#and the lore is really just building itself

[y-rhywbeth2]

The Temple of Bhaal, BG1 vs BG3 (aka, my god this place has gone downhill.)

Fun fact about the Baldurian Temple: the Bhaalspawn born to Bhaal's priests were, for the first few years of their life, raised here communally with their siblings by the priests (their mortal parents and guards). Then the vast majority of them who would not go on to be a video game protagonist or their villainous brother were ritually sacrificed to their father here.

Very long post, largely due to screenshots.

First things first:

The Undercity

If you're using the lore from the knife, this is the city Bhaal grew up in. I still cling to my headcanon that it's a former Netherese enclave/flying city.

BG1 (brightened a bit so it's more visible). Elevation didn't really come into play until BG2's maps, so it's a little flat. Still visibly a city. Inhabited by sort-of Bhaalists, lazy bats who don't understand that the temple doors opening is their dramatic cue to fly out, and the armed and bloodthirsty corpses of the formerly living citizens.

Crypts and sacrificial altar to the sides, presumably the altar is outdoors so that the ritual human sacrifice can be appreciated by the common citizen.

Buildings in the BG3 version are a touch more intact. The map is bigger and harder to get a shot of. The bats are still present, and apparently attempts to make them understand the needs of dramatic effect and the narrative were not successful, they're just wherever nowadays. The architecture somewhat resembles the modern city, and now that the temple is active it seems the Bhaalists are decorating. Sadly, all the corpses are immobile and made no attempt to murder visitors. Literally what even is the point.

The Undercity has also acquired mysterious deep crevasses to nowhere, which may contain the ruins of more city who knows.

Now has living inhabitants (no less full of craving for death and blood than the previous inhabitants). Priests are supposed to live in their temples, and in the case of Bhaalists, live a double life with a normal life in the city, but whatever. Let's live in ruins instead.

Corpses everywhere (which are supposed to go in the crypts with the rest of Bhaal's offerings, you messy bastards).

Everywhere we find giant pits going down into the earth into what I can only assume is the Upperdark (assuming we aren't already deep enough to breach the first layer of the Underdark).

The Undercity is still in the middle of a sea cave, or underground lake, or whatever this body of water is.

The designs of the doors reminds me of the Tourmaline Depths somewhat, which could imply dwarven influence. However the scale of the city structures suggests to me it was built by larger humanoids. idk.

---

Front Doors

So the BG3 one is a touch grander in scale. Also gets a bridge over a mysterious chasm that either leads into something volcanic or else Gehenna itself. Or they just enchanted it for effects.

BG1 gets points for having the correct colour scheme (black and purple, being the colour of the ceremonial robes should be his sacred colours).

'...the [sacred] colors of a deity remain the most common minor manifestation. [...] These colors also indicate the most common shades used in raiment by people of the faith, particularly divine spellcasters.' - Deity Dos and Don'ts

'...all Bhaalyn wore full ceremonial robes of deep purple or black with violet streaks...' - Faiths and Avatars

etc etc

We also have no pillars of bones, and I prefer the eerie figures of Bhaalist priests in their ceremonial regalia to whatever the horned things are.

---

The Temple

'Urban temples dedicated to the Lord of Murder were typically dark, spartan dungeons located beneath a city's streets featuring an occasional mosaic or sculpture depicting a violent death. Most contained several chambers of tokens taken from the bodies of murder victims and large crypts filled with the corpses of past victims who could not be left where they fell. (The inhabitants of such crypts were often restless.)' - Faiths and Avatars

I am noting a great deal too many immobile corpses and a distinct lack of tormented enslaved undead victims in this house of death.

Continuing the trend of giving BG1 points for the colour scheme: Purple and black! Golden skull bowls of purple fruit punch abounds. There also appears to be gold trim around, and that rug isn't cheap, so we're losing points on 'spartan.'

Points also deducted because the tears on the holy symbol are going the wrong direction.

Fulfilling the 'depictions of violent death' portion of the descriptions, we have an expensive looking rug depicting the hell portion of Angelico Giovanni da Fiesole's 'The Last Judgement.' Which carries interesting implications for interactions between the priests and Earth. Considering they don't expect to suffer for all eternity, one imagines it was just chosen for the violence.

Also some inexplicable Christian imagery in the form of crosses, which make no sense for Bhaalists.

The crypts should probably be in their own room, but whatever.

The statuary depicts Myrkul, for some reason. Why not line your house with statues of your bestie, I suppose.

-

Ignoring the black smudge where Orin is because just like I did with her father, I'm ignoring the sacred kinslaying duel in favour of running around taking screenshots.

BG3 edition sort of wins points for being spartan (but you look closer and realise it's actually very intricate, just damaged).

We have regressed from the ways of our forefathers: Sarevok's party at least knew how to clean up after themselves.

The gold trim has been switched in for bone decoration:

Ossuary: fuck yeah. Now either put all the other corpses lying around into a crypt or use them for artwork. As it is you all look like slobs, and if somebody trips over a bone or slips in a pool of blood and falls into the mystery pit or cracks their skull on the stone floor it's going to be embarrassing.

Contrary to the mess the Bhaalists have left their room in, the stonework done by the original builders is quite intricate. The various letter-like etchings all graffitied all over the city and temple look like Iokharic, at a half-assed glance over, which might indicate it's Netherese (I'm not suffering from confirmation bias or anything)

-

The Circle of Tears has migrated from the floor to the wall, (so that Bhaal can glare at his Primate/Primistress/Offspring when they are sent to their room.)

You pray to Bhaal by smearing blood over the eyesockets of the skull like tears. I have no idea how we do that in this temple. Water gun? Do we have big ceremonial paint rollers with long handles?

We have the 'several chambers of tokens taken from the bodies of murder victims' which for some reason contains minimal amounts of corpses and offerings. The corpses are supposed to be in large crypts by the way. Just pointing out. It would not kill us to be tidy and organised.

The pit continues. Actually:

These damaged bits leading downwards match the doors found around the city, so I assume that the actual temple complex is much bigger than it seems.

-

We have a dais, with apparently meaningless symbols and we couldn't be assed to light all the braziers for some reason. At least there's a sacrificial altar.

Also still some gold decoration remaining, if you look closely at that square and the braziers.

Also there's Orin and Halsin. Wave everybody.

-

Who decided we needed a library, anyway? I feel like it contains a mixture of the holy texts and the sacred tome (bible-type thing) all temples get, and the rest of it is Grimlark's poetry.

Moving onto the bedroom that wasn't on the original schematics:

Bhaalspawn don't know how to use space properly. The Sims player in me is screaming.

I assume the blood bath near the bed is for ritual purification, because using it as an actual bath would be stupid. I also assume the blood all over the place is kept fresh and flowing via magic, because killing enough people to keep it all replenished would be idiotic.

To the West; a secret escape tunnel for bypassing your dramatic sister and sneaking into your/her room to read her diary and also your diaries that she didn't throw out for some reason.

To the East: the study, where there is a lot of alcohol and corpses.

The rug is the only splash of purple in this temple and it's purely by accident but I'll take what I can get.

Did Orin get this bed for herself, or steal Durge's? It is - unlike the rest of the temple - quite expensive and comes with more gold accents. Considering she complains about Durge not running the temple properly, I am assuming that Durge is at fault for the 'decaying' of the temple, as Orin puts it, and she's in the middle of renovations right now. ...Who did they commission for the gold holy symbol embedded in the headboard? It's also a bit redundant, but now Father has two faces from which to watch you sleep while he visits you in your horrific nightmares...

[dustcrumbs]

Idk I need an au or something where killer horror n dust just explore random ass abandoned buildings for fun and then idk some lore shit happens. Scooby doo or something idk.

Ogh. Like they have a little adventure and stuff

Maybe they, as kids, went into an old building because they wanted to be the brave, cool kids who went into a scary ass building without adults. And then it just goes bat shit and leaves them traumatized

And as adults, they're still haunted by these terrible experiences, so Killer suggests that they return in an attempt to get rid of that paranoia and anxieties. Dust and Horror didn't agree at first but were convinced in the end to enter since those horrible nightmares and Dusts' increasing decline of mental health is gonna put him in an asylum and he jsut REALLY doesn't wanna go there. And also he just doesn't wanna have breakdowns repeatedly over what he saw in that house

So, they just all think "maybe we can prove that none of it was real, then we'll feel safe again"!!

And Killer takes them and maybe someone else like cross or nightmare and woagh!!

They enter the building, and it's pretty normal at first. But uh oh, Horror touches smth and it alerts the creatures within. The house's exit suddenly disappeared, and now they have to survive a full day in the place and find the exit. While they are evading creatures or beings beyond their comprehension

And maybe they do escape....but.. maybe. Something attached itself onto the weakest one there. Uh oh, Dusts got a spirit on his ass vro!!

And he genuinely starts losing his shit and attempts to stab Killer or Horror to death, luckily restrained, but it's still terrifying.

And ruh roh, Horror and Killer have to return to the house and lure Dust back in too. So maybe they could trap the spirit back in the house and have their pookie back

And if they DO get the spirit off Dust, he's still a lunatic. He's more twitchy and mumbles to himself a lot. He may even tell the other two his intrusive or sometimes even just impulsive thoughts out of the blue. He may even repeatedly be caught zoning out or fidgeting with any sharp object.

Killer and Horror just genuinely feel such horrendous survivor guilt and simply feel horrible for what they had Dust endure. Or idk idk

I'm kinda rambling a little

I think I lost ur plot

Sorry

Burps

[pegasusrightsforall]

I’ve spent years trying and failing to get into Fates to no avail but by god have I finally availed. My boyfriend and I started an ironman in Birthright and apparently this was the angle I needed. We’re gonna play each route using the same Corrin name and design and if I temporarily become a Fates blog out of nowhere I’m as shocked as anyone else is.

[scootersscooter]

Idk guys Mighty Med was just such a good show. The characters were incredibly well rounded and had a lot of personality. The show had incredible relationships between the characters, especially when it came to Kaz and Oliver's friendship (and dare I even say the budding romantic relationship between Oliver and Skylar). The world building was great and easily lent itself toward both serious and goofy situations. The plot had lots of twists and turns that never felt like too much. I feel that it's very overlooked, especially when competing with Lab Rats, but I think that Mighty Med does a lot better with less time while managing to have better characterization and character development than Lab Rats could ever dream of having. Go watch Mighty Med guys. Please <3.

[narwhalandchill]

okay so. skirk thoughts

first of all: as much as her design is still just kind of an ehhh compared to what couldve been, i do think it looks so much better in the actual game. the sfx in her arms and legs in particular helps a Lot imo. still not a massive fan but given i already loved the hair+eyes as well as the general color scheme, im warming up to it. still unfortunate we didnt get something more ambitious but i can live with this lmao

personality wise i actually really love how they went about her? its a little unexpected but skirk really has that abyss autism rizz to her JSJSIDISGFK love it. like this really isnt someone used to any manner of regular human interactions and it shows. i really like how blunt and utterly unfazed she is even when dropping some insane lore bombs bc theyre just peanuts to her. shes just completely unlike any character from any faction weve encountered before and i rly love the energy they gave her

i also found her little ramble about the value of life and death pretty interesting. it almost makes it sound like she considers herself dead in some way? with how she talks about there being no point in holding onto the bonds and remains of dead things and how this personal philosophy of hers is why she never comes to the surface anymore. like huh. whats up with that.

it also really reminds me of how an underappreciated aspect of childes characterization imo is how like. Incredibly insistent he is on staying alive being the most valuable thing? like this comes up Repeatedly in his voicelines. and now we have skirk literally talking about how to live is in itself a blessing. like i am Not buying this being coincidental at all. so unless they physically disprove me in this somehow down the line im taking this as 100% proof that childes high regard for life is Directly imparted to him through skirks teachings. and thats really interesting to think about.

and like. overall im quite happy with this glimpse of her character we have? i have bigger issues with the overall handling of the childe+narwhal+skirk segment of the AQ but those are narrative problems. skirk really stands out as a character and shes just. really fascinating AND funny as fuck in her nonchalance like. what an icon.

the only real unfortunate thing w her appearence specifically i think just has to do with the way her manner of speech and position as a narrator of dubious reliability to an extent is already leading to some. Quite unfortunate misreadings and/or taking the implications of her statements too far at face value. and i just know fandom will latch onto those forever 😭

(& jic i dont mean dubious reliability in the traditional unreliable narrator or like. lying or sth sense. just that her worldview is so alien and foreign to us that it should be taken into careful account before just blindly running off with any particular thing she claims)

like. firstly. the narwhal. ppl really dont seem to be catching onto how skirks perception of it as just a scuffed pet thats a hassle to manage isnt like. actually reflective of what a massive deal of an entity it is (read the boss fight quest item drop lore i am begging. or just wait for me to start narwhalposting JAJSKDK its coming 100%) 💀💀 what it DOES reflect more than anything is what an absolute maniac surtalogi (+ skirk by extension) has to be in order to claim a creature of this magnitude as a PET of all things. its also good to note that skirk herself readily admits both her highly unconventional view on most things AND that her master wont necessarily share any and all information with her - more so what he thinks is pertinent for her to know. her assessment of the narwhal as a nuisance of a task for a disciple isnt really reflective of the ultimate big picture HSJDKDKSK though it is very funny i have to admit.

im just preemptively annoyed and frustrated by it already bc its highkey giving azhdaha all over again where 99% of fandom just dismissed his deeper lore bc they took the storytellers claims of zhongli creating him at complete face value. like to the point hoyo had to literally add a whole segment at the end of the chasm interlude where zhongli more or less directly wink wink nod nods that a career entertainer isnt giving you the most accurate lore on this stuff 😭😭 like please. ive had the tears from among the stars lore fucking HAUNTING me ever since i first read it. its not just a silly pet whale im hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and secondly. people really jumping the gun on "haha skirk thinks childe weak" when she was... quite literally speaking in past tense JSJSKDKSISKDK thats ajax 14 not the current state of things. while i do agree skirks power level is still way above his to the point i absolutely do think she considers him weak from her standpoint & ways off from his true potential, id also just.... like to point out that she pretty much confirms that her view of his competence has very much changed too? like please yall

skirk, who in all the years post ajax' 3 day abyss trip made NO effort to contact or keep up with him whatsoever and stated that her disciple wasnt worth even speaking to in the past has now LITERALLY voiced the intent to assign him the task of being a messenger between herself (possibly even surtalogi) and neuvillette. and she has made it VERY clear that she views the communication between herself and neuvillette (and traveler too) as one between equals?

this isnt her assigning childe some irrelevant side quest to keep him busy but actually utilizing him for a task she takes at least relatively seriously. like wdym she still considers him the exact same as before 😭😭😭😭 like obviously childes far off from being regarded as anywhere near an equal by skirk bc SHES just that insanely powerful but seriously. to me this is as clear an acknowledgement of his growth on her part as we will get JSJSKDKFKSKDKJ

but alas. everyone loves a "ha ha childe so weak XDDDD" like they just never wanna let that one go. Man

anyway still rly like skirk!!! all im Really hoping for in the future Especially w how i feel the 4.2 narrative while overall brilliant really sidelined and mishandled the potential and gravity of the narwhal side of things is that like. PLEASE let the interlude be the continuation to this 3rd descender n skirk n childe abyss situation i am so fucking tired of khaenri'ah and the abyss order im sorry lmao

also itll be like 4 years before we ever see her in Real action as a combatant but i am already So hype to see that. especially since her powers are so abyssal and alien in nature like thats going to be So gourmet i just know it.

[moe-broey]

VIVID fucking idea I had last night....

Background info, I think Moe has some really distinct tendencies that Alfonse ends up being able to immediately identify it by (and finds a lot of comfort in doing so). One of which, is it doing a quiet, hesitant, but steady knock. Persistent, but with long pauses in between.

ENTER..... the Vision........ just. This entire sequence. "You'll never hear from me again". Into, the quiet knock only a few hours later. Into bursting in with the MOST enthusiastic, "HOLY FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Moe really is Some Type of Guy LMFAOO

Fave panels.......

[galedekkarios]

is gale actually the worst guy alive or do people just have personal issues that give them a complex whenever someone else is a master of their craft and confident about it 🤔 hmmmmmmm

[fruitsofhell]

Last reblog has me thinkin a lot about Kirby remakes. You have Kirby’s Adventure and NiD where the artstyle is so glaringly different between the two it’s like you have to choose a side. And from what I’ve seen the fandom tends to (intelligently) show favoritism towards the original NES look. 

Then you have KSS and KSSU, the base of the last post, and I find the differences between the games to be slight yet substantial. Maybe I’m just blind and all 16-bit games look the same to me, but I couldn’t even tell the sprites were different the first time I played KSSU, but after actually playing KSS I could really feel the difference. The original has a much harsher and more gritty style, that I think a lot of people feel hasn’t aged well, but atleast I still think has tons of merit. For certain characters who need that darker or more expressive touch like Meta Knight and Marx I find the old sprites more flattering in a way. And I think the garishness of the pre-rendered backgrounds SHINES in Meta Knight’s Revenge because that sort of gross clash against the usual style is heightened for a mode about Meta invading with his war ship and foreign ideals.

But that actually brought me to our latest remake in RTDL DX. And like there is nothing really WRONG with the new style, it just makes me miss the wii game. The wii game looked basic in a really charming and balanced way that I think is lost in how bright and cell shaded the new game is. The worst sin being scenes that are meant to have more dynamic lighting - like inside Magolor’s ship or in the final cutscene as Another Dimension crumbles - where the more cartoony style just doesn’t gel. But like honestly, if it weren’t for very on the nose divisive stuff like Dedede’s redesign and the character outlines, it would be very hard to make a case for the merit of the original. Just cause to the average person in every sense of the world the new game looks like an upgrade graphically - Shinier, higher detail models, fancy new animations, and the ritz.

I hope over time people do come to really appreciate the wii version’s merit in it’s simplicity, mainly cause it’s another big comfort Kirby game so any change to it made in the remake rubs me the wrong way lmao. But also I do think it has some outside of my uber personal opinions.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

so! after all this time, guess who's actually been working on getting some stuff put together for that Guild Wars 2 Mists-based roleplay group I posted about ages ago. it's still a long ways off (life kind of punched me in the face from every direction simultaneously back when I first pitched it) but I do have a moderator application in the works. I'll post that in the main rp tag once it's done.

[foldingfittedsheets]

A friend I had briefly in my teens years was this girl in Arizona. She was a junior when I was a freshman, and as I was socially awkward and very lonely she kind’ve pulled me under her wing for a while. I don’t remember how we met, but I remember riding in her car and meeting her cute miniature Doberman.

But the thing I remember most about this girl was that she loved lying to me. And I had a massive but I acknowledged crush on her so I adored being lied to. Her natural charisma and storytelling was hypnotic.

It’s not what it sounds like because it wasn’t malicious but she came up with this in depth lore to tell me about this fake job she had. I know autistic people are meant to be credulous but I truly never believed her stories, I just adored her storytelling and was very ready to listen to whatever tale she spun that day. Another of her friends chided her once for teasing me but I genuinely never minded.

In her lore she moonlighted as a Professional Liar. People would hire her to get close to a target they wanted rattled. She’d make friends, develop a strong relationship, foster a dependency on her, then disappear. Then when they were confused and missing her sometime when the employer needed their target rattled she’d show back up as a glimpse to knock them off balance. Often it was implied she’d faked her death in the interim.

That itself was fine, it was an okay story. But in order to support that lie she’d make up tons of supporting details that were way more fun. She had this fake boyfriend who got high as balls on a mission and ended up seeing a sheep in a field and carrying it to a farmhouse to try to buy it because he wanted a puppy. I liked that one but suspected she didn’t know how big sheep were.

She’d IM chat with me as this made up boyfriend sometimes; once she had him ask me if I noticed her limping and he told me she’d just lost a toe but was covering for it like a champ. That one was fun.

She told me about something she called “purple charge” which was a way to get instant night vision. I did try looking that one up on the off chance, but was sadly disappointed there.

She said that Professional Liars had such high stakes jobs that they needed a week of insane time where they just partied so hard it was like a Dionysus rave and her IM boyfriend persona implied she’d killed someone during one of those stints.

I had such a fun time with her elaborate fiction that I’d often ask follow up questions and she had to do a lot of world building to keep up with my fascination. We’d get to class and I’d have three or four new questions which I think is why her friend thought her teasing was too far. They genuinely thought I believed her but I was just loving the fiction.

If any of this sounds malicious I’ll also add that when I got harassed on a roleplaying board she went out guns blazing to go after the guy who’d been harassing me. She genuinely enjoyed my company.

I find myself looking back on our friendship very fondly. I can’t remember her last name or have any way of looking her up, but she really was a professional liar to me. The only downside is that I’m completely faceblind so if she ever wanted to pop unexpectedly into my life I’d have no idea it was her.

[vexwerewolf]

If I could ask you for some advice, what do you think helps the flavour text of a mech or piece of equipment sell a player on the fantasy of using it?

I'm finding it frustratingly difficult to do so with my own homebrew content: I can come up with lore and backstory easily enough, but re-reading it feels dry, and I can't help but contrast it with how the descrptions in official content and other supplements is more evocative, at least for mechs.

Let's observe some corebook Lancer flavour text and examine the various varieties it comes in.

Purely Functional

While it's usually not the most fun type of flavour text, this just tells us what the weapon is, and - if it has any particular tags or on-hit effects - why it's like that. The Hand Cannon is a good example: here's what it is (modified pistol), here's why it does more damage, and here's why it has Loading.

The main advantage of Purely Functional flavour text is that it provides space for other types of flavour text to breathe. Flavour text is a great place for jokes, but it's not good for every piece of flavour text to be a joke - the pauses between notes in music are just as important as the notes.

Obfuscating Vendorspeak

The Bristlecrown Flechette Launcher this is a great example of dark humour that Lancer uses quite often: marketing fast-talk to cover up something really unpleasant. The joke here is based on us understanding precisely what the equipment does mechanically, and then seeing how the manufacturer tries to sell it. There's a bunch of dense technobabble here meant to obfuscate the fact that this weapon fires knives in every direction specifically designed to kill infantry.

Deadpan Weirdness

The joke here relies on describing something extremely weird like it's the most natural thing in the world. Wait, you're telling me that in a world where I can just print new parts if the old ones break, they put DRM on my fucking knife and I have to apologise to the fucking knife maker to get a new one? What the fuck, dude? Why are you acting like this makes any sense?!

My sword uploads fucking what to the Space Internet?!

Third-Act Twist

This type of flavour text disguises itself as something else - most often Purely Functional - and then hits you with Third Act Twist. It makes you go "wait, what?!" It's very classic setup-punchline stuff. You're telling me my mech can rot?!

As a side note, Lancer loves to use this for its NHPs.

WHY DID YOU PUT THAT IN SCARE QUOTES, LUCIFER

Worldbuilding

This is similar to the Purely Functional, but instead of just describing technical specifications of the weapons, it puts the weapon in the broader context of the setting's history. Okay, so we know what this weapon is and what it does - why was it built? What was the original use case, and why? Most importantly, what can the existence of this weapon tell us about the world that build it?

Whimsical Aside

This is the insertion of a light-hearted, humanising little insertion regarding how this piece of equipment gets used in the field. This serves to remind us that soldiers aren't cold, unfeeling killing machines: they can be as emotional, irreverent and silly as the rest of us, and they do things like name their mobile bombs...

... or call resupply drones "mech snacks."

The Ominous Out-Of-Context Quote That Explains Nothing And Only Raises More Questions

As I've said in multiple textmash memes, this is basically Tom and Miguel's shorthand for "this technology is Intensely Fucked Up in a way that it is more fun and scary not to explain." This is essentially Lancer's version of SCP's [REDACTED].

You might think this is the domain of HORUS, and you'd be right, but every single manufacturer indulges in these - although IPS-N had to wait until NRFaW to get theirs:

What the fuck do you mean by that, Lancer?

[orangeocelotmartyn]

Ren talks about Rats SMP on stream

Transcript under cut

Ren: Yeah, if you haven't been able to tell, by now, Martyn and I are gonna be Pi-Rats. Check how cool this art is, by the way. Right? Like, we're chilling on a--on a ship. I can't give away too much though, you know? The lore's gotta, like, uh, build itself up over the course of the series. But what I can tell you is that my favorite pi- food is cheese pie. And my specialty is treasure hunting and smuggling. Martyn's favorite food is pie. And his specialties are fishing and (through laughter) phishing. Good. Excellent. We may or may not be in the same ship, who knows. Who knows. Also just noticed how cool this is. Martyn has, like, uh-like a pin for a sword? How cool is that? Wait, why don't I have a sword?! I'm a pi-rat also, why don't I have a sword?! Dang it! Okay, wait I have to finish the se-the social media sentence. Uhm, (clears throat, writing as he speaks) "See you soon" (he adds "fellow" in text, but does not say it out loud, instead erasing the sentence.) "Any of the"--wait wait wait, I, ooh, we can continue the lore here. (typing as he talks out loud) "Any of these-any of these rats worthy of joining the crew? Winky P face. Rat emoji." Wait, we can do this, right, (reading through his sentence again, to add three rat emojis to where he once typed 'rat') "any of these rats worthy of joining the crew, winky face, p face, RD." Um…wait. Do we drop the super deep lore already? Potentially.

Ren: Okay, we're gonna drop some super deep lore live here on the uh, on the ole…the ole stream everybody. One second. Lemme find the ole, uh…(chuckles) the super deep lore. Uhm…who says we don't do, uh, exclusive previews on this stream, eh? There we go. (reading his tweet out loud) "The Space Rat has landed! On a Pirate ship…well…actually in a box…that is a ship…but it's a ship nonetheless! Any of these rats worthy of joining the crew? Winky P face. Captain Jaque Levy Lara't." (pauses for emphasis, and to let the post sink in) Boom. Send. Excellent. So, anyway, that's the news. We're in Rats SMP. Super excited, cannot wait. It's gonna be epic. It's gonna be epic epic epic, cannot wait. It's gonna be like, a very lore heavy, uh, experience, for me? Which is gonna be sweet. Not something I've really done before, uh. And of course, getting to lore around with Sausage, and Martyn, and El, and all the other-all the other rats, it's gonna be sweet. So keep your eyeballs open, guys. Coming soon, comin' soon.

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmmm read a disciple shen yuan/shizun luo binghe fanfic about two days ago where the first chapter was the Immortal Conference arc, and SQQ was the one who had to be pushed into the abyss (he was still the villain) except Luo Binghe was refusing and was like, lowkey losing his mind about SQQ being so close to the edge. SQQ ended up having to be the one to fall in himself because of the system's punishment system. The rest of the fic is leading up to that moment. But like, MMM i've been obsessively thinking about that first chapter for DAYS ever since.

now i've been in svsss for a grand total of *checks watch* a week. but god obsessed with that. I want to write/read a fic where disciple SQQ goes a little nuts down there. Like keep all of the things that make SQQ, SQQ, but just. Throw in a little bit more trauma in there. A little bit of a mental break. Let him go a little nuts as a treat. Just a tad unhinged. I wanna see him go, just a little, "god fuck it, i've tried so hard to change this shitty story's outcome and it feels like everything i've done has been for nothing. I'm going to die in this world no matter what I do, I've been doomed from the start, so might as well die the way I want to." and he just, breaks a little! Under all the stress.

He still retains the traits that makes shen yuan, shen yuan, like his overwhelming kindness. But he's just! yk. A little less patient. Paranoid. Jumpy. Colder. A little more aloof and closed off. A little more Shen Jiu. He's no asshole child abuser, but he was a Number One Hater in his past life and he's leaning into that old habit a little more now.

(On a totally coincidental not-at-all related note, there's not enough SJ-and-SY-are-the-same-people fics out there that i've found. This is totally unrelated...)

The Endless Abyss turns the mind into an over-sharpened blade, and SQQ is both fascinated and perhaps a little excited to explore a place that doesn't have a lot of info on it in the mortal realm, but still terrified out of his mind. And he's no Luo Binghe, he doesn't have the sheer brute strength and power to just bulldoze his way through, so he has to be a lot more sneaky and cunning if he wants to survive.

The fic itself role-swapped LBH and SQQ so that SQQ was the half-demon (which lowkey fucks) and LBH the human, but I'm equally-if-not-more obsessed with the idea that LBH remains the half-heavenly demon and SQQ the human. If only because I keep thinking about SQQ befriending some demons (particularly and specifically a group of succubi) and they grow very attached to this Human Cultivator so through magic plot stuff they create some kind of seal/illusion/talisman that makes SQQ appear as a demon because a human cultivator in the endless abyss may as well be the equivalent of putting a giant neon target on your back.

And iirc Shen Jiu was taught demonic cultivation by that one guy(?? i've only been here a week so im not caught up in ALL of the lore yet) so that could totally happen here.

(On the other end of the realms, poor Shizun Luo Binghe is just. losing his fucking mind over losing his most precious and beloved disciple. About .5 seconds from burning down the peaks himself. somebody sedate him.)

The Endless Abyss sucks and SQQ is having a really terrible time and can feel himself going lowkey mad, but also holy shit look at all this WORLD-BUILDING. look at all this flora and fauna, and oh if he had the equipment for it he'd be writing all of this down. ALL OF IT. He was kinda-sorta-already planning on never leaving the Abyss as some sort of fucked up self-exile and self-preservation thing, but now he might? actually just?? never leave if he can help it, like he lowkey likes it down here.

anyways the next time anyone ever sees SQQ again he's got hair so long its almost touching the ground and he's either in rags and half-feral or he's been completely dolled up by his adoptive succubi sisters and still about three seconds from biting anyone who tries to touch him. (he's also lowkey trying to book it back down to the abyss even if he has desperately missed all of his friends and shizun)

[mr-walkingrainbow]

CALLING ALL MONSTER HIGH FANS. I JUST MET GARRETT. AND I WAS ABLE TO SCAVENGE SO MUCH LORE AND CONFIRMED HEADCANONS TO YOU. THIS IS ALL SAID BY GARRET OR CONFIRMED. I HAVE SPOKEN TO GOD AND HE HAS SPOKEN BACK

#1. Robecca and Venus were implied and ARE dating!!! He said it was like. Just like other monsters they had tried putting hints and characteristics into monsters that we could see and relate too. (He also said it outright down here. Lol I got all the proof guys!)

2. They never actually came up with Jane Boolittles Origins. And yes Dr. Morou and Dr. Boolittle raised her. But it was always a thing to them they'd say ‘oh well get back to this’. And then they never did. When asked; he genuinely doesn’t remember what they had planned for her.

3. a REALLY big mystery solved and lore dump guys. This one’s juicy. I KNOW HOW SPECTRA DIED. I KNOW HOW SHE DIED. AND WHAT THE TRAUMATIC STORY WAS FOR HER. I ACTUALLY FUCKING KNOW! Y’all ready? Drumroll…. It was, a, CAR CRASH! Yes you heard me. THE VONDERGEIST FAMILY ALL DIED IN A CAR CRASH. I think he said he she just came with her family off skirts and they got into an accident. I’ll reblog this with the video of him saying it!

4. Toralei lives in a monster high housing/boarding building when she is not attending school. This place is used for kids who do not have a place to go too, or if their home is too far to return to easily. I think there was an error somewhere where she mentioned parents? I mentioned that to him and he was very confused/didn’t remember. Reconfirmed that if she wasn’t in the monster high housing area. She would have been in either Jail or The streets.

5. Robecca was not rebuilt for 100 years due to Misogyny. Also because it had to go into the lines of her ‘mysteriously’ disappearing for her to have her comeback. I asked about how it was low key such a dark story, and he mentioned that since technically Monster high was the ‘horror’ genre. He was able to get away with things like that.

6. the Vampire Heart mystery! So remember how in Friday night frights we all see Ghoulia place a Robot Heart into Robeccas chest. Something that is very clearly not the Vampires heart? But then suddenly in Frights camera action it’s there? Well, technically that’s an official Error by the crew. He actually said he noticed it, and told management and stuff like ‘won’t people notice it?’ And they were all like ‘nah it will be fine no one will notice’. But then we all clearly did lol. He also said that because if this, he came up with the idea that the Vampires heart was ENCASED in the Robot heart we saw in Friday night frights. Ergo, explaining how Robecca had two hearts in one body! (It’s also confirmed Hexiciah placed the Vampires heart into her while he was building her. Which would explain why she didn’t remember it was their).

#7. Gooliope Jellingtons Origins. I asked what her origins were. And basically, she DOES NOT have any parents. She was CREATED IN A LAB. Which apparently didn’t treat her right. So she ESCAPED the lab and ran away to the circus! (Or blobbed away?) because he also confirmed, she was the blob. Or based off the blob. She wasn’t actually like. The daughter of the blob. She WAS the blob itself.

#8. Kiyomi Haunterly is Gay! I know this is was already somewhat canon and said before. But I asked and he confirmed it that she was in fact, Gay. And he tried to show it in her diary.

#9. We’re reaching some only implied/supported things. Not fully confirmed or intended. But Kala Mer’ri has BPD. I asked about if she has anything like BPD cause I relate and saw that a lot in her. He replied that he did try to make attributes for each Character specifically so we could related to them like that. And that it was to also make sure every character wasn’t a carbon copy of another. Basically. He didn’t like. Outright say ‘yes. She has bpd’. But he also didn’t disprove it. And he reacted positively to the idea and supported it.

#10. Robecca Steam has ADHD. It’s basically the same as above. Although he did like the note that I (someone with adhd) specifically had the same traits with Robecca, even more specifically, that we both are ALWAYS late. And can never keep track of time to save our unlife.

11. Dedyet DeNile Origins. He actually completely forgot about Cleo’s Mother eventually being reunited. I had asked how she had ended up in that same weird time loop Tomb thag Hexiciah was stuck in. (Which they were eventually freed by Robecca in her SDCC diary). He said he completely forgot about that. And genuinely didn’t remember anything about it. I basically re-explained the whole thing and he was very interested. Unfortunately. Not to much origins to go on.

11. here’s a canon one! What happened to Aamanita Nightshade after she left the DeNiles in the tomb. It was kinda funny, but he basically was like ‘Amanita went up and was just like ‘Peace!’’ And then never came back.’ She goofed around a bit, buuut it wasn’t entirely like her fault? She quickly went back to sleep after breaching the surface. So yeah. She was not awake for long. She quickly went back into flower mode until she woke up again at the Gloom and Bloom party.

12. He’s working on another one of his Monster prints! He sells them on his online shop here

He’s currently working on Toralei!!!!! He said he was working on her on the way over. And that he was trying to go in Order of the G1 doll releases. He mentioned he had only done Skelita out of Order because she was like ‘that one’ who was INSANELY popular with fans when she came out. Especially in Mexico. It’s also why she was the only Funko pop made who was not part of the main ghouls.

13. Random. But he actually didn’t create each backstory individually by himself. In the beginning he did A LOT. Like Frankie was the first backstory he ever created. And it got more help and divided as more and more characters were introduced.

14. he has read every single diary for every monster. Cool little fact cause DAMN theirs a whole bunch of them.

15. everything in the Ghoulfriends book series is CANON in the monster verse.

And that is ALL FOLKS! I had held those questions in for about 7-8 years. So it was everything to me to have them answered and confirmed! I really tried to ask everything that was a huge mystery to us monster folks. And I hope you guys are excited to see all these new CANON facts!!!

I’m sorry if this is not everything. Just like Robecca. I forget stuff pretty easily. I’m wracking my brain for every little detail. Unfortunately my father didn’t record as much as I would have liked. But he did get some perfect key moments! And I’ll make sure to reblog with those moments as proof of confirmation!

I love y’all! Make sure this goes viral so every monster high fan gets to hear the news!

Signing out, I’m Tumblr Spectra Vondergeist, and I report the news.

[bonus-links]

I got the notification the comic updated this morning like RIGHT as I had to start working! Needless to say, my excitement got me through the day (and had such good payoff omgg)! Thank you for sharing your work with the world, it brings such joy to so many people!

But directors commentary? 👀 I gotta say I love it equally as much as each update!

🎶two months without uploading they come back with a side conversation that takes up a whole update🎶 jokes aside uh. most of the rest of this chapter is going to be like this. sorry. bonus links is an excuse to have link legend of zelda philosophize at himself for 1000 pages probably at this rate

I rewrote this conversation a BUNCH. there are versions of it that are much longer, where they actually talk a bit abt the master sword— I really liked those versions, but I decided to save some of that for later. my goal was to create a convo where they both are sort of dancing around what they mean, but they come to an understanding anyway. I think Slate and Wake have a lot in common that they could bond abt.

Here’s an important note about Slate’s character: he does not lie. he says what he means. He will, however, prolifically dodge ur questions lolol

some notes from the script I left for myself abt Wake’s expressions, hope I was able to capture them lolol

Wolf playing with the kids! This was an important detail for me to include lolol tho I nearly left it out bc I was having trouble staging this update. I wanted to build more of a connection between him playing w the kids on the island and him playing with the kids in Ordon, but there’s just not time, and the last update already kind of covered that emotion. Wolf is a really quiet guy, so I’ve been doing my best to build up his character in the bg even if he hasn’t gotten center stage yet. A lot of ppl commented on how this is the happiest we’ve seen him so far, and that was the intention!

Just wanted to call attention to these cute lil faces.

Loft continuing his streak of falling asleep at every party he’s ever been to. alas, no partners to carry him home this time :-(

Lore abt the triforce mark has been inconsistent from game to game. Like usual, I’m sort of cobbling together my own interpretation from ideas I like— so, in this instance, the triforce mark isn’t just from having at one point handled the triforce or possessed a piece of it, and not everyone has it.

I am obsessed w the hero of time statue in wind waker. It is such a striking image, and that section of the game is one of my favorites from any Zelda game. I am also obsessed w how Wind Waker approaches itself as the aftermath of oot. I am really excited to put Wake and Mask in the same room lolol. as a side note, statues really are becoming a motif in this comic huh

That’s abt all I’ve got for now! Thanks for reading!! I really hope the chapter has been enjoyable so far. We’ve got a little while left to go, despite my best efforts to keep this chapter short 😩

[maingh0st]

i know i'm not the first to say this, but the acolyte's cancellation has confirmed how tired i am of disney's decision-making when it comes to their content. i know nostalgia is the easiest way to a big payout, but we can only take so many spinoffs before the universe starts to feel too small. but then fresh content—content that's building on the canon by looking to old star wars lore while asking new questions—fizzles out.

it's the sequel trilogy all over again. we're promised something new, something that actually expands the canon rather than just recycling it, even bringing in concepts from legends, and then the rug is ripped out from underneath us & we're punished for ever caring about any of it. silly babygirl! palpatine was always the big bad (don't worry about the fact that this is thematically nonsense and not foreshadowed in any way), and rey isn't a nobody ("your parents sold you because they loved you"), and this isn't a story about how the force transcends human categories and dynasties (represented by a grey jedi force dyad between a legacy skywalker and a nobody orphan from a backwater planet, fulfilling not only balance between light and dark but also transcending the old to become something new). silly idiot!!! rey's a palpatine by birth and a skywalker by self-adoption and god forbid she create her own identity outside of these names our fans recognize. watch as she stands alone on a sand planet that has no personal significance to her, ending her arc almost exactly as she began. but look!! two suns! neat

i don't even know if fanservice is the right word. at a certain point, it just starts to feel like they're quaking in their boots at the thought of doing anything new. i had my gripes with some of the choices in the acolyte, but at least it was unique. it explored a new era and asked questions that star wars has only ever flirted with. like: what happens to the children who are uprooted from their homes at such a young age, yet can't find their place in the jedi order? how does one survive in a supposedly honorable system that nevertheless relies on the repression of some of humanity's most fundamental emotions? is it possible that an organization dictating exactly how one ought to interact with the very life force of the universe... could perhaps be faulty and shortsighted? what happens when the ways of that order clash with other cultures and worldviews? (spoilers: space colonialism). and that's not even to mention the ideas they play with re: the force itself (vergences! plagueis! force witches!)

i know not everyone loved the show, but a lot of people really did care about it. a lot of people, like me, were excited to see these new questions being raised. but forget it—the disney gods have decreed that it didn't hit some magical threshold of streaming hours or reach a "broad enough" audience in the two months it's been out. but don't worry guys. turn your brains off and tune in for the next spinoff 2 chewy 2 bacca