#acolyte x text posts

[sirlairla]

The Acolyte as text posts

(posting these ones here too bc why not)

[finstanner]

[your-mums-nuts]

Is this not how their second meeting went?

[dont-let-me-eat-pears]

the way both osha and qimir are pretending to be someone else the first time they meet. the way qimir, who's worn one mask or another with mae for as long as he's known her, spends two minutes with osha, immediately sees through hers, and then lets his own slip. he never mistakes her for her sister, he knows her for her at once, and it's as if he can't help but want her to know him too.

[kittyjieunie]

The Acolyte textposts

[insextras]

Imagine you ask people their favorite X-Men characters and you get the usual "Storm! Rogue! Gambit!" and someone says katu kath

[secretmage]

Gaming Heads Solas Statue (Fade edition)

very long unboxing-related post ahead -

So I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of these and it has arrived! My sister was at home when it was delivered by China Post (and my country's post for the last-mile journey) from GH's Asia warehouse in Dongguan, Guangdong province. I live in South East Asia, so that's the closest warehouse to me. Shipping cost me 120USD but that price is likely dependent on where you live from their nearest warehouse.

and let's just say the box is super big (boba for scale). The shipping box is 66cm x 30cm x 84cm (26" x 11.8" x 33") while the actual packaging box inside is around 60cm x 25cm x 79cm (23.6" x 9.85" x 31.1").

The packaging box is more than half my height and I unboxed in a really small space, so it was a little of a struggle. I kinda just dragged the styrofoam out slowly and carefully. Both sides of the styrofoam - image of statue embossed on one side, and on the other side, the authentication card:

The authentication card looks and feels like a credit card; the authentication code text is embossed in silver.

I lifted the styrofoam up slowly so the parts don't take a rough tumble. And found myself face to face with disembodied body parts - I never thought I would use those words in a sentence. (I already unwrapped the base for the first photo).

The base is really heavy! Unfortunately there was some really minor damage but nothing super glue (cyanoacrylate) can't fix. Just remember not to use too much, so the glue doesn't ooze out betwee the cracks when you press the pieces together. I didn't bother contacting GH over this.

Boba again for scale, and main attachment points in the statue - the robe attaches to a notch in his butt LOL. Ignore the crack on my wall, clearly the veil is thin in my house as well ;_;

Inventory of parts. The statue comes in 3 variants and here are the differences:

Standard Edition

Head with brown eyes

Hands clasped behind his back

The Veil Edition

Parts that come with the Standard Edition (i.e. Brown-eyed head, Hands clasped behind back)

Isana's Song

Acolyte's staff

One left arm

One right arm

TWO right hands for the staves. Okay this one tripped me up for a bit and I thought GH sent me two hands by accident. It turns out the sculpt is so detail-oriented that Isana's Song and the Acolyte's staves DIFFER IN DIAMETER so one hand is for Isana's and the other is for the Acolyte's (Isana's shaft is wider in diameter). Honestly if it were me I would have just standardised the diameters so only one hand is needed hahah

Fade Edition

Parts that come with the Standard and the Veil Edition

Head with light purple eyes

One left arm clasped across his chest

One right arm

But do check out GH's website for more details, they've itemised it better than I could. Currently, all 3 variants retail for the same price on GH's website so obviously, if you can, it makes more sense to grab the Fade edition to get more value for your money. Just note that the Fade ed. is limited to 500 pieces, Veil's is limited to 1,000, and the Standard has 1,500.

Isana's song has two points of magnetic attachment to his right hand, so he can grasp it slightly higher or lower. The points are marked out super subtly but sliding the staff up and down his hand will reveal the magnetic areas easily so don't bother looking for these marks! Acolyte's seems to only have one.

Height when Isana's Song is held at the upper position is almost 65cm, or 25.4". The entire length of Isana's Song is approx 53cm, or 20.9". The length is perfect as a real-life wand haha

Both staves are secured by magic magnets to his back (though not both at the same time). It feels a little fiddly to me though. But it also means that technically he can hold a staff and carry another on his back like a dual-wielding mage.

Some details (love the chainmail) and scale comparison with Dark Horse Direct's statuette (giving "don't talk to me or my son ever again" energy)

I would say the sculpt and paint quality are great, the only two complaints I have is that:

The fur isn't as vibrant as the master on the GH website. It's missing the contrast as the dark parts of the fur are nowhere near dark enough but this is in no way a dealbreaker for me.

The hand holding the staff feels both secure and fiddly at the same time. It feels like if I brush the staff the wrong way the entire thing will drop right off, but at the same time there is a pin and some magnetic attachment so I am probably overthinking it.

Right now I'm trying to get a case made as cheaply as possible so for now I've left it like this like a museum exhibit with some DIY stanchions (added a human for scale) -

If anyone has questions or wants measurements or more detailed photos feel free to ask away! I just like to add that I consider myself lucky to be in a spot where I can purchase this without going completely broke so I'm grateful for that ;_;

[katatonicimpression]

Has Exodus been Redeemed?

So, I saw someone posting about this the other day, and they made two really good points. Summarised here:

Bennet being redeemed because of Krakoa is weird and bad.

Any redemption Bennet gets should involve children because of that thing when he kinda maybe sorta tried to kill Luna

And yes these are both good points but also... are we supposed to think of current bennet as redeemed at all?

Some thoughts on all the above:

Is Bennet actually doing anything different now than he was in Messiah Complex?

I mean, no. Right?

When it comes down to it, Bennet's moral failings are quite straight forward. He doesn't care who he hurts, who he kills, so long as he conceptualises it as a step towards securing the salvation of mutantkind. He is myopic, narrowly focused on whatever he's decided his goal is, and his thought process is (sorry babe) irrational. He is not stable. He's not able to recognise that instability. Neither is he able to recognise his own hypocrisy when it arises. His worldview warps to make sense with whatever he's decided he needs to do. And, when all is said and done, he'll say it was God's plan.

So, he's like any old cult leader or anti vax podcaster, really. He pedals dangerous nonsense and has the just the right combination of personality flaws and mental illness to still be a true believer and a moral crusader.

Or he's like, you know, a crusader.

In Messiah Complex - an almost incoherent sprawling mess of a crossover event from 2007 - Bennet is distraught and struggling after M Day and ends up taking his Acolytes to meet Mr Sinister because he has come to believe that the only solutions lie in mad scientism or something. Bennet gets on his knees for him (literally) and then he and his Acolytes team up with the Marauders to fight the xmen because something something Destiny's diaries something something baby something something ice-stique something something. Bennet straight up vanishes from the story before it concludes. Idk maybe he went out for lunch.

Anyway, I bring it up as an example of a time where Bennet is looking for direction is his Holy War, joins forces with other mutants/mutates, and tolerates an uneasy alliance because he is 100% devoted to the mission.

Psychologically speaking, is bennet really behaving any differently in the krakoa era? Is he making different kinds of decisions? I don't think so.

In fact, Krakoa challenges his character less than Messiah complex. Which is weird, because in the latter he's straightforwardly a villain. Krakoa era Exodus is not a villain, not even an antagonist.

(I guess he's Sinister's casual antagonist in Hellions, but a) that's a comedic role and b) Nathaniel is the villain of hellions so that wouldn't even count)

He's not a heroic character either. He's just kind of an entity. Protagonist of one issue of Immortal X-Men and primarily featured as an interesting member of the supporting cast.

Krakoa offers Bennet a course of action where he is able to do what he always does (throw himself wholeheartedly at a mutant supremacist project while thinking of himself as the good guy in all of this). He is a defender of Krakoa and an ally to their cause.

So, this is not an arc. Categorically, it is not a character arc of any kind because he does not change. So, in that sense it's not a redemption arc either. But of course he is a character who has gone from villain to "guy who's on the side you're rooting for"

I think it's not wrong, then, to argue that what we're seeing from Fall of X era Exodus is the presentation of an unearned redemption. He's good/better now, but no actual story arc is there to back it up. He's not grown or changed or learnt anything. He's not been challenged. There is nothing in the text to suggest that he would now see non mutant lives as valuable, worth sparing.

So... is this bad writing?

He has not changed or learnt anything, are we supposed to believe otherwise?

The Krakoa era contains many in-story critiques of the nation it depicts, and to mixed results. Interestingly, Bennet is not heavily featured in this regard. Throwaway comments about him being scary or insane are tossed around, but he is not meaningfully involved in a story that questions the ideology of Krakoa - or of his ideology specifically.

It's hard to tell, then, what we're looking at. Let's roughly divide it into two possibilities:

Bennet is being portrayed as nicer, somewhat redeemed, and the mission of Krakoa is understood to be a virtuous endeavour.

Krakoa is understood to be a morally flawed endeavour, and Bennet is just being his same old self and not redeemed at all.

2 seems closer to what Gillen is doing in my opinion, but I think there's room for debate.

It's not like immortal xmen is really about the moral implications in the flaws of Krakoa. It's much more focused on the psychology of the characters on the Quiet Council and their interpersonal conflict and intrigue.

But, of course, explosions go boom.

Despite the intimate themes of immortal xmen (and its adjacent minis and oneshots), its overarching plot threads primarily involve krakoa being threatened with annihilation (inferno, judgement day, dominion crap, miscellaneous orchis crap, etc). Because of this, bennet is primarily featured as a defender of the people of Krakoa when they are under attack. This absolutely does lend itself to interpretation 1, wherein Exodus' zealotry is position's as a (complicated) good in the necessary and just cause of Krakoa.

To me, it feels like gillen is telling a story featuring characters who are predominantly morally grey or outright villainous, and using a setting and plot backdrop that forces them into the same or similar boat, allowing the writing to explore their intricacies. If the setting and plot were too normal - if it were one where the heroes would refuse to work with the villains or one where the villains were constantly being antagonists - many of those more interesting character beats would be cut off.

However, I don't think he has fully succeeded in this regard. The overarching thread of the innocents of krakoa being in mortal danger and needing protection is one that has moral implications. It does end up framing Bennet heroically, even when the on-page material does keep reminding you that he's, you know, a deranged zealot.

There's more that can be said about how the fact that Krakoa is constantly under threat of total extinction undermines any attempt at nuance in its portrayal, and how it contributes to the greatest failings of this era. But I do plan to write that retrospective soon so I'll save it for later.

For now, I'll say that to me it feels like the intent was not to tell a story of redemption arcs at all. Instead, morality was not the focus and the storytelling deliberately steers away from the pedagogical. However, despite this intent, the shape of a redemption story remains, simply due to the nature of Bennets role in Krakoa.

Won't somebody please think of the children?

The one way in which we arguably do see change in Bennet is with The Children.

Bennet is shown telling stories to the children of Krakoa, teaching them and, also, protecting them. His interactions with Kafka in X-Men Forever are a good example of this.

The thing with Luna (he takes her from Fabian who was, unsurprisingly, responsible for all this mess) is a pretty bleak moment in Bennet's history. It also I believe leads to him being stabbed by Dane which I can't imagine him enjoying.

Bennets canon history is actually kind of weird. He's one of those characters with a lot of "idek how he got out of that but he turned up later on so he must have" in his wiki. The krakoa era is probably the most prolonged, stable period of his existence where the audience has had a strong sense of where he's at and what he's doing for the last five years.

Similarly, in universe the krakoa era could well be the first time Bennet's life has been anything close to normal for a long time. He has a home that isn't a supervillain lair, and actual down time for the first time since Mags woke him up. He is walking around in public and kinda sorta socialising for possibly the first time in his entire life.

He has that line about how he's old and wise, and that other line about how he's not naive (a repeat - he says it in the 90s and in krakoa) and both of those things are lies. Because he's, you know, a delusional cult leader. He is not literally old. He was a young man (which in medieval terms could literally mean still in his teens) when he went into that coma. And it's been 30 years real time since he woke up. But no characters who were adults then have aged in that time (and some (emma) have got younger) so whatever it is in universe it's not more than a few years. He's still in his 20s in my interpretation. Moreover, his life experience is extreme social isolation and a series of fanatical violent cults. He is naive. He's not wise.

He's also not really had a chance to just be and coexist with other people. So, in that sense it's not weird to see him be kind to children in Krakoa. Nothing we've seen technically contradicts the idea that he would be. Willingness to threaten a child in one situation and the ability to genuinely care for children aren't actually contradictory. But emotionally, there is resonance to showing this softness to him in this regard.

So, this is the one area where you could say there has been a meaningful change to Bennet, but again it has no narrative arc to it. Beyond simply the implication that if you let this guy chill for a minute, he eventually does mellow a bit.

But it is nice. And it is fitting.

Static characters and hypocrisy

Bennet is a character who fundamentally is incapable of seeing himself as being in the wrong. This is baked right into the type of villain that he is.

Redemption arcs can come in a lot of different forms. Sometimes the fictional universe has concrete concepts of good and evil, and a redemption is about aligning yourself spiritually with the good side (e.g. star wars) or by fulfilling some abstract metaphysical requirement (e.g. Buffy). Sometimes the emphasis is on doing the work to improve yourself (e.g. zuko), and sometimes it's a grand gesture at the right moment. Sometimes it's because a bigger bad came along, sometimes the redeemed one suffers a lot, sometimes they don't.

There's also the fun cartooney type of redemption arc where the bad guy is forced to just kinda hang out with the heroes and becomes part of the team by osmosis. Tgis is a personal fave but I don't think it suits Bennet - he should have an actual arc if it happens at all.

So, if there's an actual arc, it could vary a lot but one thing it requires is introspection and for the character's flaws to actually be confronted in the text.

Now, is it possible to write something like that for Bennet? Yes.

There are limitations, as with any character. He wouldn't suit an arc than evokes a grandiose good/evil darkside/lightside dichotomy because part of his problem is that he already thinks like that. Similarly, you would have to be careful when introducing a character foil (someone to be azula to his zuko for example) because he is not self aware enough to recognise his own flaws in the other. In general, he's someone who can very easily externalise any moral lesson he learns. It's doable, but difficult.

The example I want to evoke is Isaac from Netflix Castlevania. Isaac's storyline in s3 is basically him just travelling from A to B, and on the way he encounters these little vignettes. Some affirm his world view in s2 (aka "humanity sucks might as well help Dracula kill everyone") and some gently challenge it (e.g. "you should consider having friends") and he talks about it. He does philosophy. He reasons through his positions. And, eventually he starts to change. By the time he confronts Hector in s4, he's no longer here for revenge. He's moved on. He's now acting according to what he thinks will make things better.

I love this. I love that it's completely internal as an arc and I love how much agency isaac has. And I love that the dialogue is genuinely clever. Most philosophy dialogue in pop culture is written to just sound deep, but in castlevania they really managed to maintain meaning and coherence throughout.

And obviously the shape of Bennets arc would be different to this, but the idea of a well crafted "man does philosophy, sees the abstract concepts illustrated in narrative vignettes as he does so, and then eventually changes for the better". And a good writer could do this for him.

But should they?

So, this is that lingering thing. You redeem a villain in a comic book and now you've lost that villain. You let Exodus meaningfully improve and then he's no longer available to churn out as a big or medium bad. Maybe you might want to keep Bennet's delightful combination of flaws because it allows you to explore them. Maybe a redeemed Bennet isn't really Bennet anymore, or doesn't have what you want from him as a character. You make the unselfaware villain introspect then what are you left with?

A happier character, sure. But maybe not a good ingredient for a story.

And with bennet, the kind of introspection and self confrontation needed for a redemption arc would change him a lot. It would change him at his very foundation.

Does that mean he's doomed to be a static character? Not necessarily. I think it would be possible to bring shape to his storylines without shaking those foundations, but it is limiting. And also, they don't focus on him enough to do it.

Conclusion

The title of this section is a such a joke because I have nothing conclusive to say. I feel like if you read this far, you've been tricked.

I think Exodus makes for an interesting villain, and (imho) is actually best suited to be posed as not the only/main villain in a story. A supporting antagonist, if you will.

But that doesn't mean seeing him in a protagonist role isn't welcome. I loved it the one time it happened. And as for uncomplicated heroics? No, he's not there yet. And if he got there, it would involve a pretty hefty change to his character.

But it's not like I would be mad if it happens. We don't need a crusader villain (especially as I personally don't think Bennet's zealotry is well suited to paralleling modern religious extremism - at least not the mainstream stuff) and hell, I want to see what a fully sympathetic write of him would look like. Maybe he'd get to talk to Dane again. That could be fun.

But it doesn't look like that's going to happen. He'll probably continue to hover in this "villainous ally" space for the foreseeable future. He's in heir of apocalypse. I doubt he'll get a lot to do.

Anyway. Thanks guys if you made it this far. Hope you have a nice day. I'm currently spending billable hours sitting in a stairwell writing essays about comics. What a time we live in.

[esonetwork]

BatChums Episode 31 – Death in Slow Motion

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/batchums-episode-31-death-in-slow-motion/

BatChums Episode 31 – Death in Slow Motion

Batman ’66 S1 Ep31 – Death in Slow Motion

The Riddler is back, and is pursuing a silent movie theme with his latest scheme.

Episode aired Wednesday April 27, 1966

Director: Charles R. Rondeau

Writer: Richard Carr

Cast:

Adam West – Batman

Burt Ward – Robin

Alan Napier – Alfred

Neil Hamilton – Commissioner Gordon

Stafford Repp – Chief O’Hara

Madge Blake – Mrs. Cooper (credit only)

Frank Gorshin – The Riddler

Sherry Jackson – Pauline

Francis X. Bushman – Mr. Van Jones

Richard Bakalyan – C. B.

Theodore Marcuse – Von Bloheim

Burt Brandon – Wolf

Walter Woolf King – Theater Manager

Judy Pace – Theater Cashier

Links:

Mike’s Shout Out:

Earth Station Who

Drew’s Shout Out:

The Acolyte

BatChums Website

BatChums logo by Peter Cutler. https://www.instagram.com/cutler7666 Theme music by Ricky Zero. RadioCult.com https://youtube.com/@wehadthat

If you would like to leave feedback, comment on the show, or would like us to give you a shout out, please call the Bat-Chums feedback line at (317) 455-8411 leave us a message, text us, or feel free to email us @ batchumspodcast@gmail.com

[lady-raziel]

as people continue to give their takes in the notes of this post, i'd just like to share an excerpt from a Bloomberg newsletter article I just received. think it might be helpful to indicate that the sentiments i've shared are being said by others as well, so i can point to this and any further additions i add with additional sources.

Here's the excerpt, and a link to the full thing:

Trump Assassination Attempt Changes Everything

By Flavia Krause-Jackson July 14, 2024 at 8:29 AM EDT

The image of a bloodied and defiant Donald Trump pumping his fist at a crowd in Pennsylvania — his lips appearing to form the word “fight” against the backdrop of an American flag under a blaring sun — will instantly enter the history books as one of those era-defining moments.

The assassination attempt on the former US president at a rally yesterday upends an already volatile and unpredictable campaign, punctured by charged rhetoric and radicalized views. It also appears to irrevocably alter the political landscape in Trump’s favor ahead of November elections.

Not only did he survive the shot that grazed his ear — and is now recovering in his New Jersey golf course — but the narrative he has shaped over the years about how everyone was out to get him suddenly appeared validated when minutes into his stump speech a shooter opened fire on the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate.

For his legions of MAGA devotees, this makes him even more of a martyr to the cause, Trump as the ultimate survivor. One of his GOP acolytes called him unstoppable. His campaign quickly sent out a fundraising text message quoting Trump saying: “I will Never Surrender!”

The Democrats, meanwhile, are in disarray as President Joe Biden, 81, stubbornly clings on even as doubts about his age and mental acuity have dogged him for weeks, with calls for him to step aside steadily growing.

He’s now been knocked off the front pages — but if anything he’s even less in control of events. And that is deeply worrying for Western democracies looking to the leader of the free world for a semblance of order and clarity.

Instead, the rest of the world is also experiencing the polarization of politics and what can happen in a deeply divided society when the political discourse is riddled with exaggerations and lies that are then amplified via social media.

From Asia to Europe and South America, the past few years have seen assassination attempts against a range of top political leaders in broad daylight.

In May, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico — a populist leader in the style of Trump — was shot four times at close range by a lone wolf. He survived and promptly seized upon the assassination attempt to ramp up his attacks on the media, prosecutors and the opposition. If anything, it’s become about retribution against his enemies.

And as for all this could play out in the US, one has to only look back to 2018 for an eerie precedent with Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a political figure who is almost a cookie-cutter Latin American version of Trump.

The far-right leader was stabbed in the stomach at a campaign rally a month before elections. It was a defining moment that fired up his base and propelled him to power.

In a post on X, Bolsonaro — a staunch Trump supporter — told him “see you on inauguration day.”

like i'm gonna be real-- this is not good. they can now frame the left as the violent and dangerous people that they've wanted to all this time. they can now actually claim to be the victims that they've been saying they are this whole time. they can use this as a mandate to crack down on everyone who opposes them. with biden already in freefall this is the galvanizing thing that will make those who were unsure about aligning with the democrats the motivation to swing to the republicans in droves. it will give the already united republicans the "moral" authority to condemn not only the elected officials in the democratic party but characterize the entire progressive movement as violent anarchists based on social media reactions. if we were cooked before, we've just entered the flash fryer.

[stars-self-ships]

Local maleficent deity enchants her underling boyfriend. More at eleven.

Earlier last night I had been touching up the sprite portrait of my Shovel Knight self-insert, The Fated Acolyte, and upon finishing it today I figured why not take it for a spin by way of a classic incorrect quote?

[sirlairla]

Acolyte as text posts (once again)

(been posting these daily on twt for 30 days now wow)

[finstanner]

[your-mums-nuts]

[uwmspeccoll]

                                   Figure 1. Liang Qichao’s Portrait

Graduate Research: Chinese Scroll and Fan Work, Part 3

This week I am featuring a two-scroll couplet (figures 2 & 3) by the Chinese politician and master calligrapher Liang Qichao (1873-1929, see Figure 1). The couplet was mounted around 80 years ago, and is still in great condition. It is also one of the largest couplets in our Zhou Cezong Collection. Liang was an eminent calligrapher in modern Chinese history. For him, an important element of the arts was to express one’s disposition and personality, which was indeed resonant with his political principles. The characters were created in a sublime and fastidious fashion with evenly-divided space, which were the embodiments of Chinese standard writings, symbolizing his upright personality. Plus, in the center of a few characters, there were some barely visible X-shaped creases to help him organize his strokes along the axis and diagonal. This tiny detail is also the telling evidence of Liang’s rigor and thoughtfulness.

During the summer 1903, Liang Qichao, the second leading figure in Hundred Days’ Reform (1898), met U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of State John Hay in Washington. At that time, Liang was a wanted fugitive of the Qing court and by this time had spent five years in exile. During their tete-a-tete, John Hay prophesied that China was destined to be a great power, which has come to fruition in the past few years. It is important to note that John Hay’s clairvoyance was not ungrounded; instead, it was based on, at least partially, the unremitting efforts from Liang and his followers.

Before the Hundred Days’ Reform, Liang fervently promulgated the influence of  Kang Youwei (1858-1927) in Shiwubao (Times News). However, after the reform was aborted, he developed a relationship with the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen and became acutely aware of the importance of democratization, and became the chief spokesman for the constitutionalists. Therefore, when Kang was still engaged in saving the monarchy, Liang publicly asked him to retire. In only a few short years, Liang made a radical turn-about by converting from Kang’s staunch acolyte to a vehement dissident. This kind of ideological reversal became a common feature of Liang’s political life. When asked about this predilection for change, he said “these turn-abouts were not driven by any personal interest or impetuosity; instead, they were always coherent with my ideology to be a patriot and save my country.” According to Chinese history scholar Joseph Levenson, Liang’s shifting positions can be explained as fluid adjustments to ever-changing external situations based on his own fixed internal conviction. Thus, Liang could be seen as a political iconoclast who refused to comply with convention, and followed his own disposition and choice.

On March 1927, in the same year that this couplet was produced, Liang’s mentor Kang passed away; later in June, Liang’s soul mate Wang Guowei (1877-1927) drowned himself in the Summer Palace. Two years later, Liang himself was dead at the age of 55. The text of the couplet reads: “spring orchids and autumn chrysanthemums will keep their essence in perpetuity. However, our life is just like the bright moon and the white dew, which will vanish in a trice,” and may reflect his lamentation at the death of his boon companions.

            Figure 2. UWM Special Collection (cs 000008a): the first couplet

       Figure 3. UWM Special Collection (cs 000008b): the second couplet

View more posts from the Zhou Cezong Collection of Chinese scroll and fan work.

– Jingwei Zeng, Special Collections graduate researcher

[verbosebabbler]

DIV Style and UL Style Comments: ZampanioSim East

I initially privated this because after I, through more webcode shenanigans, found what to me felt like a cheaty way to get passwords, but if all ways are ok than I'll reveal at least this much of my findings. Still personally unsure about revealing the passwords, but that's something for later me to figure out.

I know nothing about webpage coding, nor do I know much about ZampanioSim East, even though I’ve been exploring it forever so far. But I did find comments of things in the web code, but I think they might be like actual spoilers. Weird to say, since we have had things like direct author commentary, but those felt intended to be found. This feels like miscellaneous comments about how to make the game or what more to do that got left in the code. I’m posting them below under a read more here. Apologies if these somehow are spoilers; the nature of making ARGs is you can’t expect what players won’t find and can’t expect what players will find.

DIV Style post coffin trial of killer plus live blogging of a tgifradys

UL Style

if you "go up" in game mode, leads to jr in a chair attic mode (instead of a genuine moment of forth wall breaking connection chair JR just wants any info on the "real" zampanio, especially any cached copies of that dead faq link. twisting the one moment of truth in indie games like this into more lies (while also being true because yes plz if you make zampanio fan works plz send)

JustTruth ends with you being assigned your TrueClasspect now that you've answered all possible questions

when Truth and Game intersect you meet god (at end of adventure). JustJR mode where i explain why i made this game, sitting in a chair

truth and game true = meta map of zampanio if you are in true mode AND game mode at the same time

gigglesnort fnaf mod is creepy pasta

secrets under construction component, shitty geocities gif of construction.

creepy pastas scattered throughout the site, based on themes, of the form: "You sit down to play a game. It's weirdly obsessed with X. theme1 creepy. then thene2 creepy. * lightly themed ghosts (just enough variation for gaslighting) Suddenly, you can feel the pounding behind your eyes. "let me out" you hear, "let me out"."

a QUEST has a title, text and a reward, all strings. (so you can say that a companion themed quest gives +1 loyalty and a god quest raises your acolyte level, etc etc)

quest screen (has to be at end so can reference ITEMS and GODS (the two gods both are trying to woo the PLayer))

for each theme, finally break out PERSON from noun , refactor SKILL CREATION to use person place or thing rather than generic noun * store missing TEMPLATE PLACEHOLDERS (VISUAL_EFFECT, MONSTER_EFFECT, OBJECT, LOCATION, ADJ, INSULT, COMPLIMENT,CLASS, ASPECT, COMPANION, CITYNAME) in consts (missing CLASS, ASPECT, and CITYNAME, COMPANION NAME) * for each theme, write out a super tiny quest or two with TEMPLATE PLACEHOLDERS The city guard knows it takes a PERSON to catch a thief, and they have come to you. The ADJ OBJ has been stolen from the LOCATION, with no witnesses. Will you be the one to finally crack the case?" "if there is a companion who has a theme that matches TEMPLATE theme, they slot into anything that needs COMPANION name" * on player creation, generate quest array from themes. title is procedural from the theme of the template chosen. * quest screen (copy CITYBUILDING SCREEN as a start) has list of quest titles (upgrades to summary of quest plus the fake skill points you'd get for completing it)

https://zampaniosim.fandom.com/wiki/ZampanioSim_Wiki

pretend to know facts about the user, such as they play cookie clicker slow owl sounds in cctv mode need more reasons for people to hang around with ghosts blackbirds cipher wasted ominous song (you blew it) literally index page of ZampanioSimsim update death popup to focus on "new character to play as" not reincarnation jadedResearcher — Today at 5:08 PM note: when its time to go live, have LITRPGSIM e point to something ominous jadedResearcher — Today at 7:12 PM jadedResearcher — Today at 7:20 PM *persephone, hades, demeter quest. QUESTS are more "combination of side quests and overarching story plot". (think land quests) * session 0 is "the game is real i swear" notJR, the core of Truth is "zampanio was never real but the creepypasta faq was" notJR, and the core of game mode is "the game wasn't real and you couldn't accept that" notJR. * port in fractal shit post (cant compile dart version anymore), associate different states of the fractal with diff words from gaslight array * gaslight cursor revals a radius of true color (hidden yellow things in the pictures?) * post screenshots of this ramble hidden in Truth (is it readable in cctv mode???) * one password is aviary full o fanimated gull skeletons * another is just skelejr sitting in her wheelchair * sprinkle right pws at the 'end' of each path and more *zampanio (not the sim) is designed to spark Obsession in a target and convince them to attempt to enact or oppose the end of the world (the End can either cause the Unbinding of Chaos or the Binding of Madness). if you unbind chaos then the page reloads and you are a player with every theme at once and then some. if you bind maddness the page reloads and you are a custom spawned player with a coherent and human created backstory, skills, buildings, etc. regardless of which mode you can do a new ritual to Balance the Scales and return to regular mode. Which ritual you can attempt to do is decided by seed, and in order to Unbind Chaos you need to have 9 specific items spawn (from duskhollow) and attempt to use them in GAme Mode (they all have custome effects)

link to fake ramble of someone trying to find all the secrets and easter eggs of LitRPGSim (not the fake Zampanio game, the sim) including fake ones

fractal sim plus radio???

third path: press esc too many times and perma crash the menu, leaving the spiral sitting there goin "…" and it …panicking and activating win mode????

first ending where you max out skills (or played long enough to reach the heat death of the universe (thru auto clicker)) and menu finally closes and then fake credits role

sub titles unlock only when you unlock skills related to them. you have to discover them, essentially

zero player game where you get little mini stories about what you 'did', like "used Medical Crown to heal a king" or whatever. if the game were working PROPERLY it should praise you for whatever skill you've used the most, but obviously you've never used a single skill so it just picks one at random or glitches out. have console logs about ERORR NO FAVORIE SKILL FOUND etc.

if i ever do a lets play of zampanio it should be a hacked version that never goes live that is different in many very important ways but subtle at first