#i basically run on a cycle of 10 things i'm interested in

[yayasvalveplay]

(This is basically a weird little thing that's been on my mind for more than 10 minutes so I'm slinging it into your inbox to exorcise it from my thoughts. Warning for presumed, but no actual, non-con)

Been reading some older Transformers works and some of them have this interesting concept I haven't really seen in more recent works of budding. It's parthenogenesis for cybertronians! Basically if a bot is getting plenty of energon and-- because horny logic prevails here-- has plenty of charge running through them from self-servicing- there's a rare chance a tiny bit of their spark will bud off and make a little newspark no sexual partner required.

Enter Primus's Most Special Little Mech: Orion Pax. Energon? I saw the way he smoothly snatched up those energon cubes from those cogged bots and started munching. That was Not his first time doing that. On good cycles he's better fueled than even some cogged bots. Charge? Orion is our self-service king! (He may or may not have constant Thoughts about his pretty golden-eyed best friend. But Dee definitely doesn't think of him that way :((((( so Orion is stuck with his own servos)

So. Yeah. Orion buds.

But! It's such a rare thing even among the much better treated cogged bots that when a cogless bot starts getting a little rounder in the middle, budding is not how people think that little sparkling ended up in Orion's gestational chamber.

Which, makes Dee Feel Things. The thought that Orion went out and let some other bot touch him, put a sparkling in him--!! Definitely some negative thoughts. But when asked about it... Orion is really insistent that he's not carrying. Even when the evidence is right on his frame. He's really insistent that it's impossible.

Discomfort grows in Dee's frame. Orion's... really in denial about the whole thing. Not just that he's sparked, but that any sort of sexual activity happened to make that sparkling to begin with.

Was Orion...?

So he snoops around. Because I like them, he even enlists the nosiest and the most analytical bots he knows, Jazz and Prowl, to see if they can figure out what happened. And through a combination of rumor mill maneuvering, schedule look-ups, and getting way too into other mech's businesses... it was literally impossible for any of the other miners to have done anything like that to Orion.

But maybe not for a cogged bot.

How often did Orion come to Dee with a wild story of a close call escape from Archive guards? He'd laugh off the danger, but anything, Anything, could happen if he was caught. What chance would a cogless miner have trying to fight off a mech twice their size?

Or... maybe the danger was closer to home. Darkwing made it no secret how little he cared about how those under his supervision felt and how physically well they were, so long as they did their jobs. Could he have...?

Orion's just lowkey having a rough one. Not only is he pretty sure he has some sort of tumor growing in his midsection that is definitely not being helped by his weird cravings for rocks and even mining equipment sometimes (gotta get those physical materials), but everyone's been really weird lately. First they're telling him he's pregnant when it's literally not possible, but now his friends are treating him like he's made of glass. Dee even really emphasized multiple times that Orion could tell him anything at all. That it would be okay. That Dee would help him in anyway he can.. Which. Uh, that last bit definitely did not help how weirdly horny he's been lately (gotta keep up that charge!)

I just think if Orion pulls a robot Jesus moment, he should also have the chance to pull a robot Mary and give virgin birth.

Plus it's my guilty pleasure for there to be misunderstandings where people think something happened because of an initial conclusion and now they're subconsciously interpreting every action as supporting that conclusion. Like, Orion is clearly denying he's pregnant because he's got trauma and is blocking out the memory and not because the guy has no actual clue how he could possibly be sparked!!

Okay, strange dpax demon haunting me has been vanquished via sharing this with you. Goodnight!

Hi welcome to me getting to this days later.

But ohh I love this idea so much. Dee thinks Orion got raped, and is traumatized. Not wanting to share with him what he went through.

Only for Orion to be very confused. Because what are you talking about Dee. He hasn't interfaced with anyone. His seal is still intact.

Really his fingers can only go so deep.

God's can you imagine giving birth but you'd seal is still intact. Baby would be big enough, considering it's cogged. But Primus it'll hurt badly.

Imagine him giving birth during his shift. The mines keeping him safe as he gives birth to a copy of himself.

Or, or Dee gets so jealous Orion isn't telling him anything. He suggested that they interface. He is doing it for selfish reasons of course. And breakes his seal. Deposeting his transfluid into his forge. (Though I guess that would break the whole virgin Mary motif is Dee fucks him. Eh what do you think?)

Either way I want Op to suffer. Not realizing he Is indeed sparked and everyone else wants to strangle him for being so stupid and recklace while being sparked.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #543

I went to bed on time last night, but I still woke up feeling pretty groggy. It's been like that for a while now. I know I've said before that it can take weeks or even months to recover from a sleep deprivation injury or even a small disruption in one's circadian rhythm; it has to do with the way cerebrospinal fluid clears out debris from the brain while we're out, and the fact that this cycle runs on a hormonal timer. I know that the airplane trip was basically a month of sleep deprivation and circadian rhythm injuries that I'm probably gonna need a while to recover from. The 5 days on the way back, basically constantly on the move, were also very unhelpful, I'm sure.

...It's somehow both humbling and heartening to witness my own ass getting kicked by the very same mechanics I've already written to you about. On the one hand... I'm definitely not fucking invincible, holy shit. On the other hand... it's interesting to see and experience these mechanics play out in real time, even if the results kinda suck.

…

...I braided my hair real quick, got dressed in my work clothes, shoveled some leftover macaroni and cheese into my face unceremoniously, drank a glass of water, scrubbed out the inside of my face so I could put my braces back in, and headed out the door. The 10-minute drive down the road was uneventful. But on the way in, one of the gentlemen who tends the carts in the parking lot told me he loves my beautiful rainbow owl-cat hat, and that he recognizes it now, and looks forward to seeing it.

...That was kinda nice.

I was lucky enough to have both Tr and Ka working with me today!!! I haven't seen Ka in a very long time, between the trip and her just... generally being out. It was wonderful to catch up with her, but... she's having a bit of a hard time. She has a friend, and... that friend's father, who is a black man, was found... hanging from a tree.

…

...The people involved are trying to call it a suicide. But... I'm not convinced. Given the historical context... it seems possible that it was a lynching, especially given that times are what they are right now. In the past, shortly after slavery in the United States was outlawed, a lot of white people who were very angry about it liked to get together in mobs to intimidate black people in their communities by hanging black people in trees. They'd get hanged like that for all manner of very small so-called “transgressions”, such as looking at a white woman in a way they didn't like. It's only been about 160 years since those days, and... these sorts of hate crimes never really stopped. Not really. Maybe became less common. But they never really went away, which is... more than a little bit fucked up.

...I'm not a black person. I'll never fully understand the terror of living in a world that wants me dead just for my skin color. I understand living in a world that wants me dead for my genitalia, for my sexuality, for my neurotype, and for my life experiences, and I can maybe draw empathy from that place, but... it's still not quite the same as what Ka and her family have to go through. I can kinda hide my neurotype and almost all the other stuff I mentioned (except for being female; my voice gives me away). She... can't. Not that she should have to. Not that I should have to. But the world at large is more dangerous for Ka than it is for me or Tr. So... when Ka expressed fear for her life and her children's lives because of this potentially targeted thing, and Tr tried to say that she knows exactly what it's like because she apparently fears for her children's safety every time they go outside... I gently reminded Tr that, although traffickers and random people with malicious intentions exist, it's still a lot less common than race-motivated attacks on people, and that although yes, it is wise to worry about her children while they're out and about, no one is gonna come after them just for their skin color.

Tr got kinda quiet after that. Ka... thanked me for sticking up for her. Though I wish I didn't have to. Tr is a lovely and kind human being, but... sometimes she can be blind to her privilege, and that occasionally puts holes in her ability to empathize. I have faith in her ability to learn and do better, though.

I mostly put cookies on trays and packaged baked items today. Check it out:

There was one extra s'mores cookie leftover, still warm and delicious. I remembered how delicious it was when I first tried it – back when I was using my braces as a retainer for a bit. But... I am not using them as a retainer anymore. I cannot eat the warm, gooey cookie. Or even any fresh croissants. Not wanting the warmth to go to waste, I asked Tr if I could package it up and give it to An, of the meat department. And she said yes! Picked out a suitable container and everything.

Well... I got there. And An wasn't there; he wasn't supposed to come in until noon, I guess. But Ad was there. So I left Ad with the cookie, asking him to give it to An. And... Ad said something like, “I will, and I'll let your boyfriend know that you came by.”

…

...I froze for a second, panicked. An is very lovely, but... he is definitely NOT my boyfriend. Likely never will be. And so. Like. I tried to say as much. That it's impossible, though not because there's anything wrong with An, but... because I'm not...

...Sigh. Look. I'm a chubby, awkward dweeb. I'm under no illusion that I'm even remotely desirable, and I'm not arrogant enough to think that An would want anything to do with me in that capacity. If anything, he probably thinks I'm weird and kinda dumb. So. Yeah.

...I tried to say all that. But... I was frazzled and it definitely didn't come out right, and... I probably just incriminated myself further. Goddammit.

...So I ran back to my own department, probably looking like a freaking lobster because my pasty Irish/Nordic ass blushes like crazy when I'm flustered. I buried my face in Ka's shoulder for a moment and whined a lot from the sheer level of embarrassment I felt.

I feel ridiculous and stupid for this nonsense sense of squishiness I feel for An to begin with. It is WHOLLY UNWARRANTED and WILDLY INAPPROPRIATE. The fact of the matter is, even after all this time, I barely even know An. He is not some adorable thing to be coveted; he is a human being to be known and understood, if he'd even allow that. Whether or not I am someone who could meet his needs, and whether he is capable of meeting mine, and whether he even wants that... these things have to be considered and evaluated VERY carefully. Because if you don't, then you end up hurting people. And I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that to anyone.

…The squishiness will NOT rule me. It will NOT be the driving factor for my interactions with An. I will simply continue to treat him with the same warmth that I treat anyone else who I happen to feel safe around. To do anything else is unfair to him. I will NOT do to him as has been done to me in the past. I won't do it. I won't...

He's a human being, not some fanciful daydream.

…

According to Tr, An did get the cookie I had intended for him. Apparently, Ad teased An, too, effectively saying, “your girlfriend brought you a cookie”. Apparently, another gentleman, Vr, stuck up for An, saying, “don't be jealous because someone wants to give him cookies and not you!”

…

I wonder if Ad is feeling left out. But... Ad doesn't usually visit the bakery like An does. So that doesn't make sense to me. Nonetheless... maybe I'll get Ad some cookies. Maybe then he won't feel left out.

I went home to find J bustling about the kitchen, making a cake, some bread, and some crackers, which was pretty rad. And... still feeling groggy and somewhat frazzled, I took a nap with J, and that seemed to help, some. Shortly thereafter, I wove a couple more wishes to life for you:

And... I guess that brings me to the here and now. Woo.

...And how are you doing? Have you put any more thought into yesterday's words? I wonder...

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. But... maybe instead of finding out, I'll be intentional about deciding how it will go. I hope that you, too, will be intentional about how your tomorrows go.

I love you so much. Can you feel it, even from an entire reality away...? I sure hope so. And... I sure hope you act on it. You deserve your own love. You deserve a love that is soft and kind, while still holding you accountable for your occasional bouts of nonsense. We all do. We all deserve a love that helps us become out most favorite self.

Be safe out there. Treat yourself like you matter, because you do.

I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[the-apocrypha]

Was tagged by both @tj-dragonblade and @pellaaearien in a "get to know me" type meme. So, for anyone interested!

What's the origin of your blog title?

I changed my fandom handles in 2014, and thought that "apocryphal" was very fun because it encompassed both my religion major, and because technically fanfiction meets certain definitions of "apocryphal texts" as well. I'm apocryphal on AO3 and discord, but unfortunately, it was taken over here on Tumblr, so instead we have the-apocrypha!

OTP(s) + shipname(s)

Um. Right now I'm still pretty firmly in Sandman (Dreamling), though I have put precisely one little pinky toe into Arcane (Jayvik, predictably).

Favourite colour

Blues, greens, and purples!

Song stuck in your head

Cruel World by Active Child

Weirdest habit/trait

Um. I have dermatographia, which means that I can theoretically write on my skin (but mostly it just means that if I try on clothes in a store, I come out looking like I'm having a moderation skin reaction to the factory's detergent.)

Hobbies

Reading, running, hiking, baking, piano, photography, swimming, cycling, board games, and sometimes I write one or two words of fanfiction.

If you work, what's your job?

Professional slicer and dicer. :D

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be?

My current job! I love what I do, and I'm very lucky to also be well-paid to do it. The only thing I would change, if this is allowed to be total fantasy, is that I'd take a contract with something like 12-16 weeks of vacation a year.

Something you're good at

I can, on command and with absolute accuracy, spread my index and middle fingers apart to any requested distance under 10 cm.

Something you hate

The word "nonchalant". Everyone gets in a lather about moist, but nonchalant is the true villain here and it should be immediately outlawed from the English language. It is a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad word. You can check the millions of words I have written in twenty-plus years of authorship and I have never, not once, not ever used that atrocious construction of sounds.

Also "chuckle".

"Lips" is on probation and should be used only in extenuating circumstances.

Something you collect

I started keeping a collection of playbills from shows I've seen, a few years back! I've got a good number, though I toss out duplicates when I move. One day, I'm going to figure out something to do with them...

Something you forget

Names. I'm terrible with names.

What's your love language?

Quality time, and probably also acts of service.

Favourite movie/show

The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have the extended editions I got back in the 2000s when they came out, and they are in fact the only DVDs that I own, and the entire reason I own a DVD player.

Favourite food

French fries. Espescially Belgian style. <3

Favourite animal

Cats! I'm basic, what can I say.

What were you like as a child?

Bookish, but also bossy AF. I was smart and I knew it. A ringleader in most social situations. I was constantly either acting out stories with dolls, writing stories, or writing plays and then conscripting the neighborhood children into acting them out. Loved the outdoors, and had a minor obsession with survivalist tales (Hatchet, Island of the Blue Dolphins, My Side of the Mountain). Could be frequently found in the woods reenacting my own versions of these.

Favourite subject at school

Sciences! Especially biology.

Least favourite subject

Math? I do like math, but it's never really liked me back, unfortunately

What's your best character trait?

I'm very good at recognizing when a situation needs a leader, and when it needs a follower, and I'm comfortable slotting into whichever role is needed in the moment.

What's your worst character trait?

I'm not always very good about thinking about others, on a micro scale--things like remembering birthdays, or remembering that someone's mom is having a big surgery this week, or following up after emotional conversations. Also not great at keeping in touch long-distance. I get in my head about people not actually wanting to stay in touch with me, and then I don't reach out, and then it's been too long and now it's awkward.

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be?

My cat is very elderly, and I know her time with me is going to come to an end in the near future. I'd age her back like fifteen years so I could have more time with her. <3

I feel like this is ended on such a low note lol. Oh well. IDK who's been tagged and who's done this already, so tagging @cuubism, @dsudis, @embroiderling, and @softest-punk, if they want to share!

[roomtemp-pie]

my deltarune theory as someone who has seen:

50 minutes of deltarune chapter 1 gameplay

10 youtubers react to befriending your mom

3 gasterdad comic dubs, 2 gaster secrets videos (i'm severely gasterpilled)

and just pissed themselves laughing at the jitterbug clip (i didnt even know that sh was canon daw? i thought it was fanmade bro)

Spoilers incoming, you have been warned. Don't expect anything life changing, people have likely discussed it 7 years ago.

I'll probably reply to this post as I watch chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 in sequence.

Now, disclaimer- I haven't seen the rest of 1, and HAVE NOT touched 2, 3 and 4, but I'm just archiving my thoughts here first.

Mainly. It's about Gaster, sans, and Papyrus.

I was blessed with the time to rewatch the entirety of Undertale. Here are the points that were crucial to my 2a.m. cooking session:

UNDERTALE:

the concept of 'timelines', and how resets mess with them.

The player, and the "meta", basically, how the games code is constructed to remember.

Sans's workshop - the blueprint with "unreadable symbols", the machine, the photo with people you don't recognise

Gaster Followers - the fate of the previous Royal Scientist (him exploding across the metaverse? failed experiment? falling into his creation? omniscent void dweller.)

The wingdinggledamned Entry 17 which makes my hair stand on end:

"DARK DARKER YET DARKER"

"THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING … WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK"

Regarding the "two", when I first encountered the clip in my Undertale theory craze, I just assumed it was giving a Spoop by suddenly addressing us. Like, (Player) & idk. Or Alphys & Asgore (considering their ties to Gaster's research.) Or Flowey/ Chara/ Sans, because of their "meta"-ness/"awareness" of the game. And then, someone said,

"What if it's Sans and Papyrus?"

And I had an "⚐︎☟︎ 💧︎☟︎✋︎❄︎" moment as the panels of Twisted Father cycled in my head.

I mean, what with the Font-ing Fathers, we ALL know there's some link between Gaster, Sans, and Papyrus. But even though the fan comic dubs always explore the Skelebros being potential experiments of Gaster/ creations/ working alongside/under him/whatever. I never really. Yknow. Considered it as possibly canon. In canon, Skelebros are such trolls that they shroud their lore with rather Humerus Bits, and Gaster just ain't there.

Moving on to DELTARUNE:

The first thing I noticed about the vessel creation screen was the very Gaster Way of Talking. And, the GasterMusicTM. But I'm sure we've all figured that out (its been 7 years), so,,

Point 1: YEAHHH GASTER CRUMBS in DELTARUNE BABYYY

yrah yeah anagram mhm yeah BASICALLY, the fact that we see so many familiar faces in Deltarune, yet we're able to tell that they are just uncannily Different from their Undertale counterparts. Shan't delve into this -many have probably mentioned it.

Point 2: Deltarune is an Alternate World, and

I'm going to make several distinctions here.

(A) Deltarune and Undertale are separate Worlds.

(B) Within each World, there are multiple timelines. This would basically be the paths carved out by your resets as Frisk--geno-neutral-paci runs in Undertale.

(C) Within each timeline, characters "Below the Meta" (BtM) have NO memory or awareness of your resets, how many times you've shanked them, etc. These would be the Undertale characters you see replicated in Deltarune, but ever so different. > There's one version in every 'world'.

(D) Characters "Above the Meta" (AtM) are still bound by the codes of the game, but they KNOW/ can Sense a Disturbance in the Force/ exercise a certain power over the timelines (Chara, Flowey, Sans, perhaps Alphys.) > Alphys exists in both, Flowey and Chara(?) don't. Although I could argue that Flowey IS Asriel, and Deltarune!Asriel exists, Undertale!Asriel pre-flowerification didn't have any AtM qualities (his determination and power to manipulate save files.) and ig Chara equivalent is Kris. But it don't matter

(E) You, the Player, a separate entity, still wield control over them.

(F) What if there was an entity "Above the Player"? I mean, it would still be part of the game code so it can't logically make sense lmao, but- it's nice to dream about. Like maybe Void! Gaster, who has split across all worlds?

Maybe, outside the established codes of these Worlds, (and I'll assume there are MANY as there are anagrams of Undertale), lies a concept more monstrous than we puny packets of code could ever fathom.

Level of Self-Awareness: BtM << AtM << Player (concept) <<< ???

Player (Observer)

While i HAVEN'T watched gameplay that goes all the way to the aboveground monster town (I'm still beating Lancer's Little Ahh underground), I've seen the "befriending your mom" sequence enough and thought:

Point 3: Sans seems...just like his Undertale counterpart?

like, with no special Deltarune twist. I mean it's not like I got this guy's characterisation down pat at ALL, but I had trouble treating him mentally as 'Deltarune Sans'.

His trolling nature, the warnings buried within lines of humor, the fact that he definitely knows me (the player).

Point 4: Where's Pap?

Pap is at least hinted to exist here - the "distant trousle of bones", and sans mentioning a little brother.

I don't know if other Deltarune BtM characters mention Papyrus. I WILL catch up, guys.

Which brings me to my theory, chat.

There are multiple Worlds, and multiple versions of characters across Worlds.

However, there is only one Sans, and one Papyrus, across these multiple worlds.

Because they aren't from this world (Deltarune).

Perhaps they were created as a result of Gaster's experiments, or they worked alongside him. (weak speculation)

Sans is here, well, maybe cus of the machine or some other reason. He's in this world now, by choice or by accident. Probably by choice. His workshop hinted to that. Maybe he's trying to learn something new, figure something out, or returning to a place he's traversed before.

Papyrus isn't here, well, cus he's busy in Undertale. Or somewhere else.

[Well, I haven't looked at much content, so there are likely existing theories that Sans comes from somewhere else. My point is, Sans isn't of this world. Not from Deltarune, and maybe not even from Undertale. I'm not gg speculate the timeline of events (whether sans hopped over from DR - > UT or vice versa), because like I said I do not know sh about deltarune yet here I am writing a theory-]

Now, I'm not really sure if a version of Gaster exists in Deltarune or not; it would make sense considering he was originally a part of the Undertale "story-world" after all.

[Jumping back to Point 2] So a version of every "main" character exists in every World, including Gaster- but maybe excluding the skelebros, who were 'introduced' into the 'Verse via Undertale! Gaster. Then Undertale! Gaster girlbossed too close to the darkness, became Void! Gaster, and proceeded with his Suspicious Acts across Worlds, dinging his wings all over the place.

🙰◆︎⬧︎⧫︎ ♋︎ ♎︎♓︎❖︎♓︎♎︎♏︎❒︎ ●︎□︎●︎

Maybe Deltarune! Papyrus appears in chapter 2/3/4 and i delete this post lol. But till I reach then, here are my Jumbled Gobshyhte Half-made Thoughts. Considering these are just the ramblings of someone who barely knows Deltarune, don't take it too seriously - I'll definitely find out more about the world in the future.

I'm sorry if none of this garbage dump makes sense, and if you've read this far, I wish steam discounts and good food upon you.

Its 5am (when I first created this draft). Toodles.

[raccoonfallsharder]

Hi there! This is probably such a silly question, so I'm sorry in advance, but in your fics, how long is a "cycle"?

I've gathered that a rotation is the equivalent of about a day (I think? lol) . Is a cycle the intergalactic equivalent of like a week or maybe a month in your fics? I originally thought a year, but in WAtG its stated that Jo "crosses paths with the Yondu Clan once every fifteen cycles or so." So a year seems like the wrong assumption on my part haha

Thank you ♡

hey honeycomb! these are SUCH FUN questions because i am such an UNHINGED NERD, especially about time and trying to make things make sense in space lol (also omg please never apologize for asking questions?? ever?? you’re a delight. curiosity is beautiful and giving other people a chance to explain their thoughts/loves/interests is a gift you give whenever you ask)

so first of all it’s worth noting that i’m pretty sure in at least one of the games, it’s the opposite — a cycle is like a day, i think? and a rotation is a week or a month? (i used to know this with more certainty because last year, i had researched obsessively to find out if there was a singular canonical way of measuring the passage of time in marvel-outer-space. fyi the short answer is no). worth noting: this is how i thought of time when i was writing ᯓ⋆｡°✩practice because that takes place in the eidos universe but i deliberately didn't dwell on it too long so people could interpret the length of time however they wanted.

now, my understanding is that in the mcu, this is inverted. i had read that the mcu GOTG writers think of a rotation as being about a day and a cycle being about a week, so that is what i use in almost all of my other fics (especially the longer ones). sometimes in oneshots i default to day and week just for ease of understanding, especially for readers who may just stumble upon the story without having gotten used to my quirks.

now that’s the short answer and you can feel free to bail if you don’t want to read about the stupid amount of time i put into thinking about this lol. i swear I won’t hold it against you. for fucks sake SAVE YOURSELF

tsk. should've run.

as mentioned, i use “rotation” to indicate about a day, and “cycle” to indicate about a week. i also use “multicalendar circumrotations” or “circs” for a year-ish which is halfway made-up (the gotg holiday special mentions the multicalendar and i was like “i need a word that isn’t rotation or cycle or revolution to go with this” lol).

i also broke rotations into three shifts. for my purposes there are usually two wake shifts and one sleep shift per rotation, but i imagine some lifeforms require different amounts of rest and wakefulness - so while the start and end of shifts are standardized, how they are designated really varies by crew.

i think this was about all i had figured out when i was writing Window *:･ﾟ✧* - I think I had maybe approximated a cycle at around 8-9 days and a circ at about a year and a half. but when i started writing cicatrix.⋆☁︎:･꧂ i was referencing longer lengths of time a lot more often (and needed at least a mental guide for things like decades and ccertain chunks of years), so i expanded on my time measurements a lot more thoroughly (see below).

i don’t have anything equivalent to months but at some point i was like “i need to indicate something more than a handful of cycles and less than a circ” and so i added quarter-circs to my lexicon ‘cause months didn’t make sense in the context of a sort of “intergalactic standard” of time measurement.

there was a time when i thought about breaking down hours and minutes and shit too but then i was honestly like “dae that’s fucking bonkers. stop girl” so i decided that most universal translators are capable of doing the basic math required to calculate smaller units of time across languages lol.

a rare glimpse of dae notes/references from the top of my cicatrix notes document:

rotation: 30 hours (10/10/10 shifts) cycle: 10 rotations (300 hours) (1.79 weeks) quarter: 10 cycles circumrotation: 40 cycles (71.6 weeks) (1.38 years) 10 years = 7.26 circumrotations 4.13 years = 3 circs

anyway that's it i think, that's everything, it's ridiculous and i'm ridiculous and also thanks for giving me the opportunity to be a total loser about this. i am very cool and normal

i truly do appreciate the question honestly. may your day be full of morning glories and your night be full of good movies and tasty popcorn

[wordstome]

YOUR König thoughts are some xgame shit oh em goodness “Aside from the fact he’s hung like a horse” YOU DID NOT. That’s disgusting. You should be ashamed. (I agree wholeheartedly)

But it got me thinking about König meeting a sniper!Reader? Cannot be a healthy dynamic but I’m a sucker for emotionally dysfunctional men.

Imagine you show up one day, butt unceremoniously into his life and introduce yourself in a way that drums up an uncomfortable tightness in his chest. He’s all too smitten and then your introduction has to go and end with ‘-and I’ll be joining the team as a resident sniper’. Those butterflies in his stomach turn into a weight on his heart.

Why you of all people? He was rejected and reassigned. His long-term aspirations snuffed out like nothing. Meanwhile, you complain about the bruising below your clavicle? Ridiculous, stupid thing you are to be so ungrateful.

Doesn’t matter if you actually aren’t whining as much as he thinks you are. From the minute he finds out what position you’re taking, everything he says and does is vindictive and downright rude. He doesn’t do it consciously and afterwards his internal monologue is just a running cycle of ‘why did I say/do that?’ Not to mention the dent in his wall from banging his head against it lmaoo

His regret doesn’t stop the impulse to make snide comments that fray your nerves. More than they already are just by being proximal to the huge man, that is. What you were experiencing at his hand was unnervingly like how he was treated was back in school. Or going through basic training with COs screaming up at him and degrading him.

It takes you finally sitting him down, the built-up exasperation at his behaviour driving you to be a lot more imposing to him that someone of your size should’ve been, for him to sort out his feelings. After acknowledging that he really had nothing against you (besides jealousy) that initial feeling of fixation returns.

A couple months of annoyance too late, if your huff of irritation was any indicator. It’ll take him awhile to get over that built-up resentment, none of which is technically your fault, but you can figure out some kind of union fwb situation? Right?

It would make such a good slow burn sobbing and rolling but that was completely unnecessary no idea where that came from. I’m so glad my cod interest and my fanfiction writing era didn’t overlap because I would be working like a dog on full-length novels about these men omg

-Dented and Recruited anon 🫡

MY FAVORITE ANON GRACES MY INBOX AGAIN...look, it's not my fault, they literally gave him a bulge. Is it just protective equipment? Probably! But you can't tell me a 6'5"-10" man doesn't have a dick to match. Come ONNNNN

*ahem* wow. Anyway . you GET IT. you GET IT! ! ! ! angel of small death was the first König drabble I ever did, and I still plan on returning to it!!! This is exactly the sort of dynamic I wanted to put in AAAAAAAAA I'm in love!! König sabotaging his damn self...yea we gotta make this man squirm. I will write these ideas for you babe but if you ever do feel a little bit of that writing era overlap coming on I will be the first in line to read what you've got stored in that brilliant brain 👀

[allgoldenelite]

ok, as a kinda sorta quasi continuation of this, i'm gonna dump some more thoughts i've had lately about kenny, don, and everything.

cw for abusive relationships, toxic behavior, manipulation

first of all, i'm gonna give credit where credit is due: the storyline as it stands rn has had some things added to it which i would never have thought a wrestling story dare add, let alone handle well. some of it is more subtext and some of it is more out there, but so far i have found that the elements i examined and interpreted only ever enhanced my reading of the kenny omega character, so i've personally enjoyed them as enrichment of the text.

don callis is a sociopathic abuser (there's some subtext there that could be read to mean the abuse is also sexual). the first part he's said so himself, and the second part...well, there's enough material there now to write a book about, but i just want to make sure we're all on the same page here. all those times when him (and kenny!) during the collector run made sure to remind the audience that callis has been in kenny's life since he was 6 (or 10; neither of them are consistent with it) years old were sickeningly recontextualized when kenny said in his sitdown with JR that don fed him substances and started drilling him for wrestling by cutting him off from outside interests and friends pretty much as soon as he entered his life. and in don's sitdown with JR, he of course proclaims it was all because the golden sheik and kenny's family had told him to take care of kenny, so he was merely acting out of selflessness and philanthropy.

but what don did was essentially create a deeply, deeply traumatized weapon. it's all there in kenny's vtrs, moves and akas (the cleaner, the best bout machine, terminator dive, calling himself an unstoppable android, saying he wants to be a weapon for njpw). a cold, clinical thing that others decide what to do with, controlled and manipulated by others (well, i say others, but basically it always come back to don callis), and which exists without its own agency. that thread even comes back in his collector run during a segment with christian cage, where christian correctly pins down what's been happening all this time ("i don't know what's weirder, don, the fact that you manipulated a 10 year old kenny omega, or that the adult kenny omega is still letting it happen."). and as abuse and trauma go, kenny was (and in some ways still is) continuing the cycle in how he treats people close and important to him like take, bucks, hangman, and so on.

now, the don abuser backstory is mostly meant to be read when looking at the latter half of kenny's time in njpw and especially his aew career, but imo you could even go as far with the reading as saying that his time in ddt was like an escape from don for kenny, something he did for himself for a change (maybe the first and only time he did something for himself), rather than for don or because he wanted to prove he's the best. and then you look at the way this is all breaking down because of jealousy and feelings of inadequacy and deeply rooted fear, and you go, of course, the poor guy has so built his entire being and sense of self-worth around winning and recognition of superiority that as soon as that doesn't come in a steady stream (or is indeed threatened by different, unknown and scary feelings such as actually wanting to be the no 2, not the no 1) his mental and emotional health just collapses like a house of cards.

either way, all kenny has known his entire life is wrestling. and the largest swath of that wrestling life has been spent trying to prove he's unbeatable and immortal, while repeatedly having difficulties accepting love and help from others and pushing those closest to him away. and don callis takes credit for all of it.

but here's the thing. in a way, he's right, about taking credit for the winning. of course, from don's twisted perspective, he is right; he spent nearly every waking hour "preparing" kenny for wrestling and pulling strings behind the scenes (seriously, the guy claims to have connections to the european parliament, for crying out loud) to pave his path of destruction through multiple promotions. but the cut runs deeper than that. because ever since don turned on kenny, kenny's been losing, a lot, and commentary and other characters have been picking up on that fact. the fact that, as it seems for right now, without don callis, kenny isn't the winner he so desires to be. he's not just lost singles but random tags or multimans as well, and if he does win, he's getting crucifixed to the ropes and getting his head smashed in with a chair. kenny had the bucks back at his side but that didn't fix it. the elite welcomed hangman back into their midst, but that didn't fix it. ibushi came back to reform the golden elite but that didn't fix it. kenny kept falling down.

so now what?

i don't have an answer. i've seen some discussion lately about kenny's questionable or lackluster performance in this story. as in, not his in-ring kayfabe performance, but the actor's performance. some people say they noticed him having less energy than usual or looking like he's not all there at times, like his head isn't fully in the game, and that translating to how the character is perceived (or not perceived; he's been notably absent from a lot of recent btes, but that could also be due to how little actual story there is on bte these days) and backstage segments when viewers were expecting him to have a comment or a role in response to something that happened in the story).

the thing is...normally i don't really care too much? i'll get angry at this and that in front of the tv and say my peace on it, and then maybe a week later it'll flare back up if the wound's getting picked, but aside from that i don't care about wrestling, and especially not shoot stuff, enough to give a shit. dude could have a million reasons why he's not having the time of his life right now and by no means is he obligated to be in every little thing that happens. he's done enough.

but if you caught him on the street fighter stream he did for crown, it was night and day. it's like he was a different person. which is to say, it leads me to believe that this unmotivated, somewhat muted version of kenny we're seeing on our screens right now is part of the story. that don had his hooks so deep in kenny and yanked them out with such force that all that's left there now is mangled flesh. it reminded me of how kenny reacted when don got attacked by bcc and wasn't available to second him for his match vs jeff cobb: when the news were brought to him he seemed immediately crestfallen and made his entrance looking noticeably intimidated and distracted. like the reliance on don had been so strong and so deeply ingrained for so many years that he legitimately didn't know what to do. no manipulator to pull the trigger.

but still the question remains, what's the cure going to be, if none of the things i listed earlier helped? because at the end of the day this is still a story that involves wrestling, and altho the thought has crossed my mind that maybe this is going to be one of the very very few wrestling stories that do not equate a happy ending with a victory in the ring, i think at least somewhere along the road they will want to show kenny's rejuvenation via a win or two. so, what's it going to take to make that happen, when everything is said and done? i've followed people discussing that one way would be for him to go back to the drawing board specifically in japan (ddt, ibushi, you see where this is going), and of course that'd be very exciting and interesting, but somehow it feels to me like that's not the route they're taking. i'd be happy to be wrong, yet so far there haven't been any signs that i could decipher that that's a possibility in the story, and when kenny said at the wrestledream scrum that his primary focus is on aew in the us, it only reinforced that feeling for me.

this is a slightly different topic, but in addition, there's continued criticism about the confusing or meandering way the story flip-flops between seemingly portraying kenny as all alone and distraught and in need of help and not being any of those things the next week. this one i kinda have to agree with.

i'm not tired of the story in a way that some people are; i think there's still stones left to turn and interesting threads to pull on and characters to explore. but i do think it's been dragged out a little bit too much at times and that it has felt sluggish during some of those stretches, just like how the elite stories did after they came back up until they suddenly pressed the turbo button and kenny was best friends with hangman again. as a result, it has felt meandering, altho i do not agree with the criticism that there isn't anything left to do for both parties in the feud. don said he was going to cut out the elite and that he isn't anywhere near being done with that. it just remains to be seen what kenny's and by extension the elite's motivation in this all will be.

[andmaybegayer]

So my hope, eventually, is to have my own purpose-built computer which is an expandable skeleton and will more-or-less never need to be entirely tossed out, only supplanted/upgraded Ship of Theseus style.

However, Microsoft is getting a bit too uppity for my tastes, and I hope to mainly run Linux on that eventual computer.

However, I'm also a gaming man, and I recognize that, in many cases, Linux kinda sucks for games, or, at least, that's what I've heard. Emulation is also a pain I'd rather not deal with (both of Windows and of games themselves), and so, for games that don't support Linux, I'd like to have the option of having Windows on the same machine, so that I can run Linux most of the time, but switch to Windows whenever I wanna play games.

My question is how realistic is that? I know that machines with multiple OS's exist, and you can choose which one you want at boot, but I'm hoping for this to be an extremely fancy computer, connected to a lot of extremely fancy computer peripherals. Would switching OS's without power cycling the machine screw with the other hardware? Is it even possible, or would you need to power cycle it in any case? Is there any way to build this hypothetical computer, or am I asking too much/investing too much effort? Would it be easier/better to just build a really good Windows machine and a really good Linux machine?

So the use case you're talking about is pretty popular among a certain kinds of Tech Nerd, and most of them solve it with iommu GPU Passthrough and a windows VM on Linux. I knew a few people doing this back in like 2018 and while it's a little fidgety it's fairly reliable.

You can't share GPU's the way you can share CPU and Memory. Not on consumer hardware, anyway. So if you want to run a VM with windows with a gaming GPU, it needs its own entire GPU just for that.

The basic layout is this: Build a normal high end system with a lot of extra resources, say, 32+GB of RAM, 10+ CPU cores, a couple terabytes of storage, and two separate GPU's. Run Linux on the system, as your host, and only use one of the GPU's. Create a VM on the host under qemu and hand it 16GB of RAM, 6 cores, a terabyte or two of storage, and use iommu to pass it the other GPU. Now use software like LookingGlass to capture the framebuffer directly off the Windows GPU and forward it to your Linux GPU, so that you can display your windows system inside Linux seamlessly.

Now, you do need two GPU's, so it can get expensive. A lot of people choose to run one higher end GPU for windows and a basic GPU for Linux, but that's up to your use case. You can run two identical GPU's if you wish.

The main place this kind of thing is being tinkered with is the Level1Techs forum, Wendell is a big advocate of GPU virtualization and so has aggregated a lot of information and people with relevance here. He also makes a lot of video stuff on IOMMU.

So I have to have two whole GPU's?

Kind of. There ARE ways to live-reset a running GPU which allows you to do tricks where you can swap a single GPU between the host and the VM without rebooting, but it's extremely dubious and flaky. Virtualized GPU partitioning exists but only on extremely expensive server GPU's aimed at virtualization servers for enterprise so it's well outside of our price range.

If you're interested in single-GPU, there is ongoing work getting it to run on consumer hardware on the Level1Techs forum and he's even running some kind of Hackathon on it, but even the people having success with this have pretty unreliable systems.

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/vfio-passthrough-in-2023-call-to-arms/199671

This setup works fine maybe 25% of the time. I can always start the VM just fine, my linux desktop stays active and any software launched after the VM gets the GPU will render on the iGPU without issues. However I suffer from the reset bug, and 75% of the time shutting down the VM won’t return the GPU to Linux and I have to reboot to fix that.

I'm quite satisfied with this setup.

Is this a good idea

It depends on what you need and how willing you are to switch between the host and VM. A LOT more things run smoothly on Linux these days. Wendell started tinkering with IOMMU back in like 2015, and I started gaming on Linux back in 2016. If you had native software, great! Without that, well, good luck with anything less than five years old.

I played Burnout Paradise and even Subnautica on my 750Ti laptop on plain old Wine, and then DXVK came out in 2018 and the world got flipped turned upside down and I have video of me running Warframe on Linux with that same mediocre system a few weeks before Proton hit the scene and we got flipped turned... right way up? Now with Proton I would say most things run pretty well under a mixture of automatic steam stuff and scripts off lutris and homemade WINEPREFIXes.

That said, if you want everything to Just Work, it's hard to beat a VM. I'm not sure how competitive games run, but for everything else a VM is going to be more reliable than WINE.

[prince-rowan-of-the-forest]

Things I've experienced people doing in public which annoy the shit outta me because it's 5am I haven't slept and my brain is full:

Sitting on a bench that is clearly occupied by people spending time together. You are intruding on people's outings, and whoo look at that you've just made everything 100x more awkward. Fuck off, there's plenty other benches.

Smoking next to someone. You have no idea if they're a smoker, or comfortable with you smoking, chances are either way they don't want your smoke in their face. Fuck off, go somewhere else.

Smoking next to someone WHILE THEY'RE CLEARLY EATING FOOD. It's just the last one but worse. Fuck right off and stay the hell away from my way too expensive frozen yoghurt.

Listening to music in public. Headphones are a thing, use them. Chances are not everyone likes you music, and chances are even if they do they don't want to hear it distorted and loud going down the street! Fuck off!!

Watching tiktoks/YouTube shorts out loud on public transport. Similar to the last one except worse because it's distorted video sounds that you can half hear and can't escape from because you're on a motorway in a moving metal contraption. Fuck. Off.

Eating on busy public transport. Noone wants to smell your tuna mayo sandwich and barbeque crisps mate. And while I have eaten on a bus before it's only when it's practically empty and I don't bring smelly food if I'm going to have to eat on the bus..fuck off.

E-Scooters. Need I say more. Fuck off.

E-Scooters. Yea I'm adding it twice, I almost got run over by an idiot on one multiple times. They should burn in hell.

Cyclists who think it's funny to rude up alongside you as you're walking down the pavement with your newly bought packet of cookies and yell in your ear to scare the living daylights out of you. Fuck you, dude who did that to me. I'm traumatised.

Oh damn the numbers stop at 9? That sucks

10. Cyclists who cycle on the pavement in general. It's highway code mate you need to be on the god damn fucking road not running me over whilst I'm trying to walk. Fuck off.

11: people who walk at negative miles a hour in groups of six in a line taking up the entire fucking pavement so I can't even get past them. Fuck you.

12. People who don't thank the bus driver. Seriously mate who pissed in your pancakes? No need to take it out on the driver, they're just getting you where you need to go, be grateful. Fuck you.

13: people who run red lights. I almost got run over by a goddamn truck. There are people (cough,me) who rely on people STOPPING when the lights are red, and have to just trust in this because theY CANT SEE. regardless of basic human decency, its the law. Fuck off.

14: whoever didn't tell me ambulances were allowed to run red lights. I almost got run over by one because I didn't know this. Fuck you, whoever was supposed to tell me that and didn't.

I'm sure there's more but I've sufficiently emptied my brain now and I'm tired so goodnight thanks for reading.

How many of these have you experienced/witnessed? Lemme know, I'm interested.

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update: Catch Up Edition! (03/11/24--03/25/24)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

03/11/24

We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson (6/10)

This was a book club pick, and one of our members actually knows the author! This book is drowning in figurative language. It could have been cut down significantly. I'm not one to hate on flowery language, but the vagueness and metaphors that overtook this writing often obscured what was actually happening. It crafted a very good, eerie atmosphere, but there was a lot of confusion for me. I also would've appreciated some clarification on the worldbuilding concerning the magic and who's aware of it and the relationships of the main cast; keeping track of who was kissing who was a struggle. On the positive side, there was a lot of good suspense, and I got confirmation that there will be a sequel, which makes me feel much better about the ending.

A Bargain with the Fae King by Megan Van Dyke (3/10)

The main character of this novel was so absolutely insufferable. Her entire character revolves around constantly beating herself up and blaming herself for everything...and then proceeding to never change anything and do things people actively warn her not to do. It's a bit unfortunate because there was some good romantic chemistry, but every time she and the love interest did anything, it was ruined by her inner monologue harping on about the same things over and over. Despite that, I still might have given this a 5 or so, but the love interest absolutely ruined it. He did something absolutely atrocious, the red flag of all red flags, and the main character forgives him almost instantly. Girl, run!

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn (9/10)

This was a great continuation to the Legendborn Cycle, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite young adult series. There were some issues with the pacing, specifically with random worldbuilding elements coming out of nowhere at oddly convenient times, but other than that I really have no complaints. There's a lot of amazing character work, especially considering the relationships between Bree, Nick, and Sel, and the ending was completely insane. I love that there continues to be a huge focus on the racism in the Order and that there's much more explained about the non-Order magical world.

Mated to the Monster by Sarah Spade (4/10)

This was a random choice since I just wanted a mindless paranormal romance, but it wasn't at all satisfying. I'm sorry, but if you're building up the whole book, a whole adult paranormal romance book to the main couple having sex, something that has both huge implications for their relationship and the magic surrounding it...it better fucking not be fade to black. I know it's such a small thing to get pissed at a book about, but it is such a huge part of the story, something that was supposed to be basically the climax (hah). I have absolutely no issue with fade-to-black, but maybe don't make that choice when your whole story revolves around these character eventually having sex.

03/18/24

Glint by Raven Kennedy (7/10)

It's been a while since I read Gild, but I did remember most of what happens because that book is practically a prologue. This book was pretty slow; there's a lot of worldbuilding, character relationship building, and some pretty big reveals around the main character, but there's a lot of downtime in this book. I was overall expecting a little bit more, but it was still an enjoyable read, and I'll probably continue the series.

The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland (8/10)

This is a reread from my childhood, and it was super fun to experience again. I was struck by how horrendously violent this middle grade novel is; what do you mean the children are trapped in a gladiator ring and forced to commit murder in order to survive? I think Clay is a great perspective to start from as both a more genial, everyman kind of character and as the oldest of the dragonets and someone who is implied to be their glue and rock. Peril is a truly insane character concept, but she is so interesting; I'm excited to get to her book, which I never got to read when I was younger. There's so much good worldbuilding for this age group, and I feel like most of my gripes lie in how convenient certain things are and how some characters' behavior is sort of excused.

Rising Storm by Erin Hunter (7/10)

Another reread, Rising Storm sort of reads like the space between major events. While this book culminates in the fire, which is so important and shocking, there's not really a lot of build-up, just a few lines about the forest going through a drought. Instead, there's a lot of focus on ShadowClan, Bluestar, and the looming threat of Tigerclaw, which is all stuff that truly comes into play in the fifth book. One of my favorite parts of this book is the relationship between Fireheart and Sandstorm, which is just so cute. Also, one of my favorite characters of the whole series is Cloudpaw, but I forgot how annoying he was in the early books (I say this with love).

Heaven Official's Blessing Vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (9/10)

The horror that I was subjected to in this volume. As usual, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are adorable and I'm obsessed with them, but this volume focuses a lot on the side characters, particularly Shi Qingxuan. There's a lot of really emotional stuff in this volume, getting into the pain that's always associated with this series. It's easy to see both sides, and I'm interested to see how the situation will resolve since it has a bit of an open ending in this installment. I know this was not written for volumes and instead chapter by chapter in one huge story, but there is a weird disjointedness to the latter third of the book, suddenly shifting focus from what had been going on almost the entire novel up to that point.

03/25/24

Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (8/10)

This one is technically a reread, but this is one of the Tamora Pierce series I did not finished, having been a middle schooler who did not finish Trickster's Queen before it was due back at the library. This series is a bit tricky (get it?) when it comes to the social message since it deals very directly with settler colonialism and racism, compared to Pierce's other Tortall books which tend to focus more on feminism. I'm not going to make judgments until I finish the duology, but for now it seems pretty good for a novel from 2003. Concerning the actual story and characters, Aly is a great diversion from Pierce's usual serious, extremely determined protagonists as a more playful, casual character. I'm a huge fan of Nawat and Dove, who are my personal favorite side characters. The politics of the Copper Isles are incredibly interesting, especially since social lives play into it, and there's going to be a lot more in the next book.

Four Plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae by Euripides (5/10)

This is an average rating over all the plays. For example, I loved Medea, but I did not enjoy Hippolytus and Bacchae was okay. There are some surprisingly funny moments in these plays for tragedies, but they don't really mesh well with a modern perspective. Very useful in terms of history and culture, but not exactly engaging and enjoyable.

Island of Shipwrecks by Lisa McMann (7/10)

I'm close to the end of this series, and I'm kind of glad. While this book does break the pattern that had been set so far, I think I'm starting to get a little bored. The characters have been stuck in a rut recently; while the worldbuilding and plot expand every book, there's very little development in the characters. I'm kind of getting sick of Alex continuing to prioritize Aaron, who killed his mentor and became a dictator. There was such an interesting thing going on with the men on the shipwreck island, especially since they are practically confirmed to be from Japan, from the real world, but most of their interaction was with Henry, not Alex or any of the other main characters.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

For My Version

While I like the idea of learning the broader "how to pathfind and set up monsters in search states/chase states" lesson, I think for my purposes on my own sample game I'm interested in designing a dumb frog.

This means a few things.

The frog moves rarely. The vast bulk of its time is spent on its croaking idle animation.

The idle frog has a random element to its movement but it's also predictable. Basically it has a 4-second animation cycle of croaking after which it repeats (50%), turns the other direction and repeats the process facing that way (40%), or hops (10%). Some basic math makes it clear that if it doesn't see the player, the frog spends 90% of its time just sitting there. This is exactly the vibe.

If it sees the player, it alerts for .5 seconds (If I can figure out how to without going into pixel art, I want to animate a ! over its head) and then hops. This hop can be big or small. I like the idea that if you're sneaking up on the frog and it turns around, it might jump over you.

So rather than a chase "state" it has a basic idle action which can be interrupted by a hop. After a hop, it rolls the dice again, either settling in where it is, turning around, or (10%) hopping again. So it's 40% odds if it jumps over you it'll immediately turn around and notice you again, and hop a second time.

The pseudocode of this is:

Start a timer.

If the timer runs out, do one of 3 things: Play the idle animation again, restart the timer Flip the object on H, Play idle again, restart the timer Hop, restart the timer on landing

If the player is spotted: Halt the timer, run the "!" animation, hop, perform the "timer runs out" random roll again.

[terramythos]

gw2 icebrood saga thots

I can kind of see why a lot of people don't like this section of the story. The writing isn't the worst thing ever but it's definitely a step down from the Season 4 story and it's noticeable. If i didn't get the impression that End of Dragons is insanely good and potentially the best expansion, im not sure i would continue. I wouldn't say the GW2 story is the most amazing thing about the game but even when the story isn't notable the gameplay usually makes up for it. However with the exception of Drizzlewood Coast the gameplay of Icebrood was pretty dull, so the story felt worse as a result

AND YOUR BRIBE WON'T FUCKING WORK ON ME, ANET

Highlights

-Drizzlewood Coast, fun map meta event, one of the best so far in the game IMO. I think the end of the map when you've retreated to the starting area of the map and the horns/sirens as each zone you conquered falls back to the enemy is pretty eerie and memorable. It's a neat trick to make a loss feel epic and something to look forward to

-Jormag is now probably my favorite elder dragon in terms of personality and i think the devs did a good job expanding on them as a character instead of just a force of destruction. Very charismatic unlike Zhaitan, Mordremoth, or Kralk. I like that they genuinely wanted to end the elder dragon cycle (literally our goal) but had been driven so crazy by the standard torment of being an elder dragon that the only way they could conceive doing it was by destroying everything. Good foil work there and by far the most multidimensional antagonist. Im shocked they pulled it off with Jormag of all characters. Phenomenal voice acting from Debra Wilson too

-the one Strike Mission you do for the story was actually pretty cool, I liked going through the dwarven ruin gauntlet and the sniper rifle gameplay. It's probably more fun with other people and I did it solo though. I know people do actually run Strike Missions, I was just unlucky

-Dragonstorm is a solid final boss i guess - i actually did it before Icebrood Saga though since there's a large 50-person version in the world boss rotation. so nothing surprising but it's one of the more memorable story bosses.

Low points

-again, the writing was pretty mid to bad. The opening of Bjora Marches was promising but that was sadly the peak. Like I did not give the slightest shit about Rytlock's relationship problems/being an absent father shit. And then parts of the story that I feel should have landed, like Braham potentially sacrificing his life by becoming Primordus' champion because he felt like it was the only option to save everyone? Landed like a wet fart for me, because the context we got the whole arc in fucking sucked

-Primordus got done dirty, it feels like Jormag got all the attention. I understand some of this has to do with development constraints (more on that later) but that doesn't change the result. For all the focus on Jormag and Primordus as twins, 2 sides of the same coin, etc, the two barely feel connected. Jormag is an interesting character IMO but Primordus doesn't even qualify as a character at all to me. Even just a small section about him and characterizing him would have salvaged this a little. Like, fuck, Kralkatorrik got basically no characterization until the very end, but they totally killed it with the presentation there so it's very memorable.

-Dragon Response Missions. Boy do I have a soapbox here. These were the most insulting shit sandwiches the game has offered so far, hands down. I'm averse to calling art 'content' but that's what this was. Shitty content. These were so bad. 0/10 on all 10 of them except for the single mission that was a passable 7/10. Final score of 7/100 overall is cataclysmically bad. Sure, they're an average of 15 minutes a piece, but that's two and a half HOURS of mind numbing shit all at once. Bad.

I understand that around this time, all of the dev's resources were emergency pulled into developing End of Dragons. I get the impression that EoD was an attempt to win back the player base since very little had been released for a long time and no one was really happy with the game. Allegedly this succeeded but that doesn't help this at all.

DRMs were basically bare minimum content slop thrown together with pre existing assets that all follow the same gameplay loop. You do a set of the same basic starting tasks, then an escort mission, then kill X waves of enemies, then kill a boss. I understand the impulse to release SOMETHING so players have SOMETHING to do. But in this case nothing at all would have been better. Outside the voiceover there is absolutely no way any of these took more than 2 days each and 1 person to make. They really couldnt mix these up at all?

It's so much worse now, too, because everyone hates these so no one does them, and for the story you have to do all 10 of these piecemeal farts in a row. At least on release they were spaced out, but as a new player going through it for the first time, I just had to do the same 10 fucking dungeons back to back with the same boring gameplay fighting the same intentionally annoying to fight sets of enemies by myself. That's fucking dire.

At most there should be maybe 2 of these required for the story and the rest as an optional side thing that players COULD have chosen to do on release. It's even worse that story shit gets shoehorned in as voiceover lore dumps at the very end of each one because anything compelling with the story is doomed by the context it's appearing in. Needs a massive rework and will probably never get it, which is pretty fucking bad for new players trying to play through the story. The ideal scenario is these not existing at all and I guess just fuck whatever story they had in them, oh well.

Gw2 has a functionality that lets you skip around the story but I shouldn't have to skip a whole chapter of the plot (which i would still need to do for misc collections) in order to have a passable experience with the game. And since it's the FINAL CHAPTER I've presumably invested a lot of time into the arc, sunk cost fallacy, blah blah.

Oh well, its done, I've really genuinely wanted to play EoD which is the only reason I struggled through this part. Hopefully it's as good as I'm lead to believe.

[fadebolt]

For me, this is a "yes, but did not finish it" in technicality. I basically cheated on the riddle, and just looked up the answer. (I'm not really into that stuff, even if this particular one was pretty good and clever. Still would have preferred it if they didn't use "desert" to describe Metropolis, even if it's technically correct. The chant=type thing is also something I felt a tad iffy about. But these are probably just me.) Then I proceeded to go into the thing fully blind, without any prior knowledge on what to expect. I played for about and hour or two, seeing bits of what the campaign has to offer, before concluding that this thing was probably not meant to be beaten. So I left, and never turned back (except to get a couple screenshots of some Farm Arrays rooms once, with the help of cheats).

Then I proceeded to look up a bunch more stuff about Inv's campaign, here and there. Some of it made me very glad that I never tried picking it up again. And weirdly enough, some of it has actually kind of sparked my interest to maybe have another go at it.

With the latter, I'm specifically referring to a pretty awesome guide that I saw, as well as the recountings of people who did beat the campaign legitimately. (I especially remember Northflowo speaking about it quite positively, multiple times) The way certain people described the campaign has actually made it sound kind of… fun? Like, you have those cool new exploding Slugpups! You get a lot of time on every cycle (thanks to the 100% shelter failure chance)! You have a couple regions with modifications that are actually quite awesome (those being Sky Islands and Five Pebbles)! And it's incredibly important to properly use and manage every tool you have at your disposal! (This one point being more of a personal thing, as I always wanted Rain World to be more centered around item and food management, but in most campaigns, that aspect of the game ends up becoming much more of an afterthought - due to the great combat and/or mobility skills you get on campaigns that actually have tough spawns) And you even get to ascend without karma 10, due to your ability to blow up the Guardians! So, what's not to like?

The only reason why I didn't attempt a full run on Inv yet, is due to how in this game, you die to everything instantly, or in one hit. I like these kinds of dumb 'challenge mods' much more, when there's a bit more ebb and flow to it. When you can afford to take a couple hits, and do a couple missteps, and still potentially turn things around. But here… if a Centipede grabs and zaps you, you instantly die. If a Red Lizard gets to you, you instantly die. If you fall down a botomless pit, you instantly die. If you touch a Proto-DLL, you instantly die. And so on and so forth. Not to mention, I'm not very good at vast majority of the important movement tech options in this game, and most of the people who finished Inv, have said that it's very important to get a good grasp on that stuff, before attempting a playthrough.

Difficulty in gaming is something do tend to appreciate. And in fact, I'd actually very much enjoy playing 'Inv-like' PvE mods in many different kinds of games, such as Plants vs Zombies 1 & 2, Heroes 3, DotA 2, or Warcraft 3. (And what do ya know, I did play through a big chunk of the 'Wayfarer' map in HoMM3... would not recommend that to anyone) But here? Yeah, I'd rather pass. Even if there's a good number of you madlads, who have actually completed this… thing (with a few particular Inv players being especially nuts - like Squeekles completing the campaign, before Saint's… or Sorbet Cafe doing it on a freaking dance pad).

Have you played the inv campaign?

Yes, and beat it legitimately

Yes, and beat it with cheats

Yes, but did not finish it

NO

[lakemichigans]

day 29 of watching until dawn playthroughs until i pass out

[hushed-chorus]

15 questions | 15 tags

Thank you for the tags, @shrekgogurt, @artsyunderstudy and @johnwgrey! Let’s give this little baby a go.

1. Are you named after anyone?

A biker my mother once knew and a cricket player she fancied. Both dudes, even though I am “biologically female”. Interesting character, my mother!

2. When was the last time you cried?

I shed a few tears today, but it was a healthy cry

3. Do you have kids?

No

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not as much as I used to—my humour is still dry, but my sarcasm can miss the mark so I’ve toned down on it.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Body language, I think. I vibe quickly on mood—mostly approachability and openness. These things don’t outright determine whether I’ll interact with someone, but will determine how. I think this is why I struggle with communicating by text. I can’t vibe check! But I literally won't remember a *thing* about how they dressed, their eye colour, etc, unless it's particularly noteworthy.

6. What’s your eye color?

DARK, DARK BROWN. Like, pretty much pitch black. I once NPC’ed as a wraith at LARP for a monster role (basically, my job was to fight/be beaten up by the players and be dramatic about it) and my skin was painted white for the role. I ended up with a swarm of other, similarly-attired people just staring at my eyes and being told I was spooky.

7. Scary movie or happy endings?

So, does the scary have to be a movie? If so, then I go for happy ending. Basically, I like horror stories but scary movies don’t tend to do it for me. However, happy endings that aren’t bittersweet feel like a rare commodity in modern storytelling, so I treasure them.

8. Any special talents?

I’ve been told that I’m a good storyteller. Most people say this in relation to the roleplay games I run. Only recently have I stared sharing my writing with others. I wouldn’t say I am a talented writer—specifically, I struggle with the craft (grammar, etc). I used to blame missed schooling, but given the insane difficulty I’ve had learning grammar, etc, as an adult, I suspect there’s something more at play.

9. Where were you born?

Cornwall

10. What are your hobbies?

Writing (specifically creating stories), reading, cooking, and seeing new places. Also, learning! I usually have a subject or two that I’m casually learning. At the moment, it’s Spanish (my first time with a language) and folklore. Previous to this it was maritime history and I dabbled in political theory.

11. Do you have any pets?

Nope, but I've had pets in the past and want to have some again! I love animals!

12. What sports do you play/have you played?

I loved playing football/soccer as a child. As an adult, I loved rock climbing and cycling until my health got too bad. I'm hoping to get back into ocean swimming, but I fear that would be a fool's errand. Is ocean paddling a sport?

13. How tall are you?

5’8

14. Favorite subject at school?

Music! Our teacher would leave us to just jam in the music rooms. I’d just play my bass guitar with whoever decided to drop in and join. I’d also sing, sometimes.

15. Dream job?

Ok ok, so this is super specific but here we go. If I didn’t have a disability and I was fully competent (and could afford the set-up costs), I’d love to own an old-fashioned ship. A simple-to-run two-master that performs well with minimal sailors on coastal waters. And I would use that ship to take underprivileged teens out onto the sea for a few days. Give them the opportunity to experience the ocean in a new way, to get the thrill of it, learn an exciting new skill and, most importantly, to give them a chance to feel like a valued and respected member of a team. Help them build their confidence and give them a treasured memory. (obviously voluntary—totally wouldn’t be everyone’s scene!)

I used to volunteer with youth groups in coastal settings before and I loved it. So many of the teens benefited from having an adult who would listen to them, treat them with respect, and give them a chance to feel like life can be special. I’m still in touch with some of them, ten years later!

I think lots of tags have already been issues so I will skip on tagging? Anyway, this was fun!

[tenebrius-excellium]

Hello, I've enjoyed reading your HTTYD book reblogs! As a book fan it's interesting that the things you've disliked about the books and prefer the movies for have been the things I've liked and preferred the books for. It's also made me realise that the books might be quite british? The status-quo is conformism and the heroes are downtrodden survivalist who want to keep their heads down, rather than inspiring individualist, and the journey to revolution is much longer. The books feel very pointed against the UK's demonisation of the vulnurable and social benefits, especially when they enter the 10's and Austerity kicked in. I hope this hasn't come off as passive aggressive, if those aren't themes that talk to you it's totally understandable that the books vibe less than with the films. My feelings on the films are basically the other pole! I hope you continue to enjoy the journey and Hiccup's decreasing patience with the corrupt world he lives in.

Hi! Thank you so much for your ask! Also thank you for diving deeper into the themes relating to the specific temporal & local context that the books were written in! I tend to examine and appreciate literature for its timeless, universal virtues & morals only, therefore I haven't been able to see the Httyd books this way before...! I think it's very important to consider both views!

"The journey to revolution is much longer" - yeah, that about sums it up. In the movie, Berk is already desperate for a change. In the books, it seems like sticking to the things that are tried and true is the best and most frequently given advice, until Hiccup develops a mind of his own <3

To be fair, I haven't got a clue about the general British history and mindset. I feel that you know much more about that, and I'm sorry I can't really match your thoughts there. I wish I could! And yes, I have to admit that the "downtrodden survivalist" mentality is about as far from my hopeful, spiteful self as can be - therefore, I might run out of patience reading this stuff from time to time. I'm a fan of quick and radical changes, as it is my experience that doing nothing while knowing that something's off about your situation can literally be deadly (confirmed by Book 4). If you see an issue, you fix it. If you can't fix your society all at once, you start with yourself.

As a writer, I am personally intrigued by the concept of hopelessness at the moment. This endless status quo where you don't have the strength to rise up and believe in the possibility of change again... Part of this interest surely comes from my own life, another part is abstract aestheticism and the last part is...that my heart is breaking for people who have been going through this for so long and cannot seem to be lifted up (totally not related to current world events or something...). I aspire to be the spark that gets them up again.

By the way, I, uh... I hope it's ok for me to say this but I LOVE your mind??? I feel like we could have tremendous personal differences if we interacted irl, but like this??? right now????? THANK YOU for your thoughts!? You're super intelligent!! I feel like we appreciate very similar things but would go in very different ways about them lol.

So...what's your perspective on this hopelessness of the books? This eat-or-be-eaten cycle, this gloom of being too small and unimportant to be a hero? I find it discouraging, but you obviously seem to admire something about it. Is it the persistence of waiting for the right time to act? Is it the bravery of simply making it? I would very much like to know!

Again, thanks for the ask!

Cheers

Reddie