#i do not miss dialup

[skankhunt44]

This was back when you had two web pages open, MySpace, and MSN.

Your emo song lyrics as your status, trying to become the alpha emo. You always took a selfie from above. Times were wild brah.

Then there was dialup internet... it was the worst sound. Also if anyone picked up the phone, you were fucked.

It was a time. That most of you weren't alive...

[commit-vehicular-manslaughter]

THEY MAKE ME SO SICK I THINK ABOUT THEM ALL DAY EVERY DAY

[neganium]

While Rockman.EXE has a pretty solid design all around, I've kind of always disliked how his design lacked visible eyebrows 90% of the time. It's not that he doesn't have any, but you just can't see them due to the shape of his helmet. You can't really see his hair, either, other than what little pokes out the back.

[alexanderlightweight]

I hope the worst parts of moving are done with and that things are cooling down! Could we get a follow up to Magnus realizing he's dragon!Alec's hoard? Or is Magnus's brain just stuck making dialup noises as he tries to process?

I hope you are doing well! its been long time but here we go!!! the weather here does get cooler for winter but the heats already picking back up so we can't escape it for long!

alec kind of had to make it clear and he's honestly considering just biting Magnus at some points but he's pretty sure Magnus would just try to get him to do it again and everything he does Magnus just coos over so sometimes feels like he's having trouble being taking seriously (its not that they're both just bad at translating)

i hope you enjoy <3

lumine

-

the taste of his magic

One moment Magnus is holding Alexander’s hand and the next he’s being pulled through a shadow, the phantom edge of a giant maw cradling him for a moment before he’s released and standing again.

Alexander’s fingers are no longer entangled with his own and the loft is gone, the mass Magnus thought was a wall shifting and moving in an arch of gleaming scales.

Magnus often forgets just how large Alexander truly is. 

Here, even as he’s contained by the massive caves surrounding them, Alexander stands tall and stretches long. The elegant bulk of his muscles eating up what should be a cavernous and hollow space. 

The very walls sing as Magnus moves forward, the sound not only physical but embodied within his very soul, in the energy of his own innate power. The experience of it rings in his bones, settling there with a deep and ancient understanding.

“This is your hoard?”

There’s a very long, poignant silence and Magnus feels as if his worth is being weighed as his dragon stays quiet.

“Alexander?”

A heavy, powerful tail suddenly smacks into a pile of once carefully arranged sculptures.  The carefully laid preservation magic ensures they won’t be irreparably harmed but it's startling to witness all the same.  

To see Magnus’ dragon so distressed is in turn upsetting and he reaches out with his magic, murmuring soothing promises of harvesting delicacies just for his insatiable dragon to devour. Alexander’s attention shifts from his tantrum to focusing on Magnus within a single breadth and then he’s shifting forward.

Alexander’s powerful tail curls gently around Magnus’ waist and hesitantly tugs him closer as he trills coaxingly.  It’s adorable how careful Alexander is with him. Especially when Magnus would love nothing more than for Alexander to be overcome with instincts and more demanding.

Magnus stays still as Alexander’s large muzzle presses against him for the length of one steady inhale before he transforms once more.  

“You’re my hoard.” 

Despite Magnus’ heart suddenly pounding, he still picks up on how Alexander sounds like he’s sulking.  He’s standing stiff with his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest as he stares Magnus down like he’s preparing for a fight. 

“You, Magnus.  You, your magic, your interests, your lair, what you wear, what you touch, what you create.  That’s my hoard with you being the very heart of it. This—” he finally uncrosses his arms and waves to the treasure filled caves Magnus knows Alexander has spent centuries building. “This is just decoration now. A beautiful place to make memories with you and trinkets I hope will please you.  But you, you’re the part of my hoard that matters.”  Despite how serious he is, Alexander’s voice turns petulant, “I thought you knew that but now I’m not sure.” 

The look Alexander is giving him means he thinks this is entirely Magnus’ fault.  Like somehow Magnus has missed something obvious.

“I didn’t know.”

The confession lingers between them and then Alexander is giving him a decisive nod, “then I forgive you for lowering my defenses and leaving when I wasn’t paying attention.” 

Magnus thinks this is an entirely unfair accusation considering Alexander is the one who never stays where Magnus puts him. 

“Do you mean not stopping you from overindulging on magic and then leaving when you’re asleep?”

“Yes.” Alexander looks even more irritated as he admits this, “and then when you let people steal you even in our territory.”

“When I try to have private consultations?”  Private because Magnus is trying to be careful with who he lets disturb Alexander and try because Alexander has infiltrated every single one.

Alexander hisses and the delicate leather fins of his ears —where cartilage would normally be — flare before tucking down.

“Thieves.”

Magnus blinks, knowing Alexander is more eloquent than this when he wants to be but then something crosses his mind. 

“Alexander, have you eaten any of my clients?

There’s a pause as Alexander very clearly contemplates the worth of answering and then Magnus considers something even more important.

“Sweetheart, were you mad at me for taking myself away?”

“Yes,” Alexander’s voice gets lower as his throat rumbles unhappily, “but I also can’t stay mad at you.” It goes unsaid that Alexander can’t stand Magnus being upset or sad and he would be both of those things if Alexander were mad at him.

“Then shall we fix it so it doesn’t bother you anymore?”

Alexander’s head tilts in question and Magnus admires how the glowing light catches and lingers on his scales.

“Think of what happened as a cultural misunderstanding, treasure.” Magnus enjoys how Alexander preens at the nickname even as he considers the offer.  “What you thought was obvious I thought was something else entirely.  Now that I know, however, I’ll make sure we avoid any more accidents.”  

And this way Magnus won’t lose anymore clients.

“No one will argue if I insist on us being together and as long as you’re with me you don’t mind which form you have to take, correct?”

Alexander nods, shoulders relaxing as he realizes Magnus is serious.

“Then it’s settled.  I’ll make sure I don’t steal your hoard away from you so heartlessly again.” Magnus teases as he steps forward, letting his fingers slide over and rest on the scales of Alexander’s waist.  His fingers follow the smooth pattern dipping down past the waistband as he pulls Alexander’s closer still.

Alexander grumbles at the mockery but nuzzles closer all the same.

“Are you upset again?” Even as Magnus asks, he rubs his fingers in a soothing motion that Alexander’s leans into, his body swaying closer in a motion his feet unconsciously follow.

“Maybe.”

“But I thought you couldn’t stay upset with me?”  For just a moment there’s confused silence before Magnus’ can’t help it and laughs.  Alexander’s grumpy hiss and faux attempts to push Magnus away as he's laughed at are adorable.

“You’re starting to make it easier.”

Magnus laughs, pressing a series of soft, lingering kisses to Alexander’s scaled jaw before nipping at the patch of bare skin on the swell of his cheek.

“Really?” He whispers, magic lingering with every press of his lips and Alexander sighs, surrendering to Magnus embrace.

“No.” 

— 

Alec was so displeased at the idea of magnus confusion he just picked him up in his mouth very very carefully and carried him through the shadows

—

Alec: how could you not know you’re my hoard? My scales are going dull with stress because you keep letting people steal you away without me!!! I’m mad at you. Which is your fault and im bad at being mad at you which is also your fault and then you opened your mouth and made me not mad any more which was also your fault

Magnus exists and offers a hug:

Alec: successfully distracted and also no longer mad ‘this is still your fault’

—

Magnus is still misunderstanding a few things and one of those is that every other person in existence better learn to properly and adequately respect magnus. alec isnt going to stand for anything else and magnus is going to start taking into consideration alec’s thoughts about stuff because ... his bf is a dragon. You kinda have to because the whole ‘if you disrespect my bf you disrespect me’ is a much different statement when one is a badly socialized dragon

--

[lemonlinelights]

@phantaloon @dialup-dragon HAHA XD

in ref to this post My icon is this fella

Specifically this photo

It's a SpaceWhale! (So a seal is some what close) My Beloved. Specifically it's from a web comic called The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn that I think is really neat :-) literally most of my other online handles names have something to do with spacewhale- my tumblr name just barely missed it XD which is why I have a whole other blog for spacewhales now. Gotta put the love somewhere lol

[quinloki]

The more I hear about you, the more I love you (in a not creepy way) 💓 you're a super cool person and I think you're my idol ❤️

xD <3 Thank you ^_^

Ah, to be fair, a lot of stuff I did was really risky. Like, it's a bit amazing I'm here levels of stupid.

I won't get into details, but I totally met A Stranger From The Internet when I was like... 13? 14? The WWW was a little more than chat rooms and dialup connections, and my dumb ass met someone who owned a drove a car.

And later, I wanna say I was 20-22, maybe a little younger, I drove two hours for a bdsm hookup with someone I did not know that well. This was really before I'd gotten into kink enough to be smart about it. I look back on it and just physically cringe because it could've been SO BAD.

I mean, it was hot - good for what it was - but it's a fucking miracle I wasn't just murdered and dumped on the highway. No cell phones - not really - and no one knew I'd left to go do it, so no one would've missed me for days.

I guess what I mean is, I appreciate the compliment, but damn my guardian angel is going to beat the shit out of me when I die - and they'll be right to do so XD

And I guess, if I can use my personal Dumb Shit Experience™ to help people out so they can experience life with a little less dumb and shit mixed in there, then that's good.

[jawsaquarium]

hey,, you should totally explain all the important lore of dialtown to me bc im far too lazy to actually go watch somethin myself /nf

OKAY OKAY SO. Anybody correct me if I forgot anything, but.

all but Norm have object heads due to The Dialup, initiated by Callum Crown, former president, who lost his memory on January first of 1967, day after the Dailup was set into motion. Norm doesn’t have an object head due to being the first ever astronaut sent into a worm hole, forcing him to travel into the 2020’s, despite being from the 60’s, meaning he’d missed the dialup in its entirety. He was exiled by Mayor Mingus, Callum’s Granddaughter, for refusing to conform and replace his head.

Now, as for Callum. Born in 1923, his left arm being his only complete limb. He eventually built himself legs to join the war, but was denied, giving him newfound spite and determination. He made himself a prosthetic arm, and sold multiple prosthetics to soldiers who had returned, getting him a business, but that was quickly shut down once soldiers didn’t NEED to buy any more limbs. He tried adding upgrades to these prosthetics, with tools built in, but was passed off as a guy who made himself a freak for show. Passed off as a door to door salesman made of clanking metal. He soon realized his telephone was what connected him to the rest of Dialtown, the world, and that’s what started his idea for the phone-heads. The idea caught on, and a typewriter alternative was made too.

Callum was elected president after other roles, but after the dialup, he had accidentally pressed a button on the side of his head, one that would erase his memories in case he was ever captured by an enemy, or something of the sort. Of course, he HAD planned a way to get those memories back, that being giving his vice president, Milton R. Wallace, the plans to his head. But, Milton was no longer around, and not another soul knew a thing about how to fix him. Doctors tried, but there wasn’t anything they could do.

Mingus (in the 2020’s I assume) even tried to get GOD to fix it, only to be turned down.

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

YOU HAVE SUMMONED ME honestly I was worried that this was super late but then I saw the time stamp on your post and I was like 😀 tis still shenanigan time!! HALEY!!! aka BITEWING!!!! sweet angel baby puppy love of my life. she’s adorable. she only has three legs! when dick rescued her from getting abused by some random jerks in the street she BIT HIM hard enough that he needed STITCHES. and he said “oh i’m gonna take her to the pound tomorrow” and babs and tim were like 👀 uh huh, sure you are dick… and next thing you know we see he’s got toys for her and a bed and a bowl with her name on it. her name was voted on by readers and is a nod to haly's circus! (which writers occasionally forget that dick owns now, but that’s a whole other tangent) she is a tiny menace and I love her! just in canon we’ve seen her try to play with/tear up important papers, she ate dick’s tv remote and tore up his couch, and she has daydreams about fighting crime as bitewing 🩵 she very much strikes me as an ankle biting menace while she’s still a puppy, and I feel like lucky would literally have to scruff her to pull her away from a fight… which honestly also feels right for kate and dick in some cases 😂

This is amazing I am sobbing I am weeping Kate and Dick with their disabled doggos

(Also Dick and Clint lowkey soulmate vibes???)

I was imagining Kate losing Lucky at a dog park (full disclosure I have no idea how dog parks work, maybe just a regular park?) and she's getting pizza to lure Lucky (and potentially also Jeff???) back to her, she's not super worried, she's chatting to Cute Tall Guy who is ALSO missing his dog. He's not getting pizza for doggo, just for him. Anyway SUDDENLY A RUCKUS and Kate and Tall Guy hear Barking! And individually they are thinking, well, my dog might have just started a gang war

again

This is fine

It turns out puppo Haley has found a stray cat mama with a new litter of kittens and has planted herself between the cat and some other dogs who are clearly VERY poorly behaved, but she is a hero and that's! what! heroes! do! However Haley is a pup and also missing a leg she could use some backup basically, and Lucky, who has never met a disaster he doesn't love, decides to ALSO plant himself between the mean dogs (who are lowkey trying to bully Haley) and Haley and the cats. Jeff might be there but mostly for the Drama bc he's a messy bench like that

Anyway Dick and Kate proceed to RIP INTO the other dog owners and then look at each other askance like wtf are we supposed to do with the cat?!?!?! Who has decided Haley is just a big dumb kitten she lost and has adopted her (very bruce-coded of the cat tbh). And kittens?!?! One of them is orange and has something going on with an eye and Kate is like oh NO this kitten is a cat Lucky I can't believe I have at least one cat now

(clint: you know you don't have t--

Kate: who am I to argue with the cat distribution system)

Dick is frantically calling up his favorite animal expert (it's Damian) about how to safely move mama and kittens? And where? Vet??!?!? Animal shelter?!?!?! Tim?!?!

To be fair Dick could have probably figured it out if he was alone but Kate is there and his brain makes dialup noises when he looks at her for too long yes he's WEAK leave him alone

At some point Kate winds up sitting on the ground and Haley flops into her lap and passes out because it's been a big day for a puppy and Lucky and Jeff give Kate the BIGGEST SADDEST BABY EYES because that's their spot?? Why is this interloper hogging the Pizza Girl? Lucky turns Sad Dog Eye on Dick like Dick is just going to remove his darling puppy from her nap spot? Sir. Please be serious.

Idk where i was going with this but also Lucky the hardened established dog hero and Haley his young impetuous sidekick dog, Jeff finding missions for them working out of Batcow's barn. BITEWING!!! I am dead. Pandemonium is their business.

lol for some reason Haley is giving me cat vibes a little. Lucky is like, this is Pizza Girl. Protecting Pizza Girl is my sworn duty. And Haley is like I am BITEWING. This is my human sidekick, Nightwing.

(Also for some reason I'm lowkey vibing Clint and Babs???? For this???? I think they are besties regardless but just seeing them watching their favo disaster birds getting parent trapped by their DOGS like "are you seeing this? I'm not the only one seeing this right????")

ANyway maybe Clint has custody of Lucky so Kate and Jeff are moping hanging out at a park (Jeff is an extrovert and he is LONELY he wants FRIENDS) and one of two things happens:

Haley bolts and Dick is chasing after her and hears someone go "Don't you BARK at him, he didn't do anything! He just wants to be friends!" which makes Dick have the simultaneous thoughts of "oh no what did my dog do" and "how DARE you yell at my dog!!"

he rounds the corner and sees Haley looking as chagrined as a chaos pup can look before scootching closer to the other dog and licking its...nose. Snout?

"That's a shark," Dick says. The shark in question is now dragging out what appears to be a rotisserie chicken and is sharing it with Haley.

"What?" Kate says. "No, he's just a rare breed of dog. The, uh. The Chilean Hairless....land...shark."

OR Haley is Not Afraid! She decided she and Dick were playing fetch with one of his escrima sticks and she took OFF so now Dick is yelling for her hoping she comes back with the same stick she left with.

So Dick is hollering for her and Kate answers back "Haley is over here! Uhh assuming Haley is a dog and not a child, or a bird, or a lizard of some kind?"

And that's when Dick sees his dog playing with his escrima stick with a shark??? who is leaving dents in his weapon????

Kate isn't even looking at Dick when she's like "hey, do you come here often? Jeff has been really lonely and she's the first dog we've met that isn't terrified of him, so that's pretty cool, anyway hi my name is Kate...." and THEN she looks up (and up, and up) at Dick and is like. oh my god. is this why Gwen said we should try this park today??? Because of beautiful dog dad man?

either way Jeff REFUSES to leave Haley which means Dick and Kate have to spend most of the day together. At some point MODOK tries to steal Jeff back and Haley plants herself in front of Jeff and growls at MODOK and she's actually pretty intimidating but it's still the cutest thing ever. Jeff and Haley are ride-or-dies, like Jeff will be mad at Dick when Haley has to go to the vet.

[askpiperangel]

MAIN ACC IS @8bitwonders

“Stabby told me to get a “computer” and download this thing called “Tumblr” so uh...Hello! Call me Pip! I am Detective Piper Angel, though you probably know me already for how brilliant i am, heh! Here are some things about me!”

Info:

Pronouns: She/her

Flag: 🇬🇧

Likes: “Ducklings! A lot, hehe! I like other things too, but ducklings and birds are all you need to know about.. O-Ooh! Other than the fact i like space! Oh, it is so beautiful. My great grandfather worked for NASA all those years ago, i love space..”

“I work for Mayor Mingus as Dialtown’s best detective. I usually have my little’ pet duck Benno with me along the way. He likes wearing different hats, heh… I gave him a mask, Dialup duck heads are horrible...Don’t tell Miss Crown i said that…”

“I used to wear disguises for different missions, so you can ask to see some of those! I think i have some of in my closet somewhere…Hm.”

Alliances:

“I tend to hang around with Little Billy, he’s truly a cute little boy when you ignore the havoc he wreaks!”

“Hm. That Mr. Allen guy is not too bad, neither is Phonegingi..They’re not my friends though, i have no time for friendships.”

“Hehe, i am totally Miss Crown’s favourite too...”

“I live with Stabby, Shooty and Mr. Rustlebelt at The Dialtown Zoo.”

Works with The Dialtown Mob, hence why she’s so obsessed with Mingus.

Acts cold to Norm for being a normie but secretly respects the dude.

OOC: Ask rules:

Her accent switches to Southern sometimes, since she disguised as a cowgirl for a whole year for a mission and got used to speaking in a Southern accent.

Piper is not a minor, so feel free to message what you would like (Romance, threats etc.) Just do not go too far.

Please do not spam the ask box, as i am likely busy and will not respond for a while. I probably will not respond if you spam.

“Feel free to ask Benno questions too, but he doesn’t do much..”

Open to roleplaying, OC asks and character asks!

May contain some headcannons.

Some asks will be responded with drawings, some won’t be. Nothing personal!

Ty! :3

[msfbgraves]

Reset

I got catapulted straight back into the 90's for a week, on account of my wifi, and thereby my tv, internet and radio being out. I had data but had to use that very sparingly, like dialup without the screeching.

I read two thick novels and a novella in a week.

I manage two books a year, mostly, and I always thought that this was about mental bandwith.

No, it's about not having tv or social media or internet.

And I feel conflicted now.

They're such easy timefillers.

But times and infrastructure have changed. It's really hard to not have wifi. I could potentially go without tv and series on demand, but I have some very old school family that simply expects tv, and in that case some series are included anyway. I'm on my phone now too, not diving into dovstoyeski.

But it doesn't really linger and it can really sap energy needed for deeper concentration.

How much new media adds to your life? How much drains?

I can't pretend it's 1996 but I hated it so much less than I expected. It's nice to be able to read like it's easy! I did immediately feel that in that case I needed to renew my library membership yesterday; 20 or so unread books were not going to sustain me for long.

And it isn't as simple as saying "Get off Tumblr", because Tumblr has the best information on sticking it to our corporate reality I know. Seriously, I would be missing something that would make life in definitely- not - 1996 less hellish.

But it's also too easy.

Like why cook you have a Snickers right there kind of easy.

And now I don't really know what to do, the world is so full of quick distraction but it absolutely costs something. And it's one thing to kind of know that and quite another to experience it, if only for a week.

[codeform]

hm I think we’re um missing a rlly cool tron opportunity with um. no y2k tron content

considering like. programs/systems reflect an idealized sort of webscape/techological atmosphere— esp w/ legacy and its sleekness. I thin k trheres like so much that could b done w/ the concept of early web/geocities/flash/dialup and the really interesting design both physical and digital.

I also think the design of legacy is rllyrlly funny from this perspective bc it’s also a reflection of flynn and it more fits like his zen-thing mindset and again that real sleekness but when flynn was building his system it was the 80s and we all know what flynn was LIKE in the 80s and I cannot buy that THAT was what Flynn’s mindscape was like @ that time. that’s so sillydumb. n like a friend n I have talked abt how flynn only saw the encom system when it was being leeched off by the MCP but it’s still like. NOTHING like the legacy system. so like part of me wonders if the grid has changed over time With Flynn himself Or if it took on more of a reflection of Clu 2 perhaps perhaps. bc this is the guy who fully sent Clu 1 on a mission WHILE HE WAS MAD UNFINISHED like it’s a normal thing 2 do. wtf dude :/

[aerialworms]

2, 3, 17 and 40 for the ask game!

Thank you for the ask, friend!!!

2) talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

Oh jeez, that could be almost all of my fics. They tend to keep growing and growing because the characters want to do more and more things, until a 500 word ficlet becomes a 12k multichap! The most notable, I think, is my destiel star trek fusion au, which started out as a quick oneshot to get the kirk/spock/dean/cas brainworms out of my head before last year's NaNoWriMo so that I could focus on my goal of finishing several WIPs I'd been working on for months. Instead of doing that, like I intended, I kept thinking of more and more ideas and plot points to add into the universe, and ended up with 13 total fic ideas, two fully written first drafts for them, plus a couple halves of other ones, and like. maybe a thousand words on one of the WIPs I'd intended on finishing. For the whole of NaNo. I think that's the problem with writing Dean and Cas, though - it's literally canon that they'll fight against the narrative the author sets them, even when I'm actively trying to get the two ungrateful bastards together /j

3) on a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

10, baby! I love writing romance. I do write stuff without romance (mostly in my original works), but I really enjoy writing romance in fics, which is all I've been writing lately.

17) what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

"the world was thrown into a greyscale majesty, pierced with shadows that were darker than spilt ink."

Annoyingly, it's from a fic that I don't really want people to read anymore, and have only left up because a) it was my first ever fic (published 10 years ago!!!!) and b) it was a gift for my best friend at the time who I've since lost contact with, and I want her to be able to find it if she ever wants to (Ruby, if you still follow me on here, I miss you!). The phrase "a greyscale majesty" popped into my head when I was writing it and keeps popping back in. I just like the way it sounds, although it's a lot more flowery than I like to write these days. Not my best line, but definitely my favourite.

40) best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

Oh man, how to choose! I think it's a three way tie of comments left on my latest fic, Watching Over You - my wonderful friend Liz rereading chapter 3 before bed multiple times, someone here on tumblr saying it's a perfect bedtime story and they've reread it multiple times and it was an instant bookmark, and the absolutely tear-inducing comment on actual ao3 that my writing was cinematic and also "flows beautifully and is so enjoyable to read." I actually couldn't reply to that comment for almost a week cause my brain kept making dialup noises every time I read it! I actually got so much lovely feedback on that fic, I'm grateful for every single comment!!!

[obsidian-goblet]

So I decided my writing goals for 2025 are specifically

Complete a 100 prompt set (I used to love doing those!)

Rework the outline for BLP (the story that has haunted me for over a decade)

Do a first edit on the minotaur story (even though I'm probably over my romance era)

Unfortunately so far I've spent one day horribly hungover and one day Marie Kondo-ing a chunk of my spare room, and now it's evening and I'm tired

I'm also probably going to finally call quits on the writing group I started. I've tried and tried, but no-one actually writes, and even when I sink way more energy than I have into doing things like events or starting conversations, it stalls as soon as I stop answering because there's no willingness to interact with other people about their projects, only to talk about your own. I get zero reaction when I talk about my own writing, and if what I post does get acknowledged, it's to be likened to "y/n fanfiction" which is buck wild. Bitch, it wasn't even romance, what the actual fuck.

I started writing before the internet was even a thing - when dialup was still new - and I've never needed community to write but like damn y'all.

I probably won't be super active on writeblr still - I don't have the energy for the constant self promotion it seems is needed, I already have a full time job - but, idk my dudes, despite how daunting and exhausting the mere thought is

I miss writing :(

[funfaired]

yelling to the void about this but had some Idears and Thots while replaying DSAF and Dialtown these last few days. 

I really love this main theme of this mad attempt to grasp at a time / return to a time that is impossible to reach. The attempt itself being the downfall, and almost forcing the main big bad into losing any chance at happiness in the time they inhabit here and now.

Mingus was at least willing to take the help of Norm in the good ending, weather she liked it or not. But in the end it was good for her, it was a step in letting go. Which is something that’s clearly very hard for her. And while Mingus is definitely focused on her own gain, it would be wholly inaccurate to say she was a monster. 

She, much like Henry M, lost someone important to her which was this driving force to change the world to fit an image they thought was best. Henry M and Mingus both seem to have the ego to think they know best for the world as well. I can’t speak on Callum Crown since we don’t know too much about him canonically lore wise, but I honestly think that’s an excellent choice.

 There’s an excellent amount of care taken in establishing this world that has been so drastically effected directly by him, and Mingus. We hear a few tidbits of information and there’s some hints towards things we find out later about Mingus, her intentions and theming. But all around, he remains a bit of a mystery. This individual who may have had a bit more questionable intentions or ideas is so (chefs kiss)

In a way, you get to know Callum Crown without ever really meeting him. You know him through the world he’s left behind, through the people he’s left behind, through those that were before the Dialup. Close or otherwise. It’s a wonderful storytelling tool that makes now only the underlying mystery more believable but that much more captivating.

This theme of slowly discovering more about the world you live in and how it’s been effected by someone is also seen a bit in DSAF.

I like that Dogman decided to leave that a mystery, personally I feel like it adds to the experience and I kind of don’t want to know more. I’m very much content and floored by the whimsy o the mystery. We never know Callum, not personally, but we do get to know him through what he changed and left behind.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter who he was or what his intentions were. Because if you get stuck on trying to make sense of the past you miss out on the future you could have. It’s a nice theme, and a lesson that Mingus almost misses and Henry M is too late to learn. 

I’m sure there’s more but my incoherent rambling aside, 10 out of 10 game. great storytelling and characterization as always and a level of it I strive to do! Play Dialtown.

[lrgcarter]

Thanks for your question!

Ah, the humble hormagaunt. Let's see, where to start. I imagine that, living with Jeff, you've picked some of this up by osmosis but I'd best start at the beginning.

Imagine you're just chillin' out in the galaxy. You have a map of the galaxy showing the spiral, that central bar thing in the middle, Earth off to the left, and the top of your page is labelled North. There's a 'You Are Here' pin pointing to the south east corner. You are far from Earth, but you live in an area that benefits from the 80s power fantasy of "Being Economically and Socially Stable". It's a little place called Ultramar. Just a few planets, but it's quiet, peaceful, serene.

That is until you start getting disturbing messages from probes you've been sending out beyond the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. Into that empty void where only darkness lies. But these probes, they've been picking up signals that show there is something else out there. Then, after a few seconds, these probes cut out communication and are never heard from again. 

"Meh," you shrug. "Galaxy's a big place. Many mysteries that never get solved. Space beyond the galaxy is even bigger. Loads of unknowns. No biggie."

But, in time, frontier bases on the Easter Fringe start falling out of contact with you. They're not liking your socials and they've stopped posting altogether. 

"Meh," you shrug. "Our internet runs on a complex system of interlinked psychic mutants that really shouldn't work at all. Everyone has trouble with their local mutant's connection at some point or the other. No biggie"

And then news reaches you of the backwater outpost of Tyran; population: 400 odd tech nerds and their accompanying soldiers and secretaries. It's gone. Reduced to a barren rock. Poor nerds.

"Meh," you shrug. "In the 41st millenium, there is only war. Shit happens. No biggie."

Then your internet goes out. 

"Holy Fuck!" you scream. "This is the Worst Thing Ever! Big biggie indeed!!!!"

Because those psychic mutants on which your galactic internet is based? They've all gone super weird and are raving about how The Great Devourer is coming and everyone's going to get eaten. And you try logging on again and yep, the gurgly ringtone of your dialup sure does make you instinctively feel like a single, galaxy sized mind, vast and unsympathetic, is about to swallow your world up for lunch.

All the local edge-lord fringe groups; your libertarians and your tankies and your liberal democrats, they're all suddenly revealing themselves to have more arms than they'd previously been letting on. And suddenly you notice that they're all bald. I mean, intellectually, you knew lots of them had shaven heads or wore bad toupees, but now you realise they're all bald. And they're also blowing up local infrastructure, launching coups, hanging people in the street; all the sort of stuff they've been saying for years they wanted to do but never actually got round to. 

To make everything worse, there's fuck tons of pollen in the air which is wreaking havoc with your allergies and all the plants are going bug-fuck batshit overgrowing all over the place. 

And that's when the coconuts start falling out of the sky. Thousands of the things, burning up as they fall, crashing into the ground and cracking open and releasing the things inside them.

Imagine if H R Giger had been asked to design some cute, colourful creatures for a Saturday morning cartoon. They're cute, they're colourful, they're often chubby in a huggable kind of way. They're also phallic and yonic and covered in teeth and spikes.

And these things start eating everything. Well, everything organic. Plants, people, pets, everything gets torn apart and swallowed. There are big things that eat folks whole. There are smaller things that eat folks in chunks. There are worm things that make sure the crumbs of folk aren't missed. 

The local edge-lords have found themselves loads of matching purple robes from the local Cloth World store and are chanting while they march into the gigantic shellfish that seem to be what these things use as space ships. It looks like they're happy about it. The oppressive, all encompassing psychic mind that has enveloped everyone and everything communicates without words straight into your skull that those people will willingly lower themselves into acid vats so that their biomass and genetic material can be collected and added to The Whole.

Because that's what's happening here. A hive mind of space locusts are stripping your planet for parts. All the creatures attacking you have been built from scratch from big biomass pools, specially designed to tear your pitiful life apart in a simple act of natural consumption. Space nature, red in tooth and claw.

"Ah," you think. "This must be what stripped Tyran bear. We should name these things after Tyran. Let's call them Tyranids."

Then you look down and say "Shit! Someone's pinched my denim trousers right off my legs!"

Then you get eaten by genestealers.

So, let's return to hormagaunts. 

These happy little chappies are part of the swarm of things that eats organic matter so the biomass can be carried back to the shellships to make more things.

Each of these things has been designed by the hive mind to fulfil some role in the great consumption. People say the Tyranids evolve, but that's not true. They develop their organic technology based on new needs and biological input, but all of the Tyranid space bugs were designed and pulled from a living biological 3D printer.

And hormagaunts were designed to jump! That's their whole thing! So cute! 

Or rather, leap, if we're being pedantic. It's like that "Lions can jump 30 feet" thing, or however far it was. They don't jump higher than giraffes. Tyranid air supremacy comes in other forms. 

Though, I've just checked my 2nd ed codex. 3" high! that's not nothing! And the leap is 6" in length! that's added (in a single burst, not spread out) to the 12" charge OR RUN basic speed!! (That distinction is meaningless unless you played the game, I'd just forgotten that this bonus applied to run moves as well as charges. Maybe I'm remembering some later rules?) When most people can only move 4" normally with a charge/run of 8", moving 18" is pretty badass. Particularly when you can speed over 3" high obstacles without slowing.

I was going to get pictures to show the development of the models over time and illustrate how the models love to fall over, but this lore shizzle took longer than expected! I think I'll leave this here for now!

I wanna talk about warhammer 40k. Someone ask me a question for me to ramble worthless opinions about.

[carpisuns]

me want make

me want art and fanfic cake

me should just bake

me think, mmm but that sounds fake