#also road to partizan is so fucking good

[vforvalensa]

relistening to friends at the table it's wild to me that they followed up spring in heiron with partizan and i listened to that in real time.

[humanmorph]

seeing the gur drawing in my notes now is so. on one hand im still very happy people like it so much : ) on the other hand i am taking -2 damage every time i see it because aauugh. arghgh gur

[iantimony]

for twitter replacement i have tried cohost. i have tried (kinda) plurk. none of my fucking friends are on either so i am gonna go back to simple tumblr posting.

listening to road to partizan...episode 5 where they were all kids helping the mech pilot software chip (jack) get back to her mech was so good...i did almost cry at the end of that...it was also very

jack: the most heartbreaking thing you can imagine

the rest of them: 7-year-old level fart joke

also the mephis longhands third-person bit is extremely good. so is smack talk and his brother, david back talk

[chicknparm]

It's halfway through the year! Got any favorite albums/books/tv shows/whatever to recommend? (Congrats on the marriage btw ❤️)

Hi hi! I've finally remembered to answer this! So I'm terrible at keeping up with New Media so I'll just list some stuff I've been into lately, and mostly keep it to recent-ish things when I can.

Friends at the Table (Podcast) - Forever and always, this show rules. The best RPG Actual Play show, the best podcast, one of my favorite works of ongoing fiction. I fell off when Morv was here but I finally caught up and am current on Palisade, which means I'm now getting to dive back into Twilight Mirage. For you, Bri: Palisade and TM seem to have a lot in common to me. They're both sprawling, ambitious follow-ups to beloved sci-fi seasons, and they both have moments that absolutely knock my fucking socks off. But they're both also kind of inconsistent and took a while to get going imo? Even 50 episodes into both, I find myself tuning out a lot more easily during certain arcs where others have me glued to my headphones. Keeping some of the Partizan characters around has definitely prevented Palisade from dipping too far though, since I think that batch of characters might be my favorite from just about every player. Kalvin Brnine 4ever. For others who might be reading this: Other Actual Play shows have better production value, visual aids, professional voice acting, and might be easier to follow, but all the things that make Friends at the Table kinda hard to get into are the reasons why it rules, actually. It feels less like watching improv, and more like watching a writers' room for a TV show go to work. And that kind of thing is infinitely more interesting to me as a storyteller. I cannot get enough of "behind the scenes" type stuff where you see the process of crafting a story, and to have it be a main aspect of the show itself makes Friends at the Table a treat to watch. I promise you, you will not find cooler world-building or a greater commitment to narrative in any other show in the genre.

Street Fighter 6 (Game, lol) - The best fighting game on the market currently. I've started going to local tournaments and getting to know some of the competitive players in my city, and let me tell you there's nothing like it. It absolutely rules to feel myself get tangibly better at a skill, and not only celebrate it myself, but have other people celebrate with me. Hearing people cheer when I pull off something cool, and hearing them root for me against the better, more established players really dulls the pain when I (frequently) hit road blocks and feel bad about myself. I think fighting games are really cool, but finding your local Fighting Game Community is the absolute best way to experience community in video games and it's not even close.

This Could All Be Different (Novel) - Borrowed this from my beautiful, kind, iconic wife. It's a (seemingly loosely autobiographical) novel about a lesbian immigrant who finds herself struggling to find herself and find community after moving to Milwaukee for a decent (or so it seems) job. It started out kind of slow, and a little rough, but once it got its hooks in me it was in there fucking DEEP. I finished it within like 36 hours of picking it up for the first time, which is extremely rare for me. Maybe it's just been a while since I've read a good-ass novel but the craft with which the protagonist's arc was conveyed really knocked me on my ass in hindsight. We watch her grow, improve, face the consequences of her actions, learn to accept community and unlearn some toxic coping mechanisms, but none of it feels as hokey and contrived as it very easily could be. Her changes are almost never acknowledged by the story or narration, it's just something that happens. Hopeful but not saccharine. The love story is an integral part of both the plot and the characters' arc, but it is so far removed from the Fanfic Trope Zone that seems to have taken over the shelves of every bookstore near me that it should barely even be included in the pitch. Really challenged how I think about family, politics, community, and my own self-image in ways I was absolutely not expecting. Huge fan.

I Saw the TV Glow (Film) - I don't think I have anything to say about this that other people haven't already contributed. I did not Love this movie the way other people did, and it didn't Hit me the way it Hit almost everyone else I know. I was expecting to sob and walked away with dry eyes. But I've thought about it just about every day since I saw it. The tragic core of the film is something I absolutely recognize and find affecting, but I do not Relate to it the way that many others do. Due to how it came about there was basically no Denial phase in my realization of my gender. Well, maybe there was about the specifics, but the notion that I was Not Cis was basically immediately followed by hard conversations and coming out to friends and experimenting with presentation and pronouns and self-concept. I am not exaggerating even a little bit when I say that if I hadn't been too scared by the Creatures, and had watched Buffy, the Vampire Slayer when I was a kid I might have ended up in an extremely similar situation to this film's protagonist. If I had to grapple with identity in that way surrounded by the violently oppressive aspects of patriarchy that I was already victim to in school, I definitely would've buried it in the dirt. In my Letterboxd review I said that I had to talk myself into giving it more than 3 stars. I eventually succeeded, and I'm guessing I'll add more and more to that rating as I rewatch it over the years.

Um anyway that's what I'm thinking about at the moment, and that's what I've got the Brain Space to write up, thank you so much for this ask! It's always fun getting a prompt (even if unintentional) that forces me to put on my Critical Writer cap. And especially thank you for the congratulations, I married my Tumblr Crush and I couldn't be happier :') Thank God for Life is Strange.

[skyberia]

oh boy since no one else has crash coursed you: Friends At The Table is a LONG runner with a lot of seasons, so here's a fast breakdown:

Their Magical Universe: Marielda, and the Seasons of Hieron. (I found Marielda very enjoyable but couldn't get through Hieron)

The Urban Fantasy Magical Realism Universe: Bluff City, which is set up as an anthology and is thus very digestible. (Very very funny and sometimes extremely moving. I rec the first every Bluff City episode, "A Boxer, A Bowling Alley, And A Bird" to everyone, it's a hilarious heist involving a bird, a boxer-- anyway.)

The American Gothic Universe: Sangfielle. (I can't say a lot about this one as I have not tackled it yet but its allegedly stupendous.)

The Science Fantasy Universe: Counter/Weight, Twilight Mirage, PARTIZAN, and the upcoming PALISADE.

Now, about that last one since its the one you're being recced. This is a HUGE universe but while each season takes place in the same universe, each season happens hundreds if not thousands of years apart, so outside a few neat references, there is no connecting thread. I am ENAMORED with Twilight Mirage and feel like it changed me as a person, and I've had some success getting other people into it.

But I know academically, logically, that PARTIZAN is the better season. It's less rough, it's got a much tighter plot tempo and pacing, and the soundtrack is batshit fucking WILD good. I think it's a very good starting point. There is also the Road To PARTIZAN prequel games that help set up the universe. You don't need to listen to those.

If you enjoy listening to character creation and want to know what the fuck universe you are stepping into, start at PARTIZAN 00: The Divine Principality. That will both give you background on the universe and you can listen to all the players pitch who the fuck they're playing.

If three hours and twenty minutes of set up sounds boring, just go directly to PARTIZAN 01 and you'll be fine.

Also consider Twilight Mirage later, it's fucking incredible.

BOWS DEEPLY

oh my god thank you SO much for this!! super super appreciated, looking at that whole feed full of episodes did kind of intimidate me but this makes me a lot confident abt giving it a try, thank you!!!!

[callmearcturus]

you made me want to listen to fatt but i had no idea they were recording since 2014 and now im kinda overwhelmed. where would you recommend starting?

FATT is getting a lot of attention lately with Austin being quoted in big articles and the big midseason finale of PARTIZAN, so Austin actually recorded a short “how to get started with FATT” and I concur with his advice, though I have yet to be able to get into COUNTER/WEIGHT and prefer Twilight Mirage.

I think if you have A Lot Of Time for a longass science fantasy arc, Twilight Mirage. Probably my favorite story in any medium at this point.

If you want to see what the current fuss is about, PARTIZAN.

If you are interested in indie TTRPGs and want to listen to a lot of them, go a bit earlier and try the Road To PARTIZAN prequel arc, they play a lot of different games to ‘build’ the history of PARTIZAN and some of the games are phenomenal.

If you prefer fantasy to science fiction/science fantasy, then try Marielda. (I’m listening to this right now, it’s very good, fucking LOVE ME some The Quiet Year, best fukcing game.)

And if you want to start where I did, try out Bluff City, which is an anthology series that takes place in an Elseworld Atlantic City, in which they tell stories about really terrible heists, about wrestlers, about ghosts, and about conspiracy theories. I love Bluff City because each ‘arc’ is like 2 to 4 episodes long and very digestible. Also I love the setting. (Also, the first arc, “A Bowling Alley, A Boxer, A Bird” is fucking hysterical at times.)

[iantimony]

almost no longer tuesdaypost

listening: I FINISHED TWILIGHT MIRAGE !!! AND THE POSTMORTEM!!! it was so good. i'm powering through the road to partizan episodes right now, i'm in episode 4! i AM listening to them on 1.3 speed to get through them a little more expeditiously, and i'm also not letting myself backtrack if i miss a line or two, just kinda absorbing the vibes before slamming into partizan proper!

reading: flight of a one-winged dove, bloodletter, post canon sangcheng, mind the tags, i'm not normally a sangcheng girly but this really really hit. never knew i was a dancer, isozyme, modern AU lesbian sangcheng, maybe i AM a sangcheng girly now?? anyways mind those tags etc

watching: cowboy bebop with boyf :) we're on episode 22, we'll probably watch the movie soon ...? was told around here is a good spot to do that, so as much as i always like watching things In Publication Order, will probably do that soon

making: i have frogged and restarted that stupid star stitch laptop case like six times. i am committing to it now. i really didn't like the original shape of the object i was creating using the spruce crafts tutorial that comes up immediately when you google "star stitch tutorial", but i found this one (has one less double crochet on the ends) and i like it a lot better. so i'm working through that now! i also had a moment a few days ago that was like. ok i want to restart it. but before i do that i should wind the skein into a ball so it's less annoying. ah shit my ball winder is winding it really fucked up and wonky, oh i googled it and i can take the top off and pop the gear back into place and that should fix it! gotta find a screwdriver for that first -- so tl;dr i fixed my ball winder, wound the skein into a ball, and started the project again. huzzah.

also, started another fanfic! what if harrowhark was the abhorsen-in-waiting. she's actually been the abhorsen for about a decade, the previous abhorsen died ages ago but she's been pretending that her father is in seclusion or something and has just been sending her out on his behalf. gideon was mysteriously dropped off and raised alongside harrowhark for reasons unknown. the kingdom is ruled by lich-king john gaius, a member of the royal bloodline who has dipped too much into free magic, transcended death and, while not malevolent specifically, has really started to cock things up kingdom-wide re: the dead. ianthe is a free magic sorcerer. i just think there's a lot of tasty potential there.

misc: i am once again On An Antibiotic [confetti] if i am not patient zero for the next antibiotic resistant bacteria it will be a goddamn miracle. anyways. onwards. hopefully this is the last one for a while…!!

[callmearcturus]

duosangel replied to your post

I was legit about to send an ask about where I should start because your posts have finally convinced me I need this in my life.

oh 1000% start with Twilight Mirage

so the way Friends At The Table works to my knowledge is there are three universes

1. The Hieron Universe. This is the fantasy series, it’s supposed to be tremendous but also very heavy, my friend Nina assures me its exquisite, but it’s hard to get into. The Marielda mini-season is the best jumping on point for it, I’ve heard.

2. The Divine Universe. Counter/Weight, Twilight Mirage, The Road To Partizan, and now the on-going Partizan. Now, I have tried Counter/Weight about five times and I have failed out every time. Which is very annoying because I want to get into it so bad. But what really clicked for me as a good jumping on point for FATT was Twilight Mirage. It’s a Science Fantasy universe that follows a utopia in decline as this society called the Divine Fleet flies around the universe. They are accompanied by machines so intelligent and skilled they are close to godlike, so are called Divines. And when episode 1 of Twilight Mirage starts, only one is left alive, the last from a fleet of 300. Later, Austin described Twilight Mirage as the team’s messy queer utopic fantasy, and I fucking dig it.

Twilight Mirage is my favorite story. Period. End of sentence. I would give a non-insignificant sum of money for the chance to experience Grand Magnificent’s story in particular for the first time again.

3. Bluff City. This one is only available on the Patreon feed for 5$ but you can listen to the first episode in the main feed, and it’s fucking amazing. It’s sort of a magical realism set of short stories set in an alternate universe Atlantic City. It’s stupendous and is probably what locked me in as a FATT fan. Yeah, I got a 5$ patreon sub before even listening to Twilight Mirage. That’s how good Bluff City is. The first arc is a two-parter and is about the most fucking stupid heist of all time and how it goes so fucking wrong. 10 out of 10.

And overall, it’s worth saying: all of FATT is queer. Most of the cast members are queer, including multiple nb people. The music fucking bangs like nothing else, and the interspersed monologues fuck me up. Some dude named Keen showed up in a monologue at the end of the Road To Partizan and i nearly fucking cried. I love it.

IMO Start with Twilight Mirage 0, the worldbuilding episode. I know its long but honestly it’s INCREDIBLE.