#it's a cool power - all the HL's powers could have been so much more

[reblogandlikes]

Is Tamlin's beast form actually his 'High Lord Beast' form or just his preferred form connected to his well-known, natural shape shifting affinity?

Because all the other High Lords turn into these huge, destructive things, but seemingly only during wars as that's the only time we've 'seen' them shift (all that built up and we bearly saw shit during the actual fighting in the war - a war that ended far too quickly). That's their only option in shifting when it comes to shifting at all.

So does that mean Tamlin just randomly goes in and out of his all the time for shits and giggles? That's if his normal beast form actually is his High Lord beast form.

I'd find it hilarious if the 'beast' everyone sees is just his puppy version of his actual High Lord form that he doesn't need to use, because 'ol dude is a formidable warrior with brute force as it is in High Fae form. His 'beast' form is even stronger. Now imagine his High Lord beast form

Meh...I'm just thinking

[sno-the-silly-guy]

ANALYZING Subspace's Character Through Dialogue To Come To The Closest Approximation We Can Of His Personality

ALT TITLE: I start losing it over snippets of dialogue from an evil scientist

I like Subspace. Funny guy. But recently, I had an identity crisis and I realised I have no idea what his personality is anymore, so today we'll be going through most of his dialogue to uncover the DARK SECRETS of what he's really like! (Spoilers: there isn't much)

DISCLAIMER: I am not the authority on Subspace. DO NOT use this to put other people down about their headcanons. All of this could be wildly inaccurate when the Phighting lore is released in 2030.

Very long essay under the cut! Also i'm not sure if this is like an actual analysis, it's more just,,, making conclusions from his dialogue

Backstory

The backstory of a character is vital to figuring out who they are. So, i'll go over what I know of Subspaces backstory. This part is gonna be a little iffy, as it is the most reliant on my memory of what the devs have said about him and not his actual dialogue. But enough preamble, lets do a quick summary!

The farthest back we know is that Subspace is working at Blackrock with Medkit. Subspace only dislikes Medkit a little at the moment.

One day, Medkit and Subspace presumably have a disagreement, which causes Subspace to lash out and rip out his eye. Medkit, in self-defense, gives Subspace a major injury, causing his right arm and the left side of his face to slowly rot away, all while spreading to the rest of him.

Sometime after this incident, Subspace hires Hyperlaser as a mercenary. And three years ago from the current day, he created the Biografts. Possibly, currently working on a new type of Biograft.

Character Motivation

Next, we figure out his character motivation in the context of Phighting. This is a step i've singled out from his personality, as I believe it is quite important. So, lets go over a couple theories!

1: Getting revenge on Medkit

This is likely, but there is one part that stands out to me, as Hyperlaser does not make any mention of trying to attack Medkit. Strange considering he works for Subspace. (the closest acknowledgement of this is HL: "Just for you, Subspace.")

The biografts do target Medkit (BG: "TARGET SPOTTED", "I HAVE COMPLETED THE ULTIMATE MISSION"). Subspace, when talking to Broker on the phone, also presumably asks him for Medkit's location. (Broker: "No, I don't know anybody by that name.") He's also shown to be vengeful, as one of his losing dialogues is (SS: "I will get my revenge!!")

It can be safe to assume that Subspace is looking for Medkit, but this progress is halted by the True Eye Church.

2: Power/Fame

Subspace is seen numerous times trying to gain power, being friendly to anyone who has a higher status than him, and seemingly burying himself in his work for Blackrock, which he believes gives him fame. The most prominent example of this is his dialogue with Banhammer, where he tries to be less weird. It is also referenced in a comic by Soda, where he tries to suck-up to Banhammer (though he fails miserably.)

I can't find it anywhere, but i'm also pretty sure that it's been explicitly stated that he does this.

Either option is pretty likely. He could also want both!

General Personality

This is based off of my own view of what he's like, but I will try to provide as much evidence for all of my claims as I can.

First of all, he's very showy. He wants people to think that he's cool and menacing. He gets offended when people have a different perception to how he views himself. (VS: "Oh! That outfit is cute! Where did you get it?" SS: "Cute!? I'll have you know that this outfit was custom tailored for Blackrock's finest!! Which, of course, is ME!!") (SCY: "Say... Do I know ya from somewhere?" SS: "Of course!! Who hasn't heard of me?? For I am the genius Subspace T. Mine!!")

He also has art depicting him showing off his scars to the viewer, which reinforces this point. He also lies to keep up his persona. (MK: "I'm surprised your body is still holding up." SS: "You didn't do that much to me!!") (BH: "Are all the experiments at Blackrock ethical?" SS: "Of course!!") Despite all this, he isn't good at convincing others of perceived excellence.

He isn't against doing whatever if he thinks it would help him gain more power. He doesn't care for most people. (the non-consensual experiments, the way he talks to Vine Staff etc etc). He is not above snitching. (SS: "I'll have the warden know about this!!")

He's passive-agressive when talking to Medkit, and he seems to get a kick out of calling him a nickname. He only does this to annoy Medkit, because when he is seemingly talking to himself, he addresses Medkit properly. (SS: "How nice it is to see my best friend Medkit once again!!" compared to "Hey Meddy!! How great it is that we get to see each other again?!")

As seen by drawings from Soda, Subspace enjoys it when people are willing to listen to him talking about what he's interested in, especially his scientific developments. He doesn't care about what others are interested in, or any of their worries. (BB: "Any type of music you like, Subspace?" SS: "The screams of the poisoned!!" BB: "Interesting...") (SS: "Another healer?! We could use someone like that back at the lab!!" VS: "...I think I'll pass.") (VS: Be careful not to consume your own poison." SS: "I don't need any advice!!)

He doesn't seem to be aware of how difficult he is to talk to. He doesn't understand sarcasm very well (literally every medkit conversation. SS: "How's that eye doing, Meddy??" MK: "It's doing great, I think i'll be able to see out of it again soon." SS: "Really?!" MK: "No.") (NOTE: I'm not sure how genuine Subspace is when talking to Medkit. Take this point with a grain of salt.)

He gets excited when he is right about something pertaining to science. (SS: "MY INVENTION!! IT WORKED!!") He's generally passionate about his field of study.

He's been described as loud and obnoxious numerous times. (HL: "Finally some peace and quiet." MK: "How long do you think you can keep that mouth shut, Subspace? [...]") His dialogue also implies this, as all of his sentences are ended with double exclamation marks (!!) or an interrobang. (?!)

He, without a doubt, enjoys seeing/hearing people in pain, and murder. He literally tortures people for fun. All of his kill dialogue is the main example for this.

TL:DR: Passionate about science. Wants to be perceived as cool so he takes the opportunity to show off, will lie in order to further this aim, but most demons aren't impressed. Doesn't care for most people, and will do whatever it takes to be powerful/famous. Gets on most peoples nerves, but will try to annoy people he doesn't like. Loves being listened to. Loud and obnoxious. His favourite hobby is torture!

Micellaneous information

Heres some tidbits I found hard to fit in the personality section, that are also important.

He has no sense of taste, due to his rot! He also has spiky teeth!

He's been described as well known but not famous. I suppose you would only know his name if you had an interest in his specialty, like if you needed to keep up with scientific developments.

He doesn't listen to music. Unless you count screaming, that is.

He's only stuttered once, when Scythe bullies him. (SCY: "Or what? Yer gonna run back to yer little robots and cry?" SS: "I-I refuse to answer such a stupid question!!") This implies that he's lying, and that he uses his robots as free therapy. He does not stutter when lying to Banhammer though, but it's still something to consider.

I believe it has been said that he's on painkillers constantly.

Author's Notes

Again, this is not the CANON LORE, this is just my interpretation of the character. I am equally likely to be completely wrong or right on the money. This is just for fun!! (and to prove i have done my research)

Also nobody is talking about Broker phone dialogue. Help me. Why does Broker give sass to Hyperlaser, but not Subspace. He has equal reasons to dislike both, unless he's somehow afraid of Subspace (unlikely since Scythe is fine bullying him) or he doesn't like Medkit (massive implications???). Whats up with that.

I'm still not over the fact that he only calls Medkit "Meddy" when he's talking to him. What a loser. /aff

Thank you Phighting wiki on miraheze for compiling all the dialogue. I wouldn't have been able to make this without it!

[acourtofthought]

How do you think Lucien is going to react to having Helion as a father? I know everyone is excited about it and thinks Lucien will be happy to find a different father but I just don't feel like he's going to be happy with Helion. At. All. Not after what his mother has gone through; I know it's not exactly Helion's fault, but I think Lucien will attribute Helion as a major cause for much of his mother's abuse. Also, she waited for him and he didn't come for her. Also, I don't think Helion is going to be a "cool dad;" I'm not sure how he's going to feel about having a son who grew up in the Autumn Court. How do you think Helion will react? Anyway, this is why I'm more invested in Lucien and Eris repairing their relationship.

I definitely don't think Lucien is going to run straight into Helions arms, thankful for a decent father figure at last. I imagine he'd have too many unanswered questions at first (not to mention they haven't been written as having any sort of relationship in the series so far, even one outside father / son).

Did Helion know Lucien was his son? Did he suspect?

If so then Lucien would definitely want to know why he never attempted to have a relationship with him.

Though I can't imagine SJM would write a scenario where Helion knew and didn't have a valid reason for keeping his distance, she has spoken of being weirdly obsessed with Helions character so I don't imagine she'd want to turn him into the bad guy especially when Lucien already has one of those in his life in Beron.

I think eventually, we're going to see Helion and Lucien getting along well. They're too similar in their sassy personalities with a flare to their style not to find common ground and recognize a likeness to one another. But Lucien is grown now, he doesn't need a dad to play catch with, so any relationship that does form isn't going to look the same as what it would have had he been much younger. Maybe there will be a scene where Helion offers him advice on his situation with Elain, about not giving up on hope when it comes to the right female and that will be a representation of their bonding, something Helion personally has experience with and could share his wisdom on. However I think we'll see them connect on a more equal level rather than Helion suddenly morphing into Super Dad trying to constantly guide Lucien without Lucien asking for his advice.

I hope Lucien doesn't blame Helion for what happened with his mother because Helion was no more capable of stopping Beron than Lucien and Eris were.

Lucien is centuries old at this point. Not as old as Rhys and the others in the IC but maybe 300? 400?

The LoA was twenty when she married Beron and had many sons before Lucien. Helion only came into power about 40 years ago while UTM as Amarantha killed the HL of Day and most of their family when they tried to rebel.

That means when the LoA married Beron, Helion had no idea he'd become a High Lord and that means he may not have had the power to stop Beron who already had internal ties to power. It also sounds like neither Helion or the LoA had any chance in what appears to have been her arranged marriage.

I also think it's important to remember that the LOA chose to stay.

The LoA did not reach out for help, she did not request someone free her from Berons shackles.

So who was Helion to interfere in her marriage? What he thinks she should do and what he'd like to do doesn't trump what she herself did.

I actually have had personal experience (not my own but family members) who are victims of domestic abuse and I can attest to the fact that you can't force someone to leave unless they want to. You can offer them all the help and a place of safety but there is truly no interfering and insisting they leave if they themselves aren't ready to walk away.

I do agree that I'd also love to see Eris and Lucien repair their relationship if there is some valid reason behind the years Eris spent treating Lucien cruelly. I think that's the direction SJM is heading, she's laid a few hints that maybe he could have been protecting Lucien in a way that wouldn't raise Berons suspicions but we still haven't gotten a true explanation for it all.

Really, I want all the relationships for Lucien.

I want to see him reconnecting with his brother so he has one decent sibling.

I want to see Helion and Lucien working towards a relationship, in whatever capacity that is.

I want he and Tamlin to find peace with one another even if they don't end up being extremely close.

I would like Az to finally acknowledge Lucien is a worthy male and for the two to move forward as friendly acquaintances.

I want him to be blissfully happy with his mate.

He's spent so many years alone and there would be nothing more satisfying than seeing him surrounded by love in every court.

[ryqoshay]

How to Handle a Nico: For Your Smile

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Words: ~1.4k Rating: G Time Frame: Shortly after Maki has earned her doctorate and while Nico is working as an idol and an idol producer Story Arc: Stand Alone Set: “Thank You” For Your Smile (HtHaN) Sweeter Than a Choir (HL) All I Can Say (TA)

Author’s Note: Three seasonal scenes incoming! This is salvo one.

Nico’s attention was torn from the movie by the sound of the garage door opening and a car pulling in. She glanced at the clock. 11:23. Maki had said she might be a little late, but this was more than just dinner-cooling-a-bit-on-the-table late; Nico had long since wrapped and refrigerated Maki’s plate. And unfortunately, this was by no means the first time her girlfriend had been this late.

With a sigh, Nico paused the show and pushed herself up from the couch. However, her mood changed immediately when she heard the door slam open, boots stumble into the entryway and a coarsely growled curse as something dropped to the floor.

“Maki-chan?” Nico called, hastening her pace. “You alright?”

No answer.

Nico rounded the corner to find Maki, sitting on the floor, struggling with untying one of her boots that had managed to become double knotted. Her coat had already been tossed aside, as had her purse, the latter of which was likely what Nico had heard drop a moment ago.

“Here, let me get that.” Nico knelt, gently pushed Maki’s hands away and went to work on the knot. “There you go.” She said after a moment before pulling the boot off the other woman’s foot. Nico then did the same for the other boot before standing. Finally, she held out a hand to help her girlfriend up to her feet.

Geez, Maki-chan looks like she’s been through hell. Not only had Maki missed a button on her shirt when putting on her street clothes, but she hadn’t even bothered tucking it in to her skirt. She must have really been that tired or that anxious to get home. Or both. Probably both.

And if that wasn’t enough of an indication, she wasn’t latching herself onto Nico at the first opportune moment, as was customary; Maki loved her welcome home hugs. Instead, Maki was just standing there, staring as though her brain still needed another minute to catch up with the fact that she was finally home.

Nico stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Maki.

“Welcome home, Maki-chan.” She said quietly, smiling as she felt Maki reciprocate and start to relax. “And Merry Christmas.”

Maki tensed again.

“Maki-chan?”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what, being late?”

“… Yes…”

“It’s fine.” Nico assured her girlfriend. “It’s not like you’re late every night.” Though certainly more than usual as of late, she added silently, not wanting to further upset Maki.

It was the winter season after all, and that typically meant a busier hospital. It was for this reason that Nico had been working from home more and delegating duties that needed in-person attention, so as to be available more to support the overworked surgeon.

“But it’s…”

Nico placed a finger on Maki’s lips to stop her protest.

“I know it’s Christmas. And I know it’s your favorite holiday. And I know we had plans to spend it together. But we have all day tomorrow, right? Nothing’s changed since you last told me you weren’t on call, right?”

Maki shook her head. “No, I’m off tomorrow. Papa insisted.”

“Good. Now let’s get you somewhere comfortable while I reheat your dinner.” Nico started to pull away but stopped as Maki’s hold on her tightened. She chuckled as the younger woman nuzzled against her cheek. “You know, I’m always happy to cuddle with my favoritest Maki-chan, but I think we’d both be more comfortable over on the couch rather than standing here.”

Maki responded with a sigh and a moment later, her arms loosened. Nico freed herself, but not before taking Maki’s hand so as to lead her to the living room. Once the redhead was seated, the raven-haired woman headed to the kitchen.

As Nico began the process of reheating the meal she had made, her thoughts turned to how many times she had done this exact thing. Though she hated seeing Maki wreck herself when things got busy at the hospital, she wasn’t about to tell her girlfriend to stop being dedicated to saving lives. The two of them both knew things like this would happen long before Maki had graduated, even before they were officially a couple.

Truth be told, Nico was guilty of overworking herself from time to time as well. Learning how to delegate duties so she and Tsubasa were not stuck handling every single little thing had been a challenge. Then getting back into a training regimen and returning to idol activities had added that much more stress to her life. But Maki had been beside her the entire time, supporting her in every way she could, even if that sometimes meant just being physically present for a comforting hug.

Thus, Nico had vowed to do everything in her power to support Maki in return. And tonight, that meant a warm meal and some quite time together. With that thought in mind, she pulled the plate out of the microwave, then grabbed two glasses and a bottle before heading to the living room.

“I’d offer to build a fire,” Nico said, making her way around the couch and setting the food on the coffee table “but you look like you’re about ready for bed.”

“Mmm.” Maki replied, eying the food with an expression that implied she was almost consciously avoiding drooling.

“Sorry I won’t be joining you, but I already ate, since I didn’t know how late you were going to be.” Nico took a seat beside the other woman.

“That’s alright.”

“But I hope you’ll still share a toast with me.” She pulled the cork from the wine bottle and started to pour. “We barely have a minute to spare.”

The couple clinked glasses and took their first sips mere seconds before the clock struck midnight.

“Thank you.” Maki said, setting her glass on the table.

“You’re welcome. Enjoy.”

“Not just for the food.”

Nico tilted her head curiously.

“For your smile.”

“My smile?”

“I was just thinking that even without a fire, Nico-chan’s smile is enough to keep me warm…” Pink dusted Maki’s cheeks as she delivered the line.

“But of course!” Nico couldn’t help preening. “Nico is the No. 1 Idol in the Universe. Her smile can warm the entire world. And can even melt the heart of someone like Maki-chan.”

“… Idiot…”

“You love it.”

“Yeah… I do…”

“You know, Maki-chan, it was your smile that first made me fall for you.”

“Hmm?”

“Back then, you were so often frowning or acting disinterested or getting angry or whatever that getting to see you smile, it was like a sort of treat.”

Maki furrowed her brow. “I wasn’t always angry or whatever… was I?”

“Well, no, but you didn’t smile all that often.”

“I smiled.” Maki insisted.

“I mean genuinely.” Nico clarified. “Not like when you smiled and rolled your eyes at Rin’s antics.”

“Or yours.”

“Sure, or mine. But I mean like when you played the piano. Or performed on stage with us as a member of µ’s. There’s a difference when you’re truly enjoying yourself. That was the kind of smile I fell in love with.”

“Ah…”

“And when I was the one to make you smile like that, it made my day. Heck it usually made my week. That’s why I did a lot of the things I did.”

“You mean tease me? I don’t think that made me smile much.”

“No, but Maki-chan is very cute when she blushes, and I found it quite easy to get you flustered. Still do, and you still are.”

Maki sighed.

“And you did smile when you figured out how to tease me back.”

“I suppose.”

“And that was its own kind of smile. Another kind of smile for me to love.”

“You really paid a lot of attention…”

“Of course I did! Nico was young maiden in love! Of course I was going to pay attention to every detail concerning the one I loved.”

“Every detail…”

“Yup.” Nico snuggled in a bit. “And don’t tell me you were any different.”

“… No… I did pay attention to Nico-chan.” Maki paused. “A lot, actually, now that I think about it. More than I think I realized at the time.”

Nico smiled at the admission.

“So, there’s only a little bit left in the movie I was watching,” Nico said after a moment “maybe like twenty minutes or so; just enough time for you eat. Do you want to finish it with me or watch something else?”

“What movie?”

“Miracle on 34th Street.”

“Sounds good.”

Nico unpaused the movie and the couple settled into a comfortable quite. However, if she knew Maki, Nico figured things wouldn’t remain silent tonight. But that was fine; they’d both sleep better afterwards anyway. And tomorrow, well, today now, was a big day for Maki. Nico looked forward to watching her child-like joy. But for now, Nico contented herself with the warmth radiating off her girlfriend, a warmth far more preferable than what any fire or blanked could provide.

Author’s Notes Continued in Followup Post

[imbellarosa]

For me, Lou's lyrics are pretty easy to interpet & I usually can get the message he is attempting to convey. Because he writes so candidly, you know? He really opens up and is so raw & real. That's not to say Haz isn't, I just feel like even in his songwriting, he hides his true sentiments behind embellished, overly elaborate, obscure metaphors. I feel most musicians use that space to finally let go & feel liberated to really right straight from the soul, y'know? Like Lou, he would never say the

+ things he does in songs out loud but he just lets himself go completely and it's beautiful. I think Haz is a phenomenal lyricist & I adore him to bits but I feel sad he is still so unwilling to be truly vulnerable & open with us y'know? I want to know Harry, I'm sick of Harry Styles™ the brand, the facade. The only song of Lou's that still stumps me is Miss You. I don't think you can just conclude anything based on one song but looking at HS1 too, sure it could be just fighting and drifting

+ apart and miscommunication (or lack thereof) & I feel like I was almost brainwashing into believing what people said over what my own intuition told me, everyone just drilling in: THEY NEVER BROKE UP, I felt like I was less of a supporter to think that, I felt guilty, like I let hl down almost. But as a cynic & a rationalist, it always niggled at me. I believe in the inevitable failure of 97% of relationships at that age. They just don't last. And I'm sure there's someone reading this who's

+ like, well fyi my parents were lab partners in high school and are still together with a bunch of kids. And that's great. Ah a walking paradox, being a romantic & a cynic. Anyway, the thing is, maybe they did, maybe not. Certainly, I lean towards it being very likely they did. Hardly any het 'relationships' at that age last. Now bring in two boys who are closeted and in love and in THE boyband of the era and undergone a series of absurd narratives and can't sit next to each other but are told

+ to make out with girls on NYE and hold their hands and strut about to a crowd of adoring fans as the actual person they're with is joyously playing football one minute and on the verge of breaking down the next because what if the fans like this fake relationship more, what if they like -her- more? I could go on & on, but you get the point. Thing is, maybe they did, maybe not. Does it really matter, in the bigger picture? They're together now and for once, I do have faith it'll last this time.

Also sidenote, I hope it's cool to come to your inbox and just go off tangents & rant & ramble. I mean it's kinda too late now lol 😂 but idk I swear I never intend ongoing off multiple tangents but it just inevitably happens?? Hope you can make some sense of my incoherent, mindless bs and at least find it somewhat entertaining. I like talking to you as well. You are the first person who is so open-minded & accepting of diff opinions & genuinely seems to want to hear what's on my mind.

okay well FIRST OF ALL, you are ALWAYS welcome to come rant to me goodness knows I would LOVE to hear from someone else who adores lyric analysis as much as I do! If you’re looking for anyone else to chat with, @louciernagas has some amazing analysis of her own and also adores song lyrics and might have a different take than mine! But here’s my take:

I think Harry processes stories differently than Louis, and I think it really really shows in their songwriting. For example, Harry had “raconteur” as his Twitter bio for a while, I’ve heard. ‘Raconteur’ is ‘storyteller’ in French, and my conclusion from that is that he likes to see himself as a storyteller. So he mostly writes abstract notions and large pictures and feelings and ideas that he’s felt over the years, and when he fills it in, he’s telling a story. It’s easier for him, I think, to process things if he can remove himself from it. If you look at the first draft lyrics for Lights Up that Tyler Johnson spilled the other month, they read, “lights can’t know their way out the dark running through your heart. Lights can’t help you know who you are. Do you know who you are?”. The final draft of this line reads “All the lights couldn’t put out the dark running through my heart. Lights up and they know who you are. Do you know who you are?”. I think it’s worth mentioning that the primary difference between the first version of this song and this one is the addition of a first-person pronoun in the final draft. 

Either way, this song would have been about him, and HIS self-discovery and HIS liberation, right? But the way that he chose to write it at first was without placing himself into the story. And like...I think he does that a lot. And then, of course, he does the reverse, too. He says “I” did this or “I” did that and it may not be him at all. I’ll tell you a funny trend I’ve noticed is that the songs that seem most personal to him are about someone else in broad strokes, or about himself in broad strokes. But I think it’s because it’s easier for him to tell true stories if he doesn’t have to say that they’re about him. 

For Louis, I would say it’s the reverse: he HAS to make his stories about himself because it’s the only way he CAN tell his stories. He’s learned to use his words as a weapon against everyone who thought he was too young, not good enough, not kind enough, too stupid, that he didn’t have enough star power, etc. He’s ALWAYS had to prove them wrong, and the only way he had was his music. So he SAID that they would go out and drink cheap wine until sunrise and that they lived in this *specific* apartment complex and that he would tell the truth if his partner wanted him too. He SAID that he’d like to go to the pub every sunday, if he could (and I think the music video for JLY even names the pub haha), that the reason he has done every single thing he has is for the other person. He HAD to say it, not for us, but for himself. HE had to tell the stories he needed to, and he did. And THAT is what makes his album - and all of his songs - so so special to me. They have that element of “fighting back” as well as of telling stories. 

I, personally, tell stories like Harry does. I like to talk about things I know or have experienced as if I’m coming at them from a different angle, because it’s easier on my heart that way, sometimes. Sometimes, the only way I have to say the truest things I know are to make someone else say them or to talk about them as if it were about another person. That’s kind of what fantasy is, in a way. It’s what storytelling is. But I *so* admire the autobiographical quality that Walls has to it, because I would be terrified. 

And as for ‘do I think they broke up?’ I’m very very much in the “who cares” camp - just like you! Maybe? Maybe they did in 2016 at some point. But like...as evidenced by the entire quarantine (and the last like..year and a half), they aren’t broken up NOW, and that’s what I’m gonna go on. And everything else doesn’t really matter, you know? The rest is confetti. 

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Liv Kristine interview for Headbanger's Land

Liv Kristine is a Norwegian soprano singer and songwriter. Former singer of the Norwegian Gothic Metal band Theater of Tragedy, also former singer of the German-Norwegian band Leaves' Eyes. She is currently part of the bands Coldbound and Mindnattsol, in addition to releasing solo albums since 1998.

HL - Liv, first I want to thank you for this interview. I have been following her work for many years, it is a great honor for me.

- You are a pioneer of this “Beauty and the Beast” style that many other bands started to use, what do you think of that?

Liv Kristine: I thank you for your compliment, Antônio. I grew up with metal, my parents being really young when I was born in 1976. I have been listening to Black Sabbath since I entered this planet. Metal was, so to speak, in my bottle. Back in the early 90s I got to know Raymond and a couple of his friends. We formed a band and started composing music together that was given the name Theatre of Tragedy. Ray and I were students of English at the university of Stavanger, Norway, and brought our passion for Shakespeare, Poe and Emerson into the lyrics in the form of poems. There was so much passion in our music, we just loved what we were creating and actually didn’t care much about the reactions of the rest of the world. Then the rest of the world became aware of our art and it was called "The beauty and the beast“ style. I am really grateful for everything that our fans, friends and followers have and still are giving us. It is a true honour for me and my band to be called a pioneer.

HL - You recently toured with Raymond István Rohonyi, how was it for you to sing with him again? Is there a possibility of a Theater Of Tragedy meeting?

Liv Kristine: It was such an amazing tour back then in 2015. I was so happy to share stage with Ray again. Every time I am at home in Stavanger I meet with some of the ToT guys for a few beers and even rehearsals, however, Raymond hasn’t been joining in so far. I really don’t know if there will ever be a reunion. Some of us, however, would really love to make music and be back on stage again.

HL - How do you analyze the evolution of your solo albums, and for you, what is the biggest difference of the "Skylight" for others?

Liv Kristine: Every solo album represents a chapter in my life. Every release has a very important message. Sometimes when I am looking back on my albums the lyrics scare me a bit. It’s like looking into the mirror. It’s very personal and direct. Every lyric and every tone is written and sung in a very personal way. It all comes from the heart and is based on life experience.My EP "Have Courage Dear Heart“ was released in April. It is categorised as an EP, but actually it’s a whole album of music. It contains 5 new studio songs and 5 live recordings from my special annual concert in Nagold, Germany, 2019. It’s my first time on vinyl ever! It is really personally connected. And the message is tattooed on by body: Have the courage to open up your heart to breathe freely and deeply again, to love again, to love yourself and be good to yourself, to heal and to practice compassion in your response to the world, even if there is suffering on your way. I embrace Buddhism, saying that we have to accept that there is suffering in life, however, we must go within and face our fears, then look for the cause. Then there will be relief and balance. And silence.

HL - You have made several special partitions throughout your career, one of them is in the Myrkgand of the Brazilian Dmitry Luna, talk a little more about this participation

Liv Kristine: Dmitry is a great composer and I like the contrasting elements and emotions in his songs. There’s a fine balance between tragedy and grand, open moments. We even have common friends, one of them being Tommy Lindal - the first guitar player of Theatre of Tragedy, who also lived in Bali for many years. When Dmitry asked me to have a listen to one of his compositions I immediately knew what to sing and how.

HL - Liv, your part in the song "Nymphetamine (Fix)" (2004) by Cradle of Filth is very striking, maybe this is the most popular song from one of the biggest bands of Black / Gothic Metal, what are your memories of that era ? Did you go back to make a partition on the track “Vengeful Spirit” from the album “Cryptoriana” (2017), how is your relationship with Dani Filth?

Liv Kristine: I have to say that „Nymphetamine“ is a masterpiece. Dani told me back in 2004 that he really wanted that soft „honey voice“ as he called it. As I heard the track I just knew we would create a perfect frequency for this song. In 2017 Dani contacted me again and I was really happy to reconnect. We had some really good times together in London’s Dungeons in 2004, shooting the clip for "Nymphetamine“. It was really dark and muddy, but the clip is amazing and I had a good laugh with Dani and the guys in-between the takes.

HL - How was it to perform with Eluveitie at Wacken in 2016?

Liv Kristine: I really am happy to have been part of that. Somehow, however, the songs I performed on turned into longer versions on stage and I had to be creative, filling in. I don’t think the audience ever noticed, really.

HL - Still on the participations, if you could choose a band to make a participation, which would it be?

Liv Kristine: I can’t decide, really…Kate Bush, Ozzy, Voyager, Oceans of Slumber, Sting.

HL - Liv, are there any Brazilian bands that you listen to frequently?

Liv Kristine: Vênus, every now and then, which is really old-school but authentic, in my opinion. I love the cracking of the vinyl spinning.

HL - Tell me how the invitation to join Coldbound came about

Liv Kristine: I got involved with Coldbound in 2020, over a years ago. Pauli, who is a really good friend of my fiancé, Michael (Allegro Talent Music), sent him that one track, asking if I might consider being a duet part of it. I have to say that I was impressed, instantly. I felt like travelling back in the times of Theatre of Tragedy. Pauli let me re-write the lyrics to fit my melody lines and as my vocals were finished in the studio, I told Michael and Pauli that it feels like singing on a song that was made for me. It’s such a beautiful and powerful composition and I kept thinking "what if Pauli’s got more of that brilliant music“…Pauli must have sensed it as he asked me to join Coldbound later that year, which I did, feeling really safe and free with my decision. Meiju and Pauli are like a family, a soul family, a very rare connection in my life.

HL - “Slumber Of Decay” is one of the songs that I've heard the most in the last few weeks, it's really cool! What can we expect from the band's new work?

Liv Kristine: I thank you. Concerning our future musical releases, we have a double album at the moment and we are working very intensively on balancing everything, creating a beautiful story to be told, wrapped in in beautiful tones and a unique musical sphere. "Slumber of Decay“ was released in February, and we are thinking to release another single, maybe. The album will be released when all recordings have been done. Some of my vocals are missing still and the process slowed down due to the pandemic situation. I actually should have recorded my vocals in Sweden last year.

HL - You joined Midnattsol where you sing along with your sister Carmen Elise, how was that experience for you?

Liv Kristine: Absolutely wonderful and very important for me, especially after what happened to my former band. I thank my beautiful sister, Carmen, and all the guys of Midnattsol for the album we did together.

HL - Liv, I want to thank you again for this interview, it is a great honor for me, leave a comment for Headbanger's Land fans and followers. Hugs and success

Liv Kristine: I thank you for everything. Please be safe and hope to visit Brazil some day soon. It’s such a beautiful country and I am so grateful for all your support and patience.

[quintessence-sentimentalist]

Kind of related to cartoon Will and Matt, but I was wondering if you had an opinion on the decision the show made to have Matt be the one to turn into Shagon and then stick around with the girls afterward helping to fight evil? (I honestly thought it was pretty cool, but also really weird at the same time, like where the heck did that idea come from?)

Give me reasons to blather about cartoon WxM

Hey anon? I appreciate you for bringing up my favorite adaptational change in the animated series. As such, things are going to get long. Unfortunately, my Read More STILL doesn’t seem to be working, so it’s going to take up a lot of space.

EDIT: Looks like it’s finally working! Remainder of the reply is below.

We’ll go more in-depth into my feelings in a moment, but first, I actually have something of an answer as to how Matt-Shagon even became a thing! I asked this very question of Greg Weisman a couple years ago, and he responded. The answer is linked, but I’m still adding it below:

It’s all very vague now, but as I recall, there seemed to be some mystery over who Shagon really was in the comics, mystery that never was revealed nor paid off. So I slotted Matt into that role, to make the mystery pay off and to give Will the maximum amount of turbulence.

I can see where he’s coming from - comics Shagon, though he had a much smaller role, was still the strongest of Nerissa’s Knights and pretty intimidating, perhaps because of his nature as the only human-based minion (twisted far beyond his humanity). We do briefly see human Shagon both pre-transformation and when Nerissa drains him of her power, but we never actually see his face, which is obscured by his snow gear or just not at the right angle to be captured on-page. All we know is he’s a geologist out looking for his dog in a snowstorm, who’s about to unknowingly stumble into a story of revenge.

I’d understand the anonymity if they were trying to go for more of a “Shagon represents the dark side of humanity and could be anyone” feel, but the narrative tells us just enough about him (and shows us his coworkers - whose faces can clearly be seen, thus presenting a jarring comparison) that it feels like there’s more to that story. Why make such a big deal about concealing his face and name if he’s not going to show up in human form and try to get close to the unknowing girls and unsuspecting readers? 

(And OH. Now that I just got onto this train of thought, do you know what happens in issue #18, subsequent to Shagon’s first appearance? 

Enter Eric Lyndon.

And wouldn’t that have been a prime storyline. I’m not saying we should have had Eric-Shagon, but Red Herring Eric would have been fascinating. Because really, new guy comes to town and wins over Hay Lin just like that - when she’s never shown any interest in a relationship in the previous 17 issues - combined with the increasing threat of Nerissa and her most important minion in the girls’ everyday lives? You’d think that Eric’s appearance might raise some eyebrows, within the story or with the readers alone. I love Eric and HL x E, but seriously… this goes up there with New Power Eric on the “Massive Missed Opportunities” shelf.)

But! Back to the animated series and Matt-Shagon. For real, this decision is a major reason why I love the cartoon as much as I do. So let’s delve into the why.

First, I think it was a really intriguing spin that made sense with cartoon Matt’s characterization, because he’s notably different from even early comics Matt. He’s not the cool older rocker boy that Will kind of puts on a pedestal and who seems to like her too (though those feelings are largely developed off-screen); cartoon Matt is more of a peer - still something of a cool rocker boy, but one who turns into an endearingly awkward dork when faced with the equally-cool-and-dorky girl he likes. Even when he finds out about the Guardians - much earlier than in the comics - it’s more on his own terms. Cartoon Matt doesn’t find out because he’s been duped into a trap and caught in the crossfire, but because he actively chooses to run screaming through a portal after the girls. Similarly, he chooses to stay with Will despite her duties, chooses to help in the (original) final battle against Phobos even though he’s completely untrained, chooses to go to Caleb for said training and join in on missions, etc.

It was only a matter of time for consequences from his decisions to help and be involved in Guardian work to catch up to him. Not even his best intentions could protect Matt from others’ worst forever.

That brings me to my second point, which is relevant to Greg’s explanation: this storyline is part of why I so vehemently love animated WxM, because of the impact on their relationship. Matt only becomes Shagon because Nerissa knows what he means to Will (I mean, she lures him into her trap by disguising herself as Will). She’s not looking to convert Matt to her side, to get any information about the Guardians out of him or even just send him back as her (enthralled or even completely unwitting) eyes and ears. Instead, she takes this boy and twists him into the terrifying antithesis of what he once was: the Keeper of the Heart’s love interest is now the object of (and fueled by) her hatred.

And really, the Shagon and Will dynamic is a thing of eerie beauty. I’m going to need to rewatch “M is for Mercy” after this, seriously. Shagon fights the other Guardians, much like Will fights the other Knights of Destruction, but they still very much only have eyes for each other, like a distorted and dangerous reflection of WxM’s connection. While we as viewers know that Shagon = Matt, we don’t find out until later on that Shagon exists as a separate entity and Matt’s just trapped in his own mind, so this dynamic reads in two ways, depending on this knowledge. From a rewatch/post-”S is for Self” reveal standpoint, this is Shagon’s way of toying with both Will and Matt. He’s making a mockery of their relationship, openly acknowledging that he’s “disguised” as Matt (rather than concealing his identity) and telling Will that he’s done something to Matt to needle into her protectiveness; meanwhile, Matt can only watch as his girlfriend directs intense emotion towards him, but it’s not love. When Will shows mercy and offers to help Shagon reach the goodness she can see in him, he balks because this presents a veritable threat to his existence.

But if we decide to look at this without the knowledge from “S” (or consider that maybe Matt and Shagon were initially fused and only split into separate beings as time went on), the dynamic comes across as an unconscious recreation of their existing relationship, just turned darkly upside-down. That moment of weakness at Will’s mercy might have been Matt breaking through the magic just a bit. 

All the pain amounts to something in the end, which makes these two an infinitely stronger, epic couple. By the time “S” rolls around, Will is still deeply entrenched in her hatred of Shagon and we learn the consequences of this continuing, as Shagon is fueling up to wipe out both Will and Matt entirely. But the moment Matt breaks through enough to sing out to Will, her hatred immediately shuts off in order to call Matt back to her - her, ahem, will to love is far greater than her motive to hate.

(I’ve mentioned this before, but this is beautifully paralleled in “Z is for Zenith,” with Matt instead being the one to call Will back to her humanity. I am a sap.)

I do very much love that Matt got to re-power and claim Shagon’s form as his own by becoming a Regent of Earth, though I do have a couple quibbles - first of which being really, couldn’t he have at least had some modifications to the Shagon form, to truly call the transformation his own? I do think it would have been fun to see more of powerless Matt joining up on missions again, now armed with new skills and battle knowledge. We only got one episode between him being freed of Shagon and ascending to Regency - this being the ever-amazing “T is for Trauma” - which to me is hardly any time at all to readjust to being back in control before regaining those powers. Granted, we were at season’s end and it was unlikely that they’d show Matt trying to cope with what happened, but still…

I’m going to stop here because I’ve already talked much too long for one sitting, but in short: Matt-Shagon is fantastic and I am always down to ramble on it even more that I already have.

[princessofthedarkrealm]

Stroke of Midnight- Chapter 23 (Pennywise x reader)

You stood in front of the large window overlooking the lake. Pennywise still hadn’t come for you yet. You weren’t worried though. Either it was taking him longer to find you for some reason or he had let Chris get you to the cabin on purpose. You pulled again at the collar around your neck. It was starting to feel weighted. “So are you going to take this darn thing off?” you asked Chris. “Not yet. Pennywise isn’t here yet. That’s a good sign.” You whirled around. “Or he’s just biding his time.” Chris was at the living room table, spreading out some papers. “I don’t need much of it.” You shook your head and tried to refrain from rolling your eyes. As much as you feared how this would all end for Chris, you couldn’t wait to get this all over it. “I really wish you would tell me what was so important that you had to drag me way the hell out here.” You plopped yourself into a recliner across from Chris. “Couldn’t you have just told me by the creek?” “I told you, I needed to get you away. To some place where you could clear your head.” “And I told you, you’re wasting your damn time,” you retorted. “You heard Richie. Pennywise is looking for me. What do you think that means for you?” Chris pushed the pile of papers towards you. They looked like copies of something from a book. “What is this?” He gestured towards them. “Look.”

You shot Chris a pair of eyes, but decided to humor him. Sure enough, it was copies from old books. You skimmed each page. They were all about the same thing: massive events of deaths and disappearances that had happened in Derry throughout the decades. You frowned at the pages. While they were all disturbing, some even including pictures, you were having trouble connecting them.

“What am I supposed to be looking for?” you asked Chris. You glanced up at him.

“Well…we think they’re all connected somehow.”

You cocked an eyebrow at him. “We?”

“Ben Hanscom. He’s the one who pointed these out to me. He’s been really interested in the history of Derry. He thinks there’s some kind of connection between all of these. And that they’re not just accidents.”

You scowled at him. “And you think my husband had something to do with this?”

Chris’s mouth dropped open. His green eyes widened. “Husband?”

The lights went off. It was late in the afternoon, so even the light coming in from the window wasn’t much. But you could still make out your surroundings enough. If you had been anyone else, you would have been worried, but a small smile played at your lips. Apparently Chris had caught on as well to what had caused the power outage.

“You got here just in time,” he said in a loud voice. “I was just giving your…wife…a little history lesson.”

You saw Chris’s hand reach down in between the pillow cushions and pull something out. It glinted in the dull light.

Chris had a revolver. Your mouth fell open. You started to stand, but he put his hand out to stop you.

You shot him an angry glare. “Fuck you,” you muttered as you stood.

You were about to go find your clown husband when a large, dark shape slowly came into the room. You stopped. He had his head down, so you couldn’t really make out his face, but you still knew that silhouette anywhere.

“Pretty little princess, don’t be afraid.”

He picked his head up. You felt your heart swell. He had come for you.

“Pennywise has come to make your day.”

Chris stood, revolver in hand. “So the clown has come. I figured you would eventually.”

Pennywise smirked. “She is my mate. Why would I not?”

You spread your hands. “Now can someone please get me out of this goddamn collar?”

Chris placed the gun on the couch. The anger in his eyes was evident as he came around the table to you. He fiddled with a mechanism on the collar. He had to work at it. You made your hand into a fist. It took all you had not to just slam him in the gut. But you kept your cool. Pennywise was here now. You would let your husband handle Chris. Chris took the collar off and threw it on the table with a clang.

“Thank you,” you told him, though your voice was like ice. “So you were saying?”

Chris narrowed his eyes and cocked his head sideways at you. “What?”

“You were saying. Before Pennywise got here you were telling me about the incidences. The disturbing deaths of all those people?”

You held your chin out defiantly. Would Chris dare to tell you what he had brought you there to tell you now that Pennywise was here? Chris threw a sideways glance at Pennywise.

“I figured as much,” you said. “It was all well and good with just me and you here, but now…”

Chris still didn’t say anything. You just knew there was a war going on within him.

“All of those deaths were freak accidents. Nothing more.”

You scrunched your mouth sideways. “Hmm.” You idly strode to stand between Chris and Pennywise. “That doesn’t sound like what you were about to tell me. And if it was, you sure went through an awful lot of trouble. Kidnapping me. Forcing that collar on me.”

Pennywise made a sound that sounded like a mix between a growl and a hiss. “My queen has been mistreated,” he said. He stood next to you. “That will not do at all.”

Chris swallowed. The poor son of a bitch was getting more and more nervous by the minute.

“I’m sorry for that.”

Pennywise let out a soft chuckle. “You will be.” He stepped forward, but you put out your hand to stop him.

“I told you to leave us alone, Chris,” you said. “We weren’t hurting anyone. Especially you.”

Chris let out a strained laugh. “Not hurting anyone? He really has kept you in the dark. Who do you think’s been causing all these disappearances, Y/N?”

Pennywise gave a sharp intake of breath. He advanced on Chris again. Chris quickly grabbed the gun off the couch and pointed it at Pennywise.

“No!” you hollered.

“I will do it. I swear to God, I will.” Chris’s arms were shaking. “You say you’ve imprinted on him. But don’t think I won’t do it. He’s killed too many people.”

“Goddamn it, Chris. No he hasn’t.”

“Innocent children! He has killed innocent fucking children!” Chris screeched.

You slowly shook your head. “No,” you whispered.

Chris wasn’t finished yet. “And that’s not all he’s done to them.” He cocked his gun. “Have you, you fucking child eating goddamn monster?”

You inhaled a shaky breath. It was all coming back to you. The arm mixed in with the floating kids. And at the diner. Roman had laughed at you when you had suggested that he ate animals. Now you knew why. You saw in your head the nightmare you had had about Pennywise. You swallowed the bile that had now risen up in your throat.

Pennywise ate children.

Chris told Pennywise something that you didn’t quite catch.

Pennywise let out a maniacal chuckle. “Puny human. Do you think she will care? She is my queen. My mate.”

You stared at Pennywise as though seeing him for the first time.

“According to the way she’s looking at you, I think she does,” Chris said snidely, his gun still aimed at Pennywise.

The clown turned his gaze towards you. “How do you think I have survived all these years? All these millennia?”

Spittle flew from his mouth as he spoke. For the first time since you met him, you hated his animalistic, alien ways.

“You were going to kill Georgie, weren’t you?”

Pennywise’s face turned into a scowl, but he didn’t say anything, so you continued.

“That day that I showed up in the rain. That was you in the drain that he was talking to. You were going to lure him down there…and eat him.” The last part came out in a whisper. “You were going to eat my COUSIN! 

“A feast is a feast, my dear. Until you came along, I did not have reason to care.”

You backed away from Pennywise, your gaze darting back and forth between him and Chris, trying to decide who you hated more at the moment. One of them had given you joy, but they both had taken it away. You wanted to scream. You wanted to cry. And for the first time in your life—you wanted to die. But you couldn’t. Eleanor didn’t deserve that. And neither did your family. They were all you had now. They were all you had had all along.

“You know what I think?” you said as hot tears ran down your cheeks. “I think you should both kill each other. And then maybe you will both have just a taste of what I am feeling right now.”

You felt like a robot as you grabbed Chris’s keys, totally unaware that Chris was staring after you. And Pennywise…there was only one thing he had his eye on. You opened the front door and let it slam behind you.

You were halfway down the stairs when you heard the gunshots, followed by an unearthly roar and human screams.

Then there was silence.

You didn’t even bother to look back.

@hoe-for-daddywise  @dallonweaksme  @lesteefightme  @honk-honk-bitches  @messoria109  @cassidy-157  @ichigokage  @bubblymusiclover13  @leauvel @skaravile  @syynnaah  @darkandtwistyxox  @theloriequeen  @rougxlips  @sihakrios28  @floatingwithpennywise  @penny-trash  @booklover2929  @red-balloons-and-popcorn  @unidash  @bill-istvan  @smileysam13579  @daddywiseskarsgard  @dirtydaddywiseslut  @moonlighthope7  @apileofhappytrash  @ravishmeclownboi  @superwholock36  @allkundsofwrong  @hunterplushy  @nychowise-hl  @animelover130901

[wellthatwasaletdown]

I think Larrieing was alot of things, there was this sweet v naieve early rush of look theyre in love and were ok with it and a desire to fight back agst perceived shutdown if their freer early selves. Then it was many fans first access to queer love, slash fic etc, which can be revelatory for ALL female sexualities, because slashfic (esp the porn plus soulmates larry version) is a safe space to learn and enjoy male sexuality in a way thats rarely possible because of the toxicity that persists for women in straight culture. HL fic can be a real escape from that and the writing just isnt matched in other slash pairings. And then there's the way it brought queer/ questioning ppl together. Larry was this queer touchstone that was dorky n weird, even lame. It didnt demand cutting edge cool or high fashion sensibilities. So I think alot of lines were blurred and it grew a life of its own and because of its rarity, because it met such a variety of diff needs it was easy for it to fall into obsession and over involvement. Add on the superfan culture and bloggers own desire for fandom power and influence, and the sort of cult like behaviour of both antis and larries (ie affirm these here truths or we ll bully you) and you get 2 new kinds of religion almost, bringing $$, community, creeds and coercion. I hope most ppl can just step away now and revaluate without beating themselves up tooo much. It was ... alot really, all told. The sanest thing now I think is to do as the mod often says and realise there are things we'll never no for sure and things we're not entitled to know. No real relationship could sustain being such a touchstone for so many and other ppl relationship shouldnt be leant on in that way. Support out queer ppl, out queer couples loudly and with as much dedication as larrieing and that will do more for closeted couples, with far less risk of harm than all the investgation and speculation in the world. But at the end of the day queer men have been romanticising, and using as an emotional touchstone, the lives of tragic, used and abused female celebs since HW began, so I dont agree that larries should self flagellate for having fallen into the same thing. Mainstream culture is far too narrow even still, so ppl will continue to find touchstones like larry, its not all some toxic conspiracy pathology like the antis say, but then nor was it all blameless lgbt support like larries claim. Bottom line for me is Louis been, covering that triangle tattoo, its 84 thousand years since he made any kind of double meaning aside or comment, so its time to start respecting where he is at. Harry has every right to be an ally/ come out / be ambiguous but he should stop larriebaiting because there's more than just him affected by that.

[reblogandlikes]

No allies UTM, Rhysand? None? (Ramble)

I genuinely want to know, but seriously, Rhysand didn't make one alliance with the other HL's or anyone during the years of Amarantha? Not a single side plan that would have me think, "Yeah, he's done fucked up things for her, but he's also been actively working against her the entire time with proven plans, proven things gone wrong and right. Proven anything but weak his say."

Not to mention, please don't make someone the most powerful mind reader if they won't capitalise on that power. A very useful power, yet criminally under utilised in this series. There would have been ample time to create an alliance, and for his own safety/self preservation, occasionally ensure they would not spill the plan or fuck them up before they ever could. That would then play into his grey morality for the betterment of everyone further down the line even if it means cutting people loose. Hard, but necessary. I mean, unless that forever unknown daemati made it hard. Though this unknown other figure couldn't have been that good when the other HL's rebelled. Yeah, they failed and died doing it, but they still made a plan and tried. Rhysand hasn't don't anything off the sort.

But, he must of had a hint of an alliance because why would he and Helion be so buddy buddy in the later books? He saw all that Rhysand had done during those years. Saw his "Mask" presented as "him" and yet Helion no qualms or think to be standoffish afterwards? Like, "Damn, you went a little hard core, don't you think?"

Unless his friendship curated with Helion was just a way for sjm to try to absolve Rhysand from receiving too much heat and generalised, consistent hate from everyone outside of Velaris. "See, look. This fun, cool HL guy loves Rhysand! He's also POC, Bi, sex positive, with progressive ideals. His judgment can't be wrong." It felt like sjm was using Helion as a tool to enforce Rhysand’s greatness than having built a genuine friendship we could read; so instead rely heavily on Helions traits when knowing Helion embodies a lot of the characteristics her target audience wants to see more in books, yet for me, made my guy Helion feel like a token. I don't like it. (Side note, I'm still pissed they stole from my sweetheart Tarquin when he was so open. They still have not apologised, either!)

Anywho, where was this so-called friendship UTM? A union between the solar courts, at least. Something!

50 years. He should have come with some receipts of his efforts. Anything on Hybern since he was already suspected of them making a move in the later books. To me, these books are the best example of just making shit up as you go along. SJM just writes, and we simply consume. Nah, mate. You can catch these critiques.

Crazy, you'd think acotar was her first series, not her second.

[floridaindependentblog]

Consumers are spending more on technology than ever, with experts claiming we’ll spend a total of $2.06 trillion on tech annually by 2023.

So what can you look forward to this year?

Keep reading to find out as we highlight some of the most exciting technologies in 2020

1. 3D Printing

While it might seem like a gimmick to some, 3D printing has a variety of practical applications, including ones in the medical and food industries. With any luck, 2020 could be the year that the 3D printer finally becomes accessible to the public.

You can expect 3D printers to start to come down in price. You may also start to see them in big box stores like Best Buy or Walmart.

In other exciting news, companies Inventables offer an exciting window into the future by focusing on 3D carving and free software distribution.

2. Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality

VR hasn’t quite found its footing yet. While it has a decent install base, it’s still a niche hobby.

However, one game may change that. Valve’s long-awaited return to the Half-Life universe, “Half-Life: Alyx” has resulted in a surge in sales of VR and AR headsets.

Whether the hype lasts is yet to be seen. But the popularity of HL: A demonstrates that if companies get serious about VR, consumers will take note.

3. Artificial Intelligence

Whether you’ll looking at AI through the lens of a business owner or a consumer, the fast evolution of voice assistants, chatbots, and automation software is quite exciting.

While we wouldn’t expect a ton of innovations this year, we do expect AI to become far more mainstream than it’s been in previous years. Look forward to trends like AI customer service and information gathering to progress by the year’s end.

4. 5G Wireless

It seems like we’ve heard about 5G tech for years now. It wasn’t until last fall, however, that 5G phones became affordable. Moreover, there’s still a distinct lack of 5G towers across the nation that prevents most people from accessing these increased speeds.

We’re hoping things will finally change this year as more carriers begin to adopt 5G technologies. After all, it’s clear that streaming is the way of the future so companies need to jump on board sooner rather than later.

5. The Return of Folding@Home

Folding@Home isn’t anything new, but the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has thrust it back into the spotlight once more.

If you’ve never heard of this cool form of tech democratization, here’s the gist: it’s a medical simulation and research program that requires a ton of computing power. So much that users are encouraged to give up a bit of their CPU to help the program out.

All you have to do is sign up and let Folding run in the background as you go about your day browsing the web or playing games. By doing so, you’ll contribute the studies on cancer, Alzheimer’s, and even the new strain of novel coronavirus.

Keep an Eye Out for These Exciting Technologies in 2020

It’s shaping up to be a great year for technology, especially with these exciting technologies in 2020! Will our predictions come true?

You’ll have to come back to find out! Make sure to check back with our blog for more thoughts on the latest and greatest in tech.

The post Technology to Look out for This Year: 5 Top Technologies in 2020 appeared first on Florida Independent.

[zhumeimv]

Will The Fantastic Four Reboot Introduce The MCU's Most Powerful Character?

Will The Fantastic Four Reboot Introduce The MCU’s Most Powerful Character?

Date: 2019-12-05 15:00:01

[aoa id=’0′][dn_wp_yt_youtube_source type=”101″ id=”5-6U_U9p_g4″][/aoa]

Thumbnail Image by Bosslogic →

After 20th Century Fox’s final attempt to revive the Fantastic Four for a feature film failed miserably, news of Marvel Studios’ plans to do their own Fantastic Four movie was warmly received, to say the least. And now there are rumours flying about that the team’s…

[faizrashis1995]

Giving Sports Fans A Cloud-Based Experience

With consumer adoption of OTT services and viewing of live sporting events on mobile devices at an all-time high, content creators and distributors are working hard to fine-tune their infrastructures and workflows to meet demand. For many, this has meant leveraging the flexibility and scalability of cloud-based computing and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered services, which require less capital cost and facilitate experimentation with new channels and mobile-first services.

At the recent 2019 NAB Show, a keynote panel, “Beyond the Field: How Sports Pioneers are Powering the 360 Audience Experience in the Cloud” brought together several leading media companies to discuss their strategies for servicing sports fans across multiple delivery platforms.

Moderated by Cynthia Frelund, the NFL’s first analytic expert, the panel included Stephanie Lone, Senior Vice President, Engineering, CBS Sports Digital; Rafael Soltanovich, Vice President, Software Development, Hulu; Scott Sonnenberg, Chief Global Partnerships Officer, L.A. Clippers; and Mark Kramer, Vice President, Engineering & Technology, Pac-12 Networks. These leaders share a key and common goal: provide fans a great experience driven by reliable and highly targeted content delivery—giving customers access to video and data services on their terms.

Frelund kicked off the discussion, reflecting on how a lot of professional sports teams in the U.S. now use cloud-based analytics and AI to help them better understand their own team’s tendencies -- and how they can use that to do better against their opponents. This same data-driven concept has swept the content world as well, helping media companies produce and deliver content more efficiently and with better accuracy.

“The NFL pioneered next-gen stats with AWS, so it's pretty cool to see these relational GPS data points being put together that help us tell deeper stories,” Frelund said, adding that she writes her own code using AWS tools. “For me, it’s all about the why and the storytelling. We’re starting to get deeper and deeper answers and the reason why is because we are looking at data in new and interesting ways.”

CBS Sports Digital’s Lone, who is in charge of engineering for all of the network’s online sports platforms (including the newly launched CBS Sports HQ streaming service), talked about CBS Sports’ live stream of Super Bowl LIII on February 3, 2019. She said the digital stream set viewership records, including 7.5 million unique devices, which was 20 percent higher than last year, with viewers consuming more than 560 million total minutes of live game coverage, up 19% from last year. The average minute audience of 2.6 million viewers during the game window was also up 31% year-over-year.  

“CBS only gets to stream the Super Bowl every three years,” she said. “In 2017, the focus was on the desktop experience. This time we had the rights to mobile. We looked at all of our platforms and made sure they had failover options so that they were as reliable as the linear broadcast. Consumers don't care about packets or how they get the feed; they only care that they don’t want to miss a touchdown. Period.”

To make this experience a great one for fans, Lone and her team created an entirely new playbook which incorporated AWS services, including AWS Elemental MediaStore, a storage service optimized for media that provides the performance, consistency, and low latency required to deliver live streaming video content.

“We stream 35,000 live events per year and we would not be able to do that without the AWS Cloud and its ability to scale,” Lone said. “We also have 24/7 live channels that we need to support. In the beginning of 2018 we basically started from scratch and said ‘we’re going to build everything natively in the cloud, because there’s no way to buy that much hardware and infrastructure to keep up with that many events.’ And, by the way, we had to have it all done in seven months with a limited budget.”

Her team took a step-by-step approach and created a hybrid cloud/on-premise infrastructure for the Super Bowl, applying cloud services everywhere it made sense.

“We worked with AWS and their (AWS) Elemental encoders … they made an HLS output-locking feature for us so we could have multiple redundant streams,” Lone said. “And we could literally seamlessly switch from stream to stream and the consumer would never see any latency, lag or buffering.” CBS Sports Digital also employed the AWS Direct Connect service, as Lone notes, “…we had ‘direct connects’ from (AWS) Elemental Live encoders into multiple MediaStore regions, and this is where AWS features like disaster recovery really helped make the consumer experience so good.”

As Vice President, Software Development for Hulu, Rafael Soltanovich is responsible for all of the services and technology that power consumer experiences. The OTT service provider added live sports content in 2017 and, according to Soltanovich, it has seen subscribers increase significantly.

“No TV service is complete without live sports,” he said. “And we can't compete in sports without the cloud.”

Soltanovich spoke about the importance of AWS in allowing them to easily and predictably scale up capacity for large sporting events, particularly NFL football, then scale back down when the demand subsides.

“The cloud shines for scaling,” he said. “The thing we have learned about live services is that fans like live sports, but they love football. Our concurrent peak streams during football games are the most we experience for any event. So, we had to get good at serving up the games live in a hurry. It’s one thing to run a live event online that you can prepare for and scale. It’s another thing entirely to run a linear channel where you may have a program where only 10 or 50,000 people are watching and then you switch to a Super Bowl where millions are watching in a split second. It’s a challenge.”

So, how do you plan for that? At Hulu they use mathematical analysis and AWS to forecast what the usage of an upcoming live event is going to be. The company now does that on a weekly basis and, Soltanovich said, can reliably predict what the viewership is going to be for any one event.

“We’ve gotten good enough that in the last year that we typically come within five percent of determining the actual concurrent usage that occurs,” he said. “Beyond that, working closely with AWS and our systems, we’re able to pressure test them on a weekly basis so that at any given time we are able to scale to five times the peak or ten times the peak. And the numbers have been growing significantly. If you compare the Super Bowl, the number of concurrent users we saw was four times what it was last year. And we expect that number to continue to increase.”

Scott Sonnenberg said that the L.A. Clippers’ owner, Steve Ballmer, is “all-in” on using AWS and Amazon artificial intelligence services to give fans an exclusive experience within the basketball arena and at home. In an L.A. Clippers video shown during the panel discussion, Ballmer noted: “There’s such an opportunity to change the way people experience sports by using technology. What if we could actually diagram what plays are going on because they can recognize it in real time? What if we could show the probability of a shot going in?”

The team recently launched Clippers CourtVision, powered by AWS technology, which allows fans to do just that and a lot more. Clippers CourtVision lets viewers switch between different cameras angles and audio options, watch three Modes with different and unique live, augmented graphical overlays and access on-demand content. Fans can personalize their experience on their mobile device or computer via Mascot Mode, which features animated graphics and pop-ups; Coach Mode, which shows plays diagrammed on their screen in real time and Player Mode, which overlays statistics and real-time probabilities over live game action. These features are made possible by cameras that have been installed in the ceiling of all NBA arenas that capture the action from above. AWS machine learning and data analytics services advance the analyses and drive the Clippers CourtVision experience.

“We rely on AWS to help guide us as to what our fans are interested in,” Sonnenberg said. “We believe Clippers CourtVision will change the way sports will be watched. It gives you a lot of options. We have an owner that challenges us to improve the experience both inside the stadium and for consumers at home or on the go. We’re starting with the Clippers but a lot of teams are interested in this technology because it helps tell the story of the game in much more detail.”

Finally, Mark Kramer of Pac-12 Networks spoke about the use of AWS services for reducing his content creation and delivery costs, and providing new kinds of viewing experiences across a wide range of collegiate sports. Pac-12 Networks has pioneered the “At-Home” remote production model, in which much of the signal processing happens in the cloud.

“Our mission is to connect fans to the universities and sports that they love,” Kramer said. “And we do that by broadcasting 850 live events each year on our seven linear networks and in our TV everywhere Pac-12 Now app. We also do hundreds of digital-only events. It’s a lot more sports than football.”

Using AWS services allows Pac-12 Networks to turn channels or events on and off without having to worry about capital expense, he said. Along with traditional video production equipment on the ground, Pac-12 Networks currently uses a number of AWS services to package and distribute content to conference fans. These include Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), AWS Elemental MediaTailor, AWS Elemental MediaLive, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and AWS Elemental MediaConnect.[Source]-https://www.elemental.com/newsroom/

AWS Course Courses in Mumbai. 30 hours practical training program on all avenues of Amazon Web Services. Learn under AWS Expert.

[ntrending]

Dust to dust: How Earth’s most advanced observatory is unraveling our origins

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/dust-to-dust-how-earths-most-advanced-observatory-is-unraveling-our-origins/

Dust to dust: How Earth’s most advanced observatory is unraveling our origins

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA Visiting the Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) is not for the faint of heart. After driving up the barren plateau to meet my guide Danilo Vidal, ALMA’s visit coordinator, the first stop was a health check. Just to hang out for a few hours at the Operations Support Facility where ALMA’s staff lives and works to solve the mysteries of the cosmos, I had to prove that my heart beat not too fast and not to slow, and that oxygen saturated at least 80 percent of my blood (at a recent sea-level physical I scored 96 percent).

But the extreme environment hasn’t stopped nearly two dozen countries from coming together to build the most ambitious astronomical tool on the planet. Getting 66 state-of-the-art antennas to operate in sync at a facility nearly as high as Everest’s base camp takes hundreds of engineers and other staff operating with military precision. Now fully functional after decades of construction and six years of upgrades, the institution is finally devoting much of its power to one of its main goals: watching for the heat glow of dust as it swirls around young stars. Already ALMA observations are rewriting the story of how those systems go from clouds of sand to families of planets, which is also the story of how Earth became the third rock from our sun.

A blood oxygen saturation of 91 percent won me clearance to carry on, although Vidal handed me a single-use canister of oxygen just in case. Then we climbed into his SUV and he hooked up his own nasal hose leading to two heavy duty oxygen tanks. “Regulations,” he said, as we started the drive up to the top of the Chajnantor Plateau, cactuses and vicuñas rolling past at the mandated 20 miles per hour.

Our eyes bias us toward the rainbow hues we can see, but many other types of light permeate the universe. Stars burn across and beyond the visible spectrum, black holes emit x-rays and radio waves, and stellar explosions shoot out rays of many varieties. Only by looking at all these different “colors” can we get a complete picture of the cosmos.

ALMA, which looks at light waves about a millimeter in length, functions as the world’s greatest set of night vision goggles. Objects emit different types of light depending on their temperature, and the observatory’s antennas let it pick out objects that aren’t hot enough to shine like stars. To its eyes, cool dust glows brightly against the frigid background of space, similar to how warm bodies shine to infrared cameras. In fact, ALMA is blind to visible light altogether, which lets it watch the skies both day and night.

The story of dust is really the story of everything we can see, which is why the astronomical communities of North America, Asia, and Europe banded together with the Chilean government and spent 1.5 billion dollars to build an observatory on top of the world’s driest mountain. Clouds of hydrogen in space collapse into stars, spinning up disks of leftover dust that eventually swirl into the planets, asteroids, and comets that make up solar systems. We can study our own cosmic neighborhood up close, but researchers ache for more diverse, younger examples to sort patterns from coincidences.

Computer models go a long way toward that goal, but there’s no substitute for images catching the planet-birthing process in action. Previous millimeter instruments lacked the necessary power, but on this front ALMA has been a game changer. “It’s rare that you get this big of a leap,” says Sean Andrews, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “This is like going from a little handheld telescope to the Hubble space telescope.”

At the top of the plateau I could immediately see how ALMA gets those money shots. Even without as much as a blade of grass in sight to help your brain calibrate size, the sprawling Array Operations Site looks huge. But before I could see the antennas up close, it was time for another health check. We entered what Vidal says now counts as the highest technical building in the world after a Nepalese train station stopped working last year, and I narrowly received clearance to continue the tour with 3% oxygen saturation to spare.

ALMA is an interferometer rather than a telescope, splitting its operations among 66 large dishes that span an area impossible for any single instrument—more than a mile across. That was the size when I visited, anyway—each of the 100-ton antennas is portable. Two monstrous forklifts, nicknamed Otto and Lore, lug a couple of antennas per day in an unceasing dance that, over the course of months, blows up the array to an unparalleled ten miles across. By expanding and contracting, astronomers can prioritize either detail or scope in a cosmological version of the smartphone’s pinch to zoom function. They just have to make sure the dishes stay plugged in the whole time (the forklifts have a battery system that supplies electricity). If the power fails and the internal machinery warms much beyond its operating temperature of 450 degrees F below zero, the driver will be left holding a multi-million dollar brick.

Fortunately that hasn’t happened yet. Finally at full power, the array creates images ten times sharper than it did during its 2011 debut, a resolution that increasingly allows astronomers to grasp the finer details of planetary formation.

The first step in a dust grain’s journey from “fluffy sand” to a proper world depends as much on how it communes with its neighbors as it does on the disk at large, according to Karin Öberg, the leader of Harvard’s astrochemistry group and one of five North American representatives on ALMA’s board. Laboratory work suggests that planetary seeds start by becoming sticky, gaining an ice coating through collisions with hydrogen and oxygen. Picking out specific elements from hundreds of light years away is tough, but ALMA has spotted extraterrestrial sugar and alcohol.

Growing larger than icy dust bunnies seemed theoretically impossible for years, empirical evidence beneath our feet notwithstanding. The spinning forces inside a disk should tear dust clumps apart before they can swell beyond the size of a rice grain, models predicted, unless somehow particles were gathering in special, denser areas.

A team led by astrophysicist Nienke van der Marel of the NRC Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada snapped the first direct images of just such a “dust trap” while at Leiden University in the Netherlands in 2013, confirming decades of modeling. “People doing simulations of processes in a disk were working almost independently of observers,” she recalls. “Theory had drifted from observations and ALMA really brought that back together.”

Now the observatory’s new data has the simulators playing defense. When ALMA trained its dishes on HL Tau, a young star ringed by a dusty cloud 450 light years from Earth, it should have seen a smooth disk. Planets take millions of years to coalesce, the thinking went, and this system was barely a tenth that old. Yet the images came back in 2014 showing an incandescent red disk split by a half dozen crisp grooves—likely signs of baby planets hoovering up dust as they orbit. Now, a soon-to-be-published survey of 20 such disks led by Sean Andrews confirms that HL Tau is more rule than exception. However planets form, ALMA’s night vision is revealing, they’re doing it everywhere— and fast.

Returning to the Operations Support Facility halfway down the plateau, Vidal and I ran into two Italian filmmakers wandering the halls after failing their health check. They had two hours to wait for their second—and final—chance to pass. Vidal speculated that they’d ignored instructions to resist the temptation of coffee at breakfast.

Now safe to drink caffeine, we sat down for tea with Matias Radiszcz, a bearded data analyst from Santiago and unsung hero of this kind of operation. Radiszcz does battle with the facility’s main enemy: humidity. Even in a desert so dry that parts haven’t seen rain since the days of Isaac Newton, traces of water vapor always hang in the air. Radiszcz adjusts antennas to adapt to the humidity in real time. He also takes shifts as the Astronomer on Duty, deciding which observations to run out of the hundreds in the queue.

Between the altitude and the often nocturnal schedule, ALMA engineers have to get used to leading groggy lives, but participating in the unraveling of the Earth’s origin story makes the week-long shifts away from his family and the sleepless nights worthwhile. “The motivating thing is to be in the place where it’s happening,” Radiszcz says. “The Earth is like an oasis in the universe, and you can understand the value of humanity and the fragility that is life.”

By the time Vidal sent me on my way back to the town of San Pedro, the Atacama desert’s local oasis, the sun was just starting to edge below the horizon as the Earth spun Chile away from its rays. I hopped in the rental car and slowly drove back down the mountainside, a thin cloud of dust swirling behind me.

The reporting for this article was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Written By Charlie Wood

[kayawagner]

Gnome Stew Notables – Caitlynn Belle

Welcome to the next installment of our Gnome Spotlight: Notables series. The notables series is a look at game developers in the gaming industry doing good work. The series will focus on game creators from underrepresented populations primarily, and each entry will be a short bio and interview. We’ve currently got a group of authors and guest authors interviewing game creators and hope to bring you many more entries in the series as it continues on. If you’ve got a suggestion for someone we should be doing a notables article on, send us a note at headgnome@gnomestew.com. – Head Gnome John

Meet Caitlynn

Caitlynn Belle is a queer game designer and writer from Savannah, Georgia. You can find her Patreon at where she makes so many weird games about sex and feelings.

@auracait on twitter

auramakesgames.itch.io

Talking With Caitlynn

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work. 

My name’s Caitlynn Belle, I’m a queer games girl from Savannah, Georgia, and I mostly release small, experimental games through my Patreon (caitlynnbelle.com and at

kirigami

3) What themes do you like to emphasize in your game work?

Sexuality and identity, I think, are the big ones. I want games that represent me and I want to do my best to put games out that represent others. I want spaces to talk about sex in a safe and healthy way and I want to explore identity and self-expression and what it means to really dig into yourself and figure out who you are, year after year.

4) What mechanics do you like best in games?

I appreciate finding interesting ways to divine outcomes other than dice or cards, anything quirky that ties back into the theme of the game somehow (Jenga towers for tension / fear, for example), and to be honest, I really like just pure narrative storytelling. Games like Fiasco where the structure of the game enables you to just wheel out and say whatever. I don’t like randomizers much in the games I play – my friends and I are used to creating characters and arcs and just driving towards their conclusions with as few speed bumps as possible.

5) How would you describe your game design style?

Sexy and weird. Just like me. But for real, all I’m trying to do is give you interesting things to say and interesting ways to say it. I think if you have that as your foundation, your game stands a much better chance of being awesome. I try to be authentic in voice, so it sounds like me and the image of the game I have in my head is the same image you get in yours, and I try to let my excitement for whatever it is I’m giving you shine through.

6) How does gender/queerness fit into your games?

They’re all tools to tell stories about queer identity. There’s things you feel weird or like an outcast over that you shouldn’t, but there’s no media for you, nowhere to explore people like you, and I want to start normalizing the idea of having cool gay characters do cool gay things. All of these games are coming from a girl who’s still on her own adventures, figuring out gender and love and who she is, and I think those themes are apparent in the text. I know very, very few people who aren’t exploring feelings about themselves in at least some tiny capacity, who they are and how they’ll express themselves, and that’s a real, honest, vulnerable thing, and I really want to see those kinds of characters out there as well.

7) How does the process of making small games influence your design?

It lets me latch on to any tiny idea I get and give it a proper home and just enough space to breathe and be a thing. You get small ideas sometimes and they can’t fill a larger game – just these little inklings of plots or rules – but they fit wonderfully on a three-page game that focuses in on a single experience.

 You get small ideas sometimes and they can’t fill a larger game – just these little inklings of plots or rules – but they fit wonderfully on a three-page game that focuses in on a single experience. 

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There’s a lot of things that I couldn’t make into a larger product but I don’t think that makes them less valid. Like, I legitimately feel the 200 word RPG challenge that David Schirduan puts out each year has made some of the best games in our community, and I mean that sincerely. They’re beautiful, wonderful games, powerful and captivating, better than most anything in our collections or up on Kickstarter. But, making smaller projects lets you really focus in on what an idea needs and how you edit, and what you should be editing, and it helps strengthen your writing overall. I try to follow these small ideas to completion each month or every other month and it lets me play around with a lot of strangeness that would otherwise drown in deeper pools.

8) How did you get into games? Who did you try to emulate in your design?

I’ve been roleplaying and playing board games forever, so eventually I took the next logical step and tried to make a game I wanted to play that I hadn’t seen yet. My brother played D&D, and when I was little, I didn’t understand how they were playing a game with no board and why they were talking so much and all the funny dice, so even back then I was trying to pick apart social interactions to form it into a cohesive whole? Which I think sounds a little heavy for a little girl to be doing? But like, I just love taking things apart and seeing why they’re working the way they are, and why people make the choices they do. Once I got an idea of what roleplaying was I just kept doing it forever and ever! As far as who I try to emulate, my secret goal is to make a game that Jason Morningstar really loves. I really like Jason’s work, it’s well-written, thoughtful, and fun. I feel like he’s got a really good handle on how to present a product and how to structure play towards a type of story, and how to do that with as few tools as possible, and that’s something I really admire. I like to picture him as some kind of lich, and only by stealing his phylactery and drinking in his soul will I understand his methods.

9) What one thing would you change in gaming?

How games look. We’ve got this vision of a roleplaying game as a thing with character sheets and dice and rules for doing skills and progression towards conflict and violence. There’s very little space for games that don’t want that – games that have weird formats or physical requirements, or that don’t want to tell stories about conflict and fighting, or games that don’t want to engage in long-form campaign play. They don’t get the same kind of attention and it makes for a drab, textureless playing field. I would really like to see games that just throw everything out the window and tell more personal stories, or find other ways to engage in narrative besides the same tools we’ve been using for decades.

so many games!

10) What are you working on now?

A million billion things – I’ve got a collection of tiny games about goblins, and they’re all dealing with things like intimacy between friends, processing death, body image and self-esteem, consent and boundary issues, etc. I wanted to take a traditional mindless monster and show them in vulnerable moments. My bigger project though is a game about telling the story of a world left to grow outside of its bounds after society left it: you play as the landscapes and memories instead of people (as it’s an overgrown apocalyptic jungle at this point) and build a narrative about what life used to be. It’s proving really challenging, because I have to consider how one might portray blades of grass or forgotten songs, and what that looks like in play! But I think it’s a sweet game and I hope people will like it!

11) Who/what games are some of your influences?

Jason Morningstar’s stuff for telling stable, structured, fascinating stories out of sparse, thoughtful tools – his larp Juggernaut is absolutely excellent and is easily one of the top ten storytelling games of all time. Ross Cowman, especially Fall of Magic, because Ross’ games capture a sense of wonder and heartbreak that just destroys you. We play Fall of Magic once a year and every time it’s just this fucking experience, this thing that sends chills down your back and keeps you up at night. It’s so good. Everything Ross touches is gold. Meguey Baker’s wonderful seasonal games are just magic, too, just dripping with mischief and wonder and crystalline imagery. Emily Care Boss’ romance trilogy, for taking romance seriously and giving you just really fucking great games to explore them with, Epidiah Ravachol’s Vast & Starlit for just being the most concentrated genius you can fit on a business card, I could write entire essays about that game. Ben Lehman, though I don’t get to play his games as often as I like, he always writes things that make me stop and reconsider what I’m doing and how it could be better, just these great little bits that form a much greater whole. I could really go on and on naming all these people I love. Everyone makes great games. Play every game.

Thanks for joining us for this entry in the notables series.  You can find more in the series here: and please feel free to drop us any suggestions for people we should interview at headgnome@gnomestew.com.

Gnome Stew Notables – Caitlynn Belle published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[swipestream]

Gnome Stew Notables – Caitlynn Belle

Welcome to the next installment of our Gnome Spotlight: Notables series. The notables series is a look at game developers in the gaming industry doing good work. The series will focus on game creators from underrepresented populations primarily, and each entry will be a short bio and interview. We’ve currently got a group of authors and guest authors interviewing game creators and hope to bring you many more entries in the series as it continues on. If you’ve got a suggestion for someone we should be doing a notables article on, send us a note at headgnome@gnomestew.com. – Head Gnome John

Meet Caitlynn

Caitlynn Belle is a queer game designer and writer from Savannah, Georgia. You can find her Patreon at where she makes so many weird games about sex and feelings.

@auracait on twitter

auramakesgames.itch.io

Talking With Caitlynn

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work. 

My name’s Caitlynn Belle, I’m a queer games girl from Savannah, Georgia, and I mostly release small, experimental games through my Patreon (caitlynnbelle.com and at

kirigami

3) What themes do you like to emphasize in your game work?

Sexuality and identity, I think, are the big ones. I want games that represent me and I want to do my best to put games out that represent others. I want spaces to talk about sex in a safe and healthy way and I want to explore identity and self-expression and what it means to really dig into yourself and figure out who you are, year after year.

4) What mechanics do you like best in games?

I appreciate finding interesting ways to divine outcomes other than dice or cards, anything quirky that ties back into the theme of the game somehow (Jenga towers for tension / fear, for example), and to be honest, I really like just pure narrative storytelling. Games like Fiasco where the structure of the game enables you to just wheel out and say whatever. I don’t like randomizers much in the games I play – my friends and I are used to creating characters and arcs and just driving towards their conclusions with as few speed bumps as possible.

5) How would you describe your game design style?

Sexy and weird. Just like me. But for real, all I’m trying to do is give you interesting things to say and interesting ways to say it. I think if you have that as your foundation, your game stands a much better chance of being awesome. I try to be authentic in voice, so it sounds like me and the image of the game I have in my head is the same image you get in yours, and I try to let my excitement for whatever it is I’m giving you shine through.

6) How does gender/queerness fit into your games?

They’re all tools to tell stories about queer identity. There’s things you feel weird or like an outcast over that you shouldn’t, but there’s no media for you, nowhere to explore people like you, and I want to start normalizing the idea of having cool gay characters do cool gay things. All of these games are coming from a girl who’s still on her own adventures, figuring out gender and love and who she is, and I think those themes are apparent in the text. I know very, very few people who aren’t exploring feelings about themselves in at least some tiny capacity, who they are and how they’ll express themselves, and that’s a real, honest, vulnerable thing, and I really want to see those kinds of characters out there as well.

7) How does the process of making small games influence your design?

It lets me latch on to any tiny idea I get and give it a proper home and just enough space to breathe and be a thing. You get small ideas sometimes and they can’t fill a larger game – just these little inklings of plots or rules – but they fit wonderfully on a three-page game that focuses in on a single experience.

 You get small ideas sometimes and they can’t fill a larger game – just these little inklings of plots or rules – but they fit wonderfully on a three-page game that focuses in on a single experience. 

Share

Tweet

+11

Reddit

Email

There’s a lot of things that I couldn’t make into a larger product but I don’t think that makes them less valid. Like, I legitimately feel the 200 word RPG challenge that David Schirduan puts out each year has made some of the best games in our community, and I mean that sincerely. They’re beautiful, wonderful games, powerful and captivating, better than most anything in our collections or up on Kickstarter. But, making smaller projects lets you really focus in on what an idea needs and how you edit, and what you should be editing, and it helps strengthen your writing overall. I try to follow these small ideas to completion each month or every other month and it lets me play around with a lot of strangeness that would otherwise drown in deeper pools.

8) How did you get into games? Who did you try to emulate in your design?

I’ve been roleplaying and playing board games forever, so eventually I took the next logical step and tried to make a game I wanted to play that I hadn’t seen yet. My brother played D&D, and when I was little, I didn’t understand how they were playing a game with no board and why they were talking so much and all the funny dice, so even back then I was trying to pick apart social interactions to form it into a cohesive whole? Which I think sounds a little heavy for a little girl to be doing? But like, I just love taking things apart and seeing why they’re working the way they are, and why people make the choices they do. Once I got an idea of what roleplaying was I just kept doing it forever and ever! As far as who I try to emulate, my secret goal is to make a game that Jason Morningstar really loves. I really like Jason’s work, it’s well-written, thoughtful, and fun. I feel like he’s got a really good handle on how to present a product and how to structure play towards a type of story, and how to do that with as few tools as possible, and that’s something I really admire. I like to picture him as some kind of lich, and only by stealing his phylactery and drinking in his soul will I understand his methods.

9) What one thing would you change in gaming?

How games look. We’ve got this vision of a roleplaying game as a thing with character sheets and dice and rules for doing skills and progression towards conflict and violence. There’s very little space for games that don’t want that – games that have weird formats or physical requirements, or that don’t want to tell stories about conflict and fighting, or games that don’t want to engage in long-form campaign play. They don’t get the same kind of attention and it makes for a drab, textureless playing field. I would really like to see games that just throw everything out the window and tell more personal stories, or find other ways to engage in narrative besides the same tools we’ve been using for decades.

so many games!

10) What are you working on now?

A million billion things – I’ve got a collection of tiny games about goblins, and they’re all dealing with things like intimacy between friends, processing death, body image and self-esteem, consent and boundary issues, etc. I wanted to take a traditional mindless monster and show them in vulnerable moments. My bigger project though is a game about telling the story of a world left to grow outside of its bounds after society left it: you play as the landscapes and memories instead of people (as it’s an overgrown apocalyptic jungle at this point) and build a narrative about what life used to be. It’s proving really challenging, because I have to consider how one might portray blades of grass or forgotten songs, and what that looks like in play! But I think it’s a sweet game and I hope people will like it!

11) Who/what games are some of your influences?

Jason Morningstar’s stuff for telling stable, structured, fascinating stories out of sparse, thoughtful tools – his larp Juggernaut is absolutely excellent and is easily one of the top ten storytelling games of all time. Ross Cowman, especially Fall of Magic, because Ross’ games capture a sense of wonder and heartbreak that just destroys you. We play Fall of Magic once a year and every time it’s just this fucking experience, this thing that sends chills down your back and keeps you up at night. It’s so good. Everything Ross touches is gold. Meguey Baker’s wonderful seasonal games are just magic, too, just dripping with mischief and wonder and crystalline imagery. Emily Care Boss’ romance trilogy, for taking romance seriously and giving you just really fucking great games to explore them with, Epidiah Ravachol’s Vast & Starlit for just being the most concentrated genius you can fit on a business card, I could write entire essays about that game. Ben Lehman, though I don’t get to play his games as often as I like, he always writes things that make me stop and reconsider what I’m doing and how it could be better, just these great little bits that form a much greater whole. I could really go on and on naming all these people I love. Everyone makes great games. Play every game.

Thanks for joining us for this entry in the notables series.  You can find more in the series here: and please feel free to drop us any suggestions for people we should interview at headgnome@gnomestew.com.

Gnome Stew Notables – Caitlynn Belle published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames