#ghosthounds

[noctether]

calcharo x aalto [ @asterisque ]

He’s never going to let Aalto know about it, but Calcharo does like to babysit Encore. The girl is fun to be around, and contrary to what it may seem, she does obey when told no. That, and he can manipulate her with food, which works pretty fine to his end as well. So, when he got a message from Aalto to drop by his office, Calcharo was already thinking about how his weekend would be spent playing with dolls and making sure that Encore doesn’t burn the house. He even passed by a shop where he thinks Encore would like to go, obviously forfeiting the bill to Aalto afterwards. And guess what? They have enough place the weekend, he doesn’t even have to make a reserve.

The work he just left behind was as driver. Calcharo has a lot of gigs, making ends meet is always a big affair to someone like him. He’s no longer dying poor, but the man has spent so long time worried about money that now he goes restless when he doesn’t have anything to do. Hence why he even ventured in the babysitting market.

Basically, Calcharo is a man with many talents.

Dressed like a chauffer (given that he was one, too), the white-haired male made his way to Aalto’s office. This is not new, to be called to Aalto’s new office instead of his home, so Calcharo didn’t suspect a thing. The man has a motorbike that he treasures a lot, and doesn’t really fit with the suit he’s using, but alas. You can’t be fashion always. When he gets to Aalto’s office, Calcharo knocks on the window to make his presence known, before rounding the building and entering through the door. “You better have cookies stocked up if you want me to take care of Encore for you,” warns the man sternly, as if it is impossible to fulfil the task otherwise. In a way, that’s exactly what it is.

[monster-noises]

tagged by @corvidaeus! three albums I've been listening to recently! I don't really.. listen to full albums that frequently but the latest ones I've run through!

give 'er a go if you wish! @pointofknowreturn @trout-scout @roccobears

[kaapstadmk]

The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound has an end in sight. I repeat, LoRG has an end in sight!

2458, just 100 chapters away. Puddles, you beaut, you've done it!

By comparison, the Wheel of Time, the single longest book series I've read, has only 705 chapters. The Bible has just 1189 chapters.

To be honest, it's kinda surreal. I'm anticipating it feeling like I did after I finished Memory of Light

[random-bookquotes]

Though… for the truly terrible experiences, that time would remain within you, endlessly looping, endlessly heavy, dragging at your sanity… It was almost as if… there were two parts of time. The time you experience and the time that passes…

Noret Flood, The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound #3

[thefandommind]

Thoughts on the Sphere: Spoilers for the later books and Spirit Oath ahead

Headcanon at the end.

So in the universe of Eli Monpress, the world described has some interesting key points-and I'm not talking about the magic system, or at least not rn. Here's a list of my points of interest and then I will expand.

There are three main continents mentioned: the main landmass the story is set in which isn't named but is of course known as the Council of Thrones. Then there is the "unknown continent" from which the Empress conquered and came from. And then lastly the "Northern" continent that is entirely ice tundra, where only packs of ghosthounds thrive. {side note, what the hell do natural ghosthounds hunt, they are huge canines that hunt in packs, and they only eat meat. Mammoths? Gin has a greatly described love of pigs, headcanon there are giant woolly boars in the ice cliffs of this world. In fact checking this post, I was reminded there's singular mentions of things called "black armored pigs", a" feathered lizard", and an "enormous red and gold stripped cat" that is some sort of crossbreed. I love it.}

was gonna try and make this list from most normal in fantasy worlds, to most interesting, but I've already run out of normal-THE SKY IS A LIE.

The sun and moon exist and have purpose. First, while I can't find any mention of the moon being noted as in crescent (i could just be blind), at some points it is described as "full", meaning it does have proper cycles. {I found it later, it does at one point get described as half moon, I was fucking right.}

The sun rises and sets, that's obvious, but the moon helps dictate the months. but then again, the sky is a lie, its just the inside of the Veil, the Weaver made it so. We see that not only is the blue sky part of the Veil, but the sun too as it gets torn by demons. (shout out to the poor lady who overheard me describing this phenomenon to my friend as "the sky is tearing itself apart in fear")

Now this is obviously the Weaver remembering the "before times" with the Creator. {don't worry I'll circle back to this.}

Moving on, the Sphere itself doesn't have stars in the sky, it's explained-"before times" and all that, but it obviously has a "sky". it also has a fucking "bottom".

Now you may have picked up on the fact the spirit world is effectively Flat Earth, now, I am no expert on flat earth, and spirit world is of course not earth (see; all of the spirits, the animals, and yk its fiction). But here are some notes I have regarding flat earth and the Sphere.

First, the Sphere is described as having a bottom, via the bedrock, and magma, this is when Benehime's watching over it. Then Slorn at one point is described as looking down-through the ground, through the mountains, through the bottom and he looks at the dome that is similar to that of the sky,(duh its a sphere its in the name. SO unlike flat earth, isn't a fucking coin with a sky dome, its more like a complicated Minecraft skyisland inside of an orb that is of course later revealed to be the last haven of Creation floating in a sea of demons which have devoured the universe.

Breaking up the text to make the horrible explanation, that instead of it being high fantasy skyblock, it's instead like if all of Creation is Earth and the Milky Way and every star in the sky being its own galaxy-was the world of Horton Hears A Who, and then demons ate everything in the world but Horton and the Speck, and that Speck and all those Whos is the Sphere and the spirit world. Then that Speck gets knocked off its flower and finds it's way to a snowflake and that's how you tie in Jim Carrey's Horton the Elephant being the Creator and Jim Carrey's Grinch is Benehime metaphor for the Spirit World being so tiny and depressing in the larger scope of the universe of demons.

now that's all just to over explain the world building that's presented to us in the books, plus a silly ramble that came to me in the first hour mark I spent typing up until this point. but here's the actual post.

The concept of there being a dome to the sky, is a very medieval concept, very fun system, but I bring you the concept of seasons.

Seasons don't exist in the Spirit World. Source, chapter 7 of Spirit War, when the Shaper Mountain tells Miranda he remembered back when there were seasons and stars in the sky. But you can probably sus it out by the then as months pass in the story, yet no descriptions of the change of weather or daylight associated with time passing.

I find this deeply depressing and so so beautiful. The implications.

Humans in this world are younger then the seasons!

That means the sun doesn't change even with the moon changing, the Weaver lets the moon wax and wane from memory or on vague description, but the sun doesn't change. There's no solstice, imagine solar eclipses happening because the moon is preprogrammed but the sun rises and sets with absolutely no inconsistency.

With no seasons, there is no Harvest. Yeah there's farmers and crops, but they don't have a deep freeze of any kind to prepare for. So no reason for fall festivities. No winter solstice, no darkest day of the year, no winter festivities.

With this world being kept in memory of a normal creation with planets, the Northern continent is tied to a pole that doesn't exist. There is no reason for it to be so cold, other then the frozen spirits that live there need to be cold. Same with every other climate. The weather is decided by the Wind Courts and only them, because they need to function.

SO. There are people, in this world, who haven't traveled. And they have never known the climates then the borders they live in. And then there are our main four characters, who are all very well traveled.

Imagine their first trip to the Sleeping Mountains, their first time seeing snow. Because it doesn't fall anywhere else in their entire world.

My personal headcanon involves Josef, because while he is obviously well traveled by the storyline, I like to believe the first time he saw snow was that first trip to the mountains. Eli had been there before, he already know what snow was like, and by then he has his lava spirit. Josef is from the tropics, and Eli is a teasing jerk (little shit). And what adds onto this idea is that him and Eli had made camp in the mountains (perhaps not the Shaper Mountain but its neighbor hooding slopes), and Josef had made his way to Nico when she crashed.

I'd like to emphasis that moments (hours maybe?) the mountains had been screaming, the entire League of Storms and the Lord of Storms was in battle with the Daughter of the Dead Mountain. The noise, the freezing rain, the panic. It goes quiet when Nico is defeated and laying on the mountain. And then Josef shows up, and then brings her back to camp, Eli nowhere to be seen.

You can infer from this that Eli heard the demon panic, or at least knew the mountains were shaking, there was a hell of a thunder storm (Eli has also met the Lord of Storms many times, he could probably recognize that spirit just a Nara could being the Favorite and all), and then in the echo of the worst of it, something crashes loud enough for them to discern where it was, and Eli was like FUCK NO, if you want to go out there and find out what that is, it's your funeral, you'll be lucky if i go searching for your frozen corpse in the morning. And he stayed at camp with his nice warm dry spirit.

And then an hour later Josef came back with a bleeding naked lady. That was somehow out there, and related to the huge fucking crash. And Nico's demon had abandoned her completely so it could hide, so say they found out she was a demonseed a little bit after she recovered from her wounds, which she also has no memory of. So Josef went out into the snow and came back with just a random girl with brutal injuries and no memory, probably freezing, and Eli canonically didn't press for information or question it. And then the rest is history.

Now again, we're imagining this happens in the same trip in which Josef experiences snow for the first time, and Eli has been giving him shit for it constantly.

Cut to Eli using Karon to warm up a strange girl he has no explanation for meeting, and he has to just be nice to her and give her all the attention he can, cus the only other option is look at Josef and he can't. How is he ever going to recover from this night. Josef is sitting there, concerned but also glaring I told you there was something out there, you said calm your tits Josef it's just the snow you don't understand you'll freeze-and I told you so every time Eli catches his eye.

thoughts?

[dedicatedfollower467]

i have to share this because i'm just so FUCKING proud of it.

this is ghosthound. or possibly a ghosthound. i haven't decided yet.

[toberkus]

whoopperss finished ghosthound custom, character commissioned by F0XL

[eccentric-nucleus]

i am reading more about yudkowsky's whole forum thread fiction thing and it is both wild and very predictable that i guess after the success of hpmor he mostly just wanted to write more progression fantasy fiction. this is what we need to do to save the world from ai. hpmor 2: now with more of the author's sexual fantasies.

like. it really does seem like he is exactly the target audience for all the progression fantasy stuff, in that he seems to sincerely mostly engage with fiction on the level of "i like it when the main character wins and is smart b/c i am vicariously projecting myself into the main character". like, self-professed, in his writing tips!! and now that i know enough about the genre to have that as a reference point wow i cannot imagine anything more damning than saying "yr celebrity ai futurologist super loves progression fantasy litrpgs"

somebody should link him to randitly ghosthound or smth.

[menemennpastirma]

Ghost Hounds - Last Train To Nowhere

Lyrics: Fayetteville Gets Hot In The Summer And So Does Baton Rouge Never Bothered Me Much ‘Cause I Never Stayed Long Always Just Passin’ Through Never Did Meet My Father Never Did Have No Son So When My Time Is Over Oh, My Name Is Dead And Gone

I’m On The Last Train To Nowhere And It’s Runnin’ Right On Time I’m In No Rush To Get There Riding To The End Of The Line I’m On The Last Train To Nowhere Just Like I’ve Always Been I Was Raised And Born There And I’m Goin’ Back Again

Loved A Dozen Women In A Dozen Ways But I Can’t Recall Their Names Tried At First To Make It Last But All Hearts Are Made To Break I Took My Licks At Just Layin’ Bricks And I Worked The Land For A Spell And All I Got Is What They Gave And A Couple Good Stories To Tell

I’m On The Last Train To Nowhere And It’s Runnin’ Right On Time I’m In No Rush To Get There Riding To The End Of The Line

I’m On The Last Train To Nowhere Just Like I’ve Always Been I Was Raised And Born There And I’m Goin’ Back Again

Last Train To Nowhere And It’s Runnin’ Right On Time No Rush To Get There Riding To The End Of The Line I’m On The Last Train To Nowhere Just Like I Always Been I Was Raised And Born There And I’m Goin’ Back Again Last Train To Nowhere, Last Train To Nowhere

#music #rock #bluesrock #rocknroll #GhostHounds #LastTrainToNowhere

Source: https://youtu.be/4Ejlj8PGbo0?si=VR1u-T5mj3LywyB-

[sidrial]

Pick 1 album and discuss.

If you don’t recognize any of these, listen to at least 2 first. I will add music 🎶 links in the comments.

#Alsmusiccafe

Episode 154

7 23 23

#TheCure #Prince #GhostHounds #TaylorAustinDye

[witchofanguish]

omg randidly ghosthound ended two months ago...

[full-moon-ships]

Ghosthound nation where are you!!!!

[cowardsword]

I still think about a web novel I read like two chapters of probably 5+ years ago now and start giggling because the MC had such a goofy fucking name.

Thanks for the laughs, Randidly Ghosthound

[thefandommind]

Holes and Muscles

So on this good day, I would like to discuss a scene in Spirit End, the fifth book of the Spirit series, and then the further implications.

To set the tone of this post, the general strengths of each of the four main characters are heavily described.

Josef is a heavy hitter, he does most of the lifting in the trio's heists, he's portrayed as the brawn of the group.

Nico has superhuman demon strength, as well as pure strength of spite.

Miranda has a mental, emotional, and magical fortitude like no other, and also gotta have some sort of athletic ability with her riding skills (cus listen I can lift a lot but if you think I could hoist myself onto a full sprinting ghosthound you'd be sorely mistaken).

And then Eli is shown to be, stronger then he looks, but is obviously not intended to be the strong man, that's what he has Josef for. Brawns and wit, its a group effort. But that's not to say he's weak, as such this post would be very different.

SO. Eli is a sneak, a cat burglar with too many dramatics involved. And it is implied that while he doesn't show it often in the story line, he is a skilled climber and possible parqourist. [I'm using Gueseppe Monpress' "clawhook and line" throwing skills in Spirit Rebellion as experience using a grappling hook for climbing. And Eli's two window escapes in Osera in Spirit War. He was really climbing all over that palace looking for Nico too.]

This leads me to a hole at the bottom of a cavern under the Council of Thrones. Spoilers ahead as usual.

Summery of the context, Eli's mother Sara has him arrested and after they chat a bit she sends him down to her only dungeon. Which is my favorite kind of cell, an oubliette. A deep cell set in the ground, it's only entrance a trap door at the top. (Oubliettes can have a way up and down, or they don't. In Spirit Rebellion, Miranda gets shoved into an old drain well that is repurposed as an oubliette and it has no way up or down.)

This oubliette has a ladder built into the side of the hole, and also surprise! his father at the bottom.

When Eli first attempts to make his escape from this cell, he is described as hanging upside down by his legs and tapping on the door. And this boggled my brain when I first read it. Because Eli shows here a great deal of flexibility and strength.

"And with that, he started to climb the iron rungs hand over hand, leaving Banage staring dumbfounded as he vanished into the dark.

Twenty minutes later, Eli was starting to wish he had been a little less cocky. He was hanging upside down under the circular door, knees looped over the second rung of the metal ladder for support while his hands ran over the door’s overlapping rings of polished steel."

and then moments later,

"He flopped back, dangling from the wall by his knees so the door wouldn’t have the privilege of seeing him fume. This just made the door cinch down tighter with a haughty clink, and Eli gritted his teeth. Yep, definitely a jerk door."

This paints a very clear picture for the set up of the oubliette. But Eli's position might be a little confusing.

Luckily while I am not the world's greatest thief, I do have a convenient wall mounted ladder in my house, and a little brother. So let me explain.

We tried several angles and ideas, and could somewhat replicate Eli's position, with his legs looped through the ladder and pressed to the wall, and his arms to the trap door. And not for a lack of trying, couldn't hold a position, let alone think while doing it- and most definitely not for 20 minutes.

We even tried other ideas like being propped in a sitting position with our arms up, instead of this laid back position.

But the second description I have supplied from the book, describes him hanging from his knees upside down, and to get into this position, the wall opposite the ladder has to be far enough away for you to lean back. So if he's trying to get a feel for the entirety of trap door, which covers the whole hole, this crunched position doesn't give you the reach. And since neither I nor Sqweeptaint (an alias) could properly do this hold, here's a quick drawing.

And with that, I remind you Eli Monpress did this without a care in the world, for 20 minutes. The core strength and flexibility needed to do this is fucking insane. And that's the post.

Eli would make one hell of a pole dancer.

[juhnkit]

Motivational Music in the Morning ... #GhostHounds, #LastTrainToNowhere ... From the Album #LastTrainToNowhere [Official Audio Track] (2023) #MMitM1