#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 I will be deleting the outdated post to avoid confusion!)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)

[elysianfieldsarchive]

Hello EF! In case you haven’t heard, it is somehow, inexplicably, 2025. That’s right, we’ve completed another journey around the sun together. And as is apropos at the end of a year and the start of a new one, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished over the last 12 months as a community, as well as all the stuff your mostly benevolent Mods have been doing to improve your overall experience.

We’ll start with what the admin team has accomplished so we can save the best (that’s you guys and your accomplishments) for last.

Over the last year, we:

Added even more gorgeous site skins right out of the gate, increasing the variety of options as well as artist representation on the site

Successfully completed EF’s second mini-event, Monster Mash, and had a ton of fun doing it

Shepherded in the triumphant return of Mystery Month, the third ever, and first following the community-wide vote to trade off years with Drabblemania

Kicked off the year with a new commenting challenge that yielded gorgeous awards

Implemented a much overdue Artist of the Month Award, resulting in 27 members being nominated over the last year, and 13 Artists of the Month having been chosen (counting January 2025)

Rolled out sensitivity reader as a distinct type of beta reader

Introduced a new crediting system so artists, betas, and sensitivity readers are properly acknowledged with each work

Revisited and refined the existing guidance resources for authors and betas, and expanded them to include sensitivity readers

Added warnings to help members better curate their fanwork experience

Cleaned up our categories to minimize confusion

Resolved the email issues that remained from 2023’s server migration

Vastly improved the site’s previous stance on constructive criticism

Implemented member-driven initiatives in community spaces, such as Spotlight Saturday on our Discord server, in which members can recommend the works that mean a lot to them but do not or have not historically received as much attention as other works. Each work can only be recommended once and is compiled into a spreadsheet for reference. This is in addition to thematic watch parties and recreational game nights, which we hope to increase over the coming year.

The Mod team keeps busy behind the scenes discussing and implementing ideas to improve the member experience. There are a lot of initiatives still in the works, so look for those in the months to come. And as always, if YOU have ideas regarding how we can improve member experience, don’t hesitate to drop them in the Suggestion Box. We are always open to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and feedback regarding how Elysian Fields can continue to improve.

And all of these accomplishments were made in conjunction with our annual site events. We’ve already mentioned the Monster Mash Mini-Event and Mystery Month in July, but other events included Challenge Month in April, the Betrayal Challenge in October for EF’s 18th anniversary, and our fifth Secret Santa Exchange. That is in addition to all the other new works added or cross-posted from other archives over the course of the year. We crunched the numbers, and 2024 was the second largest year in terms of new fanworks posted on Elysian Fields in the last five years. The only year that beat it was 2023 (most likely courtesy of Drabblemania). It is also the second year in recorded site history that exceeded 10M words in terms of new words added. The only other year to do this was a bona fide pandemic year, meaning we were all confined to the indoors in ways we haven’t been since 2022 or so. Let that sink in.

Now that it has, did you hear that zipper being lowered? You should have, because we SMASHED 2024.

In the fifth year of recognizing the milestone of Completed Works, 119 creators completed a total of 450 works.

All creators who completed a work of any length (one-shots count!) in 2024 have been issued this award:

Also in its fifth year is the Event Complete Award (formerly the Challenge Complete Award). This was awarded to site members who during the most recent calendar year completed works submitted for the April Challenge, Mystery Month, or October Anniversary Event site event for all years through 2024. Our events generate many great contributions to the archive, and this award seeks to recognize those creators who not only start a new work for a community event but also finish it. As such, single-chapter or single-day events do not qualify (so no Monster Mash or Secret Santa).

And speaking of Secret Santa, we have some numbers to share.

We had 41 event contributions, which during the posting window garnered 918 likes and 456 comments, and for the first time, we welcomed commenters, artists, and beta and sensitivity readers to participate. That resulted in 27 artists and 28 beta and sensitivity readers helping to make the Santa works sparkle, and 47commenters completed the commenting challenge. All participants who completed their works, as well as commenters, artists, and betas, should now have their awards on their profile.

P.S. If you haven't read the fics or oohed at the art yet, you can find them all on the Secret Santa event page, which is also accessible by going to Browse >> Events >> 2024 Secret Santa from the site menu.

In 2024, we added:

10,320,149 words

566 stories

3,208 chapters

1,956 new members

99,718 new likes

39,923 new comments to the archive (comprising 2,175,381 words)

We also have issued awards to our most prolific members. These are chosen by the numbers.

Top 10 Commenters

violettathepiratequeen (156,694 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Commenter Award 2024)

Nightcandle (155,089 words)

magnus374 (147,248 words)

pfeifferpack (133,844 words)

swonderful (128,797 words)

All4Spike (118,334 words)

Green (98,452 words)

acekoomboom (71,023 words)

werehorse (56,350 words)

bmerb (56,037 words)

Our most prolific commenter for 2024 was @violettathepiratequeen!

Top 10 Authors

Ragini (1,022,197 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Author Award 2024)

Maxine Eden (611,744 words)

CheekyKitten (500,901 words)

Passion4Spike (493,995 words)

In Mortal (414,608 words)

Spikelover4ever (361,728 words)

Melme1325 (330,544 words)

Holly (274,667 words)

honeygirl51885 (255,098 words)

scratchmeout (250,047 words)

Our most prolific author for 2024 was Ragini!

We also ran the numbers and issued the very first pretties for our Commenting Star and Commenting Superstar Awards!

As a recap:

The Star Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list 6 months out of the year by leaving at least 15 comments, each of at least 5 words

The Superstar Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list each month out of the year

In 2024, 49 members received the Star Award, and 24 members received the Superstar Award. So if you were an All-Star Commenter 6-12 months out of the year, check your awards because one (at least 6 months) or both (12 months) of these babies should be there.

We love how this incentivized comments for our fanworks, and are pleased to announce the return of this award in 2025. Details (and pretty artwork) forthcoming. So if you want this award in 2025, start commenting!

If you are missing an award you should have received, please reach out to us (elysianfieldsarchive@gmail.com) and we’ll verify and get that corrected.

Friends, we had an amazing year. None of this would be possible without you. Thank you so much for everything you give to the community. We’re so excited to see what 2025 brings—both the stuff we know is coming, and the stuff that will take us by surprise.

[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

[vintagelasvegas]

Travelers Motel, 1100 Fremont St. Postcard, c. 1936

Travelers “Auto Court” opened in 1936. The city commissioners granted permission for a sign on 10/6/36. Actress Sara Haden, Clarence Finney, and Chester Carter were the property owners. Finney and Carter sold their stock to Haden in '37, with Finney remained as on-site property manager.

Clark County Assessor records indicate the motel was built in '26. If this date is accurate, it might refer specifically to the west wing, made of concrete block, as opposed to the east wing of wood frame construction. (More notes on this below.)

Sara Haden sold Travelers to R. M. Dockins in ’47. Dockins also acquired a new, adjacent motel on North 11st St built by Cleveland Schultz, which became Travelers Annex. The rear units of Travelers were demolished, creating a driveway from the main motel to the annex.

A new motel sign was added to the property no later than '62 – it's first seen in a film shot circa '61/62.

In '69 owner Charles Seifert (Charton Corp.) changed the front of the motel, adding a porte-cochére, and a gateway sign by Larsen Electric. In the 70s, owner Ted Candalino added a swimming pool to the motel in the courtyard of the annex, and in '79 the buildings were re-roofed. VMK Corp. acquired the property in '83. The corporation received a notice from the City ordering them to make repairs due to “substandard” conditions in the mid '80s.

Travelers Motel sold to Downtown Project (DTPLV) in 2013. DTPLV closed and boarded up the motel, and later demolished most of Travelers Annex wing, leaving only a two-story section. The main motel and its sign were repainted in 2020.

A note on the Clark County Assessor date: If the '26 date is accurate, the original wing may have been an apartment building. There were no hotels or auto courts in this area before the rise of tourism on East Fremont that followed the opening of Boulder Hwy in '31. An article appears in the Review-Journal on 8/9/30 referring to an apartment building construction at Fremont & 11st which may or may not be the Travelers property. Alternately, another year is referenced in a blurb about the motel's construction on 10/24/47, saying Clarence Finney assisted in building Travelers motel “13 years ago” ('34). Regardless of the building date, there is no record for "Travelers" prior to '36.

Postcard, circa '49 to early '50s. A sign on the far left points to Traveler's Annex entrance on 11st Street. The inset graphic for "Traveler's Hotel Court" was the design of the rarely-photographed main road sign that stood in front of the motel from '36 through the 50s.

In this damaged photo the signs for Travelers and Lucky motels can be seen on the far left. On Fremont St, Hotel Thunderbird's "Academy Awards of Show Business" float cruises the '54 Helldorado parade. Anita Freeman Photograph Collection on Southern Nevada (PH-00245), UNLV Special Collections.

Postcard c. '50s showing Traveler's Annex on N. 11th St. The single story level was demolished in 2019.

The second sign at Travelers was installed in the early 60s. The porte-cochére and gateway sign were installed in '69. Photos by Jane Kowalewski, 4/13/84. Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas # 0130:0107-0108.

10/20/2013, in the year the motel was closed and fenced. Photo by Joseph Dennis.

The sign in 2013 by J. Dennis, and 2022 by Robert BC. DTPLV commissioned the Las Vegas Mannequins to add the climbing figures to the Travelers and Fergusons motel signs. The motel and sign at Travelers were repainted in 2020.

During the fire at Lucky Motel, Dec. 31, 2024. Photo by D Shot 'Em.

Sources include: Short Stories of Las Vegas Folks. Review-Journal, 8/9/30 p2; Minutes, 5/14/29 to 2/11/37, p469. Las Vegas City Commission Records (MS-00237), UNLV Special Collections & Archives; Vegas Residents Wed in Kingsman. Review-Journal, 2/22/37 p2; Sara Haden Buys Local Auto Court. Review-Journal, 3/16/37 p5; Brigham Townsend. Making the Rounds. Review-Journal, 2/1/47 p1; Cleveland Motel Has New Owner. Review-Journal, 4/17/47 p3; Personals. Review-Journal, 10/24/47 p6; Jane Kowalewski. Clark County Historic Property, Travelers Motel. Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. Intensive Level Architectural Survey of Motor Court Motels Along Las Vegas Blvd and Fremont Street. North Wind Resource Consulting, Apr. 2020.

This article was originally published 7/31/2018. Updated Jan. 5, 2025.

[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???)

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Guess what I got! The recording scripts for all of the episodes of Spongebob season 13!! Gang gang

I got it from some guy from YouTube. He said this was leaked on internet archive and Nick tried to scrub it clean off the interwebz. He managed to salvage some and he gave me a link. His account was gone before I had an opportunity to say thank you, so now I have it. I'm sharing it here because idgaf if my account gets taken down lol. But also no one checks tumblr anyways.

I made sure to print out the Slappy Daze recording script because idgaf about the other episodes tbh. I only care about my beloved Peter Lorre fish's day in the limelight <3 I put it in this plastic slip and keep it in a nice binder. It's my most prized possession besides Slappy's character sheet. I also have the Squidferatu script as well.

To be honest a lot of these scripts are pretty similar to the final product of the episode. There are some minor differences like Slappy wasn't originally in the script for There Will Be Grease. Instead it was supposed to be some nerdy fish asking if everything juice will make him sound more manly. Bless whoever snuck Slappy in there because you all remember me tweaking for a week when the episode came out because I was so happy Slappy got a part in the song lol.

Also the episode Upturn Girls was originally titled City Cetaceans.

Slappy Daze is pretty near identical to the final product tbh. Nothing really changed besides a few words. I am fascinated by the fact that the first draft is dated as being July 30th 2021. By that point I already fully and completely developed Slappy brain worms and was already considering watching Lorre's movies to get my fix cuz the airings of the Patrick show were frustrating. Ahh the good ol days <3

I also do believe Slippy (Slappy's female counterpart) was made for Slappy Daze originally though. The episode gives a physical description of Slippy which makes me think she just made for the moment. I think she was added to Mid-Season Finale in The Patrick Star Show episode afterwards but Mid-Season Finale aired first. Nickelodeon actually did mess up with this episode and released it on DVD before it officially aired. Now the pieces are coming together. This is only interesting to me lol.

Spongebob fans are such h8rs fr. Where else would you find THE original dreamy haired emo boy Cesare the Somnanbulist working as an assistant for the primary care physician fish Dr. Caligari? I would LOVE for Cesare to rid me of my allergies😤😤

Squidferatu actually has the most differences between the script and the final product. Plus plenty of interesting details. Squidferatu actually has two scripts, part one and part two.

The first and most important detail to me is the fact that Slappy is still named "Laszlo". You've seen Slappy's character sheet where it mentions he was formerly named "Laszlo" (obviously a reference to Peter Lorre's birth name Laszlo Löwenstein).

But in the Squidferatu scripts you can actually find the EXACT moment where his name changes from Laszlo to Slappy. It all has to do with one specific gag.

These both are the same scene. The left side is from Squidferatu part 1 and the right is Squidferatu part 2.

I do think they absolutely fumbled the name Laszlo. There are enough cartoon characters named Slappy. Laszlo is much much cuter and brings the Lorre reference full circle but oh well.

I also keep forgetting to mention but the villager in Squidferatu who begs Spongebob and Squidward not to go to the castle was intended to be the same villager in the 1931 Dracula who warns Renfield, who actually was based on a villager from the 1922 Nosferatu who warns Thomas Hutter. This character respawned in 3 different pieces of media. I think he's the true star of this episode lol.

There is also the fact that carriage driver in Squidferatu is confirmed to be Nosferatu! I feel like this fact is obvious enough if you're familiar with Dracula media (1922 Nosferatu, 1931 Dracula, or even just reading the book) the count is always the carriage driver duh

Also the fact that in this episode he hisses like a vampire, is strangely humanoid, and briefly has the Nosferatu™ eyebrows which fully gives it away. Unfortunately the folks on the SB wiki do not agree >:((

The first time I saw the carriage driver I said "ohh he kinda bad" and you know what? I'm not retracting my statement. He IS a baddie. I'm tired of lying to myself otherwise.

Anyways this caused me to come up with a headcanon that Nosferatu is broke and likely does not pay Slappy. I mean that explains why Nos has taken on shifts at the Krusty Krab, but also explains why Slappy is working 2 jobs in The Patrick Star Show. I imagine property taxes on a castle really drains a vampire's family fortune. I'm getting off topic.

There are some extra gags that didn't make it into the episode.

There's also the fact that we've been robbed of Erik from the Phantom of The Opera giving the audience a cute wink uwu

[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

[crosbyism]

Postmortem: Next Generation’s Best

whew, what an ordeal that was to write. I started out writing it several months ago, drafted what ended up constituting about 20% of the final post, and then let it sit for a while. Within the last two weeks, I was finally inspired (and had the time) to take it out of the attic and strip it down and retool it in order to write the final post. I think I spent at least 40-60 hours on it in total, which is quite a lot for just under six thousand words.

I think my main worry is that it’s too dense. I really chewed on a lot of these thoughts and topics during the writing process, and I know it’s just jam-packed with a lot of very intense material in a very tight space. I didn’t necessarily have the patience to draw it out more (and lengthen the wordcount by doing so, rip) and I think it works really well as it is, I just worry about a lot of nuance or some of the points I made getting lost in such density.

I rarely get so massively nervous about posting my work, but I think part of it might be that this one is definitely firmly in the category of non-fiction. I took the liberty to tell some of those stories in what I found to be an interesting way, but none of them are fictional— or even fictionalised. The amount of articles I hunted down about Eric Lindros’ near-death experience and Wayne Gretzky’s rookie season in order to get all the details right…

by the way, I still can’t stop thinking about Eric Lindros. What an absolute horror show that man had to live through. It’s also deeply interesting to me that twenty years later, Jack Eichel still had to fight with team management about medical issues. I guess these issues aren’t solved yet in any sort of way, but it’s crazy to look back at Lindros and then look at all the contemporary fights about the right to medical autonomy that’re still going on twenty years later.

Around the time I hit the 5k mark, I finally got over the denial of how long the post was and accepted that I’d probably have to put it over on ao3. The tumblr posts work better than I thought they would, but I do think the best way to read it is probably doing the “Entire Work” view over on ao3.

I don’t know why, but I definitely resisted the idea of putting it on the archive at first? for some reason I feel like meta posts are more for tumblr, although that’s probably a little silly. it’s an archive, after all, and there’s plenty of meta posts on there.

I do think that once I get around into turning it into a little podcast, that’ll be the best format for it. god knows how long that’ll be though, the longest thing I’ve recorded so far was under 3k and that was over twenty minutes of audio. I guess the whole thing will probably end up being close to an hour. I’ll see.

Right after I finished posting and adding links to everything I had this moment where I was like “I should’ve called it “LEGACY” and had each of the six parts be referred to by one letter in the word”. Then I proceeded to kick myself because it was too late for it. Missed opportunity. Ah well. You win some (finish the monster piece of non-fiction you’ve been sitting on for a while) you lose some (let the perfect title and naming convention for the parts slip through your fingers).

I’m definitely dying to get some feedback on this thing that I’ve poured so much time and energy into. I had this despairing moment right after hitting post that was like “Why did I write this, this is absolute garbage, no one will get this or care about it” but then I bullied myself into going to bed since it was two in the morning. Like with all creative endeavours, I guess I’ll have to be patient.

[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.

[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.

[namesnamesandmorenames]

So I’ve been messing with (improving) the formulas in my fanfiction database as a procrastination method for schoolwork (don’t recommend) but I think that they’re all officially working in the way I want them to? Crazy anyway so I'm going to celebrate by showing a few examples of how my Summarized Metadata formula works

So, if you caught my last two posts about my database you’ll know I track a lot of information and it was mostly done in table format like a big spreadsheet- which is fine but not exactly optimized for using it on your phone. Since then I added some buttons so I could automatically update multiple pieces of information with a click and I wanted to change the way I view information so I converted things into a gallery view and have been trying to figure out how best to present the information I want at a glance including if/then statements for information I wouldn't want if something else wasn't true idk it seems like a lot but it is what I want to be able to refer to at a glance and things link to other databases if they have the little diagonal arrow (I technically could have just had all of the properties I wanted visible but that would have meant things irrelevant to specific records would be visible too and notion doesn't have the ability for properties to be displayed horizontally so there would also be more white space than I want with numbers displayed in a line without indicators—)

Btw those previous posts are what happen when I hyperfixate on my information organization (pre-cataloging) course and this is what happens when I jump off the deep end after my programming course is too basic but I started hyperfixating on it anyway!

Anyway here is what the Summarized Metadata looks like (these also double as fic-recs if you happen to be in the 9-1-1 fandom!)

@cal-daisies-and-briars and @schrijverr are both really amazing creators in the fandom BTW so if you haven't read any of either of their work I can genuinely say I recommend all of it!

And I’ll show you one more fic I just finished and highly highly recommend because I was following it and the creator just completed it! @memequeme

Time for sleep now!

[stainedmystery]

Collated Nemesis / Phalanx Lore

Howdy! Here's a post that's a few years in the making, collecting all of Nemesis' lore in one place, with references to videos and the like. Unfortunately, there's a lot of rewrites of lore, but it's really interesting to track the evolution of the Phalanx. It's evolved over four distinct eras of Nemesis history, which I'll track here. For ease, I'll refer to the four eras as the OG Era, Nemesis Sub Terra Era, the Scare-maze Tetralogy, and the Reborn Era.

Beginning with the OG era, there are two distinct and important pieces of media which cover the lore of Nemesis. The first is this advert. It's the best record for the Nemesis Creature's lore, whether or not it's still accurate is questionable with how much from this era has been rewritten. You can see Alton Towers' love for human sacrificing cults appear from day one, as this video goes on to explain a cult surrounding Nemesis. The creature had the ability to mass hypnotize crowds into visiting it, and the cult leaders would use a chant to awaken the creature and let it feed. It... also implies that it would use the track to feed on the unsuspecting towns folk. The advert spends a good chunk of time devoted to setting up a talisman, that can protect people from the creature and its followers. The other important media related lore we got during this era was this comic. This comic is the first ever mention of the Phalanx, and they look absolutely nothing like their modern day counterparts. First of all, they're undeniably heroes. There isn't a single shred of moral ambiguity, they're 'lawful good' aligned. The Original Phalanx, established centuries ago, were created by aliens who had lost their home planet to Nemesis, and vowed to protect the rest of the galaxy from her. It's implied that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were Phalanx Operatives, back in the day. In the comic, they're fighting the cult leaders, who are known as 'Nemesites' and call on the power of Nemesis to kill nonbelievers. They're very much just humans with glowy hands and wearing cloaks in the comic, however. Sights such as Stonehenge were established to protect our world from Nemesis, but some of the Nemesites had torn down the protection by Alton Towers, and that's how it was able to penetrate through. Hilariously, the main Phalanx soldier in the comics is a guy called Smile... And the Phalanx's secret base is known as The Sanctuary.

And then, for twenty odd years, Nemesis' lore was quiet. Nothing was added, nothing was really changed, until the Nemesis Sub Terra Era. Most of the content for the Nemesis Sub Terra Era came from Nemesis Sub Terra, the ride. The best link I can provide is this, which was the queueline video and provided a rough overview of the Phalanx. From this, we learnt that the Phalanx had been roughly completely reinvented, while keeping the same core. The Phalanx have no longer been protecting the world from specifically Nemesis since before King Arthur's time, nor do they seem to have a really old, secret base built in Alton Towers. They're now a militaristic research group, that provides 'tactical support to sensitive regions', and collaborate with global governments to be able to respond to any emergency within 48 hours. They've lost their unique, brightly coloured superhero meets knight aesthetic, and are more subdued and militaristic. But, for all intensive purposes, at this point they were still intended to be heroes. Or, at least not active villains. We're entering what was, in my opinion, the best characterisation of the Phalanx. They were well intending, largely egotistical, but insanely incompetent. For example, the main issue in Sub Terra is that the Phalanx created an observation station, where members of the public could learn about their research... only to lose control of that research and resulting in the implied deaths of civilians.

Next, we move onto what is arguably the worst archived section of Nemesis' history: The Scare-maze Tetralogy. The story begins with Dark Apocalypse, and then the narratives of Project 42 and Sub Species: End Games happen concurrently. Unfortunately, unlike above, most of the lore was stored only officially in the Alton Towers Scarefest webpage, which I've used the Wayback Machine to preserve.

The plot of Dark Apocalypse was: A deadly virus has spread across Forbidden Valley. The infected show signs of highly aggressive behavior and rapid physical decomposition. Phalanx control has quarantined the area however, a recent security breach has questioned their ability to contain the virus and keep society safe.

For Sub Species: End Games, we had: A post-apocalyptic, sewer dwelling community have been infested by a species from another world. In order to survive, they appease the creature’s hunger by sacrificing innocent people from the surface. However, over time, insanity has twisted the feeding ritual into a sick contest. Your demise is now their entertainment. This year find your way through the underground system with new routes to take but which will you choose? Let the death race begin! Located within The Towers." AND an audio walkthrough, which can unfortunately be the best way to experience Towers' past mazes.

For Project 42, we had: "Project 42 invites valiant volunteers to enter the underground Phalanx compound in a bid to outwit what awaits them inside. The Phalanx requires volunteers to enter the compound, find the vaccination and rescue the technician. Can you get out before contracting the infection?" AND this trailer

And finally, for Sub Species Operation Lockdown, we had: "This Scarefest, join The Phalanx on their latest mission. Take on a series of challenges to destroy the alien species and work together as a team to ensure the rest of humanity survive and you escape from Sub Species: Operation Lockdown." AND this video. Any information on Operation Lockdown is extremely difficult to come across, as it only existed for a very short period time as an escape room few people did.

The overall summary was that the Phalanx became established as trying to do the right thing, but consistently making critical errors that cost civilian lives. Tying it all into one narrative, it began when they lost control of the zombie like outbreak in Dark Apocalypse (the disease is called B10-NST). Continues into Sub Species: End Games, where after evacuating the townsfolk into the sewers to keep them safe from the zombies, the townsfolk now find themselves trapped with something even worse. And finishes with Project 42 where, after creating a cure, the Phalanx base becomes overran and they must recruit civilians to retrieve it. Throughout the story, there is only one scene where the Phalanx act with a truly malicious nature, and that's the end of Project 42, where they execute the volunteers by firing squad in an attempt to control the spread of the virus... It's also important to mention that Project 42 has a critical scene where it's revealed that the cure is missing.

I don't know much about this attraction, but it was brought to my attention that in a local university, Alton Towers created an escape room only for students called Sub Strain, where the cure to Project 42 is found alongside Dr Arten, who created it.

The first time the Phalanx are revealed to be truly antagonistic is during the Reborn era, where the 'Seek The Truth' began to whistleblow their recklessness. Now, it seems that the Phalanx have evolved from a noble, Arthurian Knights-eqsue organization that existed only to protect people from Nemesis, to a morally grey militaristic organization that's only interested in the profits that arise from selling the Nemesis Eggs. I asked a walkabout Nemesis actor about B10-NST & Project 42, and they reacted as if it was still part of the lore, and that the cure had been administered so it was business as usual. I've been light on the Nemesis Reborn Era lore, as I imagine a lot of people have been covering it.

Interestingly enough, it seems that, while I haven't really focused on them, the Nemesites evolved too. It's implied in Sub Species: End Games, that the creature trapped in the sewers with the townsfolk is a more humanoid nemesis creature-eqsue being, which would loop back around to the whole 'cult worshipping Nemesis and feeding it people to stay safe' idea. The junkers from Festival of Thrills seems to be implied to be the citizens who were once trapped in the underground sewers.

If you've gotten this far, o7! I salute you. I hope this helps you on your journey to understand the Nemesis lore better.

[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..."