#also he has plugs and i think thats neat

[akascow]

i dont really like the male MH dolls (their ankle articulation and waist to shoulder proportions creeps me out) but do u think theyll make a g3 gil doll lol

i know hes still like a side character of a side character but hed be kinda neat maybe idk

ooh or a finnagan one i think his new wheelchair is sick asf (and hes in a surprising number of episodes this gen)

[thebuttsmcgee]

so. um. 👉👈

hi guysies.

Ig I should just say like. Hi

I haven't been posting here as much cause. Idk. Might be depression? I keep thinking its cause I've been so busy, which also wouldn't be not untrue, but these past, like, 3 weeks I think so far? I've had some free time but I haven't cause. I dunno, then again, I haven't been doing too much in general? I gues, besides very mandatory things, hell I've even been lacking in my regular skyrim hours of playing.

That, and as said, I get super melancholic when I remember just how sad and bittersweet it is that t0h is. Actually legit over. The show and experience, that is.

Oh all that and also becuz my headphones broke! Fuck! That's like number 2 in my bare necessities for when I post, do almost anything really! It's seriously been painful this past month going without headphones holy shit. Dude I've been scratching at the bit for some relief for headphones, I NEED music legitimately. Even right now, as I'm typing this on my phone, my music is on low levels.

But yerp. Its been. Rough. Really rough. I really do appreciate yall, everyone of yall. Have a sweet week everyone, ✌️!

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #283: "Whom the Gods Would DESTROY!”

September, 1987

I cannot WAIT to see what leads to this cover.

Because last time the Avengers and Namor were escaping Hades for Olympus on the Pathway of Infinity - which was more of a ramp - when Pluto blew the ramp pathway which he called a bridge and cornered the Avengers with his hell army and hell tanks to stop them escaping because his bro Zeus wants the Avengers tortured in Hades forever for letting Hercules get beaten into a coma.

How do they end up fighting weird golden ladies with knife swords? The Pathway of Infinity was kind of golden. Did it turn into people out of umbrage for being exploded?

Possibly, possibly.

And will they fight the golden ladies before or after or during fighting the hell army which surely won’t wait its turn as hell armies are famously pretty rude.

I guess we’ll see.

So first things first.

This cliffhanger gets resolved about as quickly as a Tenth Doctor cliffhanger.

Remember the ‘oh no we’re cornered by Cybermen!! Good thing I can blast them with this thing I have okay now lets get on with our lives.’

I know you just exist to cut a two-parter in half, cliffhanger!

Anyway, with the Avengers backed against the abyss, Pluto tells them that there’s no escape because when his hell army kills them, he’ll use his god of death powers to keep their souls tormented forever.

Then Captain Marvel decides to resolve the cliffhanger.

Wow, way to do, Monica Rambeau!

I’m being maybe a bit unfair. This doesn’t end the situation of the Avengers cornered by the hell army. But Captain Marvel blowing up all their tanks does drastically reduce the threat level of said hell army.

And the Avengers have already beaten up one thousands strong army during this stay in Hades.

Pluto regroups his hell army by promising “a year’s peace in blessed Elysium for each one who slays an Avenger!”

And I’m fascinated by how that works.

A year isn’t really much time for an eternity of death but it is super enticing to these dudes. Later, some of them risk (and suffer oblivion) because Elysium is just that good.

But imagine when the year runs out and someone shows up to drag you back to whatever tortures the rest of your eternity brings.

With all the tanks WHUM’d, the Avengers rush in to beat some dudes up.

Captain America notes (as he shatters some guy’s skull) that they don’t need to hold back because these dudes are dead dudes who can’t die.

While true, one wonders what the moral lines are regards to kicking the shit out of an immortal dude.

Anyway, She-Hulk being She-Hulk goes right for the big dude. She’s gonna throw down with Pluto.

She-Hulk: “Maybe I should give baldy here a taste of reality -- by, say, kicking his tail till his nose bleeds!”

Pluto: “You think to make sport of me, woman? Hah! None may touch the person of Pluto -- so long as the Hadean fires are mine to command!”

Now THATS some god of the underworld power more impressive than pew pew and tanks!

Don’t recall Pluto having HADEAN FIRE in the mythology, the Greek underworld being more of a dank, depressing cave than a fire and brimstone Hell but I’ll take what I can get.

She-Hulk has to back off from the burning ring of fire.

At another part of the fight, Thor is bummed that due to his non-healing injuries and lack of Mjolnir, he feels he’s lacking. Even compared to Doctor Druid who is just up and jump kicking dudes now.

But he gets his chance when Pluto gets mad that the Avengers are beating up his faceless mooks like they’re faceless mooks and uses his axe which shoots lasers to drop a giant rock toward the Avengers.

IT JUST SO HAPPENS that the rock Pluto tried to smoosh the Avengers with was the exact size and shape needed to plug the missing hole in the path.

Way to do the villain thing and give the heroes exactly what they need.

ALSO: this just occurred to me. Pluto’s torture for Thor was putting a giant rock block on him. And now, a giant rock is Thor’s salvation.

Dunno if that could possibly have been an intentional character beat but if so, neat.

Driven by the allure of Elysium’s not suck, some of Pluto’s army try to pursue the Avengers across the giant rock patch to the broken path. But a giant rock wedged into a hole isn’t the most stable thing and while the Avengers crossed to safety, several of the soldiers fall to oblivion.

Pluto gives up his pursuit, as the Avengers have crossed the midway point, leaving the territory that’s considered Hades and into the territory that’s considered Olympus. And Pluto’s power is limited outside of Hades because of his covenant with Zeus.

Thor leads the Avengers to a shimmering dimensional doorway that takes them off the PATHWAY OF INFINITY and into Olympus proper.

Upon which they are immediately accosted by some centaur guards and upon which Namor and She-Hulk immediately beat the crap out of the centaur guards.

Those poor horse men.

Did they ever stand a chance?

Neigh.

The Avengers regroup in the woods that Olympus apparently has.

Captain America tells the group that since they’re outnumbered and outpowered, their best hope is to convince Zeus to chill the hell out, that the Avengers weren’t responsible for Hercules’ injuries.

Black Knight comments that Zeus is pretty far from being all-knowing for a king of gods, prompting Thor to say that no, that’s not Zeus’ thing, his thing is fits of rage. And horniness, but Thor is too polite to say so.

Then the Mysterious Figure shows up to drop more exposition.

He’s less mysterious, not cloaked in shadows, not even cloaked in cloak. Just showing his beardy face. But still not introducing himself by name.

How rude of him.

He does introduce himself as a bringer of knowledge and then points at a pool to make it a scrying pool so the Avengers can catch some plot.

They see a scene of Zeus questioning Apollo on how long it will take him to heal Hercules. He is a god of healing but he’s finding Hercules’ coma maybe beyond his power.

Hercules mumbles in his coma/sleep “No, Wasp... no more orders... no more abuse from mortals... Avengers must learn...”

Zeus rededicates himself to that very mumble, promising he’ll punish every one of the Avengers for the wrongs done to Hercules.

Okay, so now we know where Zeus is getting his ideas from.

Apollo protests that maybe coma mumbles aren’t reliable. I mean... the Avengers helped Hercules beat Typon that time in issue 50 and helped when Ares turned the Olympians to crystal in issue 100.

Ares comes in to go nuh uh, that was the Ebony Blade what made him do that stuff and anyway, clearly the Avengers only helped those times because it aligned with their own interests.

Apollo points out that Ares is always causing trouble and disrupting the peace of Olympus and Ares goes what do you want from me, I’m the god of war. It’s what I do!

Zeus tells them both to shut up. He’s the big dad decision maker and he’s already decided.

Zeus: “I have decreed that the Avengers shall suffer for what has befallen your brother Hercules -- and suffer they shall! All who claim the mantle of Avenger shall know the tortures of Hades!”

END SCRYING VISION.

Mysterious Guy asks Captain America if he still thinks he can convince Zeus to be cool and Cap(tain America) admits its going to be difficult.

Black Knight calls it impossible instead and Doctor Druid suggests a strategic retreat to Earth, where they can be in a better position.

Thor points out that there’s no way for them to get to the dimensional nexus that links Olympus to Earth without being detected. And if they are, Zeus wouldn’t hesitate to send his armies that he definitely has after the Avengers. And with Ares leading the armies, the conflict would definitely spill over to Earth, just because Ares is a dick.

So the Avengers have little chance of convincing Zeus. If they try to go to Earth, they risk a godvasion.

Captain Marvel comes up with an idea though. Zeus won’t listen to them. They’re mortals and he thinks they were abusive to his son. But maybe... he’d listen to other Olympians. Maybe the Avengers could convince some of the other Greek gods to intercede on their behalf! 

Mysterious Guy admits that this plan does have a chance of success... but the Avengers would have to choose which gods to approach very carefully. The Greek gods being the Greek gods and all and Zeus’ children.

Black Knight: What you’re saying is we have to figure out which of Zeus’ relatives are the least likely to fry us on the spot!”

Captain America: “Dane!”

Black Knight: “Well, that’s what it amounts to! Our chances range from slim to none!”

Namor: “Things are not as hopeless as you believe, Knight. I know of one Olympian, at least, who might willingly listen!”

Black Knight is teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown, I feel.

He’s one bad turn from yelling ‘game over, man! Game over!’

Who is the Olympian that Namor has in mind?

Could it be Neptune who has appeared in this story already and didn’t enjoy having to turn Namor over to Hades?

No, no. Namor has a better ally in mind.

YUP APHRODITE or I guess Venus.

Geez, pick Greek or Roman names, Marvel.

Namor and Captain Marvel bust into the halls of Venus, alarm Cupid, and beat up Venus’ guard.

To her mild amusement.

Venus: “Zeus would not be pleased to find you here!”

Namor: “Your father misjudged us. Will you support his error... or will you hear the plea of an old ally?”

Venus: “I well remember how you helped me stop the spread of Ares’ wars, Namor. Speak... I will listen.”

Apparently, Venus appeared in Namor’s book and they beat up Ares together...

Wait, I made the comment that maybe Marvel Pluto was a dick because Persephone wasn’t around. Is Marvel Ares a jerk because he and Venus aren’t an item?

Huh.

Elsewhere, Athena is hanging out with Hephaestus.

An odd friendship maybe but I could see how they’d have stuff to talk about.

Anyway, Hephaestus has managed to move Mjolnir into his workshop through a complicated arrangement of levers and winches which didn’t trigger the worthiness enchantment, sure.

And now he’s trying to lift the hammer by just willing himself into being worthy.

It doesn’t really work that way but he has a false moment of hope where it seems to be lifting up but its just Thor calling hammer home.

Ain’t it sad, Hephaestus?

It is sad.

Also, the Avengers aren’t supposed to be here, they’re supposed to be in Hades!

So Hephaestus summons his mob of golden women automatons...

Huh.

Y’know. When Asshole Space Creep Hephaestus had a bunch of robot girlfriends, I thought it was something to show what a creep Asshole Space Creep Hephaestus was. I didn’t know. It was just a thing that Hephaestus did too.

Also, yes, these are the golden women from the cover. Although the ones inside the book have faces and cheekbones.

So now the Avengers are fighting an army of interchangeable golden women.

Just another day in the life of Earth’s Mightiest.

For some reason, Black Knight is still just knocking weapons out of hands. Props to him for not treating robot and fantasy robot life as expendable but pretty sure these specific ones aren’t self-aware.

In fact, I’m more than pretty sure because Doctor Druid has trouble with them because they have no minds for him to mess with.

So he levitates a chain to trip some of the golden women into a giant crucible of molten metal.

Apparently he can levitate stuff. I guess he is just like the other Marvel psychics, but less dialed up.

While She-Hulk fights Hephaestus, Captain America can’t help but critique the workmanship of the golden women.

The form is perfect but aside from that, Hephaestus apparently didn’t really get women. His automata move like men despite their form, making their balance all kinds of easy to screw up.

So... the Avengers didn’t come to Hephaestus’ workshop just to retrieve Mjolnir, pick a fight, and critique a man’s fetish art.

They actually decided off-panel that Hepheastus is one of the more reasonable Olympians so he’d be one of the gods they get to plead their case to Zeus.

(I think the problem with this is that Zeus in the mythology kinda hates Hepheastus. You are actively hurting your case.)

Anyway, the automatons that Doctor Druid knocked into the crucible manage to bust open said crucible by flailing while melting and now there’s molten metal flowing through the workshop.

Way to do a bad job, Doctor Druid.

With the floor being lava or close enough, everyone scrambles to get to safer ground.

Captain America swings on a chain and swoops Black Knight to safety. Doctor Druid WHOSE FAULT THIS IS just levitates above the molten metal because he can do that and thermodynamics aren’t real. And She-Hulk and Thor grab their respective Olympian opponents and rush to safety.

Thor then cools the molten metal by spinning Mjolnir like he likes to do.

He tells Athena that they can get back to fighting if they like but being saved by the Avengers has Hephaestus and Athena questioning if maybe the Avengers aren’t the villains they’re alleged to be.

And maybe they didn’t come here to start a fight.

Captain Marvel, Namor, and Venus show up pretty soon and tells the other two Olympians yeah hold on lets not fight the Avengers.

Apparently of Venus’ powers is that no mortal can lie to her. So after the Avengers explain the situation to the three Olympians, she goes ‘yeah, zone of truth pings it true.’

My favorite part is that after hearing the real story, Athena says:

“There is the ring of truth to your tale. Hercules has a long and colorful history of such blunders.”

Which Hephaestus immediately agrees with!

‘Okay yeah it does sound incredibly plausible that Hercules is, in fact, a dipshit.’ says his family.

Hephaestus isn’t too keen on fighting Zeus, even if the Avengers are innocent, but She-Hulk tells him they just want the three gods to help talk sense into him.

And if they can, they want to help Hercules too.

Dipshit he may be, poisoning his father against the Avengers with coma mumbles he may be doing, but he’s an Avenger!

So Hephaestus, who is likely very aware that he’s not dad’s favorite, says that if they want to talk Zeus down, they’ll need Apollo’s support.

Unfortunately, as Hephaestus, Venus, and Athena lead the disguised Avengers toward the hall of Apollo, they’re spotted by Ares. Who immediately goes and snitches.

I hope he gets stitches.

Equally or more unfortunately,

When I joked that Wasp was going to miss out on Zeus’ revenge by being smart enough to go on vacation... eh, I was wrong.

Zeus sent out Artemis to hunt down Wasp.

Zeus: “So, woman... you are one who ordered my son about like a galley slave! You are the one who abandoned him to defeat! Yours must be the most awful punishment!”

Dangit, Zeus! Don’t you hurt a national treasure like Janet van Dyne!

If you turn her into an actual wasp for ironic punishment reasons, I’m going to be steamed!

Over in the hall of Apollo, Apollo receives the Avengers in stride.

Captain Marvel: “You must believe us, Apollo! Zeus has made a terrible mistake!”

Apollo: “A most serious accusation, mortals. In millennia past, such words alone could have cost you your lives!”

Doctor Druid: “But this is not the past, Lord Apollo. And your father is not infallible, is he?”

Apollo: “No, he is not. Nor am I... for endless hours have I labored to heal my brother’s wounds, but I cannot break him from the spell which has claimed his mind. At most, I can ease his delirium with sleep.”

Doctor Druid offers to use his POWERS OF MIND to try to help Hercules.

Doctor Druid: “Hear me, Hercules! I am a friend... I wish to help you! Your other friends... your family... are here with me! Come to us, Hercules... let your mind join with mind... let me show you the way back!”

Then Zeus shows up to spoil the broth.

Ares tells him that the Zeus children that are helping the Avengers are in fact betraying dad to hand his beloved Hercules son over to the mean Avengers who were bullying him!

Captain America protests this description but makes the mistake of telling Zeus he “must listen” and Zeus doesn’t like that.

Zeus: “YOU DARE TO TELL ME WHAT I ‘MUST’ DO, MORTAL? YOU, WHO HAVE DEFIED MY WILL?!?”

And then he blows them all up.

Captain Marvel no sells because she turned into light but everyone else gets blasted around.

Captain America got it the worst.

He managed to block most of the blast with his shield but look how small that thing is compared to his big beefy body. Thor’s doctor eyes see that both of Cap(tain America)’s legs are fractured so badly that he might never walk again.

And Doctor Druid is face down and unconscious but nobody is looking at him and going ‘oh no, his legs!’ so I assume he’s okay.

The funny thing is I’m sure that Zeus blew up Hercules’ bed doing this.

Namor, Thor, and She-Hulk get back to their feet to Zeus’ annoyance.

Zeus: “Some of you yet stand?! Must I wring the life from you one by one?”

Thor: “Zeus, we did not come in search of war, but you have forced our hand! Olympus shall know our wrath! Yea, and you shall learn why we be called Avengers!”

Meanwhile, the mysterious unhooded unshadowy stranger stands on a rocky peak dramatically and frets.

Mysterious guy: “At last it has come... the day I have dreaded for so long. The final battle between gods and man must now begin. And from such a war, there may be no victors!”

At last it has come, the final battle between gods and man and the men have a god working on their side and its not all gods its just the Olympians because I doubt Asgard is going to throw in against Midgard (Earth) in all this.

Stop being so dramatic, guy.

Follow @essential-avengers​ because I’ve started updating it again. Also, like and reblog because it makes me feel appreciated.

[mx-misty-eyed]

SAI livestream things that I noticed (ongoing post)

we’re going to edit this post with more stuff we notice.  everything is going under the cut, since this is gonna get pretty long.

during the dema “commercials” (when it cuts to the bishops plugging the album), the cd’s are subtly getting rearranged

during the first commercial, the black slipcase is on the right and the blue slipcase is on the left.  all the way in the back going from left to right, theres the casette, stack of three cd’s (white on top, pink in the middle, blue on the bottom), what appears to be the limited edition box set (sold on their website), and what im 99% sure is a lyric booklet.

during the second commercial, things appear to be the same at first glance, but there are some subtle differences.  the black slipcase is on the left and the blue is on the right, and the three cd’s in the back are in a different order (pink is on top, blue is in the middle, and white is on the bottom).

during the third commercial, the three cd’s are still stacked on top of each other but it looks less neat.  the order is white on top, pink in the middle, blue on the bottom, like in the first commercial.  the products appears to be more centered (before, the blue box was more to the right and the casette is now fully on the stand), except for the central cd’s.  the cd’s are now on the right, stacked underneath the lyric booklet (blue on top, black on the bottom)

we have no idea what this means yet, but its too deliberate to be insignificant.  we’re going to add to this post with other things we’ve noticed, but for now that’s it

first edit: it seems like the bishops are being controlled, too.  during the last commercial:

-“sometimes i close my eyes to try to escape.”  “you know you cant escape, sally”

-”you need to get this collection in your life.”  “but remember, you should-” *static* (if the bishops are in charge of dema and genuinely trying to spread its message, why would they get cut off?) (of course, its possible that the banditos cut them off, but who knows if they have that power)

-the *control room* has nine buttons, with the bishops’ names on them.  the control room.

it kinda seems like sacarver (sally) is the one that wants to escape more, while lisden (dan) is the one thats either buying into dema more or is hiding his will to escape better.  also, the bishops were getting more and more beat up every time, and sacarver/sally’s makeup was getting more, uh, conspicuous?

first commercial (completely normal looking, unless you count their fake smiles):

second commercial (notice the blood on the front of dan’s shirt/sally’s scarf):

third commercial (notice the, uh...everything (yellow eyes, more blood, sally’s makeup and hair, etc):

bonus pic of sallys eyeshadow, which is a lot more noticeable than in previous commercials:

second edit: the songs they played at the end were pretty interesting.  after the livestream, they played instrumental versions of some of their songs.  two of the songs they played were the hype and we don't believe what’s on tv.  wdbwotv is pretty self-explanatory, and the hype has the lyric “just don’t believe the hype” repeated several times in it.  they both have the “don’t believe” theme going on, which i think is a pretty big coincidence.  honestly, i could be reading too far into it (especially since i hooked up my computer to my tv and watched the livestream on my tv), but i dont think that the similar meanings of the song are an accident.

they also played the song doubt, which has the lyric “gnawing on the bishops” (thanks to @myrebelred​ for pointing that out)

third edit: @isdreamingfree​ pointed out that josh didn’t do a backflip during the livestream.

in the q&a, they specifically said that he would, and then they didnt.  they also didnt do the deathdrop (that thing tyler does where he just kinda falls backwards), and they didnt end the concert with trees like they normally do (instead, it was a little more than halfway in).

fourth edit: during lane boy, tyler keeps repeating "dont trust a perfect person and dont trust a song thats flawless”.  maybe thats nothing special on its own, but a) the livestream seemed way too perfect/smooth (at least to me) (although it was done live) and b) sally/sacarver, one of the people trying to market the album, mentioned during one of the commercials (i believe it was the last one) how “perfect” the collection was

which reminds me, why do they call it a collection instead of an album??

fifth edit: in the beginning when it shows the twenty one pilots livestream intro while he’s singing choker it says who the stream is presented by, but on the other side it says “controlled by: DMA ORG and Good Day Dema”

sixth edit: i (crow) have made a list of all my observations of stuff that happened during the livestream, its a lot longer than this but like half of it is pictures lol.  it took me forever, so id appreciate if you took a look at it!

https://mx-misty-eyed.tumblr.com/post/651931663100723200/a-bunch-of-sai-livestream-observations

seventh edit: during chlorine, ned’s silhouette appears in the background

-admin crow and admin frankie

[ofcowardiceandkings]

I think you mentioned listening to podcasts? Do you have any favorites to reccommend? I've run out of content :(

that i do !

im not entirely sure what kind of podcast you'd be interested in but i'll throw out a few of the goodies in my huge library of stuff , i'll miss out a few of the HUGE podcasts that have been all over tumblr though

a LOT of it is true crime or human interest stuff , or history because im nerd ,, and a few of these dont have nearly enough attention so [shrug] i'll try to keep this short i guess lol this isnt EVERYTHING ive got in my library or listened series' by any measure

i AM gonna pop a shout to both Stuff You Missed in History Class and Stuff You Should Know from iHeartRadio because their HUGE archives have kept me from losing my mind many times over , and they cover a wide range of both important and wacky topics

BomBARDed (ongoing) this is the only fiction podcast i have happening right now really but its DAMN GOOD ONE .... it's an actual-play D&D 5E podcast in the DMs own musically-inspired world, focussed on a group of multiclass bards going to music school !! and all players (+DM) are members of the Texas band Lindby !! and they actually use and play music in the show with one original song an episode !! Kyle's worldbuilding and storycraft are truly incredible, and (Nick) Goodrich, (also Nick) Spurrier, and Ali's characters are in depth and interesting as well as an absolute powerhouse :') i actually made a piece for its first fanzine, Bardic Dreaming, which published earlier this year and is free to view now, all the players and the community are super wholesome its just very good overall 💙

History & Humans;

Fall of Civilisations (ongoing) legit one of my favourite podcast finds, im so glad my youtube autoplayed one of these ... it took me like 2 hours to realise it was 1) not the same as what was playing before and 2) had been on for 2 hours and wasnt near finished lmao. anyway, this is a series by historical fiction writer Paul Cooper, and is honest to all thats good one of the best documentary series ive encountered in years - and ive consumed a LOT of documentaries. it covered the downfall of various civilisations through history, and the episodes run from an hour to FOUR hours depending on the topic. its so chill to listen to and just get done, but over the pandemic all of the episodes have been given full movie-quality video versions too on youtube if youre more of a visual person.

Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast (on series break) yeah that says that lol ... its a SUPER niche topic but its very interesting and treated very well despite being kind of comical at times, the hosts are just naturally funny lol ... it delves around from the history of cannibalism in whole regions to specific incidents as recently as the 1970s, and of course the first episode is about the Donner Party, and it covers things ive never heard of despite being kind of important ?? anyway Alix and Carmella are good eggs

Sawbones (ongoing) i probably dont need to mention much here other than say that Justin and Sydnee saved me from being SO BORED sooo often, the history of medicine is wacky as hell and its what most of my history GCSE was on so [shrugs]

Cautionary Tales (on series break) this was a wild-card find lol ... it's by Tim Harford "the undercover economist" who writes for the Financial Times, and its topics kind of weave modern topics and science with how to learn from historical errors ... its a bit weird but well worth a go, also each series has a few celebrity guest voice actors which is pretty awesome

Ephemeral (ongoing) this is a very strange but thought provoking series about sounds and other things just barely saved. topics include the last castrato, the hello girls, hand-stamped records, the spread of kīkā kila music, and acoustic fossils of wild places.

Neat! The Boozecast (ongoing) history and bartending whats not to like lol ... hosted by Teylor Smirl and now their dad Tommy, they're just digging around in how important booze is to human culture

True Crime (white collar and weirdness);

Swindled (ongoing) this is an amazing show full stop. A Concerned Citizen details some of the most impactful and unruly things to happen in white collar and corporate crime. very factually accurate but given the sheer bullshit of the topics the deadpan snarking is [chefs kiss] absolutely warranted ..

American Scandal (on series break) this one is a series within a series type, and spends a few episodes at a time poking holes in some of America's biggest scandals, from a dramatised but fact-based point of view. such as what the hell was going on with Enron, how big tobacco was forced to own up to covering its own ass, how Iran-Contra happened, etc. it also now has a sister show called British Scandal, which does the same thing for British cases but with a slightly different format.

Missing in Alaska (finished) this was a fascinating series, a deep dive into what happened to two US government officials who disappeared on a small chartered flight in Alaska in 1972. it goes some really strange places, but it actually turned up a lot of previously unknown information through the audience. John Walczak's new series in a new feed is Missing on 9/11 which looks into what happened to Dr Sneha Philip.

Pretend (ongoing) Host Javier Leiva holds interviews with anyone living a lie, or who have been touched by them. con artists, snake oil salesmen, former cult members, catfishing victims, anyone and everyone.

Power: The Maxwells (finished) hosted by journalist Tara Palmeri, the story of media tycoon Robert Maxwell from nothing to empire to mysterious death and the scandals uncovered after he was gone.

Lets Talk About Sects (ongoing) Sarah Steele covering cults from around the world, in particular those in Australia - where she is from. She often has former members on the show to share their stories, and share knowledge of how they left. each story has the relevant content warnings at the start of each episode.

Brainwashed (finished) investigation of the CIA's covert mind control experiments, centred on the experiments performed at a hospital in Montreal, and its cultural impact.

Dr Death (2 series finished) two series investigating huge cases of fraud and medical malpractice, and how they were brought to a stop. series 1 covers Dr Duntsch and his horribly butchered neurosurgery, series 2 covers Dr Fata and his fraudulent cancer clinic

The Immaculate Deception (finished) untangling the weird and disturbing fertility fraud of Dr Jan Karbaat, who fathered children himself through his fertility clinic, and the impact of his deception. later episodes also touch on other similar cases.

True Crime (Violent/General);

The Casual Criminalist (ongoing) Simon Whistler of-the-many-youtube-channels cold reads a script about the case of the day, with some of his daft commentary thrown in.

Southern Fried True Crime (ongoing) Crimes from the American South hosted by Erica Kelley, she puts all the facts out there but refreshingly for true crime she doesnt hesitate to tell you if she thinks someone is human garbage lol

They Walk Among Us (ongoing) probably one of the most popular UK crime podcasts, very measured and well put together, not weird or annoying about it either.

All Crime No Cattle (ongoing, feed slowed down for now) specifically about crimes from Texas, hosted by Erin and Shay, they're very sensitive hosts and a lot of the cases they cover shed light on why the Texas criminal system is how it is or show an impact at a national level

Canadian True Crime (ongoing) Canadian crime from an Aussie who's lived there for a decade, Kristi is again a sensitive and measured host covering some important topics

True Crime (Violent/Deep Dive);

Hitman (finished) journalist Jasmyn Morris digs around in the sticky tangle around a book published by fringe publisher Paladin Press, and its apparent use as a blueprint in the killing of a mother, her friend and her 8 year old boy for financial gain.

Camp Hell: Anneewakee (ongoing) this series is exploring how a wilderness camp "correctional facility" was endorsed by the Georgia care and juvenile reform system, despite widespread abuses and shady practices the whole time. warning for csa and child cruelty throughout.

True Crime Bullshit (on series break) this one is a huge huge rabbithole but a very interesting one where the host Josh Hallmark has spent years digging into the life and potential crimes of Israel Keyes. Keyes is often mentioned as a serial killer with no pattern, but in picking it apart thats not quite true, and has sparked some re-evaluations of missing persons cases and stumbling upon information the FBI has redacted organically. there's also a series in the middle looking into the crimes of Kelly Cochran

Forgotten: Women of Juárez (finished) this series looks into the huge numbers of missing women of Ciudad Juárez, the strange circumstances surrounding them, and the potential cover-ups and corruptions on both sides of the border, trying to give a voice to all of the forgotten women and girls and their families without answers. the series itself is finished, but a spanish language edition is being released every week now.

aaaaaand i'll call it there before i list everything lol, i hope you find something to plug your boredom hole with !!

[justdyingslowly]

1. Name justdyingslowly obviously come on

2. Nationality Australian

3. Age 22

4. Birthday nnnah dont feel like it

5. Zodiac sign (or your primal zodiac sign) Libra/Scorpio cusp

6. Gender wamon

7. Sexuality very very hetero

8. Your looks (add a picture or describe yourself) androgenous

9. What do you/did you study? Psychology (focus on sexology) and art.

10. What’s your current job like?/What job would you like to have? I am disabled you think I can work ha sexologist would be awesome. When I was a kid I wanted to be a fireman but Australias always burning

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11. Your birth order head first

12. How many siblings do you have? 1

13. Do you have good relations with your family? yeah dads finally out of his abusive relationship, nearing age 70 and his emotions and his sexuality are finally opening up for the first time and that makes me SO happy.

14. How many friends do you have? what kind of fucked up question is this.

15. Your relationship status relationshipped. Fiance? got the marriage papers in a drawer somewhere with the car rego but can’t be fucked filling them?

16. What do you look for in a SO? empathetic, mature, calm. Always open to discussion. Prefers to be blunt rather than secretive. Emotional age over 14 (incredibly fucking rare apparently). Puts an importance on context and understanding other views above all else.

17. Do you have a crush? Hellll yeah Crush on my partner and got a crush on a mutual friend of ours who don’t even know hes cute af hehe one day partners gonna accidentally spill the beans and embarrass me coz hes shit with secrets RIP me.

18. When did you have your first kiss? You think I can remember this bullshit? Its not that big a deal

19. Do you prefer serious and meaningful relationships or casual dating/one night stands? One night stand sex almost exclusively sucks. Just. SUCKS. Because neither of you know what the other likes and it ends up being an awkward mix of trying to please yourself while trying to also be considerate.

20. What are your deal breakers? Plugging your ears to anything that feels gross, uncomfortable or disagrees with you. How can you grow as a person without introspection? How can you mold what you think and believe without taking in other arguments and comparing them to your beliefs to see how they stack up? Its pathetic.

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21. How was your day? cute mutual friend had a fall this morning and were both worried about him. His back is bad and he’s getting a little older, he can’t be getting dizzy and having falls like that. other than that im anxious about seeing my gastro. He’s lovely but... specialists are specialists. Good at knowing what they know but not always great at listening.

22. Favourite food & drink you think im allowed to eat or drink? water and... foods a touchy subject.

23. What position do you sleep in? Usually on my side with a body pillow to grip so I don’t end up choking my partner in his sleep.

24. What was your last dream about? uuhhh...going to italy and being unable to get into this tiny basket boat properly.

25. Your fears does PTSD to medical shit count haha

26. Your dreams ... going to italy and being unable to get into a tiny basket boat thingy?

27. Your goals - get some sort of diagnosis eventually. Its been 3 years of trying and im tired. - get back to studying art part time for my bachelors. - pass JLPT N3. - go back to university for psychology. - do the dishes when I get home.

28. Any pets? two budgies. we also take care of any orphaned or injured birds.

29. What are your hobbies? feeling nauseous drawing writing a little bit im making a little gameboy game in C atm too

30. Any cool places in your area? i live next to a national park with waterfalls and koalas and emus and stuff

31. What was your last awkward situation? mutual friend made a comment on his chest i playfully smacked it (related to the comment) it was surprisingly hard “O-oh wow, thats... I didnt expect that” my partner laughed at me. it was awful.

32. What is your last regret? getting embarrassed at friends pecs stop making me think about it 33. Language/s you can speak english. N4 Japanese.

34. Do you believe in astrological stuff? (Zodiac, tarot, etc.) of course not what the fuck

35. Have any quirks? Quirkless. I do wiggle when im happy though apparently.

36. Your pet peeves open doors.

37. Ideal vacation spend a months chilling in an old japanese house in autumn hokkaido oooooof that sounds nice

38. Any scars? internal? yes

39. What does your last text message say? peepee poopoo ustinky

40. Last 5 things from your search history how do i find this

41. What’s your [device] background? Sam Porter Bridges walkin around Sam Porter Bridges cuddling BB-28 Louise while he sleeps my chicken

42. What do you daydream about? all might

43. Describe your dream home an old japanese house in autumn hokkaido oooooof that sounds nice

44. What’s your religion/Your thought about religion its a comforting thought having a parent-figure who cares about you and looks after all the big things you can’t manage yourself, but institutionalizing it runs a severe risk of becoming harmful cults. And it often does.

45. Your personality type me

46. The most dangerous thing you’ve done i saw the lost bunny that was on all the posters in the neighbourhood looked thin and patchy so i grabbed him to take him home. im allergic. sent me to hospital and I almost died.

47. Are you happy with your current life? feeling sick sucks and partners having a depressive episode but things are pretty good

48. Some things you’ve tried in your life living

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49. What does your wardrobe consist of? blacks, reds, whites and pinks

50. Favourite colour to wear? at the moment pink. Red is always comforting though.

51. How would you describe your style? mix between lazy alternative punk, teenager with band shirts and harajuku peach kawaii uwu

52. Are you happy with your current looks? kinda wish i was a bit shorter but what can you do

53. If you could change/add something to your appearance - impossible or not - what would it be? bit shorter

54. Any tattoos or piercings? lol no PTSD

55. Do you get complimented often? by who? partner constantly, family haha are you kidding im australian so a friend’s version of showing affection is calling you a cunt and slapping your ass in public

56. Favourite aesthetic? all might

57. A popular trend that you dislike blocking because you disagree or find them distasteful. Ignoring all context to opposing thoughts and arguments. taking a personal feeling of disgust to mean something is evil. Blocking your ears to anything that isn’t a circlejerk of what you already think - and trying to isolate anyone who even just listens to something other then the noise of your sloppy dicks to have a thought of their own.

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58. Songs you’re currently obsessed with? The Machine by Low Roar

59. Song you normally wouldn’t admit you like. why wouldnt i admit i like a song

60. Favourite genre? probably enka haha

61. Favourite artist/band/genre? probably enka haha oh and tatsuro yamashita

62. Hated popular songs/artists? why the hell would I hate something like a song? I hate aspects of the music industry as a whole I guess?

63. Put your music on shuffle and list first 5 which playlist they aren’t all together in one place

64. Can you sing or play any instruments? piano, saxophone... uh... partners good at making music and playing shakuhachi

65. Do you like karaoke? no.

66. Own any albums? yes? many?

67. Do you listen to radio? What stations? no. but triple J, ABC Jazz and Classical. sometimes they even play final fantasy and JRPG music on classical which is pretty neat. -

68. Favourite movie/series? can i make this about games because then the answer is Metal Gear Solid

69. Favourite genre of movies/books/etc ...shounen?

70. Your fictional crush/es if they’re over 40yrs old, male and happy and bubbily or grumpy and sad then there’s a big ol fat chance I wanna bone. Solid Snake from MGS4, All Might and pretty much anyone drawn by Tarou Madoromi.

71. Which fictional character is you? uh

72. Are you a shipper? List your otps, if so what does this even mean what language is this

73. Favourite greek god? idk hades seems chill

74. A legend from where you live that you like the story of Tjilbruke is funny and good. all Kaurna stories are good.

75. Do you like art? What’s your favourite work or artist? im in a big egon schiele mood atm.

76. Can you share your other social media? no i am incapable

77. Favourite youtubers? many

78. Favourite platform? not too high up. actually i like being a little lower than ground level in corners.

79. How much time do you spend on the internet? too much

80. What video games have you played? Which one’s your favourite? look i just want to say that MGS4 is the best one in the series and Death Stranding is phenomenally engaging.

81. Your favourite books (manga also counts) these are all so goddamn definitive how can I pick? Oh wait the answer is One Piece

82. Do you play board/card games? I play DnD atm and know 15 yr old rules to Yugioh

83. Have you ever been to a night marathon in cinema? that shit dosn’t happen here

84. Favourite holiday golden week coz its a week also easter because thats when all the glucose based sweets come back

85. Are you into dramas? what kind

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86. Would you use death note, if you had one? no. thats called being a murderer.

87. What changes would you make in the world, no matter how impossible, if you had the power to? chill people out a bit. when people feel unsafe they get really depenfive and territorial and block their ears to everything, making in-and-out groups for themsevles that end up putting them in more harm.

88. Could you survive a zombie apocalypse? im disabled with a disabled partner. we arent funny sure we can survive normal everyday life when society is angled so sharply against us.

89. If you had to be turned into a paranormal being, what would it be? id like to be a mimi spirit

90. What would you want to happen to you after your death? spooky time

91. If you had to change your name, what would be your pick? toshinori yagi

92. Who would you switch your life with for a week? anyone healthy

93. Pick an emoji to be your tattoo that cursed one with the intense eyes and the hand

94. Write 3 things about yourself - only one of them must be true im me im not me im pee

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95. Cold or hot? cold.

96. Be a hero or be a villain? both are distasteful ideas in reality

97. Sing everything you want to say or rhyme? i can’t do either partner speak sin bad puns and its hell, these both sound about equal

98. Shapeshifting or controlling time? shapeshifting. controlling time is eithe rmanipulative or lonely. shapeshifing is every other superpower at once.

99. Be immortal or be immune to everything aside from natural death? both are deeply upsetting ideas

100. ….. or …..? jiji or ossan? generally Jiji, but ossans can be lovely too.

[peacheenie]

hl1/2 gordon scentric hc time

im rly feeling half life in this chillis tonight so....some....hc’s about everyones favourite free man, i have a lot so enjoy

-he’s actually mute and uses sign language but only about 50% of the time cuz people either don’t know what he’s saying or he can’t do it whilst holding like 20 different guns/weapons to protect himself so instead he makes big gestures a lot or writes down what hes trying to say (pretty much everyone at black mesa could understand him via sign language so he was very comfortable using it, during hl2 however he has to keep reminding himself not everyone is fluent and it frustrates him to no end)

-when he tries to speak it hurts and the most sound he can make is mumbles or little sqeaks so if theres ever a time he needs to alert someone to dangers reeeal quick he ends up hurting his throat a lot to try and make some kind of warning noise thats loud enough, he can hum tho and enjoys humming along to music as well as when he’s signing to try and convey some kind of emotion along with his facial features of which he emotes a LOT

-his hand writing looks like that of an actual dotors and its neat cursive but very hard to read so if he’s trying to write as a form of communication he just defaults to caps with big spaces inbetween and people (barney) tease him about it constantly (barney)

- hes incredibly short sighted without his glasses and ends up squinting a lot without them on and since he’s usualy default bitch facing he just looks very angry all the time when really he just cant see anything please dont be offended sir he didnt mean to upset you

-is actually very scared all the time abt like everything, hes literally just a scientist who just happened to be “the right man in the wrong place” and was just so determined to try and save those around him during the cascade that he pushed thorough his fears and anxiety to try and get the job done but he def has some form of ptsd after it all, barnicles specifically really freak him out because getting strangled and slowly lifted off of the ground into a row of razor sharp teeth is fucking TERRIFYING and he wouldnt wish it on anyone

-only reason he knows how to use guns is because barney would regularly take him down to the shooting range during their breaks and they’d see who could shoot straightest after a few drinks, barney would always win.

-after hl1 when he was put into stasis and he wakes up in hl2 hes lost like 20 years of his life and hates that fact terribly, all his friends have aged around him but hes still in his 20′s when he shouldnt be and he hates it so fucking much

-he also finds himself missing the feeling of the HEV suit terribly during the begining of his re-awakening in city 17, he’d grown so used to the feeling of it on him and keeping him safe that it makes him anxious without it and the cold air on his hands is also uncomfortable so he prefers wearing gloves all the time, when he finally gets the HEV suit back it feels like a weight has been lifted and he can finally stop worrying, the suits voice is also a comforting sound beccause its familiar and a sign that he’s not alone, same goes with the healing station and suit charging noises; they’re a comforting sound to hear and he enjoys humming along to the vrwwwrrrr vrrwwrrr vrwrrrrwr the machine makes when he plugs into the port

-he worries about overdosing on the healing stations a lot though; the morphone they give out is indefinite and once during the casade he’d passed out from taking to much and woken up to a zombie very slowly approaching him from down a corridoor but with how drowzy he was it was it was a horrible struggle to lift the gun and fire between dozing in and out

-he gets attached to people quickly since also during the cascade days he’d regularly meet people in danger who only had him to keep them safe so he tries his absolute hardest to make sure he can protect people even if that means he gets shot in the process, the suit usually protects him/heals him anyway so he’s used to it and if theres danger he almost default/automatically moves infront of people to make sure they’re okay without any concern for his own safety

-he also reeeally likes antlions and will pet them any chance he gets, he tried to do it when he first saw them and almost lost a hand so it makes him upset he has to kill them but when he finally gets the bug bite from the vorts? ohhhhohohoh he pets so many antlions, it again makes him sad he has to use them as like fodder for turrets and stuff but if an antlion comes back to him after taking down a turret or killing a combine he gives them extra pets and becomes a very proud papa

-since hes technically in his 30′s (and would be nearing his 40′s had he not been in stasis) he feels more of a big brother/fatherly bond toward Alyx since he’d also met her as a baby and finds any romantic involvement with her awkward, (so Elli’s comment on him “wanting grandkids” he ends up slapping the man on the arm with a frown to which Eli just laughs) this doesn’t help his attachment issue though so when they have to seperate to do things away from the other he worries for her safety even though she constantly assures him she can take care of herself and he KNOWS she can. he still really can’t help but worry though...

after hl2 ep2:

-when eli dies i dont like to think they all straight away go to mossman and instead get to spend some time mourning at the base, this gives gordon some time to finally sit down and relax for a little bit but he finds it incredibly hard to even take off the HEV suit at first because to him there was no passage of time between being put into stasis and waking up in city 17 all those years later; he’d closed his eyes, went into the portal and then the next second awakened in a completely unfamiliar place, in unfamiliar clothes with unfamiliar people (he definitely had a panic attack before geting off that very first train) and the thought of that happening again when he’s not prepared is terrifying.

-when he does finally take off the suit (after a lot of helping and reasuring from alyx, kleiner and barney a LOT from barney; theyre very good friends (;) he takes to wearing very comfy and heavy clothes such as jumpers, ponchos etc as well as a bullet proof vest because it makes him feel safe, the HEV suit gloves he retires entirely cuz theyre gross, definitely covered in his own blood and have been through hell so instead he has a bunch of different pairs he cycles through depending on how he feels that people around the base give him after learning about his fondness towards them

-he secretly carries a gun around with him even when they’re not in any danger becaus it’s another added layer of security and becaus he literally can’t trust things to not go bad EVER; now though nothing will go wrong again on his watch because he’ll be ready for it!! this really doesn’t help with his nerves though since he’s constantly looking for something to go wrong

scene specific hc’s:

-i always think abt that one specific sene in the train that gets derailed where alyx is trapped by a stalker and gordon has to pull it away with his gravity gun and i always imagine him franticly pulling it away with so much alarm on his face and such panic, when shes free though and has to stop to catch her breath gordon would give her a hug and make sure she’s okay cuz it must have been terrifying to have that thing screaming inches from ur face, gordon just instantly  goes into protect mode

-another scene that always comes to mind is when you first encounter an advisor and it makes that horrid loud noise where alyx is holding her head; i imagine gordon almost dropping the gravity gun in a panic to try and cover his ears because he doesn’t handle loud noises too well and it freaks him out so much alyx has to help him get out of the room since he kind of locks up on hearing it

-same goes when you get trapped by an advisor in a barn and almost become food for it; gordon is absolutely terrified at getting so up and close without being able to move that when it finally does drop him he starts hyperventilating and alyx has to protect him from the oncoming combine for a little while before he can catch his breath

-last scenes but some of my favorites are the ENTIRE sections of gordon being up close with breen, 

first being the teleporter malfunctioning and when gordons heavy breathing i imagine hes trying super hard not to start freaking out/hyperventilating and when breens doing his “i want that twink obliterated” spiel and then looks up and says his name, gordon almost looses it and internally is like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

second is when youre trapped in that like...metal contraption thing the stalkers are carried in and brought to breens officce and that entire section where breen is talking directly TO YOU i just adore it becausee gordon would have been looking away awkwardly unable to actually respond and furrowing his eyebrows at the nerve breen has upon thinking you would ever agree to any such terms and would definitely also spit in breens face as a response just like alyx did since he can’t use words

okay that is all, if you read all of these you’re amazing and i love u and also gordon hes an amazing “character” because i can insert as many of my own quirks into him as i please because valve literally never gave him a personallity :^)

[electric-cooter]

Connor Murphy (Part 2 of the end)

Connor rushed out the door and grabbed his bike, checking his phone before he left.  He had only missed homeroom, so hopefully he had time to make it to his first class.  As he quickly locked his bike up on the rack he ran inside practically knocking over a junior as he opened up his locker and shoved his unneeded materials inside.  A small post it on his locker caught his eye, recognizing the small, neat handwriting of his late fiancé “Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.-Van Gogh”  

Connor grabbed the post it and put it in his coat pocket, “Hey! Connor! Loving the new haircut! Very school shooter chic” a voice called from behind him.  Connor slowly turned, slamming his locker shut and eyeing the underclassmen that thought it was okay to speak to him,  “It was a joke...ha-ha! Get it?” he finished.  Connor eyed the junior, whom he recognized as Jared, the school comedian.  He had a few classes with him in the past but never paid any attention to him due to the fact that Connor was the brunt of all his jokes.  Behind him stood a meek, shy kid who he recognized as Evan, a boy who used to be in band with his sister.  “Yeah no. I get it.  I’m laughing, can't you tell? Ha...haaaa.HAAA HA HA!” Connor yelled, obtaining looks from other passing students as they scrambled to their next class.  “You’re such a freak” scoffed Jared as he too scrambled to his next class.  Connor watched him leave before moving his gaze over to Evan who had chuckled to himself, “What the fuck are you laughing at? Why do people keep laughing at me?  Do you think I’m a freak?! Well you’re the freak!” he yelled as he moved closer to Evan, shoving him before running off in the other direction, his blood boiling.  He sat down in his next class, slamming his books on the table as he waited for the professor to start.  He could hear whispers coming from the other students, talking about the girl he was with and how she had passed away so suddenly.  “I heard she had AIDs” “No! She had cancer! But I heard she was pregnant with his baby!” “No way. That can’t be true” “He looks so miserable- I feel so bad” “He’s still crazy though”

After lunch Connor made his way to the computer lab for his free period, logging in under his name and waiting patiently for his desktop to load.  From across the room he saw the shy kid he had yelled at this morning.  His stomach dropped when he thought of what he had done.  He didn’t mean to yell at him like that...he probably wasn’t even laughing at him-he heard that Evan was a little...socially awkward.  Connor sighed, debating internally whether or not he should say something to him but decided to do a little photo editing before doing so.  He plugged in his USB to the computer and dragged a few photos out of the folder and began editing them.  There on the screen were memories of the hospital, his bike and his fiancé.  She was sporting his favorite grey star wars beanie and a huge smile as her arms were wrapped tightly around Connor’s neck and her legs around his torso.  He looked happy as well, his arms holding her up off the ground and his hair in the small man bun that she loved so much. He adjusted the colors slightly, trying his hardest not to take away the beauty of the photo before printing it.  He swallowed the tears he was holding back before getting up to grab his photo.  As he reached the photo he saw a letter on top and his sisters name...? He felt a small nudge, breaking him from his trance “Oh sorry.  I didn’t mean to-I mean, bump into you-I’m sorry,” Evan stuttered.  Connor shook his head, stopping him, “Seriously its okay.  Um...so how did you hurt your arm?” he asked, skimming through the letter as he waited for his answer.  “I um... I fell out of a tree,” Evan mumbled under his breath, looking down at his feet and picking at his fingernails.  “Fell out of a tree? Wow....that is just the saddest thing I’ve ever fucking heard,” Connor chuckled before stopping himself, realizing how rude that may have come out.  “Um...no ones signed your cast...I’ll sign it? Got a sharpie?” he asked.  Evan rummaged through his pockets before wielding the black sharpie and handing it to Connor.  Connor smiled, taking the marker and thought quickly of the best place to sign it.  He looked up at Evan, who nervously watched him.  He remembered how scared he looked when he yelled at him this morning but also how hurt he looked when he overheard Jared’s conversation with him.  Knowing that everyone was scared him, Connor thought that if everyone knew that Evan was Connor’s friend-they just might leave this poor kid alone.  Connor smiled before upcapping the marker and signing his name across the cast, practically covering the whole arm with his name, “Now we both can pretend that we have friends,”.  He smiled, proud of himself as he handed the marker back and averted his attention back to the letter, which was signed with Evan’s name.  “Is this yours?  It was with my stuff and umm...it’s just it says ‘Dear Evan Hansen’- thats you...umm ‘then there’s Zoe’?  Why are you writing about my sister?” Connor pressed, feeling himself growing angrier as Evan struggled to answer any of his questions.  “And you wrote ‘I could never talk to her because Connor...Connor has grown even angrier since his girlfriend passed away’?  You wrote this because you knew I would read it! You saw that I was the only other guy in the computer lab so you wrote this so I could find it” Connor boomed.  Evan cowered, “No. It was for an assignment! Why would I do that?” he asked, his voice faltering.  “So that I could see that you wrote some creepy shit about my sister and my fiancé and get angry so you could tell everyone else that I was crazy!” he yelled, internally deciding that he’s never coming back to this shit show they call a school ever again.  “No! That’s not it at all, Please I need that back!” Evan pleaded.  Connor grabbed his photo, shoving it in his bag before leaving, “Fuck you!” he yelled, slamming the computer lab door shut.  

[dun-dun-dudek-blog]

Subtext & Breaking the 4th Wall

I know we’ve been told to pay attention to subtext, but, I’ve had a thought that’s been reoccurring to me throughout this whole season and I can’t shake it. I’m sure someone else has already said it. Probably a lot better than I can. But what about the instances where they could have been breaking the 4th wall and spoke directly to us?

“I don’t like loose ends”. This was from Mycroft in The Six Thatchers, I believe.  Mycroft, who is played by Mark Gatiss. The first time I heard him say this I felt reassured that everything would be tied up nice and neat for us. Like he was telling us, the audience, directly, that it would be fine and everything would make sense. And it very obviously did not come to that conclusion by the end of series 4. That has irked me to no end. Why say it if it doesn’t matter?

But then, at the end of The Final Problem, mummy Holmes said to Mycroft “you should have done better”. Sherlock sticks up for him and says “he did the best he could” and mummy Holmes angrily replies “then he is very limited”. Woah. Thats really not what I expected at all from her, to be honest. But then, I started thinking about it and what if they’re trying to tell us that he really did do the best he could, and he really was very limited? And that it could (read: SHOULD) have been better. I’ve seen some other posts on here wondering if the BBC pulled the plug on Johnlock. Decided they didn’t like to idea or want it on their network. I dont know if that’s the case. But if it was, did Gatiss really do the best he could, under his limit circumstances? Just a thought. Doesn’t make it any better. But maybe it wasnt their fault.

Oh! And in The Lying Detective, Sherlock says “It’s not a trick, it’s a plan”. Obviously this is referring to what’s about to go down with Culverton Smith. But what if it’s their way of telling the audience that this series isn’t a trick, it’s a plan? What if it’s a message directed at the audience again? They had to have known we’d be angry and disappointed and let down. There’s no way they couldn’t expect that. So, what if it’s a little nod, as if to say “we know this is crazy and out there, but it’s all part of the plan and we know what we’re doing”? I’ve also seen posts mentioning that this is a recreation of the unrest after Doyle quit writing Sherlock. Maybe it is? Maybe if enough fans are upset, they’ll be able to come back and finish the show the way it should have been finished?

Anyone else think this? It feels like a lot of wishful thinking to me. I know there were other instances in this season where I felt like I, as a member of the audience, was being told something directly, but I don’t recall off the top of my head. I’d have to go back and rematch this season. And I dont know if I have it in me right now. I’m driving myself crazy with all the theories.

[pawlikautomotive]

2004 Lexus ES330 Accelerator Pedal Replacement

Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive Vancouver, BC http://pawlikautomotive.com  (604) 327-7112

Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local, we’re here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, Vancouver’s best auto service experience, 17 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. How’re you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: So we’re talking about a 2004 Lexus, what was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: This vehicle came to our shop with a check engine light on and the vehicle going into a limp mode, so it had very little power from time to time.

Mark: Is that a typical thing? What did you find?

Bernie: Well obviously it’s not something that you want to happen because when you accelerate, you want to accelerate but anyways, yes what we found, we plugged in our scan tool, did a diagnostic and found a trouble code stored for an accelerator pedal sensor.

Mark: Ok that sounds kind of rare, what did you find? What was involved with that kind of a repair?

Bernie: So the diagnosis wasn’t too complex for this kind of issue. Usually these codes, when they occur, are usually caused by the sensor themselves. It can a wiring issue but there’s usually nothing, the wiring is all under the dash and very protected. It’s also a fairly common failure part. So what we found was the actual accelerator pedal sensor itself was bad and needed to be replaced.

Mark: So what was involved with actually doing that?

Bernie: Well that was a pretty complex repair. The actual complete pedal assembly which includes the accelerator pedal, the brake pedal, all  the mechanism, all needed to be replaced all at the same time. That’s the only way they sold the part which is kind of strange. I’ll just share a photo here, it’s interesting looking at this pedal assembly. So this is the pedal assembly. This is the accelerator pedal right here which you can probably recognize if you look at it and this is the rest of the assembly, this bolts up to the firewall of the vehicle. You cans see the brake pedal here, the return spring, this is a wiring connector for the accelerator pedal sensor, so this is the actual sensor right in this area here and so this, so essentially this part actually unbolts from the rest of the pedal assembly but for some reason on this particular car, you have to buy this whole thing which is kind of crazy, surprisingly though the part is not that expensive. Now I’ll just share another couple photos while we’re looking here, we can see some of the complexity, you can see this electric motor here, there’s a cable here, you might wonder what the heck’s that doing there. Well that actually, this vehicle has an adjustable pedal height so you can adjust he height of the pedals, you know if you, which is a great feature because a lot of people have short legs but without adjustable pedals you have to push your seat forward which puts you right into the steering wheel and I always cringe when I see people who are short, who have their car seat set like that because I think what if you got into an accident, I mean you’re sitting right in front of the steering wheel especially if the airbag goes off, which it would, you’re right in the firing line, a lot more risk. So with adjustable pedals you can have your steering wheel further away and you can pull the pedals forward so it’s a neat feature but again it adds complexity all included with this part which is kind of surprising. Here’s just a close up view, this is the accelerator pedal sensor itself and the kind of mechanism you can see it’s a big spring here and it’s a little more complicated than just a sensor, there’s a lot more to this, we’ll talk that in a minute.

Mark: Ok that looks like it was a pretty expensive part even though you said it wasn’t that expensive.

Bernie: You know surprisingly the whole assembly was under five hundred dollars which really shocked me because you know considering Lexus parts are not cheap, they’re up there, they usually cost quite a lot of money. When we ordered the part initially, we gave the VIN number to the dealer, it’s a dealer only part, they sent over just the accelerator pedal piece and for some reason it was wrong which is strange when you give them the VIN number, the actual accelerator pedal, the wrong one was $900 just for the accelerator pedal but the whole assembly was under five hundred dollars which is a real surprise. Now it’s a lot of labour to put this thing in, you can see, the part is, it’s under the dash, the steering column has to come out, brake booster needs to be, there’s a lot of work involved in changing.

Mark: So with that electric motor is it still, is that what’s actuating the brakes in the hydraulic system or is that or do you have to lead the brakes and do all that stuff too?

Bernie: No actually that motor actually only adjusts the pedal travel so when you push a button on the dash it’ll pull your pedals closer or farther away from the dash. So if you have say, if you have shorter legs, to do that. That’s the only function with that. The brakes are pretty straight forward, they just clip up to that brake pedal, there’s nothing much to do with the brakes on that vehicle. It’s basically kind of plug and play once you get it all in there.

Mark: Right and so how often do accelerator pedal sensors fail?

Bernie: Well they do from time to time and they will on any car but they’re for the most part, pretty reliable. I mean this car is an 04 so it makes it what 13 years old. Just why you have a sensor, just a little bit of background, it used to be that cars would have a cable that attached from the accelerator pedal to the throttle and when you pushed the, it was a mechanical connection. Well for quite a few years since the early 2000’s, and sometimes a little earlier, cars have gone to an electronic throttle. So there’s a sensor and the actual pedal kind of feels like you’re pushing on a cable but it doesn’t, so thats why if you looked at those pictures you can see a couple of double springs and it’s a, there’s a lot of engineering that goes into just having the pedal feel right when you’re pushing it. But the, what happens as you push the pedal, a sensor picks up your foot movement that sends a signal to the engine computer and that then the computer can open the throttle or close the throttle when it chooses to or it can make other adjustments to the transmission or the engine to accelerate the vehicle, it doesn’t just have to be the throttle. So there’s a huge advantage in terms of performance, exhaust emissions, fuel economy that can be done by doing things this way. Now of course, when it’s electronic and it’s disconnected there’s going to be a lot of safety features built in, so that actual sensor has two or three swipers inside so they verify with each other that everything’s moving in the right direction. So if it picks up a glitch of any sort, it will put the vehicle into limp mode, you know the last thing  you want is a car that’s going to take off on it’s own or not take off when it’s supposed to. so if there’s a problem, goes into limp mode you’ve got to fix it.

Mark: So there you go if you have a Lexus in Vancouver that you’re needing service for, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book ahead, they’re busy, you’ve got to book ahead or else check out their website pawlikautomotive.com, we’ve got almost six years of videos on there. Thanks Bernie

Bernie: Thanks Mark

https://www.youtube.com/user/pawlikautorepair https://plus.google.com/u/0/104437348234668995906/about https://twitter.com/PawlikAuto https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bernie-pawlik-97198811 https://www.facebook.com/Pawlik-Automotive-48773522512/

2004 Lexus ES330 Accelerator Pedal Replacement 2004 Lexus ES330 Accelerator Pedal Replacement

[detectingdiva]

Rich W. from the YTC Club chillin’ with Abby

Detectorists from all over the east coast descended on the Catskills, June 16th to 18th  to attend Blackthorne Resorts Lost Treasure Weekend, in East Durham, NY.  This hunt has been an annual event in the metal detecting community for years—how many years, I’m not sure, but I’ve been hearing about it and wanting to attend since I started this hobby, and this year I finally got the chance.

My pre-event impression was a cautious one. Since I knew a lot of people who had been to this event in the past, I asked around about it a bit, and was warned about the resorts food, and lack of guest communication skills.

I found this out first hand while trying to get information about the hunt and confirmation of my booking.  It was a frustrating effort, so I advise all those who wish to attend this hunt in the future to employ the old fashioned telephone call method.  Calling will confirm your reservation, but make sure to write everything down, because you will probably need that information when you check out.  And don’t expect the usual itemized bill when you depart, write it all down–trust me on that.

Once you get through all that and arrive at the Blackthorne though, you will be pleasantly surprised. The resort is in a word, “Whimsical”.  It has that old world charm that you might remember or expect from a resort in the Catskills.

The charm comes from the details, which you will notice immediately.  All around you, wherever you go there is attention to detail.  From the teapots hanging on poles, to the duck pond with a mini working mill wheel, and colorful retro beach chairs by the pool, you’ll be sure to notice something new each day.

My room was nice.  It was clean, with air conditioning, a huge bathroom, sliders facing the hunt field, and a pleasant decor.  I had been told by previous attendees to make sure to  upgrade to a plan A room, which I did, and I did not see a plan B or C room, so I cannot make a comparison, but my accommodations were just fine.  Compared to some of the other places I’ve stayed in the Catskills, this was a total upgrade, with no “old motel creepiness” factor.

The Blackthorne is also a pet friendly place, so I brought my dog “Abby” along.  The pet fee was only $5.00 per day, which I thought was reasonable, and Abby thought I was just the best Mom for taking her to see her favorite thing in the world… people.

I arrived, checked in, got the dog settled and gathered my gear to board the bus, which was to take us around the area to various natural hunt sites for the day.  When I got to the bus, the driver informed me the bus was full—seriously?  I paid extra money, and reserved early, to make sure I had a seat on the bus.  I thought that pretty much sucked, but there were 7 or 8 cars following the bus, so I carpooled it with Kevin and Joe from the Nor’easter’s club.

The first site we hit was an old house, and everyone was out of their vehicles, donning their rain gear and ponchos as it had started raining on the way there.  It was a bit confusing because all those that were on the bus were privy to the details of where the hunt boundaries were, and were off hunting already.  The rest of us were on our own.  I asked a few folks if they knew where we were supposed to hunt, and they didn’t know either, so I just stayed near by, since I wasn’t even sure who was in charge yet to ask.

I found an old button, and saw some folks hunting in the wooded back yard area, so I went in that direction.  I don’t think I was there 15 minutes when it suddenly grew quiet.  I looked around and saw people walking back toward the road, so I quickly went back to the car, and yup, they were packing up to leave already.  We couldn’t have been there more than a half hour, and I was a little confused, but thought, whatever.

We went to the next site, and I got my gear on more quickly, thinking a half hour was all we were probably going to get.  It was an old farm house with a small yard, and folks were running around hurriedly digging signals.  I was on my third hole, when I suddenly heard someone yell “Lets go”.  I looked around, and saw Jeff from my club, with a look of disbelief, questioning the person who had said it.  Jeff had just found a large cent—who wants to leave immediately after finding a large cent, or any coin, or even 7 minutes after starting to hunt?

People were starting to get annoyed.  No one could understand what the heck was going on,  but we continued on, following the bus to the next site.

We ended up at an old house from the 1700’s, with a good size yard and field area to hunt.  The owner gave us the history of the house, then we were off.  No one knew when they would pull the plug and tell us we had to go, so it was like a mad race to see if you could find something.  I pulled out a few wheaties, and a neat black marble, and then made my way back to the parking area because I didn’t want to be left behind when whoever was in charge decided it was time to leave.

Woody from the Pennsylvania club pulled out a nice reale, and it was like the most perfect reale I had ever seen.  I was so happy for him, and everyone was checking it out and taking photos.

Complete with strippers pole

I also checked out the bus.  I was told there was a stripper pole inside it, and I was kind of thinking, no way, but I took a look anyway, and yup, there was a strippers pole inside the bus and half the seats were removed around the pole/strip area.  The mystery of why there were no more seats left on the bus was solved—You just can’t make this stuff up.

We were told that bus was the only bus available for rental on that particular day, so thats the one we got.  Now maybe I’m being too critical, but I don’t really think so, by pointing out the obvious, which is, that if I were putting on a hunt, and needed a bus for a certain day, I would reserve that bus far in advance to make sure an adequate one was available—just sayin’.

Anyway, we then moved on to a ball field, which I assumed we were going to hunt but was told, no, this is where we are having lunch.  I didn’t care about lunch, but then we were told that lunch wasn’t ready yet and we were going to hunt the field.  I got all rain geared up, went out and dug my first target, then someone came over and said lunch was being served.  OMG–I wasn’t alone in voicing my frustration of this bus tour/hunt, while I removed my gear once again, and then made my way to the pavilion.

I expected hotdogs and hamburgers, but instead they served us Chicken Cordon Bleu, rolls, gravy, potatoes, salad, etc…. It was catered by the motel, and delicious.  I was surprised with this sudden great meal, under a pavilion, at a ball field in the rain, and still confused by this whole hunt scenario.

After we ate, they quickly herded us back to the vehicles for our next site, which was a motel.  After I geared up again, I found the “leader” of this caravan and asked him where exactly we could hunt.  His response was “Just hunt, if you go someplace you’re not supposed to, I’ll let you know”.  I was like, um, okay thanks, but in my mind, I thought “What an a**hole, this hunt is ridiculous”, then I wandered around aimlessly swinging my machine, having lost interest in being a participant anymore.

As predicted, 20 minutes later it was back to the vehicles, and on to another site.  I just went with the flow, because what else could I do?  When it was time to go, Kevin (our driver), was no where to be found.  A brief search ensued, and when he appeared, he showed us the reason for his tardiness—he had been busy digging up a gold ring!  Way to go Kevin!  At least someone had time to find something.

The next site was the remains of an old motel.  They gave us a good 40 minutes there, and I did manage to find a watch, a buckle, a key and some clad.  It’s hard to enjoy yourself though when you don’t know how long you will have to hunt, and are afraid to turn your back to dig a signal, because when you turn back around everyone may have disappeared, or are waiting on you.

After that it was over. Everyone went back to the motel except for about 8 of us who went off on our own and hunted a permission for an hour or so, until it was time to head back for dinner.

Dinner was great. Whoever said the food wasn’t very good at Blackthorne, I feel was mistaken.  All the food we had all weekend was great, and there was plenty of it.

After dinner it was time for the Moonlight Madness seeded hunt, and everyone donned their headlamps to search the field for tokens.  It was kind of fun running around in the dark, and I ended up with 10 tokens for my efforts.

The tokens were cashed in for prizes, which, for some folks were great, but for me, they were “meh”.  Most of the prizes were coins, which I have absolutely no interest in unless they are coins I’ve dug myself.  They had a trunk of junk, which was just that, and I really didn’t need anymore junk, so I settled on a hopefully useful claw like item, that I supposed was an old garden tool?

The rest of the weekend was more of the same.  A lot of food and seeded hunts, more tokens, and more coin and junk prizes.  A group of us went off on our own during the day and sought out permissions, but except for Rich W. from the YTC club finding two coppers at one of them, they didn’t really produce much else.

Despite my frustration, and dislike of seeded hunts, when the weekend was over, I couldn’t really say I had a bad time, nor can I say I wouldn’t go again next year.  I might pass on paying the extra fee for the now infamous natural hunt bus tour, but it was still metal detecting, and the best part of the weekend, and most of  the reason I was there anyway, was the people.

There are so many folks I’ve met through the years in this hobby.  Some of these people live quite a distance away, and the only time we really get to hang out and detect together is at these events.  There is always a lot of laughter, reminiscing and an all around good time.  This hunt was no exception.  It was the people who made it.  The evenings hanging out, having a few drinks, laughing at most everything, especially inside jokes (i.e. Tom Foolery), which I have to include here, as it was one of this particular hunts inside jokes that a lot of people reading this will understand.

There is also the opportunity to meet new people, and make new memories and friends, and those new acquaintances will be the folks you look forward to seeing at the next hunt.

Metal detecting is just one of those hobbies that brings people together.  I can’t quite put my finger on one thing about it exactly, as there are so many great people and things about the hobby.  I mean even if its been a few years since you’ve seen someone you hunted with or attended an event with, when you see them again, its like no time has passed, and you know that whether its a sucky hunt or not, you’re going to have a great time anyway.  I like to describe that feeling as camaraderie, but its just so much more than that…

More photos below–Happy Hunting!

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  Blackthorne Resort's Lost Treasure Weekend 2017 Detectorists from all over the east coast descended on the Catskills, June 16th to 18th  to attend Blackthorne Resorts Lost Treasure Weekend, in East Durham, NY. 

[thebibliomancer]

Dark Crystal Age of Resistance Tactics liveblog pt 10

So I'd like to keep uniting the clans but the only mission on the map is the quest for the Dual Glaive. Which, hey, will help unite the clans! And maybe might check the Grottan off the map.

So this is the All Grottan Proving Myself Power Hour!

Lets go for it!

Mission: The Threaded - Outer Domrak

"The heroes head to the Caves of Grot to seek out the Dual Glaive. But someone, or something, has beaten them there."

Probably spiders. Right? Lots of spiders.

So, hey. I wonder what kept the arathim from trying to retake the Caves of Grot before making a treaty with the Skeksis.

Perhaps they were too afraid of reprisals to gather in force. The arathim we see prior are individuals hanging out, causing trouble, hucking rocks at traffic.

Then again it might be because last time they gathered a big army, Ordon kicked their asses.

Theres a lot of stuff going on in this map that I don't understand.

So Deet, Gurjin, Kylan, Breg, and Alyadon can handle it.

Its arbitrary choosing but it does get Deet in the Deet mission.

Deet: "Come along everyone. We're almost to my home."

And then Threaders take over some friendly Grottan.

Yeesh theres way too many Threaders on this stage. Like just way too many.

Ah, the other glowy things are runes that give you a stat boost if you're standing on them. Weird place to introduce them but I'm game.

Actually, I like that the game is still introducing new stuff to the levels even this far in. Some trpgs peter out by this point. Lore-wise its baffling but gameplay wise, its a nice addition.

I swear sometimes Final Fantasty Tactics Advance got too into my brain because everytime I go to make a move in Age of Resistance Tactics I wonder 'wait is this against the law'

Don't want a Skeksis to teleport in and red card me.

Hm. I know that this is how the gameplay works but I feel bad beating this threaded Gelfling unconscious considering that a) they're Deet's friends, b) in the story Deet and Rian won over the Arathim by treating the threaded Gelfling as worthy of protection, and c) the Arathim I'm beating to death are going to be my friends later.

Oo, there's three spaces left on my characters list, I wonder if one is an Arathim!

... Probably not.

I'm just rotating this level around and around taking in all of the beautiful level design. Not that the rest of the game hasn't been pretty but there's a lot of detail in the Caves of Grot.

Geez, purge rot was excessive on a threader. I just don't want them to get close to poor, precious Deet.

Okay, purging rot on that threaded Mender who only had a sliver of health really was excessive.

This level is pretty easy after that dern Chamberlain fight. As long as you're careful of the Threaders range its basically a cake walk.

Still, worth level ups for all of my cool peeps.

Deet learned Life Exchange (swap HP percentage with a targeted ally, this feels super situational), Gurjin learned Hold Position (casts barrier on self if end turn without moving), Breg learned Blindside (attack a blinded or stunned enemy for extra damage, Breg thats fighting dirty!), Kylan learned Carapace (its the barrier move), and Alyadon learned Convalesce (AOE heal, nice).

---

Mission: Homebound - Domrak Dwellings

"Deet and the heroes race back to Domrak with the Arathim chasing them at every turn."

The game perhaps tipped its hand a little too early with the Arathim for I am slightly wearied fighting spiders. Hopefully by the end of this run of missions, that'll be at an end.

Party: Deet (this is still her questline), Rian, Rek'yr, Hup, and Boggi.

Letsss goooo

Deet: "Hellooo, I'm home! Lath'N, Mitjan, Bob'N? Are you here?"

Deet: "Wait, look at them! These Gelfling are being controlled like the others!"

Threaded Gelfling: "We are the Ascendency!"

Rian: "The Arathim are behind this! We have to stop them!"

Rian we have been dealign with this for a while. No duh the Arathim are behind this.

Me: "Oh this level doesn't look so bad either. There's a couple threaders, pretty far from me. Couple threaded Gelfling. Very managable."

Arathim spitter: -webs down from the ceiling- "SURPRISE"

Dammit, one of the damn threaders got Boggi! Not the dooooooog!

Annnnnd also Hup.

That spiraled out of control fast. With two of my peeps on their side they outnumbered me. I managed to get it down to one Rian vs one giant spider and alas, the spider won as Rian was too demoralized after having to beat Hup and Boggi unconscious.

TRYING AGAIN

LOSING AGAIN

Got Hup threaded again like an idiot and things were going well until they weren't and then I lost.

Ugh.

Trying Rian, Reky'r, Boggi, Brea, and Kylan for the heck of it.

Ok, that time went really well. So fast that the last Arathim spitter and devourer didn't even spawn. It really helped to have Brea to nail the threaders from a distance with LEGALLY DISTINCT FIREBALL.

EVERYONE LEVEL UP! yayyyy~

Rian learned Deafening Roar and Bandage because Stone Warden is generous, Rek'yr learned Bash, Brea and Boggi leveled and got NOTHING, and Kylan learned how to Dreamfast. Kind of late in his life to be learning that but lets not make fun.

I also got a Cooking Spit, which may make a cracking new spear for Naia.

Dang, its the special spear of the Grottan and it has decenty stats. That's going right on Naia.

---

Mission: Save Bobb'N - Deet's Home

"Just when our heroes thought they had dealt with the Arathim problem, Darkened Nurlocks show up"

SPIDERS AND WORMS

I wonder if Spider Bobb'N is going to be an ally.

Well, he's on the map and he sure looks not hostile.

Geez this map is whack. The spawning squares are all over the place.

So Deet and Rian to the left, Naia at the top, and Rek'yr and Brea at the bottom right. This is arbitrary.

Deet: "Bobb'N, is that you?"

Bobb'N: "We... no Bobb'N. We... Ascendency!"

Deet: "Oh, Bobb'N... Not you, too! Wait, what is that sound? Darkened Nurlocks! Oh, no, Bobb'N is in danger!"

.... APPARENTLY the mission objective is to plug the nurloc holes with boulders. Or with bodies. =|

Good news is that I DO get to control Bobb'N, with a spider in his little portrait.

Iiiiii accidentally dropped a boulder on Rek'yr crushing him for max damage.

Whoops.

And things slowly went downhill from there. The nurloc holes pop out infinite nurlocs. And I couldn't get to the last one because everytime a nurloc spawned it would move out and boom new worm.

Trying Rian, Deet in lower right. Naia and Hup on left. Gurjin on top.

And that went better. Although it was a little touch and go. I used Bobb'n to knock the boulder and not crush Rek'yr into paste but that put him into range of a nurloc who hurt him bad.

But it went well. I got Hup and Rian to stand in holes for most of the level.

Pfft all it takes for Deet to convince the Ascendency Bobb'n is 'hey the skeksis have tricked you, join us' which is slightly less than it took in the show.

Annnnd level ups!

Naia learned Smite (consume an attack up status for massive damage, definitely feels like a good fit for Naia)! Hup learned Sharpen Teeth (give critical chance up to allied beast and any adjacent targets) and Natural Resistance (the same but Shell)! Yes thats right, he leveled twice! Deet and Rian leveled and learned nothing! Gurjin learned Tangle Up (attack and inflict move down to all adjacent targets)!

---

Mission: Finding Sanctuary - Sanctuary Tree

"With the Arathim and Gelfling working together, the heroes must help everyone escape the Darkening within the caves"

Not only Bobb'N but a friendly Arathim unit on this map perhaps??

Thats what I was hoping for!

So for my party I pick Deet and Rian because they were here in the plot, Breg and Rek'yr because they need some more leveling like always, and Boggi because he has a delightful face which takes up most of his body.

Another mission where the objective is to book it to the glowy exit square, in this case the roots of the Sanctuary Tree.

And I do get to control Bobb'N again.

AND I DO GET TO CONTROL ARATHIM! Nice, nice. Got Blinding Spray, Spit, and Sticky Web as abilities. No regular attack, just spitting.

Oh but I do see that all of my allies have to survive as a mission objective. Anyone bites it and I'm sunk.

And I have to get the Grottan and Arathim to the exit. Thatssss Deet, Bobb'N, Arathim and... it says 0/4 so I'm confused here. I don't think I have another Grottan or Arathim. And Bobb'N doesn't count twice, the spider is off his face.

Maybe I just need to fill up the glowy exit squares.

Okay, I moved Boggi onto the exit square and didn't get a 1/4 so huh.

Also a damn windsifter just came over and wiped out half of Deet's life in one attack. Eesh.

Ok Deet just died and I didn't lose so I think only Bobb'N and Arathim can't die. Cool. Glad this level's objectives are clear.

Yup, Bobb'n died and the level ended. Cool. Good learning experience.

My strategy this time is to box in Bobb'N and Arathim. Just surround them in buff individuals and also Deet and Kylan.

So I have Rian, Deet and Kylan, Gurjin and Naia.

O I C, I got Bobb'N to the exit and it spawned in another Arathim. So I gotta keep doing this until I get four to the exits.

And more enemies are spawning in too.

Oh neat, the new Arathim is a Devourer with different abilities than the spitter. Devourers can actually Attack. Have Sticky Web. But also have Devour which does much damage to a rooted enemy. Neat.

Got an Arathim out and a random Grottan spawned. Couldn't even make it one of Deet's dads, huh?

Oops, Deet died. =(

Oops, Rian died. =(

Gurjin avenged him.

And Rando Grottan avenged Deet. But this angered the video game gods, or maybe I knocked too many enemies off the field because a whole bunch lot just spawned in.

Good news is that I got three people evacuated and the random Grottan is on his way and not close to any enemies. Though my named characters will take a blow, the mission objectives will escape.

I really only have Naia, Gurjin, and Kylan on the field besides the random Grottan. The big three. Best pals.

VICTORY! And then the tree gets eaten off screen by nurlocs because we're not making the assets for that, there's no budget for assets that get used once.

Also Deet maybe doesn't absorb the knowledge of the Dark Side but who can say.

Woo, everyone levels up except Rian! Deet learns Earthen Roots (AOE Root spell, nice), Kylan learns Cleanse (clears status effects), Gurjin and Naia learn nothing because they're already perfect!

AND NEW CHARACTER! Its Wukki. He's another fizzgig. He just kind of comes out of nowhere in terms of playable characters. I would have liked to keep a spider. And I get another Grottan Cooking Spit but geez, Naia can't dual wield and she's the only one that uses spears in my party.

Wukki is a Fizzgig Herder. The fighter to Boggi's Medic. He also comes at lvl 19, my highest leveled guy right off the bat. He has Get 'Em! (attack and inflict wounded for three turns), Mad Gnash (attack all adjacent targets, and a good pun), On Guard (self barrier), Startle (Inflict Attack Down on an enemy for 3 turns and delay its next turn), Nuzzle (Grant Accuracy Up to an ally for five turns, awww), Embolden (Grant Attack Up to allies within 2 tiles after landing a Critical Hit), Provoke (Inflict Berserk to targets in a cone), Silent Assassin? (gain critical chance up at the start of turn while afflicted by silence), Sneaky Little... (Apply Haste and Silence to self for three turns, oo combo potential), and Fuzzy Meteor (jump down to a lower elevation and damage all adjacent targets, seems very situational).

Oof thats a lot to drop on me, game! I have to pick only five out of this!

The characters all have bios and short descriptions. I've been glancing at them but maybe I should share them later. Here's Wukki's since he's the new guy.

"Wukki is a physical fighting Fizzgig Herder"

"Wukki is an excitable, young Fizzgig. He was raised by Podlings as a Nebrie-herder. When his entire Nebrie herd succumbed to the Darkening, he blindly chased after them. Ultimatley, this left him lost and alone in the Caves of Grot, until a Gelfling family found him and took him in."

That was an emotional rollercoaster

How about Boggi?

"Boggi is a supporting Fizzgig Medic"

"Boggi is a clever and loyal Fizzgig. Boggi has been a pet and aid to the scholars in the Library of Ha'rar. He took a particular liking ot Brea, who would always bring him treats whenever she would come to visit."

Wait, I've been assuming that Boggi was her pet but she stole him from the library? Damn, Brea, I don't know what a library ever did to you that you've done so much to them!

So two more spaces on the party page. Who will it be.

---

Cutscene: The Dual Glaive

Deet: "The tree... My home... It's all gone."

Rian, can't read the mood: "And the Dual Glaive is lost with it."

Maudra Argot: "Dual Glaive, you say? I have that right here!"

God its just as convenient as in the show.

Maudra Argot: "But this is only part of the whole. To unlock its true power, you must find the other half. Head to Stone-in-the-Wood. You will find it where your father, Ordon, left it."

Cool, cool, cool.

And the plot splits again. Alyadon offers to go talk to the Sifa and Brea to the Vapra. Uh, is Seladon an issue in this narrative? Is she doing her Seladon thing? Brea maybe be careful. Kylan offers to talk to the Spriton.

So thats three clans open for me to prove myself to. And Rian decided he won't grab the cool endgame sword until the clans are united.

Rian, you've got it backwards. The sword unites them. I saw it happen on the show.

Anyway, this went on loooong. Provided there's not a ridiculously huge number of missions, I'll try to unite a clan an update.