#idk i just think its very inchresting

[bunnyboy-juice]

soooooo do i have bad vibes or something?

[daenystheedreamer]

pls more abt viserys Omaegorverse I'm so fascinated it's insane and i honestly think grrm would b proud

im so happy u love it and this means so much but i do NOT think he would be proud 😭 he would read my posts (gun to his head ofc he wouldnt just. do that.) and sit in silence for a few minutes and then he would say. Maegor isnt gay what are you talking about. and i go well thats not really the point and anyway sexuality is kinda fluid and its more about opportunity and power than about sexual attraction although i will concede- and then he sends elio and linda with spears to hunt me down.

he's canonically a nothing character with personality of 'Beloved Of The Commons' n nothing else so i can kinda do whatever tf i want with him which is fun. he's also mostly there to be a sad wet cat that gets kicked by everyone and everyone he loves dies or is weird about him in some way. he's my special little sad uke twink i brutalise for my personal entertainment <3 im so maegorcoded so tyannacoded... anyway more about my babyboy viserys below<3 warning its SOOO long like fifteen fucking paragraphs Jesus christ

trigger warnings for like everything. incest death depression mental instability murder psychosis uhhh. torture and suicide. just all of it do NOT read unless youre like super certain you wanna read about my deviantart OCs because guys it is NOT worth it

childhood pre-Torture Labyrinth. he's born in 29 AC and was 8-ish when he was at the deathbed of Aegon1. aegon the uncrowned is three years older than him, and rhaena is six years older. jaehaerys is 5 years younger, alysanne is 7 years younger vaella who i kept alive is 10 years younger. just to give an idea of ages and general canon info :>

his only personality trait is Promising and Beloved of the commons. i think him and aegon were friends :) younger brother so he followed after him a lot. slightly scared of rhaena the big cool older sister who has a pet dragon. think his granddad is soooo cool doesnt really think about The Implications of conquest or anything. normal boy normal childhood (as normal as possible when ur siblings are married...) also he is gay because it adds to the horrors later on 🥰

something i think is Inchresting is the rhaena, aegon and viserys are named for rhaenys, aegon and visenya :3 i think viserys is like hercules right where he was named in an attempt to appease The Wife. aenys was like hiiiii auntie/stepmum visenya look i named a kid after you you dont wanna kill me right?right? and she looks at this kid who didnt claim a dragon isnt a girl isnt maegor and goes oh so youre insulting me huh.

i think rhaena aegon viserys had a slightly weird dynamic. rhaena the lesbian getting forcibly betrothed to her younger brother by her father is gonna make things weird, also aegon was 15 and rhaena 18 which adds just the best most awesome sauce to the mix. i think viserys had very complicated feelings on that especially if he is gay cos like... rhaena obviously does not love her brother romantically right. so u are a boy and ur sister is a lesbian but you dont have that word. and you are gay and your brother is cool and the crown prince and everyone is screwing their siblings and that makes your brain chemistry weird. and now your brother is marrying your gay sister. What about you. the dragon has three heads??? idk he's like 12 at this point he just goes back to playing hide and seek with jae+aly.

Uh oh daddy's dead. daddy's dead and uncle maegor is king now with his three wives. Uh oh. oh awesome he's kidnapped you and you're his squire now that's so cool. well its mostly a power play and hes not actually making u do anything as long as you stay locked in the red keep all day he leaves you alone. also maegor's insane girlfriend stares at you like you're a baby lamb that would make a delicious lamb tostada. but hey your big brother aegon has a dragon now and him and rhaena are gonna save you soon. Uh oh aegon's dead. aegon's dead and maegor is king for real for real.

everyone steers clear of you in the keep. you used to play with your siblings and the commoners and you used to play on dragonstone and kings landing and now no one wants to touch you. no one is calling you maegor's squire now, the pretence is gone. you are maegor's hostage. you fantasise about a different outcome, where maegor took you to the battle as his squire, and that you being there might have changed what happened. maybe you could have warned aegon. but you know nothing would have changed. youre not a dragonrider. you're worthless you're powerless. youre 14 years old :)

alys harroway is dead. maegor killed his wife. you knew alys, you saw her around the keep. she seemed very nice. she was very quiet and stayed in her rooms. she was always pregnant. you wonder why she married maegor, why she and tyanna are so strange with each other. you hear rumours. you wish you had talked to her. but she's dead now. maegor killed her. maegor tortured her. she's a whore now. you look out the window and see her rotting leg on a stake outside, her torso on another. you wish you had talked to her.

visenya targaryen the looming shadow over your life, the woman you're named after who looked at you with nothing but scorn, is dead. your mother is gone and she took jae and aly. what about you? what about you? is she not your mother too? are you not her little boy anymore? you are 15 years old. maegor killed alys' family when he was angry with her. is he going to kill you now?

ok second person pov over the gimmick is getting lame. anyway this is where the AU deviates: instead of viserys dying of torture, maegor is like hey maybe my nephew will be more fertile than my BITCH wives. and visenya the blood witch before her death compiled a bunch of old valyrian a/b/o fanfiction and said son if you ever find yourself with infertile wives. Consult These Texts. then tyanna and maegor made viserys mpreggable i dont care about how or like. what his body looks like. im not into the fetish of omegaverse LMAO i dont want to think about the fertilisation or birthing process or what organs he has thats unnecessary. only thing thats important is viserys can incubate babies and they are birthed via c-section :3

quick lore dump: vis is forced to maegor -> rhaena crashes the wedding but vis is so broken at this point he just doesnt want anyone else to die and has resigned himself to maegor so rhaena reluctantly surrenders -> alyssa jae and aly DO go to the red keep after they find out about the wedding and jae dies fighting maegor which makes viserys fully break -> alyssa now has husband dead 2 kids dead her son is queen and she also loses her fight :( lives on dragonstone with alive vaella -> alysanne is given to the faith -> rhaena agrees to a truce and she is hand of the king now and viserys' main protector -> vis gets pregnant and the kid is basically a reincarnation of jaehaerys -> tyanna loses her shit and tries to murder/sterilise/whatever viserys so maegor kills her cos he's finally got his babymaker -> vis has a daughter who's the reincarnation of tyanna -> faith uprising, shut down -> vis has his second daughter final child daenys who's birth is heralded by the martyrdom of poxy jeyne poor in the quashed faith uprising

vis is in the torture labyrinth for a couple decades. life sucks husband sucks everyone is weird about him. very death in venice people are weird about the boy type deal. has to wade through gender and sexuality politics of westeros which means several men going utterly insane about him including a couple kingsguard knights (celibate hypermasculine freaks bound to be insane sexually). one point early-ish on he DOES start believing this one kingsguard knight will save him from The Hells The Horrors but maegor finds out and kills that guy adn sexually humiliates viserys in front of the kingsguard and makes their son watch. So that fucks up vis' psyche for a while :3

rhaena and alysanne try to convince him to rebel and run away that they will use their dragons and fight. but maegor has made vis so paranoid and crazy he thinks maegor knows everything knows all his thoughts so he's terrified of plotting escape cos he thinks maegor will kill everyone. plus maegor made sure to force kids onto him early so that vis wouldnt be able to leave :3 world's most evil babytrap of all time.

vis doesnt interact with anyone except rhaena aly maegor his kids and the kingsguard so yeah its bad for him. ceryse hangs around for a while but shes like yeah i dont want any part of this shit dude being queen is NAWT worth it and she goes back to the hightower to plot marrying her niece off to maegor's son.

also there's a curse on the kingsguard all of them die really horribly and early. its a fun little thing for me personally because in f&b maegor's kinsguard is cartoonishly bad and jae's is cartoonishly perfect so i though Hey what if we did a little curse on the kingsguard ey. that would be fun. the only guy who stays long is a bracken because brackenfail cancels out knightfail. he's all godly and pissy about the gay marriage thing but he's also a monarchist so even though he think maegor is satan he's like well. he is my king i must serve him i obey my vows. he thinks viserys is a freak of nature but slowly grows to respect him and helps kill maegor + takes the fall for it. they have a weird father figure/white knight/weird tension thing that never gets consummated yay ^_^ the maegor torture labyrinth will have you 21 years old and best friends with a 50 year old celibate knight like dang where tf ser bracken at today 🥹

viserys snaps in 66AC with no like big catalyst or anything. he just has a good day where he's mostly lucid and he's angry and he's tired of everything and he's sick of maegor and he wants freedom he wants to be free. he wants to breath the air without panicking that maegor is going to hurt him. and maegor says some disgusting comment to him while theyre alone in the throne room and vis just snaps and start fighting him. daenys shows up cos she had her own Visions and Voices and they just start whaling on him. bracken knight helps too he takes most of maegor's counter attacks his organs are all over the floor but maegor dies impaled on the throne YAY

vis is like. A bit better for a while. his son is now king and vis is seeing that oh it doesnt get better does it people will still die. also his son jae has this weird oedipus complex about him thanks to maegor's insane parenting and viserys is fully aware of that so its not fun times for him. jae and daenys try to make him better try to invent therapy but its the middle ages they dont have that yet. they finally send him off to harrenhal (BAD IDEA) because they think viserra (the elder daughter btw, the tyanna one) might be able to cure him with her weird witchcraft. they think she's insane too but its the last option... viserra thinks vis is lame and weak but she does love him in ehr own way or maybe just pities him. anyway she does her best and it works for a while but viserys sorta gives up cos the depression is too much. and viserra believes in euthanasia as a mercy and thinks this is best for him this will let him be at peace. daenys has a premonition about it and tries to stop him. she has a big blowout fight with jae about it too and curses his bloodline and prophesises the long night. burned the red keep a little bit, you know how it is.

blah blah blah anyway daenys and vis end up dying in the gods eye together in a murder/suicide suicide/suicide murder/murder whatever. viserra has the lake dragged and they're found holding each other like a mother and her fetus :3

Fucks sake this post is long. holy shit holy fuck. my fucking bad guys my bad im so sorry. Holy shit. anyway thats my deviant art oc tee hee ^_^

[askaniritual]

jordannn i don't know if you've spoke on this before but on the whole what is your opinion on the differences between the book v the amc tv series re: iwtv?

oooo inchresting question! obviously the show and the books are so different as to almost defy comparison like the broad strokes of the story are the same but pretty much every character is characterized differently than their book counterpart

to me louis stands out as the character whose changes are most load-bearing specifically because the show is very deliberately concerned with his status as protagonist whereas in the books louis from his inception exists more as a shadow of and companion to lestat

louis in the books is repeatedly described as melancholy, eternally grieving and beautiful in his grief, weak, and most importantly unusually human in his mannerisms and outlook. the louis of the books exists mostly to follow lestat around telling him that his joyful exuberance and disregard for the rules is going to get him in trouble (which tbf is true) and he is described as somebody perpetually kind of out of step with the world. book louis will happily sit at home in the dark, wearing ratty old clothes and reading book after book in the light of a single candle

i think a lot of the ways his character has been changed for the show are very deliberate and ties into what the show is trying to say about race and sexuality but i also think very simply a character like book louis does not make for a very interesting tv show protagonist lol. i think it makes a lot of sense to have show louis be somebody plagued by melancholy but still willing to engage with the world, but it is also funny to see louis in the show describe his years of drugged debauchery and then smash cut to book louis who lives in a shack with no electricity because he doesn’t believe he deserves the comfort

i think a lot of the changes to lestat's character are in response to show louis having significantly more agency (atlhough of course the way he looks for people who will tell him how to live his life is an important aspect of his character) and i am excited for the new season to see more of the differences between book and show lestat now that they’re not going to be exclusively filtered through louis’ recollection. lestat in the books is definitely anne rice’s poor little meow meow who can do no wrong (although he is of course so tortured by his fundamentally evil nature no matter how many beautiful men he gathers around himself to tell him that he’s actually really a good person) and i think the show is interested in complicating that narrative. i do want to save my full evaluation of that until we can see rockstar lestat though and also get a better sense of what the framing device of the show is going to be because the books after iwtv are very specifically concerned with lestat telling his own story, without mediating it through the lens of daniel's writing

i think overall for meeeeeee (for me!) the tv show is a more compelling story although one that literally needs the vampire chronicles books to exist, not just because like, it’s based on them lol but because the show is so deliberately engaging with the concept of narrative and adaptation. like of course the show is interesting in its own right but i think what is soooo delicious to me is what it says about the original text of the books, and the way that differences between the show and the book feel deliberate both in how they cause the viewer to question the story being told and in how they are clearly making a statement about race and sexuality and the stories we tell about both of those topics, both of which are topics that i would say that the books um. struggle with

idk if this is at all coherent lol because honestly there’s too many differences to catalog one by one but my overall thought is most of the changes are for the good even though there are characters whose book counterparts i find compelling in their own way (especially armand and daniel)

[borom1r]

hmmm 3, 5, 6, 11, 14, 20, 22, 26, 38, 40 for the fun questions meme <3

ooooooo ok these’ll b inchresting :3

3- 3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

th lotr trilogy (duh), I Saw the TV Glow, The Last Unicorn :3

5- what made you start your blog?

THIS blog? suicide bait on my old blog :3

tumblr in general? a friend showed it to me in high school n i made one n my life was irreversibly changed lmfao

6- what’s the best and worst part of being online/a creator?

ATTENTION. double edged sword. like ok i try not to let myself care abt attention and try to be rlly careful now abt who i interact with but at the same time it rlly is validating when things Get Attention. some of my favorite fics have little to no engagement :( n like yea its not healthy to create FOR engagement (fast track 2 burnout) but its also like very disheartening to put time n effort n passion into sth only for it to fizzle out in the void

but whatever. ill make weird art forever

11- what do you consider to be romance?

THIS IS SO FUNNY 2 GET bc soooo much recently has made me reevaluate like. how I perceive this lollllll

anyways short answer: idfk man!!!!!!! close friendships n romance r incredibly cloudy in my mind cuz ive got a bad case of dogbrain!!

long answer is i just don’t quantify that stuff the way neurotypical ppl do :3 ties into th autism + nonhumanity. i also think cis ppl being attracted to me is gross lol. ideal romance for me is bein held n tended to like a noble knight tends their sword. I feel love like a dog feels abt their human!!! dogbrained!!! romance is being a guard dog, being a Really Good Boy but just soooo disconnected from like. idk allosexual/neurotypical quantifiers of “romance” for me lol

+ i don’t use th label rlly but im def somewhere on th ace spectrum lol like physical intimacy is only rlly “safe” conceptually when its completely disconnected from th realm of possibility. like thirsting over celebrities or like th knight i have a crush on. + cis ppl desiring me is rlly like.. ew 😒 don’t look @ me anymore man

14- what’s something you’ve always wanted to do but maybe been to scared to do?

UM. funnily enough im gonna do th Big Thing this summer :3 im going 2 th renaissance festival shirtless this year now tht im post op

s’gonna be scary showin off my scars but i rlly wanna go all out n celebrate finally havin top surgery. like im alive!! despite everything im alive n im happy ^_^ so cis people be damned, im gonna run around like a lil wolfguy for the first weekend!!!!!

20- favourite things about the night?

i love the moon :3

i also love how still n quiet things get

22- say 3 things about someone you love

ITS SO BRAVE!!!!!!!!! ITS LITERALLY THE FUNNIEST GUY I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SO PROUD OF IT FOR HOW MUCH WORK IT DOES TO BETTER OUR COMMUNITY N PROUD OF IT FOR PURSUING TRANSITION + CANT WAIT TO SHARE MORE TRANS JOY W/ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(hiiiiiii Ly hehe!!)

26- fave colour and why?

when i was a kid my favorite colors were neon yellow n neon pink :3 they still kinda are but now i usually stick to like lime green or bright red paired w black. forest green + dark blue r gr8 too

38- fave song at the moment?

DONT ASK ME TO PICK JUST ONE???????

here r some I’ve had on loop lately: Far Away (Roadside Ghost), Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl (Broken Social Scene), I’m Already Gone (Baroness), Sex for Homework (MSI)

40- any bad habits?

oh yea i have dermatillomania lol

it doesn’t rlly bother me to talk abt bc i think “gross” stuff like that deserves to be less stigmatized— my shoulders n back are COVERRRRREED in little scars + scabs

[acearadiamegido]

Aradezi? Teradia? Anywho going for one less obvious.

ough its INCHRESTING….

lemme think

so this is a ship i admittedly have not put a lot of thought into, and don’t really ship like Actively? but every time i see content for it im like oh! yeah :) love that for them

-i can make it so stupid: they larp together. canonically. on the night vriska paralyzed tavros, aradia and terezi were off somewhere roleplaying their ocs at each other in a field somewhere and then they got so distracted by the presence of doc scratch in the distance that they didn’t notice tavros being thrown off a cliff

point is they are dweebs and above all, gamers

-compatible brand of freaks: when aradia god tiers and starts going on about corpse parties on the meteor, everyone is pretty uncomfortable about it. even sollux! but not terezi shes just like TH4TS FUCK1NG CUT3. K33P 1T UP GO CR4ZY GO STUP1D >:] and aradias like. *twirls hair* you think so? :)

we love to see it!!

-inherent eroticism of attempted actual murder: many have tried. but these two are the only ones who actually succeeded at killing vriska. plus like. idk! there’s an element in the whole revenge cycle of these two avenging each other. tavros being paralyzed doesn’t immediately spur terezi to kill vriska. she just says she’ll “handle” it. which like, maybe she WAS just ruminating on how to take her out, but I think at that point she may still have been harboring some hopes of reaching a resolution with vriska that didn’t involve more bloodshed. but then aradia is killed and she’s like damn it, okay. i guess we’re doing this.

then of course she gets blinded and all that and as much as that ends up being a positive for her life, aradia still has like. A LOT of rage in the way she eventually kills vriska. im sure it’s partially for tavros, i’m sure it’s partially for herself, but the last, most recent loose end from that whole debacle was terezi losing her eyesight. vriska had never really faced consequences for that. so she’s absolutely avenging terezi there too.

which also brings up that aradia is VERY much a character concerned with justice even if she is not as vocal about it as terezi, and not as concerned with like… the classification of people or their actions as ‘criminal’ or ‘evil.’ she just sees someone hurt one of her friends and thinks “well there are going to have to be consequences for that.” which i think terezi probably finds very fucking cool and sexy because it factually IS.

also this isn’t really prompted by anything on the bingo board i just also want to say that i think they would have some very complicated shit to get through re: vriska, and that this would be really interesting to explore. their shared acknowledgement that vriska did terrible shit that hurt both of them as well as the people they care about. the shared acknowledgement that she was, at one point, their friend. and then the conflict between terezi’s continued attachment to vriska despite it all, vs aradia’s like, very civil but ultimately 100% conditional acceptance of vriska’s continued bullshit in the dreambubbles. like. aradia will hang around to watch vriska burn herself out and terezi will try her damndest to get in there with a fire extinguisher even if it means getting burned herself. and they will both see what the other is doing, and understand it, and not interfere, but still feel a deep sadness about it anyway.

[shoechoe]

ok this is real long and rambly im v sorry !! i jus wanted to talk abt music as well heh,, i loved reading ur music commentary under the tag game !! (hehe. i tag u rlly often cuz. i hav this secret inner mechanism where if a mutual tags me in anything *once* ill tag that mutual in literally everything if i remember/if prompted. tis how i roll) tho fr ur segment abt 20 min prog rock songs was so damn accurate. it rlly reminded me of pink floyd's "dogs", king crimson's "lizard" (not the album itself but moreso the sort of. i guess mashup shit they do. another prime example of this is moonchild (including the dream and the illusion), or the devil's triangle. which is honestly more nervewracking rather than boring i guess. JDEVGAVEAHDHGEAVHGAEVDGEVDG. hell ost i guess. w lizard ive listened to it so many times and while it does hav a multitude of lyrics DAMN those 23 minutes are painstakingly longgg ! i guess im a lil biased cuz u know ive played it too often. tho it does hav some v beautiful parts... ! i think a prime example of what u hav mentioned abt prog rock was w king crimson's one red nightmare. it has a cool part and then its jus. Instrumentals after and it gets kind of boring. at least the drums r p damn good!! or u know to some of comus's songs (which isnt prog rock but its prog folk. same damn thing where the songs are INSANELY long and can sometimes b rlly boring in certain portions), some prime examples being their song the herald (only 12min long. but mannn sometimes w prog rock or prog folk they make 10+ min songs feel like HOURS. but its also v mesmerizing!! or drip drip which. holy hell is an AMAZING song but theres this one part thats insanely fucking boringgg YAWN. its a nice break before the very chilling lyrics nearing the end but. come on now!) but yeah. i jus wanted to ramble bc i rlly need to get to listening to kc's entire discography as well. idk what u've listened to jus yet but some song recs if ur inchrested or havent listened to them already... could also apply 2 some of ur followers if they read this long ass ramble. this ask is a 20+ min prog rock song at this point: formentera lady, islands, the letters, ladies of the road, pictures of a city, moonchild, cirkus runthrough / lady of the dancing water (alt take) (why this one? it jus sounds better imo. lady of the dancing water is very very beautiful), thela hun ginjeet (this one is very fun and catchy), the sheltering sky, frame by frame, matte kudasai (VERY soothing), ummm.. dr diamond (live. i wish there was a more high quality ver somewhere), cadence and cascade, book of saturday, probably some more i forgot abt !!!!!! top 5 songs on their spotify also slap (obvs everyone and their mom already knows those songs id imagine! tho for new listeners those r bangers. esp starless.). if u wanna get REAL scared u should listen to da devil's triangle. (exaggerating but its quite diff from what *ive* heard. like hollyyy hell they set the mood down so so so so so well)

I appreciate the extra depth in the commentary- it is thoughtful. (I also appreciate the tag games.)

I agree that progressive rock is a very alluring and simultaneously often frustrating genre as someone who tends to be a fan of it. I consider it the musical equivalent of a sit-down meal; it requires a lot of patience and is best for when you have the time to just appreciate and drift off to it.

Progressive rock is usually lengthy, often slow, very experimental, and tends to utilize a lot of improvisation; as a result, you end up with a lot of songs with pieces that work extremely well, but you do often have to sit through a lot of parts that you just don't care for. Having music be a test of patience is understandably just not for everybody.

I find that my favorite progressive rock songs transform into feeling more like journeys rather than typical musical experiences. I consider Echoes by Pink Floyd to be my favorite prog rock song (and one of my favorite songs in general) for this reason. I end up enjoying the long middle portion entirely made of odd, unnerving, very non-"musical" sounds, because the entire song feels like you are trekking through something strange and unknown.

The slow transition with the buildup of the main tune's return at the very end of the middle portion feels almost like a phoenix rising from the ashes, or the reward at the end of a long journey- I hope that doesn't sound cheesy, lol. I enjoy sometimes playing Echoes at nighttime while I'm lying in bed, and I believe that is the absolute best time to play it. It ends up being a very moving experience for me and it really highlights the great potentials of progressive rock.

Thank you for the recommendations- I'm planning to listen to everything, anyway, but I'm sure any of my followers looking for music recs will appreciate it. King Crimson gets a lot of praise from music enthusiasts, but it doesn't seem as well-known among the mainstream as other progressive rock like Pink Floyd, for example.

[basslinegrave]

opened freddit after ages (regret) and theres a post about uhh book lore aside, sl taking place before fnaf1 and uhh william being springlocked before that and im like huh? i thought he got springlocked right after fnaf1 in 93 cause he dismantles the fnaf1 animatronics so how the fuck would that even work man. what are even discussing here.

im a believer in two fnaf things, one being that fnaf1 and SL happened very close to each other if not at once (or more specifically, william would free the souls and get springlocked around the time michael would go down, though some of my own ideas dont go well together) and second, bite of 87 was chica, not mangle, with the small beak frontal lobe theory it sounds more fun

and as for the fnaf4 experiments i prefer gas over discs hovewer the discs might be a thing if i count in the virtual reality the pizzaplex is in..

or the true ending, everything after pizzasim is a different alternate universe and is just branching off and is more tied to books than previous games, idk

to add a thought about the dismantling and sl, part of me thinks will and mike had an agreement to each go to these locations but i dont think william would do it to free the souls he just wanted to get rid of the animatronics methinks.. also thinking he would send michael down for a certain death but the turntables.... michael getting out of it and will himself getting springlocked but its kinda.. i dont know man

what i dont like right now is that having the springlocking and scooping happen at the same time kinda takes away from each as theyre big events

but yea! i think it makes slightly more sense for post fnaf1 /springlock scene to happen before SL. and fnaf1 def takes place in the 90s and william gets springlocked then. if any of the books now say the pizzaplex is built in the 20s it doesnt automatically have to mean he got springlocked earlier.. pizzasim is prob set in the 20s too and the pizzaplex can happen at any time after that really, most likely not Too far into the future, as they would probably be covering up the old buildings..... hm, in the rare case of henry making it thru, or planning beforehand, i wonder if he does have something to do with mxes, i like that theory. and to end on a braindead take, what william has to do with mxes :] hey, steelwool bringing burntrap and then retconning it to mimic same with glitchtrap, i dont think it was planned, MAYBE, but i think they also want to keep bringing will back. if nothing else, beta mxes entity is proof to me, that thing is so fazbear frights afton coded

no to me that IS afton. thats him 100% his ghost or something. absolutely no idea how it fits with mxes but the beta design is william nothing will change my mind

edit: after a painful nap i also gotta add that no i dont think mimic is a retcon entirely, its just some parts, i think it was hinted but just very lightly to thw point the fandom convinced itself (and me) that glitchtrap is afton for no reason, but i feel like after seeing the burntrap hate they retconned him to just gregorys fantasy/imagination so we dont have another afton situation

AND YET they kept dlcrabbit in the files. inchresting

[littleheartsong]

IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY YOU LIKE HIM SEEING AS HES JUST ME HEHE, he has no need for money so he just joins Laios party for fun (he's madly in love with Chil) and besides there all so dumb they need someone like him to help with puzzles. idk if you play dnd but drow are "dark elves" elves that were ran underground until they eventually develop their own culture and defining characteristics they're very interesting hehe before he got cursed he would've definitely practiced elven magic. as for his hypnosis hypnotizing, humanoids versus monsters, both have the pros and cons. Hypnotizing humans takes a bit more effort but it's considerably easier. Despite what you think, the more intelligent, the subject, the easier it is. hypnotizing a dragon would be extremely difficult because they don't have a very high intelligence level but unlike with humans, he doesn't need to be careful he can psychically Poke and prod wherever he wants inside of its head without needing to care. For humanoids, it needs to be delicate yet forceful if they're not willing. If they're willing, it's pretty much smooth sailing. It just takes effort into making sure you don't harm them. I along with Hipnosis magic. He can also do regular hypnosis. It's a long process and it leaves the subject, more broken than anything. I wanted him to be creepy yet beautiful at the same time. He's extremely feminine and has super long black hair and dresses very delicately but he's also a living doll that can make you act against your will.-🦑

yeye i play a lot of ttrpgs my own dunmeshi oc mawkish is a tiefling 8) there are technically 'dark elves' in dunmeshi but its a term used to describe elves who harm short-lived races

the hypnotizing magic makes a lot of sense! being able to access the psychology and inner mechanisms of a being WOULD be a lot easier when that subject has more sapience. but that also requires a lot of delicate work because that means more to break

im in LOVE with the theme that hes a doll but ALSO the puppet master VERY INCHRESTING i can def imagine people underestimating him only for him to bloodbend their ass atla style

[mbabol]

hello fresh 5

so i just found the first queens warrior. and its got me thinking abt a couple things. its the little rolly caterpillar that i basically played volleyball with to beat. and they kept saying they were waiting for the queen bc the queen is going to teach them to fly. interesting, bc why would the queen be a good teacher to learn to fly? the queens gardens also has quite a number of flying critters, and wings are a Part of the world thats . interesting sometimes. not everyone has wings bc Bugs. but is the queen a winged creature? im getting the sense that shes a different kind of bug from the king. her realm and the kings realms are being delineated by the game as Distinct. firstly through the queens station and the kings station being situated so far away from each other on the map, being separate locations to begin with, the references to each nearly always being separate, characters referring only to one or the other, but rarely both in tandem.

the queen i think is going to be a much more interesting reveal than the king. mostly because the game is taking pains to hide more about the queen than the king. references to the queen, motherhood, are subtler than that of the king, traceable through things like the number of mothers, broods, that are discoverable in boss fights and mobs, rather than the dialogue and written storytelling. im beginning to suspect that the game is trying to leverage common assumptions that the king is the central figure, the all powerful patriarch, as part of its storytelling. which is fascinating. why is gender becoming a part of the theming. so interesting.

i know another big theme is reproduction and lineage. ancestry etc. thats been very consistent so far. but its interesting to see how theyre weaving in the idea of the Queen, the Mother into all this.

OH YEAH IVE BEEN SAYING THAT THEY WERE TRYING TO HIDE THE QUEEN MORE THAN THE KING LOL BUT ONE OF THE BIGGEST GLARING CLUES WAS HERRAH SAYING "for her...for her..." OVER AND OVER AGAIN LOLOLOLLLOL

ok but i still stand by it. the queen is going to be distinct from the king. possibly a different species ? or just a really big deal is going to be made that She holds a particularly unique special place in the role of the World, perhaps more so than the king. inchresting.

theorycrafting: ok claire this is for you specifically, but you kept hinting at the delineation of Old and New (kingslight oldlight) and this is falling directly in place with the delineation of king and queen. im Wondering if maybe queen was a bastion of the oldlight, a part of the old order more closely associated with dreams than soul. bc nothing queen associated has so far been tied to Soul the way that the king always is. idk. i could be wayyy off base with all of this and im just seeing things that i want to see, but i think if they went in this direction it would be really really interesting. and a lot of the storytelling in the written word and the game elements would support this kind of theming! hmhm.

also i went to stag nest and theres a fucking baby stag wandering around somewhere where the hell is it i tried so hard to find it in the stagnest but i couldnt find it where the fuck am i going to find it

[snekdood]

listen, all im sayin is its pretty funny to me when the same person whos all like "my uwu baby!!!" toward a serial killer in some show also apparently lacks empathy when people who've done far less shit just simply exist and they dont want them to

how do you fail to extend empathy to actual humans but its so easy for you to do with this guy that if he was real would be entirely irredeemable in every capacity?

[voiceless-terror]

Rarepair jon/mike crew. Idk why I adore the idea of miel not really being dead and Jon saving him either from being buried or digging him up and mike ending up a reluctant ally and then later in season 4 uh much more than that

there were a few fics i read that weren't jon/mike but DID have their meeting go slightly differently and mike ended up as an ally instead of, yknow, dead in a ditch. i feel like that could be so much fun to play around with, pairing-wise, and i DO love the vast. i just think its neat <3

but yes to mike being a reluctant ally and jon actually having someone in his corner in season four, i could see that being VERY satisfying to play out. hmm....inchresting....

[askaniritual]

You got more homestuck fic recs? Do you like canon adjacent stuff or major AUs?

not totally sure if this is a request for recs or an offer to rec me haha but as far as fic recs go, i dont really have anything i havent already posted about in some capacity.

i prefer canon adjacent stuff personally (otherwise like, i might as well read a book) but ill read anything as long as the writing is good. if u have recs hmu.

i dont surf character pairing tags much anymore and if something makes me deranged i tend to just post about it, but heres some bonus stuff ig:

domestic diplomacy (and other minefields) by spoonerizeswiftness

my impression is this person was like the definitive gamkar author back in the day but this fic is v recent. ive read this fic so many times it would probably be relevant to bring up in some kind of psych eval. idk what to tell you this Really does it for me. only good dave<3karkat<>gamzee fic in existence unfortunately ┐(´-｀)┌

status report by ???

i think i posted abt this one before but i still need to reiterate that this was written for me, specifically, the worlds foremost pale solrezi enjoyer and also frequent complainer about how ppl deal w the whole helmsman situation. i rlly like how this fic has like a very dire premise but still manages to remain very hopeful

signs at sundown by geometrician

this is by the author of dualshock desertbloom and has a lot of the same hcs but its just a little moment between dave and bro set pre-sburb. what more can i say i just find the way this author conceptualizes dave and bro's relationship to be inchresting

lock it up and leave by theeeee tamsyn muir

this has 1.4k kudos so its dumb for me to recommend it but as an avowed jonkat hater i do feel like i should offer like. the one johnkat fic i like and also an oldie but a goodie from the tamsyn muir archives. delicious delicious sadstuck

[starlightswait]

sam rewatches shadowhunters 2022, 1.02 the descent into hell isn't wasy

“clary is there a war going on that i don’t know about?” “there is now” makes me think about how this situation is actually pretty new for this younger generation of shadowhuners. and just a few mins in the show goes out of its way to highlight how censored knowledge of the revolt and the circle is. yes they face demons everyday but they only have a vague understanding of their sordid history re: the uprising. so like, as many mistakes as they make, they’re making them not only bc they’re flawed (though that too obviously), but bc this is new territory. that’s not to excuse any of the shitty things alec, jace, and izzy might do down the line, bc everyone does shitty things and it’s important they be acknowledged, but to say - knowing this lends some sympathy to the lightwoods. (and yes jace is included in this. jace is a lightwood. i have an agenda.) (i use a jace wayland tag bc no one ever really calls him jace lightwood in the show but still. i digress) anyways i’m willing to have some sympathy bc of this, but not excuse what shouldn’t be excused. also it’s a damning critique of the us education system LMAO

i know they make a point of acknowledging it later, but clary’s just wayyyy too okay with all of this. she got to have exactly one (1) breakdown and now she’s totally on board with the very nature of the reality she lives in shifting. meanwhile i would still be processing DEMONS??? with simon lmao

i always get frustrated when a show isn’t clear about whether a character knows about their best friend’s crush on them or not. like if they don’t that makes sense if they do that makes sense just pick one or the other? the awkward glance between her and simon and her gently correcting that they’re best friends makes it seem like she at least has an inkling?? and then other times she just seems completely clueless abt it.

lmao i love how for these first few episodes, most of what alec does is just stand quietly in the bg and then make snarky comments. also it’s very subtle bc he could not be Less in the foreground if he tried (almost like... they’re doing camerawork to set up part of his character... inchresting) but he smiles when jace makes fun of izzy’s cooking and as izzy is introducing herself/kinda toying with simon and it’s just a real cute little background detail like. he loves them both a lot. 

he’s still being kinda snarky but jace warning simon not to eat izzy’s food is kinda nice considering we learn pretty quickly that it is legitimately that bad. although i’m also wondering if it’s supposed to a very brief shovel talk wrapped up in a weird metaphor? bc like, he shows concern/annoyance when simon shows an interest in izzy, so maybe it’s not that nice lmao, idk

yk, luke being so desensitized to killing a member of the circle could actually make sense, bc he’s had to do it before probably. but it also highlights how the same shouldn’t be true for the lightwood trio. the ease with which they killed the circle members last ep and will continue to do feels jarring, makes it seem like they’re more used to it than they actually are. i mostly see it as a failing in the writing - this show chooses weird emotional and moral stakes to focus in on or ignore at times - but i guess it could also hint at the way shadowhutners as raised as child soldiers and that desensitizing them to violence in general - something that is ALSO woefully underexplored even though it would’ve been a really interesting commentary on cycles of trauma.

okay i’ve always thought jace is a little too okay with allowing hodge to be tortured by his rune to get information and like. he is? but he’s also holding himself back from feeling about it, there are a few twitches that i used to read as anger that now make a lot more sense of recontextualized as feeling bad about hodge but believing what they’re doing is necessary. and he doooes go to catch hodge... only to say “we don’t have a choice, you understand that right hodge” and like. this so shakily walks the line between a well-meaning ends justifying the means mentality and emotional manipulation. for all jace’s rule breaking and bravdo, he’s still a student of the clave.

“dot... you can’t trust anybody” “you’re absolutely right” :( not much to say here, but i’m having a lot of dot feelings this rewatch. and these events breeding distrust even amongst two representatives from diff factions of the downworld is interesting and will continue to be relevant

“it’s not good for any of us” something i do like about izzy is at a certain point, she does know when the jokes stop. she’s a fun loving playful person by nature but when asked by simon the nature of the threat to clary - and all of them - are facing you suddenly understand how scared everyone should be. bc izzy is terrified. just hiding it well. (i think izzy and magnus have a lot in common just fyi)

honestly clary’s interest in jace has a lot less meaning behind it, at least as far as i can tell, than his with her. like, she’s just plainly attracted to him. and that’s fine! it’s honestly a healthier starting point than where he’s coming from. but given the stakes they’re currently facing, it seems weird for that to be any degree of a priority for her when i don’t really see the emotions there yet.

the way izzy touches clary’s hair? is gay as hell. we love to see it. (i can actually really easily see them going for a sapphic storyline for izzy, and i can even see a way for it to make narrative sense and not pull away from alec’s own coming out narrative. the caveat is that in this magical au in my head, it wouldn’t really work until s3, but there would obvs be signs before that)

“actual demons with tentacles that wanna murder us” “one google search away!” clary and simon are a golden comedic duo

jace batting izzy’s hand away while she’s touching the weapons and going “no, izzy” like... it’s interesting that they’re often seen as partners in crime against alec’s Only Sane Man archetype, but i do think jace sees it more as a tactic and izzy kinda just likes chaos jdjhdhshs. i might change my mind about this later bc the show goes back and forth a lot on who has the braincell between him and izzy.

“the little girl” alec stop that’s sexist. like it is more about how she’s a baby fledgling shadowhunter that’s gonna get them all killed and/or in trouble with the clave (which is not a position you wanna find yourself in) which is a reasonable concern, but don’t frame it misogynistic language, okay alec?? okay??

pragmatic as he’s being, magnus is still helping as many of his fellow warlocks as he can and offers the same protection to dot. like... i love him.

i love dot too though and like :(( she’s trying her best!! to not die and also protect clary!!

i usually like how in-sync alecnizzy are with each other but they’re simultaneous “absolutely not” / “don’t even” is a bit stilted. but i do like jace’s slight amusement at how quickly they both understood what he was saying and them both being #concerned and in sync about it

the rotating circle effect is fun, i will admit

so is izzy grabbing simon’s arm to hold, though i think it’s less flirtation and more her wanting to keep him in-reach for the sake of protecting him

“if something happens to her, that’s on us, you know that don’t you?” ugh alec is so interesting and i’m gonna get progressively more annoyed as the season presents his very valid concerns as just jealousy or pettiness. like, snarking aside, alec doesn’t trust clary or know what to make of her, but he doesn’t want her to DIE. their whole thing is protecting people. and aside from that, if she dies - it will be their fault in the clave’s eyes bc it seems that they’re not supposed to have taken her to the silent brothers without seeking an audience officially. alec’s insistence on following the clave’s rules is partly loyalty to the clave bc of the way he was raised, partly because logic, structure, and rules make sense to him and are part of what has kept him alive so far, and partly bc - the clave is rigid and unforgiving. alec knows this and doesn’t want their family to give them an ammunition that could be used against them. which is. unfortunate and we will literally see that he's right about where the blame will lie later on.

i also like how many small alec and simon parallels we get. “we don’t even know these people,” simon says to clary. and like! yeah! and you’ve both got valid concerns! but, yk... plot!

also clary’s insistence that she felt something was missing from her life has never really resonated. i think if they were going to go that route, they needed to establish it more in the first ep, with more time being focused on her being a fish out of water in her own life and the plot heavy stuff only coming in at the beginning in the flashforward and at the very end. yes, evidently a lot of these rewatch notes are just going to be me rewriting and restructuring the show

dot being captured by valentine and forced to take his injections. ugh. never going to be over how brutally she was treated and little the writers seemed to care about her character.

jace smiling as simon rants... #soft “you’re not that funny” YOU’RE FUCKING LYING JACE AND YOU KNOW IT

“the problem is now i don’t trust you” honestly very fair, so far simon has very little reason to trust any of these people and jace’s prank did not help lmao.

“i can’t be here anymore” *gestures to simon* “so jace i’m gonna go mind the perimeter” jdshhshs rude ? yes. also pretty funny. what’s doubly funny is i’m positive he was planning to go check the perimeter anyway, he just wanted to bitch first

"and it's cooler than a flashlight" hshdhdsh one of the charms of this show is when it cops to its own cheesiness

"me?" simon is adorable ans him being genuinely surprised by izzy asking him what he wants breaks my heart a bit. like the alec and simon parallels are very noticeable this time around but i don't think they play into that much later on?

okay was luke's plan just to like? wake clary up ans tell her everything in this flashback? (she wasn't asleep but he and jocelyn clearly thought she was). at least wait til breakfast my dude!!

alec does has have legitimately concerns lafter the clary revealbut aside from expressing them too brusquely, it's also just not a good idea to reveal that distrust in front of her? speaks to alec's like of guile

this scene with simon being kidnapped and he and clary screaming for each other works a lot better than the scene last ep with clary and jocelyn screaming for each other as she sends clary through a portal. like this is still melodramtic but less forced somehow.

i get that izzy probably thought he would get in the way or distract her but. i think it would've made a lot more sense to keep simon with her when she was checking on that noise

anyway so far these eps are really fast paced is what i'm noticing. i think it works a bit better here than ep 1 bc it felt like a lot happened to move the story along, but i still think they should find some time to slow down and do some more intricate world building...

[beendressingforrevenge]

My Evermore first listen through

Willow - love the bouncy strings kinda wistful but also lively? Water and ships agaaain. The reverb works well on this production. "Take my hand wreck my plans" is so cute. "Come out stronger than a 90s trend" hello style parallel. FOLLOWED BY A SPEAK NOW ONE "wait for the signal and I'll meet you". Literal chills listening to this song. "Every bait and switch was a work of art" hello hoax!!

Champagne problems - explicit and I'm here for it. Back to trains, interesting. Her voice is so soft. Love the stripped back feel. Crestfallen. Picture in your wallet, migrated from locket in SBT. "Your heart was glass and I dropped it".... heartbreaking. The run on celebrating is *chefs kiss*. Adding the strings and the "aahs" is a lovely build up. "She'll patch the tapestry I shred" wowowow.

Gold rush - feels like confetti of gold? Idk how else to describe the beginning. The beat is solid. The way the words hit the beat is very different for her. And the arrangement is also unique for swift music. "What must it be like to grow up that beautiful" - ask yourself that ms swift. The high notes are kind of reminiscent of haunted? I love the vibe and the idea of the two songs being sides of the same coin

'Tis the damn season - angry righteousness is the vibe. "You can run but only so far". Love the harmonies in the chorus. Her range is so delicious. "The road not taken looks real good now". "Only soul who can tell the smiles I'm faking" this is the opposite of IOMWIWY fight me on this

Tolerate it - melancholy vibes. "Use my best colours for your portrait" "I know my love should be celebrated but you tolerate it". This is such a sad song. "Threw blankets on my barbed wire" this is so sad, theres not much else to say. Of course this is track 5.

No body, no crime - excited for the haim feat ngl. Sirens and an ominous beat. Oof the country vibe but the "he did it" and that sauciness. Oooh this is so vengeful and dark I loooove it. WHAT HAPPENED TO ESTE? Nooo. Though I love the switch from este saying "I think he did it but I just cant prove it" to the singer saying it. Oooh shit the switch AGAIN. She just cant prove it. Also get "before he cheats" vibes from this.

Happiness - soft and slightly unsettling vibes. "Havent met the new me yet". I love the switch between happiness being because of/in spite of you. This song is striking a chord in me. The imagery of the sunrise. "Eyes leak acid rain" ooof. "But I think she'll give you that". There is happiness honey, you get that happy.

Dorothea - bouncy but subdued vibes. "You always know me" is so cute but kinda possessive? Like, she out there living her best life. The ooohOUUooos are nice.

Coney island - "did I shatter you?" touches my soul. There is such a regret vibe in the music and the lyrics. You can almost feel the chill via the musical arrangement? "Like the mall before the internet" ❤ the tree imagery keeps recurring and I love it "did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey" I SEE YOU MS SWIFT. Getting chills at this end part.

Ivy - no intro, inchresting. Sounds like a story by a campfire. "Grieving for the living" "my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand" "putting roots in my dreamland". Ughh the imagery! I love the ideas in this song. "So yeah" and "you started it" make me chuckle for some reason.

Cowboy like me - sway and suave feel. Dancing is a dangerous game. Who is the backing vocal (william bowery or jack?). Not feeling this as much as the others, bit slooow. The lyrics are nice but its not moving fast enough imo.

Long story short - reminiscent of muted gun shots. Love the vibe and the way the it flows. "Clung to the closest lips, was the wrong guy". "They once held the keys too" - hello LWYMMD. "But if someone comes at us this time i'm ready" YEEES GURL. Also wonderland vibes, JUSTICE FOR WONDERLAND. Might be my fave so far tbf. Ugh chills from head to toe at the nemeses part 🥰🤗👀. I can see myself dancing to this with my friends. I want someone who makes me feel this way. "Long story short I survived" is very tattooable

Marjorie - "never be so kind you forget to be clever" and then switched, ms swift why are you calling me out again? "Never be so polite you forget power" and the switch again, holy heck I love the word play in this song. Probably not one I'll have on repeat, but I do love the imagery.

Closure - punkish vibe, and sort of futuristic too. A bit disjointed. The way she sings also reflects that feel. Interestiiiing. Her emphasis is very different and I'm here for it. "I'm fine with my spite". GO IN. "It cut deep to know ya" I am vibing hard with this song. Chills at the end oof ms swift you did it again.

Evermore - her singing the same melody as the piano is also something different, and then switching to a place where she slightly deviates and coming back to the melody. "Catching my breath...catching my death". "This pain would be for evermore". This is sad but hopeful? Chills AGAIN "cant remember what I used to fight for". "On the very moment all was lost, sending signals to be doublecrossed". The piano doubling down when she sings "evermore" is so lovely. Oh hello changing pace and hello bon iver! Then fading back to the piano is so gooood. "This pain wouldnt be for evermore" classic swift shift and I am here for it.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

watched the end of some guy’s amnesia: rebirth playthrough and i have some boring thoughts @halloweenhavoc have u finished the game i feel like you have more of a grasp on all this stuff than i do lmfao what with having actually played it and also probably remembering machine for pigs better

i really did not like fully piece together either the lore of the Main Story of the game nor the broader Amnesia Universe Lore lmfao but i was interested in the latter especially, but re: the former, i did like having all these other Known People associated with the protag whose fates we could all find out and shit

i’m like, sort of underwhelmed, but that’s b/c even though i was like “okay so just b/c this is a frictional-produced amnesia sequel a decade later doesn’t mean you need to hype it up like it’s gonna blow your mind just coz atdd was That big a deal” doesn’t mean i still wasn’t partially like oh but what if it is like mindblowing horror game tho......it felt a lot more like soma than atdd which isn’t in itself bad b/c soma rules but when i’m expecting it to be more like atdd it just makes things kinda bemusing and hard to recalibrate.....it was a good game though lol just like the whole time trying to figure out what the experience is gonna be i guess

anyways so like in the direction frictional’s games have gone it def feels like they’re more into Game Environments (those ruled in this game....) and being very like Thematic Story-Centric.....atdd was very stripped down and they sure got creative with that and it was as effective as it was but yeah it feels like now that they have the clout from that and the game production experience and presumably more resources and stuff that they’re progressing in This Direction which is not as atdd-esque lmao like good for them if this is the creative vision, follow those dreams and stuff

did not feel at all invested in any of this baby lore lmfaooo like it was very abstract and also i don’t care. but 10/10 for breastfeeding gameplay

i did like the Other World lore like. this is where alexander is from, Maybe?? i remember he’s mentioned as an apostate from [somewhere else] but like, is that somewhere else in another dimension or just another Region in this world lmao i don’t know. out here Inventing the amnesia potion vitae harvesting strategy, and then it’s Something Else he does that is considered heinous and they just banish him to earth lmfaooo like our problem now......and who is alexander’s wife lmfao. in atdd bad ending, when alexander portals back, does he get to come back to the shitty place where nothing’s going on but eternal vitae harvest i guess? sucks. in atdd sorta-neutral-ending, when you toss agrippa’s head through the portal and then agrippa asks [someone, i forget who....the student? weyer? or whoever??] to Help Daniel, does everyone get to go to this crappy world or are there other better dimensions lmao....also i forget how this The Other World got so shitty in the first place. something something they flew too close to the sun with their technology and it got fucked up, i forget what The Gate even is........i do like this origin story for what the fuck is up with the shadow lmfao. that like, it’s just some other alchemical Invention expressly to fuck up the vitae system?? which is sort of counter to the idea that it’s simply a Guardian of any orbs.....but then also, there was some sort of note or memory that seemed to imply that having fucked up whatever Gate they fucked up created something that sounded like maybe it was the shadow?? or was it just something Else fucked up and b/c it was like “uh oh something shitty is happening here now” i just Assumed it was the shadow.....idfk. but idk maybe since Orbs are Other World Tech For Portals the shadow is just like, Other World Tech Ruiner and if you handle one improperly the shadow will like, sense orb-jostling Lol and be On It....i don’t knowwww

i gotta admit i did love the lore tying to atdd lmfao like maybe this game would’ve been better off not really being tied to atdd but i’m still like oh yep i’m a sucker for cameos / lore about these atdd people places and things.....herbert, alexander, daniel, brennenburg, and someone else i forget who was like “i’m the first human to get to this place but i don’t have A Traveller’s Whatever so i have to die here,” rip to him.....kinda funny that vitae-harvesting is like, so Industrialized in the other world with this factory and mass-produced as it were, which is Fucked Up, and alexander got shot to earth for some mysterious terrible thing and had to invite some rando with an orb to his castle and then get his help torturing other randos with medieval instruments like. banging rocks together over there. also i don’t get what the harvesters job was? they were sure Harvesting but if the vitae is just getting Sucked thru tubes why are these guys going around breathing it in also. just like, stray air-vitae filtering system?? idk

also what was going on time-wise with this weird accelerated pregnancy. i don’t think i get Why tasi got amnesia in the first place. coincidence i guess??? and why...did she end up back in the plane wreckage. was that just where she got dropped off after they were all like. taken from Our World into the Other World and then....back into our world?? i guess??? i’m just not clear on the Timeline Of Events and how everyone got split up with some people dying and shit....was everyone getting attacked by ghuls i guess. there was a crapload of them in that one place, wasn’t there.....i also forget Where things happened lmfaooo like shit was this in Earth or The Other World.....i guess the latter it was always like, “high tech” with that art deco design shit and green light and stuff.....god i don’t know. like i already forget why richard was like, held captive and tortured. just on evil principle??? augh lmfao

also it was certainly Interesting that people turn into monsters around here with some like, magic + corruption deal going on......felt like the Lore in atdd was sort of vague but that it could Maybe tie into that sort of idea....frictional games sure will like, Metaphorically have the Self and the Non-Self But Which Is Tied To Your Self in all its stories, atdd, soma, rebirth......daniel having this past self he’s now detached from but re-learning of his past exploits.......soma copy/pasting consciousnesses.......uhhh also when it was talking about the ideal Vitae Collecting Cycle being fear, amnesia, and then Hope, and about who was the best candidates for that, i was really thinking that like, we’d learn tasi was being put through a [Hope] sequence, basically

also (rachel if ur reading this lmfao) i remember this pre-release Audio Tape that wasn’t in the gameplay that i think was like, the doctor doing an experiment on a Monster to confirm it had regenerative properties?? i thought we were gonna get a whole fucked up subplot dealing with that guy lmfao but nah just at the end......i guess soma’s promotional stuff was similar, they had all these Files and Videos and stuff which was relevant to the Lore / story but which wasn’t like, flatout in the game......i guess at some point the doctor must’ve been like, experimenting on a crew member who was sort of in the process of Turning or w/e. hank or someone i guess.....UHHH i did like “talking” to so many monsters lmfaooo like leon and crap. wild, tragic, etc.......

RIGHT and i think frictional is really creative in its like, Game Mechanics, like how relatively recently we learned that that whole thing about being told that Low Sanity makes you easier to detect in atdd, but that wasn’t true and was just put in the game to put the player more on edge? i mean, daniel keeling over for a moment if sanity gets too low is probably unhelpful in a chase but. and like, here the “sanity” thing was neat, i liked the Sound lol, i liked the flashing images and how that was like, Relevant, but also it seems like you can’t ever die in this game?? basically, ish?? which i think is neat. like, you don’t really Need to.....said it last time how it feels like the player just is still going to react as Urgently if they’re being chased by the monster lmfaooo

idk there was something other neat / creative element i think i wanted to point out as Cool but i forget (HAHA...manesima.....) i dunno the 0.0001% chance any of you are Coincidentally into amnesia at all and know what all is being talked about here and have thoughts....feel free to send me an ask or whatever.......would be inchrested in hearing other takes on it etc

OH and it didn’t feel like machine for pigs was involved at all lmfao which makes sense since it wasn’t actually produced by frictional but now i’m really struggling to remember the Lore there and if it could Conceivably tie in with descent/rebirth-verse.......oswald’s soul got actually split with Evil Orb-Corrupted Self (which!!!! i forgot there’s even the implication that maybe orb-proximity fucks you up. didn’t seem that relevant here. here magic empress fountain water fucks you up) and Amnesia’d Good (Normal-er) Self and there’s the giant machine which is gonna.....consume the world to protect it from self-destructing in another way......or, that was the reason given to oswald anyways, i remember he like sacrifices his kids to it to save them from [his visions of ww1 being an impending thing] and he doesn’t find that out till the end......his evil self tricked his good self into firing up the machine......i forget where the pig men come from or what their point is, and the machine is like, another Factory Line Vitae Harvesting thing, right?? what’s the vitae For in this case....i sure don’t fuckin know. i forget what oswald does at the end as well to like, fix things, i remember feeling sad about it even though he was a horny weirdo.....i really forget what the full picture was there or what the Orb Involvement was. anyways. idk

would be fun to see more frictional games but it seems like they’re not too interested in doing something as atdd-esque again lol, soma seems more like What Frictional Really Wants To Do, which isn’t a bad thing cuz soma rules and like. objectively i guess soma is the better game, i’m not at all mad at anyone arguing soma is better lmfao, i just sure cherish atdd and it sure is the one that made the whole [subsequent horror game defining] splash lmfao. OH YEAH and i liked they threw in another moment where someone’s been alive for ages and you unplug them and it’s like what the fuck. and i guess you do that but even Harder in the one Rebirth ending where you shadow-infect everything and all the people in the vitae-pods die......which like, it Was def creepy having all those vitae pods lmfao. conceptually fucked up.....uh yeah that’s it i guess. was a sucker for the atdd-lore-fanservice stuff lol. thought it was good but wasn’t like atdd 2.0 which is both Totally Fine and also A Bit Disappointing Of Course lol. now i’m thinking about soma some more though which is Worthy cuz that game rules and i love its story / concepts so much. and i love that you keep fisting sphincters to Save until you have to fist your forearm off. we’ve all been there. and i love the “we have the better view. :)” audio log from someone on the surface. and how the gradual reveal of the [lady you talk to throughout the game who guides you along]’s story. and the Ending. and the gradual reveal of Just What Is Going On Around Here

anyways yeah atdd rules soma rules i thought this game was good too but def is like okay you’d rather make soma than atdd and that is valid

thots????????????????

[peachdoxie]

Okay so I’m like way late in sharing my liveblog of chapter 13, but I read it earlier and took notes and here they are! Man, what a doozy of a chapter! I have a lot of things to say.

Conjoined fabrials require a careful division of the gemstone—and the spren inside. 

Like we knew this already but hearing about it directly is like. Yikes.

Other types of spren do not split as evenly, as easily, or at all. 

Gimme the lore, Branderson

Shallan had to deal with Veil’s alcohol abuse. Again. 

Yikes

He was using that time to go ride horses. 

The paranoid part of me thinks something else is going on, but also Adolin is still allowed to have interests, especially if he’s grown closer with Dalinar’s Ryshadium after losing Sureblood in Words of Radiance, as the chapter later describes.

Shallan found herself alone—and for the first time in weeks, she didn’t have a role to play.

Inchresting.

The deal is set and arranged. The spren will come.

wat

Seven years ago now—and if that timeline was correct, she must have begun seeing Pattern as a young child. Long before Jasnah had first encountered her spren.

I feel like this is important but idk why. It sort of implies that the Cryptics were the first spren to start forming Nahel bonds in the current era, but, again, why? What are the implications?

She couldn’t see those memories; didn’t want to see them. As she shied away from them, something dark shifted inside her, growing stronger. Formless. Shallan didn’t want to be the person who had done those things. That… that person could not… not be loved…

Oof but also not true

Memory loss was apparently common to these cases, but the rest of what Shallan experienced seemed distinctly different. Importantly, she wasn’t experiencing continued memory loss. So maybe she was fine. She’d stabilized.

I have the feeling Shallan does, in fact, have some significant memory losses that she’s either unaware of or so in denial about she doesn’t realize she’s in denial of them.

Besides, these fabrials did the work of a dozen people.

lmao Roshar is undergoing industrialization which is probably a bad thing

When she became Veil, the colors in the room… muted. The colors didn’t change, but her perception shifted.

Neat detail. I wonder how that would interact with the various Heightenings of Nalthis.

His pet chicken, the green one.

IT’S BIRB TIME!!!!!

“Of course, with your powers nothing is permanent, is it? You deal exclusively in the ephemeral.”

That’s kind of a recurring issue in Shallan’s life, isn’t it, the lack of permanence?

His chicken held its prey with one foot, eating almost like a person did with their hands. The thing was so strange, so alien. It stood upright, like no other beast Shallan had studied. When it chirped at Mraize, it sounded almost like it was talking, and she swore she could occasionally make out words. It was like a tiny parody of a person.

Lmao “alien.” Shallan, you have no idea how right you are. Also, I’m going to guess the bird may actually be talking to Mraize since it’s a fucking aviar

Ask a better question. “Nalathis,” Radiant said. “Scadarial. What are they?”

“Nalthis. Scadrial.” He spoke the words with a different accent. “Where are they. That’s an excellent question, Radiant. Suffice it to say they are places in Shadesmar where our Stormlight—so easily captured and transported—would be a valuable commodity.”

Okay sure just fucking namedrop the other planets in the cosmere again why don’t you

A more perfect gemstone could contain the Light long enough to go offworld, but there is still the Connection problem. This little flaw has caused untold trouble. And the one who unlocks the secret would have untold power.

dear fucking hell, Mraize.

tbh I don’t even know how to react to this revelation. It’s so simple and yet so ambitious, and it would have significant impacts not just on Roshar, but on the whole of the cosmere. Not to mention: Investiture on Roshar is renewable because when it’s used, it returns to the Spiritual Realm until it’s brought back into the Physical by highstorms or a perpendicularity. What would happen if Mraize found a way to take Honor’s Investiture and have it be used somewhere else in the cosmere outside of the Rosharan system? Would that unbalance the Shards even more?

just an absolute what the fuck. there are so many unknown Realmatic ramifications for this. what the fuck.

“I already have,” Mraize said, making a fist. “Though putting the plan into motion will be difficult. I have a job for you.”

Great, Mraize already knows how to do this incredibly ridiculous Realmatic bullshit. This is going to be bad if he gets it up and running, even if Mraize himself isn’t “evil.” It would radically change everything, and there are many bad people who would abuse that change.

“I have news for you,” Shallan said. “Sja-anat contacted me while I was away. She agreed to your terms, and is sending one of her spren to the tower, where it will investigate your members for a possible bond.”

Ah, so this is who Shallan was communicating with earlier. But how did Sja-anat use a spanreed? And what kind of spren will she send, and how has it been corrupted?

Also, Shallan and Mraize at least know that Glys was corrupted by Sja-anat. I wonder who else holds this knowledge.

“I cannot betray this secret,” Mraize said. “Let’s just say that Lightweavers fascinate me, and leave it at that. And you should not fear if I did keep someone close to you. Such a person could be an… aid in times of need. Iyatil did the same for me.”

*tosses another piece of evidence onto the theory I saw someone make that Shallan, in a very repressed persona, is actually Mraize’s spy*

“Immortality, in part. He thought he could become like the Heralds. In his quest, he discovered a secret. He had Voidlight before the Everstorm—he carried it from Braize, the place you call Damnation. He was testing the movement of Light between worlds. And one close to him might have answers. At any rate, we couldn’t risk Ialai or the Sons of Honor recovering these secrets.”

I honestly don’t know what to make of this but it seems important so

“Oh, we know where he is,” Mraize said. “He has asked for—and been granted—asylum in a city no other Ghostblood has been able to enter.”

“A place you can’t enter?” Shallan asked. “Where is security that tight?”

“The fortress named Lasting Integrity,” Mraize said. “Home and capital city of the honorspren in Shadesmar.”

OH SURE BRANDON, JUST DROP ANOTHER FUCKING BOMBSHELL IN THIS CHAPTER, I CAN DEFINITELY HANDLE IT

at least my question of “why the fuck is SHALLAN going to Lasting Integrity” is answered

“Oh, you will. And once you successfully return from this mission, your reward will be—as always—something for which you hunger. Answers. All of them.”

So like, first of all I’m skeptical that Shallan will actually succeed, so that’s one thing. And second, what’s to say that Brando will just have Shallan learn things off the page and we don’t know the answers? Either way, I eagerly await how this plot line will play out. Whatever’s gonna happen, it’s gonna involve some hella cosmere Lore.

Mraize had never been willing to speak of that, but she had to think they’d been grooming her—and her family—for over a decade.

He knew the truth about Shallan’s past. There were holes in her childhood memories. If they did what he asked, Mraize would fill them.

And maybe then, at long last, Veil could force Shallan to become complete.

The word “grooming” stands out to me here. What, exactly, were they grooming her for?

***

Anyway. Wow. What a fucking chapter. So little action, and yet so much just changed. Rhythm of War is taking on a very different look now that there’s Lore at stake.