#I've work there two years now which is weird in itself since its such a high turnover job

[metatronhateblog]

Not to Be a Bearer of News pt 2 with some essence of Duck Duck what the Fuck

Something fowl is afoot. Between the newspapers and the ducks and the content of the newspapers. I have had the drafts for these posts sitting on my account for about a month or so now and was immediately screaming at the responses I was getting on the first part of this series of posts. So let's get further into this bit of a mind fuckery.

This one is gonna be a long one so just hang in there, I promise it's worth it. There's A LOT going on with this.

Back to the newspapers.

Last go 'round we talked about Mr. Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) and his very strange newspaper that is the cause of the opening sequence having an accordion duck in it, as well as some of the other appearances of ducks throughout the series.

This time, we're going to look more at the newspapers, with a touch of me screaming about my thoughts from the comments on part one of this mini-series of posts.

We already know Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) holds a weird ass newspaper...

and how he practically waves it around like a billboard every time he's on screen, going so far as to even cover his face with it at some point.

Now I could go on about how the way time works in Soho seems practically non-existent, but we'll save that for a later day because we're talking about the newspapers. At least...the newspapers in season 2 specifically.

As we already know, thanks to the X-Rays on Amazon, Nina's coffee shop strangely holds the magazines that Adam read in season 1 (a very strange and deliberate choice to be making...) but those aren't newspapers so to speak.

(Screenshots for the people who didn't know)

So I'm gonna get started with the FIRST newspaper(s) we see in season 2.

And that would be a stack of them on the street right next to Aziraphale's bookshop.

Now unlike most of the other newspapers, you can't exactly see what these ones have to say, which is fine. I'm more intrigued by the fact that there just so happens to be (I assume that red thing is a newspaper thing because I'm from the US and that's not what those normally look like) a place to buy newspapers right outside the bookshop. The building itself says 'The News Agency' but I'm more intrigued by the little red cylindrical thing. How intriguing that so many characters wave their newspapers around for us to see and the News Paper building is literally right next to the bookshop.

Even more importantly this thing ALSO makes an appearance in the opening sequence. I know, I know, you're all probably tired of me screaming about the opening sequence at this point but seriously. Look.

And then this extra right here appears to be holding a stack of presumably newspapers, possibly making a delivery to The Dirty Donkey based off trajectory.

But I've also noticed we never really see anyone on the street holding newspapers, only in isolated locations where you can very clearly see the front page of their papers.

Which brings me to our second newspaper appearance (technically the first if you're going by readability)

Crowley (notice the ducks in the background, but kind of a given based on the location.)

We have three big 'headlines' on this one page we see right here.

"Maple Lane Post Box Becomes Home to Spider Species Not Seen in 45 Years."

"Norton Institute Reports its Highest Intake of Students Since Opening in 1888."

"Billions Still Owed to Millions."

Little weird. we have two things that are an increase in happenings since a certain time period...and a not so surprising 'billions owed to millions.'

Then we flip it around a bit (and ignore the...weird way he's holding his hand)

And we have the name of the newspaper. "TADFIELD ADVERTISER." With the main headline 'Is Tadfield the Best Village in England?' and no surprise that Crowley is keeping up to date and looking to see if anything else continues to happen with Adam.

The mini headline under the big bold one says 'According to voters of latest 'Best Village in England' poll Tadfield really is the loveliest place to live.' And in the tiny little blue box 'Entirely perfect weather AGAIN for Tadfield.'

So even after the end of season 1, it appears we still have some strange happenings in Tadfield. Right on.

By the by for those of you who didn't know, pretty sure every single page of Crowley's newspaper is the exact same.

But I think another important detail is, same as Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) Crowley also seems to be holding the newspaper so you can very clearly see what's on it.

Next time something news related appears, we have our little red vessel appearing while Crowley loses his shit.

Now we don't actually see newspapers again until episode 2. This specific one is a doozy and had me and @lady-of-the-puddle screaming over it.

When Aziraphale is looking for clues over the Buddy Holly record, we see him pouring over some newspapers.

SO! Here we see Aziraphale reading a Scottish newspaper with an article titled "Everyday It's a gettin' closer" and we can see a couple more on the desk next to him. Now I've gone through and read the article (I'll post a screenshot so you can too if you want) and to sum it up it's basically the owner of The Resurrectionist discussing the records that keep changing to 'Everyday' by Buddy Holly and how he thinks it's a group of pranksters but never can catch them and the security measures he's tried to put up to prevent it from happening again.

Now the thing that's weird to me is actually the variety of newspaper articles Aziraphale seems to have...from different countries.

Now you might just kind of brush that off....but why on Earth would this news be important enough to make world news? Why would it be in news articles from different countries.

But most importantly...there's a typo.

Now. I don't speak German (so correct me if I'm wrong) but I do know how to use Google Translate.

This German article is titled 'Eden Tag nähert es sich... dem Wahnsinn des Wirts!'

And I don't speak German (though I'd love to) but I plugged this in to Google Translate and what I found was insane. Now when it translates you'll notice that the word Eden doesn't translate.

And there's a little suggestion underneath the German sentence, indicating you probably had a typo, and here's what you're probably looking for, which when you allow it to translate as such gives you...

Weird right? You'd assume the correct version of the news article would be where they're quoting the song they're talking about (unless it's a different dialect or slang of course.) But it's interesting that if I'm correct and that is a typo...it says 'Eden.' Now if you watched season 1 or have some Biblical knowledge of sorts, you might be on the same page as me...

Why Eden? Why create an article that translates to 'Eden Day' instead of 'Every day.' I wonder how many of the other news articles seemingly have a typo?

If this show has taught us anything, what do we know about typos? (Insert Markiplier voice here) DEMONS, JIM! So could that news article possibly have been written by a demon?

Anyways as we continue on, the next (and most frequent appearance of newspapers) is Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets.) And I won't add all the instances of that because if you read my last post, you already saw them.

But there he is, with his strange recurring article about accordion ducks.

But I actually want to focus on a different newspaper that appears in this scene. This gentleman right here.

Looks normal right? Except you can just barely make out the corner of something peaking out next to his leg. Well guess what? This is the same guy who was sitting at the table Aziraphale emptied.

In which his newspaper never comes 100% into focus, but it's right there on screen, flashing and saying 'HEY LOOK AT ME!'

in which he folds over his 'your travel' 'Milton Keynes' newspaper as such

to a completely new side of the newspaper and walks away. But wait there's more.

Check this out.

In which he turns to look at his newspaper AND ROTATES IT before going back to standing there looking like there's nothing in his hand. Look at these back to back shots though.

Would you look at that. Our newspaper is back. Guess what though. When we look away from him again and back, the newspaper is once again gone.

Mind you this whole time, when the newspaper appears, you see Aziraphale's eyes continuously flickering away from his conversation with Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) and directly past him. Possibly to the newspaper? Maybe trying to direct your attention?

Here we have 'Thenewspaper' with articles

"Unearthed mysteries of sealed library basement."

and "Government approves funding for citywide [insert word here because i can't make it out thanks to his finger] stations."

Interesting....library basements and citywide funding. Huh.

Now as far as I'm aware, the only other times you see newspapers in the rest of the season, are Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets.) And even if there were more, I'd have to make a part 2 because I actually reached the image amount on this post.

That being said...there's a lot of weird shit going on with the newspapers, including our strange little accordion duck which has me absolutely bewildered. But I can't help but feel like the newspapers are important when everyone holding one seems to be holding it like a sign, just so that you can read it. Not to mention the freaking typo has me wide awake every night staring at my ceiling.

But for now, that's all I have. Stay tuned for another mental breakdown over something in this show that is preventing me from sleeping.

(Upon further examination I might be making yet another post about this.)

[itsbenedict]

So this year went... not as good, vis-a-vis doing the things I wanted to do! Breaking down the goals...

Finish the first case of Justice/Arcana and revise the draft

Nnnnnope! I got through most of it, the players figured out the primary trick, but then I kind of hit a wall where I realized that I hadn't done enough to narrow down the culprit based on figuring out the trick. Doing so would require reworking the logistics such that the back room is the kitchen (an offscreen location the first draft never investigated) and characters have sandwich alibis. I've kind of got to go back to the drawing board here.

Finish the SakuraPetalFantasy walkthrough portion of Datasouls (not with the whole combat toy situation, just the rest of it)

Nope! I got chapter 4 done, but chapter 5 is only in an outline state right now. I did spend like a couple months doing Lost in Hearts instead, which built on the concept a little, but I didn't put in the work to finish things up.

Do 24 TFJ recaps, two per month

Nuh-uh. I got about halfway, but in addition to falling victim to my slump in the latter part of the year, TFJ itself kind of came to an unceremonious end due to some structural issues and player conflict. Current plan is to work with Farn to use the campaign as raw material to write a fantasy novel focusing on Saelhen.

Work through all the exercises in Genki 1 and 2, and catch up on WK reviews.

Nope- I mean, I caught up on reviews, but then fell out of the habit halfway through the year, and didn't finish the workbooks.

Date someone. I feel like I look decent and have a lot of desirable qualities that would make this not too hard to accomplish, but I have to put effort into looking or it’s never going to happen on its own. (I am unfortunately of the gender that doesn’t typically get asked out and has to take the initiative.) It’s gonna be tricky since I’m a weird person with weird life priorities and finding someone who’d actually be happy partnering up with that long-term is a tall order.

Haha, no. I wrote up a dating profile thing, and I did get one bite, but then she ghosted and it's been a couple months and it'd be awkward to try and go "hey, uh, are you still there?" at this point. I tried looking around myself, but I don't really know where to look- most dating sites are just hookup apps where you just swipe on faces nowadays, and that's useless to me. Everyone I've ever developed a crush on organically has been one of taken, ace, or lesbian, and at this point I have to assume there's a causal factor and I'm not just unlucky. I think I'm going to have to move somewhere more densely populated to have any shot at finding a good fit.

Actually get that standing desk walk-while-working workflow set up and establish an exercise routine that I keep to for more than half the year

Not quite. I did keep to an exercise routine for exactly seven months, but I didn't get the walk-while-working thing worked out- I haven't found any under-desk ellipticals that aren't extremely precarious and awkward to use while focusing on something else, so I'm thinking I should look for a mini treadmill next instead.

Release a functional version of that Fire Emblem content authoring tool

Nope! That was way more work than I expected- or at least, I expected I'd be able to keep working on it on and off throughout the year, which didn't happen. I did make pretty good progress, though- I'd say it's like, half done?

Replace grody old kitchen sink that has weird white stuff growing out from inside the handle

Okay I did do this one. But that was basically just a matter of ordering a thing on Home Depot and calling a plumber, so like, not exactly an achievement, just something I knew I'd keep forgetting to do indefinitely unless I put it on the list.

Finish the games I’m still playing through from this post

Almost! Still haven't finished The Sekimeiya, though I did make it far enough that I think I've got some kind of idea of how that egg thing works and how things fit together, even if there's a lot of gaps in the specifics.

Find some new source of income reliable enough to pay the bills without making me work more than 20 hours a week. (I’m a programmer, this is hypothetically doable.) Freelancing/contract work maybe?

Sorta? I did quit the horrible company that bought my division, but I stayed on as a contractor for miscellaneous stuff (and insisted on writing the noncompete clause out of the contract in negotiations, which they agreed to), and went back to work for the old company at the same time. At $100/hour, I worked an average of ten hours a week... kinda. The first five months or so, I worked almost not at all, living off my savings and doing odd jobs for less than my monthly expenses. The rest of the year, various disasters occurred and I was working my ass off putting out fires, so I was basically working full-time for much less than a full-time salary. I wouldn't say I nailed the employment situation, but I did keep my head above water.

How Come I Fucked Up?

Four reasons.

First, and smallest- halfway through the year was when the fires started at work and I started having way more stress and way less time. It was hard to focus on anything when something new was breaking and I was on the hook for it for months at a time.

Secondly: two of my grandparents died this year. Not only was this a pretty severe emotional blow, because they were amazing people and it's stupid and unfair that this happened- it also meant lots of traveling, to funerals and family events. It chewed through my budget and necessitated spending more hours on work, and left me exhausted and strung out for several weeks.

Thirdly and fourthly: the Elden Ring DLC came out, and also I got addicted to Pokérogue. I put... a stupid amount of hours into these games. Like two or three hours a day for multiple months. All my productive energy was consumed first by work, and then by vegging out and playing video games due to a lack of willpower.

This was a colossal failure. Like, from July onwards, I got practically nothing done. Half a year of my life, up in smoke! This is not sustainable. I need to do something major to course-correct here.

I think one thing that'll probably be worthwhile is... having failed to find a romantic partner, I need to move in with someone. I can resist the temptation to sit around like a lump doing repetitive videogames as long as there is some witness to my squalor. I'm very comfortable living alone, but I have to fight the temptation to vanish into comfort and never complete any of my many missions. I gotta have a friend around who can see when I'm wasting time, and cares at least a little about whether I'm getting things done.

So current plan is I'm moving to Providence with Farn pretty soon? And I'm going to try to land a flexible full-time position with just one of these companies I'm working with, so I can have health insurance and don't need to worry about being in the red during slow months.

[pillarsalt]

its weird being in feminist spaces online bc on the one hand, we all understand that women have womens shelters because they actually worked towards gathering resources and opening these physical spaces. like they did actual work and didnt just wax poetic about the necessity. but then you have discourse about womens clothes and its like. you guys know there ARE brands out there creating functional clothing for the female form, right? and they end up shutting down due to lack of support? because we arent putting any action behind our words? and are just wishing good womens clothing into existence? like there are no mens shleters bc men didnt make shelters. there are no good female clothing brands because we 1) dont make them and if we do, 2) they dont get enough patronage to stay afloat. so yea guys, keep making tumblr posts about the lack of functional female clothing instead of seeking out and supporting those businesses. ill keep wearing my dads hand-me-downs because im economically and ecologically based.

Ooh anon we're playing with fire here... Alright everybody, feelings caps off and critical thinking caps on. This is in reference to a post I made a few nights ago about how I don't quite believe how many women claim they are incapable of wearing men's section clothes, a post which was itself in reference to another post that made the rounds on tumblr earlier this year. I wrote it after having had six beers and I'll be the first to admit, it was pretty inflammatory and worded in a way that lead a few people to reply defensively and angrily, so I turned off RBs and deleted it when I woke up the next day as damage control. The general gist of my post was that there are shitloads of options in the men's section that are far comfier with better quality materials than women's section clothes, that oversized clothes are easily adjusted for functionality ie. rolling up cuffs and wearing a belt, and that I think a lot of the women claiming they couldn't possibly wear men's section clothing are maybe just unwilling to "look bad," but again I wrote it in a way that obviously would not inspire good faith interaction with those whose choices I criticized. I'd like to take the opportunity to try again with this ask.

First of all, I also had a couple people say that they've had to wear the men's uniform at their job and it was ill-fitting and sucked. Of course I'm not arguing that women should not be accounted for in creating work equipment and PPE omfg, that's not what I'm talking about at all! That's a matter of safety and equality in employment, completely not what I'm saying. And I'm also not saying that women SHOULDN'T have clothes that are comfortable, functional, and properly fitting that are made with them in mind. We should be demanding this! What I am saying is that... we don't have that right now. Anon points out that there are businesses that have tried to do this and couldn't find enough patronage to stay afloat. Of course I want these clothing manufacturers to succeed, it would be the best case scenario, but in the mean time, we have two options: uncomfortable, flimsy, revealing, shit-ass-material that won't keep you warm women's clothes; and men's clothes that are possibly ill-fitting.

From the replies I did get, sounds like the biggest problem is with the hips to waist ratio, in men's pants the waist is too big when the hips fit. Yes, I get it! But I was also surprised to learn how many women are completely opposed to wearing belts?? I always thought belts were a wardrobe staple for most everyone, my Mom always wears one, I've been wearing one when necessary since middle school age. But happily for the non-belt-wearers, I've discovered that many men's pants actually have drawstrings, sometimes they're inside behind the buttons and zipper, so you can make them as tight or loose as you like. I have four pairs of pants like this, I wear them to work where I walk around and bring heavy things up and down stairs all day, they are sooo comfyyy.

The other thing is all my pants are from the men's now, and I have to tell you: sizing discrepancy is popularly framed solely as a women's clothing issue, but it's not really. Last week I bought two pairs of men's jeans from the thrift store, both size 34, without trying them on. One pair fits quite tightly around my thighs to the point that I will probably only wear them to events and not all day at work, while the other is the perfect size and so comfy I could sleep in them (don't worry, I won't.) It's trial and error all around when it comes to finding clothes that fit properly. There's not One Shape of men's pants. The changing room is your friend! Hang out in thrift stores long enough and you will absolutely find items that fit you wonderfully and feel comfortable.

So then we come to my main point: There are a lot of women who claim that men's clothes are just too big for them to wear and therefore they must resort to women's section clothes which supposedly fit them so much better... *FROM MY POINT OF VIEW* it seems a sort of convenient excuse to look the way a patriarchal society wants you to, in the same way that "sensory issues around body hair" is now a common stated reason to continue shaving and participating in sexist beauty culture without having to examine why you feel compelled to do so. I think when some women say they're unable to wear men's clothes, it's because they can't wear men's clothes and look as conventionally "good" as they do in women's clothes. And it's true, men's clothes are gonna be a bit looser and a bit more formless, but men aren't expected to be shrink-wrapped into their outfit like women are anyway. I understand the pressure to "look good," often women are treated poorly when they don't, but it's in your best interest and in the best interest of other women to resist that sexist pressure, or at least question it honestly.

Do I think you're a bad person for choosing to wear exclusively women's section clothes, absolutely not. I don't think women who shave or wear makeup or heels are bad people either. But I do think it's worth examining why you really feel like you couldn't branch out from the women's section.

Men's pants have a baggier crotch and ass area, but women's pants are often so tightly compact in the crotch that they can cause gynaecological problems. Men's shirt sleeves are quite roomy and may need rolling up, but many women's t-shirts have tiny sleeves that pinch your arms and draw your attention to the fact that your arm fat is being compressed. Men's pants can be quite long for a short woman, but cuffing them is simple: like anon said you can easily hem them, and if you don't sew like me, you can literally just cut them shorter and roll up the cuffs twice and KABOOM they become as short as you like. I want to reiterate that I do think women deserve to have clothes that are made with their comfort in mind, and I hope we do someday soon. But with the options we do have, there is a clear winner in terms of functionality, dignity, and quality. Men's clothes are made to be worn, women's clothes are made to adorn, decorate, be looked at.

Last point, when I hear someone say they're just too short or fat for men's section clothes... I can't believe them because I have seen A LOT of short and fat women wearing men's section clothes and doing just fine. You all have never met a short and/or fat butch lesbian? Ever? They look damn good in men's section clothing. I have a coworker who is 4'11" and shops 50/50 mens and womens clothes including pants. Like... I'm seeing short women wear mens clothes with slight alterations and zero problems. I really believe you can do it too. I believe!!!

In the end, I'm just a random tumblr blogger typing on my random tumblr blog, and you the reader have no obligation to take anything I say with more than a grain of salt. Try not to take this post personally, I'm not out to attack you. If your reasoning is simply "I don't want to," I can respect that and we don't have to agree. I think we can all agree the clothing situation for women generally sucks. If anyone including this Anon has recommendations for companies who make clothing that is legitimately created for women with women's bodies in mind, please let me know and I'll boost! Perhaps we can make a difference with our wallets.

[thecurioustale]

Did you actually publish mate of song? I wanted to check out the adventures of afiach since i was intrigued by the idea of a female bard but i cant find it on your main website

No, it's not published. It's not even finished, yet! 😭

I wrote what felt like two-thirds to three-quarters of it between 2012 and 2014, during my days on the Mountain whence all such moods of life sprang. I solved the "main problem" of the story—that is, drawing it together into a complete narrative whole with all the critical bits figured out—in the years that followed, mostly on the Mountain.

It's that remaining third or so where so much of the magic and pain of birthing a story happens. The easy scenes are a pied piper's deceit, I think, because they come easily and we are (naturally) quite passionate about them, and yet if they were enough in and of themselves they could simply be a collection of vignettes. The essence of the larger story is not fully contained within them.

This is exactly what I've been struggling with in my work on the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, for almost eight years now! In early 2017 I wrote, in the span of just a few weeks, what was, at the time, "about two-thirds to three-quarters" of the story. All the core ingredients of the story are there. But the story wasn't there. And I have spent such time since then trying to find it, or rather, to make it. (Though I think each of those verbs has something important to offer.)

When I "finished" the Mate of Song story—when I figured out the intricate tapestry of it, the plot and the reasons for things and the ways that the main themes are expressed and the larger relevancy to The Curious Tale, of which Mate of Song is merely an Interlude to After The Hero—that "two-thirds to three-quarters" completion estimate shrank. Mate of Song had originally been on track to be a little bit longer than the length of the Prelude, maybe 70 to 90 thousand words. Now I suspect it's going to be bigger, more like 80 to 130 thousand words. Not nearly as big as the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, for reference, but my point is that I'm still less than halfway there in terms of scenes that I've actually written down. And since so many of those scenes are going to need serious revisions, the entire writing process for Mate of Song is even less farther along than that!

😵😱🤬😭🤠

I could, if I so chose, be putting my resources into that work instead. I've considered it in the past. But what I kept coming up with is that it would be weird to work so hard on a work that is intended to be situated at a very specific point in ATH, which ATH itself hasn't reached yet. Hell, even Chapter 1 (the book) isn't done yet!

Now, my logical decision has paid unintended consequences, as I worry that I will never again be at a place in my life where I can truly recapture the essence of those days on the Mountain, from which Mate of Song sprang like none of my other fictional works has ever sprung. No other work of mine is so deeply tied to a place and an era of my life like that. And I do worry that what I put onto the page will fail to convey what I really mean. That is always a major worry of mine with my fiction, and it became the major fault line of the glorious and strange mental breakdown I had during the Troubles (perhaps I'll write another post to explain what I'm talking about), and so it is a prominent theme in the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, this idea of "not conveying what I really mean."

I've mentioned on occasion that I consider Mate of Song to be my personal favorite of my works so far. Unfortunately, only a very modest portion of what I truly love about it has actually made it onto the physical page so far, I think. Superficially, this is just a story about Afiach Bard going places and singing, with an extremely dark plotline for its backbone. And my challenge is twofold: Not only must I do justice to the face-value aspect of "Afiach Bard going places and singing," which is glorious writing when successful but very hard to succeed at, and I have only a few written scenes to my name in that whole book as yet which I feel definitively capture what I am trying to say, but I must also "write down" somehow the story, which is inclusive of the former but fundamentally larger than it. The story is what connects it all together, gives it is meaning.

Ironically, if I could somehow draw on the secret technique of Sourros like Galavar did and conate with other people, to convey to them my meaning with Mate of Song, I would merely end up having erred on the other side of the mark. If the imperfection of physical text deviates in one direction away from the truth, then, on the other side of the truth, the deviation lies in the comprehension of the reader, and this simple fact conceals a delightful and terrifying secret: To be "understood" requires someone who does not understand you. Conation, the "mindwashing" of Galavar, transforms others from "others" into beings who are fundamentally more like Galavar. They gain comprehension of his meaning, but only at the expense of becoming less themselves and more like Galavar. This is the je ne sais quoi that Silence couldn't quite put her finger on in articulating her objection to the mass mindwashing Galavar proposed in the Prelude. To be understood requires aliens, people who are Other. Otherwise we are merely talking about a reflection, and not true communication, true coexistence, true convergence onto the same point of view.

All of which is to say, there isn't even a magical shortcut to the work that lies ahead of me. Putting Mate of Song onto the page is one of the things I am going to try to do really hard in my lifetime. That goal is still highly viable, barring me stroking out or getting hit by a meteor or something. I have become quite pessimistic in recent years that I will live to finish After The Hero in its entirety—which is also one of the reasons why I have been putting so much energy into the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel in the last year. It, too, like Mate of Song, is "highly viable" still, because it is so much smaller.

So I guess the good news / bad news is one and the same: "Hang in there; it's coming; but you're going to have to wait awhile."

Hey! Incidentally, I started reading The Day of the Deer last night (if you can count 2 o'clock in the afternoon as "last night," but it was the end of my day, after all), the first book of the Liliana Bodoc trilogy you had recommend me in response to my efforts to learn more about the stories and folklore surrounding Incan and pre-Incan cultures in the Andes. Very interesting so far. I'm still finding my taste for it, or rather still trying to process its flavor. Still trying to "understand" it, I guess you might say (har har). But it's very readable, and, blessedly, it isn't derivative and degenerate like so much fantasy is. The last book I read was nostalgebraist's, and this is so different from that, yet they are akin in that they both have have a distinct individuality to them that makes them fundamentally non-generic.

I've been meaning to get started on reading it for months now. You know how I am! I actually bought it shortly after you recommend it, as only the first book of the trilogy has been translated into English and I will decide after reading it whether I want to undertake the exciting but daunting prospect of trying to muddle my way through the following two books in Spanish.) But now seemed like the right time to start, because in recent weeks I've been having some seismic slipslide in my efforts to "find the story" of the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, and a significant component of that effort entails the "Andean-inspired stuff," which is such a blasé phrase to write, almost to the point that it sounds insulting, yet I can't think of anything better; the mythology of the peoples of the Andes has captivated me almost my whole life, since I was very small, and this is the book where I am finally going to get to pay an homage to it, and I am genuinely excited); and, also, this has been a good time to start reading The Days of the Deer because you have been in my mind acutely, because I am "horse in the gate" ready to get started reading one of your written works, but have been holding off while all the excitement of Jennyffer Episode 10 plays out. (The triumph of the one would interfere with the triumph of the other, I think, and this way there's something to look forward to after Episode 10 is out in the wild and audience reactions have run their first round.)

What an obnoxiously long answer!! 🤣😅

The short answer to your question is no.

[vivalgi]

A new record (at least since I've subbed) for how late the Choices Insiders has arrived. All of Europe is long asleep at this time already and even in California it's past normal working hours. I hope it's not a sign that PB is making its people to work overtime.

Since it was a simple free form answer box I doubt PB will do anything useful with the results, but for anyone curious I named my top 10: Aster, Sloane, Shannon, Nia, Quinn, Danni, Eris, Kamilah, Ava (ILITW) and Charlie (DS).

As weird and cheap as the LIs look and as much as they conform to male LI stereotypes, I wish PB gave us GOC MCs in supernatural/fantasy books rather than in simple chick flicks and soap operas. The premise of an evil ghost chasing you and causing havoc wherever you travel, is interesting enough in itself, but PB probably had to add another contrived connection between female family members. Despite giving us more GOC MCs than a year ago, I feel like PB cares about male players even less these days. Either PB has no idea what its male player base is interested in or just wants to get rid of us because the latter is honestly slowly working.

Be ready for a huge shock in chapter 1 and I'm not talking about the weird diamond hairstyles. I'm not interested in the wedding stuff because it's clearly WLM coded and lavish ceremonies are so not the MC's style. It looks though that the wedding will be set aside to focus on the mystery, so the story shouldn't be too bad.

"For y'all" my ass. Last time I checked Bitten and COP3 were early access books.

I've only managed to finish the first 3 chapters of Alpha so far, so I couldn't care less about the sequel for now.

lol, stop asking for 100 diamond ads to return, it's never gonna happen. By PB's own words 100 ads cost it 30% in revenue and the company is already poor af (EDIT: Series Entertainment just got $28M from investors so PB should be safe for a few years).

Too bad my questions weren't answered again. Are queries about GOC MCs and multiple LIs really that rare?

"In Inheritance, family secrets and cutthroat competition threaten to destroy everything as you fight for your rightful place at the top."

So, according to PB, Inheritance is some high-stakes drama, which sounds pretty interesting. Should it be GOC, it might actually be worth my time.

"In Years Apart, a steamy fling with a younger man takes an unexpected turn when your ex's protégé becomes impossible to resist.

Hah, "younger MAN"! Probably another slip-up from PB, showing how much it gives a sh't about those who prefer female LIs. But damn, now forbidden romances mean even our exes get to dictate who we can date. Why the hell should anyone care what their ex thinks about their new partner? With how close Choices is getting to Chapters with its themes, it won't be long until PB introduces step-family smut.

Although, I've been wondering for long when we'd get a younger LI than the MC. So far they've been either older or at most the same age, which seems to be the general taste of the main audience, so Years Apart is a fresh idea for Choices in that regard. However, I'm pretty sure MLW players weren't in PB's mind while writing this story.

Best Served Haute is a new title but it still doesn't sound like a dystopian story, which the ex-CEO promised us this year. It does sound like another culinary book, since 'haute cuisine' is a valid term. Maybe PB somehow repurposed that cancelled A Taste for Royalty book. There's also a chance it's a fashion book, though culinary theme is still my first guess.

This is nothing new and and since the exact release dates have already been published why not announce them in the Insiders as well? For those who don't know yet, Plus One wide release is in 2 weeks, October 18, and the first chapter of Blades 3 will be available for everyone from November 20.

I looked it up and as suspected, these two are also the chat stories some players got to play in the past. Not my thing though.

All in all, practically nothing interesting and important to me personally. I guess Lucky will have to keep me company while I wait for the wide release of Blades threequel.

[quinndominion]

Quinn Rambles (but any advice welcome)

Bonus pic cuz I always feel weird posting just text to tumblr. That's a real sim out there amidst the hood deco. Cookies for anyone who can tell who it is!

Okey-dokey. So, I rambled this ramble a week ago and deleted it, since in the process I came full circle. I still expect to end up here, where I am, but...I'm going to write it out anyway. Again.

What's the hold up? Well, I am still pruning pics for one single scene! (Day at the Lands') There are enough there to be its own full chapter, which i think I may have done on purpose (?) since I clearly went back to it. I mean, I know what I wrote so I'm glad I found the pictures, but they weren't even in the same freakin' folder! (That comes from actively triple booting a few years ago between Win7, Win10, and Linux - they're all pointed at the same game files but the screenshots are saved wherever and I'd forgotten about that at first.) And with a backstory, unlike gameplay, I can't whittle it down to 10-15% of the zillion pics I took and still tell the same story. They're all pretty damn deliberate, with only 1 or 2 alternative perspective shots, so I've only shaved off about 50% and who's going to read all that? Especially sandwiched in with the rest. But then who apart from Peni was going to read it anyway and I don't think she minds the length (?) But I have noticed a few more old friends still around so who knows, who knows.

I still fully intend to post the Starrywood thing as one thing (lol), for myself at least, because it is one day. But I was also going to break it up to be more palatable and manageable to anyone who's not me and maybe pop those sliced up posts on my backup Wordpress or something or maybe even...LJ (yikes!) Not tumblr, that's just too much work. I see they've raised the pic limit and all but tumblr is for montages and minisodes only. However, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. is not as big as all that. Though it is more immediately significant to the story as told thus far and there's the crux of my indecision...

So...there are 3-5 major scenes, depending on whether I tally by length or significance. I expected it to be a three act deal. Like, the first covers three days, the next about three weeks, and the last about three months. Conceptually, I like that. Textually, I like that. But the party scene pictures might give me the same amount of trouble as Day at the Lands'. And I just don't want to subdivide any more than that. It would obviously make things easier, but less...I don't know, I've lost my word, but anyway, just don't wanna do it.

Since it can be it's own thing and it's all written and my personal 'let's see if we can actually still do this' deadline has already come and gone, I've been hemming and hawing about just posting it by itself. A peek into the past rather than a full-on gaze backward. It's a familiar cast, it's fun as hell (I think), and it's long as a thoroughgoing slice of Land life but not plot revealing, so...maybe? It's Day Two in that Act One setup (Day One, basically, is the plot. So, no on that one though it's also ready to go.) But it is the anchor scene and if I throw it out there now what's the point of anyone reading it again, in full, in situ, in context?

(Oh, here's where I should probably say that in reality, two or three readers max, but I still think in terms of ideal reader and ideal presentation. Otherwise what's the point? It's a sim story, yes, and I give myself great latitude with that, but if there's someone out there who actually likes it I want to give them the real story, not a compromise. Also, while I am not my ideal reader, no, I am my primary reader, so I myself actually want the story itself and not an approximation. And then, as a general rule, I like to present a layered story that can be approached and appreciated at whatever level any given reader engages. At the level of having zero background knowledge or interest in following along and still having a laugh if you stumble across it. At the level of catching some or most or all of the little details and callbacks and suspected foreshadowing and feeling fully immersed in this little bit of nonsense that we're all playing with. At the level of actually reading this post and knowing wtf I'm on about, lol.)

If I excerpt it out, I probably would remove most of the fun stuff and just do a tumblr montage and...that is not the task I set for myself. Finish and post a chapter of Something. That is the task.

As I'm going along, however, I keep remembering why I set it aside. I said it didn't matter because there is no such thing as 'here' anymore after such a long absence...but it really does not go here. In the timeline such as it is. So I thought, well, if I (finally) unlock the Contrajocques chapters that's enough context. Will eliminate any need to revisit the Garden Party chapter because it covers the same ground, enough to lay out the parallels to the party scene from Act Two that I mentioned. Along with some other things. And if I pace them out a bit it'd give me enough time to link the pics and post Act One, prune Act Two, and maybe write a damn ending and finish shooting Act Three. (Or maybe not.) (And actually much of the hold up there is that I'm 95-99% sure I did sketch out an ending and I can't find it!)

But then I reread the Contrajocques chapters and the reason they weren't posted is because too much is revealed that the Desiderata minisodes were meant to set up. Most of those are ready to go. In drafts here on tumblr so I thought, eh, go ahead. Buy even more time! But the reason they're not posted is because the whole For Always Roaming detour is actually connected in a weird way. Can be overlooked and sidelined to get on with it, but to do so kind of invalidates that whole side story. What's the incentive to get back to it then and where on earth would I randomly stick it? (Also, there's not a Hart to be found in R.E.S.P.E.C.T. They're not in Widespot yet and, frankly, Val got his own freakin' spinoff show, so as he/we said, it was time to get the hell off the stage. For a bit.) And what's the hold up with all of this...yup, of course, it's the Starrywood saga. That nobody asked for and is tangential to the BaCC at best, but it lays some foundations that will be built on in that still open round of the BaCC and beyond. And it's just too big for me to take on right now. Ugh.

So I keep ending up back where I started. Finish and post the thing you said you were going to post and silently stick it where it really goes when you and the story finally catch up to it. And ignore the fact that some of the callbacks are to things that have not yet been shown.

...I guess.

[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.

[seafoamreadings]

Hi! I really enjoy your blog, and thought I'd throw a question your way that is both astrology and tarot related. I've seen some info online that associates specific tarot cards with a given sign. I think usually these are meant to be read as sun signs, but do you think there's a more accurate way to go about it? What cards do you associate with each sign? Or if you'd rather talk in more specifics, what tarot cards would you associate with Pisces sun, Scorpio moon, Leo rising? Thanks!

ooh fun question, thank you for including tarot!! i like to remind everyone periodically that's where i have my real roots :) i have been doing astrology for a little over 8 years but i have been doing tarot for much, much longer, and my whole entire family is a tarot family - my mom has been doing this since she was quite young so it predates my existence in my genes. i am the only one who does astrology though lol.

those associations are actually what got me into astrology in the first place. i was a tarot-only girl for a long time and scoffed at such frivolous pursuits as astrology ;) (now look at me, lol)

they are usually meant to be the sign itself, not any particular planet in a sign and not any querent's sign. most, not all but certainly most, of these correspondences come from golden dawn and similar ceremonial esoteric traditions, with some deviations from that system like crowley's (although such deviations are still very similar).

so the chariot for example has the correspondence cancer. for at least the RWS deck and arthur waite's plans for it, that was just cancer, not the sun in cancer, not anything in cancer. just that sign, cancer, and its energies.

now, crowley's thoth deck is layered and layered and layered with extra symbolism. the chariot is still cancer. but you have things a little more specific in the minor arcana, like off the top of my head the four of wands in the thoth deck is called completion, and it is associated specifically with venus in aries.

so it's going to depend on what deck you are using, and whether you are comfortable applying eg the crowleyan themes to other decks. nothing stops you from doing that and it can be useful, but it's not necessarily the intended use, and purists might frown on it. i am not a purist.

a lot of modern artists who make their own decks don't necessarily include any such associations. you could choose to read them utterly without the astrology, or you could project one of these systems onto the deck.

personally when i read cards i don't delve into those astrological correspondences UNLESS something pings in my intuition that reminds me to do so. then it turns out to be relevant. but those are strictly intuitive choices i make on a reading by reading, card by card basis. AND in my head/intuition it changes somewhat. i may draw like, a king of cups, and be like oh, some water sign man. could be any of the water signs. at other times i may have the thoth deck in mind or be holding the actual thoth deck, in which case crowley's intended meaning was specifically the degrees in the last decan of aquarius and the first two decans of pisces, and lady frida harris drew a crab on the card, so i might think more specifically of cancer.

there is a story i think from rachel pollack? about drawing the chariot and a diagnosis, medically, of cancer - a weird association with that card but a valid one. (rachel pollack was a very cool lady btw, if you aren't familiar with her, look into her life and work!)

it's all so situational!

just for fun though, with no particular deck in mind and going strictly based on vibes for the big three you mentioned (some folks may disagree with my picks here) i would say page of cups for pisces sun, the high priestess for scorpio moon, three of wands for leo rising. (but there's not really any tradition applied here. just vibes and my brain.)

thanks again for the very cool question, love this :)

[nevertheblood]

i've been so awol that i didn't even realise i was tagged in a thing!! thank uuuu @ohhcinnybuns 💕💕

Fanfic Writer Interview

How many works do you have on AO3?

eleven 🥹 four ongoing, six complete, one sort of.... resting (I hesitate to say abandoned lol)

it's a small number but i never thought i'd get to this point so yay!!

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

love in the vein (2,219 words) - M, skk, complete one-shot (albeit part of a larger ongoing universe), 18-year-old prince dazai and his fiancé (trans) chuuya make out in a garden and muse about love and trust 👀written for a valentine's day challenge!

so show me why you're strong (ignore everybody else) (15,490 words) - T, ambiguously platonic skk, ongoing. mafia executive chuuya meets suicidal cat hybrid dazai and tries to give him a better life (against dazai's wishes)

my candy boy, my baby (2,495 words) - T, sskk, completed one-shot. written for the same valentine's day challenge as love in the vein! atsushi and akutagawa go on a valentine's day date and try to manage sweet confessions amidst emotional awkwardness.

we burn our blue love for a while (8,668 words) - E, buraiha trio OT3, completed one-shot, VERY SPICY. ango has a really great recurring threesome going on and he thinks only about the inevitability of love and betrayal. pwp but angsty.

or so I’ve dreamed, since I met you (55,948 words) - M, skk, complete. artists AU set in 1910s paris - realist painter chuuya meets modern artist dazai, who has synaesthesia, and a sort of rivals to lovers story emerges. past buraiha trio ot3, some angst but with a happy ending.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes! very rarely in a timely manner but I do try to. I spend a lot of emotional energy in my fics and I like to have discussions about it when people make comments c:

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

probably we burn our blue love (mentioned above)... I think it's not necessarily angsty due to the events of the fic itself (which is mostly smut tbh) but due to what happens in canon later on and how it's alluded to at the end of the fic... bloohooohoooo i will never NOT be crying over the dark era!!!!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

apart from the aforementioned angst, all my fics have happy endings!! probably the cutest softest fluffiest is my candy boy, my baby (also mentioned above) just bc it's a valentine's day fic and it's so tooth-rottingly sweet uwu uwu

Do you write crossovers?

never properly written one but I do have a bsd x borderlands AU living in my head. I also have a bsd kpop AU waiting to be written, and that counts as a crossover bc i've written kpop fic before and also I said so

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

no, I keep to myself mostly... I'd like some of my works to get more love but I worry about reaching the wrong audience LOL it's a two edged sword fr

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes but it's gotta have angst and/or pining and/or fluff attached to it lmao i am EMOTIONAL ALL THE TIME at my core

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no~ not that I am aware of

Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

not technically but I've been back and forth with @nettlestingsoup and other irl friends on some delightful AU concepts before. should do that more often it's great for the brain

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

all-time gotta be royed. I am never leaving behind my funky little blorbos that got me PROPERLY into online shipping culture in the early 00s. they come back around every few years like a planet with a weird orbit and my singular remaining fma brain cell just buzzes like crazy and then goes dead again.

but rn I'm insane about skk since the last few years and I don't see that changing hehe

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

oh.... my kryptonite question.....

Kid Gloves is probably dead now. it's just been too many years since its inception and the things that made me want to write it in the first place. plus, I think my writing has improved a lot since then and I sort of cringe looking at it now lol

I have a fuckton of skz WIPs as well but I maintain that one day I *will* finish them ?? (denial) (delusional)

What are your writing strengths?

i like writing fun or snappy dialogue, i think it comes very easily to me (especially with the kind of semi-antagonistic ships that I really enjoy) and I like to show off with lots of in-depth extended metaphors too

What are your writing weaknesses?

movement.... action.... i'm really struggling to make my scenes not static BWUH

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

im literally a polyglot and i'm afraid of it for some reason. don't perceive me. what if I actually can't speak the languages that i speak and people on the internet find out??

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

arcane........... stares with big eyes

also star trek voyager, i dabbled in pariskim during lockdown but i could really go for some j7 and i know @nettlestingsoup agrees with me

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

or so I’ve dreamed, since I met you feels like my magnum opus, my first finished longfic with so much healing for dazai too.... and I had SO much fun writing and completing it;;; i wish everyone saw it through my eyes bc it is my precious baby of a fic..... 🥹

i think most ppl i would tag to do this have already been tagged?? but uh @nettlestingsoup even tho i tagged u twice already.... hands gently the thing (with no pressure)

[unusual]

I mainly engage with League through Arcane but I knew about Viktor before the show came out and enjoyed his design a lot and honestly your take is 100% correct

I've seen people say that Riot making Arcane the main canon wasn't a good idea and I'm curious about your thoughts on that since you know more about the lore of the game itself than me lol. From what I've seen while the idea of a unified canon sounds nice I think League lore works best because it's prime for "putting my favorite characters in a situation" kind of material

Thank you!! I agree with that, yeah. It’s sort of a weird situation, but more or less this is how I would sum it up:

League of Legends already has one large (more-or-less) unified canon — with the exception of a few champions who are old, uncared for and out of date, most everyone seems to have their own special place and niche within the “standardized” / mainline universe and some connections with (generally) at least one or two other champions. Arcane was originally conceived as an AU, which isn’t weird for League; Star Guardian, Heartsteel/KDA (aka musicverse), Spirit Blossom, etc all exist in canon alternate universes inside League of Legends because the multiverse and time travel canonically exist in League.

The issues mainly begin as a result of Arcane blowing up independently of League, leading to a lot of people who dislike League of Legends (for any number of reasons) functionally getting into League lore and treating it as a separate thing. Riot also has its own issues with being kind of ashamed of the world it’s created, but imo there was already a pretty solid and flexible canon that plenty of people were already happy with and playing around with

This is why people are upset — retconning the world lore and biographies for select champions who were in Arcane has weird, messy implications that make it so that right now everything is very disjointed especially around Piltover and Zaun. There are champions who technically “don’t exist” right now (Blitzcrank, Camille, Seraphine, etc) and champions in weird positions (Renata) and overall there is sort of a feeling that Arcane should have stayed an AU because it was maybe a bad idea to recenter the lore around a miniseries that had to cut and adapt a LOT of the worldbuilding for timing/pacing reasons. I’ve compared it in the past to Marvel’s attempts to make the MCU the “main” universe… it just kind of doesn’t work and messes things up

The changes they’re planning to implement are probably going to take years to fully integrate because now they’re putting everything into this whole cinematic universe of tv shows they’re producing (which takes time) so I don’t know what it’s going to look like fully realized but I’m pretty skeptical of its future at the moment :P this is just how I feel about it right now

I also am mourning old viktor and jayce lol 💔 I’ll get over it and am definitely not as upset as other people because I’m coping by pretending they still exist in another universe but I will definitely miss seeing them around

[arcplaysgames]

I don't remember this at all so I don't even know if its part of The Lotus Tree or not, lmao, sorry Kasumi you are so boring up until, uuuuuuuuuuh about 40 minutes from now actually

So Reverie wakes up, happy new year, time to head downstairs to

no no no no no non on onojnkofidflasjk NO

NOOOOO

no!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

no

inhales

okay.

I, in real life, staring at my Odin, literally out loud said, "Oh fuck ALL the way off."

Anyway, we meet up at the shrine by luck, hahhaaha what a crazy random happenstance.

Also: HARU! MY GOD! WHAT A KNOCKOUT! I feel like her kimono might cost more than my fucking car.

But there is already a very weird tension in the air when the group gets together. They all meet up at a shrine that has no visitors because it seems like no one in the world is wishing for anything because their lives are so perfect, so the crew is like "well! this was nice. uh see ya!" and the vibes are so bad. Immediately everything feels like a world encased in glass, like a pinned insect that just got a shot of euthanasia and is starting to lock into place.

It is fucking EERIE as shit.

oh my god I'm gonna sharpen an axe and cut down your Lotus Tree, Maruki, I swear to god

"Would you join the Phantom Thieves" as an indicator that all is perfect and no one needs to do anything is sure Something.

Somehow, just watch me, I will find a way to blame this all on Mishima again. I'm already trying to calculate the trajectory.

SPITTAKE

I FUCKIGN HOLLARED OH MY GOD

I don't want to sound like the average Atlus developer right now, Morgana, but I think you may have gained some weight.

Also, sidebar: COWARDS for changing Morgana's voice actor for this. COWARDS!!!!! Cassandra Lee Morris has been doing fucking WORK with this character, I literally would rather her continue voicing him with a pitch modulation effect than swapping the VA, /HISSES ANGRILY

Anyway. Reverie and I are both in complete unity at the moment because all of this is Fucked.

Again, me, IRL, shouting "NO" at my Odin.

oh i feel ill from this, this is horrendous. Maruki, you got a fucking storm coming, and i have a fusioned Izanagi-no-Okami with your name on it.

LOOK AT REVERIE HERE. So like I've ranted about how the P4MC was such a non-character while Reverie is so so much more. I can feel how freaked out he is even while he's still a mostly silent protagonist. The fear he feels as he tries to make sense of this situation and starts to wonder how far it spreads is fucking radiating from his posture and how he's watching everyone from over his popped collar and event he way he hasn't turned the chair around to face them, he is cheated away from everyone.

God, it's amazing. I have a lot of issues with P5R but the protagonist is a triumph.

Oh, immediately before he said a single fucking thing. He knows. He knows. He walks in and takes one look around and he knows.

Which in of itself is fascinating and I wanna sink my teeth into what that means.

Everyone in this world is getting their desires. No! No that's incorrect. What they are getting is their pain taken away. I remember Maruki's absolutely batshit closing speech as he left the school in November.

Everyone is getting a life where the biggest traumatic moments did not happen. Futaba never lost her mother and thus Sojiro never lost his best friend. Morgana gets to be human because he admires humans so much. Ryuji was never kicked off the track team. Haru never had the falling out that lead to her father's death.

But Reverie? I don't know what he gets. Before the switch flipped on the Lotus Tree, Sae revealed that the woman who was involved in Reverie's false assault accusation might testify, so his record might even be overturned.

So we have Reverie, and we have Akechi. The two Wild Cards who were puppets of a bored god (who, uh, since Philemon isn't actually involved in this I don't really know anymore what Yaldabaoth's whole deal was but whatever, lean with it rock with it).

I don't know if you can undo the trauma of being Goro Akechi.

... I'm thinking about Reverie, and about the constant drumbeat of his connection to Akechi. Wanting to keep a promise.

I just had a really horrible thought but also it's so gay that I dunno if Atlus would Go There. We'll see.

I know I have never been happier to see you. Been a while, Beige Boy. Love the outfit, actually, you look great in actual colors.

/points directly at this

Did Akechi survive or did Maruki being him back because Reverie had unfinished business with him.

That is my question.

Don't answer it, anyone, but what I am thinking is either Akechi will reveal how he survived the Palace (unlikely) or it turns out he fucking didn't and this was the start of the Lotus Tree.

Anyway, Akechi reveals that he was being questioned for the Shido stuff and then they just.... let him go. No charges. He's free. Which is impossible, obviously. And now Wakaba Isshiki is walking around alive.

that lil pose is so gay. i wonder if Akechi is meant to be Actually Gay. serious question. like, we got Actually Queer characters in P4 so we know the people at Atlus know gay people exist, but this game has been scrubbed clear of any queerness.

except Akechi has such intense gay vibes and, sure I'll say it, mannerisms that I wonder if he is subtextually meant to be gay. especially since to my recollection, every male character in this game has been mentioned to be attracted to women except him. like, I did notice that, thank you.

((ALSO, SIDEBAR: YOU KNOW WHAT I MISS FROM P3 AND P4? THE GIRLS HAVING CRUSHES ON EACH OTHER. I miss the casual flirtation and interest all the girls had together. That's also been stripped out of P5 and it sucks.))

anyway what the fuck was I saying. Akechi gay, he and Reverie need to investigate.

And then Kasumi calls to be like "heeeeeeeeeeey so sorry to bother you buuuuuut that palace we ran into at the stadium is back????? is that okay?"

Okay another thing, sorry that this post is like All About Akechi but

lmao Akechi without his mask is a delight. this man is a bitch and he does not give a fuck and nothing in this world or the next impresses him. it is for real so fun how his cadence and register have subtly changed, he doesn't soften his syllables as much anymore, and he is direct as a gunshot.

Between him and Maruki, this whole segment of the game is like Freaks Only, Normies GTFO and I am thrilled. I am a freak, it's me. This is for me.

[angelicdonuts]

what was your first ps oc? what was their personality/design like?

(oh my god it's been my THIRD TIME having to rewrite ALL of this because I keep accidentally wiping it..BUT IM NO QUITTER!!! And 3rd times a charm!! :3)

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR ASKING THIS!! (feels silly having to type that for the 3rd time lol!)

After thinking through and having to write this multiple times now, I've come to the conclusion that my first Pico's School oc actually started out as just a concept, then became a fully fledged oc only after I already made a few others, but I think the title still goes to them!

As a concept, they were a spiteful ghost. Not sure why, where they came from, nor did I ever decide literally anything else about them. Their whole thing was that they were this spiteful ghost who was also kinda silly? All I really remember was that they liked messing with Pico and enjoyed the thought of everyone in the world meeting a horrible end? Strange, I know. But don't worry, it gets worse, LMAO!!

When I brought up the idea to my best friend and got a mixed review, I immediately dropped them out of embarrassment, just to bring them back to add something to another PS oc of mine who I made with a whole batch of them (All of which I still have and TREASURE because they all mean so much to me)

Their name is Noah, and their whole character (at least at the time since they're DRASTICALLY different now) was that they were super shy, EXTREMELY timid, and depressed. (And also dinosaurs!!) And remember the first oc I mentioned? Well, their name is now Glass, thanks to the same best friend, and their whole existence revolves around making Noah's life a living hell.

The whole story behind the two was that Noah got bullied when they were younger and obviously at a different school and got forced to go into the boiler room that was rumored to be haunted?? Henceforth, Noah got semi-possessed by Glass.

Nearly everything about Glass revolves around Noah, so it's a little hard to explain them by themself, but there are a few things about them that are particularly interesting.

Their silliness and spitefullness are now split into two completely different personalities, but both with the ultimate goal of getting Noah to 'self-destruct' (I swear its for a reason but GOD that sounds so bad to the point its funny) The spiteful side did so by telling them horrible things and just making Noah hate themself in general. The silly side did so by making sure that any peace Noah ever found never lasted by being atrociously annoying.

Also they shapeshift, because they can. And that's cool. So yeah!

They don't have an exact story behind why they are the way they are. They've gone from 'kid who got murdered' to 'ghost with no chill' to 'weird other dimensional being that wants humanity dead' to 'demon who wants to wreak havoc on mankind'.

And as of now, I don't know what to do with Glass, both in terms of character and appearance wise, since I really haven't worked on them whatsoever for what feels like years, and like I said I completely reworked Noah, character and all, and their entire existence revolves around them, so I think it's only right that I completely rework them and maybe even finally give them a solid backstory and character.

As for what they look like actually isn't too hard even if they do shapeshift since I gave them this sort of 'normal' or 'standard' form, which itself has two different versions depending on which personality is talking. Heres my most recent take on what they look(ed?) like (and I mean recent as in literally right now LOL):

I think it's obvious on its own but left side is 'meanie' right side is 'silly'

The pictures around the edge are OLD OOOLD doodles I've made of them (some of them have Noah's old designs in them too :3), but basically 'meanie' is pretty boring, but they do literally all of the shapeshifting, meanwhile 'silly' is ribbon-like? And they have a mouth and arms. Smaller differences are the cowlicks and whatever the hell you call that strand of hair in the middle of their face

Anywaysss! I could talk all about Noah and literally EVERYTHING about them, but that's probably for another time considering how long this already is!

[ragnarlothcat]

I was tagged by @veloursdor (thank you 🥰) and I have a sore throat and am responding from the centre of a pile of blankets. I am cozy and my mouth tastes like chai (also teeth, probably).

1.) How many works do you have on ao3?

27 apparently! I should have a 30th birthday party for my account once we reach that point.

2.) What's your ao3 word count?

446,791. Definitely thought I was over 500k by now but that's writer's block for you. I've written half as much this year as I did last year. But if I really apply myself in the next two months...

3.) What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars only at the moment. I've toyed with branching out but I've decided that any spare inspiration goes to original fiction instead.

4.) What are your top five fics by kudos?

à la carte - I think this is the fic I'm most known for? Inasmuch as I'm known for things anyway. Glad people are still enjoying it!

Aggressive Negotiations - I had no idea this one was second now. Good for it! This is one of my hornier Obi-Wans, which is saying something given how I write the guy.

as holy and enchanted - Only two chapters but it contains as much sex as a much longer work. Efficient!

nothing compares to you - hasn't been updated since February 2022 but I guess some people like seeing Anakin fling himself against the Force like an angry cat trying to break down a door.

Out of the Bag - catboy Anakin my beloved, my original poor little meow meow.

5.) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I was good about it for a while because I like talking to people about my fics but then in like December of last year I burned out a little and stopped replying but kept posting fics and then the situation got out of control. I started replying again over the summer and have just decided that everything between like December 2022 and June 2023 exists in a weird little no-reply bubble.

6.) What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably my most recent fic, from a certain point of view. It ends okay for Obi-Wan and Anakin at least?

7.) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The fics that have endings are almost all happy endings 🤔 à la carte, maybe? There are a bunch of non-obikin characters who also have nice things happen to them so maybe it's extra happy.

8.) Do you get hate on fics?

I guess the closest I've gotten are snarky comments about my lack of updates but those people do seem to like the fic. They're just not crazy about the author.

9.) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yup! It's funny, I described my smut as vanilla but it's all relative isn't it? I think by many standards obikin itself is pretty kinky.

10.) Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I do not. The closest is probably as holy and enchanted because I definitely borrowed Indiana Jones vibes for my Anakin, but nothing beyond that.

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware so if so, the thief made a clean getaway!

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

A few! Actually the funniest thing I did was immediately paste the text into google translate so I could see what was going on before realizing that, uh, I already know what it says in English...

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope! I've talked about doing it a few times but I worry that I'd be a nightmare to work with since I'm not great at sticking by a project.

14.) What's your all time favorite ship?

At this point it has to be obikin. I've never maintained interest for this long in any fandom before. It's the combination of interesting and handsome characters with a setting ripe for fix-its. And then it's fun making weird AUs with them too? They're just excellent!

15.) What's a WIP you'd like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I mean never say never but Murder at Theed Hall is extraordinarily unlikely. I write mystery original fiction (well, write is a strong word recently but like...I have a pile of disjointed paragraphs?) so I just don't feel the drive to resolve the story.

16.) What are your writing strengths?

I keep answering "dialogue" for the various iterations of this question but like, how embarrassing if everyone else thinks my dialogue sucks? I stand by it anyway but the idea weighs on me!

17.) What are your writing weaknesses?

I think my biggest weakness is all the time I spend beating myself up for clumsy phrasing or slow output so my new answer is I have no weaknesses and everything I'm doing is on purpose. Yay me!

18.) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've never had a reason to do this. The most I can imagine is a quick "Anakin said something to Artoo in binary" but otherwise I'd probably translate into English. Is that frowned upon???

19.) First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. I was like 13 and it's exactly what you'd imagine.

20.) Favorite fic you've ever written?

It depends on my mood! In my current mood I'll pick my baseball fic The Bottom of the Ninth because I really wrote 40k about obikin playing baseball. I was my target audience and I had a great time. No regrets!

Tagging (does it say how many? I'll just do a few) and as always, no pressure: @renlyslittlerose, @treescape, @intermundia, @artemisthehuntress, @lilredghost

[halemerry]

Hey! 🤗 Really enjoyed your Protection and The Greater Good meta and tbh, I think it works even without the lie theory. 'Cause, like, even if Aziraphale's representation of his convo with the Metatron is accurate and not omitting any important bits there's still that thing about plans for the Earth (no f*cking clue what the exact sentence was, sorry) which presumably set off alarm bells in Aziraphale's head -- especially if he remembers what Crowley said about the big one at the end of season 1 (and then saving the world for the world's sake gains an extra layer of saving it for Crowley's sake; you came up with the solution last time, now it's my turn, look! I've found a way to fix it... but I digress...) -- and that whole past exploits thing, which is definitely an implicit threat at the very least. And since Aziraphale doesn't find out that Gabriel opposed restarting Armageddon, as far as he's concerned, everything that's happened to Gabriel -- showing up amnesiac and helpless, on the run from Heaven from something terrible, hunted by the Archangels, Hell launching a literal full-blown attack to get their hands on him -- is for falling in love with a demon. He's literally, just before the conversation with the Metatron, witnessed Heaven and Hell have a shouting match to secure the privilege of punishing Gabriel and Beelzebub, who only escape said punishment by going into permanent exile. And this is the Supreme Archangel of Heaven and the Grand Duke of Hell... not two disgraced, isolated traitors in an extremely vulnerable position who were meant to be executed four years ago for disrupting six millenia's worth of planning and are basically only wandering around on a sort of extended death row because no one's quite figured out to kill them, and who not only committed a more extensive version of Gabriel and Beelzebub's offence over a longer period of time but a bunch of other acts of treason as well. It's extremely unlikely that they'll get a similarly 'lenient' treatment and even if they did, abandoning the Earth isn't really an option for them, is it? And that's not even to mention that the Book of Life is still very much hanging over their heads: the Metatron stopped Michael this time, but if Aziraphale refuses his offer now there's no reason he'd do it again the next. The Metatron doesn't need any explicit threats because the situation Aziraphle's in is already in and of itself, all by its own, the threat; he's already in a position that's sufficiently precarious/dangerous that he's desperate to secure his and Crowley's safety -- and with it the world's... not sure where I'm going with this, but it's been bouncing around in my head since I read your meta so I figured I'd try to exorcise it. Hope you don't mind! (Sending an ask that ends up containing not a single question still feels a little weird, somehow, but oh well...)

Hey there! Thanks so much <3 And always feel free to send stuff like this - I love reading about what people think and the things they take out of a piece of media, especially if it's sparked by something I've written. Yelling into the void and having the void yell back is a genuine delight. I can't promise I'll publish everything like this that I get but I did think this had some interesting points, especially the stuff around what Aziraphale does or doesn't know about the Gabriel situation.

I definitely think trying to minimize the threat to them is a part of this choice. I definitely think like you said Aziraphale has reason to think that they will not get the easy out Gabriel and Beelzebub did for a bunch of reasons - from the privilege Gabriel and Beelzebub's ranks afforded them to the fact that Heaven in particular seems very keen to discourage the idea that those things happening are institutional problems.

Now, I also don't think that this being a factor means there's not other stuff going on too. I think it's very clear that Aziraphale knows you can't just run from this. I think even if he and Crowley were guaranteed safety by doing so he would have a hard time turning his back on earth (and, frankly, I also think Crowley would have a harder time with this than him continuing to push for it implies). Between these two things I absolutely think you end up with an interesting choice that is also, in my opinion, an extremely in character choice.

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm gonna replay: NEO: The World Ends With You

It's been two years since NEO: The World Ends With You (NEO) released, and two years since I played it too. I remember feeling very hyped for it, and enjoyed it a ton! I decided to replay the game shortly after, and today, I finally beat the game!

The World Ends With You (TWEWY) has a very special place in my heart, it's one of my favourite games of all time. I played it as a pre-teen, the message of Neku's story didn't really stick with me much, because I was mostly into just cool looking characters and loved anything Square Enix put out (also Joshua was my favourite character back then). When I replayed that game years later, I was captivated by the characters and literally everything about it, from story to music, to its overall cultural features of introducing Shibuya to the world. When NEO and the anime got announced, I was over the moon and wouldn't shut up about it to my friends. And after playing NEO, I didn't shut up for a good while either! And since then, I've been wondering: Which one do I prefer more? NEO or TWEWY? Now that I have my hype glasses off, I can probably evaluate my thoughts about this better.

I've seen a number of people online point out about how the journey of the protagonist in TWEWY was more prominent and impactful compared to NEO, and to that I do agree that I feel more connected with Neku than Rindo. People have also pointed out that NEO's point this time around is more about character/group dynamics rather than a singular person, and I think it does that very well! Seeing the chemistry of the group as they go through the Reapers' Game is such a delight to watch, as new members get added over time. I think it's hard to compare which game does 'characterization' better when they both have different objectives. But if I were to talk about just NEO, I was really hyped to see what Rindo would be like prior to release, and I did like him when I first played it. But while replaying the game, I felt my affinity for him...wear off? The replay made me realize that the highs that I felt for the characters came from the OLD cast, rather than the new ones. Don't get me wrong, the new characters are far from bad. In fact, I was expecting to hate Nagi when she was first revealed, but after playing the game, I think she's an exceptional character! But maybe the focus on group dynamics made me like the chemistry more than the characters itself...which I never realized could happen. That being said though, my favourite character from the new cast only appears briefly in one scene. But why is that?

The character designs and art in this entry are top notch, as usual from TWEWY. And they just draw me in so easily! When I saw the black hooded guy that was shown with the new cast, everyone went wild speculating who they were. His outfit was barely shown, but something about that mysterious aura just got me (he's also become a favourite for me in NEO btw). And maybe that's the case with why I have a favourite. And why I was hyped for Rindo. I may not feel for his character, but he's got such a drippy outfit, I can't dislike him or anything for it. Maybe it's weird to like a character just for how they're dressed, but for some reason, this game does that to me. I've also seen the concept art for some of the pictures, and I reaaaally wish they were real characters. The character design team just really nailed it here!

Music is part of the TWEWY series' soul. Without it, I don't think the games would have the same impact as it does. I love both titles' music, but they seriously ramped it up with NEO. The remixes for the older titles, and the new originals are huge earworms (in a good way) that I often listen to it while I'm working out or doing something productive. Takeharu Ishimoto never misses when composing for TWEWY.

Now, there are two factors that made me realize I prefer one game over the other. The first is: Gameplay The original TWEWY which was released for DS, smartphones and the Switch all encompass touch input in some way but make use of what the device offers, especially for the DS. If you want a game that completely takes advantage of the DS hardware, TWEWY often comes up. I mostly play TWEWY on my phone nowadays, which I know some people call it to be a ''bad port'', but honestly, I think it handles itself very well and it is a more accessible port compared to the other platforms. The switch was also criticized for poor controls as well as a new story segment meant to be a sequel hook. NEO on the other hand, makes use of all buttons on the controller (except the D-pad) and uses multiple playable characters on the field. Even though I played it on PC, I didn't really test out the keyboard input much, so I can't say much about that. Since NEO doesn't have much access to additional peripherals like a touch screen, stylus, microphone or motion sensor like the DS, this gave NEO more limitations in gameplay variety compared to the vast variety the DS game had. What you end up getting is something more...repetitive. I don't mind button mashing as I like games that do have it, but this leads to the second factor: Pacing Without trying to spoil, both games are split up into a number of segments. I prefer to call it early-game,mid-game and end-game. In TWEWY, the mid-game tends to offer some downtime by introducing some minigames that are also intertwined with the lore. It's also where the story starts to change direction a bit due to Neku and his interactions with another character. This mid-game is often lauded as the best part of the game. There's a sense of rest while still keeping the player occupied with story progression. NEO on the other hand, only focuses on combat with a tiny sprinkle of puzzle segments. You spend most of your time just grinding through enemies just to progress the story. And the activities that do get added in only involve more grinding. There's no rest, but there's also bouts of not much story progression either. And when it does occur, a LOT of it gets dumped on you, especially later on in the game. It's a lot to take in, and I cannot imagine the confusion that a newcomer would feel when seeing things that they're somewhat expected to know because it comes from the first game (reminder that NEO is a sequel). My hype playing it the first time around got me to beat the game in 4 days. My replay of the game took me two years. I was busy, but I still had some time to play games. I kept telling myself to finish NEO, but just thinking about it made me groan. I then realized that the grind and slow pacing of where I was in the game was the reason why I felt that way. Does that make the game bad? Not really, especially for those that enjoy grinding will like this. And I don't really dislike grinding. I've been replaying Persona 3 Portable lately because I didn't finish it and forgot the story, (which people say is a bad port apparently? Anyways I might write about this game too in the future) and somehow I've not gotten sick of Tartarus at all. But that's mostly due to its pacing, I'm not really forced to fight all the time if I want to progress the story. I can do other things too. And I think that's what NEO lacked. Let me do specify some nice things about the combat though. I really like the number of combinations you can use! I think NEO is much more customizable, and flexible with how you want to play. Prior to my replay, I wondered about having one button control two Pins, and turns out that's a thing! I really enjoyed using that in my replay. Same goes for the fusion combinations! Sure it's not very flashy like the first game with the transitions and all, but I like that it's much more functional this time around. Maxing out the fusion and button mashing enemies to death is still fun to this day! And some pluses to the story is the dialogue,

I'm so thankful that TWEWY as a series has not missed in terms of that. I had a good amount of laughs and getting my attention at some references, and seeing callbacks to the first game had me scream with joy! All I can say is that despite some gripes, I can see the love and passion poured into this sequel, and I'm so glad we got it after 14 years.

Terms exclusive to the game: Pins - Skills you can use to attack, or heal yourself. Fusion - Special attack that causes great damage to enemies.

[triposzt]

The Dreadnoughts - Roll and Go (2022) / Green Willow (2023) double album review

For the first English post of this blog, why not make a review of my new favourite band's last two albums? It's a bit late, I know, I originally wanted to make one about "Roll and Go", but never got around to do it, so when I heard that a new album is coming out this year, I thought "hey, now is the time to combine the two reviews into one post!" And I'm still freakin' late with this again!

But anyway, let's start the story from the beginning.

At least a decade ago, the first two songs I've heard from The Dreadnoughts were "Sleep Is For The Weak" and "Randy-Dandy-Oh" - no idea whether I found them randomly or someone showed them to me, but I liked both… and then kinda forgot to listen to any of their other songs for a while 😄 Then, fast-forward to approximately early 2020, when at work I was browsing for music, listened to one of the previously mentioned two and through the "related songs" links, found "Gintlemen's Club" (unsurprisingly from the same 2011 album "Polka's Not Dead")…and BAM! Immediately I was like "This is awesome, why haven't I listened to them for ages? Let's discover more!" And I did… and that's why I was anticipating the 2022 spring release of the new album Roll and Go even more. Let's see how it turned out:

ROLL AND GO (release date: June 24, 2022)

1 - Cider Jar [7/10] Hold up, a booze-infused version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"? That's ridiculously brilliant! 😃 Cider Jar serves as a short intro to the album and the closing "arr-oh-arr" just flows right on to the next track, which…

2 - Cider Holiday [7.5/10] …was the first track released from the album and in all honesty, did not hit me in the sweet spot back then, but has grown on me since. The prose-like bridge part gives it a unique flavour, and speaking of flavour, the song itself just makes me wanna drink cider or visit the West Country. Or both, preferably.

3 - The Rodney Rocket [8/10] You never know where artists can find an inspiration for a song. Sometimes, it might be a video about an old alcoholic Canadian fella having fun with some snowy extreme sports in Rodney, Ontario 😁 The Rodney Rocket is easy to sing (mostly due to its percussion-heavy background and the L-C-B-O chant in the chorus), plus the tempo changes well along with the story - the silly-sounding words in the lyrics (dickered, hullabaloo) and a callback to "Fire Marshal Willy" are just the icing on the cake. What's not to like?

4 - Problem [10/10] Second track to come out as a single and I instantly loved it. Somehow it's just perfect: the repeating "Problem" at the end of lines, occasionally replaced by various - and hilarious! - sound effects, both the beat and the inserted Polish lyrics obviously referencing Sleep Is For the Weak, the backstory of the song, it all just culminates in this masterpiece. The music video is weird enough, although it does not reach such heights, but anyway, who the fuck cares, we are here to listen to songs, not watch them. Problem?

5 - Brisbane Harbour [8.5/10] A worthy continuation of true sea shanties like "Whup! Jamboree" and "Eliza Lee", and one which surely makes any listener's fingers and feet tap to the rhythm.

6 - Battleford 1885 [8/10] The shortest "normal" track on the album, and its title was intriguing to me when I first saw it - turns out, music can be educational (duh), because Battleford 1885 sheds some light on a tragic event of indigenous people in Canada (here's the post about the background of the song). Oh, and the ascending drum in the background of the bridge is just… *chef's kiss*

7 - The Storm [9/10] Beautiful, just beautiful, equally eerie and empowering, with an instrumental break inspired by Greek bouzouki tunes. If the previous song was about the story of oppressed people rising up against their masters, then this one puts you right in those people's mindset. Well done. And I'll be forever grateful for the Substack post about The Storm for introducing Smokey Bastard's "Baba Yaga" to me, I fell in love at first listening.

8 - Vicki's Polka [7.5/10] Judging by the title only, I thought this was going to be the obligatory instrumental track, but then again, I might have been misled by "Clavdia's Waltz". Instead, Vicki's Polka is rather a love story spanning decades, featuring references to the band's 2010 hit "Polka Never Dies" and the popular folk song "Who Stole the Keeshka?". Assisted by some top folk musicians, the bounciness of this true polka track slows down only near the end, when it's time to say goodbye to the titular Vicki, sadly taken away by the Covid-19 pandemic. Goddamnit, 2020.

9 - Scrumpy-O [8/10] You've been listening to the songs of the album in order and you're missing the amount of alcohol in the lyrics for a while? Worry not, Scrumpy-O definitely has your back. Just grab some locally made and/or rough cider (that's what "scrumpy" means), learn the words to the chorus, and raise your bottle to the sky!

10 - Tuika [7/10] Now this is the instrumental track I thought Vicki's Polka was gonna be. The frequently changing speed of the song makes you imagine dancing arm-in-arm with someone at one moment, then jumping into a mosh pit at another. (P.s.: if anyone has an idea what the title means, let me know, I could only find a politician from American Samoa by this name.)

11 - Dusty Ground [9/10] One of my favourites from the album, a very well executed song. Listen to how the tempo decelerates almost into melancholy in the third verse and then turns back up for the last chorus, just fantastic. The lyrics… likewise. If I'm not mistaken, they are meant to convey the transience of life via a clever metaphor: the ever-thirsty ground, which swallows us up like water. Well, all right, I might have taken a peek at the origin story of the track ;)

12 - Bold Reilly [5.5/10] Honestly, out of the thirteen tracks, this is the song that resonated the least with me. I wouldn't say it's bad or anything, just… Too repetitive? Too slow? I don't know. Also, being "the worst song of a Dreadnoughts album" is still a pretty high level 😁 And it has a reference to Randy Dandy-Oh, nice!

13 - Roll and Go [8.5/10] For some reason, I classified the trio of The Storm, Dusty Ground, and this closing track as giving the same vibes - no idea why I feel the similarity, at the very least Dusty Ground is notably quicker. Anyway, all three songs are unique enough for me to love each of them. Roll and Go provides a fine closure to this wonderful album: the musical background resembles a marching band (here I am giving praise to the percussion section yet again 👏), the lyrics emanate the feeling of brotherhood, and the ending slowly fades with the promise of a "fine and lucky day". Amen to that!

Overall: this was easily the release of the year for me. Usually when I listen to an entire album for the first time, the tracks don't really have their own "identity" in the beginning, and the whole thing is just a raw, big mess. Not this time! A few tracks stood out instantly and I grew to love the rest even more. Roll and Go turning out to be that awesome, given the difficulties the band had to face while recording, just proves how talented these guys are. I'll be sure to mention this album when people ask me about my favourites. Verdict: 8.5/10

GREEN WILLOW (release date: March 14, 2023)

1 - We Shepherds are the Best of Men [8/10] A proper start to the album, with a great rhythm and an even better chorus. Apparently, it's an older folk piece, which has a few versions with different lyrics, but The Dreadnoughts are the first "modern" band to cover it. And oh boy, they did it well! (One small caveat though: the grammar nazi inside me is so bothered by the "We drinks our liquor freely and pays before we go" part every time 😅)

2 - Hej Sokoły (Zal za Ukraina) [9.5/10] I see two great reasons why this track was chosen as the initial single of the album. Firstly, this song is an absolute earworm. I mean, so dangerously addictive, it can be stuck in your head for a day! Secondly, it's dedicated to the people fighting for Ukraine, and whoever has listened to The Dreadnoughts' songs knows that Eastern Europe has a special place in their pool of inpsirations. Accordingly, Hey Sokoły covers a popular old Polish-Ukrainian folk song, and frankly, I just can't ever get enough of Polish lyrics in the band's songs - no wonder the band fell in love with the suggestion of this cover. Highlight: as the last verse slows down and then builds up into the energetic last chorus… goosebumps, goosebumps every time.

3 - Rigs of the Time [7/10] It's like a good worker who does not yearn for promotion but is never in danger of getting laid off - not necessarily oustanding in his field, but someone who is trustworthy and does his job well. It has a message and a great chorus. You need tracks like this on your album. (Ironically, the song is about dishonest tradesmen, but still, that's the metaphor I chose. Also, the whole "blaming the rising prices on the war" thing is too real nowadays.)

4 - Roll the Old Chariot Along [8.5/10] This song is apparently covered by a few artists, but I don't recall hearing it before I listened to the album - only since then, but for that, the almighty Algorithm might be the one to "blame". Anyway, I remember instantly liking it upon the first listening and my opinion remains unchanged: what a fantastic and catchy tune! "And we'll all hang on behind!" (P.s.: Lads, there's a missing verse - and some other confusion - of the lyrics on the Bandcamp page.)

5 - The Foggy Dew [7/10] A classic Irish ballad, full of historical references (one of which could even be meant as a hint to "The Bay of Suvla"), so far it was only familiar to me because Dropkick Murphys used it as the opening instrumental for their shows (The Chieftains version to be exact). The lack of repeated parts and intricate rhythm of the verses makes it very difficult to sing along, but nevertheless it's a beautiful rendition.

6 - Twankidillo [7.5/10] "Half of you are going to hate it, it’s fucking weird." That's the premise I've read before I even listened to the song… and I didn't even mention the strange title. 😄 *1st listening*: They were right, what the hell is this? *2nd listening*: Okay, it IS weird, but certainly catchy… *3rd listening*: "Here's to old coal, and to young coal and to no coal at aaaaaaaaallll!" Yep, it grows on you. It's another cover of a traditional folk song (like all tracks except one), and if you haven't noticed, the lyrics also contain a reference to the album name. Yay!

7 - Spanish Ladies [7/10] Sorry guys, I have absolutely been in love with Sarah Blasko's version of this song for years, and I don't think anything can change that. To be fair though, this cover is more sea shanty-esque, if you close your eyes, you can almost visualize the crew hauling ropes or heaving the capstan around.

8 - The Unquiet Grave [8/10] Upon seeing the tracklist, this was the title that stood out the most for me - and damn, it did not disappoint, especially storywise. This tale of love beyond the grave has been sung for centuries, I haven't heard it before, but I must say that The Dreadnoughts have really managed to capture the appropriate eerie vibe which surely gives you the chills. (Bonus funfact for anyone who's familiar with the band's discography: this track was first intended for the 2017 album "Foreign Skies".)

9 - Apple Tree Wassail [8.5/10] Don't believe Google Translate saying "wassail" is an Arabic word, this catchy track is actually a blessing ritual for apple trees in hope of a good crop to make cider from… although the mental image in my head is stuck halfway between an orchard and a mosh pit due to the song's fast pace. Hell, I hope at some point I'll have the chance to hear it live and jump around like a maniac. (Please come to Hungary!) (P.s.: The "Let every man drink up his glass" line is possibly a callback to "Spanish Ladies", am I right?)

10 - Roll Northumbria (Loud Version, sometimes called "Heavy Version") [7.5/10] Green Willow features nine covers of traditional folk pieces and a reboot of one of the band's earlier songs… yep, this closing track is the reboot one. What I said previously about Spanish Ladies, can be applied here as well - I like the original so much that no newer cover can surpass that, even if it's from the same band. Also, I think the original's slow and dark vibe is more fitting to the topic of the song, but if there's one place where the heavy/loud version could be used, it's concerts. The final drum beats provide a great ending to the album.

Overall: When I first listened to the entire album, I thought "maybe Roll and Go set the bar too high", although my reception of Green Willow has improved well since then, as it can be seen in the ratings. A shorter collection of tracks than its predecessor, but it has a bit of everything from patriotic through silly to haunting, while covering well-known and lesser-known folk songs. I know an album a year would probably be too much to ask, so I'll just patiently wait for some fresh stuff from The Dreadnoughts! Verdict: 8/10

Thanks for reading! 😊