomorrow. Plus, I’m not sure I have enough thoughts yet. But for now, it’s left me thinking: what do I want to make? Am I campable of silliness in stories? I want to tell stories with an undertone of darkness, that discusses difficult themes, but how to we do that while keeping it entertaining and not just Too Much(™)?

I dunno, just thoughts I’ve been having. I wanna get them down, even if I don’t have any solutions yet. In the meantime, please accept these sketchbook pages in lieu of philosophical answers. 

Thank you for listening to my rambles once again!

Love <3 Archie

Ps. I saw Frozen the musical and it was Very Sibling, and I cried. It made me think of you and I think you would like it (it’s only a bit different to the film but it makes such a difference omg)

[everygame]

Star Soldier (NES)

Developed/Published by: Hudson Soft Released: 13/06/1986 Completed: 10/07/2024 Completion: Beat it using all warps, saving at the start of each level (and before each boss. I’ll admit it!)

The Star Soldier series is an interesting one–or rather, its position in the pantheon is interesting. If you’re a Japanese gamer, it’s legendary–the core franchise in Hudson’s yearly “All-Japan Caravan Festival” where the company toured its games across Japan and players took part in timed score-attack challenges. For everyone else, it’s… a shooter series that is barely remembered and not especially highly rated.

Without an equivalent caravan–and the series not being released in arcades–there would have been little chance for western audiences to get exposed to Star Soldier, so unlike your Gradiuses or your R-Types, where you would be thrilled by it in arcades and then want whatever home version you could get your hands on, with Star Soldier you were taking a gamble on something that didn’t look like much of anything–especially when this wasn’t released until 1989 in North America!

And, to be honest, such a gamble would have been… ill-advised. It’s not that Star Soldier is bad as such, it’s just that in 1986–never mind 1989–it’s just a bit… underwhelming. Coming just two months after Konami’s superb port of Gradius, it already feels like a throwback to the immediate post-Xevious era as a visually simple vertical shooter with an emphasis on enemy patterns and hidden tiles that feels undoubtedly workman-like, with little variety from stage to stage.

It does have its quirks, however. The power-up system offers some risk-reward in that after a few power-ups you’re quickly given full multi-directional firing and a shield that protects you from basic enemy shots, but as soon as you take a hit you lose the multi-directional firing for a straight double shot, but you can’t get it back until you’ve lost your shield completely. Every power-up you pick-up instead works as a smart bomb, meaning that you have to either endanger yourself for later gains or rely on the occasional power ups as pressure releases (trusting, of course, that you can navigate to them on screen when they’re at their most useful.)

The secret tiles also offer more than just points and extra lives–at the cost of obscurity that is often worse than The Tower of Druaga. In fact, unless you’re playing on an actual Famicom, you can’t access one of the tiles at all (as it requires shouting into the second controller’s microphone.) That one is “Takahashi’s Expert Thumb” which allows you to get 16 shots on screen at one time, but there’s also a laser power-up that only shows up once(?) that requires you to press select at the right moment, and then of course there’s the new, post-Super Mario Bros. essential, warps, which can get you through the game skipping half the levels if you’re able to ensure your score matches digits at the hundreds and thousands, which is not easy to do.

So far, fair enough, but not every quirk is to the game’s benefit. The biggest and most baffling thing that any player of Star Soldier will immediately experience is that sometimes your ship goes under the stage. While that’s happening, you can’t shoot or be shot, which sounds like it would be good if you could control it, but as far as I could work out–and I’ve spent ages searching for information on this–it is close to random. 

It feels like it doesn’t happen if you try and cross over tiles from the side, but there are many situations where you have to approach them from the front, and it doesn’t always result in you going under. If there’s any true rhyme or reason to it it’s locked away in some ancient Japanese strategy guide that’s never been digitised–but I wouldn’t be surprised if that also threw its hands up.

All that really matters is that any time it happens, you don’t want it to. Because you can’t control it, you can never think “oh, I’ll pop under this bit of the stage and chill out while I’m being swarmed” instead it’s usually “gotta get that power up!” [goes under stage, misses power up] or popping out from under directly into enemy fire or straight into an enemy.

Additionally, the game is seriously punishing when it comes to the bosses. There are only two–which I can’t be too hard on, I mean Gradius really only has the one–but if you can’t defeat them within a harsh time limit the game throws you back quite a bit through the level and demands you try again! You’ve got just ten seconds to defeat the Star Brain, and thirty to defeat the Big Star Brain.

The sneaky trick here is that the game offers you auto-fire once you’re powered up, but in order to defeat in particular the Big Star Brain using it you have to be perfect. My own experience is ultimately anecdotal, here, but you are actually expected to do your best Takahashi Meijin impression by hammering the fire button to fire faster than the auto-fire–and even at that, defeating the bosses is probably more efficiently done with the double shot.

It feels a touch cruel and probably a reaction to the fact that the game honestly doesn’t feel that difficult outside of that. It’s not something you’d breeze through–and I definitely didn’t attempt to master its intricacies–but most of my deaths during the levels seemed to come from frustration with dipping under the stage, meaning that the bosses feel like the major issue (though if my anecdotal evidence is correct, you might be able to breeze through them with a good autofire.)

Ultimately? The fact is that nothing Star Soldier does is all that interesting–apart from the things that are annoying about it.

Will I ever play it again? The value in any shooter really is in how much you’d like to play it from the beginning and see how far you can get or how high you can score. I feel no interest in that here.

Final Thought: Not only were North American players who were unfortunate enough to buy this denied Takahashi’s Expert Thumb, Taxan’s release was so lazy that they missed that the game features an entire second, increased difficulty mode that can also only be unlocked by using a code that involves shouting into the second controller. It’s even got different graphics!

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