#confluence boards

[bio-stims]

a stimboard for our headmate aurora 🩷

credits: x x x | x x x | x x x

[echidnana]

was just thinking about how we view our gender and it's sort of strange. like it's something there's gender there but it isn't like.binary or even a mix it's like an animal

[scarlettohairdye]

Home Ownership Was a Mistake

This is for @trickybonmot, who may or may not use some of these stories in a fic.

Okay. So.

In the year of our lord 2010, my wife and I were lucky enough to be gifted $20k by my parents, which in those days (given it was a historically low point for real estate prices in Seattle) was enough for a down payment on a house. It was an astounding confluence of luck and privilege that led to us being homeowners, because if they gave us the same money now it would go precisely nowhere.

Anyway, it was not enough money for a large house, or a fancy house. We looked at a lot of places, only some of which were move-in ready (and one of which was absolutely just a tear-down) and eventually settled on our current place, which is a 1910 bungalow with a detached garage that was finished and turned into a studio.

Was it the most aesthetically pleasing house when we bought it? No. The walls were white, the carpet was light beige, and the paint had seen better days. That said, it was move-in ready and the owner was pretty desperate to sell, so we took it!

The inspector let us know that some of the wiring was still the old knob-and-tube, so we'd want that updated sooner rather than later, but it looked pretty good. About half the outlets were grounded, so it didn't stop us from plugging in three-prong appliances. We just had to use more extension cords than maybe we'd prefer.

The Electrical

The first big house thing we paid for was to have the entire place rewired. Our circuit breaker was a mystery, we didn't have enough outlets, and we were tired of being stuck with specific layouts of our stuff due to the lack of grounded outlets. We were expecting about half the wiring to be up to code, and the rest would need an update.

Spoiler alert: HAHAHAHAHAHA.

The rewiring took about a week, and every morning the electrician sat down with us and told us what new fire trap he'd uncovered.

"Yeah, so the knob and tube wiring going to the lights in the ceiling? Knob and tube gets hot when it's running, and yours is under three layers of insulation."

"You know how you thought your outlets were grounded? They weren't, actually, the ground wire just went elsewhere into the house and wasn't connected to anything."

"So there's wiring in your crawlspace? Whoever put that in nailed some sheets of wood paneling over it, so we had to rip the wood paneling out to access it."

I think the job was about $15k when it was done, we had many many more outlets, and our house was no longer one bad day from lighting itself on fire. Victory, I guess?

The Studio Window

This was leaking a bit, and we knew it was leaking when we moved in. (South facing walls get all the weather in our region.) We were not handy enough to replace it ourselves at the time and we also didn't have money because I got laid off shortly after we bought the house and was making my living doing costume commissions. Solution: Trade costuming work to an acquaintance who did carpentry.

The window, we discovered, was not so much a finished window as it was a single sheet of glass sandwiched between some boards.

Badly.

The carpenter was not entirely she that she was qualified for the job, but she did manage to remove the single sheet of glass and replace it with a window that was insulated and actually capable of opening. She used caulk around it. It was way better than we had before. Maybe someday we'll have both studio windows replaced by a contractor who actually does windows, but this is not that day!

The Siding

The cedar shingles were no longer cutting it at a certain point, so we had the house resided. (Houses are money pits, in case you didn't know.) This was a $30k job (MONEY PIT!) and had several layers of badness.

Bad: Our house had no insulation. It was cedar shingles over the original siding, with nothing in between that original siding and our INTERIOR WALLS. There was occasionally a newspaper. Our PM asked if we wanted insulation? And we said yes, please!!! We did not have a lot of time to think about insulation or research the best type, so it's just sheets of the pink fiberglass stuff in there, but it exists and we have it now!

Worse: Underneath our laundry room was a horrorshow. The laundry room is an addition that was added to our house probably sometime in the 50s? And, uh...

Well, the siding guys pulled off the siding, took a look at what was under it, and immediately called the project manager. The project manager came out, took a look, and then called us. He said that the siding guys thought it really needed to be reinforced and stabilized before they re-sided it, which is very fair, because I think the people who built it originally were drunk when they did it. It was a fucking Wild West cowboy construction situation under there.

Yes, you heard that right: A LOAD-BEARING SHINGLE.

Our project manager also informed us that the siding guys couldn't do the reinforcement, because they're just siding guys. They don't do structural. This is very fair.

It also needed to be done by Monday so we could stay on schedule for the siding work.

We learned this on Friday.

I immediately called my general contractor dad and got his voicemail, because (I remembered belatedly) he was in Mexico getting dental surgery. There was absolutely no way we could get another contractor out to do the work over a single weekend.

It was up to us.

My wife and I (mostly my wife) went HAM on it. We rented big jacks from the tool library to prop the laundry room up while we replaced one of the entirely rotten support poles. One of the big telephone poles was so wrecked with dry rot we could kick it out of place. (It didn't even touch the BIG ROCK that was supposed to be its foundation!!! It was floating!!!) Several of the joists were also fucked, so we ran new joists alongside them and married them together. My wife dug holes while crouched in a 4' high space, filled the holes with gravel, compacted it by putting a piece of wood on top of it and hitting it with a mallet, and then installed an entire additional support system from 4x4s and deck blocks. She actually attached the support system TO THE FUCKING HOUSE, which was a big improvement from the way it was originally held on by vibes and paint.

Here's a tasty little before and after:

(Yeah, see how that visible joist at the front just... stops at the far left? There's a new joist right behind it now.)

This was completed with resounding cries of, "Good enough!" and "It's better than it was before!" The siding guys thought it was fine and sided over it. Someday hopefully we will be able to afford to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it with a properly poured foundation, but in the meantime the spin cycle on the washing machine no longer shakes the whole house. Victory?!

Ridiculous: The purple paint saga. My wife and I are lesbians who tend toward maximalism in our decoration style. Construction companies find this baffling. We paid extra to our siding company to get the extended color choices (if you order the siding with the color baked in it lasts longer, but you're limited to a particular range of colors) and spoiler alert: 90% of them are boring as fuck. We basically paid extra to have access to 400 shades of white and 400 more shades of beige. There were like three saturated colors in the whole book. Pathetic.

Anyway, we chose the one nice teal that was available and decided we'd paint the door purple, since all the purple colors were gray at best. The project manager then forgot to put in our order, and when he remembered he'd forgotten, ordering our siding through his company would have pushed back the start time by six weeks. We could still make the original start time if we ordered through a different company doing the same thing, though!

Me, immediately: And we wouldn't be restricted to your color palette, right? Him: Yeah, they can do custom colors. Me, slapping down a color card called "Fully Purple": MAKE IT PURPLE.

Bless this man, he went to the siding company and asked for Fully Purple. They told him they couldn't do that color, and also is he sure anyone wants this color? He called them on the phone and informed them yes, we did want that color, and also that he'd worked for them and he knew damn well they could do that color, they'd just have to custom mix it, so they needed to do their fucking jobs. Suitably chastened, they finally sent us a sample of the siding, and it was... okay. It was purple for sure, but a little de-saturated. Not the purple of our hearts.

I asked if they'd actually started manufacturing our siding yet or just sent the color sample. The project manager confirmed they hadn't, and if we ordered this imperfectly-purple siding now, it would be several weeks before we could get started.

"We're gonna paint," I decided, and our project manager put in the orders.

The paint store called him and said, "Hey, are you sure you want this color?" Yes, he assured them, that's the right color.

The guys doing the painting opened up the can and then called him and said, "Are you sure this color?" and he told them yes! They want that color!

At this point I told him he should just start responding with, "They're lesbians!!! Yes! They want the purple! They're lesbians!!!"

Eventually we cleared every hurdle god and the construction industry put in front of us, and now our house is Fully Purple.

It also has insulation, wiring that won't kill us, and a laundry room that hopefully won't collapse anytime soon. We got a heat pump installed that took shockingly little time and worked immediately, and our next project will be having the roof redone. Check back in to find out what fresh horror awaits us then! I think it'll be a second roof under our existing roof made of lead and asbestos tiles, probably!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

I wanna get back to working on Dark Confluence, but I think I also want to overhaul what sort of structure it has.

I think the basic d6 mini-pool stuff is still fine, but what if I added a sort of semi-map crawl element to it.

The "narrative structure" of the game was something I never quite cracked, so maybe it's worth going back to the drawing board a bit.

[inkspottie]

Hey heyy, thought of a question that i hope doesn't go into spoiler territory, but how does the crystal create the hivemind effect? Apologies if you've already covered this xDD (i will admit i'm guilty of skim reading and horrible memory at times) But i was thinking, could the crystal be some kind of really weird/strong quartz? Because it's used in a few things and usually used with some kind of electricity, and i've noticed a few things that kind of link with that kind of thing across confluence and vicissitude Anywho, take care of yourself!!

The crystal is the one in charge. You’re just a drone, a soldier. You are plucked from a position and brought onto the board, and then thrown back when you are ‘killed’. Anzu has described it like being in an ocean of souls, trapped in a fishtank unable to breach the surface. Your voice intwining with many until you’re brought back into your body, but instead of being able to control yourself someone else does it for you.

Chained in the back of your mind while this entity moves about, trying to gather more in her web.

As for the composition of the crystal it’s essentially not a true crystal since it’s apart of an eldritch being, but if I were to compare it, it would be a weird hybrid of quartz and tourmaline. Fun fact about tourmaline, if can release a sort of static shock if squeezed/heated/stressed under a certain pressure!

But ye, more information will come out about things but this is sort of the non spoilery side of things

[sweetpea-sprite]

I think about that fairy who travelled worlds because he was running for his life a lot

no literally it's so funny. how did he do that. like the golden grove is pretty close to the confluence so if the door between worlds was open, sure, but it's NOT. it's CLOSED. like did he reopen it himself? did the sages close the door between worlds just by like actually boarding it up

[stillness-in-green]

thoughts on the new chapter? you said before spinneraki is a pillar in the story and i think this chapter continues to be evidence of that

For these two anons who asked for them, have some Chapter Thoughts, 411-version. Herein can be found two big chunks of musing about, respectively, OFA & Shigaraki and the Shigaraki+Deku+Spinner confluence, as well as the usual handful of stray thoughts.

(I'm also going to throw in a few last minute thoughts about plot events between here and the last chapter I had a post on, Chapter 392. They'll be off-the-cuff and not comprehensive; feel free to send an ask if there's anything specific you're curious about, though I can't at this time promise e.g. the twelve thousand word essay on why the AFO vs. All Might fight sucks rocks.)

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 411: History's Greatest Villain

OFA Vestiges vs. Shigaraki Tomura

Shinomori remains my favorite OFA bearer by a large margin; I enjoy how his quirk allows him to be the one bearer with his act together this chapter.  I also like that him being the vestige that actively chooses to sacrifice “himself” for the good of the rest of One For All makes a nice bookend with my preferred headcanon that he was the bearer who had the power forced on him against his will.      That said, it is a bit ironic that Danger Sense surely had to rank right up near the top of OFA quirks that it’s most dangerous for Deku to lose to Shigaraki!  Like, throw Shigaraki En or something; Smoke Screen’s not going to let Shigaraki do anything Deku can’t counter with Danger Sense!  Sacrifice Nana; Deku and Shigaraki both already have ways to keep aloft enough.[1]  So I appreciate both the display of Shinomori’s instinctive heroism and the dramatic choice to deprive Deku of such a key component of his defense, after god knows how many chapters of dramatic choices I pretty much hate across the board.      1: That said, it does look like the person Shinomori shoved most directly out of the way was Banjo, his own successor, which speaks to their bond and also spares Deku losing a crucial quirk, as Black Whip has been his main way to exert any control at all over the battle with Shigaraki and is also helping keep his arms braced.  As someone who wanted those humerus consequences after the first war, I say, “Go, Shigaraki, go!  Get the Sixth next!”     

My god, the rest of them are such a mess this chapter.  Very funny, actually.  Shaking my head at them in there talking about how to “bring down” Shigaraki, who they know good and well Deku wants to help.  “Our entire reason for still existing!”  No, Bro Bro, you existed solely to take down All For One, which Bakugou et. al. have neatly taken care of for you.  The only other purpose ever given to you was to save people, but I guess you’ve already forgotten that.      Seriously, I love the discord this chapter, the panic and fear, particularly from the youthful En—watching that unified will crumble in the face of Shigaraki’s hatred is a wonderful balm to all the times I had to suffer through seeing commenters elsewhere on the internet blithely taking it for granted that One For All could never be stolen just because All Might said it was so, laughing it off when Ujiko promised Shigaraki otherwise.  My villain fan agenda aside, though, it’s also a rare highlight for Deku that I like, which I’ll circle back to.     

Regarding Shigaraki with Danger Sense, I know there was some discussion of whether he’d be able to fully utilize it against Deku when Deku wants to “save” him.  As giving Deku that out would have been the story yet again undermining the villains’ fairly won victories (and as Danger Sense has been so wildly inconsistently written that Horikoshi could have gotten away with practically anything), I’m pleased to see it’s working as intended!  That said, you probably could have some interesting discussion of exactly whose “intent” Danger Sense is picking up on.  Deku may want to help Shigaraki, but e.g. Banjo, Bruce and Kudou certainly don’t seem to want that!  Given how explicitly Kudou was synonymizing quirks and wills back in Chapter 369,[2] and particularly given that Shigaraki can perceive the vestiges now, it wouldn’t surprise me if their wills are bleeding over into Deku’s usage of their quirks.      2: I.e. the “gaslighting the readership about the historical usage of meta-ability terminology” chapter.     

I do wonder if this is set-up for Shinomori—and potentially other quirks as well, including any more OFA vestiges Shigaraki manages to snag!—giving us a tired retread of the “quirk vestiges mount a resistance against their unrightful bearer at a critical juncture” moments we saw with AFO, but I suppose that’d be what Shigaraki gets for trying to steal bits of OFA after saying previously that he didn’t care about it.  (Sigh.)

    

Deku, Spinner, and Shigaraki Tomura's "Personhood"

I appreciate Deku pushing back against Shigaraki’s dehumanization, though it does not escape me that he directs that pushback to Shigaraki himself, not any of the voices inside Deku’s head calling Shigaraki calamity and ruin incarnate, and certainly not any actual humans on his side in the real world.  It smacks of the same pattern heroes always fall into of leaping to castigate villains for things they tacitly ignore in their own allies.  Still, it is at least spoken aloud, and to Shigaraki’s face, which is a pleasant change.     

I swear to Christ, if after all this time Spinner becomes a bridge between Shigaraki and Deku after all, I am going to be so damn smug.  Albeit in different contexts, I called that years ago, and lo and behold, here we have Shigaraki, accused of having no friends, self-dehumanized, and depersonalized by Deku’s allies, immediately refute the point by bringing up his best friend of his own volition, tying his destruction to someone outside of himself.      While Deku hasn’t connected the dots on-page yet, he certainly can’t have missed it, though it remains to be seen how much about Spinner Deku actually knows/remembers from their encounter at the training camp—that encounter long being an important part of my reasoning that Spinner could, via his and Deku’s shared respect for Stain and desire to help Shigaraki, find some common ground.      Moreover, we get Deku flashing to Uraraka—as well he should!  Since Uraraka is the only one who managed to unearth some empathy for her designated villain foil without a familial or fated connection to them, she deserves to feature prominently in Deku’s attempts to connect with his own opposite number.     

I do wonder if we will yet get a flashback to the mall scene.  Honestly, Deku could have kickstarted his connection to Shigaraki all the way back then, when Shigaraki functionally laid his damage out in front of Deku like fine china, only for Deku to grab the first excuse anyone gave him to write it off and forget about it.  The story could probably get away with not reminding the readers of that—after all, Shigaraki hasn’t really changed his grievance since then, just expanded his invocation of blame!  His monologue at Jakku is just a refined version of what he said at the mall encounter, so the only reason to flash back to the less developed take is to have Deku vocalize that he could (and should!) have been wondering about Shigaraki as “a person, too” this whole time, instead of only coming to do so after their mindscape encounter.      Acknowledging the gaps in Saint Deku’s Miraculous Saving Instincts would go a long, long way towards softening me on the narrative BNHA’s been trying to sell me on its main character.     

Anyway, three cheers for Spinaraki; they never fuckin’ lose, do they?  It’s particularly gratifying in light of the way people on Twitter were speedrunning the shift from dismissing Spinner as unimportant to criticizing him as “toxic” as it became more and more clear that saving Shigaraki was going to be more complicated than just dealing with AFO.  People really thought that if Deku could just lay all the blame for Shigaraki’s anger at AFO’s feet, then he could just wipe it away, eradicating “Shigaraki Tomura”—who was never really a person anyway, just fifteen years of grooming and coping mechanisms—and leaving behind only sweet, innocent, undemanding Shimura Tenko.      But if Shigaraki was carrying anger for others, blame for wrongs that couldn’t be attributed to AFO, suddenly that narrative got messier.  Suddenly the League needed to be Bad For Each Other, needed to be separated for their own good, redeemed by the grace of their designated student foils—and nowhere was that trickier than with Spinner, who didn’t have one, and whose every flashback post-war made it clearer and clearer that he had a relationship with Shigaraki that went beyond the League’s stated purpose as an alliance of Villains to bring down Hero Society.      The tidier version of the story would still be salvageable if Shigaraki didn’t really care about Spinner more than anyone else in the League, if Spinner’s devotion were one-sided, if Shigaraki didn’t determine to share Spinner’s grievance.  If Spinner’s problems aren’t Shigaraki’s problems too, then Deku doesn’t have to address them.  And but so, the mad scramble to invalidate the connection by any means possible.      But then here comes Shigaraki not just mentioning Spinner, but mentioning something Spinner wanted that Spinner never even told him about on the page, meaning either Shigaraki was paying close enough attention to Spinner to simply intuit it, or he and Spinner had an off-page conversation about Deika where Spinner in all his insecurity was able to admit to Shigaraki that he thought his horizon was beautiful.  And not only does Shigaraki remember this, he dedicates his destruction of Mount Fuji to Spinner and the horizon.      Not so one-sided after all, is it?     

That all said, of course it’s also worth asking if Spinner actually wants the horizon anymore.  Judging by his tormented inner reflections when striving to reach Kurogiri, that doesn’t really seem to be the case.  At the end of Spinner’s strength, what he truly remembers and treasures is the time he and Shigaraki spent just dicking around talking about video games���just being friends.  Spinner wants Shigaraki to get what he wants—but if they’re both just crediting That Beautiful Horizon to each other without realizing it’s not really about what they themselves want anymore, where does that leave them?      One suspects that was one function of the possession plot—keeping them from talking to each other freely and being able to figure that out themselves.  As it is, with the possession plot seemingly off the table, at least for now, that brings us back to Deku and his resolution to reach the humanity in Shigaraki Tomura—a humanity that Shigaraki just helpfully signposted by referencing his friend Spinner.      So how long until we cut away to find out where the Rooftop Trio and Spinner have gotten off to?

    

Stray Thoughts

Re: Mount Fuji, Horikoshi’s grasp of travel times remains as totally unhinged as ever.  Someone who can make rudimentary animations needs to use that battle map volume extra to demonstrate exactly the distances that would have to traversed by All For One, U.A., All Might and especially Lady Nagant and her bullets in this final arc for them to keep arriving where the story needs them to be.     

I see the artistic indication is very much that Shigaraki can just spread Decay wherever he walks now.  That’s both wonderfully evocative for the embodied destructive divine impulse he’s nominally become and also a bit amusing, because if you can unlock a touch-based quirk to spread through your feet, maybe Overhaul’s not out of luck just yet after all.  XD     

Good riddance to the mask!  As others have pointed out, it’s modelled on All Might’s smile, and is therefore the last thing Deku should be wearing right now, given that Shigaraki has specifically expressed, to Deku’s face, that he hates All Might’s fucking smile, “As if there’s no one he can’t save!”  Hope Shigaraki gets that damn cape next, such as is left of it.

    

Events Up To Now (Chapters 393 - 410)

The resolution of the Ochaco vs. Toga fight is very solid emotionally, though hampered by yet more nerfing of Toga's power set to make sure she can't do all the damage she should logically be capable of doing, as well as a lot of incredibly tiresome shoehorning in of mentions of Deku just to make sure everyone gets how Not Homo it is for Ochaco to tell Toga she's the cutest girl in the whole world. But I love that Toga remains unrepentant and faithful to Shigaraki to the end. I will turn a lot less nice about this if Toga turns out to have actually died here, however.      (She should have gotten to stab fucking Hawks.)     

The All Might vs. AFO fight sucks rocks. The mech suit makes a nonsense of All Might's primary arc post-Kamino, it's flatly irreconcileable with his characterization throughout the Edgy Deku arc, it leans on a bond with the 1-A students that he has entirely failed to earn, and it parades their identies and power sets out in front of the world with absolutely zero indication that he ever asked them if they were okay with that. As an answer to the "quirkless hero" question it is purest sophistry, laughably detached from reality.     

The world's reaction to the All Might vs. AFO fight sucks rocks. The return of Wishing Energy is the obvious point of note, but I prefer to focus on how patently ridiculous it is that across the multitudinous barriers of age, language, culture, politics, national attitude, wealth level, and views on heroism, everyone in the world who watches the battle and gets into it enough to really pay attention is magically able to intuit that the man in the black military hardware suit injecting acid into the underclothed twelve-year-old is the "Hero."     

Kunieda is a delight and he and Aoyama should have had history going back to AFO's sway over the family.     

Shigaraki is great when he's getting actual attention, but as part and parcel of the AFO vs. All Might fight sucking on such intergalactic levels, it made Shigaraki awful, too, reducing him to generic last boss counting-his-evil-chickens-before-they're-hatched gloating. Praying we see no more of that going forward.     

It is extremely headshaking in retrospect that the Heroes actively acknowledged during the planning process for all this that they would prefer to engage with the AFO persona in Shigaraki than Shigaraki himself, the Heroes then find out during the battle that AFO is trying to get to Shigaraki with the specific aim of reawakening said persona, and yet the Jakku team, All Might and Bakugou still blow interminable fucking chapters on preventing AFO from doing the exact thing that would get them back the persona they explicitly stated it would be preferable to deal with.     

Edgeshot continues to be Just The Worst, not even having the decency to wait until the endgame to confirm what I predicted back when the nonsense about repairing Bakugou's heart first came up: that, "You won't be able to come back from this," is a bald-faced lie intended to ratchet up tension, one that would be rolled back the instant the danger was past and Bakugou could be gotten to a proper hospital room.     

AFO's backstory is the laziest of lazy dreck. The new information soundly deprives Yoichi of the marginal amounts of agency he had previously managed to suggest he exercised, conflicts with what's been previously implied about the brothers' personal history, fails to reconcile the child AFO with the man we met in Deku's dream prior to Joint Training, and reduces all of the interpersonal drama between AFO, Yoichi and Kudou into nothing more than a reason for Bakugou to inspire fear and distress in BabyFO. (See @robotlesbianjavert's post and Nal's tags on it here, and @codenamesazanka's post here.)     

Omni-Factor Unleash is a retread of Kamino AND Overhaul's minion forms AND Akira-fied Shigaraki. You guys, I think maybe Horikoshi is Bad At Coming Up With Final Boss Attacks.

[archivist-crow]

The Haunted Atlas

Deane House - Calgary, Alberta, Canada

51°02′43″N / 114°02′44″W

Haunted manor home with a violent history in Calgary, Alberta. The Deane House began as a luxurious private residence and is now a historical site with a restaurant.

History

The Deane House began as the vision of Superintendent Captain Richard Deane of the North West Mounted Police. At the turn of the 20th century, Deane was sent to the rough frontier town of Fort Calgary, located at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers. The existing superintendent's home at the fort was not good enough for England-born Deane and his wife, and so in 1906 he had a new home built. Construction cost was $6,200. When finished, the new home was the best residence in existence for someone in the mounted police.

Tragically, Deane's wife never got to live in the house, or even see it. She became ill and died in Lethebridge, Alberta. Deane lived in the manor home and performed his duties until the fort closed in 1914 and the land was sold to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Deane went back to England. The railway company demolished all of the fort buildings except the house, turning it into a residence for the rail station agent. Within a year, the company moved the entire house to a different location on the property.

In 1929, the rail company sold the house to C. L. Jacques, an entrepreneur who moved the house again, across the Elbow River. The engineering job was remarkable for the time, and the move was featured in the media. In its new location, the Deane House became a boarding house and descended into seediness. The violent chapter in the house's history began.

In 1933, a suicide occurred there. A 14-year-old boy who suffered from epilepsy became despondent at the tauntings of his schoolmates and ended his own life in the attic. He lived in the boarding house with his father. During World War II, the house became infamous for prostitution, and military personnel were ordered to stay away from it. Jacques sold the house in 1943 to Alex Brotherton, who continued its operation as a boarding house.

A gruesome murder-suicide took place there in 1952. A man stabbed his wife to death in front of their two children and then killed himself. There are unconfirmed reports of other murders. A man was supposedly shot and killed on the front porch, and another man was said to be murdered inside.

Natural deaths occurred at the house too. Brotherton's daughter, Alfena Cunningham, died there in 1965 and Brotherton himself in 1968.

The house deteriorated, and in 1973 the city of Calgary stepped in and purchased it with the intention of restoring it in time for the city's centennial in 1975. A studio for artists and a teahouse existed there until the early 1980s. It then became what it remains today.

Haunting Activity

Stories of ghosts had been associated with the Deane House and grew during the 1960s and 1970s. An exorcism was performed in the 1990s, but ghost stories persisted.

The parlor of the house, now a bar, is one of the most active areas. The smell of pipe tobacco has been reported, even when no one is smoking. It is believed to be a sign of Brotherton, who used to like to sit in the parlor and smoke a pipe. Some visitors have seen his pipe-smoking apparition sitting in the bar. A nonworking telephone in the bar rings by itself.

Also active is the attic, where the epileptic boy committed suicide. Storage cupboards have a stain on them that resembles blood, which cannot be washed away.

The ghost of a Native American is seen in the house; no one knows his identity. He appears wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a vest; his long hair is tied in a single braid. One visitor saw the apparition in the basement. The man told her she should not be in the house because the site was sacred.

An apparition seen during the 1970s was that of a man in a black cloak, visible to the knees, who walks down the stairs and out the front door.

Other phenomena include an antique piano upstairs that plays by itself, the sounds of footsteps, strangely moving currents of air, as though someone is walking past, and objects that move about on their own.

Text from The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Third Edition by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Checkmark Books - 2007)

[fairest]

AGAINST AUTOTHEORY aka THEORY TEXT AS WILLING DILDO

As this confluence with autofiction illustrates, the reduction of theory’s mediations down to amiable oozing incorporates the niche of academic knowledge production into the booming personalist genre industry. Moreover, autotheory comports as dexterous academic labor, projecting a fantasy that courting extra-mural audiences can make up for downsizing in the intellectual professions. Its vulnerability enkindles senior academics bored of theory’s many funerals, imagining eager readerships in a great beyond, and ignites younger academics searching for openings in an economic and professional landscape of foreboding foreclosure; its elasticity bodes a space for young academics to create work and find recognition even though the university as an institution has largely expelled them. Gigification of academic labor crams academic production: manifest your individual take in your individual style with this short-term teaching contract here, this Substack subscriber there. In this way, autotheory must be seen as efflux of a context in which theorists with fair labor conditions like tenure encounter their dire lack of peer audience, and theorists without fair labor conditions hustle for crossover appeal to eke out a living.

Aphoristic form props many of these texts thanks to its elliptical dance of vaporescence and glut, simultaneously pausing and flowing, at once crystal and aporia, snubbing and solicitous. They disrupt linearity, argumentative progression, and academic citation, boarding tiny theses absent plodding hallways. Pushing prose poems like other writers in the literary milieu, these genre melds are charming, accessible. We are drawn out of the realm of abstraction and solicited into a lyrical presence, a seductive proximity that subtracts the medium of theory’s abstractions and generalizations, achieving immersion. Reclining into life-writing, recoiling from argumentation, such retreats attain great resonance and beauty even as they whittle away theory’s distinct value, and recode theoretical knowing from revelatory to idiosyncratic. Immediatist theories posit a smooth continuum of body–experience–knowledge; bolster reflexive, passionate attachments as more legitimate than reason; refuse “symptomatic reading” in order to immanentize content. “It is what it is,” immediacy theory incants.

Such frolicking provocative insurgence of sensuous stimulation against linguistic or conceptual sense erects the theory text as willing dildo. It is bold in its shedding of academic composure, compelling in its self-disclosure, and titillating in its seductive posture—although decidedly unsexy. These are acute and perhaps even vulnerable performances, insuring in advance that assessing them critically would amount to some kind of mean violation—and that seems indeed to be the very point: to be so effulgently bare and corporeally vivid as to preclude distance-taking or concept-making. Immediacy as the unambiguous transmission of affect from author to reader, autonomic responses imagined untainted by the symbolic.

— Anna Kornbluh, from Immediacy

[bio-stims]

a stimboard for our headmate tsunghan!

credits: x x x | x x x | x x x

[bigsoftmarshmallow]

Here's hopefully a fun one (and thank you for answering the last one!):

Culture is a big thing for me because it's what I studied in school. So I spend a lot of time thinking about how cultures and their languages engage with each other.

Everyone struggles with some word or words, even words in their native language. Words from a foreign language can also throw a wrench in the works. I, personally, have given up on ever being able to pronounce 'charcuterie' or 'worchestershire' correctly. Facts of life for me.

We see the various 'Dorfs speaking flawless Hylian in every game he's in. But there must have been *some* word or phrase that would have given each of them pause. And because Ganondorf is Ganondorf, his pride would not allow him to ever look the fool or admit that he can't do something. Especially not over a silly word.

So my question is: which word or phrase would cause each 'Dorf to stumble? And how would they hide this/what workarounds would they use for that word? (Think using 'fancy fingerfoods board' in place of 'charcuterie', for example, or entirely avoiding a niche subject in conversation on the off chance *that* word comes up.)

I enjoy talking about the hypotheticals and what ifs of the Demon King! Thank YOU for asking and adding to the hyperfixation!

This is a neat one! That is such an interesting study! OwO What drew you to Cultures and languages?

I unfortunately only know English at best, 'Merican at worst. I am trying to learn Spanish and German, maybe get back into hand signs when I lack the ability to speak (Morning me is nonverbal for at least an hour. I know eat and drink in Sign, that's it.) So thinking about Ganondorf doing this sounds so humanizing and cute!

I'm pretty sure that as a Demon/Otherworldly Being, Demise just knows the languages and how to speak them, but he's here too... being nosy...

************************************************************************

It's intriguing to think about how each Ganondorf and Demise might struggle with certain words or phrases. Given their pride, they'd likely develop clever workarounds rather than admit any difficulty. Here’s how I imagine each might handle such challenges:

Wind Waker Ganondorf

"Allegiances": With its tricky consonant clusters, this word could trip him up. He might prefer to say "loyalties" or "alliances" instead.

"Cartographer": Navigating the seas, he’d need to discuss mapmakers, but the word itself could be a tongue-twister. He might opt for "mapmaker" or "navigator."

"Archipelago": A key term for someone ruling over a world of islands, yet the complexity of the word might make him say "island chain" or simply "the islands."

Ocarina of Time Ganondorf

"Chivalry": The concept might be foreign, and the word itself cumbersome. He could sidestep it by using "honor" or "warrior code."

"Pomegranate": A luxurious fruit that might be part of his banquets, but the word itself could be tough. He'd describe it as "red fruit" or avoid it altogether.

"Camaraderie": A concept he might disdain but still discuss, he could swap it with "brotherhood" or "fellowship."

Twilight Princess Ganondorf

"Symbiosis": A scientific term that might not be common in his vocabulary, he'd likely use "mutual benefit" or "partnership."

"Luminescence": Describing the eerie glow of twilight, he might replace it with "glow" or "light" to avoid the word.

"Chandelier": A word he might struggle with in describing grand halls. He'd instead call it "light fixture" or "ceiling lights."

Hyrule Warriors Ganondorf

"Telekinesis": Given his powerful magic, he might need this word, but its structure could be tricky. He might just call it "mind control" or "magic force."

"Strategem": A word he might need often, but its pronunciation could be a challenge. He'd opt for "plan" or "tactic" instead.

"Broadsword": A staple weapon, yet the combination of sounds might trip him up, so he'd just say "sword" or "blade."

Tears of the Kingdom Ganondorf

"Confluence": Discussing where things meet might be necessary, but he might replace this with "meeting point" or "joining."

"Lamentation": A word steeped in emotion, but its complexity could make him prefer "grief" or "mourning."

"Choreography": Perhaps in discussions of ritual or performance, he’d avoid this by saying "dance arrangement" or "movement plan."

Demise

"Reincarnation": A term important to his story, but with complex sounds, he'd prefer "rebirth" or "return."

"Invincibility": A concept he might embody, but the word itself could be a mouthful. He’d use "unbeatable" or "undefeatable."

"Subjugation": A key term for his rule, yet he might find it cumbersome and instead use "conquest" or "domination."

Each would likely avoid these words or find simpler alternatives, carefully steering conversations to maintain their dignity.

[gatorinator]

College is wild I love Canvas discussion boards. Can I share with you all. The greatest paragraph ever written of all time.

“In the context of Tesla, the electrifying confluence of autonomous hyperbolic quasar-driven innovation has sparked a cosmic dance of superluminal singularity, transcending the boundaries of the ordinary and propelling us into the unknown reaches of the automotive omniverse. As self-driving quasars engage in quantum-turbulent fusion, the very fabric of vehicular reality is rewritten, and the symbiotic algorithms of self-aware electrons harmonize with the aurora borealis of sustainable propulsion. In this Tesla-verse, the galactic autopilot orchestrates symphonies of orbital trajectories, while the bioluminescent dashboards whisper secrets of electric enlightenment. As the flux capacitors of disruption continue to warp the space-time continuum of the automotive industry, Tesla steers through the wormholes of possibility, navigating a path where past, present, and future intersect, making the unimaginable reality”—my classmate

This is the greatest thing I’ve ever read.

Does he realize? Does he know he’s written the greatest piece of satire to grace this good world? Does he take pride in the fact that he managed to say absolutely nothing in 5 sentences?? Did he choke as he swallowed the thesaurus? Also he did not answer the prompt at all

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Crews? Homebase? Headquarters?

Been thinking a lot about Crews in Blades/Forged in the Dark, and how I want to play with those ideas in Furry Crime Game (sidenote: I really need to come up with an actual title for this game before that sticks permanently).

The general idea of Crews in Blades "exist to create a legacy that will last beyond the founding members" (p. 91, BitD). My personal view of Blades is that it has a lot in common with Darkest Dungeon - its just as much about the moment to moment, zoomed in character-play as it is (maybe even more so) about the zoomed out progression that happens through the Crew and the world around the players.

Characters in Blades are not designed to stick around for very long. Stress, harm, and trauma pile up very quickly. I fondly call the game a "meatgrinder" and I'm not joking! Unless you are the most cautious player, your PC is going to get shredded (and cautious play is just not nearly as fun in Blades, it is way better to embrace the meatgrinder experience and go for it).

So anyways, Crews stick around, forming your table's legacy, while your characters get turned into ground beef. Got it. But, in all my experiences of playing and running Forged in the Dark games (which, most of them adopt very similar "meatgrinder" experiences to Blades, everyone seems to care waaaaaaay more about the characters over the Crew. Its very easy to forget about the Crew, when you're focused on your cool little Crime Guy that you want to keep alive as long as possible, because little crime guys are fun.

Now, I like Crews! I think they're an interesting piece of design and fit very well into the whole engine of Blades in the Dark. But for the style of play I love (character focused vs legacy focused), they can feel a little too "board game-y" to engage with.

Compared to Blades, I'm planning on having PCs in Furry Crime Game being a bit more sturdy than their BitD counterparts, so the design space for a lasting "legacy" isn't as important. But! The idea of having this shared advancement, that progresses as the group of PCs also advance is fun.

So, where I'm at right now is some sort of headquarters/homebase that the PCs all share that gets upgraded and evolves over time (building on ideas from Blades' turf mechanics I think). Actually, I think whatever this HQ thing is going to turn into is going to involve folding a lot of Crew and turf tech into one thing. The hard part will be making it feel like a character that the table wont forget about lol.

I think tying some new downtime actions to the HQ is an interesting way to go. @temporalhiccup's Twilight Throne has some really fun downtime actions that are great at setting scenes and exploring character relationships. So, creating downtime actions (which who knows, could maybe be upgraded as you play) that take place specifically within the HQ and provides a framework for exploring the HQ as a "character" and also for exploring your character (and their relationships with the other characters), feels particularly fruitful.

Still a looooooong way to go on designing this game, I really need to finish Dark Confluence first, but I think it's gonna be very cool once its done!

Here's a little peek at the doc's outline as a treat though.

[maddymakesgames]

Hey if you like complex economy board games please try sidereal confluence. Theres a really good tts mod if you prefer that to physical games but my game group has started meeting to play again and its so much fun.

[ur-promethean]

it’s one of the more obvious hints in confluence (mostly bc anyone whos read contact harvest would Get it) but i still liked getting to explain the pilot’s flying skills as an advanced autopilot assistant in the pelican, one that has just a little bit or cortana trapped in it after she got silent auditorium’ed. the shard isn’t really self-aware or recoverable, but still intact enough to realize john is on-board. this isnt to dismiss the pilot or anything, its just he’s an engineer and theres a couple maneuvers he pulls off that don’t seem feasible for him to do alone. however, w the aid of a somewhat-sentient shard of cortana, who is very, Very familiar w chief’s affinity for jumping out of moving ships, it becomes a lot more likely LOL

[prozd]

my favorite things this year

Best Games I Played in 2022

1. Yakuza Kiwami 2

2. Pokemon Legends: Arceus

3. Vampire Survivors

4. Pokemon Snap

5. Kirby's Adventure

Best Shows I Watched in 2022

1. Ranking of Kings

2. We Are The Champions

3. Space Battleship Yamato 2199

4. Murderville

5. Aggretsuko 4

Best Movies I Watched in 2022

1. Turning Red

2. Shoplifters

3. Everything Everywhere All at Once

4. Luca

5. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

6. On-Gaku: Our Sound

7. Drive My Car

8. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

9. Jackass Forever

10. Glass Onion

also good: Bodies Bodies Bodies, Nope, Belfast, Barbarian, Uncut Gems, The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Board Games I Played in 2022

1. Clank! Catacombs

2. Forgotten Waters

3. Long Shot: The Dice Game

4. So Clover

5. Rolling Realms

6. Tyrants of the Underdark

7. Sniper Elite: The Board Game

8. Sidereal Confluence

9. Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold

10. Paleo

also good: Ark Nova, Eclipse: Second Dawn of the Galaxy, Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, Smartphone Inc, Aquatica, Dinosaur Island: Rawr n Write, Super-Skill Pinball: 4-cade, Flamecraft, Iki, Kanagawa, Trapwords, Insider, The Guild of Merchant Explorers