#it may be wise to think about the criticisms in your favorites... but also think about what's in your favorites that delights you...

[tenpixelsusie]

i love thinking about the flaws and issues in my favorite medias and i also enjoy pointing out the wonderful things about them too ♡ peace and love on planet earth

[nocoffeeforoldmen]

your honor, i love them. they have loved each other through lifetimes and i will not be taking criticism on that at this time.

also i may or may not have written 20k words about their many lives together. can't confirm or deny it.

orla is not my first tav, but she is by far the most fleshed out story wise... and i think she's my favorite.

[wishcamper]

All in the Family: ACOTAR PART II

Welcome back to our multi-part lesson on ACOTAR and Family Systems! Today’s topic is family roles, the interplay between them, and their combination’s influence on the nuclear family emotional process in the Inner Circle.

Pre-requisites: Part I

Creds: license and mf master's degree in counseling babyyy. and unhinged enough to write it all down.

No content warnings, just garden variety family dysfunction.

oh my god what the fuck does that mean

Let's back up and start with the structure of the IC pre-Archeron invasion. We have Rhysand, Cassian, Azriel, Morrigan, and Amren in a found family. This is where we have to suspend our disbelief a bit, because you’ll notice there are no parents in this family. However that doesn’t mean no one functions as a parent, because in any system there is a hierarchy, at least in an emotional sense, and the power vacuum will always get filled.

When a parent is missing from a nuclear family, very often one of the children will step in to fill the role and rebalance the system. Older siblings caring for younger ones, female children picking up housework, even phrases like calling someone the “man of the house” confer symbolic authority and responsibility to someone theoretically on the same level as the others. The dark end of this road is emotional incest, when parents rely on a child emotionally in the same way they would a spouse, a dynamic that is deeply inappropriate and incredibly damaging for a child.

Okay, so let’s talk about sibling position to see who is most likely to step up. This is a found family, so obviously none of these are based in biology, but if we look at the core four, they have a pretty clear birth order layout in terms of both power and personality. 

Rhys: A textbook oldest child - responsibility-seeking, serious, tending toward leadership roles. Oldest children often feel the burden of setting a good example for others. Prone to relieving anxiety via control.

Az and Cas: Classic ends of the middle child spectrum (invisible to hyper-visible). Middle children are flexible, adaptable, and competitive, and often struggle with questions identity. They may seek to meet needs for connection and validation in unhealthy ways.

Mor: Baby of the family energy through and through. Youngest children are more likely to be outgoing, creative, and rebellious, and struggle with inferiority and self-centeredness. Interestingly, they’re also more likely to abuse alcohol and are overrepresented in psychiatric populations.

Amren, hilariously, comes across as an only child - they tend to be wise, independent, and private, struggling with social skills and receiving criticism. (1)

So who’s filling our parental roles here in the IC? Who has power over the others? Rhysand is an obvious choice - he regularly makes decisions for the group as well as individual members on the basis of his feelings and his political position. I think you could even argue Rhys sees the people of Velaris as his children, too, though he definitely plays favorites lol. Amren also emerges as a person with power, given everyone is afraid of her and she has influence over Rhys. Amren has some authority over the others, though she is less invested in their personal lives and so functions differently in the system than Daddy Rhys.

So Rhys is one parent, and Amren is like a weird aunt. It’s very normal in systems with a parentified child (PC) that the other children feel resentful - they’re all supposed to be on the same level, and yet one of them has been exalted above the rest. The PC can respond to this so many ways - force, charm, control, bribes, threats, ignoring them - it’ll depend on the person and the individual system. But the PC will also feel that counter-resentment and leverage the power position to create balance in the family (Cassian, Azriel, stop trying to kiss your sisters). The irony is that, in this system, no one asked Rhys to be in power over his friends - he decided he wanted them in his court and blurred those lines himself. I suspect this was intentional, though likely unconscious, because it gives him a nuclear option if he ever needs to reestablish order and control in his family. We see him pull rank in tense personal moments that have literally nothing to do with politics despite his excuse they do.

(I do think, though, that there’s an argument to be made here that, for people in certain positions of prominence and influence, all your choices are political. Your image is part of your power and so, by extension, the parts of your personal life that become public have an effect on your ability to rule. Rhys and Feyre use this rationale with Nesta in ACOSF, though my babe isn’t exactly a Hunter Biden. More of a Claudia Conway, I’d say.)

Let's go back to our scary image from the beginning.

Bowen believed in the importance of visualizing this structure, so he advocates for family mapping or construction of a genogram (2). Given what we’ve unpacked so far, we can roughly plot the individual connections and hierachy. I’ve created this one to show the basics of the relationships and power structure in the IC, and we’ll get more specific from here.

Solid lines=connectedness

Dashed lines=conflict

Arrow=direction of energy

Squiggles=ambivalence/fluctuation

Line thickness=emotional closeness

Amren’s special line to Rhys=whatever ulterior motive she has

If you remember from my last post, one of the most important forces in a family is the triangle. Take another look at the triangles above, and see which ones seem unstable to you. The one that immediately stands out to me, even just visually, is the Cas/Az/Mor triangle. Each individual relationship has a different tenor, which creates a lot of instability. You can see how Mor needs that closeness with Cas to balance the tension with Az, but in order to keep their relationship stable, Cas and Az have Rhys as a moderating presence. Because what is the one thing they all have in common? A close relationship with Rhys. And Rhys has Amren to reinforce his power and responsibility, keeping the whole system in balance.

In this way, the IC’s system, while dysfunctional, is relatively stable pre-Archerons.

To understand how that’s possible, we have to talk about anxiety. Anxiety is the main energy that moves conflict through the family and sets off the nuclear family emotional process (NFEP). Anxiety must go somewhere. In enmeshed systems like this one (members’ emotions and security are highly dependent on one another), members relieve their anxiety through the system instead of resolving it individually or in dyads. In cut off, emotionally distant systems, anxiety gets internalized or displaced outside the family.

Given the sheer variety of relationships in the system, the most likely source of anxiety is Morrigan. She has a different relationship to every person in the system. She’s in the middle of the power hierarchy between the “parents” and the “kids”, and floats around inside the relatively stable triangle of the bat boys, with individual connections to each one . She also has a pattern of internal conflict that she moderates externally via alcohol and relationships. Despite not having the most power externally, Mor’s actions and reactions often cause the rest of the system to shuffle around her, giving her a great deal of power.

But don’t just take my word for it - let’s look at this in action.

Say Mor, Cas, and Az go out together bc apparently that is something they do regularly. Mor feels Azriel getting too close, which triggers her anxiety because she does not want to talk about whatever is between them. In response, she communicates her displeasure by leveraging the triangle and focusing her intimate attention on Cassian. But this creates conflict for Cassian, who wants to moderate Mor’s anxiety without rupturing his relationship with Azriel. Hence, we get the weird overfamiliar platonic besties routine, threading the needling of giving Mor the protection she’s asking for without out-and-out antagonizing his brother. Azriel buries his hurt feelings and retracts emotionally, despite wanting to be connected, and they go back to how they were.

So we can see how Mor has generated the anxiety, and it follows down the chain: she passes it off to the boys, who deal with it through emotional cutoff (Az) and enmeshment (Cas). Cassian steps in between the conflict at Mor’s unconscious request and takes inappropriate responsibility for Azriel’s feelings of rejection and Mor’s anxiety, while Az puts his feelings away and reestablishes emotional distance. This is the NFEP in action.

And yet Cassian and Azriel are still shown to be close, so where do these feelings go? I mean, they do physically fight each other all the time lol. Azriel banks a lot of repressed resentment he has to discharge elsewhere. Cassian feels the burden of peacemaking and internalizes the unresolved conflict as his own fault, doubling down on his commitment to making it better. Mor avoids contending with her own feelings because everyone else is doing it for her.

And here’s where Rhys becomes a moderating presence for all of them. Rhys has ultimate decision-making power over who is in and who’s out of the family, and sets the rules of engagement. He decides who gets respect, who’s allowed to initiate conflict. Rhys hold’s the power in the bat boys triangle, the strongest alliance in the system, incentivizing Cas and Az to get along with each other. He also incentivizes Mor/Cas/Az to keep their shit together because Amren has influence over him, and they need their alliance to leverage power against her. Rhys doesn’t have a problem with the buffer, so they rest of them “don’t” either.

The best question to ask when it comes to dysfunction is this: who benefits? We can see this in larger systems, too: who benefits for housing disparity, patriarchy, systemic racism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia? People in power. If a system is balanced via dysfunction, it’s because whoever is in power wants it that way. With families, this is often more unconscious - perhaps Rhys is just as afraid of family disintegration as Mor, and believes addressing their issues will cause them to split. Perhaps there is a more generational pattern at play. I think it’s worth considering not just how this family functions, but what conscious and unconscious choices are being made given their individual families of origin.

And then the Archeron’s come, and all these cracks will be exposed and the system will get blown to shit. See you next time, class dismissed!

Sources: 

Eckstein, D., & Kaufman, J. A. (2012). The role of birth order in personality: An enduring intellectual legacy of Alfred Adler. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 68(1), 60–61.

Brown, J. (1999). Bowen family systems theory and practice: Illustration and critique. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 20(2), 94-103.

Genogram made with Canva, art by @artworks_by_rokii, rosalynnart on deviant art, @sallteas

[jacobsbadwig]

I have this long standing analysis of YA media dropping the ball on themes and consequences for its main characters giving them huge plot armor. What I realize the frustrating part about them is that often they are fantasy or fantasy adjacent, the authors accidentally create these huge worlds and severe problems and implications, but ironically, their main characters are separate from the world they inhabit via tone or their characteristics or mindset not aligning with the world (aka 21 century American mindset in a fantasy that takes place in 18th Russian analog iykyk)

Like Bella’s story being a romance while everyone else in a horror or gothic novel or pseudo vampire thriller or fantasy series is like odd as @panlight often points out mentioning SMeyers unwillingness to really lean into the vampire of it all. Honestly in a non first person story, this could be played for laughs to even be interesting.

(Never mind Smeyers surface understanding of the novels and plays, that she references as Bella’s favorite stories. As a former English teacher, her understanding and Bella’s understanding is in fact of someone who read some classics in high school but didn’t necessarily delve into the commentary and themes of the works focusing on the aesthetics of the romance rather than understanding what said purpose romance actually serves in the narrative as a critic or other wise. Insert ‘Smeyer doesn’t know what star crossed lovers means and refuses to learn rant)

Ironically, Bella having a romance in her world is portrayed as the exception when we look at other characters, even the uncivilized vampires, she is in fact the norm.

What makes Bella special other than her shield she gets at the end? She isn’t even the only one with great control. There are other hybrids. She is special because the text tells us she is. I’m not going to compare her to other female protagonists because my point isn’t about Bella as a character but rather how her narrative allows her to be special without really, really setting her apart from everyone else.

Just about everything the narrative says is specific to Bella’s story can be found in other characters backstories (that honestly don’t matter but do matter as a comparison that Bella is the exception to the rule rather than the example as I stated above.)

I think a lot of people cling to the Twilight saga (and other YA novels) but simultaneously desire more from the narrative because we want to feel special without doing the work, which isn’t wrong especially at a young age when you are finding yourself, but once we reach a level of maturity, we want our gifts and specialness to allow us to love ourselves and move in society as it drives our lives.

It’s why we cling to characters like Carlisle who doesn’t have known powers and has had series of trauma and has to actively rise above it. Or Jacob who is beaten by the narrative and should have been a symbol of how fate is myth and bullshit and circumstances may forge your path but choices and perseverance can alter it or make the path better.

I wanted to discuss @fuckmeyer Come Nightfall along with other Twilight reimaginings and how I feel as though, hers is the best damn thing we have. But while trying to write out my thoughts and why I feel as though I could never accomplish something like that, I ended writing this post after many posts about Star Wars. Honestly, I am reminded about two ideas: we are protagonist in our own stories and we are also side characters in others. Meaning we are chosen ones chosen for something greater but that doesn’t mean no one else is a chosen one.

Maybe that’s why I have out grown YA novels. Adulthood is in fact learning that you are hot shit but not always hot shit but other people also make sure your shit stays hot and you also make sure theirs stays hot too.

At the end of this thought process, I am left asking what was Bella actually chosen for. To be born a vampire? A Cullen vampire? A vampire in general? Edward’s wife and Renegades mother? Did she actually take the Volturi down (no but I’m posing the question) Or did she deny the call to what her purpose was.

If the last thing is true, then someone must rise to take her place.

I think Come Nightfall and other ideas answer this question and make it clearer that Bella chose her path rather than it being forced upon in a way the OG Twilight didn’t convince me. At the same time, fics and musing that pose other answers are just as compelling.

As for me, I believe Bella Swan denied her call arguably the call was declined for her the moment Edward entered the picture or maybe when she went to the Volturi (the Volturi of it all is for a other post but they should have killed her or turned her like WTF? Dumb). But also Bella Cullen’s only purpose in the narrative was to be Edward’s wife and Renesemes’s mother regardless of her earlier apprehensions.

[valerieisunavailable]

Slender Brother Headcanons

These can be varied and everyone has their different opinions, but this is what vibes I get from him so--

Slender:

- Slender is blind. Sort of. While he can’t see you physically, he can see you very clearly with his mind (if that makes sense?) Like he knows where you're at and what your facial expressions are, your movements, etc., but with his mind. But nobody knows this except his brothers. (I also think this would be interesting for fanfics too)

- He does change his ties from time to time, but he rarely ever does it hardly anyone notices. He also has different colored suits, grey and dark dark blue (to wear it almost looks black). But only wears them on occasion.

- I feel like while yes, he does speak English, he can also speak Slavic languages too. (Oh to hear him speaking Russian, truly my favorite language. прекрасный. I also think it’s hilarious that people have added that he can speak German because of him constantly working and getting things done.)

- While he may seem cold-hearted, that’s not entirely the case. While he may think that he’s superior humans for obvious reasons, this doesn’t mean he necessarily despises them. Humans have done a lot of awful things, but have also made a lot of great accomplishments. They’re very creative and wise and have made various arts and literatures, And how can a bookworm hate the authors? Many of his pastas have suggested ideas to him about a multitude of things that have surprised him and consider other options.

- He has a caseload of all the pastas. Their backstory, mental illnesses, etc. He keeps this in mind always, even adding personal notes of how they respond in certain situations and ways to modify their behaviors if need be.

- If your ever finding feelings for him, trust me, he already knew before you thought of ways to show your affection or appreciation. He’s just waiting to see what things you’ll come up with, rather he’s interested or not. Your doing tons of research on his species and general and getting into chemicals naturally in the body and how their brains and organs work. But Offender is already helping you with that because he thinks it’s funny and wondering if you can actually pull it off. Trender is in the background criticizing both of you.

Splendor:

- Splendor is the way he is because he had more attachment to his mom. The others were ridiculed and tried to be forced into the mold their father were giving them. But his father seemed to give up rather early on Splendor for being too light-hearted. This also explains his rather child-like behavior. But Slender especially was forced into the mold to become successful. That doesn’t mean he isn’t jealous or doesn’t feel guilty at times. Whenever their father does come over, while he still complains at Slender, he mostly compliments him and says to him and the others that they should have done better and that they’re an embarrassment to the family name. This has lead up to multiple family fights and Offender and Trender standing up for Splendor when it does happen.

- Despite him acting happy, he is very insecure and causes him to very poorly bottle up his emotions. He tries to do what is expected of him but it never works out. He stands out more than anything and he’ll often isolate himself.

- Splendor is more lenient on humans because of how empathetic he is. Especially with getting to know some of the pastas’ backstories, he feels deeply connected with them because of what he’s been through, and what they’ve been through are as bad if not worse than what he’s had to deal with.

- Even though he generally wears the multi-color polka dotted suit and hat, that is not all that’s in his wardrobe. Oh no. He has the flamboyant hot-pink suit, he has purple suits, red suits, suits of all colors and suits with different polka-dot patterns. Not to count the amount of props and accessories he has for the suits alone-- I’m talking stop-watch clocks and everything.

- This man is also so fucking oblivious. Compliment all you want, but if your trying to show that your actually falling for the doofus, your going to have to be WAY more flirty than that. Why do you think Offender has all these extravagant ways to embarrass him? Because what your doing didn’t work for him in the first place.

Trender:

- Remember this dude is canonically gay. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he would be the dom in the situation either. While his general attitude is very intimidating, during sexual things he’s the more submissive guy. But that doesn’t me he won’t still complain or argue about things ya’ll should. And don’t think he isn’t kinky either. Some things I imagine him saying lol:

“In that position? Really? No offense, but I thought you’d be more creative.”

“Could you maybe go a little bit faster? Seriously this is kind of embarrassing.”

“ No no NO WRONG HOLE WRONG--” (They have more than two *wink*)

Then there’s just the random thoughts during intercourse:

“Do you think Kylie Jenner ever did it like this?”

“What kind of things would you think the Kardashians are into?”

- While he’s big in fashion design and will wear extravagant clothes from time to time, he does prefer more simple and cozy styles of clothing. Sometimes he likes to sit back and relax with some coffee too, you know.

- Catches onto things that others might not. These can be things that are very obvious to things that are complex and easy to miss.

- Despite being a fashion designer, he is afraid of needles. And tattoos. Anything with needles.

Offender:

- Acts like he doesn't care. He does.

- Despite being a sex addict and alcoholic, he does try to make those close to him happy.

- Has a bunch of scratch marks from gardening.

- Has, on multiple occasions, tried to get Slender drunk or high by putting things in his coffee or food. It has also, worked on multiple occasions.

- Has had multiple relationships with the pastas. Most of them have failed.

- A male stripper

- Will try any of Trender's outfits, including feminine ones. And any sexy clothes.

[onyx-archer]

A Timey-Whimey (Shit)Storm: A Critical Look at Life is Strange 1's Ending.

It's been a hot minute since I did one of these essay type posts, and I know that the title is may suggest some kind of dislike of the game or something, and incite the ire of fans, but at least hear me out a little before getting mad. I actually enjoy these games, along with the comics, so I'm coming at this from a place of love. I especially have a soft spot for the original Life is Strange, I've just had this on my mind for a while.

Obviously, there will be spoilers for "Life is Strange," but I will also briefly cover spoilers from the Life is Strange comic series, and a brief, albeit minor spoiler of Life is Strange 2's 5th episode, and some stuff from Life is Strange: True Colors' "Wavelengths" DLC. If that ain't your bag, then you've been warned. All of it will be under the cut anyway. Before that though, I have some other house keeping to get out of the way.

I want to make it abundantly clear up front what my stance on the game being covered is, so there's no room for misunderstanding. I quite like the original Life is Strange. It's probably my favorite game of it's type (narrative adventure game in the Telltale style). I don't like Before the Storm or Life is Strange 2 though, but both of those will eventually get their own posts. I do like True Colors though.

I also want to make it clear that I am 100% on the side of "Pricefield," but I'm not really making this post from the place of a Pricefield bias or whatever, so I want to head that off at the pass.

With that, the rest is under the cut. Again, hella spoilers inbound, you've been warned.

Life is Strange is the kind of game that I have a pretty lukewarm opinion of genre wise, but manages to keep me engaged through the way it unfolds. I'm not especially fond of the narrative adventure game genre that was popularized with Season 1 of Telltale's The Walking Dead, despite having played quite a few of them. I like a few, sure, but it's generally not something I'm fond of. If not for the fact that Chloe's character design appealed to me (you'd know why if you've seen my original characters), I'd have never even touched it.

I have fond memories of playing the original Life is Strange with my best friend back when it was still being released, and how we'd actually hash out our thoughts on what decisions made the most sense in the moment while playing. I initially remember hating the ending of the original making my choices feel meaningless (as by the time "Polarized" came out, my friend and I weren't able to play together due to us living in 2 different cities at the time), and it was only after letting it marinate for a while that I came to the conclusion that I liked one of the two possible endings, and disliked the other.

I'm (rather obviously) on team "Bae," as far as the endings to the original are concerned. To me, this is the only ending that actually makes sense unless you want to argue that the whole point of the story is some fatalist, deterministic experience at it's core (which I've certainly seen argued multiple times), but I don't think that ideology is even remotely interesting to think about, and is flawed as hell. That's beside the point though. The part of this post that is dedicated to the first game is, primarily, about the reason why that ending is the only one that makes sense to me.

Throughout the game, Max (and by extension, we, the players) use her time travel powers to ultimately solve a few puzzles, and to otherwise scope out minor multiple decisions we make during the story. The moment we see Max use her powers for the first time is when Chloe (whom she doesn't recognize at the time) is shot in the girl's washroom at Blackwell. However, before she does this, she sees the vision of the Storm, and is jolted awake by it in the middle of class.

From here, the game tries to heavily imply that Max using her powers to save Chloe from being shot is what ultimately made the Storm come to pass, and drops mentions of the concept of Chaos Theory multiple times. I'm not going to bother explain what that means, but it does at least make some kind of sense. Max using her powers can alter the course of things, and create an untold amount of diverging timelines. We see this obviously through the "Bay" ending, as Chloe's death happens, and no storm comes. This is clearly to enforce the idea that Chloe not dying does something that causes the storm.

However, where this concept begins to eat shit like a skateboarder failing to bail properly from a bad Tre Flip is when Max goes back in time via a photo for the first time. She prevents the death of another person, Chloe's father, William. As we all know, this action has the consequence of Chloe eventually getting into a car accident and becoming quadriplegic, and is doomed to die when her respiratory system gives out due to the nature of the injury.

Now, this specific timeline brings with it questions, and the game doesn't really bother to answer them, despite it being a big hole in the whole "Chloe's death prevents the storm" idea.

The main question is "why didn't William not dying yield a storm?" If the idea of preventing a person from dying has far reaching consequences, and can lead to a storm, then why did William's survival not lead to a storm? Wouldn't that be a bigger shift to the "natural order of things" that Max saving Chloe did?

The cop-out answers I've heard to this are things like "she wouldn't have done it if she didn't save Chloe first to begin with" and "she didn't over-use her powers during the period of William's accident, so the storm wouldn't have been bad." I've even heard the idea that Chloe's accident is the universe saying "fuck you" to Max saving William, and while that is certainly believable, it ultimately makes you wonder "why are the dead whales even a thing in the 'William Lives' timeline?"

The second time I was left wondering is "in the timeline where Max is taken to the Dark Room, Chloe is very dead, so how is it that the storm happens at all if Chloe's survival is the reason it happens?"

Naturally, people will say "the act of saving Chloe sets things into motion, so it's too late to stop the storm by that point." It's here where I call bullshit, because it then makes you ask the question I brought up earlier: "why didn't the timeline where William lives have a storm after he was saved?" If the universe is pissed that Chloe lived, then her dying should prevent the storm, right? But if the universe is pissed at her living, then why isn't it pissed about William cheating death due to Max's intervention?

If it was just the timelines where William died but Chloe lived, I'd be like "alright, sure, Chloe cheating death caused the problem." But Willian's death being prevented doesn't do the same, so it's inconsistent reasoning at best.

Again, by the logic of the "Chloe being alive causes the storm" viewpoint, William should lead to that happening 5 years prior if he survives the day he's supposed to die, but that doesn't happen. If the storm is caused by Chloe being alive, then what does it matter which day she dies, so long as she dies before the storm is scheduled to happen? Unless you want to argue some divine punishment is occurring via a pissed off God, which would make the whole thing feel worse, then there is no logical consistency with the idea of "Chloe Alive = Storm, but William Alive =/= Storm."

It's by this logic that I think that the storm is tied to Max using her powers, rather than specifically the act of saving Chloe. This is then later reinforced, at least in part, by the sequel comics. Now, I know people will argue aren't canon, but they offer a look into a post "Bae" ending, and answer some questions about it in an official capacity, even if it's just meant to be a single view as to what could happen.

In those comics, Max's powers are tied to the storm, and are tied to her flickering between different realities, which lead her to a universe where Chloe and Rachel are alive and in LA for 2 years. She is later forced to confront another storm, and is able to prevent it from doing any damage, and then uses it to power a leap back to her original reality, albeit with the help of a guy who has the power to travel between dimensions, Tristian.

So in short, official media confirms that the powers are connected to the storm, and not necessarily Chloe's life. Max first uses her powers to save Chloe, sure, but the storm isn't linked to Chloe's fate by itself.

However, this is merely part of the justification I have for what I ultimately think is the "better" ending. The other is a simple question: how do they know that Max preventing herself from saving Chloe will stop the storm

Yes, we as the player, the outsider looking in, know that Max preventing herself from saving Chloe will lead to a Storm-less timeline, but in the scene where they decide that is what they have to do to stop the storm from happening, Max says that she caused the storm, and basically says it's due to her fucking with time. So how do they come to the conclusion her using her powers, the thing that caused the storm in the first place, to fix one more thing suddenly prevent the storm? Why would she even think that's a good idea when the consequences of her meddling with time are literally barreling toward Arcadia Bay?

In short, the metatextual element of this scene causes the internal logic of the choice to make no sense. If the use of powers causes the storm, then why would they even think using them again would fix things? If it's Chloe being alive, then William being alive should have done the same thing.

Basically, I think the issue with the ending isn't inherently the choice itself, but the logic for why the characters would even think a Hail Mary play like "go back in time and prevent yourself from saving Chloe in the first place" would even remotely work, given that they have two running ideas of the cause of the storm, and only one of them actually makes sense outside of a passing thought.

The issue with the "Bay" ending is that it leaves you with questions that have no good answers, but the "Bae" ending's questions are easier to answer.

In the "Bay" ending, if the photo jump is to the past where Max knows she can rewind time, even if only barely, then what's stopping that Max from abusing her rewind anyway? If the powers are the cause of the storm, then leaving her with the knowledge of it even being a thing is dangerous for the week leading up to Post-Photo-Jump Max's return, where that Max knows to not abuse her powers. Heck, if past-Max doesn't know of the rewind yet, and Photo-Jump Max knows that, then she can still save Chloe, and past her wouldn't know about the idea of time travel, so she'd not abuse the ability. Sure, there'd likely still be some kind of repercussions for messing with things, but it'd be significantly lessened if her powers are the cause of the storm, and not Chloe surviving.

So again, if Chloe's death has to be the thing that prevents the storm, why didn't saving William cause a storm? Why didn't Chloe dying to Jefferson at the end of Episode 4 stop the storm? If it's not Max's abuse of her powers that causes the storm, then what's stopping her from abusing the power in a Chloe-less world? We know thanks to the comics that she retains the ability to time travel after the week is done. Hell, if the "leaks" of an alleged Max-focused sequel game being in development are true, then it also confirms Max keeps her powers in a more concrete way than the comics did, so what's stopping her from abusing them outside of a sense of grief over losing Chloe?

I ask those questions because the act of letting Arcadia Bay get destroyed in the "Bae" ending doesn't highlight the issues with explaining how the storm came to be in the first place, and it ultimately could be either Chloe surviving when she should have died, or a consequence of Max abusing her powers during the week. It ultimately says "this is the cost of saving your friend. You made this bed, now lay in it."

The "Bae" ending reinforces the idea that Max shouldn't mess with time, and it shows the active consequences of doing so. It actively makes the "your choices will have consequences" thing the game shoves in your face at the beginning of every episode actively mean something, but in a way that isn't inherently obvious from the jump. From a metatextual standpoint, it's honestly really smart to have the idea of "choices and their consequences" be more of a theme rather than just a mechanic. Max ultimately has to live with the fact that her selfish desire to save her friend cost hundreds of people their lives, and she's not the only one who knows about that burden, because Chloe will have to spend a long time coming to terms with the fact that Max chose her over the lives of others when push came to shove. It ultimately feels like the journey meant something in the long term.

Conversely, the "Bay" ending just leaves me like "so there's no real consequences for anything, because this is how things would have played out if Max didn't have powers." Sure, Max has to live knowing her friend is dead because she wasn't allowed to save her, but she'd at least live knowing she did it for the greater good. It tries to say "this is the right choice" but fumbles because it ultimately just leaves people like me poking holes in the time travel logic. So long as she doesn't try to prevent someone's death again, she's free to use and abuse her powers however she wants. It doesn't reinforce the idea of "messing with things has consequences," it just lets Max have the ultimate do-over, where the only consequence that matters is her best friend is dead. She has to live knowing she let her friend die. At most, it's a tragic thing that will affect a few people, and that's it. To me, it just feels incredibly hollow.

Even if you like the "Bay" ending, I think you have to admit that the "Bae" ending has the time travel feel less problematic from a narrative logic standpoint. It, at the very least, doesn't require the answer to the question of "what caused the storm in the first place?" unlike the "Bay" ending, where it's left up in the air if it was Max's powers or Chloe's life that was behind it. From here, I'm going to basically go into some minor points as to why I think the "Bae" ending makes the most sense as the "canon" one for the series after the first game. These are not as important to the broader point, but still. If you wanna dip from the post now (assuming you made it this far) then cool, hope to see you when I talk about why I hate Before The Storm, cause that may interest people.

Some people like to suggest that the "Bay" ending has more potential for expansion, but I strongly disagree. That ending's future story potential, at least as far as Max is concerned, is just "Max has to learn to deal with the grief of losing her best friend" and otherwise has no real direction. If she meets Steph or something in a future game, for example, it ultimately will be a bit awkward for Max, and that's it. In the "Bae" ending, there's actual potential for drama if Max interacts with a former resident of Arcadia Bay, knowing she let it burn for the sake of one girl.

We can see how each ending effects David via the 5th Episode of Life is Strange 2. We know that regardless of Chloe's fate (at least as far as the two timelines that branch off from the first game's ending are concerned), David ends up in Away. David and Joyce split in the timeline where Chloe dies, and obviously Joyce died in the storm in the timeline where Chloe lives. We see how this effects David, but even then, there's more of a story to be told with Chloe surviving vs dying, at least in my view. Chloe and David being able to set aside their past issues and becoming the family Joyce had longed for them to become is a far more interesting story than David trying to reconnect with Joyce after Chloe's death split them apart. I'm not trying to suggest David is a great character or anything, but it's notable that Chloe and David's relationship is more interesting to explore in a post-Storm world, because he actually has a reason to become a better person in a Joyce-less world vs a Chloe-less one. It ultimately makes more sense for him to end up in Away because of Joyce's death rather than Chloe's. We see he really wants to be there for Chloe when he saves Max from the Dark Room, and we see how much Chloe's death affects him in that timeline, so I'm not saying he wouldn't relocate because of it if she died in the bathroom... but the drastic change he undergoes between Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 really only makes sense in a world where he lost Joyce, and has to be better for Chloe's sake.

Steph is another character where it only makes sense to have Arcadia Bay get demolished, rather than have Chloe die. Sure, Steph is a very emotional character at her core, and runs from things that make her uncomfortable, no matter how good her life is going outside of that... but I honestly think it makes more sense for her to run from the past in a world where her hometown got levelled, because she'd have some kind of survivor's guilt because of the fact that she lived and her mom didn't. Yeah, she could still have survivor's guilt after learning both Chloe and Rachel died, but I'd argue it'd make more sense that she'd be running from Mikey in a world where the scars of Arcadia Bay run deep, rather than what happened to Chloe and Rachel. What reason would she have to avoid Mikey, her best friend, in a world where she doesn't have to feel bad that Mikey's family (presumably) died in the storm? In a world where her survivor's guilt would make talking to others from Arcadia Bay more painful and awkward for her? You could argue that, yeah, Chloe's death could hit her hard because they were good friends, and that because of Chloe being friends with Mikey too, that she'd avoid Mikey for that... but I just think it's more believable that she'd cut herself off from her past in a world where Arcadia Bay was destroyed.

Either way, this post and the time it took to write it got away from me, and I may have to refine it later when I eventually turn these essay type posts I've made into videos. For now though, hopefully this was an interesting read, and hopefully I've conveyed my views on the ending of Life is Strange's first entry at least somewhat succinctly.

[door430]

It's theory time! (Deltarune edition)

I've seen the theory going around that Deltarune's Gaster is actually multiple Gasters, since he was shattered across time and space. This will be adding onto that.

There's a lot of weird characters in Deltarune and Undertale that we don't actually know the true identities of. The Mystery Man, REDACTED, the man who gives you the egg, the person writing entry 17, the two people speaking at the beginning of deltarune... and I have reason to believe that most, if not all of these characters, are separate pieces of Gaster.

Gaster is often associated with the person who speaks to you at the very beginning of Deltarune due to their similar dialects and personalities. I fully believe this theory myself. But what if the person who discarded the vessel isn't Chara/Dess/whatever people are saying these days... but an alternate version of Gaster? A lot of things suddenly fall into place. This person seems to have similar abilities to the first person, with them both manipulating game files and having some level of control over your vessel. It's possible that this is just a coincidence, but I have more evidence.

Another character commonly associated with Gaster in the fandom is the man behind the tree who gives you the eggs. He never shows himself, and he immediately disappears after you take the egg (Mystery Man vibes, anyone?) However, it's been bugging me that this characterization wouldn't quite line up with the Gaster from the beginning of the game. He's too friendly and casual. However, if this was an alternate version of Gaster, it would make sense why they wouldn't act exactly the same.

Now, we know that Jevil and Spamton have both spoken to mysterious individuals that completely changed them. I believe it's possible, and even probable, that these people were not the same person. After all, Jevil's mystery person presumably revealed the nature of his reality, while Spamton's made him a successful businessman. I believe these people were actually two individual pieces of Gaster. I also believe that every future secret boss will have spoken to a different version of Gaster.

Time for my favorite part of this theory. If there's multiple versions of Gaster just running around this world... then any one of them could be the knight. There's been so many theories about the identity of the knight, accusing Kris, Dess, Papyrus, and even Gaster himself, but I think this theory adds a little more context for the accusation against Gaster, and why the knight may be similar but still different to the Gaster we know.

Now... time for the crazy part of the theory.

Remember Sans and Papyrus from Undertale? Remember how they supposedly just showed up one day with no histories to speak of? Well, what if I told you that Sans and Papyrus are actually pieces of Gaster? Sounds insane, right? Well, hear me out.

Sans and Papyrus share a lot of similarities to the few depictions we have of Gaster. Physically, theyre all white and vaguely skeleton-esque. Speech-wise, they all speak in odd fonts, and Papyrus speaks in all caps like Gaster. But in regards to their personalities and interests, Sans particularly shows an interest in science in his genocide dialogue and with his quantum physics book/joke book gag. Hell, he literally has a key to a secret laboratory in his basement! And Papyrus isn't exempt, either. He creates and solves surprisingly complex puzzles, and even has a book titled "Advanced Puzzle Construction for Critical Minds". Most damningly of all, sans has an attack called the Gaster blaster. I don't know how much more obvious it can get.

But this is just my take. Sorry for the long post, but I'm too tired to condense it. If anyone else has any theories to add on to/contradict this one, I'd love to hear them!

[swampgallows]

You recently reblogged a post of the "waifu bait" twitter post, and mentioned not watching modern anime. I tried looking up anime on your blog and you said you liked Tokyo Godfathers, so I trust your taste lol. Can you recommend some other anime you liked? Preferably movies, but this doesn't really matter.

OMG thats very sweet of you haha. my anime tag is actually "animu" but a lot of it is just aesthetic posts/gifs. i find i still gravitate toward anime from the late 90s - early 00s but not for lack of trying. what i like most about anything animated is the animation itself so i place a higher premium on anime that isn't mostly static intricate paper dolls with mouth flaps or is at least nice to look at. i prefer slice of life over action or mecha/sci-fi in any kind of media, so while i've heard really great things about ghost in the shell, gundam, etc. i've never seen them.

i also have a very low tolerance for most shonen ("h-his power level... it's over 9000!" playground battle tactics) and most sexual tropes/fanservice ("onee-chan let's compare chest sizes!" type shit). it's probably more accurate to say i like some japanese animation rather than "anime", if that makes sense. essentially anything rating fairly low across the weeb-ass-shit scale.

recs under cut cause it got long!!

= movies, in chronological order: obligatory ghibli favorites: my neighbor totoro (1988), kiki's delivery service (1989), only yesterday (1991). only yesterday is a little more obscure than the other two but ghibli films have pretty much a universal seal of approval so i doubt a pitch is necessary. onward!

little nemo: adventures in slumberland (1989): hey does this count as anime? i hope so. one of the pivotal founts of nightmare fuel from my youth (beaten only by brave little toaster, perhaps) this film has eluded seemingly everyone i know in my age group and i'm not sure why. while it's not nearly as inappropriate as its early 20th century source material it may have fallen to scarcity due to its "pg" content, like tobacco use and several frightening scenes, a la the failure of disney's the black cauldron. regardless, the animation is fluid, the songs are cute, the backgrounds are beautifully painted, and there at least a handful of shots that will flash in your mind before bed.

princess arete (2001): hits a lil close to home since it's about a girl named arete trapped in her room and yearning for autonomy, to create things with her hands, and to participate in the outside world. a bit slow paced and quiet but i think it adds to the atmosphere and immersive isolation, and it does pick up near the end a bit.

interstella 5555 (2003): obligatory. more of a feature-length music video than a film but still has a cohesive narrative. hope you like french house!

MIND GAME (2004): my feelings about mind game are fairly similar to my feelings about burning man: grateful i had the experience, but once is enough. i personally don't care for "trippy" stuff, but the animation itself does have some great visuals, switching up different styles and even incorporating live action footage and rotoscoping for an experimental "patchwork" feel. nishi, a down-on-his-luck loser, grapples with purpose and the meaning of life after a handful of near-death experiences, including being swallowed by a whale; anything "biblical" after that is all knowledge-wise. like princess arete, this one's also by studio 4C but is intended for mature audiences (lots of sex. and a rape, as a warning). if you liked tekkonkinkreet (another 4C production) or paprika (satoshi kon), mind game is worth a shot.

---

= series, in chronological order:

oishinbo (1988-92): almost like a shonen, but with gourmet cooking. as part of their cultural division, a japanese newspaper tasks two journalists, yamaoka and kurita, with creating "the ultimate menu" to broaden japanese culinary horizons. yamaoka is the estranged son of a highly venerated food critic and engages in a persistent rivalry with his father to both prove his expertise and to challenge the rigid traditions. kurita is an average working girl of the 80s providing the audience perspective as we learn the elaborate methods of the gourmet cooking world alongside her. nostalgic for its music, setting, and style, this was a big comfort anime for me, though despite its several seasons it never wraps up the story of the manga. also kurita has a unique outfit almost every episode, which is a nice detail. i only found out about it because of @/80sanime!

tenchi muyo + tenchi universe (1992-95): harem anime crossed with a feudal japanese space opera of sorts. i first saw the show on toonami as a kid, and what hooked me instantly were all the different personalities of the girls. if you're familiar with the cartoon the owl house, it's said that eda is HEAVILY inspired in personality, character design, and even voice by one of the main characters, ryoko hakubi, a space pirate hiding out on earth from the galaxy police. mostly comedy with obligatory hot springs and beach episodes, but has spaceship battles and magical sword fights too.

neon genesis evangelion (1995-6) + the end of evangelion (1997): i should not have watched this as a 12 year old. although i think anyone of any age who watches end of evangelion walks away permanently changed. (due to the nature of the series, it is unclear whether the "rebuild of evangelion" films are remakes or sequels, but i personally don't recommend them either way.) if you are somehow not familiar with evangelion: teens pilot giant robots against extraterrestrial threats called "angels". things become... much less about giant robots.

azumanga daioh (2002): this was one of the first series i had ever seen (western or japanese) about girls being friends that wasnt preoccupied with getting boyfriends or being "girly". still has the occasional fanservice tropes, but mostly comedic or quickly over with. since it was adapted from the 4 panel comic strips, it retains a lot of the short-form humor as quick vignettes or gags. not as exaggerated and boisterous as nichijou but similar, and way less insipid than k-on but still has sentimental and cute moments between the girls.

ashita no nadja (2003-4): nadja, an orphaned dancer in london, is on a quest to find her mother. she travels across (mostly) europe with the dandelion troupe, a group of entertainers with their own fraught backstories. she is intent on helping everyone she meets, sometimes to her own detriment, and learns lessons along the way about who she can trust, how a person's past can change them, and that not everything can be fixed with a smile and a song. meanwhile there's a kind of tuxedo mask thing going on between a pair of twin brothers, and nadja struggles with romantic feelings for both of them. overall very much a feelgood "girl cartoon", but i liked the dance sequences, the animation quality, and the evolution of nadja's character. i got to vicariously travel and dance alongside her, and i liked cheering on someone with a good heart working hard to make her dreams come true.

paradise kiss (2005): MAN i should watch this again. reserved overachiever high school student Caroline stumbles into the world of underground fashion and street culture as a model, blowing open the confines of her previously sheltered life. while she finds a home in ParaKiss she also has to confront the dark sides of fame, the fashion industry, and the strain it puts on their relationships. as a fairly introverted raver with model friends i related to a lot of it. also for queer points, george is bisexual and isabella has been praised as positive representation by trans women, especially for a series from the aughts. also WHATTT THE FUCK PATRICK SEITZ VOICES GEORGE IN THE DUB??? OHHH MY GOD okay anyway

the ancient magus bride (mahou tsukai no yome) (2017-2023): stunning animation, and a series i've yet to catch up with purely because i end up crying virtually every episode. it's a bit of a wish fulfillment thing (teenage girl discovers she has special powers and is whisked away from her abusive home life to a medieval fantasy world where she is betrothed to a tender monster-man) but has a lot of great worldbuilding and poignant storylines. it's ghibli-esque in a way but with more of an overarching melancholy and sense of foreboding compared to the average ghibli film. and just to get it out of the way for some inexplicable reason a few of the side characters have HUMONGOUS hungolomghnonoloughongous

---

ive seen quite a bit of anime in my day but these are the ones i actually remember watching and enjoying. like i recently watched all of slayers and most of slayers next, and while it was satisfying in a 90s nostalgia way i wouldnt necessarily recommend it. also there are some very highly acclaimed films and series that i haven't gotten around to yet (full metal alchemist brotherhood, cowboy bebop [I KNOW IM SORRY], the animatrix, etc.) hopefully this is enough to go off of for now!

[eliothedud9000]

my silly little episode notes

this was very fun i want to start doing this for every episode

i really liked how family bases this episode was with the closes and stamplers/marlowes

i cant wait until we see the oaks!!

!! SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 45 OF SEASON TWO !!

Episode 45

Oooooo intro

Anthony the penne patriot

Pasta ew the eating sounds wtf

YES THE HEAVEN CRITICISM LOL

WELCOMETODUNGEONSANDDADDIESNOTABDSMPODCAST-

The theme song went on longer than usual..? Not complaining but huh 

Will is having a stroke ig

Taylors fact: Taylor may no longer be a ranger but he misses being able to disguise himself as a trash can and being pushed on a stage

2 1/2 months of the senses???

Mr boss kicks fact: linc’s bathroom regimen revealed!? he puts all his clothes in the laundry and puts on a new pair of clothes every time he goes to the bathroom. ALSO HE DOESNT DO HIS OWN LAUNDRY??

Normal fact abt normal: normal is the FOUNDER of the school yearbook club. A book club about the yearbooks at San Demis high. They had an alumni guest last month. Normal was the only one there. His audience is usually just kids who think its the real yearbook club

Scarys fact: she has a favorite planet which is mercury because mercury has the longest day which means it also has the longest night. The longest time to write poetry and focus on regrets and be sad. (Even tho Venus has the longest day)

HERMIE FACT OMFG: hermie didn’t have a childhood and he was conjured as a freshman with memories of being alive as a child. Not real memories tho. Scam thought it was the funniest part of someone’s life

scam tf??

poor hermie he doesn't even know :(

recap: They need to fill the magic jar with daddy magic to send the doodler back to his own dimension

AND THEY FOUND TERRY FIGHTING WITH GLENN

I MISSED YOU TERRYYYYYYY

Terry is the one who shot nicks arm off and glenn is mad (for a good reason tho-)

Scary is freaked out poor scary

But Terry you messed up buddy

Oh shit is Terry going to die forever

AND HES COUNTING ON IT???? 

Oh shit Terry don’t cry you don’t deserve this- 

AHHHHHH RON AND TERRY REUNION THIS IS SO CUTE SHIT MAN THE HUG OMG

Damn these imps are wild-

Normal you have been exposed…….. release your emotions!!!

Well normal since you’re crying you should put it in the jar-

Scary and Terry omg. Reunion. Reunion. Asdfghgfdgfs

She’s saying it was just a phase oh shit??!?!!!!!!!

Damn

Terry

Terry

Buddy

You don’t deserve this

You dumb suicidal idiot

SCARY AND TERRY OMG ADSFDGFHJGHFGDFHFJG SHES HAPPY TO SEE HIM AND HES HAPPY TO SEE HER AASFDGFHDGFSGFDH

Terry takes the jar omg

No he’s crying :(

Ron?

In a field?

nick has been avoiding them, and they’re trying to be friends again ok

Nick walked out of the brush and into the cleaning

And Ron is…. Talking about his hair…..

Ron you’re going to beef it.

They want to take the people here into hell… thats why he’s upset

Ron wow you are very wise.

I fucking love the stamplers adsfergrtbrgjmt4igjn

“You become the person you choose to be around”

Lark and sparrow and Terry don’t attack him!!!!

:(

Oh shit

TERRY

NO

WHAT ARE YOU DOING

NICK WAS GOING TO TALK TO YOU

FUCK FUCK BADASS SAD FIGHT :(

Unrelated why did I just get a message from someone asking for a picture of myself????

NICKS ARM

OMG

NICCKKKKYYYY

TERRY

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

RUN NICKY RUN

Honestly Terry that’s what you get

Don’t cut someones fucking arm off

“You lied to me kiddo”

Oh no

Ron

“I don’t think you’ve been someone you’d choose to hang around with lately”

TERRY DONT CRY 

AW I FEEL BAD

TERRY ANDF SCARY HUGGING AND SHR HUGS BACK OMG OMG OMGASGDHJTHJFDG

SHE SAW HIM AT HER SOCCER GAME

OMG

IM GONNA CRY

HER BIO DAD WAS NEVER THERE

BUT TERRY WAS

AND HES CRYING LOUDER

OMIGOSH THE STAMPLERS

SORRY STAMPLER/MARLOWES 

HALFWAY JAR

The remaining families are the close and oak

ASDCFVGHBJNKMLJNHY TERRY AND SCARY HOLY SHIT

SCARYYYYYYYYY YOUU SAID I LOVE YOU OMGOMGOGTJHRGJRUJHJVDU HOLY FUCK OFGJGFIDGHJD

IM GONNA CRY ISTG

Glenn stop fighting 

Terrys fine

Chill

“I don’t forgive you for what you did but I get it. I understand” good for you nick

Yes Taylor glenn is the coolest motherfucker

Yikes

Glenn wasn’t there for Taylors birth…

Damn nick is passive aggressive (its deserved tho)

Glenn are you fucking kidding me-

TAYLOR IS BORNED

“You want to cut the umbilical chord dawg?”

Its a chill doctor

Uh oh here comes glenn

And he’s passed out and high as fuck

Great

#1 dad award

“Youre a granddad now-“ “whaaaaaaaatttt”

Aw nick 

That’s so sweet he doesn’t want Taylors first sight of his granddad to be bad

What book is glenn reading?

Jodis been there a bunch of times and glenn hasn’t. What an ass ngl

“Hell yeah bro what a cool kid…” 

The first time glenn has seen himself in the third person

And he sees the reality

OMG CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?????

MY HEART-

Taylor

Omg

You just destroyed nick

Then again obviously he wanted his dad in his life

Too little too late Nicky my man

:(

I just want to hug them all

Fuck

The closes are fucked up

Yikessssss

Taylor did 23 and me and just saw fire and the cops showed up

Nice

Uh oh 

Nick

NICK ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR NOT BEING THERE FOR YOUR KID

DONT BLAME IT ON THE OTHER DADS

YESSSS THEY MESSED UP 

BUT

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY WHERE ITS NEEDED

Taylor wanted his dad for when he was getting his yellow belt at mall karate

And the parents applauded 

And taylor looked to the crowd

His mom is there

But

His dad isn’t there

And another kid got a dad hug and got to get ice cream and poor Taylor got to skip a belt but WHAT ABOUT HIS DAD.

And he gets kicked out from karate 

;-;

YOU SHOULD BE SORRY NICK

“I think you fucked up in the same way too”

GLENN 

SERIOUSLY.

“Where were you nick >:( “ bitch-

Glenn thought that if he kept his distance in hell then he wouldn’t be a bad influence on nick 

Aww

:(

“What if we started over?”

THEY ALL GO TO DISNEYLAND AW

I WOULD LOVE THAT

Taylor doesn’t know what Disneyland is lol

Omg

There is no fixing it

Shit

This is the best its going to get

All these families are so fucked

“Dw thats just the gunfire level…”

“NOPE NOPE THATS NOT THE GUNFIRE LEVEL”

Ew the government :|

OHEMGEE SCHMEGANNN

Wait full control of hell-

OH NO

HOLY SHIT

The background music slaps tho-

Jodi says in morse code: get nick and Taylor out

I like Jodi

Hes a good guy

Oh no

Don’t fire at glenn

“Is glenn immune to bullets?”

NEW KING OF HELL 

LINC 

WHAT

NEW KING??????

NORMAL?????!?!?!?!?!

TAYLOR??!???!?!?

WHO IS IT GOING TO BE???!?!?!??!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?

Hell is locked down and no one is leaving until they have a new leader

And now they are going to fight 

HOLY SHIT

SCHMEGAN

“Only one gets to leave alive”

So overall thoughts…. Good episode. Kinda went by quick tho but could’ve been because I split it up instead just listening to it all in one sitting

After this fight and hell leader thing I feel like will is just gonna drop a bombshell of family angst and problems on us when its time for the oaks to give their daddy magic. 

But Terry and scarys reunion omg 

I was about to cry it was so cute

[bearvanhelsing]

💖, 📒, and 💗 for Aria; ☺️ and 🍊 for Tyrel; 💋 for Adelaide; 🌸 for all? Gosh, I hope this isn't too much, I got too excited to see you join in.

Thank you Emiiii these were so fun!!! ARIA: 💖 Has your OC ever been in love, be it romantic or platonic or otherwise? Who with and did they ever express their feelings or keep it private? How long did these feelings persist/do they still feel this way? Aria was a lot less guarded romantically when she was a little younger and fell pretty easily for people who took interest in her. She became involved with a Tiefling girl she met in Eastgate for quite a while who showed her a lot of places that would eventually become some of her favorite spots like The Crimson Coin. Ultimately it didn't work out because Aria became rather emotionally dependant on her. Feelings persisted for a while after and she was pretty emotionally devastated at the time but she's moved on for the most part.

📙 What kind of subjects (of conversation, of discussion, in school, or whatever) does your OC find interesting or engaging or that they can talk for hours about? What kind of stuff do they just find fun?

What things bore your OC to tears and they couldn’t care less about? Why?

Aria is passionate about a few subjects that she doesn't really get to talk about that much without getting disapproving looks from other members of Absalom aristocracy. unsurprisingly she loves talking about firearms whether it be types of firearms, new innovations in the tech, or how to properly wield one. If someone ever asked her how to use one she'd be uncharacteristically enthusiastic about teaching them. She also has a fascination with devils, demons and daemons and even though she doesn't worship any of them and has a relatively rudimentary understanding of them, she's always eager to learn more. Especially devils. She just thinks they're neat! Aria finds herself bored with any extensive discussion regarding morality, politics, history (depending on the subject)... and mathematics. 💗 What would your OC say is their best feature? Why? What do their friends / family / lover(s) / people they know think is their best feature and why? Physically, Aria would probably consider her eyes to be her best feature. She always tries to make them pop. Personality-wise, Aria is a little more insecure because she receives much more criticism on that but she thinks of herself as someone who is easily able to find fun and bring it to others whether they want to or not lol. Her great-grandfather may say that her rather cutthroat attitude is a promising trait in a young businesswoman. The answers of former lovers may regard how soft she is and most that I'd consider the closest things she has to friends are PCs so yet to be determined... 🌺 Does your OC have any tattoos or other body art? Does their body art have any specific meaning behind it? Do they have any scars? How did they get those scars? Any birthmarks? Aria has a scar on her hip that she got in retaliation for biting someone during a bar fight. Mostly unnoticeable now because her fur covers it but she really hates it regardless. TYREL: 😊 What can make your OC smile even when they’re feeling down? What cheers them up and makes everything feel better for them? Is your OC genrally a happy person and do they enjoy making others smile? What about your OC makes others happy?

Tyrel might be the only person in Golarion who is put in a better mood by being in proximity to Camellia but he loves her lots... Other than that, feeling as though he got the better of someone during an interaction is very satisfying to him. I wouldn't classify him as a very happy person generally. He suffers from imposter syndrome pretty badly and he doesn't particularly like himself that much even though he likes where his life ended up. He does enjoy making those close to him happy and he's usually pretty good at it with his quick wit when he's not being selfish.

🍊 What is your OC’s favourite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes?

What is your OC’s most hated food? Stuff they can’t stand to eat or drink? Tyrel loves a good roasted goose! The family chef used to make it for his birthday when he was little and he's very nostalgic for it! He's not too picky, and I wouldn't say he hates it but I'd say he is usually disappointed by meals that include a salad. I just can't imagine Mendevian salad being that good lmao 🌺 Does your OC have any tattoos or other body art? Does their body art have any specific meaning behind it? Do they have any scars? How did they get those scars? Any birthmarks? Tyrel has two scars on his chest. One is the worldwound scar and the other is the one from when Cam stabbed him while they were on the alter lol ADELAIDE: 💋 How affectionate are they with their friends? Their family? Their romantic partner(s) (if they have any)? Are they more physical or emotional when it comes to displaying their affection? Why?

Adelaide struggles to show affection to other people even when she genuinely cares for them. A lot of her attempts to do so when she was very young were perceived as clumsy or awkward by her family and as a result, she has a hard time showing it as an adult. Part of why she gravitates toward Shardik and animals in general is that they don't make the same judgments that people do so she feels a lot safer being affectionate with them :') 🌺 Does your OC have any tattoos or other body art? Does their body art have any specific meaning behind it? Do they have any scars? How did they get those scars? Any birthmarks? Adelaide doesn't have anything notable in this regard. I don't see her as the type to get a tattoo and I haven't finished Kingmaker yet so I'm not sure if there are any opportunities for her to get a cool scar yet!! lol

[teddyqd]

20 Questions for Writers

eeee thanks for the tag @fuckyeahfang!! <3 i'm gonna tag @maraschinomerry if u wanna (no pressure tho!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 31! Dang I've been writing fic for a second and a half huh (Note: one of these fics is not mine lol -- I posted it for a friend without AO3)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 77,138 -- waough

3. What fandoms do you write for? Whatever's rotting my brain most at the moment -- I had a long streak of Critical Role, which went into TMA, and I have a feeling Dunmeshi might get a few fics by the time it's done with me; also original stuff but I don't post that

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My Lightbringer - 4,891 Hits, Critical Role

[incoming communication] - 3,018 Hits, Lifeline

little blue pills - 2,919 Hits, The Magnus Archives

The Hands-On Approach To Teaching Dunamantic Spells: A Guide by Essek Thelyss (Results may vary) - 2,271 Hits, Critical Role

Shitty Hair - 1,190 Hits, My Hero Academia

5. Do you respond to comments? I try, I really do, but sometimes I'll see one and be like "I'll reply to that later!" and then I don't and then it's been 2 years and I feel bad for replying so late that I just don't 😭 But I do read and appreciate them all I prommy

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? this would require me to finish fics EVER lmao... but seriously probably (Don't) Look Away. Do NOT read this if you haven't played Outer Wilds, but DO go and play Outer Wilds, and THEN read this.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Probably [incoming communication]? It's definitely the ending I'm most proud of -- it's very self indulgent, but I'm fond of it :"

8. Do you get hate on fics? nah people tend to be chill

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Sometimes, but not often, and I post it even less often. I prefer reading it to writing it, but I do like tossing around ideas I'll never write about the characters' weird and intriguing kinks lmao

10. Do you write crossovers? I don't tend to, unless they're incredibly funny to me. Reading-wise, crossovers just annoy me because there's 2x the chances for mischaracterisation/misunderstanding of the setting(s), but sometimes a really good one can scratch my brain.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not into another language, but I have had a podfic made of Cabin Fever -- which was great since it was a scriptfic anyway! It's really well made, go give it a listen!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Quite a few! Not in a while, but it's fun to work with someone whose brain ticks in synch with mine about a character or ship. I actually started dating my current partner in part because we were talking about a fic we wanted to write together! We'll get to it one day, and get sooo much hate about it it's quite fucked up LMAO

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? MAN. YOU CAN'T ASK ME THIS. it's like picking children. uhhh Shadowgast (Critical Role) is up there for All Timers but they are def not the only one. Probably the one I've thought most about, but now I'm thinking about Blupjeans (TAZ)... JMart.... augh. i love when people love each other despite the very terrible consequences

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? little blue pills! It's a fun concept -- I love fucking with the very rubbish trope of soulmate AUs and making them Weird and Queer, but I am not great at finishing projects and I have also cooled slightly on TMA since I started it.

16. What are your writing strengths? big emotions! being purple prose but like good about it! Weird People.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? finishing things, plotting, writing convincing dialogue -- yknow, just little things (🥲)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? It can be done well, but it needs to be considered deeply. Also, used sparingly. I like throwing in terms of endearment in other languages, but when it's whole conversations, it's not fun to be checking google translate/the AN every five seconds.

19. First fandom you wrote for? the first one that's still up? Layton Brothers! the first ever? harry potter 😔

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? i hate favourite questions i hate favourite questions uHHHHHH You Were My Conscience. fucked up monster lovers trying to moralise their way out of being responsible for a man's mental breakdown <3

thanks again for the tag sunny i love u mwah

[djservo]

sending this to you early before i forget (and i will forget), april is OVER. the year really starts zooming past march it's scary! april reads, were there many of them? what did you think? other media interests also what's the spring/summer reading vibe?

april summary

you could probably tell by my lack of goodreads updates but my ass was NOT reading this month omg. 2 books but Barely since the first I started in February and the latter and I only just finished on the 30th WAHHH it's been stupid busy and stressful at work these past few weeks to the point where my free time could only consist of simply hanging out and watching movies/survivor and other thoughtless little things like that 4 my own sanity. in hindsight, absolutely not the best time to take up two meaty theory/cultural criticism books smh!! I was too ambitious, and while I could've just called it quits and picked up a more manageable/digestable read, I thought I'd be able to brave it out eventually... meanwhile my pdf of Man's Rage For Chaos sits abandoned + bookmarked at a measly 50 pages in amongst dozens of survivor screenshots LOL Sigh! it may just have to be another DNF because I don't think I have it in me to absorb another 300+ page long pdf just yet (it was a feat getting thru Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture at times)

but OK, onward!

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl — a juicy romantic drama masquerading as just another foodie book. I would've been perfectly satisfied if it'd been the latter (I really loved Tender at the Bone) but when I TELL U I was gasping and clutching my pearls every other chapter, scandalized at every corner!! the book follows her foray into the world of being a food critic, during which she finds herself in two different affairs while married to her longtime husband/companion (who is revealed to have also been cheating on her at the time rip). Somehow she managed not to make herself come off as a victim, so clearheaded and honest with her actions and mistakes, but part of you also can't help but root for her a little -- to flourish in her career, to grow a backbone, to come to the harsh realization that sometimes people just grow apart no matter how much history there is. So much wisdom and heartbreak!!! And, as she was about 30 during this period, my favorite reminder that the intrigue and possibility of Life(tm) isn't nearly over after your mid 20's--it's hardly even begun at all. and then of course all the food descriptions, glorious and sensual as always. Tampopo (1985) instantly came to mind: food + sex + woman's quest for the Meaning of it all, you simply gotta love it

Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal — I don't think I can add anything substantial to this even if I tried LOL I'll say I'm always tickled by any critiques and callouts of western civilization, and his connection of US presidents defending "reactionary imperialist interests" regardless of "character" (or political party) = the enactment of terror that's natural when it comes to the succession (hah) of oppressive forces... floored babes!! tell it like it is!! ok I lied, one more point -- a lot of this book discusses this radical methodology of theatre that involves the audience, allows them to interact, adjust, implement meanings as a means of revolution and there's this big brained review I read on goodreads that connected it to TWITCH STREAMS of all things, specifically gamers who allow the chat to vote on/make the decisions while the gamer performs these choices. I feel like there's so much Meat there... an analysis of the interactive nature of the internet/contemporary popular media and its influence on the way we perceive free will... anyway.

I started a saucy short story collection that'll hopefully keep me titillated, and I think I'll also treat myself to a fun graphic novel moment after my failed lil scholarly attempts hehe movie-wise I got sucked into this awful franchise The Brotherhood by David Decoteau which is basically college fratboys/hunks who have to fight some killer and/or mystical force of evil in the most homoerotic way possible (the filmic equivalent to trashy little convenience store pulpy softcore erotica methinks).... 6 full films of regurgitated storylines and gratuitous shower scenes and I must admit I had a blast !!! it morphed into a sorority-slasher theme, which then morphed into a broader theme of Tormented Women(tm). It's been a loose goal of mine to keep my letterboxd watchlist number lower than the amount of films I've logged for the sake of staying manageable/realistic, but there's now a scarily small difference of 5 films between the two 😢 so i think I'll try to stick to my watchlist as best I can this month 🫡 and ofc watching survivor as always, nothin new there yeah yeah I'm predictable

[funeralprocessor]

Morgan Rambles: My pet project

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I've been working on a tabletop system for like, a while now. Working on is kind of doing a lot of heavy lifting as it's still just kind of a morass of mechanics and ideas, but I've been steadily chipping away at it for a while now. A big part of it has just been figuring out what I want it to be, because I didn't come at it from the outside trying to make a game that does X/Y/Z. It just sort of bubbled up organically from a lineage of horrible cobbled together pseudo-systems that existed only in full in my manic imagination and in like 20 google docs. Basically it's half "system that's geared towards stuff I personally like'' and half "mechanics/ideas orphanage" at this point, but It's slowly coming together into something kind of resembling a presentable thing. Not presentable for like, public use or anything, but like I could show this to potential players and I wouldn't look deranged. That may change and the whole mechanical core may collapse a few more times in the gestation process, but I think what I want it, tentatively called Ars Regia/ArRe, to be about/like/for is pretty well defined. Something I'm prepared to explain now that I've rambled for two paragraphs It's going to fundamentally going to be a game about power and how you use it, which sounds a bit generic I know but one of the core tenants of like the way I play and the way I run things is freedom and the many things that come from it. I like to run sandboxes with no "critical path" or main story, just a bunch of elements you can interact with as you see fit. This is a living world, or as close to one as I can simulate without losing my mind, and having characters interact with it, explore it, utilize it, or fall because they underestimated it is like one of my favorite parts of running a campaign. My job is to play the world, the players job is to decide how they want to live in it.

I also really like the collaborative storytelling and investment you get when players really dig into the world they inhabit and make parts of it theirs. That's why a big part of my design philosophy has been trying to come up with ways to empower the players to actually make big changes, and the "power level" I'm going for has kind of skewed higher as a result. Exalted and Godbound were big big influences on me (and Godbound's author Kevin Crawford/Sine Nomine Games is like one of my tabletop idols along with Jenna Moran and a few OSRsphere bloggers y'all should check out like GoblinPunch (The guy who made the false hydra! That's not a modern D&D thing that's an OSR beastie that escaped containment! All of his shit is good like that!), FalseMachine, Skerples/CoinsandScrolls, ThroneofSalt, and Against the Wicked City. Crawford's stuff is always really polished and even if you have 0 interest in running any of his games his GM tools are fucking immaculate and worth the price of admission on their own (especially since many of them have free versions)), but like mechanically/gamefeel wise aren't what I want. I'm also drawing a good bit from PbtA's enormous lineage, partially some BitD and Spire/Heart, but one of the major ones was Legacy: Life Among the Ruins. In addition to being one of my favorite games I can never convince anyone to play, Legacy does a *lot* different that I love. Your character isn't an individual, but a faction in a post apocalyptic world, with the nature of that world and that apocalypse really really shaped by the very act of character creation. If someone chooses the kaiju hunter faction, it kind of goes without saying that there are kaiju now, something that would not necessarily be the case had no one picked that playbook. That's really fascinating to me. It also has a neat system for kind of pseudo-troupe play. When you need to resolve a specific event in detail and actually RP it out, everyone creates a quick character relevant to the situation or picks one already established, which means you'll quickly get something of a cast of recurring characters for a particular faction, even if that character isn't always played by the same person. Also, because these characters aren't your "main" character it kind of lets you play a lot more fast and loose with them and take more risks. It's almost encouraged to angle for dramatactical deaths, b/c each class has a death move that can be pretty impactful and are all very resonant and fun. I'd been considering some kind of "lower decks" mechanic for ArRe since I imagine PCs will be involved with a lot of big/long term projects and this sort of thing seemed like *exactly* what I was looking for (alongside some domain management stuff). This turned out a lot less coherent than I'd hoped but w/e. Long story short is I'm basically trying to make a TTRPG all about getting players invested in and in control of the world, both by collaborating with them to create it and then giving them the tools and incentives to change it. It is kind of geared towards playing in my like established setting, but that's because I haven't actually had a chance to do any of the collab worldbuilding stuff yet. Amala is also just sort of a powderkeg and fun to throw demigods at so we're all good

[citrus-cactus]

I finished my first playthrough of Digimon Survive (Moral Route)! Some not-plot-specific rambling under the cut, but still spoilery if you haven't played the game at all:

Re: The moral route, I really liked it! The only things I wish I could have done better (and I’m a little mad at myself for not doing) is actually unlocking Labramon or Dracmon’s Mega evolutions (I made too many mistakes early on with Aoi and Kaito's affinity points. I had been trying to play naturally and not minding if I didn't pick the “right” answers for the first several parts of the game, but I gave that up around part 6 because I wanted to be better friends with Saki, and I HAD to continue being BFFs with Minoru and Miu!). I did get Floramon, Syakomon, and Falcomon's Megas though! I love all of those cutscenes so much dfasdfasjghaskdfha

I'm also a little mad at myself for being two points shy on Wrathful to unlock all three "regular" endings on my first playthrough. I was SO CLOSE!! I just thought I needed to keep the points even-ish, I didn't know until I looked it up that there was an actual numerical threshold. I feel like not doing that complicates my desire to play as efficiently as possible. Right now I have a save in Part 7 that I could go back to to bump up my Wrathful score, then play through Harmony and Wrathful from Part 8... but I may have slightly spoiled myself on those two routes and now I'm not even sure I want to play them, because OOF. But since recruited digimon and evolutions carry over between game and new game+, it does make sense to keep playing on the same file, regardless of which route I choose to do. I will also say that I am so INTENSELY curious about all of Labramon's Megas because her line from Rookie to Ultimate is SO INTERESTING (also I may have spoiled myself on one or two of those Megas, they are thematic AS HECK and I REALLY want to understand exactly how we get there character-wise for at least one of them. The mythology and symbolism and implications for Aoi as a character have me REELING... but playing that route... OOF!).

Right now, I'm really tempted to just do NG+ and go for the Truthful route, but I think if I do I will be even less likely to go back to Wrathful and Harmony. Technically I already started NG+, but I've only finished the prologue. Can you have all four endings unlocked at the branching point on your second playthrough, or once Certain Things happen, are you fully committed to Truthful? Anyway. I don't want to play the game all the way through four times to unlock all the things is what I'm saying, but I acknowledge it might be unavoidable.

I also kind of want to participate in Survive Week, which starts on January 27th, I think? I honestly don't know how that's going to happen for me personally, because so much of my spare time is still going toward playing the game, so maybe I just need to give that up as a goal and just enjoy finishing my playthroughs and creating art on my own schedule. I already have an idea for a specific piece that I want to make SO BAD, but I also really want to take my time with it and fully understand the things I am assuming about character arcs before diving in (but I will say, "Pair of Sad Digigirls with Flower Symbolism" is apparently a theme I like to explore in my art these days, who knew that would become a theme?) . I also want to draw a bunch of Minorus being goofy. And Miu!!!! Honestly, all my top favorites. This group of kids and their partners ended up being pretty great, and even though I do have some minor criticisms of the game itself (pacing, difficulty curves, translation, the nature of choice in visual novels), I really love how much it has made me think about platonic soulmates. Survive been a great ride thus far, some wonderful character exploration through psychological horror, and the Moral Route did end up warming my heart so much :D

[squigliez]

Hey! What are your top 5 fav Bowie albums? What was it that got you into him? 👩🏻‍🎤

Ahhhhh!!! Any excuse to wax poetic about bowie!! Oh God now I have to actually rank them...

1. Low (1977) Half of it is songs about profound loneliness and depression (that slap) half of it p much all instrumental. I ADORE this album from the first listen it always just felt different. You can hear a saxophone riff from this one he used again in I Can't Give Everything off Blackstar which always gives me goose bumps

2. MWSTW (1970) this one just has so much going on in it. I love the tone. I love the messages. There a lyric in Mirror by Kendrick Lamar that reminds me of Savior Machine in a big way; I feel like they'd have gotten along pretty well.

"Don't you point a finger, just to point a finger

'Cause critical thinkin' is a deal-breaker

Faith in one man is a ship sinking"

3. Blackstar (2016) I feel like no explanation needed? Haunting, beautiful, heart wrenching, innovative, classic, etc, etc, etc. I love

4. Hunky Dory (1971) this ones got so many songs that are poems that are songs that are literal poems!! I love it. Kooks for his son is so sweet. Oh! You Pretty Things is on of my favorite songs period. Queen Bitch fucks. Need I go on?

5. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) I will admit this may just be cause this is one I have on vinyl and have listened to... A Lot. But this ones got so much going on in it. Opening and closing with the same song, the kingdom come cover, the lyricism and poetry, the I C O N I C singles???? This one I don't think I could ever get tired of.

My very first exposure and the beginning of my gender fuckery was Labyrinth, of course. It's my favorite movie, one of those "I could watch in my head/recite this whole thing start to finish on command" type of things. Music wise I inherited an old ipod with his best of album on it long ago and went nuts from there >:3

I did not need to write this much but it was fun really thinking about it!! Honorable mention Aladdin Sane (1973) which was on the list till the last second. BUT! I do now wanna hear your favorite bowie albums @cosmic--whorror!

Also please anyone send me your favorite bowie albums!!! You don't gotta explain why or rank them or anything if you don't wanna but I just think he's neat and I'd love to hear why yall think he's neat :33

[eldritchamy]

Hey, hello, how do I hear more of your world building because whenever you have it in tags of stuff, I am OBSESSED

I mean currently the answer is you have to be a specific person in my Discord DMs (and future housemate), who is the recipient of all of my infodumps about this particular topic.

The reason for this is that she's my ACTUAL DM (who runs a delightfully homebrewed Ravnica setting which takes a VERY liberal approach to MTG's concept of a multiverse), and my own homebrew Une-iverse is sort of the version of my characters and their story that exists in my head (I normally refer to this as "Story Mode") and is slowly being built out into its own whole world and, with any luck, several books. She greatly enjoys my infodumping in general, and has also been thrilled to have me as a player (in my first DND campaign!) because, and I quote, "Your passion and care for the story of your character is infectious." Her DMing style also very much jives with how I like to play the game, and the other players in the party, and their characters, are all excellent.

I'm pretty big on establishing and keeping to narrative arcs, and so far I'm pretty happy with where my character is in her journey as a person and how she's relating to the world around her, and in particular her story NPCs. One of my NPCs in particular (my favorite and the one I'm proudest of coming up with) she plays almost EXACTLY how I envision her, so every scene with that character is like a 5 pound brick of dopamine physically pummeled into my bloodstream through blunt force. She's also a very interesting character mechanically, so she's been the subject of QUITE a few infodumps about the mechanics of time and Second Sight and causality. I may make a post about that specifically, because I have a really cool way of explaining it.

When she first put out the call for a campaign she wanted to run, I was the first person to respond because I'd recently been in a bit of a DND hyperfixation (thanks in part to Critical Role) where I had turned a character concept I came up with several years prior into a functional PC. Her pitch for the campaign she wanted to run fit with the character I had started building, and I figured it was as good a time as any to actually get over my anxiety about it and actually join a party.

....While writing up my character's backstory initially, I was typing in a document that hit seven pages before my character was even born, if that's any indication of What I'm Like As A Person.

A fair amount got revised during and after character creation (I homebrewed an entire new 5e class (Witch) between levels 1 and 3 and she let me swap to it). I had some really cool ideas for her character backstory and her story NPCs (whom I, in an extremely on-brand obsessive fervor, had given some pretty deep backstories of their own), and she really enjoyed the creative direction I took everything character-wise and narratively.

And I STILL send her walls of text about character stuff and how they relate to things that happened and why they had the reactions they did to what events in their backstories and how everything interacted to make them such fleshed out and compelling characters.

Because when I get excited about a topic I am utterly, hopelessly incapable of shutting up about it. But she likes it and has a mutual interest in the particular topic, so she's ended up the person I direct all of the infodumps at.

As far as I can remember, I haven't posted anything about it except what's in either the "eldritch OCs" tag or more recently the "Uneiverse" tag on my blog.

I could be encouraged to post more about it, if enough people show an interest. I do think my cosmogony is pretty neat. I do need to work out a historical timeline, though, because currently some Pretty Major Stuff is a bit up in the air in terms of "ok cool but WHEN".