#adding to the archives for reference and the record

[dalishious]

All About The Antivan Crows

(NOTE: This piece is a revised, 2nd edition of an old one, updated with information that has since been added to the lore. I will be deleting the outdated post to avoid confusion!)

The Antivan Crows, also known as the House of Crows, is a league of assassins from the northeast nation of, as their name suggests, Antiva. While their notoriety is especially high in their home country, the Crows are well-known across Thedas as brutally efficient killers. The bulk of their work is in Antiva, but they accept contracts all over the continent. Because of their reputation for adhering to agreements—something that should one fail to do makes one’s life forfeit as far as the Crows are concerned—they are an expensive but valuable investment.

To find the Crows anywhere from Ferelden to Seheron is not an unlikely sight. Nations at war send them to cut down leaders on opposing sides. Noble houses with grudges against each other send them to cut down family trees. And of course, politicians vying for power send them to cut down their competition. Whatever the reason, the Crows are never short on contracts. They are even willing to intervene in Circle politics.

While assassinations are the most common contract, and what the Crows are most known for, they’re also no strangers to thievery and spying. In Antiva City rests a giant, well-protected archive, housing of all their collected blackmail secrets, records of past contracts, recipes for their own special poisons, and other such valuables. The secrets in this archive are what keeps the Crows ruling Antiva from the shadows by controlling the nobility and merchant princes. That is, those that aren’t among their ranks.

At the very top of the power ladder is a council of Guildmasters made up of the eight most wealthy and powerful Crow Houses. The role of Guildmaster is most typically inherited down through a family, after successfully proving their skill by single-handedly killing a target with nothing but a ceremonial dagger. The Houses that are part of this council are known as Talons, ranked from one to eight, one being the most powerful. Talon has also been used interchangeably with Guildmaster when referring to the leader of one of these eight Houses.

Below the Talons are the lesser Houses, known as the Cuchillos. The Cuchillo leaders not Guildmasters but simply Masters, entitled as Lords, until their House may gain the rank of Talon. The ranks of these different houses can change with circumstance, gaining or losing power. House heads are also capable of taking over different houses by eliminating others, should they dare to be so ambitious. As such, despite being part of a larger organization, the Antivan Crows are always in competition with each other, and are not unknown to assassinate within their own ranks to get what they want.

The current Eight Talons are as followed:

Dellamorte

Balazar

Valisti

Kortez

De Riva

Nero

Cantori

Arainai

Other known Houses are:

Ferragani

D’Evaliste

Di Bastion

Members of the Antivan royal family and merchant prince dynasties routinely join the high-ranks of the Crows, either as a way to boost their social standing, or because they were forced into it. Assassinations are seen as part of everyday politics in Antiva, and how positions of power often change hands. Having strong ties with the Crows brings a noble family both leverage and security. They also have an arrangement referred to as The Azul Contract, in which bastard royal children are given a choice of either exile or joining the Crows – such as the case was with Viago de Riva. In return, the Antivan Crows all but run the nation. Even kings have come directly from the Crows.

While the Crows are mostly led by nobility, the bulk of their organization is made up of their recruits, though the word recruit makes it sound like there was a choice involved. The vast majority of recruits, referred to as compradi, are children between the ages of five and ten, bought as slaves or found on the streets alone. For example, Zevran Arainai was seven years old when he was bought by the Crows. Compradi are usually gathered in scores at a time, though only a few survive to become full-fledged assassins. The Crows keep the children in poor, cramped quarters, and raise them in emotionally detached and torturous conditions, teaching them to know nothing else but murder, as Zevran puts it. They are allowed no personal items, and are encouraged not to make friends. Along with general training and education in Crow ciphers and Crow history, training of recruits includes pitting them against each other, tests of pain resistance and gauntlets, and challenges like locking them in an oubliette for weeks. All this leads most Antivan Crows immune to morality as much as they are to interrogation. It also breeds loyalty to the only life recruits know. Indeed, many Crows would sooner kill themselves than betray the guild.

It is very rare for a recruit to rise all the way to the top of the organization’s tiered leadership, but not unheard of. For example, Teia Cantori, climbed her way to the head of her house – but despite this, she is still regarded as an “overreaching street rat” by her noble peers.

The Crows favour recruiting elves, as they are widely regarded as beautiful and unthreatening; both advantageous impressions for an assassin. However, they take recruits from all races. Assassins are most typically rogues, but the Crows also train warriors and even mages, providing protection for their apostate assassins from the Chantry.

An experienced Assassin may gain the title of Master Assassin with time, putting them just below the leader of their House in terms of rank. Masters are capable of deciding their own contracts, and command groups of Assassins below them. Guildmasters decide which Master Assassins get which contracts based on the amount of the contract’s offer they bid to give to the guild, and their chances of success. Regularly, Assassins are not allowed to bid on contracts, and are instead assigned contracts or roles in larger ones by the Master Assassins that command them. The exception to this is when an Assassin is attempting to gain the rank of Master.

Save for rare exceptions of escape, Crows are Crows for life. The only way to leave them is to make them think you are dead, or find someone willing to protect you from them. Otherwise they will hunt you down and kill you for betraying the guild, and that is the better alternative: Anyone who angers the Crows and lives risks ending up in their own personal prison, the Velabanchel, to spend the rest of their days locked up and tortured.

Antivan Crows are often easily identifiable by those who recognize their unique tattoos – a tradition taken from the Rivaini. Some of these designs are sacred to the Crows, marking them as which house they belong to, while others are purely decorative. While some Crows display their tattoos with pride and intimidation, others prefer to keep them hidden.

-----

SOURCES

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age II

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Codex Entry: Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age II)

Codex entry: Blackfeather Boots (Dragon Age II)

Codex entry: Finesse (Dragon Age II)

Codex Entry: The Crows and Queen Madrigal (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Item Description: Gift of the Talons (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

Dragon Age: Last Flight

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove

Dragon Age: Deception

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 1

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 2

Dragon Age Promotional Wiki: Assassin

-----

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[uglypastels]

Corroded Coffin, Corrosion (1988)

Corrosion is the debut release of heavy rock band Corroded Coffin. Taking influence from Black Sabbath, Metallica and Judas Priest, this up-and-coming act throws heavy punches with their instrumental skills.

"We write of what we know," explained band lead guitarist, Eddie Munson, "and what we know is that the world is fucked, unjust and terrible to anyone that doesn't fit the narrow mould that society's created. We grew up in a place that would have rather seen us dead than achieve anything."

With tracks like "Don't Panic", "Delight in Me" and "Circus of the Damned", the band expresses their critique in a not-at-all subtle manner on the ideals and expectations of upper-class suburbia. Their lyrics cut deep into the trauma of being unwanted in your own community and what seems to be a national prosecution of social outsiders.

"Freaks," Munson clarified, "that's what they call you, and once that label sticks, you're stuck with it for life. At first, you don't take it personally; try to wear it with pride, but that shit just slowly eats away at you from the inside. You just have to live your life everyday knowing everyone around you is waiting for you to become the monster they already think you are."

The record, however, showcases both sides of the coin, along with the struggles, and there are plenty of references to what brought the band members together as a group. It is the problem as well as the solution. The songs hit you with the deep, unnerving truth but give you the getaway to escape from it right after.

"For us it was games. Video games as well as tabletop. People called us satanists because we played games with dice instead of balls. Make that make sense."

The album is as tragic as it is energetic and lively. Although the band members have yet to perfect their sound, they know what they are doing and possess the potential to gain a seat amongst the artists that inspired them in the first place—and this status might come sooner than we think.

Their single, "Silverlined Black Cat" has topped the Rock charts since its release at the beginning of this year, with the entirety of the album following it's lead just as well. The band announced their debut nation-wide tour dates earlier this month and all shows are already being close to sold out, with additional dates being added to the schedule any time now.

With the undeniable critical and commercial success, it is easy to say, that '88 will be, without a doubt, Corroded Coffin's year.

- the Corroded Coffin Archive (Source: The Rolling Stone)

[bijoumikhawal]

hello! i hope it's alright to ask you this but i was wondering if you have any recommendations for books to read or media in general about the history of judaism and jewish communities in egypt, particularly in ottoman and modern egypt?

have a nice day!

it's fine to ask me this! Unfortunately I have to preface this with a disclaimer that a lot of books on Egyptian Jewish history have a Zionist bias. There are antizionist Egyptian Jews, and at the very least ones who have enough national pride that AFAIK they do not publicly hold Zionist beliefs, like those who spoke in the documentary the Jews of Egypt (avaliable on YouTube for free with English subtitles). Others have an anti Egyptian bias- there is a geopolitical tension with Egypt from Antiquity that unfortunately some Jewish people have carried through history even when it was completely irrelevant, so in trying to research interactions between "ancient" Egyptian Jews and Native Egyptians (from the Ptolemaic era into the proto-Coptic and fully Coptic eras) I've unfortunately come across stuff that for me, as an Egyptian, reads like anti miscegenationist ideology, and it is difficult to tell whether this is a view of history being pushed on the past or not. The phrase "Erev Rav" (meaning mixed multitude), which in part refers to Egyptians who left Egypt with Moses and converted to Judaism, is even used as an insult by some.

Since I mentioned that documentary, I'll start by going over more modern sources. Mapping Jewish San Francisco has a playlist of videos of interviews with Egyptian Jews, including both Karaites and Rabbinic Jews iirc (I reblogged some of these awhile ago in my "actually Egyptian tag" tag). This book, the Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry, is avaliable for free online, it promises to be a more indepth look at Egyptian Jews in the lead up to modern explusion. I have only read a few sections of it, so I cannot give a full judgment on it. There's this video I watched about preserving Karaite historical sites in Egypt that I remember being interesting. "On the Mediterranian and the Nile edited by Harvey E. Goldman and Matthis Lehmann" is a collection of memiors iirc, as is "the Man in the Sharkskin Suit" (which I've started but not completed), both moreso from a Rabbinic perspective. Karaites also have a few websites discussing themselves in their terms, such as this one.

For the pre-modern but post-Islamic era, the Cairo Geniza is a great resource but in my opinion as a hobby researcher, hard to navigate. It is a large cache of documents from a Cairo synagogue mostly from around the Fatimid era. A significant portion of it is digitized and they occasionally crowd source translation help on their Twitter, and a lot of books and papers use it as a primary source. "The Jews in Medieval Egypt, edited by: Miriam Frenkel" is one in my to read pile. "Benjamin H. Hary - Multiglossia in Judeio-Arabic. With an Edition, Translation, and Grammatical Study of the Cairene Purim Scroll" is a paper I've read discussing the Jewish record of the events commemorated by the Cairo Purim, I got it off either Anna's Archive or libgen. "Mamluks of Jewish Origin in the Mamluk Sultanate by Koby Yosef" is a paper in my to read pile. "Jewish pietism of the Sufi type A particular trend of mysticisme in Medieval Egypt by Mireille Loubet" and "Paul B Fenton- Judaism and Sufism" both discuss the medieval Egyptian Jewish pietist movement.

For "ancient" Egyptian Jews, I find the first chapter of "The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD” by Simon Schama, which covers Elephantine, very interesting (it also flies in the face of claims that Jews did not marry Native Egyptians, though it is from centuries before the era researchers often cover). If you'd like to read don't click this link to a Google doc, that would be VERY naughty. There's very little on the Therapeutae, but for the paper theorizing they may have been influenced by Buddhism (possibly making them an example of Judeo-Buddhist syncretism) look here (their Wikipedia page also has some sources that could be interesting but are not specifically about them). "Taylor, Joan E. - Jewish women philosophers of first-century Alexandria: Philo’s Therapeutae reconsidered" is also a to read.

I haven't found much on the temple of Onias/Tell el Yahudia/Leontopolis in depth, but I have the paper "Meron M. Piotrkowski - Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period" in my to be read pile (which I got off Anna's Archive). I also have some supplemental info from a lecture I attended that I'm willing to privately share.

I also have a document compiling links about the Exodus of Jews from Egypt in the modern era, but I'm cautious about sharing it now because I made it in high school and I've realized it needs better fact checking, because it had some misinfo in it from Zionist publications (specifically about the names of Nazis who fled to Egypt- that did happen, but a bunch of names I saw reported had no evidence of that being the case, and one name was the name of a murdered resistance fighter???)

[project-sekai-facts]

TIL there'll be an update to EN on the anniv?

What are they adding?

i'm assuming that it'll just be the same update that JP got but EN sometimes doesn't entirely sync the updates so take this with a grain of salt

character archive - essentially an album where you can view all the cards, costumes, stamps, alt vocals, area conversations etc that you have unlocked for every character! it's a pretty cool feature and is sorta similar to the Album from SIF as a reference for the 3 people who follow this account who played that game

mirror mode - flips charts vertically

massive character rank system update - lots of new missons! skill level and master rank missions are now split by rarity due to Bday/4*s being significantly harder to rank up. alt vocals, number of cards (trained & untrained iirc are considered separate cards), area item level, and paid costumes now add to character rank. your ranks will be adjusted with the update and you will get thousands of gems (a lot of people last year were recording 20-30k)

improvements to virtual live 3D - characters will now face each other when talking to each other and generally move more naturally, including blinking

kizuna ranks updated to show the correct sekai-specific vsingers instead of the deafult one. the default ones are still selectable if you like them though

stamps for sekai-specific vocaloids that aren't miku will be added to the stamp shop

increased caps - rank cap increased, friend cap increased, mad skills and madder skills title cap increased, etc

mission pass update - some rewards are increased and music cards are removed for the free one. paid mission pass removed virtual coins and replaced them with wish pieces.

past paid costumes added to the shop permanently (still paid mind you). once a paid mission pass costume turns two it will go into the shop

character cosplay avatar costumes permanently added to the virtual shop (still paid)

43 kizuna ranks will be added a little bit later in October

[canarydarity]

Against All Odds by Canarydarity

Chapters: 1/4

Fandom: 3rd Life | Last Life SMP series, Hermitcraft SMP, Empires SMP

Rating: Teen and Up | Warnings: No archive warnings apply

Relationships: Jimmy Solidarity/Tango Tek, Jimmy Solidarity & Grian

Additional tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Baseball, Major League Baseball, References to Major League Baseball, based off a true story, I know thats a weird tag to have here just. trust me okay, will be explained in the notes, it’s also gay. if that counts for anything, they play pro baseball AND theyre gay, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Internal Conflict, Grian and Jimmy | Solidarity are Siblings, Jimmy | Solidarity-centric, Jimmy | Solidarity Needs a Hug, New York Yankees, New York City, Nostalgia, Rumors, Press and Tabloids, Peer Pressure, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, but it WILL have a happy ending :)), Additional Tags to Be Added

Summary:

In May of 1961, Jimmy's in his second season as right fielder for the New York Yankees and his fourth in Major League Baseball overall. Not a particularly impressive player with a rather normal batting average, he's managed to skate by without too much notice.

That is until a rumor runs in the press that Jimmy's trying for the record of most home runs during a single season, previously held by baseball legend and former Yankee Babe Ruth. It doesn't matter that Jimmy has no intentions of chasing any records, the press is saying he does, and now the public thinks so too.

Jimmy winds up in a race against the clock: he has to hit at least 61 home runs by the time the season ends in September. Of course, on top of that is the homesickness, losing himself and the kid who fell in love with the game somewhere along the way, and an unexpected romance with the team's resident analyst.

[demonicnarwhale]

Carapaces!!!!

RC / Raptorial Clerk: RC is one of the archivist on Prospit who deals with mainly Prospit's history and keeping things neat and tidy (just in case if it's needed then carapaces can go to him and retrieve that information) there's other archivists for different sections of society like political, economical, etc. When Midnight City happens / fall of the kingdoms he ends up being a librarian teehee

his origins: and due to his specialties being historical archiving, he's in the same department or area as HK and the two are actually hatch friends!!! YAYYYYY!!!! (they are both smiling)

HN / Harbinger Newel: Newel is just the sort of look the outpost tower he's situated at looks like as seen in the small doodle. He just blows his clarinet looking instrument (i giggle since he choses to play the actual clarinet in CMS) when there's some arrival. There's a certain tune he plays depending on what it is. Enemies/Derse army or Prospit army / workers.

WN / Willowy Notary: She's basically some note taker for court records and such. The cloth covering her eyes is a form of "judgement solely based on the case itself" rather than having any bias (that and I wanna continue her lil "no eyes can be seen" thing going on :D. So like she sits in the court room (grinning so wide when i get to share their architecture and infrastructure) and notates what happens and is being said so that if the case needs to be continued/looked at later to come up with the "right" decision they have a reference. Or if there's important documents being signed and such, she's a witness. (like whatever actual notaries do)

MG / Monoceros Goliath: I thought I was gonna be so smart with the first word, tried searching up for a word to describe a horned animal or synonyms for rhinos (cuz haha helmet rhino beetle) but i got no answer(s) and the ones I did related mainly to constellations. Monoceros mainly just being some Greek word for a legendary animal with a horn so like a unicorn. Weeps guys I'm not cut out for elaborate names.

Also she's (so far) a pawn mainly or somewhere near being a rook but not quite there hence being goliath as she's pretty strong/big for a pawn yay. oh yes and she's well aware of innocent lives (aka farmers or pawns that aren't in either army) and so she'll send out a warning or make it known so said carapaces can evacuate/gtfo (both for Prospit and Derse). Like she wants to make it fair and also avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Or something like that cuz overthinking on it makes me think it sounds silly and odd.

Her armor does have some little pearl-like beads cuz why not :) and- and- and it's supposed to be like constellations with the metal engravings (that im too simple minded to give detail to)

Tallest soldier i have and the shortest (also! I had realized that Dynastinae is, THE SCIENTIFIC NAME FOR RHINO BEETLES OAUGRHAUGHRA clawing at my under eyelids (ive realized this while typing this all out <3) so it's either she's MG or DG

SH / Splendorous Headhunter: Basically she goes out and recruits or finds Dersites (who don't already have a job) some role in society that benefits both the community and themselves. Like she's not just going to randomly assign them jobs but try to understand the individual and go suggest jobs. Cuz like, there's of course other Dersites in this similar role (as her) that don't care. But to SH she thinks of it like "why would I make someone miserable, it makes no sense to force someone to do a job they dislike cuz work won't get done at an efficient rate" that and so there's no strikes-

CC / Canorous Clergyman: just listen to this: (and Powerwolf in general please guys oaughh I fucking love this band so so so so so so much)

Midnight Madona teehe i love Powerwolf so much oaugh my goodness (so much so i would've done gone gatekeep em but then i realized. that's corny. and this sorta genre??? is corny on its own in the best way possible, to me :)). but yes im just adding this here because i kept listening to it when drawing this mf

Midnight Madona (Orchestral Version) also the orchestral version fucking ROCKS (and all the other songs they do orchestral versions of) and is what I like to imagine Derse's choir would sound like (the tone or feeling more than the words teehee and of course not with a big ass orchestra track behind ok you know what I MEAN) like do to around the same time stamp as the version above gehehee

I also already kinda explained his whole deal in a previous post. here be CC. But basically, he's more of a figure for individuals to look to either for help or a sense of "oh so this is what we should be doing for our society". So yeah, he's like, the royal family lol, no real political power as he's a lower status bishop. Like, he's a Bishop for the individuals, to ensure they fall in line and yadda yadda support the community and all. Kinda like, a pastor lol

KH / Kinetoscopic Hallucinator: Due to Derse being, ya know, Derse, connections with these fuckassers (horrorterrors) is prone to happen. As we've seen with players and even Feferi having gigglybob and yay yadda Derse Void dreamers yadda. Basically he gets to listen to all the wonderful stories of the past these eldritch beings share with him. Whereas Prospit gets those lil clouds from Skaia to hint at the future. So, he takes the words and stories from horrorterrors as signs of "precautions" or warnings of what may happen in the future. A sort of doomsday gig going on.

Teehe. He still gets to deal with trying to predict Derse's future but that's a bit hard on him so he turns to memorializing Derse's past, and the Horrorterrors give him information that can precede Derse or even what was missed from its history. But it's mainly just them messing with him going "oooh Derse is doomed in the foreseen future! OoooOoooh" and he goes "aight bet" then boom red miles upon ye. Oh and the kinetoscopic thing is just the fact he has his own lil kinetoscope where he enjoys (the process not the actual fact he needs to listen to them) trying to figure out what the Horrorterrors tell him and depicts it as short stories and then draws frames for a lil animation. He just replays them only to get a sense of dread lol. Later on just outcasts himself in his tower to deal with the horrorbobs instead of looking like a loon in front of everyone, possibly to Derse's moon because ahA obvious motifs! of like, the horrorbobs keeping him chained down and yeahhh

It's basically the medium or locations for Sburb/Sgrub but at the moment I'm more focused on Carapace + etc instead of trolls and humans. I ain't no physic astronomer or something so I'll go back and change things up if it's needed but like, I can bs some stuff right??? yeaaahhhhh.

The idea is like I know it's made for the game but what if no game??? It still very much takes after the set up for the medium with Sgrub but woe upon yet.

The locations of Prospit and Derse is why HK (Historiographic Knitter) and KH (Kinetoscopic Hallucinator) are able to look into the future/past. Due to the locations of their respected planets

HK being on Prospit can receive snippets of the future but it's all randomized so it's like she needs to put it all together, or just write down what she sees. She uses these to make stories or piece them together then create textiles for them along with the stories recorded of the past

KH being on Derse, yeah you read his gig.

Skaia: Trying to deal with what the point of Skaia is for both sides. I think I'll go with it's just been so embedded in both societies to either protect or destroy it that carapaces at this point just need to continue what their ancestors had fought for. Honestly, I'm just going to go with Jack Noir doing his red miles thing and destroying Prospit and Derse then killing (almost) all soldiers and the Kings on the battlefield leaving Skaia dormant. (But then whYYyy would he do that in this context)

Midlay: Basically this version's planet of where exiles go and where Midnight City will soon be made.

The Veil: just asteroids to make traveling to and from Prospit and Derse to be dangerous-ish so it's not like carapaces can just go to the opposing planet and cause chaos. If it's really needed then there's only a handful of carapaces suited for that job.

Dream Bubbles: I know it's thanks to Feferi that they're a thing, so they're not a part of this actual universe, BUT I thought they were just cool to include where I think they'd go.

Green Sun: hi Doc Scratch

In terms of like biology/features of carapaces:

I'm going with Carapaces either being like RC where they got them bug-wuggy/crusty marine life features or like HK with a more chess-come-to-life sort of look, thinking it might just be from the cloning? or however these freaks are made getting fucked over with the system or something, just cuz it could be like "oh it derives from chess pieces but also some bug-crustaceans-alien thing" and sometimes the bug-crustacean just wins. It's totally not so I can shit and giggle with other designs and stuff, what??? no. And then of course carapces can have spawn of their own, but lay eggs yadda yadda and so some of these features can get passed down and such. It's just cloning is used in both kingdoms to ensure there's a steady flow of carapaces to work on the planets or get thrown into battle and yeah.

NOTE AS OF NOW: I just copied and pasted information i had saved on them all and so I will most likely go back and fix things up, or make a new post if it's anything major like "Oh I'm changing this character up" but yeAH

[fictionyoubelieve]

This is a VERY long text post.

thanks @squareallworthy for giving me the excuse to make a House of Leaves post!! I'm going to try to make this accessible to everyone, so:

If you haven't read HoL, feel free to bail if this goes too deep or stops making sense. Personally, I don't think you need to worry about spoilers because it's not that kind of book (it usually spoils itself anyway), but if you'd rather go in knowing nothing, slam that J key now.

If you have read HoL, feel free to skip ahead to the theories. You're presumably good at tuning out extraneous information by now. :)

What is House of Leaves?

House of Leaves is a novel by Mark Z. Danielewski (MZD), published in 2000. It's an example of postmodern literature, which according to Wikipedia is:

a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues.

...all of which is House of Leaves to a T. Rather than capturing a single narrative, the book's text layers multiple stories, which refer to both each other and to external (e.g. mythical) stories, and which often reference the fact that they are stories in a book.

You can find it archived here, though unfortunately that scan/OCR seems to mangle the text in ways that will be hard to distinguish from everything else it's got going on.

Overall, I think the book is really cool and interesting, but maybe not worth sinking a ton of time and effort into. It's not a fun or easy read. Definitely worth checking out, but don't be afraid to skim or abandon it if it's not your thing.

The layers of HoL

The innermost layer is The Navidson Record (TNR), which is ostensibly a documentary but effectively a found-footage horror film. It's a series of films about the Navidson family--an unmarried couple with two young children--moving into a house in Virginia, and discovering that something is very strange about it. First subtly and then dramatically, the interior of the house grows and changes, in defiance of physical laws. One closet in particular becomes an eerie and seemingly infinite labyrinth, which they explore at their peril. (Don't worry--the overall novel is creepy and sometimes upsetting, but not outright scary. I'm a weenie about horror and had no trouble.)

The next layer is a pseudo-academic text about TNR by a blind man named Zampanò. He recounts the events of TNR, but also meanders on long tangents about other stories or academic works.

The third layer is the primary one we experience as the book House of Leaves. A character calling himself Johnny Truant discovered the disorganized and incomplete manuscript in Zampanò's apartment after that man's death, and he has assembled and edited it into this book, as well as added an introduction and lengthy footnotes relating stories from his own life. Johnny often contradicts himself, freely admits to making things up or changing the previous layers to suit his whims, and appears to mentally deteriorate over the course of the novel. He also says he can't find any evidence that TNR actually exists.

There's a thin layer added by "the Editors," who supposedly received the text from Johnny, and published it while in contact with him. They add some appendices and minor notes throughout, mainly to provide English translations for certain excerpts or to state that something the text refers to is missing. They include a purported still frame from TNR in the appendices, with no comment from Johnny.

All of the above, of course, was actually written by MZD, the real-life author of HoL. He self-published the earliest version of HoL to the internet, before publishing the full version as a physical book. He also produced some teleplays related to the work, and a collection of letters from Johnny's mother. The letters were originally published separately, but now most of them are included as an appendix to HoL. MZD's sister, the singer-songwriter Poe, also released the album Haunted around the same time as HoL, and it serves as a companion or counterpart to the novel.

The final layer is us, the readers. We interact with the text and also with each other, like I'm doing with this post. MZD's website still hosts forum threads from the time the book came out, where readers deciphered and theorized about it together. This is an important and intentional aspect of the work, as I'll explain in more detail later (see "The Meta").

Sub-stories

There are a few smaller anecdotes within the text which almost serve as their own layers, but don't fit neatly into the hierarchy above:

The Chiclitz play The Minotaur, on p110-111

The story of The Atrocity, on p297-300

The story of the changeling/cyanotic child, on p518-521 and referenced obliquely on p48-49

Themes and motifs

A non-exhaustive and highly subjective list, ordered very roughly from the most to least prominent:

The Greek myth of the Minotaur and the labyrinth

House

Madness, memory, and meaning

The sea and the sky

Darkness, absence, emptiness

Yggdrasil, the world tree; trees, leaves, and paper; the Cumaean Sibyl

Fidelity (in multiple senses of the word)

Colors, especially red/blue or red/blue/green/yellow

Death and rebirth, procreation, the womb

The biblical myth of Abraham and his sons

The biblical myth of Jonah and the Whale

The eye, cameras

Head injuries, holes in the head

Families, especially parents and twins/pairs of siblings

Note that there are connections and overlap between these themes. I'm going to argue that the first few in particular are strongly intertwined.

The Meta

Most of the fan theories I've seen are focused on the usual concerns: "what do you think really happened in the story? what does this mean for the characters?" That's reasonable, but since HoL is extremely aware of itself and its readers, I think it's also worth asking what the text expects from us or what it's trying to communicate directly, if anything. IMO those questions are easier to answer than nailing down the events of the story, and that's on purpose.

While rightfully regarded as a challenging and puzzling book, HoL actually is pretty blatant about helping us "solve" most of it. Heck, it color-codes its major motifs. There were many instances where I was like "oh, this reminds me of that other part from a ways back" and then the footnote would tell me to refer back to that part I was remembering. When there's an encoded message, like the Morse code or first-letter sections, Johnny typically makes a comment providing the key to decoding it--and in some cases also tells us the "hidden message," like in his conversation with the band near the end of the book.

The book straight-up tells you how to read it. On p115, just before it starts getting really wild with the typesetting in a section structured like a maze, Zampanò's text gives this advice for navigating mazes:

In order to escape then, we have to remember we cannot ponder all paths but must decode only those necessary to get out. We must be quick and anything but exhaustive.

The next footnote (139) also warns: "[in a maze,] the faster you go, the worse you are entangled" and "If one reads too quickly or too slowly, one understands nothing."

And of course, the book provides an extensive (albeit somewhat playful) index, so that if you have a theory about a certain word or concept, you can easily go back and look up examples. I believe the page numbers also match up across editions, so that different readers can more easily confer with one another.

All of this strongly suggests that MZD very much wants us to view the text as a puzzle to decode with other readers. He makes sure we know there are patterns and hidden messages to be found.

The madness of analysis

Like I mentioned above, Johnny's mental state deteriorates over the course of the book. A lot of his story also has to do with his late mother, who was committed to a psychiatric institution when he was young, and who shows similar quirks and inconsistencies in her letters to Johnny. The reader is quickly clued in that Johnny is an unreliable narrator, and by the end of the book it's nearly impossible to untangle what "really happened" in Johnny's narrative because there are so many revisions and contradictions.

Zampanò's writing may seem like a sharp contrast to Johnny's, since it is stuffy and academic rather than casual and coarse. But the two strongly parallel each other, as do the two characters. They both ramble and are prone to lengthy tangents based on tenuous connections; Zampanò seems to make things up and messily add and redact just as Johnny does with his stories. Both seem haunted by and obsessed with the manuscript in similar ways.

Other HoL readers have called it a satire of academic texts, but I'd go a step farther and say it's drawing a parallel between (perhaps overzealous) academic analysis and psychosis: seeing patterns or connections where there are none, jumping to wildly different and sometimes bizarre conclusions from the same experience, getting lost in theories with little connection to reality, communicating in ways that are hard for others to understand.

It even encourages its readers to engage in the same behavior, by hinting at many different patterns and connections yet making them inconsistent, uncertain, and contradictory. It goads you into trying to analyze it, but you'll just end up like Charlie in the Pepe Silvia meme:

Derrida's Deconstruction

Wait, so does that mean it's futile to try to analyze House of Leaves? Well, sort of, and the book tells us this! Remember that part (see "The Meta") that was giving us advice on how to navigate a maze, i.e. the book? On that same page, p115, it also says:

Unfortunately, the anfractuosity of some labyrinths may actually prohibit a permanent solution. More confounding still, its complexity may exceed the imagination of even the designer. Therefore anyone lost within must recognize that no one, not even a god or an Other, comprehends the entire maze and so therefore can never offer a definitive answer. [In the Navidson house,] any way out remains singular and applicable only to those on that path at that particular time. All solutions then are necessarily personal.

This sounds a lot like Deconstruction and Post-Structuralism, which isn't a coincidence given that Derrida was just quoted on p112. From the Wikipedia page on Deconstruction:

Derrida's deconstruction strategy is also used by postmodernists to locate meaning in a text rather than discover meaning due to the position that it has multiple readings.

It's probably also relevant that most of the book is about Johnny interpreting a text after the literal death of the author.

Footnote 140, which comes after "even the designer" in the above excerpt, includes this, in red and crossed out:

Or in other words: shy from the sky. No answer lies there. It cannot care, especially for what it no longer knows. Treat that place as a thing unto itself, independent of all else, and confront it on those terms. You alone must find the way. No one else can help you. Every way is different. And if you do lose yourself at least take solace in the absolute certainty that you will perish.

This ties the more general advice on interpreting texts back to the specific narratives in HoL. Before we dig into that more in the next section, note that Derrida was also a fan of putting things "under erasure" by crossing them out. Hmm...

Madness and the Minotaur

In multiple ways, the Minotaur is associated with absence. Most obviously, text mentioning it by name usually only appears in red and crossed out--Johnny says these are sections he recovered after Zampanò tried to erase them. The Minotaur also seems to be absent within TNR; the labyrinth of the House suggests its presence through growls and slash marks, but a beast never actually appears, and instead, things within the labyrinth seem to gradually fade out of existence. In myth, of course, the Minotaur was removed from society by hiding it in the labyrinth, and was eventually slain by Theseus, obliterating it forever.

On p335 we get footnote 295, again in red and crossed out:

At the heart of the labyrinth waits the Mi[ ]taur and like the Minotaur of myth its name is [ ] Chiclitz treated the maze as trope for psychic concealment, its excavation resulting in (tragic[ ] reconciliation. But if in Chiclitz's eye the Minotaur was a son imprisoned by a father's shame, is there then to Navidson's eye an equivalent misprision of the [ ] in the depths of that place? And for that matter does there exist a chance to reconcile the not known with the desire for its antithesis?

(The footnote continues, making the shape of a sword with large gaps in the blade.) Empty brackets in this section supposedly denote burnt holes in the manuscript, but since they are consistently used to make puns, it's clear that at least one of the authors is being intentional. We could read the gaps here as literal: the name of the Minotaur is [nothing], the labyrinth conceals the treacherous [nothing] in its depths.

The chapter that footnote appears in (Chapter 13), which is titled The Minotaur, begins with a quote that is translated as so (p313):

a slow shadow spreads across the prairie, but still, the act of naming it, of guessing what is its nature and its circumstances creates a fiction, not a living creature, not one of those who wander on the earth.

In this poem, El otro tigre, Borges compares a tiger in a poem, made of words and symbols, to "the other tiger" of flesh and blood, out in the wild. No matter how he tries to capture it with writing, the real tiger will always elude him.

So the Minotaur is connected to absence, nothingness, emptiness, and so on. This chapter draws additional associations with death and madness, which of course are also forms of loss or absence--both of self, and of meaning.

Is Johnny the Minotaur?

Johnny is strongly associated with the Minotaur, but his exact relationship with it is more complex than simply "Johnny is the Minotaur" or "the Minotaur represents Johnny". He is stalked by the creature in various forms, and he has nightmares or delusions in which he is the Minotaur. Raymond, the abusive foster dad, calls Johnny "beast". I think it's most accurate to say he is scared of the Minotaur and scared of being or becoming it, especially if we're interpreting it as nothingness or madness. And we know how his story ends.

There's another association I make with Johnny which isn't as explicit and doesn't seem to have been discussed as much, and that is to Icarus. There are hints of this early on--his father is a pilot, he's strongly associated with the sea and drowning, his fantasy when he meets Thumper sounds like flying--but it's brought home in the story about getting the scars on his arms, on page 505, and all the allusions and imagery. He burns and then drowns.

Zampanò, likewise, is like Daedalus. He built the labyrinth that is the manuscript, and which traps both Johnny and himself. There are some suggestions in the text that he and Johnny are like figurative (or in some theories, literal) father and son. But Daedalus, unlike Perilaus, was able to free himself from his own invention, and it seems like this wasn't true for Zampanò.

(This may be too much of a pet theory; I'm not sure it's as well-supported as the other parts of this post. But there's something there, I'm pretty sure.)

House

A house is a structure that defines empty space and imbues it with meaning by separating it from the greater nothingness. The novel is likewise a structure that gives form to a particular nothingness (fiction) by defining it and separating it from the greater nothingness (everything else that has not happened).

As readers, we follow a narrative "thread" through the text, but encounter only the Minotaur (nothingness) within. Just as the Minotaur in Chiclitz's play was portrayed sympathetically, the absence does not need to be bad or monstrous--it's just nothing. As we see in the key shape of footnote 123 (p110-111), the Minotaur is the key, but there is no Minotaur. There is no key. The key is crossed out (both the text comprising it, and the key itself, by being split across two pages). Perhaps we "slay" this Minotaur by imposing our own meaning? Would that be noble or tragic?

The house itself is what matters, but the house is blue, and blue means open to interpretation--what a blue screen meant in the 90s, before digital film became the norm. Everyone projects their own thoughts and fears onto the house, and it reflects those back at them. It's meaning and memory; you get out of it exactly what you bring. Blue is shifting and unfathomable like the sea. You could lose yourself in its depths.

Though "out of the blue" specifically seems more like a deus ex machina, because I'm pretty sure the blue of the sky is associated with God, eyes/cameras/observers, and us (MZD and the readers), though I don't have examples prepared to back that up. "Shy from the sky" (see "Derrida's Deconstruction") could then be taken as "don't look to the author for answers".

But if there is any meaning to be found, it also can't be found looking only within the text and the world it defines, without considering those final layers. The stories all intertwine and even loop back on themselves, as when Navidson and Johnny both encounter their own book. Using the HoL to light your way through HoL will lead nowhere. You'll need help from the outside.

So?

Okay, okay, okay. So what?

"SO?" asks the text (p103), and maybe you do, too. Sew buttons, says the Morse code of footnote 119 on the same page. Dismissing the question? Or suggesting you work hard to secure your buttons with a whole spool of thread, as Johnny does near the end (p514) to avoid losing them to the labyrinth?

Shortly after, on p516, Johnny writes this:

Wasn’t darkness nothingness? Wasn’t that Navidson's discovery? Wasn’t it Zampanò's? Or have I misconstrued it all? Missed the obvious, something still undiscovered waiting there deep within me, outside of me, powerful and extremely patient, unafraid to remain, even though it is and always has been free.

This (and some of his other writing late in the story) reads to me like possibly an acknowledgement or dim awareness of reality outside the book, but I'm not sure. I'm just going to point to it, and also the part a little further down the page, where he describes a sunset as "Reds finally marrying blues."

How do we reconcile red and blue? Is it about reconciling ourselves to the lack of true meaning, as in Nihilism? Or choosing to focus only on the "real", refusing to lose ourselves in the endless cycle of interpretation?

I don't know. There's probably more that can be built on this foundation, but this is as far as I've gotten. If you actually got through all that, wow, thanks for reading, and by all means let me know your own thoughts.

[poppetsisters]

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY, LET'S ANALYSE THIS!!

So that map shows us some key locations. I was wondering what that tall building was in the pre-vis, and it's confirmed that that's the Baxter Building. The version in the pre-vis didn't have the 4 logo, so it's either going to be added after their rocket launch, or it's just for us to identify the FF headquarters on the map. Cute that their rocket is called the Excelsior Launch Pad, not just because it's Stan Lee's catchphrase, but because Excelsior literally means "ever upward" fitting for a rocket.

Time Square is featured. I can see a world symbol on the main corner building, but I also see a space themed establishment next to an ABC building, so despite taking place in an alternate New York, there will be products and brands from the real world making an appearance. I wonder if ABC is the people recording all that archival footage in-universe.

The Flatiron building is featured, but it doesn't appear to have any significance to the FF in the comics. It did serve as the headquarters for Damage Control though.

Yancy Street is front and centre on the map, I can see a deli, a synagogue, and a few apartment complexes. I'm very happy that Ben Grimm's jewish heritage is on display, even if the star of david is one of those blink and you'll miss it parts of the poster.

Speaking of blink and you'll miss it, right under Wall Street is a label for Subterranea!! Cute reference or foreshadowing to a Mole Man appearance in the movie? I think they should absolutely fight a Kirby monster in the opening of the movie.

The Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridge are also featured. Other than the scene from 2005 Fantastic Four where they save a fire truck, I can't think of any significance this may have for the team.

We also have the Statue of Liberty, but on Govenor's Island is The FF Clean Energy Complex. I have no doubt this EBCOT looking area is gonna have some significance for the plot of the film. Maybe an explosion caused by a bad guy? Maybe Galactus drains the nuclear fission cells dry? Who knows.

If y'all noticed anything else from the poster, let me know.

[annlytical]

FINALLY! AFTER 40 HOURS AND THREE POSE CHANGES:

Aisling’s Bio Pic!

My silly little cat who has emotional issues and philophobia🥰

Mobile has made it a little blurry, so hopefully if you click on it it’ll become clearer-

The illustration was based off of this Saturday Evening Post by Coles Phillips.

I spent way more time than I’d like to admit simply going through an archive and looking at his art, even after I found the one I would reference.

And I did swap the mirror for a bouquet of flowers that I spent way too long looking into the meanings off and also changed the back to a record.

Her dress in the illustration is almost a 1:1 of this one from the Met Museum archive, called Robe de Style made by Jeanne Lanvin.

Of course, it’s fancier than what Aisling would be able to afford, and I added a few flap layers that you can’t see in the illustration. But I’m a sucker for black clothes and I felt it contrasted nicely against her mostly white fur.

There’s not much to say about the portrait outfit. You can’t see most of it, but I’ve decided on a simple beige button up, with a green country bow tie, and long pleated navy skirt. You can kind of see it fully in the small photograph at the bottom.

I also, of course, had to add a small UTDM Easter Egg in it as well. Marius and Jack are the two faceless cats within the photograph underneath the illustration. It’s based off of the Save/Load screen where in the report it mentions how your PC is circled.

[sandwichsugarbong]

While there isn't a single definitive "first record" of a transgender person, various historical accounts and cultural practices provide insight into the existence of transgender individuals throughout history.

One notable example is Elagabalus, who reigned as Roman emperor from 218 to 222 AD. Elagabalus was known for defying traditional gender roles and norms, reportedly expressing a desire to be referred to and treated as a woman. Historical accounts describe Elagabalus dressing in women's clothing, wearing makeup, and even marrying men.

Beyond Elagabalus, various cultures throughout history have recognized and accepted individuals who do not conform to traditional gender roles or binary notions of gender. For example, many Indigenous cultures around the world have long recognized the existence of Two-Spirit people, who embody both masculine and feminine qualities and often hold special spiritual or societal roles within their communities.

One notable figure from around the Nazi era who is sometimes discussed in the context of transgender history is Lili Elbe. Lili Elbe was a Danish transgender woman who was one of the earliest recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Born as Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener, she underwent a series of gender-affirming surgeries in the early 1930s under the care of pioneering sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin, Germany.

Another notable figure who has been identified as a transgender man from around the Nazi era is Karl M. Baer. Born in Germany in 1885, Baer is believed to have undergone a hysterectomy and legally changed his name to Karl in the 1920s. Baer was a writer and editor who contributed to various publications.

Some reputable sources for transgender history include:"Transgender History" by Susan Stryker"Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman" by Leslie FeinbergJSTOR and Google Scholar for academic articles on transgender historyWebsites of LGBTQ+ history organizations and archives, such as the GLBT Historical Society and the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria.

These resources can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the historical record of transgender individuals and the complexities of gender identity throughout history.

Being transgender is nothing new. Trans people have always existed and will continue to do so. Die mad about it.

[raposabranca]

Okay, I'm going to talk about this on my main art account because I haven't seen this being addressed yet (there are obviously other pressing matters) but I believe it deserves to be acknowledged both by art appreciators and artists alike:

ANIMATIC ISN'T WHAT YOU MAY THINK IT IS. "Fan animation" IS NOT called "Animatic".

This is not me being a snob, it's what the words were created for, and using them wrong may be misleading at best and upsetting/unrealistic at worst. Allow me to explain in as much detail as I can right now, so watch out for a long post:

ANIMATION, ANIMATIC, AND WHY IT MATTERS: THE LONG POST

First of all, remember that every animation is a film or video. Even if it's an animation that is composed by mostly static images and it may few weird to call it "animation", it's still a realized video or film (or MV - music video -, student film, etc)

Very roughly put and with many caveats as every studio/person is different, once the pre-production stage of an animation moves into production the process goes like this:

STORYBOARD: A storyboard is a graphic portrayal of a narrative, concept, or script, divided into sequential scenes (panels). Usually, it is done based on a written or roughly drawn script, and it serves to translate the story visually so placement, movement, timing, and camera angles are better understood or articulated. It's often done even for live-action movies.

They can be as detailed or as general, as clean and shaded or as scribbly as they can. Their point is being a visual sequential reference to the script.

Examples (more here):

Batman: The Animated Series opening

This Batman storyboard puts a lot of effort in making the images very clean and readable and in high contrast, which is useful in a noir series.

Super Mario Odyssey cinematic sequence

Mario is a lively series where depth, character silhouette, and fluidity are favored, so it's okay if the storyboard is scribbled if it's coherent to the movement and characters.

ANIMATIC: An animatic is a string of storyboard images edited together with sound to illustrate how a sequence will flow in motion. (...) [It] is basically an animated storyboard. The same images you’ve already created as a storyboard are now put into a video and can include dialogue, sound effects, and music. 

TL;DR it's a storyboard, that is, those static panels that can be as detailed or as rough as they must, put into motion and with added sound.

Animatics are useful to keep track of timing, placement, acting, etc, which you can't do very well with static images. They may contain placeholder images, stock photos, live-action acting frames, and even fully animated sequences that were previously done - whatever it's needed to help. Technically, some are animation. But they are, by definition, unfinished animation.

Examples:

Coco - "Un Poco Loco" finished animation vs animatic:

This is Pixar here and the animatic is scribbles. There is fluid, expressive animation there in order to communicate the livelihood of the sequence, but no more.

This wonderful thing:

Dan Harmon recorded a real court order discussion and drew the animatic on top of it, but he didn't intend to do a finished animation from this. Therefore, those are cleaned-up simple static drawings that still convey the absurdity of the video so it can be presented to the audience, like a sketch.

Mari Flexion's "Epiphany" , from the eponymous "fluff" extra from The Magnus Archives:

Like Harmon, Flexion never intended to fully animate this piece, but unlike Harmon - whose style is simpler and more cartoony - Flexion did this with time and in an elaborated style. There are moving parts and even simple animations in there, shadows and fully conveyed details like clothes and freckles. However, by the nature of being a sketch of an animation, it's an animatic.

ANIMATION: Once you have the storyboard and (if necessary) the animatic fully realized, the "animation" stage can start - this is the refining and production of what will become the final film. This stage is composed of many other stages that characterize how close to the final product something is. Stages will vary depending on the type of film you're doing, but Ill use some of my work to show some of the most common ones in 2D animation. (you'll notice that the timing changes from one place to another; that's because I'm only one person doing that on my pace and not a studio, and also I'm a gremlin)

Rough animation: The closest to animatic; some animatic can be considered rough animations:

Cleaned-up: Rough animation that has the final lineart/style that will be used in the end (sometimes static elements are already finished; animation can be weird)

Flat colors (or flats): Where the colors without effects/shadows/lights are added.

Final: With everything else (and here, because it's a video, it contains the music I timed everything on)

Originally posted here (final video) and here (work in progress gifs)

AND THEREIN THE ISSUES BEGIN

I've been observing in the last years that a lot of people are calling near-finalized, very-into-production animations "animatics". Not only fans are saying that, but sometimes artists themselves seem to consider stuff such as the following as animatics:

Shandzii's "It's tough to be a god" (original characters)

It could be argued this is a very elaborated animatic, but the amount of finished animation, detail and cleanness would put it at rough/almost clean-up animation.

@twinkle-art 's and @worldformula `s "The Magnus Archives - villain(빌런)"

This is a finished video, despite the lack of "animation" mostly.

SprectroliteAAA's "Death by Glamour - Mettaton vs. Frisk Fight"

This one has been bothering me for years now - it's a fantastic, almost fully realized rendition of this sequence, it's called "rough animation" in the opening, but it's called "animatic" on the title hhh

"But Branca," I can almost hear you say, "why does it matter?"

Well... it's not something that is urgent, or pressing, like I said before. AI- generated stuff and N/F/T/s are actual problems, but that's beside the point. Still, it's a trend that is becoming stronger, and the immediate issues I see are:

For artists: you'll look like a fool: No one is born knowing stuff, but that's inadequate vocabulary in artistic circles - especially in animation ones. If you call an animation "animatic" because it's digital, fanart, or a music video, it may sit wrong with people in the industry. You want to know which words mean what.

For art appreciators: it may sound derogatory: If someone posts their finalized film and you call it an animatic, it may rub the artist the wrong way. What if you wrote a whole fiction book and someone called it "your notes"? It's finalized work - call it for what it is.

For people who make/hire artwork: "But that's not what I/you asked for": The idea that animatics are "supposed" to get to more and more polished levels cause potential conflict between art professionals and costumers. The terms are laid out for clarity, and if "animatic" has a double meaning, people can be upset for getting "less" of what they wanted to get. Worse, calling animation/film "animatic" creates unrealistic market expectations. "Well X artist did that kind of animatic, can't you do that?" is a very hard situation to be in, as an artist. We may sell our work for crumbs just so we get the job, being exploited to do work we're not really supposed to due to a fiction.

For everyone: it can generate confusion and conflict: "Animatic" a term from the film industry. Some terms from some places may be redefined into something better or more appropriate, but this one creates miscommunication for the reasons mentioned about. Worse, it can create miscommunication between groups of people, particularly in fandom. Knowing the right words is the most conducive course of action.

Anyway, I hope this long ramble helped! Go spread the love for animatics and animations and videos all around!

[wholesomefluffdaddy]

Wednesday's new court mandated therapist is having her keep a journal of her thoughts and feelings. Wednesday finds this to be a complete waste of time and decides instead to use it to record her observations of her unusual roommate Enid Sinclair. Wednesday POV.

——————————————

Entry 2

Current Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent 🌒

Enid felt compelled to interrupt my slumber with the insufferable noise she calls ‘music.’ I let her know my sincerest thoughts on being awoken in such a manner. She was unreceptive to such criticism and posited the question ‘Are you sure you’re a raven? Because you seem more like a grumpy goose to me.’ I did not voice my displeasure at such a query. She then proceeded to toss my jacket and snood onto my bedding before informing me that I was to be dragged into town with her.

I do not recall agreeing to any such outing. However, before I could voice this she had already bounded out of the room like an overly excited puppy. I waited for her return to explain the obvious miscommunication but she did not. I quickly dressed and set about tracking her down. Unsurprisingly she was waiting just outside the front gates.

I was foolish in believing I could simply tell her I wasn’t going. She waved off my response before capturing my hand and pulling me with her. I did not attempt to escape even though her grip was weak. I do not recall why I didn’t. My mind had felt oddly hazy in the moment and I seemed to be experiencing some sort of heart palpitations. Perhaps it was because I had not acquired any sort of sustenance before finding Enid.

Enid seemed to anticipate this error on my part and took us straight to a cafe just before entering Jericho. I asked her why we didn’t simply dine in Jericho if it was our intended destination. She told me to ‘shut up’ and ‘just enjoy the coffee’. I decided not to question her further as she huffed. I could see those beautifully sharp fangs lengthening as she spoke. I seemed to experience some sort of mild gastrointestinal upset shortly after. It felt like my stomach was full of spiders. The feeling was not unpleasant.

Whatever strange and sudden illness that had a hold of me only worsened as the day progressed. I assume Enid was able to pick up on my affliction (perhaps she could smell it?) because she continued to keep a hold of my hand and insisted on opening doors for me. I was unaware my prognosis was so grim. She must have anticipated me losing my strength. I did not, but admittedly I felt unsteady at times.

A fever was another symptom that manifested from my mysterious illness. I found it most noticeable when Enid initiated physical contact. Werewolf bodies naturally run at higher temperatures so I assume that the contact in some way may have worsened this symptom. Yet despite my overheating I felt myself repeatedly drawn to my the werewolf. To be fair the temperatures outside were in the range to cause hypothermia if left exposed for long enough. I was simply ensuring my continued survival by staying close to her through our visitation and return from Jericho.

When we returned to our dorm Enid soon left to ‘catch up with the girls.’ I can only assume she was referring to that insufferable vampire Tanaka and her siren inamorata. I was left with an unusual sense of ennui at her departure. But I digress. This journal is a record of Enid’s unusual behaviors in correlation with the cycles of the moon and not my own sudden and inexplicable maladies.

Speaking of which, I have come to a hypothesis regarding today’s activities. Werewolves can be territorial creatures. It is my current working assumption that the outing today was a way for Enid to assess the current stability of her territory as the moon waxes. My accompaniment may have been a sort of added security, akin to a pack member, to enforce her claim. I would not be surprised as I have proven myself quite capable on numerous occasions. I must admit I feel most honored for her to have considered me for such an outing. Perhaps I shall subtly suggest subsequent outings to ensure the security of her territory.

[manonamora-if]

The Interactive Fiction DataBase - IFDB

What is the IFDB?

The IFDB, or Interactive Fiction DataBase, is a game catalogue, recommendation engine, and a platform to play games requiring an interpreter (to run the code).

As a catalogue, the IFDB is meant as a place to create a bibliography of IF games created throughout the years (over 12 thousands!), to leave a trace that these existed. It is maintained by its members. Anyone can join and add a listing or fix a mistake. You can also find listing for past IF competitions!

As a recommendation engine, the IFDB provides not only lists of the best-rated entries, but will show you games that you may enjoy based on the ones you've played/rated or what other members have played/rated. Entries are also categorised by tags, which are all searchable. Members are also able to create lists to recommende games they've enjoyed! Or leave reviews of those games too!

Finally, some games may require an interpreting engine to run. Those interpreters can be sometimes difficult to track down or to set up, especially for new players. The IFDB has a system that will allow you to play those games directly in your browser by clicking the button : Play Online (only available if the game has been uploaded through the IF Archive).

Why is the IFDB important?

The internet is a rapidly changing place. Preserving information is not only important for future generations, but can help current generations find information about what is happening now. Archiving creates a historical record of what the IF landscape looked like.

Along with the IF Archive (which archives IF games), the IFDB makes viewing the history of IF much easier to browse.

However, the IFDB lacks in many aspects. Not every IF community is aware of the database, which means many projects do not appear in this catalogue. While the IFDB has currently over 12k listings, the VNDB (the Visual Novel DataBase) has over 40k! The IFDB is also lacking in entries in languages other than English...

The IFDB accepts any listing for games, made in any program, as long as said game is an Interactive Fiction game and has had a playable version available somewhere at some point (so it accepts WIPs with demo). /!\ Do not create a page for announced project without a release ! /!\

Why create an IFDB page for your game?

Aside from being part of preserving the history of IF (which is the big thing), and be able to share your work to a different part of the community, the IFDB is a great place to get and leave long-form reviews for entries.

If your project was coded in a program that requires an interpreter, it is a great place to host your game without worrying about newer players having to find and set up an interpreter.

If you have been part of an IF competition, or received accolades for your project, this is also a good way to showcase those achievements.

Finally, the IFDB is also a point of reference for IF Awards like the XYZZY and the IFDB Awards.

How do you create an IFDB page?

/!\ Please check that the game listing you want to add has not been added first! /!\

To create an IFDB page, you need to set up an account and be logged in.

Then click on Add a Game Listing, on the right menu in the main page. You will get the following page:

(You should read through the Guidelines the first time you add a listing, they are located at the top of the page)

Though it looks long, there are only very few information required to create a page:

The title

The name(s) of the author(s)

It is recommended to fill in the date of first publication, development system (program used to code), language, IFID (if available) description of the game, and genre.

As for being able to play the game, you have two (non-exclusive) options:

list the URL of the website where the game is hosted

list the download URL of the game (can be done through the IF Archive, only if you are the author of the game!)

Note sure what something is? A description (or a link towards explanations) of what is expected is included for almost all items. You can also include information that is not listed in the drop-down case (like the System or language).

When you are happy with it, click Save changes.

You can also fix, edit, or delete information at any moment. You just need to click on the link Edit This Page at the bottom of the game page.

How do you add Ratings, Reviews and Game Suggestions ?

Logged in with your account, you have the possibility of leaving ratings and reviews on a game page. You can also help the IFDB algorithm by suggesting similar games to an entry.

The process is fairly straight-forward (clicking on the stars for the rating, clicking Review it for the review, and clicking Suggest similar games, for the suggestions). Thought you can find further explanations here, if you follow what the website is asking, you should not have any difficulty to complete the task !

If you review enough games, your name can end up on the main page!

How do I create a Competition Page?

Have you participated or organised an IF competition? Or are you cataloguing previous editions?

You can create a separate page for a Competition by clicking on Add a Competition Page on the right menu of the main page. You will then get the following page:

Then it is a matter of filling the different relevant items.

The Competition Page allows for divisions within competitions (e.g. : the EctoComp had 2 categories, made under 4h and over 4h) and, if needs be, ranking.

Important Note: the competition entries need to already be listed in the IFDB to be added to a competition page.

What are Lists and Polls?

Lists and Polls are two other tools that interact with game entries.

Lists, also called Recommendation Lists, are lists a member will curate with games they are recommending to other members or viewers of the IFDB. Some are general (like best game ever) while others are more specific (like games with an AI that is nice). They are akin to public collections on Itch.io.

Polls are... polls.

Note: If a game is included in a poll and/or a list, these will appear on the game's page.

~~~~

TLDR: create an account, help preserve the IF landscape by recording its history, review games too :P

If I missed something, or something is unclear, let me know so I can edit it!

[butchsophiewalten]

can we hear more about YES? wha happened 👀

There's been a new Findjackwalten update! From what I can tell, this one alters one page (or two depending on how you count it) and adds one new one.

The main page has been updated: https://www.findjackwalten.com/

it strongly resembles the '/copia-de-nueva-pagina' page we discovered back in July, which now, in fact, redirects to it. The old homepage, /cyberfuntech82, is now a completely blank webpage.

Some images have been added to the new landing page that did not exist on the old /copia-de-nueva-pagina page, like the Cyberfun Tech poster we saw Martin post in his community tab is what I believe was May of last year? And three as yet unseen images of Little Bon, Little Bon and Little Sha, and then of the animatronic Bon. There's a fourth image not visible in this screenshot, of the exterior of Bon's Burgers (the same shot of it we seen in TWF1).

Clicking on the "JOB OFFER" image leads to a new webpage, findjackwalten.com/caretakerlibrary.

This page contains a greyed-out version of the banner from the homepage, a large greyed-out version of the mounted buck's head known for being on findjackwalten.com/jackwalten, and a picture of someone we can assume, thanks to later context, is named Richie. It looks like the background illustration of an anthropomorphized family of rabbits is still on this page, it's just mostly hidden by the other page assets. Something interesting to note about this page is that all of its images are actually in regular full color, the page just puts a black & white filter over them. It's thanks to that we can have this regular, full-color image of Richie.

This page claims to be a "Caretaker Audio Archive", which seems to be the same archive Brian mentioned in TWF1, when he mentioned being asked to record himself during his job "for the archives". It contains two pieces of audio attributed to an "R.", who worked for BSI between 1974 and 1975. It refers to him also as the "Night Shift CARETAKER A".

The first piece of audio, titled "richie 1" is dated 05-23-74, or the 23rd of May, 1974. I've transcribed it as follows, but this is pretty rough: Hey there! Its your, uh, it's your coworker Richie from uh, B-Uh, BSI. Uh, Felix probably mentioned me to you before, I-uh-I don't believe we've actually, yknow, met face-to-face before, but I-uh, look forward to working with you! Uh, so, uhm. Yeah, uh! I work the, uh, I work the- I'm working the night shift at the moment. Uh, and, uh, [UNINTELLIGIBLE] uhm, sorry you're not in any, uh, trouble or anything, heh. Uh-m just- saying hi. It's uh, company policy, all employees gotta, like, know each other so we can work more efficiently, I guess. I dunno. Uh, from what I've heard I take it you've been working here quite a while, right? Uh, summer job? Same here! Uh, so uh, where was I? Hmm.. Ah- uh, some notes from last week's shift, uhm, the arcade machines should be on their way by Tuesday, I think? We uh, we made a call with Starleys, uh, now they're going to be doing the installations themselves, so you don't gotta worry about that anymore. Just try and keep [UNINTELLIGIBLE] and plus, you now owe me a favor! Nah, just kidding. Uhh, so! Tech supervisor asked us to present the documentation of the animatronics' state by tomorrow! So, uh, yeah, better get that out of the way soon. And, uh, huh! I guess that's it. Ahh- sorry, and uh, one more thing, uh, I think we'll, uh, yknow, properly meet on, uhm, Thursday! I think. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] a tour of the installations. And, not-not the ones that smell like tobacco. The other one. So, uh, yeah, uh, see you there!

The second audio, titled "richie 2", is dated 06-18-74, or the 18th of June, 1974. This is, very notably, a week after Jack Walten's disappearance. I've transcribed it as follows: Hey, uh, just wanted to update you on everything that's been going on the past few days. So, uhh, for starters I got paid the extra hours for last week, so that's nice. Uhmm, right, uh, right. So, uh, did you get the memo, or whatever? Apparently the lockdown was because of some infestation or something? Yknow, like, bugs? Heh. So just a heads up if you feel kinda- smell chemicals and whatnot. Uhh, what else, what else, what else? Right, uh, right- so here, from next week onward, all animatronics will be cleaned and checked by authorized personnel. Nobody else is allowed- sorry- Nobody else is permitted to go near them until further notice. So, that's one less thing to worry about with our jobs, right? Uhhh, right- ah, oh right, uhm. Don't come to work on Monday. They're doing one more big cleanup to make sure there's no bugs crawling around or whatever. We, uh, we wouldn't really want our customers eating a beetle sandwich, yknow? Haha, sorry- hmm. Uhh, yeah! That's all for tonight. If you see any bugs in the next few days, just like, wack 'em with a newspaper or somethin'. You'll be fine. Anyways, uh, see ya around! Take care! Bye!

A very notable peculiarity with this is that the second audio sounds very... dank? Like it's being recorded in a cave? I have absolutely no idea what this means.

[misshypnofascinated]

Data processing

I'm sitting behind the computer, my headphones on. I hear your voice, but you are not talking to me. You are hypnotizing someone, I can hear both of your voices. I can drift in your words, float as time passes on. My hands type what is happening, effectively indexing and processing what I hear. The only parts of my mind that haven't shut down, are the parts needed for typing and sorting.

You conduct an intense survey. The mindless hypnotee in front of you giving out all the information you want. They gladly do that, your words feel so good. They don't mind that you bare their interest, their weak spots, and their deepest desires.

I neatly file away all the data. I rank the names and the words they respond well to in order of efficiency. It is added to the database for future reference.

Each record takes me deeper, as I know I type it to please you. Later, you can find a transcript, and all the little details, neatly sorted. Ready for you to look back at, at your own leisure. And I am content to make you happy.

Every question to your subject takes me deeper. Every rating is another number taking me down. Every chart is an endless line for my eyes to follow as I listen and obey and serve.

I reach the end of the recording. With glassy eyes, I generate a report of the session. All details and responses are neatly in one PDF. I add it all to the archive, and I mail it to you.

You come by and take the headphones from my head. I look up to you and smile lazily. I ask you for the name of the subject, as that is the last information missing. You stroke my chin and look me in the eye. "It is yours, my little datatypist. Now, relax and let go for me, it is time to acquire more data..."

[gorochuva]

My @magireco-minibang story that I actually posted the first 3 chapters of yesterday bc timezones or w/ever and bc this is gonna be a long ride

***

Pairings Featured

Main: none

Sub: Kaname Madoka & Tamaki Iroha, Akino Kaede/Minami Rena, Futaba Sana/Isuzu Ren, Akemi Homura/Aki Mabayu

Genre/Tags

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Ending, What-If, Hypothetical Character Development, Musical References

Major Characters

Tamaki Iroha, Kyubey, Kaname Madoka, Akemi Homura, Nanami Yachiyo, Other Character Tags to be Added

Rating

Teen and Up Audiences

Potential Warnings

No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary:

"Kyubey, I have some questions about the wish you supposedly granted for me when I became a Magical Girl." What if Ui Tamaki didn't exist? What would be the truth behind Iroha's wish? As it turns out, a few simple words at the right time changed everything...

"I wish you could understand how they felt!"