#The Arctic Grail

[full-of-terrors]

If you ever feel bad about a mistake just remember- John Ross misidentified an entire mountain range and in some quarters an excess of overconfidence was known as Ross-ism for years afterwards.

[writer-and-artist27]

Summer 7 in FGO NA had the author think about a lot. Especially when one of the culprits is shown to be the author's Grailed Caster.

Emotional exploration, past memories of sensory overload and anxiety (coincidentally caused by author's own parents in a growing bit, actually), and many many days of work stress and writing on the trolley resulted in this. Almost 14k words for a Summer Event chapter.

(Let it be said that when bad apple 3 who was pregnant left, author with work team found a bad apple number 4 and it sucks. What is it with healthcare jobs finding the most devious of masked people who say they can do the work, only to slack on the details when others need it most? Fuck off.)

An honorable mention to @partialdignity. It's thanks to you beta-reading a lot of the scenes and initial ideas that helped me finish this. I love you friend.

AO3 link here. OST playlist here, with all the new songs included.

[arctic-hands]

rip in peace calvin klein plain white all cotton mens t-shirts I got as a gift like 8 years ago that are super comfy and just the right thickness and are only just now starting to become threadbare and stained but I am not paying thirty-five dollars for 3 new plain white tees that were probably also made in the same factory as the 6 pack of hanes cotton plain white tees I bought by overseas laborers for slave wages

[kaibutsushidousha]

what did you think about skadi's handling in arctic summer world? as an ibuki fan i'm puzzled as to why she agreed to skadi's request to stop, but any general insight into what aspects of her were explored here is appreciated.

Thanks to Odin's questionable kindness, Scáthach-Skadi is the last survivor of Ragnarök. That's a situation she's very displeased with and her every major appearance has been her trying to process her grief in some way.

The most relevant attempt is obviously her Lostbelt. She was initially grateful for the lengths Odin went to keep her alive and believed she also needed to go great lengths to preserve the world he left her with. Skadi ruled for 3000 as the most anti-violence Lostbelt King we've ever seen. She constantly had her eyes on her world, and micromanaged all the humans and Jotunns so that there would be no fighting in her world.

She was unquestionably devoted to her Lostbelt, but by no means she made a good job. Her messed up decisions came at great personal cost for the giants who couldn't think for themselves, the humans who only got to live until age 25 at most, and to Skadi herself who had to overexert herself to keep everything in check while also maintain Surtr's seal. Skadi was a joyless woman stuck in the joyless world of her own design. Absolutely no one benefitted from her dystopia.

But playable Skadi is obviously not like that. The world that was hers to care is already gone, and she finds herself free from her queenly chains of responsibility for what might as well be the first time ever. In Chaldea, she's characterized as very lost and clueless. Someone Medb and the other Scáthach need to introduce to so many things she could never see in her small, enclosured world. She has something of a background arc through many cameos with her experiencing many new things, from food (ice cream, takoyaki, alien monster sashimi) to roles for herself (fairy godmother for Lizderella and Martha, and of course, park administrator).

There's also her Interlude, but I'll get back to it later. The reason why I covered this whole recap of Skadi's character is because Skadi's part in Arctic Summer World also feels like a recap of her character. A return to her origins without the previous stakes. In this less messed up environment, Skadi remains as awful an administrator as she was always and remains self-destructively overworking herself for something the people she's serving didn't ask for.

The difference here is that Götterdämmerung is a story about Ophelia's inability to distinguish love from emotional abuse, so Skadi had to carry the important role of sincerely loving mother that made everything worse for everyone, while Summer Skadi is in a role where she can review her mistake and not create Super Fun & Colorful Götterdämmerung 2.

But the part about vaguely self-biographical manga being the medium that lets her examine her past and assess what she needs to do feels like a mark of progress for herself and more like a mark of progress for Jalter as a mentor sharing with others what brought her solace.

As for Ibuki, I think she just stopped because she knew she wouldn't get what she wanted from Skadi's current state. Ibuki wanted things to get joyous and lively, so she ordered Douman to give the Grail to someone full of love. Douman's choice was Skadi because his initial mission was interacting with the Lostbelt Kings, so he was very aware of her love. I don't think Douman was too surprised by the mistakes Skadi repeated here. If Skadi and Fujimaru say they're unwilling, then who is Ibuki throwing this party for?

I get that the end is sudden, but I feel like it works really well for Skadi's long-term characterization. The Scandinavian Lostbelt was a shit place to because Skadi had no respect for anyone's autonomy. After going to Chaldea, disrespecting other people's autonomies remained a recurring problem with Skadi, with Summer Caenis, Lizderella, and Santa Martha all being unconsented transformations.

But then came her Interlude, with the conclusion being that even though she eventually found new happiness in Chaldea because of Odin making her survive and endure 3000 years of trauma, this is not something she wanted, so Odin violated her autonomy and she doesn't need to feel grateful for it. Skadi's consent issues disappear entirely after this Interlude, but since Arctic Summer World was so shortly after it, I like to believe that Skadi saying no and Ibuki immediately respecting also played a part in fixing her flaw.

[mantrabay]

Christmas Torch Aloft

Season of dream haze and arctic signpost.

Chill and chap brood whose scattered offspring plummet thermal values as welcome mat for “whiskered” chimney guest awash with bounty.

Thief of sun filled days without a twinge but that universal late December rendezvous can’t be thrust off-course.

Primal raw wind howl dissing summer’s distant memory - spotty and erratic though it was.

Deck chair, seat of toil free bliss now cold front recess blob.

Mirage or wishful thinking from a wet weather veteran.

We live in fear of reruns like Ophelia or

2010’s black ice.

Storm Force Brian, Mount Fuji on an airwave shrapnel carrier.

Dormant Loch Ness shadow’s fervent air mass plugging festive tunes.

To fuel dispatch and chimney sweep alike a sacred windfall.

For those who struggle just another inroad on an ever

shrinking pocket.

Yet this annual curtain closer has its grail and saving grace.

Dark art charmer lacing every patch for knee high boot crunch.

Architect of igloo closet ski cap.

Sleigh ride bell upon that maligned feast around our globe (Noel hark the alpine carol)!

Bizarre but only to us frostbite souls aloof from glacial beauty.

Deep freeze spirit canvass may not surface.

Christmas anthems booming over frolic footfall streets adorned by night owls.

Chaser lights that gee up gutted ghost town black spot.

Urban ice rink dome another fantasy or wonderland.

Toy shop stock n trade whose only trade is stock.

Colour coded gadget clutching every cell of window space.

Fashion fodder wizards magic spark a toddler’s glee at every turn.

Boisterous strains of Santa rousing inner reindeers - the sort beloved by children down the ages.

Yuletide decor gift band holly bush spike.

Log tossed on fire, kindling stick incendiary, leaping flame enshrouds smokeless polish.

Skim milk skyline flaunts its snow fleck jewellery aloft.

Stars of astral compass spread their twinkle dash on human garlands.

Winter’s stepwise edging in a whirl plume of slush.

Christmas well and truly has arrived.

Photographs and piece

all my own work

Dedicated to my wonderful sister Jay Pallen.

Happy Christmas to you and your family/ friends, Jay.

Wishing everyone on tumbrl a very merry Christmas

To those on tumbrl who read, liked, and reblogged my various works, a deep and genuine thanks

[clove-pinks]

History ask no. 19?

@suffrajetpack asked me the same question:

Favourite historical book?

So I will answer this in two ways: favourite book about history and favourite book from history.

Unravelling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony by David C. Woodman is what I'll choose for a favourite book about history. I read this many years ago and it was mind-blowing to me. I had grown up on a steady diet of books about the Franklin Expedition, and while these sometimes included Inuit accounts of Franklin's men, they never correlated different testimonies or tried to make a cohesive narrative out of them. For a long time the Standard Narrative of the Franklin Expedition was that the men abandoned their ships in 1848 and attempted to walk out of the arctic, never to return to the ships, and Owen Beattie's 1980s discoveries only added "plus lead poisoning!" to this story.

While all that lead in the Franklin Expedition tinned foods probably did not help them, the consensus nowadays is that it ultimately had little effect on their fate, and the lead levels found in skeletal remains are actually not out of line for the typical urban Victorian. But Beattie and Geiger made it seem like the ultimate smoking gun in Frozen In Time: literally everything that went wrong was because of lead poisoning, somehow. Three men died the first winter because of lead poisoning! So many officers died because of lead poisoning from more canned food! They made poor decisions to walk south and not east towards the whaling fleet because... yeah you guessed it.

So I really did think that Franklin's men were completely lead-addled. And while this made them more sympathetic, in a way, because it excused their actions, it also stripped them of agency if not humanity. Learning from Woodman's careful reconstruction of events that Franklin's men were fighting for their lives as much as they could, actually making rational decisions despite all the odds stacked against them (which included being beset for two years in an isolated area with no game that was avoided by Inuit, who were also experiencing famine in the late 1840s); that turned all my assumptions upside-down. Pierre Berton sneered in The Arctic Grail that Franklin's men died while dragging useless junk because they were too stupid to live; in Woodman's book this was presented as a tactical decision to lighten the ships by dumping useless items on the shores on King William Island. Many such cases!

And for my favourite book from history: here's where I should put some celebrated classic like Les Misérables but SURPRISE!! It's The Naval Officer (Frank Mildmay) by Frederick Marryat. Love me an overwrought vindictive S.O.B. from 1829!

[wildtige429]

Human Alternates of the Autobots and Decepticons

For @julayla and @neogirlart so you guys can add in your ideas.

So, I have been brainstorming on what Team Arcadia, the human version of Team Prime and the Arcadians will be like. Arcadia is a fantasy land in the human verse where the elf Kinjiru and her family and the elven Commission live. As for where the human verse Decepticons, they live in a very dark continent where demons of Ars Goetia and such dwelled, seeking to claim Arcadia as their own land called Nidhogg.

Human Verse Autobots:

Optimus Prime - Aron (He's a male descendant of the Amazons whose magic amulet turns him into a manticore. Has dragonkin blood)

Ratchet - Rustlen (A tanuki and his amulet helps hide his animal form)

Bumblebee - Beckett (A plains elf whose animal form is a jackalope and has lightning magic)

Bulkhead - Trayne (A minotaur. He avoids beef, cause he feels that its considered cannibalism since a minotaur is part bull)

Prowl - Kitsu (He's a kitsune ninja whose an expert in illusions and controls black fox fire. He can transform at will)

Jazz - Tenko (An arctic fox-type kitsune ninja who controls snow and ice)

Sentinel Prime - Cyrrus (A male descendant of the Amazons and his magic turns him into a tigon)

Ultra Magnus - Leonidas (King of Arcadia, leader of the Elite Knights and friend of Elf Kougato. He has the power of lightning and transforms into a Nemean lion)

Rodimus Prime - Akira (Male descendant of the Amazons, Aron's half-brother whom they share the same dragonkin mother, and animal form is a tiger)

Hotshot - Rammot (Fire elf whose animal form is a fire lizard)

Kup - Copper (A retired war veteran who still stays around to teach cadets and the members of the Elite Knights. He's a mountain elf whose animal form is a mountain goat)

Brawn - Knuckle (A dwarf with Herculean strength. His amulet changes him into a splinter cat, a pangolin-bobcat hybrid beast with a superthick skull capable of powerful headbutts)

Ironhide - Nero (A descendant of the Nemean lion and has the ability to turn his body into indestructible diamonds)

Red Alert - Nikke (A savannah elf, was mentored by Rustlen, and her animal form is a gazelle)

Jetfire and Jetstorm - Orobas and Eligos (Human Phango's mentees who look up to him as their father figure, raised in Arcadia as fellow Arcadians as well as the first demon Elite Knights, and they can fuse together to become Gamigin, a giant winged anthro unicorn with two horns and wings who controls both wind and fire. Orobas' true form is an anthro demon stallion with flames for a mane and tail and Eligos' true form is an anthro unicorn stallion with two horns and glowing blue wings)

Alpha Trion - Merlin (The one and only Merlin himself. His animal form is a majestic kirin)

Perceptor - Percival (A robot-like golem made of metal but is extremely intelligent despite his robotically monotonous character)

Blurr - Hermes (A storm elf birn with lightning speed and runs as fast as The Flash. His animal form is a cheetah with spots shaped like pluses and minuses and a lightning bolt-shaped tail)

Wreck-Gar - Rumpel (He's a troll who was an old elementary school drawing but was splashed by the waters of the Holy Grail, a very friendly but nit-witted troll who enjoys eating trash which helps the environment)

Grimlock - Sword (Leader of the Dino-Men, cavemen frozen and preserved in ice until they were freed into the modern world. Posesses a pyronite (lava magicked gems only found in prehistoric time) sword and has a pet T-Rex named Grimey)

Swoop - Flail (The smartest yet quiet member of the Dino-Men, wields a pyronite flail and has a pet pterodactyl named Flappy)

Snarl - Club (The strongest yet slowest but good-hearted member of the Dino-Men, wields a pyrobite club and has a pet triceratops named Growly)

Cliffjumper - Clifford (An iron elf whose animal form is a big-horned ox)

Omega Supreme - Zhu Long (A ginormous gold and red Chinese dragon who helped the Elite Knights and the kingdom of Arcadia to defeat Marbas and his army of demons, banishing them to the dark reaches of Nidhogg as well as sealing them away with his own breath. After the war, he transforms into his human form which is a huge dark-skinned man wearing Chinese robes and he only turns into his true form to help carry Team Aron on his back when they want to fly somewhere far and to aid them combating large evil forces)

Arcee - Himari (A light elf who suffered amnesia when she and Rustlen were captured by Sitri during the war. Now recovered, she works as a teacher to teach humans how to use magic now that both fantasy and human worlds are one. Her animal form is a mink)

Human Verse Decepticons:

Megatron - Marbas (His true form is a demonic lion-dragon-lizard hybrid)

Starscream - Astaroth (True form is a winged wolf-eagle humanoid hybrid)

Skywarp - Seir, Astaroth's cowardly brother

Thundercracker - Vassago, Astaroth's arrogant brother

Sunstorm - Vual, Astaroth's over-flattering brother

Ramjet - Valac, Astaroth's pathologically lying brother

Slipstream - Gremory, Astaroth's bitchy sister

Acidstorm - Sabnock, Astaroth's bloodthirsty brother

Novastorm - Flauros, Astaroth's seductive brother

Dirge - Phenex, Astaroth's greedy brother

Thrust - Raum, Astaroth's greedy brother

Lugnut - Dantalion (True form is a six-horned demon minotaur)

Blitzwing - Naberius, Aamon and Marchosias (True forms are demonic werewolves that can fuse together to become a three-headed demon wolfman with four arms and massive wings)

Blackarachnia - Vapula (Was an Amazon woman named Artime but was corrupted by dark magic in when she, Aron and Cyrrus ventured to Tartaros, a very dark land only inhabited by monsters and spirits corrupted by dark magic. Her demon form is a massive lioness with eight eyes with the first two above her original eyes and the second and third pairs on either sides of her torso, four massive spider legs on her back and massive insect-like fangs containing paralytic venom. Her spider legs can fuse together to become insectoid wings when she wants to fly.)

Shockwave - Paimon (True form is a pale humanoid demon with horns taking the top half of his head with the eyes on his palms and wings. His elf form is called Pollux)

Swindle - Mephistopheles (MP for short; true form is a yellow and purple anthro cobra with a fox's face and tail)

Lockdown - Sitri (True form is a winged leopard with horns, claws and tail of a dragon and breathes black smoke that causes blindness, paralysis and causes the victim to fall asleep)

Spittor - Baal (True form is a giant demon toad with an insatiable appetite and three tongues)

Strika - Purson (True form is a bear-lion hybrid beast with a viper for a tail)

Cyclonus - Focalor (True form is an anthro tiger with eagle claws for hands, crocodilian tail, ram horns and feet like a velociraptor's)

Oil Slick - Crocell (True form is a black-winged angel wearing bone and skull trinkets, a leopard skin kilt and has a head of a hyena and a tail and fangs of a snake)

Blackout - Furfur (True form is a demonic anthro stag with metallic horns, dragon-like claws and wings and feet like an elephant's)

Scrapper - Agares (Was a normal construction worker named Igor until he, Sal and Zippo, their mean boss, accidentally drank from the Holy Grail (Human world version of the AllSpark) and turned them into demons. His true form is an muscular anthro crocodile with large boar-like tusks)

Mixmaster - Saleos (Was formerly Sal until the Holy Grail turned him into Saleos. His true form is a big bellied anthro alligator who can project cement-like vomit that quickly hardens to trap opponents)

Dirtboss - Zepar (was formerly Zippo until the Holy Grail turned him into Zepar. His true form is an anthro caiman in red armor and has a spiky tail that shoots quills. When the quills hit someone, they become his puppets)

Soundwave - Tsugumomo (A radio tsukumogami that bears a hatred to humans for how they treat their items and tsukumogami familiars and wishes to liberate all tsukumogamis to rule over them.)

[llitchilitchi]

Ako je možné, že aj po všetkom tom scrollovaní tvojho blogu stále nachádzam nové veci? Je chyba vo mne?

So, I just discovered (or re-discovered? I could swear I saw that art before) the holy grail au and I'm starving for more content. Is there anything you could spare me? 🥺

pravdepodobne je to len v tom obrovskom objeme vecí čo som za tie roky postla, tento blog mám od zimy 2020/2021 aj keď som ho poriadne začala používať len pred asi rokom

! english starts here ! warnings for: violence, abuse, torture and all the stuff related to prison arc and its aftereffects, nonconsensual drug use, overall fuckedupness

as of Holy Grail AU, I don't really know how much there is to share save for what has been already said. Aeri is no longer active in the fandom but at some point she mentioned to me privately that she would like to use some of the ideas from the AU in an original story (can't blame her, I do that a lot myself)

I went thru the tag and noticed that we only ever really talked about the first arc of the AU - it was going to be three arcs in total, with the first arc (Cotard's Solution) being centered around the happenings after Dream became Sam's puppet, combining multiple POVs to address what was happening on the SMP and Dream's day-to-day existence. tensions are rising all over and Sam greatly benefits from the death and destruction it brings with the Revive Book coming in handy to keep everyone wrapped around his finger, while Bad slowly grows more and more uneasy with how things are, only sticking around to make sure Dream is safe, or as close to it as he can get. Ant has little care or say in what happens, simply following orders in hopes of one day being on Sam's (or Dream's) good side so he can ask them to revive Red for him. the Syndicate catches wind of Sam's nefarious activities and his growing power, goes investigate and run into Bad who immediately seizes the opportunity and helps them get Dream out of the fortress, which Techno is more than happy to do.

the second arc (Kintsukuroi) then focused on Dream's recovery in the Arctic while the server slowly falls apart, as the Revive Book has gone missing and Sam's grip on power begins to slip. Dream has to slowly regain himself after spending months upon months drugged out of his mind, has to deal with the initial withdrawals and the constant anxiety and panic that all the time in inprisonment has brought him. Bad serves as Techno's informant on what is happening with Sam and Ant joins him soon enough, still hoping to benefit from the help. at some point, Kinoko residents catch wind of things happening in the Arctic and George and Sapnap find Dream hiding in there. both of them have since changed their attitude towards Dream, especially after Sam declared him dead months and months ago, so despite the lingering anger all they feel is relief at him being at least alive. Dream's mostly non-verbal and very cautious of everything and everyone around him. as time goes by and he's in a good enough shape to move around and be his own person, though more docile and way more weak than he used to be, everyone agrees on Dream moving to Kinoko to be with Sapnap and George where he spends his time tending to Karl's library. I don't remember as much of the political machinations that were running parallel to the recovery. some time after Dream's relocation, Quackity comes to Kinoko to speak to his fiancés and instead of finding Karl he runs into Dream. he recognises him almost immediately and draws a weapon and Dream bolts for the exit. a short scuffle follows but Dream manages to get away, making his way towards the dojo where he knows Sapnap is so he can get his help. when Sapnap comes out, Quackity demands Sapnap hands Dream over but Sapnap stands in Quackity's way. Quackity declares it a betrayal on both him and the whole SMP and says that if Sapnap won't cooperate he will have to take the revive book by force, thus starting the last arc of the story.

the third arc (Epitaph) then follows the ensuing conflict between Las Nevadas and Kinoko, which with the tensions across the entire server turns into a much bigger conflict than it initially seemed to be, everyone desperate for the revive book or disgusted by the truth of what happened to Dream behind closed doors and trying to help him get away from the abuse. George, Bad and the Syndicate immediately make plans to get Dream far away from the mainlands to avoid the conflict. Sam, upon learning part of the truth of what happened to his holy grail, drunk on power and paranoid out of his mind takes his anger out on Antfrost whom he discovered to have been involved with the "conspiracy" that took Dream away from him, locking him away in the fortress where he kept Dream earlier. a war breaks out, people die. this arc is the least fleshed out since it's the last part of the story that never was. a few of the key elements of the arc involved Bad freeing Ant and then burning down Sam's seat of power and Ant eventually getting his wish of reuniting with Red. during the conflict, Quackity ends up taking Sapnap's final life but is unable to cope with the guilt. Karl is the one to find Sapnap's body and he drags it thousands of blocks across the server to where Dream and George are hiding. Dream doesn't even have to be asked twice to revive his friend.

I don't remember what the ending was, or if we agreed on a definitive one at all. the story, despite being about the revive book, had Dream be mostly idle through its course and instead focused on the lengths people would go for the power of the book and the eventual destruction the thirst for power would cause.

[fournets]

My Music Headcanons!!!

I feel like Jay would listen to Lofi music. Also kinda feel like he'd like Mitski. He is okay with listening to anything, though, and he also likes listening to his friends when they sing along to music in the car. Alex would show him Will Wood and Jay would fall in love.

Brian's vibe gives off Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Queen, and The Beetles. I feel like Jay would show him AURORA and Brian would look like he just got the holy grail. Perhaps Brian may also like Neon Trees.

Alex kinda seems like a INXS dude. Perhaps also the most out of pocket weirdass music he can find, like Peaches by The Presidents of the United States of America. Also My Chemical Romance and Mystery Skulls.

Tim probably likes Indie/Alt/Rock. I'm thinking when he's more calm he likes things like Mother Mother, The Crane Wives, and Arctic Monkeys (Projecting Projecting Projecting). But when he's more emotional, I imagine he listens to Scorpions and Shinedown.

tooo tired to respond properly but yaaa i like these :33 i think some of them would like the black keys (proojection)

[hellfire-saurian]

Hi! I'm Max! I'm from Australia and I run probably the only active Grimlock blog on Tumblr.

I've been on this site since 2016 and still refuse to learn all the bells and whistles for links and such because I'm lazy or something, idk lol.

I'm 23 years of age, with about 8 years of rp and improv experience. I sometimes do silly stuff, but mainly try aim for big stories.

My main version of Grimlock is a bit of a complex one, he's a much more realistic take of everything he's lived through. I felt like his representations are too... Shallow? Like, fuck, he's been through some fucked shit, he's gonna have problems.

This Grimlock stems from the extensive IDW continuity with parts of the Fall of Cybertron lore laced in.

This includes all lore from IDW, except for how he got his Tyrannosaurs Rex altmode, which I swapped out to be Shockwave's horrific experimentation instead of them scanning the skeletal remains of dinosaurs.

He is set long after the comics where he is old, tired and in hiding. He has no home, he can't contact the Scavengers, and he's trying to stay alive while hunters track him down to tear him apart for trophies. These hunters are after him because of his exotic frame type, and in his timeline, they have already killed his brothers (Slag/Slug, Swoop, Sludge, Snarl).

I do also have other versions of Grimlock that I play also! Like:

Beast Wars, where he is a yutyrannus up in he arctic

Gladiator days, before the war, when he was still young and fighting in the pits

Early war, where he defected from the Decepticons and joined the Primal Vanguard

TFP/FOC verse!

And of course, he also has a Maori holoform you can interact with called Grail Lancaster!

Feel free to ask for these different versions of you want to rp with them! I'm open to all interactions, either they be oc or cannon characters!

[full-of-terrors]

The Arctic Grail by Pierre Benton seems to have answered my longstanding question- seriously what was the golden age explorers’ decades long beef with dogsleds?

Victorian pigheadedness never ceases to amaze me: a study in man-hauling.

Was it just the racism? Short answer: yes. Because the concept of dray animals should not have been mind blowing to them and they apparently tried reindeer and ponies and whatever other stupid ideas they had that didn’t work. But apparently the idea of being pulled by dogs was beneath them while man-hauling was a heroic endeavor. It was a fear of “going native”.

Anyone who adopted indigenous practices from anywhere for any reason was always looked at as having stepped outside of society and treated like a misfit. It was a struggle just to stop using Naval issue leather boots.

Ironically, having dogs pull their gear was considered more “animalistic” than acting as their own dray animals. And anything being too easy made it “cheating”.

Yikes on bikes.

It finally took the Norwegian explorers and a lot of the later explorers to shift the consensus to dogs but my lord. This is one point that I really struggle to understand the contemporary mindset of those guys because man-hauling sounds goddamn terrible.

[astrxlfinale]

HC; Caelus's Simulated (universe) Bizarre Adventure.

Being a constant Practitioner/Tester of one of Herta's Magnum Opuses has been one of his most life altering experiences. As a benefit of finding some of the most extensive training that can be gained, it comes at a very perilous cost. While he can naturally be snatched out at any given time, this is Caelus we're talking about, someone who holds an understanding eye that circumstances like this will so be his everyday.

Does he thrive within this environments? It depends. Some days the artificed Aeon of Nihility may try to drown him into eternal despair. In other days, he could find himself learning how much of a good thing can be bad with Abundance's Aeon. In other cases, he's representing Akivili's indomitable will by tearing through the challenges. It's the most realistic yet unrealistic brand of training he can get. After all, there's only so much that can be gleaned from these circumstances.

Due to the extent of these challenges, he only spends time within these virtual reality ventures when a week is cleared. The raw levels of exhaustion he experiences after constant sessions can easily have him snoozing days at a time. So much information, history, unknown variables, it's a genuine adventure that holds true to a Trailblazer's golden grail. The arts of Destruction and Preservation have been heavily understood to a more profound level thanks to these efforts.

The goal lies in just taking the unrealistic heights and acclimating them to his current line of rapidly growing experience.

In truth?

If you were to ask him on his personal opinion, this is probably one of the stupidest deals he's ever could've made. The fighting soul within thrives in this, but at the same time, the things learned and the stress upon the mind due to exploring an encapsulated build of their Universe in such a compact way gets him a bit disconnected. Part of him is half-expecting to be roaming through the space station, or the arctic chills of Belobog only to walk into a foreign bathhouse one of these days.

Mind and matter, reality and the simulated, one of his biggest hurdles is ensuring that his mind doesn't shuffle up these particulars too deep. For example, fighting the simulated Kafka and dealing with her taunts, the all too real interactions that have actually uncovered some hidden truths.. The mind pounding temptation to take it seriously loves to drag its knuckles across his skull.

It truly is fearsome, just how concrete the high intellect of the Genius Society can make the wonders hells that they do.

[lesbianaglaya]

funniest part of the arctic grail so far is everyone meeting george back and being like he seems nice :) and then without fail a couple years later being like i have never met someone who sucks more

[kaibutsushidousha]

Top 5 non collab/non .5 events?

Honorable mention) Onigashima

I already praised Ushi Gozen's characterization enough in the posts about her, but this one lose points because Ushi gets less good in her future appearances.

Honorable mention) Cjeste Pyramid Himeji Castle

Liz Love is a powerful and important universal constant but unfortunately, only one Eliza event was actually good.

Honorable mention) Nightingale's Christmas

Nightingale bias, she's still in the Servant top 3 after all this time. My hot take here is that despite Last Encore, this was actually Nursery Rhyme's best showing.

Honorable mention) Karna's Christmas

Vritra is fun in every scene she's in and you know I also love the rest of the India cast.

Honorable mention) Little Big Tengu

Consistently great humor, Kiichi has a solid personality, and I have way too many feelings about Taira no Kagekiyo.

Honorable mention) Ptolemy's Grail Front

Love the Investiture cast finally together, love Theseus, love Ephemeros. Simultaneously wins and loses a lot of points for Ephemeros's arc being just discount Goetia.

5) Arctic Summerworld

Characters I like were picked for the side cast (Erice, Asclepius, and Zetian). Characters I like were picked for the central cast (Skadi and Douman) and handled pretty well. Ibuki was a significant antagonist downgrade over Skadi, but she's decent overall.

4) Aeaea's Spring Breeze

Circe is our friend. I'm saying this on behalf of everyone in the world. Less universally, Jason and Arjuna are also my friend. This event also debuted the Greek flashback artstyle and that was really groundbreaking at the time.

3) Murder at the Kogetsukan

Somehow a solid orthodox murder mystery in my mobile game.

2) Gudaguda Ryouma's Close Call

There's a lot I don't care about in this event, but the wedding carries it so hard. And there is still a lot outside of it that I do care, like Okuni's past and personality, and Izou's big moment.

1) Chaldea Thriller Night

Two story updates a day was intense, but luckily the event came out when I had the time to experience it right. The mystery was handled with a lot of care and Xu Fu's characterization with triple as much.

[mediawhorefics]

What’s your favourite piece of classical/instrumental music ?

omg anon there are so many !!!! so many !!! i'm sorry in advance: i just can't pick one...

king arthur: legend of the sword

haircut

the return of the eagle

the way (instrumental)

owen's theme

the ballad of ianto jones

doomsday

rose's theme

madame de pompadour

sixteen hundred men

come back to us

blake & schofield

primavera

experience

stuck in the speedforce

the world of the heart

end of the line

truman sleeps

arctic

ants

on the nature of daylight

merlin buries lancelot

gwen & arthur

in search of the grail

rose

billy's theme

hand covers bruise

a familiar taste

on we march

in motion

09 ghosts I

the night café

marguerite gachet at the piano

concerning hobbits

edith's theme

we all complete

this arrangement of the imperial march

i'm so sorry (anakin's betrayal)

the mandalorian

the four seasons - summer in g minor, rv. 315: iii. presto

dean's theme

[unhingedwomandiaries]

Christ on a fucking unicycle, what a day. Started normal enough - waiting for the bus, Dire Straits blasting in my ears because apparently I'm channeling my dad's music taste these days. "Walk of Life" was my sonic shield against the morning's bullshit. Or so I thought.

This absolute bellend of a driver decides I need an in-depth tutorial on How To Board A Fucking Bus 101. Like mate, I've been riding this metal tube of depression longer than you've been disappointing your wife. I know how to scan my phone, yeah? But no, apparently I'm the chosen one who gets the full TED Talk while everyone else just floats past like they're made of magical fairy dust. What is it about my face that screams "Please explain basic public transport etiquette to me"?

Then I decide to venture into this sporting goods shop that looks like it's been slowly decomposing since Margaret Thatcher was in power. Holy shit, the smell. It was like someone had bottled despair and left it to ferment in Satan's jockstrap. The whole place had this "abandoned Soviet department store" vibe, complete with about three metric tonnes of dust per square meter.

The bike section? Fucking hell. It was like someone had taken their inventory list, thrown it in a blender, and displayed whatever survived. About as organized as my mental state after a bottle of wine. The employees were just sort of... existing, like houseplants that had evolved the ability to wear name badges.

But the cherry on this shit sundae? This terrifyingly cheerful woman comes bouncing over like she's auditioning for children's television, waving around this massive winter glove like she's found the Holy Grail. First off, she literally watched me walk in empty-handed unless she thinks I'm secretly a magician. Secondly, it's hotter than Satan's armpit outside - who the fuck is carrying around Arctic expedition gear? And have you seen my dainty little hands? That glove could house a family of four.

She didn't appreciate my wit though. Just skipped off to harass some other poor bastard about their potentially missing construction gear. Mental.

Never going back to that shop.

P.S. Still can't get over that fucking glove. It was like something Andre the Giant would wear to do his gardening.