#it's rare to see it at all on this latitude

[ltwilliammowett]

Lieutenant! Can you tell us about Cape Horn and why it was so dangerous?

Of course I would,

So let's get to the location:

Cape Horn is located at 55° 59′ south latitude and 67° 17′ west longitude. The headland is located on the rocky island of Isla Hornos (Horn Island, not to be confused with the Horn Islands in Micronesia, also discovered by Schoutens), which belongs to Chile, and is the southernmost point in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Like the southernmost 2,000 kilometres of South America, it lies in the cold Antarctic circumpolar current. Unlike South Africa, which is twenty degrees further north with the warm Agulhas Current, Tierra del Fuego is never reached by a warm Atlantic current (Brazil Current). Instead, the cold polar current (Falkland Current) reaches as far as the Río de la Plata in the southern summer and as far as southern Brazil in the winter, meaning that Cape Horn is under the influence of a large-scale subpolar current all year round.

The air temperature at Cape Horn is almost identical to the water temperature all year round - day and night - which is 8 °C in January and 5 °C in July. During the day, it rarely gets warmer than 12-13 °C. There are only occasional frosts in winter and it almost never snows, although it rains over 280 days a year.

With few exceptions, the wind blows from the western half of the compass rose all year round; easterly winds are very rare. However, the wind force in the sea area around the Cape tends to be lower than in the neighbouring south-east Pacific and off the Chilean coast near the Strait of Magellan, for example, where there is always one wind force more and twice as much chance of storms. Nevertheless, the wind blows almost constantly in summer (January) with at least five Beaufort, but only once a month with more than seven Beaufort, and once a week to the west. In July, at least seven Beaufort and one storm per week are recorded every third day, while two storms per week can be expected to the west.

The Cape was rounded for the first time by an expedition of Dutch sailors Willem Cornelisz Schouten and Jakob Le Maire on 29 January 1616, sailing on behalf of the Australian Company, which was founded by Jakob Le Maire's father Isaac Le Maire together with other Hoorn businessmen after an internal dispute with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). As Dutch ships at the time were only allowed to use the Strait of Magellan if they belonged to the VOC, Isaac Le Maire was looking for a passage to the Pacific untouched by the rights of the VOC to trade with the East Indies Spice Islands.

The expedition's mission was to explore a new route to the ‘East Indies’.It was considered fulfilled when a passage opened up between Tierra del Fuego (in the language of the Spanish owner) and the hypothetical huge southern continent of Terra Australis.It was named Fretum le Maire (literally Le Maire Strait) in Latin in honour of the initiator and most important financier Isaac Le Maire, and the ‘peninsula’ to the east belonging to Terra Australis was given the name Staatenlandt in honour of the newly constituted Dutch parliament.The rededication in favour of the son Jakob Le Maire took place after his tragic death at the instigation of his father.The island character of Staatenlandt, which is only sixty kilometres long, could not be recognised, as even at sea you can rarely see further than about forty kilometres. Not being able to see the connection of the state island to the huge Terra Australis only proved that one could not see further than twenty nautical miles - and this was already known.

According to the published records of the ‘shipwrecked passenger’ Jacob le Maires (his expedition ship, the Hoorn, burnt up during cleaning work in Patagonia), he and Captain Schouten were of the opinion that Tierra del Fuego was a rugged, rocky but contiguous island, the supposed southern tip of which was named Capo Hoorn in Latin by Schouten, who was responsible for it, in honour of the second great financier, the council of the city of Hoorn.The Le Maire Strait, the short and easy passage between America and Terra Australis at Staateninsel or Staatenlandt, was the important discovery; Cape Horn was already a clear 180 kilometres into the Pacific. Isaac le Maire had the discovery of this passage, supported by a ‘silent’ Schouten, attributed to his son by court order, with the father as heir.However, the associated and desired exploitation rights of the strait were immediately expropriated and granted to the monopoly of the East India Company.The last lawsuits over this were lost in 1648.

With the realisation that even Staatenlandt was not connected to Terra Australis and that Cape Horn was the decisive landmark, neither the Strait of Magellan nor the Le Maire Strait could be permanently managed with customs duties. Due to the factually and historically incorrect, commercially motivated court judgement that Jacob le Maire found his way into the Pacific via the Le Maire Strait, the discovery of Cape Horn is attributed to him just as incorrectly and abbreviated. Usually, however, all discoveries made on such a voyage are attributed to the captain, as he decides which unknown waters his ship sails into, is responsible for them and also has to assess and interpret what he sees. However, Schouten did not insist on a public acknowledgement of his exploratory achievement, presumably due to an ‘agreement’ between him and Isaac le Maire. In addition, the published documentation of the voyage was undoubtedly written by the representative of the shipping company Jacob le Maire, so that the impression of a discovery by the travelling merchant was already being conveyed to contemporaries

But according to the German author Wolf-Ulrich Cropp, the Englishman Francis Drake was the first European to sail around the Cape 40 years earlier, in 1578, on his circumnavigation of the globe, after he had reached the Pacific through the Strait of Magellan and then travelled south-east for a few days in search of the missing escort ships. However, this discovery was declared a state secret by Queen Elizabeth I.

At the time, it was believed that the Pacific could only be reached from the Atlantic via the Spanish-controlled Strait of Magellan further north, and the British did not want other nations to know about the second route.Drake's first discovery was only claimed after 1618 for political and economic reasons and was quickly disproved by examining the records and voyage reports and by interviewing the surviving travellers.The English naming of the sea area Drake Passage was only given in 1769 by James Cook when he surveyed the coast and is presumably only an expression of general reverence for the greatest English naval hero to date.

In fact, Drake no longer had any escort ships in the Pacific that he could miss; he had already lost them in the Atlantic or in the Strait of Magellan.In the event of a separation, a rendezvous point 2500 kilometres to the north had been agreed with the remaining Elisabeth; a search for missing persons in the south was therefore not very promising. Instead, Drake sought shelter between the islands west of the Strait of Magellan in a supposed ‘50-day storm’ and had no interest in drifting further and further south-east, where he would inevitably be wrecked on the expected Terra Australis in the storm.In any case, he took his time to ‘conquer’ the inhospitable islands of the archipelago one by one.Furthermore, the navigational documents show that he never travelled further south than 55° south, which, in view of his otherwise perfect latitude measurements throughout the voyage, rules out the possibility that he came closer than about 300 km to Cape Horn.Under no circumstances was he south of the Cape, travelling through the Drake Strait and the Le Maire Strait or Falkland Strait to the Atlantic entrance of the Strait of Magellan, in order to make a statement about its passability.The ambitious Drake would have seized even the slightest opportunity to make and verify such a glorious discovery, as he was well aware of the economic, personal, political and military benefits.Similar legends were subsequently spread about the Spanish captains Francisco de Hoces (1526) and Gabriel de Castilla (1603). However, the sources and evidence for both are so sparse and uncertain that the best that can be surmised is that they both sailed past the entrances to the Strait of Magellan for different reasons and then wandered south of it for a short time. In the case of de Hoces, the legend led to the same conclusion as with Drake: the sea area south of Tierra del Fuego, the Drake Strait, is called Mar de Hoces in Spanish.

The rounding of the Cape was one of the most feared passages for ships, as evidenced by the founding of the Cape Horn Community. Commanding captains who conquered Cape Horn on a cargo ship without an auxiliary engine became honorary members of this international community.

Until the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, sailing around the Cape was the slightly more favourable way to reach the west coast of South America from the Atlantic. The Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel, which had already been sailed through centuries earlier by ships of the Dutch East India Company and British exploration ships, also offered difficult weather and current conditions for sailing ships.

At Cape Horn, the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific against the westerly wind drift was particularly dangerous and difficult. It required ships sailing in this direction to constantly cross in high seas, rain, cold, poor visibility and icebergs. The False Cape Horn caused additional navigational difficulties due to the risk of confusion. However, to this day there are still ships that round the cape, albeit with the help of engines and modern navigation. But that does not mean that it is any less dangerous.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Fossil Novembirb 5: It's Getting Hot In Here

Sandcoleus by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Global warming is nothing new for the planet, and even in the Cenozoic we've had our share of rapid warming events - the most notable one being the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). This event, taking place 56 million years ago, was the result of rapid carbon release from the North Atlantic Igneous Province - aka, a volcano exploded, released a bunch of greenhouse gases, and suddenly global temperatures jumped somewhere between 4 and 10 degrees Celsius (depending on location) in a very short period of time - sound familiar?

Given the obvious parallels to the current day, this event has been studied extensively, though only in a few spheres. We know that plants changed dramatically, with broad leafed plants spreading around the world and turning it into a global tropical forest, even at the polls - leading to interesting adaptations towards the strange light cycles at high latitudes. The world was wetter, and greener, and the change lead to the evolution of new herbivory methods in insects. Mammals got smaller, spread everywhere, and diversified. A mass extinction occurred in the oceans, with microorganisms seeing a larger drop in diversity than during the end-Cretaceous extinction. More calcified algae flourished in the more acidic waters.

But what happened to birds?

Anachronornis by @otussketching

Turns out, we're not quite sure. Bird fossils before the event are rare, and after are so diverged and varied that it's difficult to know what happened because of the event, and what happened before and just didn't fossilize. Luckily, scientists (... me) are on the case! And there were a few ecosystems that straddle the time around the event, such as the one for this post: the Willwood Formation.

This ecosystem in Wyoming takes place over the late Paleocene through the early Eocene, covering the entire PETM period. And while it showcases many different aspects of this transition, we're of course here for the birds! Not only was there Gastornis, because it was a ubiquitous presence in the Northern Hemisphere following the PETM, there were also many other weird early kinds of birds, all across the avian family tree.

Paracathartes by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Sandcoleus is one of the more notable tree birds from this ecosystem, being a relative of living mousebirds but in North America (rather than Africa, where they are found today). In fact, lots of different tree birds were present, indicating that the current dominance of Passeriformes - so called "perching birds" - was not always the case. In fact, Paracathartes was also present - our first Palaeognath, an early Lithornithid! - and it also may have been able to perch in the trees, and certainly seems to have been a decent flier.

There were also Geranoidids like Palaeophasianus and Paragrus, which were once thought of as pheasant-like and crane-like respectively, but may now actually be Palaeognaths - and some of the earliest known flightless ones to boot! That said, said, other than being long legged flightless birds, we know little about their ecologies - they may have been herbivorous, and as tropical forest dwellers, could have had similar lifestyles to the living cassowary.

Primoptynx by @otussketching

And, of course, there was also Anachronornis, the half-screamer-half-duck thing, showcasing how waterfowl were experimenting with a variety of different niches during this ecological explosion. And the large variety of new small mammals didn't go unnoticed either - while other early owls are known from Europe, Primoptynx was both the oldest and the biggest, probably thanks to all the new small mammals to eat! There were also possible ground raptors, similar to Bathornis, though they have not been named.

While there are many questions left to answer, it is clear that the PETM had a major effect like it did on everything else on the planet during that time - and the tropical ecologies that they evolved in during the early Eocene would have many implications, especially for where different clades live today!

Sources:

Houde, P., M. Dickson, D. Camarena. 2023. Basal Anseriformes from the Early Paleogene of North America and Europe. Diversity 15 (2): 233.

Mayr, 2022. Paleogene Fossil Birds, 2nd Edition. Springer Cham.

Mayr, 2017. Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology). Wiley Blackwell.

[threestarsaboveclouds]

Are you able to observe Aurora Borealis or Aurora Australis in your location? For me it is one of the sky phenomenon I would most like to see someday, what do you think about it?

Aurorae are actually quite rare in my location! Despite the frigidity of the mountain peaks I call home, my facility is actually located relatively close to the equator. This allows me to see a much of the celestial sphere as possible- though I have a small blind spot near the celestial South Pole.

Aurorae are much more common near the poles due to the shape of the planet’s magnetic field. They are the result of solar activity; charged particles emitted from the Sun are funneled towards the poles and interact with gases in the upper atmosphere, causing them to glow. I actually consider myself fortunate that aurorae are uncommon at my latitude, otherwise the light would interfere with my observations!

Despite this, strong solar storms can cause the aurorae to reach down to very low latitudes. These events are rare, occurring only a handful of times every 100 Major Cycles or so. However I have been around long enough to see quite a few!

The sight of the aurorae is always quite striking when I am fortunate enough to see them. Did you know that the patterns of aurorae follow the planet’s magnetic field lines? There is a theory that they are also affected by the Karmic field generated by the Void Sea, though I lack the proper instruments to study this, so all I can do is speculate.

I hope you can see the aurora for yourself someday, they are a remarkable phenomenon.

[etraytin]

The Bitter Beauty

I bought an art print last night. I have never bought an art print before, or at least not for years and certainly not one that I planned to frame and put on my actual wall. It's from a photographer whose gallery was in the River Arts District, so of course all of his finished framed prints are lost and gone with a thousand other works of art the river took from us. About ten days after the storm, I guess, we had the rare opportunity to see the Northern Lights from our latitude. It was a strange and beautiful show, barely visible for most of us except through the lenses of our camera phones. This artist, a guy named Tim Reaves, went down into the ruins of Riverview Station and took pictures with the Northern Lights as a backdrop. Here's the one I bought:

I don't live in Asheville proper and I am a deeply uncool person in general, so I'd never really been to most of the River Arts District before I started canvassing. I got the opportunity to visit Riverview Station several times while I was working, both to try and canvass there (not a hopping spot on Tuesday afternoon, unfortunately) or to have my lunch break. Just a month ago, I sat across from this Summit Coffee Company at a picnic table and wished I had an extra fifteen minutes of break so I could go in and grab a drink. Next time, I promised myself.

In a way, the storm froze many of us into a moment in time. I think anyone who remembers the start of COVID can sympathize. There was September 24, when everything was normal except that it was starting to rain. We knew weather was coming, but it wasn't coming for us. There was September 25 and 26, when it rained and rained, sullen and soggy and so normal except for the warnings that kept getting more ominous. Catastrophic Flooding. Unprecedented. High Winds. Evacuation warnings. We hunkered down, we checked our flashlights, we watched the weather forecasts. Then it was September 27. The power went, then the internet, then the water, and nothing was the same again. A part of me still didn't understand until I saw this picture that I will not be going back to Riverview Station, at least not the one that I knew.

That link I put up there is to Tim Reaves' online gallery, and I recommend taking a look at it. Every picture in the collection is beautiful and each one broke my heart in a different way. They are an elegy to a place that was alive and now is not, but at the same time they feel like the opening notes to a song that could start again. The buildings are gone, the art is gone, but the artists are still here. The people are still here. I am still here. And I will put this picture on my wall, and someday, maybe, hopefully, I will go and have a coffee there.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Winter

When writing your worlds, consider the season. Not just in general, but in the specific climate and latitude your tale takes place in. Some stories tell you the characters are on the move in winter, and expect the reader to fill in all the blanks. Brief mentions of snow, assumptions of frostbite risk, dark days and early nights, the whole works. Except... that really leaves out large swathes of the world, because it’s a distinctly northern temperate winter. Fits lots of Europe, fits the Northeastern U.S.; drifts increasingly far from reality the farther south or north you go.

To me, winter is the calling of Canada geese at sunset.

I know, most points northward associate the dratted birds calling in migration in the spring and fall; even though a lot of places have annoyingly resident populations most of the year. But where I am you mostly hear them in the winter, going back and forth between local lakes and ponds as they browse their way through the colder months and don’t really go anywhere. It’s therefore less of a melancholy “warm months going away!” sound and more of an “argh, will have to watch where we step, again.”

Likewise winter here is not presaged by a time of brilliant falling leaves. We do have leaves that fall when it gets nippy, but most of them are some shade of brown. With a few and valued reds and yellows from some maple-relatives, but mostly brown. Half the trees around here don’t have leaves fall in autumn at all. Pine needles and live-oaks flush their old growth in the spring, the better to take advantage of the rains and to fuel spring fires that coincidentally burn up all the mold-infested old leaves and needles. Without those fires taking out the mold, many seedlings won’t make it. (This is one of many, many problems in longleaf pine restoration.)

Also, while you definitely want an ice scraper through February, snow is... not really a thing. Rarely we get to see a few flakes fall, but they’re usually melting in the air as we see them. There are nights, and a few days, where it would be cold enough for snow to fall and stick - but the way winds and fronts move, those are the nights we tend to see frost and/or major thunderstorms. Some people dream of a white Christmas. We dream of one without tornadoes.

Think about your winter. What makes it unique? A pond that never freezes? A local hot cocoa recipe? A legend of a friendly yeti?

Or an unfriendly one. It may not just be Jack Frost nipping at your characters’ nose....

[david-tennant-sunglasses-id]

Hooray! It's Spring in these latitudes, which means SUNGLASSES AT THE BAFTAs

not a very exciting ID since they're very obviously RayBans (a rare instance where their tacky lens badging is favourable) but it's more exciting that it looks like David is going back to the wayfarer style. They do look gorgeous with that gold cat. 2 gradient my goodness, you can just barely see his eyes, and my envy at how perfectly they suit his face is so bright I uh gotta wear shades

I am reasonably sure Georgia is wearing a pair from Aldo (£5!!!!) so if you love them a lot they are extremely achievable. They seem to be dupes of a Karl Lagerfeld style which have less tapering at the temples/arms and a dual tone thing going on, but these cheapies are better with her dress. Good reminder that if you aren't weird about glass quality (and honestly it's nearly all luxottica at this point anyway) the normal fashion sunnies are just as groovy as those literally 100x the price!

also here have some more David wayfarer perfection 😎😍

oof that crystal embeadery is so sharp how is he so gorgeous

[gascon-en-exil]

(Further) Beyond Dream Daddy: A Year of More Gay Dating Sims

Last year for Pride I made a video sharing my thoughts on a selection of gay dating sims, among them Dream Daddy - by far the most well-known title in that genre. My opinion of that game was rather unfavorable, to say the least, but nonetheless I had a lot of fun discussing the topic. Dating sims rarely get any significant analysis or consideration, so it was a novel experience on that basis alone.

Recently, a patron of mine expressed a desire to see me talk about dating sims again. To save myself some work on a project when I've already got so many others going on at the moment, I've opted to do so here on my blog rather than on my channel this time. This also has the added benefit of giving me more latitude to discuss the NSFW qualities of these games without needing to censor myself. When the majority of the titles in this space are explicitly erotic, that's kind of a big deal.

Anyway! Here's a selection of games that I've played in the past year that I thought were worth looking at in some more detail.

Dear Monster

As the title suggests, this one is for the monsterfuckers out there.

This is, sort of, the second time I'm discussing a project by Y Press Games. I've touched on an earlier game of theirs, To Trust an Incubus...but I found it so unimpressive that I never bothered to review it in-depth. In several ways you can tell that Dear Monster comes from the same creative team: there's a similarly large focus on plot with a bunch of variable endings including some very dark ones, all the characters are vers despite many of them playing into familiar top or bottom archetypes, and most obviously the main theme is monsterfucking.

In this case the selection is much broader, as instead of a single species of pheromone-emitting aliens you get your pick from a variety of fantasy creatures. I say "creatures" because Dear Monster isn't afraid to shy away from furry/scalie erotic content for certain scenes, although most of the time the love interests stick to their humanoid forms. There's

a Western dragon as the violent bad boy love interest;

an Egyptian-flavored god of the dead, whose alternate form resembles Anubis and who plays the standoffish tsundere role;

a kitsune for the mischievous and overtly sexual option;

a unicorn who comes off as the caring submissive choice...mostly;

and an orc, who's had a route announced as free DLC later this year but who currently exists only as a recurring NPC

As I said, like To Trust an Incubus there's a noticeable focus on plot here, with the protagonist being a young man newly introduced to the world of the supernatural and trying to locate his mysteriously vanished grandfather inside an obviously magical mansion. Also like their earlier game, there are some unexpected plot twists that I won't spoil here, and overall I'd say this game pulls them off more effectively even if the ending feels a bit unfinished currently. Maybe they're waiting for the orc character's route to properly tie off the story? In any case, Dear Monster is better written than its predecessor and comes with an appreciable variety of kinky scenarios, and despite the lack of voice acting (a very hit-or-miss topic when it comes to dating sims, as I've discussed) the production values are overall quite good. The animated character portraits have been advertised as a highlight but frankly don't contribute to much, and they have a tendency to slow down my computer. Luckily though, they're easily turned off.

Favorite route: A hard call. They all have their highlights, and I'll probably enjoy Slagathor (the orc) when his route comes out. Hikmat (the god of the dead) probably comes out a bit ahead of the others both for his story and for some unexpectedly adventurous sex scenes, like one that incorporates a variant of tentacle porn - points for creativity there. Faeryn (the unicorn) is the one I find least appealing sexually, but on the flip side his route has some of the most unexpected twists and is probably the most helpful for understanding the game's premise as a whole. There's not really a bad option here.

UPDATE: Now that the final route has been released, I can talk about it. It's fine enough, following similar tracks for its good, neutral, and bad endings. Slagathor is vers, just like every other guy in the game. As for the main plot, it does have a resolution once you've gotten satisfactory endings with all five characters, but because it has to be integrated into all of those route endings and doesn't actually impact any of them it feels rather inconsequential as a result. A bit of a shame, really, but I do respect the boldness of some of this game's narrative chioces.

Camp Buddy

Oh, dear. There are some things I need to make clear with this one from the start...stuff I definitely couldn't talk about on YouTube.

To state the obvious first: yes, the characters are all 18+. It's in their in-game profiles, on promotional material online, and on the disclaimer you have to click on whenever you boot up the game. The main character and all his love interests are specifically stated to be 18-20 years old. However...that doesn't always bear out in the writing. The premise is that they're all campers at a scout-themed summer camp, i.e. not something you'd expect of legal adults, and more than half the time these characters are written with the emotional maturity of boys in their mid-teens. That doesn't extend to the sex scenes, beyond most of them being virginal and clueless but somehow still capable of having mind-blowing sex with no lube and simultaneous orgasms and so forth - all of which is pretty standard for these sorts of games. It doesn't consistently affect their storylines either, as they range from adolescent issues like anxiety over losing a close friend to more young adult material like deciding on career paths and moving on from a bad breakup. Having spent a good bit of my own adolescence in an all-male environment, I found most of the character behavior relatable for that demographic. Outside the sex scenes, Camp Buddy is a sweet and sometimes heartwarming story about friendship and making good memories...but the sex stuff is still there, and I can understand why this game isn't listed on Steam based on the premise alone. It is not, as some online have hyperbolically dubbed it, a "child porn" game, but it can be awkward all the same, and if you, like me, are not into twinks/twunks those scenes aren't going to do much for you.

Leaving that aside, it still took me a while to get into Camp Buddy. I was mostly interested in its sequel, which I'll talk about later in this post, but I wanted to play CB in case I missed out on any context with the second game. This one does feel like a first project; the artwork isn't as clean or varied, the voice acting has some standouts but is overall just average, and the script occasionally reads like it was written by someone whose first language isn't English - where the writing isn't incorrect, exactly, but rather worded in ways that don't sound natural. Not all of the scenes are fully voiced, but I really have to wonder how some of those that are got through all those people without anyone realizing how inorganic the dialogue sounded. The humor at least is pretty consistently good, with a highlight being the one major female character who is an affectionate parody of yaoi fangirls leading to a lot of fourth-wall-breaking jokes. As I said some of the storylines work well, even if the main plot is a clichéd and sometimes treacly "save the camp" routine for most of its run. If you can accept the handwave on the characters' ages for the sexual content, it's not a bad time. Given my familiarity with Fire Emblem and its love of underaged-looking dragon girls, and knowing that there are surely far more dating/porn games that use a similar handwave for female characters, I can give CB a pass. I've never cared for how media directed at straight men never warrants more than a moment's worth of moral outrage while everything else gets endlessly scrutinized.

Favorite route: Yoichi is the twunk-iest of the love interests, and his route is easily the darkest as well. Surprisingly he's not the sole total top option...but the guy who is barely grasps of the concept of masturbation and needs to "research" sex after he fools around for the first time. I suppose someone must be into that. Taiga has the most distinctive route as it was added last and has the largest amount of story variance as well as both topping and bottoming variations, but I find the emotional beats of his story (both in and out of his route) to be paced a bit too oddly for me to give him first prize.

Camp Buddy: Scoutmaster Season

This is why I played Camp Buddy, because I saw its follow-up advertised on Steam and was impressed enough by the production values to check it out. I still bought it from developer BLits's website though because certain scenes are removed in the Steam version (for reasons similar to why Camp Buddy isn't there at all). Anyway, Scoutmaster Season is in just about every way a vast improvement over its predecessor:

Most obviously, the characters here look and act unambiguously like adults. Their storylines are also more mature, as is that of the main plot which concerns the camp expanding after it received a new wealthy investor at the end of CB. This maturity extends to the sex as well. These characters aren't experimenting adolescents but rather men who've been casually involved with one another for some time already (heavily implied in the first game) and whose romantic development thus concerns their relationships becoming grounded in emotional support instead of only hot NSA sex.

Camp Buddy is a decently kinky game in its own right, but the sequel takes advantage of its older characters and really runs with the concept. There's bondage, leather, voyeurism, softcore daddy kink, public sex, several varieties of costume role play including two that verge on pony play, threesomes, and a few types of size kink thanks in *ahem* large part to one of the love interests having such a comically oversized cock that in some encounters it can be seen distending the main character's stomach during penetration. I'm...pretty sure that's not physically possible, but I know it's a fantasy that exists. SS is just as unrealistic when it comes to things like (lack of) lube and refractory periods, but that's to be expected at this point.

I didn't talk about CB's minigames because they're frankly not that impressive, but SS's are both a bit more challenging and, in the case of the foreplay minigame, hotter and more interactive.

The writing is much improved, and flows more naturally. The voicework is overall of a higher quality as well, even with many in the cast reprising their roles. Particularly, the same voice actor plays the main characters of both games, but he sounds much more natural as the deeper-voiced lead here, in contrast to CB where he has to work to sound like a teen. The comic relief is about on par, so it's as entertaining as usual. There's even a yaoi fanboy in this one...who funnily enough never actually gets laid during the story, although the artists threw him a bone or six with a bukkake party crack scene in the extras.

SS's antagonist is both more compelling and more entertaining even though she never becomes a romance option - as should be evident from the pronoun alone. I predicted where the story was going to take her arc the first time I played, and while I was proven right the game didn't follow that thread to its logical conclusion. A bit disappointing, but I imagine that that would have obliterated the tone for the rest of the game and prevented it from ending with fluffy romance or celebratory sex.

There are enough small callbacks to CB that I'm glad I played the first game, but not so many that a newcomer would feel completely lost. As this is the only gay dating sim sequel that I can even think of, I appreciate the attention to continuity.

BLits is currently working on a third game called Jock Studio, unrelated to Camp Buddy but already looking to be an evolution of what they've learned from their first two games. The athletic university premise appears to be a self-indulgent excuse for porn - but I'm more than okay with that seeing how much the quality of their work has improved.

Favorite route: There's only two here, so naming one would be suggesting I dislike the other. In fact, both routes are really solid. I would say that Aiden's story hangs together a little better and feels stronger in its emotional moments (helped greatly by the best vocal performance in either of these games), whereas Goro's route appeals to me more based on raw sex appeal. He's a kinky daddy, what's not to love? Either way, SS is a ton of fun, and of the games in this post it's the one I recommend the most strongly.

Errant Kingdom

I'm of two minds about including this game. I really wanted to have one that would be drastically different from the others I've selected, but at time of writing I haven't done everything there is to do in Errant Kingdom. That's not for lack of time, as it's been released in chapter increments ever since last autumn or thereabouts and finally finished up in February. I've currently completed two of its stories so I feel like I have a solid grasp of what's on offer, but I realize that I haven't seen everything yet.

However, I had to keep pushing myself to play this one. It just doesn't have a very strong hook, in my opinion, but let's talk about the positives. If your main complaint about Dream Daddy is not the lack of hardcore gay sex but rather the inauthenticity of its representation then Errant Kingdom will be more your speed. Your character can be male, female, or nonbinary, and there are two love interests of each designation available. (That both nonbinary options are supernatural non-humans might arguably be a bit of a copout...but I'm not really in a position to judge.) There are also two options for poly relationships, as well as asexual dialogue options although the way the story is set up does still lend itself toward monogamous romance with occasional, vaguely-described (and never visualized) sex scenes. I'd also note that unlike every other visual novel with romantic elements I've ever played, dialogue options are explicitly marked as being romantic, asexual, or poly when applicable. This does make it much easier to get a specific outcome if you're looking for one, but in my view takes away some of the fun of these sorts of games.

Errant Kingdom's story is quite linear regardless of which if any romantic relationship(s) you choose to pursue, with the largest variance coming not from your choice of love interest but from your choice of one of three origins when you're creating your character: an ambassador, a knight, or a nomad. Having played through two of these, this decision greatly impacts the game's opening chapters but ultimately leads into the player characters being three different points of view on the same story, with all the same major set pieces. Errant Kingdom is occasionally clever about this, with the other two PCs popping up in each other's paths every now and then...unseen of course, because this is a game where the main character's physical presence is left entirely up to the imagination. On the other hand though, the different perspectives converging toward a single climax has the clunky side effect of dropping certain NPCs into the story lategame and acting as if you know who they are even if you've never met them in that playthrough.

The story itself isn't terribly fascinating, being a medieval fantasy conspiracy plot involving gods and magical weapons and an 11th hour Chosen One reveal (that isn't the player character, shockingly). If we're talking pseudo-medieval/early modern romantic visual novels, I find I prefer the Chess of Blades approach where each love interest gets his own storyline and so there's more overall variety and less tangled continuity. I've read in places that the later chapters suffered from deadline and creator burnout issues during development, which wouldn't surprise me with how much the pacing speeds up after a certain point.

Favorite route: For origins the ambassador angle suited me better and would probably be my pick overall. The choice of love interest is, as mentioned, actually not all that important, but disgraced former knight Erik hits most of my buttons. It's a shame his poly option is with a woman, because while Maja is my preference of the two female options I wouldn't be invested in her like that. This is the trouble for me with stepping outside the bounds of strictly M/M games.

[heliopauseentertainments]

Branched Paths

Part of MegaSound Week 2023 - Hosted on Tumblr by @mega-wave-superior Prompt: Day 4 - Solidarity/Solitude

Continuity: IDW1

Rating: Teen

Relationship: Megatron/Soundwave

Characters: Soundwave

Summary: In which Soundwave reflects on Megatron’s absence.

Crossposting: AO3 | Dreamwidth

Fic under cut. See AO3 for complete notes.

The mottled yellow-green volcanic world of Io, backlit by the light of Jupiter’s thick, gaseous atmosphere made for lovely viewing as Soundwave stood at one of the windows in his quarters.

The day’s labors of mediating disputes and trying to increase resident morale could finally be put aside; Soundwave could appreciate the true value of a few hours of respite.

Even at the cost of being nearly alone with his own thoughts.

Sanctuary Station, orbiting slowly in Io’s gravity well, was just that… a sanctuary, free from the prejudices of their homeworld. Or at least it was in theory.

Soundwave knew that Galvatron didn’t truly believe in the core of their cause; he had merely seen an army to leverage for further conquest in the vacuum caused by Megatron’s departure. At least Galvatron had given Soundwave, with the help of Earth’s humans, much latitude to make a home for the Decepticons who were finished with all of it.

Thankfully Galvatron was rarely here, Soundwave thought, leaning his hands against the wall on either side of the reinforced glass. That Golden Age relic’s brand of loud domination wasn’t right; it wasn’t the same. He was a hollow substitute for the real thing, for the visionary he replaced.

Ravage’s reports from the Lost Light were few and far between, no sign of changed minds. No sign of remembering what they had promised each other in the dark on so many nights, hunkered down in some besieged base or tucked away into a secure corner of the Nemesis with their cables intimately entwined. No sign of repayment for Soundwave’s unerring devotion over millions of years.

But Ravage didn’t know.

Soundwave had never shared the secret and Megatron likely never would either. Ravage would become… disappointed in them both, he was sure.

The sounds of Rumble and Frenzy breaking glass in the hallway barely made it into Soundwave’s quarters, momentarily disrupting his thoughts. He ought to invest in better soundproofing.

This peace, even if it was fragile and hinged on the conditional generosity of understandably mistrustful organic aliens, was the start of what they had wanted all along. It wasn’t ideal, but the Decepticons had always been skilled at the art of “making do.”

Megatron should have been here, with him, helping him herd their soldiers into the future, into the beginnings of everything they had ever wanted.

The promise of no longer hiding their sparks in the shadows behind professionalism and the chain of command.

One of Io’s volcanoes began to smoke, indicative of an impending eruption. The lack of a thick, obscuring atmosphere meant much of the surface geological activity was visible to the optics, even from orbit. The moon’s thin blanket of sulfur dioxide gas left nothing to the imagination.

While Soundwave’s spark had not yet forgotten Megatron’s defection, his betrayal, the righteous hurt did nothing to alleviate the lonely chill without his presence.

He knew that, if the opportunity arose, he would welcome Megatron back with his arms wide open.

[zestezele]

THE MIDNIGHT THRESHOLD - Chapter One

The silence reigning in the manor had remained pristine for decades. The dust lay dormant, unmoved on the ground, and the shadows were continuous, never even ruptured by daylight. Tonight though, on the 23rd of November, a knock on the door could be heard...

9:27 PM. Night had long since fallen at this latitude. School was over, and, eager to release the frustration hoarded all day long, Ellie violently kicked the door. It was the entrance to an abandoned mansion, once a luxurious abode of a rich and influential family, now fallen into disgrace for nearly a century, sealed off from the world. For her boyfriend Kai’s birthday, she wanted to find something special, something rare and unheard of. What better place to uncover a quaint pair of leather shoes left in a closet, or a diary hidden under a floorboard, full of unknown - yet useless - gossip? Who knew? And to ensure Kai would like his present, Ellie brought him along. Him, and his best friend Jake.

The door cracked out of its hinges, spun on one edge, and fell loudly to the ground. A cloud of dust rose into the air, carrying the scent of history and oblivion. Jake lit a flashlight and cast a glance over the blonde girl’s shoulder.

"Actually, I don’t think it’s a good id..." he tried to say but couldn't finish his sentence. Ellie turned and pushed on his head, making the boy bend forward until his face almost met his stomach, and ruffled his hair.

"You had a great idea! Ask Kai, he was really eager!" she teased. The young woman smiled and stepped into the manor, followed by her astonished yet quietly proud boyfriend. Jake muttered something only he could hear and kept behind.

Flailing moths flashed in the beams of their torch lights. Ellie coughed, the smell of decay stinging her lungs. She covered her mouth with her T-shirt, and the two boys immediately imitated her.

"If even bums don’t squat here, there’s probably a reason!" Jake mumbled through the fabric.

The rest of the group ignored his sudden doubt and apprehension. The oaken parquet creaked beneath their feet as they ventured further inside, and the dust settled again.

"What if the roof collapses on us?" Jake asked nervously.

Intrigued by his friend’s remark, Kai pointed his light at the ceiling, which was peeling away in large flakes.

"What if the police come and arrest us for tres..."

Before he could finish, Ellie and Kai simultaneously directed their flashlights at the redhead moaner. Ellie smirked and asked: "Remind me, who had the idea to come here in the first place? And we’re like five miles from the nearest living soul. You should only be worried if trees were cops because all that’s out there is forest!"

Kai added: "If ya don’t have the balls to keep going, 't’s fine, ya can clear off, ya know?"

Ellie set a disapproving glare at her boyfriend, then approached Jake and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know you’re a brave guy, aren’t you? Come on, we’ll be careful, I swear. I’m sure we’ll leave this place with some good memories!" she reassured him.

Kai sighed, then gave Jake a friendly punch on the chest."Yeah, sorry, mate… ya’ll see, it’s gonna be dope!"

Jake looked down, running a hand through his hair. Ellie quipped: "Besides, we’ll be short on freckles if you leave!" before turning and pushing ahead. Jake chuckled.

The dust stirred up by the door’s fall had finally settled after their brief exchange, and they could breathe freely again. By the glow of their flashlights, a vast hallway was revealed. A dark, faded carpet stretched across the floor, its once vibrant crimson and gold tones still faintly visible. Supported by two parallel wooden colonnades, a grand staircase led to the upper floors, and towering over the scene was an imposing crystal chandelier, swaying and rustling like a tree of glass leaves as the new wind blew in from the open door.

Behind the wooden pillars, a series of doors opened into the lateral wings of the building. Opposite the entrance, across the long carpet, an archway loomed, like a mouth full of darkness, whispering luring hymns to the teenagers. The three directed their beams toward it, intrigued but slightly unsettled. Jake gulped, and Ellie exclaimed: "Let’s start there!"

On their way toward the obscurity concealed by the ominous arch, Kai found a mirror. He wedged his torch under his armpit and stared at his reflection with attention. As he adjusted his chestnut-brown hair, Ellie yanked him by the collar of his sweatshirt.

"But!..

- You'll do your hair later, pretty boy, we’ve got to get you something, remember?"

As they crossed the threshold, the three of them drew closer together. Even the vocal couple felt a latent sense of intimidation. Shoulder to shoulder, the trio emerged into what appeared to be a dining room. They tried to survey the room in silence, but the shadows were so thick that their flashlights struggled to pierce through. They could just make out the silhouette of a table... Jake opened his mouth: "Do you...?"

BANG!!!

A chorus of screams erupted deep from their throats, goosebumps spread across fair skin, and two shivering sheaves of light were frantically directed toward the source of the intrusive noise. The startled teenagers could make out the shape of a bird taking flight in the darkness. Kai had dropped his torch and was gripping both Ellie’s and Jake’s hands tightly.

"Ah ha ha!..." Ellie burst into laughter. "Just a silly old crow! Ah ha!"

She quickly regained her composure.

"Uh, guys, it’s okay! Honey, you can let go of my hand now.

- Oh, yeah, sorry!" Kai stammered as he realized he had been holding both their hands for far too long.

Ellie approached the object that had fallen under the bird’s talons and caused the loud noise.

"It was a candelabrum, with... candles. They must have left in a hurry..."

She ran her flashlight along the length of the table. Other candelabrums stood untouched.

"Kai, do you have your lighter? A little more light would help!"

Her boyfriend nodded, kindled all the candles and one cigarette for himself. He offered the pack to his friends, but Jake declined with a wave of the hand. Ellie and Jake spoke at the same time:

"Not now, maybe later!"

The lurking menace of the darkness and silence slowly began to fade. They spoke aloud across the now illuminated dining room, sharing their discoveries and laughing. The manor was starting to feel almost familiar.

"Look, Kai! I’ve found something for you!" Ellie waved a silver hand-mirror in the air, showing it to her boyfriend. Kai chuckled and took it gratefully.

"I’ll keep it, thanks! But it won’t be enough, ah ha!" he kissed Ellie’s hair.

"Greedy!" the girl teased, and pointed toward a door that led to the west wing. "Now, let’s head that way! Grab some candles!"

Jake, who had been rummaging through an old buffet, pulled his head out, covered in cobwebs, and spat out dust. The next room was actually a small, round stairwell. The steps seemed sturdy enough. Kai tested the first ones, pushing down hard on his knees. The others followed, and they emerged into what looked like a personal, cozy office. It was filled with well-stocked bookshelves, a wide desk, a comfortable chair, a cold hearth, and a chest of drawers, along with a spare bed.

"I’d love to study here!!" Ellie exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement. Jake moved closer to the shelves, reverently browsing the book titles with infinite curiosity.

"If only my bedroom was this big..." Ellie mused as she sat at the desk like it was a throne, with her boyfriend perching on the corner of it. With the cigarette dangling from his lips, Kai said: "Why don’t we come here more often? Could be a nice hideout!"

"I wish I could take all these books with me!" Jake added, engrossed in a thick volume on industrial history.

Kai stood up, walked toward the only window, and moved the curtain aside. He inspected the shutters... which promptly fell one floor down, noisily landing in the courtyard below. The room soon smelled of wet autumn leaves. When his cigarette burned out, he tossed the butt into the fireplace.

"Oh!" Ellie suddenly yelled, pointing toward something they hadn’t noticed before. She jumped to her feet, and the three teenagers gathered around, their attention drawn to a strongbox lying on the hearth’s mantel.

It was a heavy cube of rusted metal, and its lock was holding firm.

"I guess we’re not the first ones who try to open it!" the redhead commented, as his friends tried every combination they could think of.

"It’s weird no urbexers took that safe with them before...

- How could we open it?

- Do ya think it’ll break if we smash it on the ground?

- They're not the kind of guys to be scared by ghost stories...

- Let’s find a rock in the forest!

- Sure!

- Why don’t you try heating it so the lock yields? It’s old… maybe we can set a fire?"

Jake’s suggestion hit the mark. Ellie and Kai glanced at the ginger boy with approval and ran toward the bookcases, but Jake shouted and pulled them back by their shirts. "Nooo! Not the books! Find something else!"

The couple crossed their arms, and Kai asked: "What else, then?" Ellie pointed to a pile of old documents. Jake meticulously inspected each page before offering it to the nascent fire. It was, after all, only bank statements and productivity reports. "Millions of dollars... How come..."

Kai emptied all the drawers onto the floor, breaking them over his knee to feed the flames with the wood. Soot rained down from the sleeping chimney.

"Hotter!" Ellie commanded, gesturing to the boys, who were searching for what to throw into the fire next. "The painting!"

The young woman was pointing to an ugly frame.

"Wait, Kai!... Maybe it’s worth s..." Jake tried to finish his sentence, but once again, Kai ignored him. He climbed onto the sill, unhooked the picture, and jumped back down on lithe feet.

The silence that followed would have been absolute, if not for the crackling of smoldering paper and burning splinters. Ellie, Kai, and Jake stood frozen, hearts beating in unison with the same thrill of adventure and trespass, for behind the painting was a hidden hole, concealing a small wooden case made of pallet wood. They approached, intrigued by the mysterious box.

"I’ll do it!" Ellie extended her hand and took the case. She managed to open it with her bare hands, pulling the nails out of the wood a knife out of soft butter. Inside, nestled in a bed of hay, was a handwritten note and something wrapped in fabric. Jake took the page and began to read aloud:

"This is the proof of my weakness..."

Ellie and Kai, working together, unwrapped the item from its cloth. It was a necklace, a gleaming golden chain – the ultimate silversmithery of the previous century - elegantly carved. And it sheltered no precious gem. It had a coal-black pumice stone.

"...I should have had this thing destroyed years ago..."

The two of them reached out to touch the fragile stone, but pulled back, hesitant to handle the strange relic that seemed to have traversed eras.

"...I still hope the untamable can be mastered..."

The discovery had a mythical quality, as if it belonged to a tale, one of the kind they used to live as children.

"...If you find it, show more strength than I did, and please, rid the world of this thing. M.T.H."

Ellie finally seized the necklace and exclaimed with a delighted voice: "This is what I’m taking with me!"

Kai nodded and patted his girlfriend’s shoulders. "It’ll look great on ya!

- I don’t think it’s a good id..."

Kai snatched the note from Jake’s hand and threw it into the fire.

"Ya’re such a buzzkill tonight! What do ya think it’s gonna do? Rrrrh..." He rubbed his eyes and muttered: "Aah... sorry, Jake, I shouldn’t have...

- Boys! Stop arguing and look! Isn’t it beautiful?"

Ellie had slipped on the necklace and was gently dancing around. "This is surely some rare jewel!" Jake felt a surge of apprehension and anger flooding his whole body. If he could have just one wish granted in his life, it would be to be teleported far from here. He clenched his fists, wanting to cry, overwhelmed with frustration. Kai strode toward Ellie, took her hand, and kissed her hair again. "Ya’re beautiful!" he said. As he began to sway in rhythm with her, Ellie stopped and looked down. She coughed, then coughed again, as if an eternity of smut had gathered in her lungs. Kai tightened his grip on her hands and asked, "Ell? Ell... are you okay?" trying to find a way toward her eyes. Ellie doubled over from the coughing fit, folded, pulling away from Kai’s hands and pointing a finger into the air. She croaked in a low voice: "One sec'... I need..." Kai recoiled several steps back, taken aback.

Ellie stood tall and straight, stretching her arms and letting out a growl of relief. Under the confused, disbelieving eyes of her boyfriend and her friend, her chest... flattened and hardened. Her shoulders grew rounder and more muscular, her legs lengthened. And noticeably, they became hairier. As the slow transformation continued, her skin became drenched in sweat, as though she were enduring intense physical exertion. She moaned and laughed at the same time.

[E] My chest! Feels like it's cracking open … Why am I... laughing?

Except for the upper part of her pants, her clothes no longer fit the young man – as it must be said – she was becoming, and they tore to rags. Her jaw became more angular, and her face transformed drastically, from soft and feminine to sharp and masculine. Her long, wheat-colored hair shortened and darkened like night. And what couldn’t be missed, even under torn pants, was unfurling and swelling between her legs.

[E] No! No, don’t look at me! Please, Kai, don’t...

The young man now standing where Ellie had been was black-haired, pale, thin, and tall. Handsome.

[E] I...

Dark rings encircled his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept for centuries. His body glistened with sweat. He licked his arms to taste the salty moisture and smiled before laughing loudly. "FINALLY!!!" His shout, full of energy, extinguished the candles, plunging the office into darkness. The two boys were terrified, trembling like rabbits caught for the last seconds in the headlights of an oncoming car. The stranger cracked his knuckles and asked: "So? You’re the ones I have to thank, huh?"

Kai, now looking like a small, frightened puppy next to the dark figure, started to cry. He couldn’t recognize even one inch of the soft, familiar skin in this muscular stranger. With a boyish voice, he barked: "Where’s Ellie?!? Gimme Ellie back!!!" He glanced madly at the necklace and, in a swift motion, ripped it off the unfamiliar neck. An evil laugh echoed through the room, and the demon whispered: "Too late."

No one would ever know how Kai’s face was soaked with tears and snot. No one would ever know how red his face had become from crying so much. Kai turned and ran for his life. "HELP!!! H-..."

Four loud footsteps, then a stop. Full rest. Was that all Kai had managed in his escape? Jake felt as if he had two hearts beating in his feet, pulsing against the ground, draining him of all blood so he couldn’t move. How he managed to steadily turn his flashlight in the direction Kai had run, he couldn’t say. His body wasn’t his anymore. He had become a machine, a robot, programmed by instinct to survive by suppressing fear. His blood felt like acid... He wanted to run too, but instead, he fell to his knees and soiled his pants.

[K] Run... Run! I have to run. Just keep moving. Don’t think. Don’t stop. Why don't I move?

Kai was frozen midstride behind Jake, motionless.

[K] Slow... Stopped... I'm... losing... Jake... Ellie... Help me... I don’t want to go... please...

A human statue. But not one made of stone, marble, or iron. A statue made of thousands, millions of insects, crawling from his skin down to his very flesh. Kai’s flashlight slipped from his hand, which had turned into a writhing mass of millipedes, cockroaches, ants, and moths. The human figure held its shape for a few seconds longer. Dark eye sockets wept spiders as tears. The jaw slowly dropped, gaping open, revealing a silent throat from which a cloud of flies emerged. Then, Kai collapsed grotesquely, as if sucked in on himself, crumbling into a pile of teeming insects amidst his clothes.

Jake remained silent, unable to do anything but stare at the pile of bugs, on which a sweatshirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of sneakers lay eerily out of place, as if floating above the crawling swarm. The shoes spewed insects like disturbed anthills. "Do you like it? Heh, I thought it was a good idea too, though..." The presence yawned. "...I’m a bit rusty, could’ve been more original. Anyway, you’re the one I have to thank! Congrats!" The man squatted and gave Jake’s shoulder a few warm taps. "What do you want? Tell me, I’ll give it to you. Some money? Or maybe you want to be a lady-killer?" Jake couldn’t speak, as if he was choking on his own tongue. What could he say? He couldn’t even bring himself to look at the demon. Kai... Ellie...

"I..."

The demon pouted in confusion and tilted his head. "You?" ...

"I want Ellie and Kai back!"

- Oh, how boring! You humans are still so emotional and predictable. You know, I really wanted to thank you! The only way I could give you your friends back right now would be to split you in two halves..." He made a vertical slice motion with his forefinger and whistled the sound of a blade. "… and shape two versions of your friends from it! But trust me, you wouldn’t like that. Oh boy, you really wouldn’t. So, ask for something else, now! I’m not known for my patience. Bore me again, and I’ll cook up something spicy of you!"

- Who... who are you?"

Jake wasn't sure he really wanted to know. The question felt dull, painfully dull. The entity - the demon - was surely going to tear him to pieces.

[J] This is my time...

But the question seemed to be taken seriously.

"I’ve had many names and many forms. Hades, Mictlantecuhtli, Ereshkigal, or perhaps you know me as... Anubis!" A wave of black fur sprouted over the man’s skin. His head morphed into that of a jackal, and he snapped his sharp fangs in front of Jake’s face. Jake flinched and began to wail.

"M-my f-friends are dead! If you're going to k-kill me, just do it, please!" he shouted through his river of tears. The sobs didn’t stop as Anubis moved closer, his canine muzzle breathing warm air onto Jake’s face. One second. One minute... When Jake realized he hadn’t been torn to shreds of meat or reduced to a pile of bones, his crying slowly dimmed. Anubis laughed again, and as he changed back into human form, he continued: "Dead? Kill? You humans always use such grand words!

- If they’re not dead, then what are they?!

- Let’s just say... they’re not the same anymore, ha ha!"

The transformation into his jackal form had shredded the last remains of Ellie’s clothing, leaving Anubis standing bare in the dark. If not clad by the surrounding shadows, his malehood would have appeared fully exposed. The dark-haired young man walked over to what remained of Kai. In the halo of the flashlight, Jake saw the god picking up Kai’s clothes, shaking the insects from them, and putting them on. Anubis even seemed to shrink in size, now looking exactly like a teenager, the same age as Jake, Ellie, or Kai - two years shy of twenty.

"Show me what the world has become! I want to have some fun. And if you’re a good guide for me, little carrothead, you know what? I might just mold your friends back from two random bodies out there!"

[runningwriteon]

Behind the Scenes of Daniel Spellbound: The Rules of Magic!

I was going through some materials and found our first version of the rules and laws of magic in Daniel Spellbound.  I thought I would share them with you below.  This is from an early bible, and some of this is slightly out of date - but to does show you where our heads were at when we wrote the show.   Would you like to see more of this material?  Let me know and maybe I’ll share them.  Here’s the rules and laws below: THE RULES OF MAGIC IN THE WORLD Magic is secretly woven into the fabric of our society. Every day, normal, non-powered people interact with magicians, use their products, listen to their music… and walk away none-the-wiser about their magical experience. The magic world wants to blend in. They aren’t wearing pointy hats, there’s no flicking of wands and they are DEFINITELY NOT riding on broomsticks. Magicians disguise themselves as businessmen, scientists, entertainers, homemakers… they’re mostly just people trying to get by in the world. Magicians have to be born with an innate magical ability. But having magic ability is only just the beginning. In this world, there’s no magic words and things cannot just happen because a magician wants them to. Magicians have to gather the materials they need to cast spells, mix them together and transfer some of their magical force into the spell to cause it to activate. Anyone can mix a spell, but if you are not born with magical abilities, you cannot activate a spell, no matter how hard you try. Magicians use some kind of personalized metal TOTEM to help transfer their force into the spells. Witches use special silver swords. Alchemists are fond of gold mortars and pestles. But literally anything that conducts electricity can do in a pinch. Casting spells uses a bit of your life force and is incredibly tiring. And the more powerful the spell, the more it tires the magician out. Most magicians can only manage a spell or two before they are completely worn out. Like pro athletes, magicians can train their abilities over time and increase their stamina and power. A powerful magician can cast spells for hours, giving them a competitive edge over most magic users. Magicians can also form powerful bonds and deal-binding spells by transferring their life-force into another person. Only magicians can activate spells, but magicians can also create enchanted objects, which ordinary people can also use… if they have the right fuel. For example, a magician could create a motorcycle that allows them to transport around the world in an instant. But if a non-powered human has the right magical ingredients for fuel, they could also use the motorcycle to zip across the globe. But if an ordinary person runs out of the magic fuel or their device gets broken… they’re pretty much screwed. Once an enchanted object is broken, only magicians can repair it. Magical beasts receded from public view centuries ago. Scared of mankind, creatures like werewolves, ogres, faeries and gnomes have created secret homes and cities scattered all over the world, off the grid and away from human perception. Some of the most powerful spells require ingredients from these cultures. Trackers, like Daniel Spellbound, use their skills and knowledge to find these increasingly hard-to-find items. The most dangerous and rare ingredients fetch the most lucrative fees. And Daniel is after the big bucks. THE LAWS OF MAGIC The Laws of Magic were originally created centuries ago as a way to codify basic rules among all magic users. To enforce the laws, the magicians created The Bureau of Magic as both sort of a government body and an enforcement agency. As time has stretched on, and technology has far surpassed what the initial drafters could have imagined, the Laws of Magic have become increasingly flimsy. Nevertheless, the Bureau of Magic is still incredibly well-funded and overseen by the Primus, who has broad latitude to enforce the laws of magic as they see fit. The Bureau employs their very own magical enforcement agency called The Dowsers, which is composed of some of the toughest young magicians in the world. * I’m removing the specific laws we created because they tie into specific plots for a potential season three.  BUT the short version is this:   Casting a spell that forces people to hand over their money is wrong. But casting a spell that makes a cake taste insanely delicious and then charging $40 for a slice of that cake is… maybe ok? You can’t force someone to fall in love with you, but you could potentially use magic to change everything about your appearance to snag a date with them. The issues around the ethics of magic are tricky and depend on your point of view. Luckily, Daniel Spellbound is flexible enough to adapt whatever point of view will get him out of whatever situation he’s in at the moment. When the laws are broken, Dowsers can confiscate any magical item or Totem that you have on hand. If your property was used to commit a crime… say selling illegal goods out of a bodega, the Dowsers can confiscate that too. Repeat offenders can be sentenced to serve hard time in the Bureau’s dungeon – a place where no magical items are allowed to enter, all food is purposely bland (so that no one can pull any trace magic ingredients out of food) and *a third thing I removed because it relates to a potential plot point*.

[anghraine]

woodelf68 replied to this post:

I was a book fan first, but I honestly never form much of a visual image of characters when I read a book, so it didn't matter to me.

Cool, but that doesn't mean it can't matter to other people.

There's a very weird assumption in a lot of Tolkien fandom discourse that caring about actors actually looking like their characters is trivial and shallow, they cast for talent not appearance etc etc, so casting Anglo actors in non-Anglo roles is totally okay—unless, of course, casting for talent and not appearance results in heroic roles going to people other than pale, mostly light-haired, mostly Anglo white actors, at which point the fandom has screaming meltdowns.

And frankly, film fans always show up to make this about their personal preferences whenever anyone tries to discuss the problems with the films' casting. Yeah, it's a personal gripe in this particular case, but for those of us who do care about both this instance and the more problematic wider trend in the casting of the films, it's deeply frustrating that we still can't criticize it without fans of the movies rushing in after 20 years.

I thought it was great casting because they LOOK like they could be brothers,

They do, as do many other actors.

and I can't picture the characters any other way anymore.

Yeah, that's actually a major reason that some of us care a lot about this. For one, it can simply be irritating that we rarely see depictions of our favorite characters that look remotely like them, but more importantly, these sorts of choices shape the popular conception of what Middle-earth's heroes are allowed to look like.

And as a neighbouring realm to Rohan, I wouldn't expect them to look much different as far as ethnicity?

Uh ... if you're talking about what's visually effective on film, I think sharing a border on the opposite end of the country from where Boromir and Faramir live and where their families are from matters much less than differentiating the peoples in a clear way. The movies honestly seem largely disinterested in the ways in which Gondorians and Rohirrim are contrasting foils for each other even as they draw nearer in culture, and particularly clear foils in the ruling families—but that would require caring about Gondor to anything like the extent that they care about Rohan, which they evidently don't.

If you're talking about Tolkien's version, meanwhile, Gondor is a vastly more ancient nation than Rohan, and includes multiple ethnic groups that long predate the arrival of the Rohirrim from the North, and mostly look nothing like them. According to Tolkien, the Dúnedain of southern Gondor are very different from any of the Northern-inspired peoples of Middle-earth. He indignantly wrote that, while the Shire was indeed meant to represent England, Minas Tirith is 600 miles south (at around the latitude of Florence, Italy) while the great Gondorian port of Pelargir is at about the latitude of Troy (now in Turkey), and he insisted that his vision for Gondor was therefore not remotely Nordic.

Elsewhere, he repeatedly compared the Gondor of LOTR to the Byzantine Empire, and also said that the Dúnedain of Gondor were best envisioned as ancient Egyptians. Tolkien's depiction of the Gondorian peoples had lots of influences to be sure—but blond English people are not among them, and they are clearly meant to contrast visually with the Rohirrim in particular.

The movies' indifference to all this in terms of casting is one debate, but the matter of whether the casting for Gondor is accurate to Tolkien's descriptions in or out of LOTR is very straightforward. It's not.

[gretchensinister]

Sorry, just realized you wanted the words sent via ask: Bubble svelte ameliorate

Bubble

The sunsset is almost done, only the dying sun lingering above the horizon now, turning the sky and sea all dim violet and dusky rose. It would be hard to tell sea from sky, save that the sea shimmers with wavelets from the breeze, and the sky does not. The Sifa say that seasons when the dying sun is the last to leave the sky are seasons to be wary, to be on guard against confusion of the senses and the mind. SkekSa does not place much stock in Sifan superstitions, save for the ones she inspired—of course her likeness on a bow would make a ship overpower the waves more easily—but she is well aware that she is flaunting this one.

SkekSa’s ship had been resupplying at an island a few days ago, and SkekSa had enjoyed some time alone on the deck as her crew took advantage of the novelty of a night on land. Looking out over the railing at dusk, she had seen...something. Or she hadn’t seen something. Just a splash, but of a shape and sound that didn’t seem usual for what lived around islands in these latitudes.

For the past few days, she has seen (or not seen) something every evening, always in that rose-violet dusk, always when she is alone. She had not mentioned anything to her crew. There is nothing to mention. There is nothing they could do about it if there was.

The one exception was the time SkekSa heard something. That had been real as the wind, and she’d seen the gelfling’s funny little ears twitching to try to locate the source. She’d asked the one with the twitchiest ears what they were all hearing, and he’d spoken far too long of tales he had heard, of the myriad varieties of rare beasts that swam the open water singing strange and mournful songs, calling up storms or putting down storms, disguising themselves as islands, leading ships to treasure or deadly doldrums. The sailor admitted he could not tell what manner of beast might be singing this song.

SkekSa told him she doubted it was any of the beasts in his stories, and the song stopped before competing superstitions drove her ship into chaos. And that made her wonder. And as she wondered, she silently acknowledged that to her ears, the song had not sounded mournful, but somehow playful, even enticing, despite how strange and slow it had been.

A season to confuse the senses and mind, indeed.

Now, her ship is well into open water, after a day of swift, fine sailing. It should be impossible that she should see-not-see whatever she has been seeing-not-seeing again, today, simply because of the distance the ship has traveled.

Still, she has ordered the crew to leave her alone as she stands at the railing on the sunward side of the ship, waiting and watching for...something. Something forbidden, that she never imagined could sound either playful or enticing.

No, she will see nothing. Her ship sailed too fast, too long, today. The mystery must have been left behind.

But just as she starts to turn away, there something is: a silvery bubble larger than her head, floating up through the water near the ship, and when it bursts onto the waves SkekSa swears it does so cheekily.

SkekSa bares her fangs in a grin. It is the dying sun’s madness-season, and she is going to go mad.

[qqueenofhades]

On the topic of unreliable narrators and nonlinear timelines- would you be able to play around with both to a greater extent in fanfiction than you would otherwise because your readers are more familiar with the reality of events and probably can grasp onto what they can trust the narrator about and what they can’t better? Like you were saying with some of your Sandman fics, even when everything is very different from canon like in UASS, we as readers can still specifically pick up on what happened to Robyn more so than we might in a regular book because we know Robyn’s fate in canon and how it differs from Hob’s supposed memories of it, giving us almost a touchstone for his unreliability? Same thing with an inconsistent timeline, if it still follows a similar plotline to canon but in a different order, would you be able to mess with it more since your audience would already know the order of the canon plotline? Sorry if this is a bit rambling, I had some late night thoughts and wanted to ask you to see what you might think or be able to clarify. Thanks!!

It depends on what you're doing and how. Obviously, fanfic does allow more room to play around with your readers' pre-existing knowledge of the story; they're coming to your work for a transformation or rework of an existing canon, rather than an entirely new one. So you have a lot of latitude in fic to play with the form/premise/plot, without having to do the work of introducing characters, world, and conflicts. Your reader will already know this, so you can skip past it and get to the good stuff.

With original fiction, however, you have to do that work in establishing the "baseline" reality and how the narrator is adhering to or deviating from it. For example in one of my original novels, which I really should get off my ass and publish one of these days because it's complete and ready to go and I'm just procrastinating, I have a first-person narrator who is fully aware that you just have to take her word for what's going on, and that plays into the larger themes of the book (a dark reworking of the #MeToo movement with an EXTREMELY feral female protagonist who does a little murder as a treat), and thus highlighting how women's claims alone are rarely taken as an acceptable standard of "proof." She also becomes increasingly gleeful in pointing out her unreliability as the story progresses, but where and how that happens, or if she's lying about her unreliability and is actually telling the truth all along, becomes a crucial part of the narrative.

(Anyway, yes. Somebody should give me a kick in the ass to do it. Trigger warnings out the wazoo, but still.)

Likewise, in one of the most famous original-fiction unreliable narrators in recent pop culture, Gone Girl, you spend the first half of the book learning one set of beliefs through the narrator's voice, and then the second half of the book pulls a COMPLETE bait-and-switch on you. You find out the reason for the first half of the book being written as it was (i.e. a total and deliberate lie), and that the narrator, Amy Dunne, is up to something totally different than what she first told you. So while in fanfiction you can come in with some of the premise ready-made and then play around with it, you can certainly think of different ways to do it in original fiction. It will require more legwork on your part and thinking how you want to structure the story and the reveals, and who's to be trusted and who shouldn't be, but that's part of the fun in figuring it out.

[skarletterambles]

Living and dying in three-quarter time

Well, that's definitely the first time I've ever cried listening to "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes."

It surprised me, because while I felt bad when I saw Jimmy Buffett had passed away, I was dry-eyed. Something about hearing his voice singing one of my favorite songs, including the line "if it suddenly ended tomorrow" flipped a switch in my brain and/or my tear ducts. Damn. I rarely get seriously upset at celebrity deaths, but I guess this is one of the few exceptions. He really was an amazing singer, writer, and storyteller.

"I'm sorry it's ending. It's sad but it's true." Jimmy, I discovered you late, as an "over-forty victim of fate", just a few years before you had to "go back down and die beside the sea there," but it made my long-awaited trip to Key West so much better knowing about your music and story. Normally I'm up here in the land where it's "twenty degrees and the hockey game's on" but I've been in love with the Keys since "my very first look." When I was there I ate a "cheeseburger in paradise" at Margaritaville (and took the photo above). "I went down to Captain Tony's" (see photo below). I "stroll[ed] "down the avenue that's known as A1A" in "the city so neat where nobody cares what you do," and I was one of the "tourists covered in oil" (or least massive amounts of sunscreen). I may have even gone a little crazy on Caroline Street.

I don't drink or smoke and I can't pretend I've never "bitch[ed] about the mosquitoes," but I share your bone-deep love of keys, palm trees and manatees. Now here I am, "writing you this letter that you'll probably never see."

Thank you for the music and the memories, Jimmy. "We bid our farewells much too soon." You were one of a kind and I'm sorry I didn't become a Parrothead earlier. You might say it's "something I should have done such a long time ago."

But, as you sang in "The Last Mango in Paris"... "A legend never dies."

(On the bright side, coming up with all those lyric references got me smiling instead of crying.)

[thefallencomet]

Fun dream I had last night: we had two pretty large red beetles in our kitchen. Probably like, the size of stag beetles. And they were just hanging out, side by side, a mating pair or something like that. (If that’s a thing bugs do?).

So that’s cool, bright red big beetles but oh no, Nono, this was not all. There was lore for these bugs. Research on the dream internet revealed these were “Pixel Bugs” so-named because their population had density spikes along evenly spaced lines of longitude and latitude, forming this grid of super colonies. Fascinating behavior, must be like, in tune with the magnetic field or… something I guess.

But it gets better, Dream Wikipedia had no image for these Pixel Bugs, just their description. In fact there were no websites anywhere on the Dream Internet that actually had an image of these things.

“My god, this must be a rarely documented species, which means it is my duty as god’s bravest solider to go forth and image these bugs.”

They had been docile for the entire dream, a picture would surely be easy to achieve. I walked up to them, on their little perch, which was like, not a real kitchen appliance in retrospect it was just, like a mailbox I think? I think it was the same one from this escape room I went to… yeah yeah it was, very fun how the dream pulls details like that—oh sidetracked I’m typing this as it comes to mind. Enough with the delays you can see where this is going.

One of them started flying. This thing was huge it sounded like a helicopter, and my deerbrained soul wasn’t ready for that so I ran away. Interestingly the dream decided in this instant to give the Pixel Bug more lore. They can only fly for 2-3 seconds before their wings fall off, and then they grow new ones. So it could only move in bursts.

I dived onto the dream couch, head down, and I could hear the pounding noise of its beating wings, followed by the auditable thump of it hitting the ground. On repeat. Getting closer and closer.

My one thought was, “I hope it doesn’t land right on top of me, right on my shoulder, right next to my ear.” Foolish I was to not consider I was living in the manifestation of my own thoughts, my worst considered outcome for the dream in that moment entered my brain, where it became one with the subconscious shadow puppetry of my mind.

Yeah. Yeah that fucker landed right beside my ear. That wasn’t the worst part. Because not only was the impact of the bug startling, but this thing started to scream into my ear in some ancient forgotten language, some sort of whisper of the damned, full blast. It sounded like a rabid dog and also the cries of some outer god at the same time. The volume was like… well like a fly buzzing past your ear but worse in every conceivable way.

I flinched so hard I woke up instantly.

[insipid-drivel]

Other tricks I used to battle my nyctophobia:

-Started a bird seed garden outside my window that has also become attractive to a small family of raccoons and a couple of deer (I'll just scatter seed on the ground in some spots for birds that strictly eat on the ground, like quails, and deer and raccoons just happened to enjoy snacking on the same stuff). Now, I'm more a participant in the outside world, and nocturnal visitors from deer and other animals are familiar and something I can get excited to see.

-Got an off-brand Happy Light, or Vitamin D Light. I live in a latitude where the sun actually can't produce adequate vitamin D generation in people, so mental health issues are very common. Between a vitamin D supplement and my Happy Light (a light designed to simulate vitamin D production you'd ordinarily get from the sun). Whenever I'd get anxious at night, I'd turn it on and close my eyes and visualize daylight. It's okay to need to sleep with a light on at night if that's what makes you feel secure enough to rest, especially if you're still in the process of addressing the problem.

-ASMR videos of familiar daytime-sounds like birdsong, cars passing by, etc. I also find that, if I leave on a familiar television show or something in the background all night at a low volume, I'll sleep better and longer than if it were silent or I were using something like an ambience generator that becomes too repetitive.

-Started gardening in my house. Grow-lights with built-in timers are pretty inexpensive, and so I can set my plants to "wake up" around the same time I usually did with my anxiety at night, and there are a lot of very bulletproof plants that you can grow at home with minimal upkeep (I started with apple seeds I harvested from apples I'd gotten as snacks from the store). If I was fidgety, I could fuss over them and feel like I was doing a good thing with my anxious energy rather than sitting there and letting it nail me. (Also, studies have shown that the smells of potting soil, dirt, and plant life is calming to humans, and is one of the reasons they garden on board the ISS in space; it literally keeps astronauts sane)

-Adopted my cat, Nimue, and dog, Tama. Nimue's usually awake when I am, and so I can focus on her if I want to and she'll enjoy my company. Tama's just turning 5 months old and starting to sleep through the night, so I can snuggle her and focus on her breathing and snuffling in her sleep to further prove to my limbic system that everything's alright. Nimue's a 2-year-old Maine Coon calico mix that I rescued from out-of-state, while Tama is a 5-month-old Pomsky my mom surprised me with from a reputable health-and-behavior-focused breeder and obedience trainer.

-Found video games I enjoy that I'll reserve for when I'm Awake At Night And Nervous. I won't play them during the day, so when I have that panicky, anxious energy at night, I can get a hard hit of dopamine late at night rather than a hit of adrenaline.

-Talked to someone. I live with my family in a house with some property, because we care for each other and because it just makes the most financial sense and provides the best living experience for us. I started opening up to my mom and brother about being panicked at night and usually waking up freaked out. My mom spent an entire month sleeping in the same bed with me to help crush the cycle of panics down to just some insomnia (I also deal with chronic pain). My brother hugged me and told me I could knock on his door anytime, even though he sleeps like a drunken carcass, but the sentiment was heartfelt and really made me feel more accepted and that I was seen.

-Tried Metta Meditation, or Loving Kindness Meditation. It's different from the conventional "clear your mind and breathe" kind of meditation, which I can't do because of a rare mental condition called DDNOS-1B (my brain is Loud). There are lots of guided Loving Kindness meditation videos free on youtube, and the process focuses on self-acceptance, focusing feelings of love, healing, and peace toward yourself, and then outward to help replace adrenaline with endorphins, and can help get you to sleep or at least calm down a little. My favorite video even instructs, "Allow yourself to accept yourself as perfect as you are," and tickles my System in a way that gets them snuggly and helping me with pleasant thoughts and feelings of self-love and acceptance.

-Talk to a professional. It may be that a low-dose medication will help with addressing panic and sleep disorders, but it can take time and trial and error to find out what works best for you. Some nighttime anxiety and panic issues can go into remission with a course of medication to break the cycle of stressors and triggers and help you un-learn some panic-minded spiral patterns. Sometimes, a sleep or anxiety disorder can secretly be a mild pain disorder you usually just ignore that just requires a nighttime dose of tylenol. Not all sleep medications are psych meds, and a good provider will give you a wide array of options to choose from after they've listened to your unique symptoms and needs.