#I would die for them and their 90s tech

[thresholdbb]

Babies girl

[strangebiology]

I think a lot of the people in my life who have expressed disgust or disapproval of my interest in/collection of animal remains have come at it first from the perspective of "but diseases!" like regular uncleanliness stigma. the second most common reaction is that interest in/collection of/comfort with animal remains (to be clear, i collect bones and sometimes preserved tails or pelts and these are the objects in question) is... creepy? and, the people who are most disgusted/creeped out are usually people who by and large dont interact with wild animals or livestock. my friends who are vet techs or who hunt or who practice animal husbandry are more or less unfazed.

(Re: What are actual common attitudes towards animal remains?)

Interesting, thank you!

Now, I'm wondering if people mistake personal discomfort for immorality.

I've mentioned my one video that did get some negative comments, showing the slaughter of a reindeer (you can see it here but I have warnings on it for a reason! Blood and death!) And, I think 90% or so (I suppose I could go count them) are more reasonable.

First, people are mad at the assumption that I killed a reindeer (I did NOT kill it, I just filmed it.) Then, the issue is it's being killed for no reason (it was NOT no reason, it's for food.) Then the method is criticized (this is one of the ONLY legal ways to kill them and it's quicker than it looks because of post-mortem spasms.) Then, when those concerns are disproven, the only issue left is "filming and posting it is sadistic." So...killing was no problem, but showing anyone that their meat came from a death was a problem. (Again, I respect if you don't want to see it! So please heed the warnings unless your desire to know how reindeer are killed outweighs your discomfort with watching a death!)

I wonder if sometimes people are overly focused on prioritizing their own 5-second comfort over things that matter a lot more, but are external to them, and they don't really care about others who they are not currently looking in the face of at all.

This isn't a 100% relevant example, but consider the people who don't want to donate their organs after death. A common reason to forgo something that could save and improve lots of lives is "it sounds gross!" Ickiness really should not be a factor in whether or not to save lives--the donor will never see or feel it, but since it's not their own life being saved, the 5-second icky feeling when checking the "donor" box is suddenly more important than the saved and improved human lives.

I know I shouldn't think too hard about one random experience, but I will always remember this one. I was once at a consumer survey thing for a turkey meat brand, where participants tried the meat and said what we thought about the name, taste, packaging, branding etc. We were instructed to circle what we liked on the branding and cross out what we didn't like.

One participant crossed out the part where it said "humanely raised." I asked if she had made a mistake, or...does she feel like the label is disingenuous or something...? Surely she's pro-humane treatment of animals, right??

"No," she said. "I don't want them to do that. I don't want to think about their lives when I'm eating them, and they don't need to be humane to animals that are going to die anyway." Most of the group agreed. I couldn't help but point and say "YOU'RE gonna die anyway!"

That may have been the first time I encountered a group of people shamelessly agreeing that they would rather animals suffer unnecessarily than think for one second that the animal whose body they are using/eating was ever even alive. Because not feeling guilty about something was infinitely more important to them than any amount of suffering that someone else might experience.

[theresattrpgforthat]

hello! I've played the fallout ttrpg (the one they had to pull the rights from when it was pretty much done so they called it Exodus instead), I wish it didn't suck so bad! Is there any system I could borrow that would fit with Fallout's setting? I love the world in itself, but Exodus was rushed and published half-baked

THEME: Fallout

Hello friend, I have quite a few games for you to check out today! Some of them are direct homages, while others simply just have elements that might remind you of the video game.

Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes, by Nerdy Pup Games.

Play misfit outlaws fighting against the authoritarian Powers That Be in a hyper-saturated, film-grained, retro dystopia. Save the future with the power of friendship, whoopass, and explosions! Features sticker-based character advancement, effortless cinematic vehicle action, and player-driven Ride-or-Die system usings d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, and d12s.

This game is a bit more colourful and punk-rock, and a little less morally grey than some of the more popular Fallout games. The designer cites some pretty colourful inspirations, such as FLCL and Six-String Samurai, but also concedes that you can make the tone fit that of Borderlands, Fallout, and Mad Max. It depends on how you build your world - what tech was there before? What kinds of weirdness persists? What beliefs have survived?

You’ll make skill rolls that can be boosted by gear or your personal style, with anything above a 4 granting you a success, with bonuses for rolling even higher at an 8 or a 12. Badges are the representations of character growth, tied to the skills that you choose to improve, somewhat like how concentrating on certain skills in Fallout gives you access to perks. If you want a stripped-down basic idea of the rules for this game, the designer has a Pay-what-you-want playtest that you can download for free, just to dip your toes in the water.

Earth: After Death, by Hammer City Games.

Boasting deep and crunchy mechanics reminiscent of the golden age of 90s TTRPGs, Earth, After Death focuses on OSR-style gaming, dungeon and hex crawling, fast-paced combat, high lethality, and a unique and fascinating setting to explore.

There’s plenty to do: kill mutants, explore ancient ruins, get lethal radiation poisoning, find a gun that has infinite ammunition, use psionic powers to blow up peoples heads, replace your legs with tank treads, and more!

This is a chunky, old-school style game that takes care to mention that your level-up system is just like the advancement system in Fallout games. You’ll be dealing with mutations, ghost machines, bartering for gear, and hex-crawling through dangerous wastelands. The character sheets point to a lot of moving pieces, so if you like wrangling together a character that does exactly what you want them to do, you’re going to have a lot to play with here. It looks like mutation is also a pretty big deal in this game, with over 100 different kinds advertised on the game’s store page.

Right now just the Wasteland’s Handbook is available to purchase, but the kickstarter for this game will be taking off later this year. If this sounds like your kind of game, then maybe hop over to the website to get in on the first full edition as it releases!

Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, by Modiphius.

In 2077, the storm of nuclear war reduced most of the planet to cinders. From the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization will struggle to arise. A civilization you will shape. How will you re-shape the world? Will you join with a plucky band of survivors to fight off all-comers and carve out your own settlement? Will you team up with pre-existing factions like the Brotherhood of Steel or Super Mutants to enforce your own ideals on the Wasteland? Ghoul or robot, paladin or raider, it’s your choice - and the consequences are yours. Welcome to the Wasteland. Welcome to the world of Fallout.

Utilizing Modiphius’ celebrated 2d20 cinematic role-playing system, the Fallout RPG will take players on an exciting journey into the post-apocalypse! Create your own survivors, super mutants, ghouls, and even Mister Handy robots. Immerse yourselves in the iconic post-nuclear apocalyptic world of Fallout, while gamemasters guide their group through unique stories and encounters. The 2d20 edition of Fallout is as close to the bottlecap bartering, wasteland wandering, Brotherhood battling excitement as you can get.

Modiphius gets the license to make a lot of games for different properties, so a Fallout game fits in alongside other big titles like Dune, John Carter of Mars, and Alien. This company uses their own 2d20 system, with a focus on inventory and Perks in an effort to make the game recognizable to any typical Fallout fan.

That being said, the game has come under fire for being poorly edited and inconsistent when it comes to finding the right rule. The company updated the game last year and released a Settler’s Guide book, so this might be something that’s a bit more read-able now. But if you want something set directly in the Fallout universe, this is your game.

WASTELAND, by MaelikGames.

WASTELAND is a simple tabletop RPG about adventurers in the world that has only recently became hospitable after a War that might not end all wars, but almost ended the world. You and your friends decide whether this world is bleak and hopeless, like the one in Metro, or somewhat whimsical, as in Fallout. 

Much of the inspiration from Fallout appears in the character options of this game. Arkanites are homages to Vault-Dwellers, Radkin are inspired by Ghouls, and robots are, well, robots. The talents also look like they are directly inspired by Fallout perks, such as Animal Friend, which allows you to turn hostile animals into allies. Gear and inventory are both very important in this game, which is something that I never find surprising in post-apocalyptic games, since having to track inventory feels like a pretty important thing in a game about scarcity. Your skills are also based on a percentage of success, because you’re rolling a d100, with the goal of rolling under your target number. If you’re looking for a game that can mechanically reflect much of what’s available in the Fallout video games, this might be for you!

Dystopia Rising: Evolution, by Onyx Path.

No one knows how long it’s been since the world was blasted with nuclear radiation and became infested with the undead. The survivors of the Fall were the first strain of deviation of the human condition and were able to make it through the rapidly spreading epidemic. Finding a community of decent size in this world is rare; finding one that has any concept of equality or morality is rarer still.

Oh, and people have the unnerving ability to come back from the dead, regrown from the very virus that destroyed the world.

This is a completely different world from Fallout and yet I think it might still be worth talking about in this rec post. Dystopia Rising has a rich, detailed world, with various factions and faiths, and your characters are differentiated by the Strains that have helped them survive. There are plenty of conflicting beliefs that can be the seeds for unlimited conflict, including various faiths in things like evolution or the preservation of humanity, strains that give you psychic powers, and a universal ability to come back to the dead so many times before you’re turned into a mindless zombie.

There’s plenty of opportunity to fight things hand-to-hand, but there’s just as many possibilities to politic your way out of tough scenarios, which is a hallmark of Fallout New Vegas. Not only that, there's no clear "good guys": this is a complicated world with complicated people. If you want a game that carries a lot of similar themes of Fallout but puts you in a new setting, maybe check out this game.

Games I’ve Recommended in the Past

Extinction Punk, by Extinction Punk.

Wastoid, by Jason Tocci.

[solar-sparky]

Could you tell us more about your agent 24 (if you do agent 24) if you would be so kind 👉👈?

Rubs my hands together with malicious intent

Okay so! Let's talk about Char (Charlie/Agent 3) and Al (Allen/Phyto/Agent8) these two goobers :)

(They/Them and He/She respectively)

A bit of background for each:

Char experienced something in the past that caused them to be way more solitary, not completely cold-shoulder, and struggle with "I cant save/help anyone.". They join the Splatoon to help Cuttlefish, since the whole mission goes well and they defeat Octavio, it gives them a boost in confidence, not a lot and they are relatively quiet about it. They finally felt useful for once.

Al (Phyto at the time) isnt a soldier, she is a mechanic. While not strictly working with the government/military, she is called in to work for them pretty regularly for stuff like weapon and tech repairs. Another job he does is Zapfish care, pretty self explanatory, he does weekly checks with the zapfish.

The first time these two interact is during the Splatoon 1 storymode. Al only recently started hearing rumors about an inkling running around and taking the zapfish, at first he brushes it off. It's not until she goes to do her zapfish checks does she find out that it is in fact true and she runs into 3. Al does try to defend the bulb where the zapfish is, but not being as skilled in combat as 3, he does not come out victorious and the zapfish is taken away.

After that, everytime that Al goes to check on the fish, all the bulbs are shattered and empty. (Except for one that she finds, that's where her funny looking little zapfish comes from. Its name is 1202.)

Fast forward to the arc of OE.

Al had been planning to leave the domes for a while (about 2 years) and finally she had a plan; take the abandoned underground train tracks that Al discovered a while ago far enough. (how the gang end up in the deepsea metro is never explained so we're going with this.) Unfortunately for them this is the area 3 and Cuttlefish are surveying/exploring and that also leads into the deep sea. They dont get into a fight (Per Al's signal) and instead they somewhat travel together until they reach kamabo co.'s territory where in then security gets them.

Cuttlefish and 3 aren't deemed useful/worthy so they are just taken to one of the abandoned platform stations, Al on the other hand is taken to be sanitized. The process begins but near completion, it is interrupted by 3 taking an unconscious, nearing death Al and hauling him back to the safe spot is with Cuttlefish and 1202.

I have a bunch of headcanons for how this primordial ooze works but to put it simply, since the sanitization process was not complete for Al, it leaves her in very critical condition. Getting back to Cuttlefish now, Al is basically gone, no response from him, no breathing, no pluse, no nothing and his digits are going white (if you dont know, when inkfish die, they turn completely white/translucent. I like to also think that Splatoon inkfish, after a short amount of time after death, dry up and flake away.). Cuttlefish and 3 cant really be carrying a body around for, multiple reasons and make the decision to leave Al there, off to the side and covered. However, Al's zapfish protests and squirms out of Cuttlefishs hold and rushes over to Al thinking Al is just sleeping. Normally 1202 would wake Al up by jumping on him or tugging at him, and if all else doesn't work, even if 1202 can produce little electricity if any at all, it would shock Al. After a few tries, the shocking works and Al is back, however now about 90% sanitized; having no memories except for only remembering 1202, which he then proceeds to carry around everywhere. It is worth to note that Al cannot speak during the OE arc, and he communicates through different means.

Instead of being who knows where in the canon storymode, Char actually stays with Cuttlefish and Al on the train up until 3/4 of the way through where Cuttlefish tasks them with finding an alternative route incase Al's mission and the telephones promise dont work.

A bunch of stuff happens on the train like;

- Char, while technically saving Al, feels really guilty for her state

- Being sanitized, Al does not experience pain and pair that with her inexperience, leads to her being pretty careless when doing tests and comes back the the train with injuries almost everytime. Char starts to get a little worried, even though the wounds heal very fast. They proceed to start pulling Al off to the side after stations and bandaging her up.

- With the mem cakes, Al does recover their memories. He tries to explain to Cuttlefish, Char and sometimes Isopadre by using the mem cakes, the best way I can describe it is like Al playing with the mem cakes like toys to tell a story.

- Al had 2 friends down in the domes, Aurora (Octoling soldier) and Skip (a failed DJ Octavio clone; Octotrooper)

I dont have a design for Aurora but I do for Skip!

Continuing on, Al has mem cakes of these two friends of his and when Char heads out to proceed to find a different route, he gives the mem cakes over to Char. Why? Just incase, Al knows they may have gone looking for him (this does turn out to be true).

Anyways, skipping ahead (I'm skipping Char's mindcontrol phase cause there is some stuff from that chapter that havent shared and want to keep for myself for a little while longer :)) after the defeat of the NILS statue, Al almost dies again from overexertion, both her and Char do go to the hospital. Char is omitted from the hospital sooner than Al due to Al's critical condition and it is atleast a month or so later that Al is finally sent home.

I'm waiting to see what the deal is with side order before I commit to splat3 storystuff with Al but that's the mostly full story!

Some little fun facts

- Sometimes on outings, Al likes to bring along Finch (Agent 4) because he finds them silly. Char is completely okay because Finch kinda just does his own thing.

- Al is decently clingy to Char.

- Both being Aroace (as with most of my characters) their relationship is funny in the way that while they call eachother partner, they are sorta in a way like "oh but we aren't like that, just really good friends." Which in a way that's literally what they are but they dont know the right word it for a very long time.

- Allen has more energy when compared to Char.

Anyways that's it for now :)

[heyclickadee]

Okay, here’s the slightly evil, kind of sad, but mostly happy in a somewhat melancholy way (basically just a lot of feelings here) thought I had about Tech and Phee having kids, if that should ever happen:

So, operating under the assumption that Tech comes back, let’s say he and Phee do get together. And let’s say they stay together, and end up more or less space married. Let’s say they both want kids, and, after a lot of discussion about the war going on in the background and how they’re going to raise them and keep them safe, they end up going ahead with it. They don’t really settle down in any one place, but they’ve got their own ship with plenty of room, Pabu (maybe) is a good, stable home base to go back to when needed, and they’ve got a huge family for support. Those kids, if they have more than one, are loved. They have tons of uncles, somebody is always around, maybe some of the other batchers have partners (or not) and also have kids or adopt kids (heck, let’s throw Riyo in there, too, since she and Echo are a popular ship—they end up together but they don’t want kids, but they do a lot of work helping younger clones when they’re not fighting the Empire, Hunter took in several of the clone cadets they rescued from Tantiss, Wrecker is the favorite uncle but Crosshair is the favorite babysitter, they all manage to visit Cut and Suu once in a while, and and both Omega and Lyana are delighted to have little cousins running around (I kind of headcanon that Shep and Lyana kind of adopted Phee into their family after she found Pabu, so even if we’re going with a version of Phee that was formerly a Jedi and and doesn’t really know who her birth parents were, her kids are going to have family on both sides).

And this all exists just as a headcanon for something that could maybe happen after season three, depending on how season three goes, buuuut I like it. It’s just this nice little thought of this big, chaotic family, way bigger than just our six batchers, that’s structured a little weirdly, because clones, and everyone has their problems. but they’re all doing their best for each other and there’s a lot of love in it. And then I started thinking about clone aging.

And we all know clone aging sucks, but: let’s say clones really do age at twice the normal rate once they reach maturity, and let’s say Tech is chronologically, like, twelve but physically in his late twenties. A hard late twenties where he could pass for anything between thirty and fifty, but late twenties all the same. Suppose he gets the best case scenario and manages to live till he’s physically 90. Chronologically, he’ll be around forty-five. So, close to best case scenario, barring dying violently or getting sick, he’s got maybe another thirty-three years in him. That might seem like a lot (and it probably is to a clone), but to put that in perspective, I’m thirty-five. If I die in thirty-three years, I’ll only be sixty-eight—I’ll have died pretty young. And I’ve already been alive almost three times as long as many of the clones have. The clones do not get that much time.

There’s a lot to be explored with that in regards to Phee; I’ll be honest, the potential, “This is going to be over faster than either of us are going to be ready for,” “It is—let’s do it anyway,” is part of why at draws me to the ship, because there’s something a little defiant about two people going into a relationship knowing one of them was built to die faster, and choosing to live their lives how they want despite that. But there’s also a lot to be explored in how Phee and Tech would handle that with their kids. Because—they’d tell them. They’d have to sit down and tell them once they got to a certain age. Tech is going to be lucky to see them hit their twenties. It’s not like they wouldn’t notice their dad and their clone uncles getting old so much faster than their mom, Omega, or their uncle Shep, or anyone else they know. They’d ask questions, and it’s not like Tech wouldn’t be up-front. But I don’t think it’d be an easy conversation for any of them to have.

[cat-of-starlight]

I DO have a long Project Moon Universe post/mini-essay(?) I wanna make (Well. focused on Limbus, but also the other games as well), but I want a few more Cantos to go by first for references to prove my point,,,,

Spark Notes draft below the cut if anyone's interested in the premise: "The City, and its relationship towards those who are too gentle for it's cruelty"

Ok great, for the people still here- The sad little essay I wanna eventually make-

I think it's. TRUELY heartbreaking how much kindness as a concept seems to be punished in the city, to the point where its often an active point that the truly kind (or at least notably non-violent) characters always seem to get the shortest straws.

I won't get into too many specifics till I make the Whole Real Post, but- It feels like a few things typically happen to "Kind" people in this city

They distort

They flat out die

They become an outcast

The city beats the kindness out of them by force until they are forced to conform to cruelty

And tbh? Not loving how the community collectively treats some of them.

I mean, one one hand, we have people like Yuri- People LOVE Yuri. She never did a single thing wrong, and we can all agree-

But those who distorted or conformed? Seem to be collectively treated worse, while other OBJECTIVELY worse characters get off scot free

(*Note: Final essay will include more examples, these are the main ones I have off the top of my head)

--

For an example- Think back to Runia- I CRIED through Philip's plotline. I could clearly see the story of a man who- maybe wasn't the most courageous- who TRIED to help how he could- Got pressured so hard that he snapped and distorted under the pressure, becoming something that was beyond his own feelings, letting his distortion bury his heart to not feel that pain again- I LOVED that storyline, and then I come online and see him mocked for being some useless dipshit coward- THAT'S JUST SOME GUY- It's not his fault for being caught up in horrors beyond human comprehension (*Note: I checked his wiki for details. that man was only 24. He is younger than me. This man is barely an adult, no WONDER tbh)

--

Or my most... controversial character opinion, considering how I feel about Dongrang. Let me start with a disclaimer- I didn't read the books, and my opinion of him has exactly NOTHING to do with whoever the real life counterpart apparently is- I'm EXCLUSIVELY talking about the FICTIONAL character.

Limbus went out of their way to show that he'd, at least at some point, been a guy who was SO KIND that he was actively wasting his own money to help people/animals, and his co-workers ACTIVELY berated him about it- He wanted his tech to be healing, just so he could save people-

And then, of course, like every kind deed in The City, it didn't go unpunished- And to survive, he adapted. I'm not saying his actions weren't wrong- they were. I am, however, saying that I don't necessarily BLAME him for snapping.

He never WANTED to become like the other cruel people in the city, and even the cutscene images of him complying with it show him in visibly agony over it, and one image even shows him in tears- He never WANTED to be another cog in that awful machine, but when faced with that or utter destruction, he made a choice to survive.

Hell, half of him distorting himself was due to how guilty he felt for doing all of that in the first place-

Meanwhile, online, 90% of posts about him are "teehee I hate this piece of shit-"

--

For both of these that HAVE committed questionable acts in some way, I'm not saying I condone the things that happened. Because I don't. But I CAN feel sympathy and pity for them over the things that happened to make them what they became.

I can only imagine what the city would be like if kind people like them and others had been ALLOWED to be kind, without being punished for it.

--

And with all of this, all these characters who DARED to be kind, who DARED to fight back, even for a little bit, before inevitably being either physically or emotionally destroyed by the sheer weight of how this city works at its core- ...Some of the TRUE villains are treated better by the fandom then they are.

Canto III? Kromer- People go nuts for her- Some people even ship her with Sinclair, despite it all. She gets so much fanart. She gets SO many people ogling "ooo evil lady pretty", only for her to commit atrocities with a smile, and without a single slimmer of remorse.

Canto IV? Alfonso. Batshit insane, evil as hell- at least half the reason that characters like Dongrang ended up as fucked up as they did. You'd think "Wow- this is the person that made the person we hate the way they are, lets hate her too!" right? WRONG. Again, she gets the "pretty evil woman" treatment and people brush off her atrocities to ogle her. She also gets love by at least part of the fanbase.

And to that, WHY? I don't get it, genuinely. - Their actions?: horrible, terrible, not redeemable in the SLIGHTEST - Appearances?: You know what, I'll be honest- I think ladies are pretty (I'm Demi, but I can 100% enjoy a view) but I think these are actually two of the least attractive women I've laid eyes on. (Not the point of the post, and that's just opinion, but anyway)

And I'm not sure what causes it, honestly.

There are moments where at its worst, it almost makes me feel like the distant cruelty of The City isn't so distant after all- Those who are mostly kind, but fell into despair and tragedy, and turned into something worse get overwhelming hate-

Those who are evil, yet a bit more charismatic in approach become beloved?

Overall- Its a strange, curious tragedy of The City that the kind are often scorned and punished, and the evil stay beloved and in power-

It's just odd to see the mirror of that in the fanbase's reactions.

---

ALRIGHT GANG- That concludes my EXTREMELY rough draft of my eventual thing about The City's weird relationship with people who try to be kind, and the overall mirrored reactions of the fans-

If something in here is just rambling, or doesn't make sense, sorry- again, rough draft, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway

--

EDIT: Ok before anyone notices them not being included, I purposefully left out main LCB sinners and ESPECIALLY Dante, because though I could write about them forever, I want a little more canon content to work with before rambling about them in this post- They are a GREAT midpoint as someone who can't remember the cruelty of The City, and is now clearly struggling with the urge to stay kind in the face of The Horrors™- Honestly they were my main inspiration for this, but I DO want more info before writing about them fully, thanks <3

[rainbowrocketquotes]

random little post to spruce up the posting on here because I live and die by the queue function and by god have I been forgetting to add to it

presenting: what music I think the villains listen to

//note : this is based mostly off of people I associate with the villains because everyone I hang out with is a music freak. if you think an 50 hour playlist is bad, wait until you get a hold of my best friend's 600 hour one

Giovanni

No way in hell this man isn't a swing fan. His playlist is exclusively 50's—70's and there is no coherent genre. If you listen to music with him you could be vibing to Marvin Gaye and then Elvis could come on.

Maxie

Pry Roar and The Front Bottoms from his cold, dead hands. Just BIG Folk Punk vibes from him. Also, a good amount of Alt-Rock. His guilty pleasure, though? Country music. He's probably the one that listens to the most music, just because he feels like the kind of guy that can't work without background noise.

Archie

Very well rounded, says he doesn't have a preference, but has a slight one for rock music. Specifically he enjoys 80s & 90s metal. He feels like the kind of guy to be really into Megadeth. Maybe sprinkle some Tech N9ne in there for flavor.

Cyrus

Realistically he's definitely a full Alternative fan. I think he's super into Weirdcore (See: Lemon Demon, Will Wood) but would never admit it. He also listens to Emo Rap and Russian Rap on occasion but doesn't really consider them favourites. He pretends he doesn't like music, though, so he only really gets to listen to what other people force him to.

Ghetsis

Screamo, next question—

Kidding, but he really does like screamo, metal, and hard rock. He'll pretend he only likes vague classical music to seem more mysterious and then you look at his history and it's all Slaughter to Prevail and Korn.

Colress

I like to think he doesn't really listen to music in his free time. He usually listens to whatever is on, which is usually Ghetsis's screamo. He keeps him from ruining speakers. He does enjoy Green Day, though, and some Olivia Rodrigo.

Lysandre

He really likes single instrument covers, especially violin. Absolute Lindsey Stirling fanboy. Also enjoys Lana Del Rey and MARINA a lot. Those kinds of pop artists, you know?

Guzma

He's definitely the most well-rounded with his tastes, mostly because he listens to a lot of it. He listens to a lot of pre-2010s hip-hop & rnb. He loves dance music and electronica as well, and generally just a lot of old school stuff. Anything from 2pac to Gewn Stefani, baby. Mood/genre-switched covers are also a thing, and just covers in general. Catch him in his room at 2am listening to egg on repeat (then back away awkwardly and shut the door because he gets too into it and starts crying).

Lusamine

Listens to a lot of what Lysandre does. Lorde, Billie Eilish, anything hard pop that can pass as alternative. Nobody will ever trust her with the aux/bluetooth/radio/etc. because she always plays music nobody likes. She once got into a fight with Cyrus on what is and isn't alternative music and he didn't speak to her for a month after.

Bonuses, villains I don't include on the blog

Rose

Classical music. Bach & Chopin always playing from his office. More for ominous ambiance than anything, but he does genuinely enjoy it.

Oleana

She doesn't really listen to music, but she likes rap. She won't go out of her way to listen to anything, though.

Volo

Echoey latin chants with ambient noises in the background /hj. If he was in the modern day, I think he'd like NF and Panic! At the Disco.

[littlestarlost]

Yellowjackets is a show about trauma. I don't know what else to tell you.

Alright, blood hive, here we go again.

We're about halfway through season 2 at this point, and I remain more convinced than ever that a large portion of the viewing public is not fundamentally listening to what the wilderness the showrunners are trying to say. If you're looking for a singular capital-R Reason for everything we see in the show, you're looking at the wrong stuff. So here are some more thoughts.

(Spoilers for all of Yellowjackets up to S2E5, "Two Truths and a Lie")

One: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and its relationship to magical thinking.

I get another grey hair every time I see someone trying to puzzle out just what is in the woods.

There's nothing in the woods, y'all. Nothing. Until I'm proven wrong by the show itself, this is the hill I will stubbornly die on. But show has been EXTREMELY consistent this whole time in its ambiguity, and in my opinion anyone using the red string and thumbtacks approach to Yellowjackets is being played for a fool. It doesn’t matter if there’s actually an entity in the woods (there isn’t), or if Lottie actually has powers (she doesn’t); what matters is that the survivors are clinging to any answers they can grasp in a situation full of unknowns, and so are we. Part of what’s so devastating about their plight is that there’s no real reason for any of it. This is the basis for literally every religion humans have ever had; we’ve been grasping at ritual and magical thinking for millennia. We are observing the growth of that dependence and ritual right now, in the second season. We are also seeing the consequences of that situation in the future. We are seeing how the power of thought can provide both comfort and further trauma.

I suspect that we will never learn the meaning behind the mysterious symbol. I've seen theories that it's a witch's mark, or even that it's a miner's signal and that all the weird stuff happening to the Yellowjackets is the result of mercury poisoning because they're inadvertently on top of an old mine. That's a nice theory, but I don't think it's correct, and I also don't think it should be revealed anyway. It doesn't ultimately matter what the symbol meant to the dead guy or his cabin; what matters is what the symbol represents for the Yellowjackets themselves.

Two: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and the way it twists the unknown.

I am fascinated but frustrated by the apparent age split with fans. It seems to me that there's a pretty good-sized gap between the older fans of the show, who would have been kids/teenagers in the 90s (including me), and the gen Z viewers, the latter of which seem unable to really really understand just how wild the wilderness is. The generational split here is with those who remember how VCRs work because we had them and those who have never needed to know. It's a split between we who went through our primary school years without access to Wikipedia and those who have had the wealth of human knowledge in their pockets since they were children.

I’ve watched people do all sorts of questioning and speculating, and it almost always traces back to whether or not you understand how the world worked before smartphones, AKA most of human history. Let me answer some of those questions right now off the top of my head:

How could the Yellowjackets not be found for 19 months?

People used to just fucking vanish, fam. We did not have GPS, we did not have trackers, we barely had battery-powered walkmen. People vanished all the time, and were never ever seen again. Sometimes they did it on purpose, and a lot of the time they disappeared by accident or malice, and a lot of times they died. 1996 doesn't seem that long ago in terms of technology, but it is. People still go missing to this day, even with all our tech tracking us everywhere. Canada is fucking huge and a lot of it is mostly wilderness. Here's a photo I found from Statistics Canada with the population density of Ontario; the black areas represent places where there's basically goddamn nothing but wilderness.

2. How was there no road to the Cabin Guy's Cabin? How did he get there? How did he get supplies there?

He had a plane, and also, once again: people used to disappear all the time. In his case, he seems to have done it on purpose.

3. How could Shauna possibly deliver a child in those conditions? How could the baby be getting the nutrients it needs?

People did this successfully for tens of thousands of years, you guys. You're literally reading this post because our ancestors successfully birthed children in the middle of fucking nowhere with zero medical aid or support.

4. How could Lottie know about the bear or the starlings or or or...?

Easy: she doesn't. Not entirely, anyway. She's an empathetic person who's really good at dealing with the emotions of other people and has a sense of spirituality that appears brave and confident, and people in dire situations with a lot of chaos will depend on that with their lives.

And speaking of Lottie...

Three: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and how it forces you to transform.

At the end of last season I believed that we were going to get a Lottie Villain Era, just like everyone else. I do not believe that now.

Everything we have seen of Lottie shows a girl who was subjected to medical abuse and/or neglect from a very very young age. Regardless of her actual powers or lack thereof, she was placed on medication by her parents and didn't come off of it until she was in a super traumatizing situation in the wilderness. During this most recent season, we have seen both Teenage and Adult Lottie struggle with her role as a spiritual leader and advisor; she's good at it, but it drains her. It isn't something she's doing out of a desire for power or control: it's something she's doing as a trauma response. That trauma response is helping others, so she keeps doing it, but it's still a trauma response. Trauma transforms you into somebody new, over and over again. The scars you bear become your armor, and then your mask, and then it's hard to know where you end and the trauma begins.

Taissa, too, is transformed by trauma. Her other self is a trauma response, similar to alters in a DID system. It comes to the front when Taissa can't deal, and it's both helpful and harmful. I'm willing to bet a lot of her college years were spent sleepwalking, as the Other One dealt with exams and soccer games and law school. Any one of us with dissociative trauma responses can speak to the way that dissociation can be a savior and an abuser in the same breath.

Four: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and how it compounds on itself.

This most recent episode showed Natalie coming to a realization about the last time she saw Travis, and she says the words we've heard in the season trailers: there was something in the woods, something they brought back with them. Or maybe it was in them the whole time.

In my previous essay I talked about how each Yellowjacket arrived in the woods with her own traumas strapped to her back. In my mind, that's what Natalie is talking about. There is no entity in the woods to blame for all of this, no ghost or witch who can be credited with the trauma the girls experienced and inflicted. There is only the trauma itself, in all its many shapes and sizes, in all the ways it fills in the gaps and makes shadows dance by firelight and drives us to the very brink of madness, holding us back by a fraying tether.

Yellowjackets is a show about trauma. The show's theme song rings out every episode: No return, no return, no reason. There is no return to the way things were. There is no return that can erase what you've been through. There is no reason for all of this, except for the one that's been very explicitly outlined via themes and story and dialogue and flashbacks and framing.

Yellowjackets is a show about trauma. It's the only answer we have, and I suspect--and hope--that it's the only answer we're ever going to get.

[musubiki]

recently thinking about the concept of a new npc/semi-cryptid healer character: a little (REALLY little) old lady who rides around on a giant animal (boar or something) whose....family(??) has a long history of healing talents through accupuncture, herbal remedies, pressure points, chiropractic things, etc.

the family line/line of practice has a history of very long life BECAUSE of the healing practices, so this little old lady is maybe...150? 170? years old??? shed be the healer the guild goes to, since her remedies are BETTER than mochis magic AND limes tech junk, she can help any one of them without problem

but the odd thing about her is that shes NOT a witch, weirdly. her healing is 100% natural, which means it works on those with high magic res, since it has nothing to do with magic.

i also think the family history would have this weird relationship with witches, where theyre willing to heal them (for a price of course), but they absolutely REFUSE to give their secrets to any witch. "You'll just make it better and put us out of a job." they always say, so even mochi doesnt know what the hell is in that soup shes eating, all she knows is that its capable of instantly restoring 90% of her magic (5 day cooldown before she can drink it again though, lest she die)

[cosmindart]

One of the current AskIsaak AU I've been thingking about.

Lore infodump bellow

The Flying Lockheart

Trigger warning for topics mentioned: Racism/xenophobia, abuse, death, Genocide and historical badness in general tbh :/

Poem of the Raven God

As I die in your arm I have one last gift for you and for the rest of humanity: To you the men of Wakut, the one who has been by my side through it all, I give you my heart so you will grow stong and compassionate as I am. To your brethren of Gopei who have shown immense respect to me and interest in my craft, I will give my brain so no spell will be to hard for them to learn To the people of Belldam who have shown me the wonders of their food and hospitality, I give my stomach so no ingredient or potion will ever make them sick And to the distant nation of Sladvia who seemed to keep falling to their climate I give my blood so they will never freeze over and forever keep their heart pumping.

Written by Axillary, the first feather of the Wakut. [one of the only salvaged Wakutan literature from the start of the After-Crow Era]

In the world of Eredry there are (or were) four main nations: Wakut, Gopei, Belldam and Sladvia. Each nation has it’s own 'subrace' that descends from humans. They each evolved thanks to the gift of their now-dead god. On the surface they all look human except for the people of Wakut.

Gopei

Visual and cultural inspiration: Japan mainly but also other asian themes

Gift: Gopeijin have access to 3 types of magic: - Telekinesis over inanimate matter (general or specialized to elemental types) - Lumomancy (transforming light particles into solid objects) - Hemomancy (inspired by the Sladvian gift, quite hard to learn)

Curse: On first glance it might look like they do not have any drawback for their powers but on average without magic involved their natural lifespan is significantly shorter (most races can live up to 90 years while Gopeijin people tend to gravitate toward 60 years on average). For a long time there was also propaganda saying women would lose their ability to do magic after losing their virginity so it was “useless to tech them” in an effort to control them and prevent them from learning the arts.

Belldam

Visual and cultural inspiration: Europe, mostly Britain, France and Germany

Gift: Their strong stomach makes them hardly ever get sick. This advantage lead them to to be able to advance potioncraft/alchemy a lot faster and further than the other races. Anyone can learn how to cook/brew potions with the receipes but Belldozans do have access to medical cures other species cannot ingest/digest or they might be able to but would suffer great side effects.

Curse: Because of their strong stomach and the belief that they almost never get sick, the rare time they do ingest something harmful to their bodies they very often realize it only when it’s already too late. It’s common for them to seemingly “drop dead out of nowhere” because they didn’t realize they eat a lethal dose of poison a week ago.

Sladvia

Visual and cultural inspiration: Russia

Gift: Hemokinesis. Sladvians have full control over their blood and can create solid object with it. Controlling their blood also allows them to control their healing speed making them able to close their wound almost instantly at times depending on how big it is.

Curse: Out of the 4 nation their are the one with the most drawbacks: - Most likely to contract blood diseases since they take their blood out of their bodies exposing them to other people’s blood in combat. - More likely to develop cancer when abusing their accelerated healing. - Hemophilia is a HUGE problem. - Using their magic too much they may suffer from partial or total petrification where all the blood in their body turns solid leaving them completely  to die very slowly (cant blinks, cant breath, your suffocate while your brain is getting deprived of oxygen)

Wakut

Visual and cultural inspiration: Unkown/lost to time… but mostly POC in general tbh

Gift: Can shapeshift between a human form and a half-bird form. Despite having lighter bones for flying their physical strength is higher in average that the other races. They are also capable of doing the same magic as the Gopeijins but it’s much harder for them to learn and much more taxing on them in term of energy spent. (the Belldozans and Sladvian can probably also do this magic but chose not to as a matter of pride toward their respective gifts)

Curse: They do not have any physical drawbacks but they did received cultural ones not planned by the god. In the distant past a group of Sladvians spread fake information claiming the Wakut killed their crow god and thus were cursed to "look like a beast"with the face of the one they killed as a perpetual reminder". Because of that the 3 other races started viewing Wakut people as ‘no longer human’ and decided to capture them, torture/test on them and eventually nearly wipe them out world-wide. The Wakut nation and land has long been destroyed and re-built over and there are almost no living Wakutans alive. (The only currently know living Wakutans are Lionel who had been in a testing cell all his childhood, and Isaak who grew up in an orphanage forced to pretend to be human). Despite morals having changed and Wakut people no longer being seen as “god killers” the disrespect toward their almost extinct race can still be felt/heard. Most people still refer to the Belldozan+Sladvian+Gopeijins as human while Wakut are called Ravenfolks/Ravenfells. The words Wakut and Wakutan are rarely used

These 4 races can technically reproduce between each other but the resulting offsprings are never “half” anything. They can only manifest one gift and the unmanifested gifts are not recessive in any way. (ie a Belldozan and Sladvian can give birth so either a Belldozan or Sladvian. If the kid was a Sladvian and had a child with a Gopeijin they wouldn’t be able to give birth to a Belldozan, the genes wouldn't be passed down from the grandparent like you could with eye or hair color)

It’s also important to note that while originally these ‘gifts’ from the Crow god that defined the 4 races were heavily tied to what ethnicity the races represented, it’s now not as linked. You can now see Asian Sladvians or Black Gopeijin. It’s again thanks to interbreeding where a White Belldozan or Sladvian had a child with a Dark skinned Wakut which resulted in a whiteass Wakut like Isaak.

Character line-up!

Lionel (no lastname): Wakutan who prefer to spend most of his time in his raven form when out of the house or in the roof garden. He likes to go on flights every morning. Married to Isaak

Isaak (no lastname): Wakutan very skilled in Lumomancy but knows a lot of magic in general (aquakinesis, magnetokinesis, minor hemomancy and potion crafting). As a child the people running the orphanage bounded his wings (similar to how in some asian country the bounded women’s feet) in an effort to prevent them from properly developing making Isaak unable to fly. He later had them completely removed as the way they became deformed made it painful for him to stay in his raven form/forcing him to constantly mask as human. (Poor boy had issue calling himself a Wakut for the longest time and at one point Lionel didnt help by doubting him TToTT. They are both better about it now tho)

Micheal Alexeev: Gopeijin, student of Isaak. He actually inst really interested in doing magic but became Isaak’s student because it was the only way for him to get away from his father at the time. Married Andrei and took his last name)

Kennedy March-Donn: Belldozan who is both the house chef and nurse. He also has an indoor farm on the ship where he grows both food and medicine.

Artom & Vadim Alexeev:  Formerly siamese Sladvians twins. They used to be connect on their side were they now have prosthetic arms. They use their Hemokinesis to make their prosthetics move (there also let some of their blood pool at their fingertips so they have has a little bit of a sense of touch there). Artyom is the on-board mechanic and Vadim is the resident seaster.

Andrei Alexeev: Sladvian swordman. He used to make the swords he used in combat with his own blood but after a duel against Micheal’s father that resulted in him almost dying from petrification he now uses normal swords instead and only uses Hemokinesis when really necessary.

The Lockheart: Isaak and Lionel’s flying house/ship. This is the only functional Wakut ship known to exist. It was rebuilt using the part of destroyed ship that sat in the other nation’s museum. It was made and gifted to Isaak and Lionel by the three other nation’s leaders as a “we’re sorry for what we’ve done you your people”.

[generationlosscorkboard]

Dream interpretation is certainly something, and it's taking it's time-

So I'm just gonna do a quick side review of current information and my predictions:

So far we have the following characters known to us

- The writer (who I've been calling Chronos)

- Jay (previously assumed she/her but I believe those belong to-)

- Mary (assumably Chronos' therapist)

- Chronos's boss (like, a million years old)

- Chronos' family, and dog

- XXXX (the "<- nevermind" one. I'm assuming that this is a person but who knows)

Stuff we know:

Something happened eight months ago and Chronos is trying their absolute best to ignore it. (I suspect X has something to do with it).

Chronos is having weird dreams, but is purposely ignoring their signicance (linked to right month ago event)

We may be affecting said dreams via the polls

they work at a tech place, one that specifically deals with fixing stuff, like VCR units

they do NOT work 6 jobs (they just had their job starting an hour earlier- 6 jobs would probably be more nightmarish than their dreams)

the year is 19XX, though very likely post-1972, cause of the mention of VCR unit. The fact they call some of the stuff like VCR units as "old" it's been a reasonable time since 1972. Sooo... 90s? Course, time could just be real friggin weird-

The polls has some strange influence over Chrono's reality. Specifically, messages through radios and such. (And a lil bit of dream stuff)

My current predictions of what is and is to come:

Chronos is gonna lose their family and the dog is gonna die (Yeah.....)

Jay may also die, and it will be directly because of Chronos actions. because I predict it so. (and it will be incidentally, but yeah.)

Chronos is gonna have to stop ignoring whatever happened eight months ago, but will in doing so is discover something super f--ed up about their reality (if they haven't seen a glimpse of this already) and how much of a lie it is and it's gonna make them go insane-

Mary and Chrono's boss aren't going to be super important, Mary may be mentioned again, but she won't play a major part.

and this final one is just entirely based off this fact:

I once designed an au world in which people were unaware of the fact they're living in dome cities and outside that is an absolutely apocalyptic world where the sun exploded and it's held together by magic and fantasy duct tape (it's a fantasy world, so ignore those elements) and yeah dome people don't know until one scientist realises the sky is like- super off. doesn't make sense mathematically or astrologically. And they go insane!

so if it turns out that they sky is f-ed and/or they're in a DOME CITY/TOWN (or something similar) I'm going to cry again because this will be the third time Chronos/Ranboo/GenLosers have apparently been on the same wave length as me-

(which is also just kinda the Truman show but I promise it's way more than that)

-----(major timeskip)-----

Oh HI THERE! the prior post was written a while ago, but I ended up taking an impromptu step back from everything whislt it was quiet- sorry about that!

Anyways, here it is for you now. I'd best also finished that third dream theory huh! While it's still qui- AHHAHA you think I'd tempt fate like that? Nooooooo. Noooo thank you.

[caltropspress]

DEBRIEFING: 6 July 2024 | Brooklyn, NY | Young Ethel’s

The heat index decidedly did not come correct, so it was a relief when Omar’s Chevy Equinox [Interior Assassin’s Car, see: Monch & Po] picked me up on Saturday at seven:forty-five. He had the AC at brick levels, which was a welcome reprieve from the humidity outside, but he was also bumpin’ the Sacco & Vanzetti BEHEMOTH double-album, so that had me feeling a bit heat-strokey whenever the subwoofer thumped. [Omar is The Shah, the producer-half of S&V, someone I’ve known for roughly a quarter-century, but who only makes the rarest of public appearances at events of the hip-hop variety—bless his heart.] Pulled up to 506 5th Avenue—Young Ethel’s—and got to witness the inaugural Sacco & Vanzetti in-person encounter as Sko (the rapper-half of S&V) was at the bar. Young Ethel’s keeps the musickal performance space behind a black curtain, and the sparse stage is backdropped by papered palm fronds and palmettes. Height Keech, by all appearances, lugged and schlepped all necessary audio accoutrements onto the stage—not to mention the duffle-bagged stage lights (nothing needlessly ellipsoidal) that would eventually illuminate the Wave Generators’ headlining set [spectrum | wavelengths | refractions].

But first… Fellow Jerseyan Rose Image! was the opening act and led us on an exploration of uncertainty! NAHreally (who was in the place to be smilin’ and lankily profilin’ as he does) prepped me beforehand about Rose Image! Little did I know Rose Image! was the spirited fellow in pink hat and overalls excusing and squeezing his way between Sko and I at the bar. (Sko was edifying on the history of double albums in hip-hop; there’s been “90, with some asterisks,” according to his calculations.) Rose bedecked his stage table with stuffies beside his laptop, but that was only after he entered the performance space in theatrical fashion, wide-stepping through the crowd, lifting an imaginary helmet from his head as he bounded upon the stage (“Mission Start!”). He proceeded to lead us through his songs—his log entries—and engaged and entertained, showmanship and styles, high-stepping till his hat flew off like the helmet was intended to. There was no half-steppin’ with this young artist. He’s got a lightblue spirit! (And, yes, everything ends in an exclamation point [!!!!] with Rose Image!)

I picked at a Frederick Seidel poem the other morning, and a line in the third stanza read, “Who climbs a ladder through the stars to reach the moon, / And plucks at his laptop and it becomes a lute.” Not lutes nowadays, but loops, yes. Big Flowers debuted a heap of material from their long-anticipated album, Save the Bees, but because the aux port turned unruly, we heard an impromptu rendition with all Height Keech beats backing them instead of the Messiah Musik joints. “That’s what we have community for,” says Michael [Big Flowers]. We were treated to a brief acapella rendition of Debbie Harry’s “Rapture” verse by Nosaj during the tech-diff intermission. Appearing as something of a kerchiefed Willem Dafoe Last Temptation of Christ, anarcho-poppy plucker, scissor freak, Free Palestine leafletter poet, Big Flowers—barefooted and bangled—went otherworldly over a series of beats I can only describe as “Rock Hard” / “Rock the Bells”-era Rick Rubin for a post-ruined amerika where bearded gurus die in miasmic nuclear meltdowns. Flowers was impassioned, the musculature of their neck as defined as their nanomite verses—each word functioning in formlessness. I saw them perform on 9/17/22 at the Kingsland, and this level of ardor is the norm. They said at the start of their set that they weren’t fresh on stage banter, but they shouted-out Geng PTP who’s factored in as mentor and executive producer roles for the forthcoming project. No doubt, everybody will be ready for it.

andrew was next to step up, and heaven ain’t a halfpipe, but hell may well be a grind rail—he was loose-limbed from an earlier skate session (hovering high-pressure system be damned). His set was comprised of tracks from his Height Keech-produced project (dropping in a matter of days), Can I Write A Requiem For You When You’re Dead? Keech—if you’re one to pick up on patterns—was very much the maestro of what was heard on this particular night. andrew stood centerstage, his feet teetering yet toe-steady on the edge, for most of his songs. He shared his honesty-raps full of found material and gallows humor. “I had a dream I got decapitated with a long-bladed knife,” he says early on “soda & chocolate,” but—not to be outdone—hits back with an anecdote about his belt not fitting right: “Maybe it’ll fit later, but either way it fits my throat, / It seems sturdy, and yeah, I like the design, / You gotta look cool—it’s no exception when you die.” Sko rocked with andrew on “purple & gold,” and Height, Darko the Super, and ialive joined the crowded stage for the “based on a drew story” posse cut. Most memorable, by all metrics, was the hook for “PCP,” a track which will include feature-fiends Alaska and Defcee when the album drops. andrew had the room humming along with its initial reprise: “My lower back hurts when I breathe deep, / When I was thirteen, I smoked PCP, / Alcoholic half my life, but now I’m clean…mostly.” I spoke with Sasco and shemar while Wave Generators prepped their performance. Sasco has an album soon coming, and it hosts what seems to be the whole-ass Hit Squad of underground renaissance NY-centric rap heads: Big Flowers, shemar, miles cooke, Nakama., Sunmundi, and even the elusive Hester Valentine, whom I had inquired about.

When Wave Generators—Nosaj and Height Keech—took the stage in their matching mechanic coveralls (raided Steve Albini’s closet, seemingly), the anticipation had built from the groundwork laid by Nature Boy Jim Kelly’s in-between music selections. Nature Boy Jim Kelly (one of Nosaj’s alter egos), bandit bandana’d, let us know how we got here. He was calling all active agents. The way I started to convulse, you’d think he’d released nerve agents. Never mind if you’re familiar with the pair of New Kingdom albums from 19 Naughty III and 19 Naughty VI (Heavy Load and Paradise Don’t Come Cheap, respectively), most heads got familiar through the faith healing of ELUCID who summoned Nosaj’s foulgrowl for the hook on Armand Hammer’s “Leopards” in 2020: “The savage in me I can’t stop, / Y’all made me this way—I’m too far gone to turn back now, / Ain’t a block, nigga, I can’t rock, / Streets raised me this way, / You know the vibe, nigga, I can’t stop.” A chorus of resistance, of refusal, and the ironic use of “savage” not so different from Baldwin saying, I was a savage about whom the least said the better. The re-ignition [word to Bad Brains] of Nosaj begged to say more. So he did, and on the Small Bills project with The Lasso the following year, ELUCID invited Nosaj to lay down another refrain for “Hush Harbor”: “I might be wrong, I might be right, / I’m too far from the shore to turn back, I can’t lie.” Both refrains referred to Nosaj as having come “too far” to “turn back”—he’s always been forward-thinking, a follower of Newton’s First Law of Motion, a momentum mensch. Though the cultural currents often want to push back and wash away—further back than the Gee Street Records catalog; further back than antebellum, than slaves assembling in secret; further back than transatlantic re-routings; way back—back into time! (as The Jimmy Castor Bunch always said)—Nosaj has never been a troglodyte. This all checks out. On After the End, Wave Generators’ debut for steel tipped dove’s Fused Arrow Records, there exists an overriding concern with reestablishing oneself—of re-routing and re-rooting when one feels deracinated, when one feels thrown off-course. Appropriately, where Busta Rhymes might Tear da Roof Off, Wave Generators tear the roots up. Both, though, have eschatological preoccupations—the album title itself (after the end) suggests the end is not even the end, my only friend. There’s more to be said, had, good, bad, armagideon time, [difficult listening 4] armageddon, volume 1 through volume 10 (word to Dino Hawkins).

The lexical meaning of gene- [“to give birth, beget”] and the Greek genea [“generation, race”] let heads know Wave Generators are still going on, strong-going, headstrong. Wherever they set up shop is the stronghold. Similar to artists like Mike Ladd or the Infesticons, Wave Generators welcome us to the afterfuture. They chugged through much of their album, filling the dark stage in a way the previous acts didn’t necessarily seem to, their physical forms formidable. “Where I’m going I can’t call it—I don’t know where it is,” Nosaj says on “I’ve Got My Whole Life Ahead of Me,” sound advice for any 40 or 50-something. “I’m about to bang to the moon, / Alice Coltrane: play it in my motherfuckin’ tomb!” Some real bliss: eternal now shit coming out the speakers. These Wave Generator songs are about illimitable promise, as so many of the titles indicate. “I’m Setting Up in a New City” finds Nosaj shouting post-apocalyptic post-mortem post-rap[ture] rhymes: “Ooh, baby—it’s a wild, wild world, / It’s after the end of this experiment.” Weirdly, perhaps, I began to think about the old call-and-response traditional, “I’m Building Me A Home.” In my mind, there’s a timeless symmetry between it and “I’m Setting Up in a New City”—a shared hope in finding safety and solace within the blast zone. When you hear me moanin’... When you hear me shoutin’... This earthly house is gonna soon decay. “Decay” like Fatboi Sharif and dove, mayhaps, but Nosaj is assuredly shoutin’ and moanin’. Nosaj isn’t alone. He arranges for GG Allin and Cyndi Lauper to share an electrifying embrace seconds later (and on “Reverse the Curse” it’ll be Santana and Coltrane). As with New Kingdom, the ongoing effort—advertentently or not—involves reclaiming rock music for its rightful heirs. On House of Disorder, an earlier offering from Mr. Furlow and dove, Nosaj invoked the Beatles: “John, Paul, Ringo, George-fucking-Harrison, / Niggas on weed, whiteboys on heroin.” He declares his “daddy was a black Mick Jagger” on “Cree Summer,” and seemingly subverts every performance of “Sweet Black Angel” the Rolling Stones have ever done as they sing for Angela Davis in a Dunbar-like dialect and with minstrel mystery. He’s not taking crowd requests, but on “Freebird” from his collaboration with V8 TFD (Acid is Groovy, Kill the Pigz), he sings, “I’m leeeeaving on a Jefferson Airplane, / My mind moving slow, Lord know when I’m back again.” Consequently, John Denver’s single-engine aircraft crashes into Monterey Bay and makes waves.

We are living in the age of—not the aged rapper—but of the venerable MC. Still, that’s no reason not to tap into teenage angsty disregard for parental hand-wringing. Waste not, want not your youthful verve: “My mom say I’m incompetent, / Last night I lost my confidence, / Told her I didn’t give a fuck, now I wish I fucking did.” Nosaj is kinetic—if MC is mover of crowds, then he’s ever-moving them through his own body movements: his arms spastic, his head and jaw shaking. You can hear it in his delivery, in his words. Height Keech, meanwhile, sounds reminiscent of MCA in his timbre—deliberate, clarified, keen-eyed. The formula of fuzzed-out riffs and raw-as-ruckus drums is especially pleasing in this age of meandering, percussion-light loops. Witness headbanging and just-freed-oneself-from-this-damn-straitjacket pop and lock maneuvers. Keech holds his own on the microphone, too. On “True North” (we’re still navigating, y’see), he’s got the Son of Sam and Kurtis Blow in his alley of allusions, and he’s armed with optimism as well: “We can’t let these hard times follow us and barrel down our parlor door.” Turning back. Pushing ahead. Coming and going. Followed and ditched. Running to and fro. Back and forth. Wave Generators utilize chaos to “Reverse the Curse.” With confidence: We’ll run these fascist pigs right out of toooowwwwwnn. Baby, those ain’t fireworks—them there live rounds, baby. What I saw on-stage during the Wave Generators’ performance matched a description I read in John Gardner’s The Resurrection (1966) the following morning, so I’ll leave you with that: “Then there exploded a terrible holocaust of chords and runs, each note precise, overpowering, irremissible—not music but a monstrous retribution of sound, the mindless roar of things in motion, on the meddlesome mind of man.”

Photos and video screenshots by Caltrops Press and NAHreally, respectively.

[flipperdipper10]

I wanted to make another thought post and I made one about the previous SMG4 movie on my twitter (that was completely wrong but I liked it at least) so lets do it again!

So the TV dude. Who are they? They’re someone who wants to make things “perfect”, they want to help people through possibly eldritch means. We’ve seen their work 3 times now. First was “It’s Gotta be Perfect”, second was in getting the fairgrounds, and now we see them pull up the TV recording to lure the gang to the Wild West. They’re clearly attached to the SMG4 crew in some way shape or form, and wants to help them out somehow. Now obviously after the first movie, I wouldn’t say “help” is the best word for it.

TV dude wants to help the gang achieve their dreams and it does this through strange psychological methods. But why? Why would TV dude go through all of this to make everything seem perfect for the gang? And why attack Tari?

Tari’s been the focus of a lot of episodes lately, with focus on her building her confidence and relationships with Meggy. Why not actively try and manipulate her instead of Meggy? I think that’s just because Tari is the only one who can see the TV dude for what it is.

SMG4 doesn’t really go into the Meta Runner aspect of Tari’s capabilities if she isn’t actively on Meta Runner, which. Fair. Different show different rules. But of the entire group, I’d say she’s the most well versed when it comes to tech. Most of all, she has her capability to go inside of games and servers. So, what if, hypothetically, this happened the other way around? TV dude lured out Tari to shift the connection around, put their consciousness inside of her. 

But like. Why would TV dude do this. Like I said, they just want to help the group! Their goals in the first movie were just to help SMG4 make his video, and the other 2 appearances have been primarily helpful with buying the fairgrounds to give the group a place to live and helping Meggy find her idol. So why change plans? Well, there’s only so much you can do as a program. But if you were a person who could act upon the perks of being a program while also being a physical presence to help out the group in person... maybe someone who has the capability to hack into software with a coinvent appendage... the possibilities are practically endless.

Which leads into what I think will happen this movie. Wren is obviously showing up, we see as much in the trailers. But I think TV dude is gonna make a move on Tari, and Meggy is going to have to stop them for the sake of her friend, probably having to sacrifice her idol in the process if modern SMG4 is any indication of trends. Nobody in the main cast is gonna die, Tari literally got her redesign 2 weeks ago lmao.

Again, this is all speculation and I’m fairly certain 90% of it is going to be wrong, but nothing wrong with just that. I though Bob was going to be a leading character in “It’s Gotta be Perfect” and honestly this theory seems more feasible that that.

[nitrosodiumfmp]

Games Like Sinister | Gameplay

The only reason I picked Doom 2 over Ultimate Doom is that I prefer it; better level design, more enemies, generally more fun. The link here is obvious; you move through levels trying to reach the end, fighting off demons as you do so. The game is 2.5D, which may seem confusing, and it is. Essentially, there's no up - floors can't be placed on top of each other, but it gives the illusion of height. The basic idea of exploring an abstract underworld filled with two-dimensional monsters is what Sinister is entirely based on, and I'll probably add limited combat, but not on the gratuitous level of Doom.

Pathways Into Darkness is a classic 90s dungeon crawler akin to Ultima Underworld, but slightly more obscure as it was released for the Mac and the Mac only. The story is bizarre; a gigantic god-like entity is asleep under the earth, and its dreams are causing a massive temple to manifest in the jungle. You're part of a spec ops team sent into the temple, to drop a nuke in its lowest chamber and pacify the being before it wakes up - as this would cause the end of days. It connects to the Marathon series as well, but that's not important right now. Having a game focused on exploration and combat, but also being set within a dead god's dream is very in line with my idea for Sinister. The game is also quite surreal with its enemies; from lumbering blob-men with mouths in their chests to goofy walrus-like floating creatures to reanimated skeletons, who throw bones at you.

Penumbra was essentially a tech demo for Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It follows Philip, a physicist who enters a desolate bunker in Greenland to find his father. Inside, you must solve puzzles using the proprietary physics engine, and occasionally avoid enemies; namely, rabid dogs. There is combat in Penumbra, but it is discouraged, and there are many ways of getting around enemies. You could sneak by them, you could run, you could bait them with meat or distract them with a flare. You could throw explosives (a quick but costly kill) or use physics objects to slow their pursuit. You could even lure them into an enclosed area and trap them, or use environmental obstacles to kill them without your input. It's an interesting angle of immersion that I haven't seen much; so many immersive sims will give you all sorts of weapons and gizmos and character upgrades for dealing with enemies in unique ways, but these usually boil down to a fancy way of killing them that isn't just shooting them in the face. This idea of discouraged but viable combat is what I want to replicate.

Prey 2006 is pretty obscure (mostly due to Prey 2017 making it impossible to search for, and it's removed from Steam) but quite interesting. You play as a Native American guy named Tommy, who gets abducted by aliens, and has to fight through their massive bio-organic ship to save his girlfriend Jen. The game uses seamless portals, one year before Portal, as well as loads of interesting tricks like non-Euclidian level geometry and alterable gravity (such as walking on walls and ceilings). It's really cool. The relevant thing for my game is that Tommy canonically dies within the first hour. After this, he's taken to a spirit world by his grandfather, where he gains spirit-walking powers and a ghost of his childhood pet, a hawk named Talon. When you die again in-game, you're taken back to the spirit world, to battle the "dishonored dead" and regain your health and spirit power. I really like games that deal with death in a canon sense - instead of restarting at a checkpoint, your character has legitimately died and returned to life. I want to explain respawning in Sinister in a similar way; you're in the afterlife, so technically, you're already dead.

Pathologic is a game I can't say enough good things about. It's a mega-obscure Russian game, about (in simple terms) a strange town, a string of murders, and a plague. You have twelve days to explore the town, uncover its mysteries, save your Bound (a group of people who are connected by fate) and save yourself. You'll have to make tough decisions, scavenge for supplies, learn the town's esoteric customs, and all while discovering the secrets of the Sand Plague. When I was first deciding what I wanted the project to be about, Pathologic was my main inspiration for the key themes: "Exploration in an unfamiliar world". The gameplay is primarily walking about, but you will occasionally get into combat. Stakes are very high in the game, and so you are encouraged to run and hide in buildings just as much as you are encouraged to fight. This more visceral and realistic approach to combat rather than just "shoot the bad men" is another thing I want to replicate in Sinister.

[heyclickadee]

There’s one sense in which the bad batch had a little more control over their lives than clones sometimes had. They didn’t have a jedi general, they had their own ship, they were allowed special accommodations like their barracks and their armor, and they were given an enormous amount of leeway in how they fulfilled their missions.

In another sense, though, there’s a way in which they had a lot less. And just to be clear, I’m not trying to make an argument about who had it worse. None of the clones has ever had much agency in their lives. None of them were ever afforded the decency of being considered people. None of them really had the option to do anything but be soldiers conditioned to fight and die for a cause they didn’t choose, not without putting other clones in danger (like Slick) or risking court martial (like Cut). Things are bad for all of them. Mostly I’m looking at how the bad batch’s perception of their own experience could change depending on the angle at which they’re looking at it.

Because yes, they were given more leeway in certain ways, but in that other way? Not only were they not given the choice as to whether or not to be soldiers, they were not given the choice as to what kind of soldiers they wanted to be.

Wrecker, for example, is incredibly smart. Not just in the sense that he’s emotionally intelligent, but he’s also a skilled mechanic, weapons specialist, and demolitions expert. This is a guy who built a handheld laser canon out of scraps while getting shot at, and it took him, what—fifteen seconds? But due to the accident of the way he popped out and the way the Kaminoans took advantage of that, because he’s just so much bigger and stronger than everyone else, he was never given the option to be anything but the designated muscle. I think the weapons and demolitions stuff is something he picked up over time because he likes it, but he didn’t have the option to be the team’s technician the way that Tech is. And Tech—Tech is the second strongest guy on the team. He’s strong, extremely athletic, and he’s got a wild pain tolerance. But because of the accident of how he came out, he was never given the option of becoming the hand-to-hand specialist Hunter is, and certainly not the tank that Wrecker is. (I’m still forming my thoughts on Hunter and Echo, but there’s no way anyone else on the team besides the guy with magnified senses would be allowed to be the team tracker, and Echo’s situation is a little different. And before joining the batch and leaving Kamino, Omega never had any agency in her life at all.)

And then Crosshair. This is something we don’t talk about in the fandom all that much, but Crosshair’s a genius. He’s as stone cold brilliant as anyone else on the team, if not more so, in his own way. The thing that makes him such a good sniper isn’t just that he’s got good eyes and steady hands, it’s also his ability to do the math and calculate angles and timing to an incredible level of precision. And, based on what we see in “Reunion,” “Return to Kamino,” and even “The Solitary Clone,” he’s got a good head for strategy and some decently solid, on the ground, battlefield leadership skills (even if he wasn’t technically in charge during that last one). He could make a decently good field commander. But, again, because of the way he popped out of the tube, he wasn’t given the option to be the analyst guy or the leader, he was the sniper. And that’s it.

Every one of them has the capacity to be good at other things. Every one of them is good at other things. But at the start they roll out like your prototypical late 80’s/early 90’s action cartoon hero team because those are the roles they were forced into since getting decanted. But when they look at their experience as part of the GAR, I think they probably look at the other part of that experience where they were given some leeway that other clones didn’t always have, and it makes it difficult for them to see how completely controlled their lives have always been.

[natequarter]

8, 17, 20 for the OC asks <3

8: Does your OC have any notable flaws or activities they're not good at? Why did you give them those flaws? Why do they exist in-universe?

this is a great question, because almost all of my ghosts ocs are designed to have several glaring flaws which make them extremely grating to haunt with, à la canon. i did this because i like arsehole characters who suck. william, for starters, is supposed to be a crusading soldier... and he dies a slow death of tuberculosis before he can achieve any of that. which i suppose makes the other activity he's not good at breathing - you stay how you die, after all. william is a bit like the love child the captain's military outlook and pat's excruciating optimism, as it happens. geoffrey is terrible at handling finances, and horses, and life in general. (he's honestly much happier after death. less responsibility.)

clarence has a bad habit of going along with other people's stupid ideas, most notably george button's idiotic suggestion to skate on the lake in winter. (you can imagine how that went.) elizabeth isn't very good at socialising - she has one (1) ghost she likes, and that's pretty much it. unfortunately for robin, that ghost is humphrey. also, she's exceptionally bad at haunting, which is honestly fair enough, seeing as the only ghost power available to her is a guy who can slash at stuff with his sword (william, at it again). oh, and she holds grudges. i mean, she's dead; it's not like there's much else she can hold. and having died in her sleep, she's frequently feverish and dizzy. in fact, it took robin longer than usual to convince her she was dead, because she wasn't awake to experience it.

17: List/describe up to five tropes that apply to your OC. They could be related to the OC's characterization or their narrative arc.

bad news: despite browsing tvtropes for fun, i have no idea how to answer this - or at least i don't have the energy. i would say that all of my ghost ocs (not bbc ghosts ocs, specifically ocs who are ghosts) are designed to be caricatures, with particular emphasis on some of them being parodies of their era. william is very much a parody of the crusading ideal, of holy war and chivalry, blah blah blah, and also a bit of richard the lionheart. richard the lionheart is way after his era, but he's still obsessed with the guy (and saladin), because he's been a bit... consumed by medieval crusading culture. "back in my day," he'd probably say, referring to a period more than a century after he died...

i also have some french ghosts ocs, and of those, pretty much all of them play off bbc ghosts and tropes surrounding their era, most notably marius (a bit like william, but a roman soldier, and incredibly fucking annoying). there's also estienne, who is a french spin on robin (i say french, but he's not french at all), pierre, who's mostly me messing around with identity and language in the south of france, milada (czech, and the antithesis of julian: very into in 90s/early 2000s culture, but the music and tech in lieu of tory shittiness), giulietta (gay and medieval. i wanted to subvert the "gay people were miserable in the past" narrative), mathieu (messing around with ideas of heroism and how that interacts with the french revolution in popular imagination), and james, a shitty english spy who tries to pass as an incredibly stereotypical frenchman, and only avoids being caught because he's so ineffectual nobody seriously thinks he could be a threat.

20: Share a random piece of trivia about the creation of your OC. Examples: scrapped ideas or changes you didn't expect to make.

the a in au stands for arthur. who is arthur? an oc involved in the long fic i'm working on (read: will probably be writing for the rest of the year, help). he's humphrey and sophie's (eldest) son, in an au where they actually learn to get along. ironically, his original backstory was from what was pretty much just daydreaming, in a world where his parents had been involved in the bone plot and died before he was old enough to remember them. so yeah, i'd say that's a pretty major scrapped idea. also this isn't relevant to the question but for his fourteenth birthday he gets a dog. they're best friends. this isn't relevant to the question, but it's very important to me.

(link)