#its not like ive been yapping about him for ages with my friends

[hunter-slime-660]

HI HELLO YES IM INSANE HAVE A DESCRIPTION OF MY SALUBRI'S HAVEN AND OTHER FUN STUFF ABOUT HIM

POSITION: his haven is situated underneath milan, probably in some unexplored part of the paleo-christian chatacombs. It hasnt been found as of the 2010's because he set up several wards against people, kindred and wraiths.

THE HAVEN: the room is fairly small, damp and dark, although the dampness seems fairly new. the only source of illumination is a series of pine tar-based torces along the wall and small cndles around the room. the room itself is basically a single chamber with a rounded ceiling, like a chapel; the walls are covered in drapes of various quality, subjects and ages, once often taken care of, now suffering from mold. in the center of the room theres an altar with a lot of catholic memorabila (including dried olive and palm branches, several eucharistic chalices and several rosaries, etc) stacked both around and above it, the altar IS covered by a red drape. in front of it a small pillar holdin a bowl filled with with rancid blood. one of the walls is carved in to "shelves" hosts a great collection of books and srcolls of different shape, dimension and lenguages, some leather bound, some cardboard bound, clearly from different time periods, so many of them, in fact, that a lot of extra ones are stacked at the feet of the library. one shelf sticks out for what clearly looks like "hand made" leather books: his personal diaries, of different ages, some more consumed then others, clearly showing their age. In front of the library, a lecturn with an open book, incomplete, a collection of various legends and myths of kindred (basically a homemade book of Nod), and traditionally made quills and ink(?). the lecturn looks pretty messy as if often and repeatedly left in a hurry; a bunch of partially to completedly consumed candles all around it. in a corner a simple mattress, clearly overused, over a stone slab; funnily enough covered in regal and expensive sheets, now patially covered in humidity stains. around the bed, a lot of crosses and pictures of saints, of different materials, age, dimension and conservation state. The last wall is once again carved in to "shelves", but this time it holds a lot of memorabilia of different kinds: jewels, cups, statuines, clothing, paintings, perfumes, small books, religious items from different cults, straight up artefacts both of human and supernatural origin. its clear looking at it there at a time, in the past, there used to be system of organization for these memorabilias, that with time was abandoned as there was less and less space for the different artefacts that were now covering the floor in piles.

THE DIARIES: from oldest to newer, some, more recent, dated most not. In the oldest of diaries there is a lot of talk about prayers, recipies on making bread, cooking in general and eucharistic food, as well as instructions on how to make books, weaving, falconry and animal care and medicine, but also they talk a lot about mistreatment, although its fashioned as if it was "deserved", Elia often refers to himself as "a child of evil that needs redemption". From the time of embrace, the diaries speak of a woman, Mikal and how she promised Elia redemption and "sainthood" through the embrace and apprentiship. still in the early diaries there are written a lot of stories, parables and teachings about golconda, often accompanied by crude-ish illustrations (probably made in haste) as well as mention of the persecution both him and his sire were facing. while all of the early diaries are very worn and damaged, one among them clearly stands out for the type of damage, seemingly deliberate: most pages have been torn out, the few that remains seem to have been soaked in blood or staind by bloody tears and the whole book seem to have suffered severe fire damage. the few readable sentences are either insults towards that woman, Mikal, or read something among the lines of "SHE LIED" and "SHE DAMNED ME". From then on most diaries talk of sabbat practices, rituals, specifically some speak of thaumaturgy rituals and how to hold them, as well as their effects, the time it takes to hold them (usually measured in prayers, such as "3 Angelus") and the materials needed; as well as the inners thoughts of Elia that in this time period go from angry and vendicative to resigned and tired. reading them it becomes clear how Elia was initially just very suggestible, the diaries betray how him believing in "im a child of evil" gets used to push him to think along the lines of "im a child of cain and as such im above cattles", but it also becomes clear how with time he starts to build his own line of thought and how he becomes aware of the predatory tactics of the sabbat and how he plans on leaving it. The latest books seem to write of a un-life of isolation after leaving the sabbat. for most of the diaries from here on, Elia talks a lot about moving, as well as rewriting about pages from past diaries or rewriting the same events multiple times (as if he either lost cognition of time or has been having memory issues); he also writes a lot about "visions of death plagueing his slumber". all of the writings in these diaries are dated and its very obvious he would write very sporadically. it is also to note that in these diaries are the first without any addeed notes or pictures stashed between the pages. although all diaries seem full they seem to cut off when he moved to Florence, the entire part of his un-life spent in milan seems to be completely missing (see section: LAST DIARY)

OTHER ARTEFACTS: Upon his final death, Elia left some artefacts outside his have, either because they were on his person when he was killed, or deliberately left to kindred close to him. To Rhadamès: being his "partner" in his last years, Elia left him several jewels, necklaces especially. Is of note a pair of brass hair pins decorated with amaranth flowers made of silk thread. To Amelia: being the kindred that killed him, Amelia got everithing Elia had on his person. of note are his last diary and his skull, left behind after his death.

LAST DIARY: the one diary missing from the collection in Elia's haven and now among Amelia's possessions. in his last diary he talks about moving to Milan and his last couple years there. in this diary he seems extremely disillusioned and tired of his unlife, often writing something of the sorts of: "at this point either i reach golconda or i let myself die". the dates are very sporadic, only writing of important events, sometimes alternated by prayers or reminders on how to create the wards he placed on his haven. of note are the parts where he speaks of Rhadamès. notably he never calls him by name, referring to him only as "the serpent", but does include medieval-like illustrations of him. within the book he writes of his meeting with Rhadamès, especially the moths leading up to it where he was stalking him. in this period Elia writes of how he wouldnt mind being killed by this "serpent" and how he hopes that being killed by the "embodyment of evil" might grant him some mercy after his death. the following entries, tho, speak of various conversations he had with Rhadamès, as well as a renewed desperation, as he realises the Ministry is not gonna be his end.

THE LAST ENTRY: (not dated) "[...] ho sentito di questa Magister della Piramide. Dicono che abbia fatto ricerche sul Golconda. È arrivato il momento di stare a quanto promesso. Le farò visita stanotte.

Deus meus, ex toto corde pǽnitet me ómnium meórum peccatórum, éaque detéstor, quia peccándo, non solum pœnas a te iuste statútas proméritus sum, sed præsértim quia offéndi te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super ómnia diligáris. Ideo fírmiter propóno, adiuvánte grátia tua, de cétero me non peccatúrum peccandíque occasiónes próximas fugitúrum. Amen." translation: "(in italian) [...] I heard of this Magister of the Pyramid. They say she researched Golconda. It is time to fulfill my promise. I will visit her tonight.

(in latin)(Act of Contrition) O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen."

[any page beyond this point has been left blank]

[localcryptidsteg]

Black Myth Wukong Chapter 3 Thoughts

So, I finished the chapter after putting it off for a bit, and I have to say, I enjoyed how absolutely MASSIVE this chapter is in comparison to the first two.

Ive started having to fight the camera a bit harder; it is, unfortunately, no longer an issue relegated to the Kiang-Jin Loong fight. However, its easy enough to mitigate since you can pause pretty much whenever to adjust your settings as needed. I find just turning off auto-switch eliminated like 90% of the issue.

Two of my favorite bosses so far are available in this chapter, those being Cyan Loong and Yin Tiger! Their fights are top notch, and are SO satisfying to drop into the rhythm of the battle. Lots of good parry/perfect dodge opportunities riddled throughout the fights, they just feel so badass the entire time.

Finally getting a sort of hub world is also lovely; being able to reach all your upgrade/gathering npcs in one teleport is great.

And speaking of upgrades, the blind monk mobs drop mind cores sometimes.

I HIGHLY reccomend abusing this for celestial medicines.

Finally, and more than anything, I want to talk about the end of chapter animation, because it is by far the prettiest so far. Its also viscerally disturbing, and the end dialogue ties the whole chapter together flawlessly.

Mild spoiler warning, but only for chapter three:

Over the course of chapter three, there are several side quests that all tie into the main questline. The first is the Green Hat Martialist, which cues you into the fact that youre not always talking to the same Buddha over the course of the chapter. The next is the fox spirit's quest, which is a direct continuation of the animation from chapter 2 and leads you to the thunderclap temple. The spirit tells you her killer is hiding there, having gone on to become a monk. However... hes the first of several you'll quickly realize have beome corrupted in the temple. Your horse friend from earlier chapters can be found nearby the monk, behaving uncharacteristically. All the enemies in Thunderclap have lines referencing one faith or a true faith, presumably not one you follow as theyre attacking you.

This all leads to (while technically not that impressive) one of the most interesting bosses so far.

Yellowbrow is an altar boy who declared himself a Buddha. He has beef with what seems to be his peer, and he makes mention of this a few times during his boss fight, seemingly increasingly butthurt and desperate to prove hes in the right over the other monk. He believes himself to be better than others, whereas his... friend? Rival? They seem to be on shockingly good terms all things considered- believes all to be equal.

This is where the animation ties in. Were shown a turtle yaogaui of sorts, washing ashore in a poor, sickly village. The turtle bleeds gold and pearls, and is shown to be capable of healing the sick and reversing aging. The village, naturally begins praising the turtle as a god. Until the night of a festival, where one villager gets greedy and attacks the turtle. This prompts the other villagers to do the same, tearing it apart for its carass and innards. The next scenes we see are the abandoned, dilapidated ruins of the village, and what remains of the dessicated carcass of the turtle. A monk approaches the carcass and begins speaking to it, only for the turtle to reply, revealing itself as none other than Yellowbrow. There's an exchange about skewed data and onfirmation bias, ("Why attempt to prove anything if not to win?") And the animation ends.

The monk is, of course, the rival Yellowbrow has been yapping on about the whole fight. The chapter ends with their opinions continuing to clash.

Its beautifully done, and its definitely going to stick with me for the imagery alone, if not the moral.

Lastly

Bajie! I love him, I was so happy to see him, hes ADORABLE as a little guy, I wish we got to keep him forever.

[nevarroes]

i refuse to send these thoughts separately:

who would cas main in league, he wouldnt play isnt an answer the mans gender is at least 25% calling people slurs on mic

okay but what if what if um 🥺👉👈 someone wanted to write a thing but they were super anxious about getting cas’s voice right in part because by the nature of how you share your creative concepts the only solid vibe they get is Doesnt Talk A Lot, When He Does Its 90% Weird Rude Mean Shit, hence the cesare big top burger comparison

and fuckin um i forget if ive ever asked, i mostly process cas’s fuckedupedness through a lens of npd, but am more familar with bpd because my own brain garbage is a bit of both and having had many loved ones with bpd, does cas ever fully freak the fuck out in an insecure attachment way trying to make gortash Go Away or trying to leave himself(but coming back generally), might characterize that Oh No Hes Going To Die leaves forever cant handle loss unless he “choses” it meltdown in a similar menthol eelnessTM vein

i especially love thinking about cas being extremely insecure because reality will never live up to his delusions of self importance perfection and grandeur because fun fact :^) a side affect of those thought patterns is constant disappointment in a reality of self that can never meet those expectations :^^^)

casim “i AM perfect or ill DIE” carnavorn

honestly "Doesnt Talk A Lot, When He Does Its 90% Weird Rude Mean Shit" is pretty on point here😭😭 I used to say like everyone desires him and then he opens his mouth and theyre like "hmmm yeah idk if this one's worth it chief". Like he has no filter at all but it isn't like he doesn't do it on purpose it's more like he goes out of his way to make sure everyone leaves in a worse mood than before, if that makes sense? Gortash would join in though honestly.... type of situation where Gortash tries to introduce them to some noble family on a party and Cas just drops that some poor girl looks like a fat cow (see this is funnier considering that he stands next to Gortash but ain't nobody gonna say that back) 🙏

aside from that though like.... in private? I suppose this may be more of a tone thing and I'm a VERY mid writer so I couldn't even tell you how I'd show this of the top of my head but I suppose he's more... clearly affectionately teasing? because yeah he obviously stays teasing and calls him a fat bastard in private still and such but it's very obvious if you look at them for a second that it's like a far cry from how he treats everyone else (smth smth his gaze very clearly softens and he allows himself to giggle and you can tell that they have been knowing each other for a long time)

okay sorry im YAPPING but ! ....If you want to write something I'd be over the fucking moon either way honestly like??😭 tbh I think you sound like you get him a lot already but also let me just say additionally... I see Cas as a character that's pretty flexible anyways because he erm... he has mood swings but also doesn't really have smth I'd consider a set speech pattern or something that he needs to sound in character?

anyways concerning the npd/bpd thing I never quite drew a line for him or anything to put him more into one camp but. I mean yeah based on the dying of old age scenario... LMFAOO but also yeah he does. Cas is the type of person that will literally leave the city for months or lock himself in and try to "become a new person" (he literally has moment where he's like "maybe I should just become who Bhaal wants me to be. maybe it would be easier") if there's some dispute with Gortash. It usually ends with Gortash forcing him to meet him again and Cas being something along the lines of "oh my fucking god can I just stop loving you already" but yeagh u know the fact that Gortash is kinda the only person he ever liked or even saw as a friend just makes it worse tbh

and the insecurities/delusions thing? yeah exactly what you said. a lot of his insecurities are insane too tbh like "I can never be what everyone desires" but then he loses it if he's NOT what someone desires, Gortash saying smth along the lines of "I like women too" would be enough to make him walk off a ledge because he can't be that part (smth smth I can be most perfect man on the planes but I'll never be a woman. funnier when u know he could use incubus illusion magic but he refused to his whole life). But anyways yeah as I said once Cas is like... a DEEPLY insecure person at his core even if he'd never admit or think that it shows

anyways after this analysis... Cas plays adc and shits on every support he plays with💯 He mains aphelios because he wants to look at a man but also because he thinks he's better than anyone else for playing a complex champ... hope u see my vison

[macklives]

hey so this is gonna be a long-ish one. ive decided its been far too long since i did a session, and we did so many i can often forget what happened. i started in july and im pretty sure its been more than half a year now since this whole blog happened. and in that time, we’ve gone through 88 sessions and i want to know if i remember the relevant plot points and what we got up to in the last few sessions. a refresh/reminder if you would.

so i hereby commence my own little recap of act 5 because yeah no, its too much to do a recap of everything and i have andrew for that after every few acts. but i wanna refresh my mind on act 5 for now. so here we go.

1. alternia.. fucked up place. but its a place the trolls live on so what are we gonna do about it? overthrow the government? seems about right, lets do that with the next troll that gets introduced and if its not kanaya idk what andrew is doing by not having introduced the best troll yet. why the long wait? it was the second introduced? i honestly expected it to go in order when i first read act 5, because first we had karkat talk to jade which was the first new piece dialogue in the comic besides the main kids, but then we had kanaya with rose, which was followed by tavros, then terezi (iirc). so id assume we were following that order but nope karkat got fully introduced, then this random fucking juggalo called gamzee made its way into the comic. imagine my surprise.

2. theres been terminology throughout act 5, that i do not fucking know and will not remember and probably never will. like tf is a perigee again? i made a doc somewhere ill probably find it.

3. karkat’s introduction... short but very sweet. and by sweet i mean we got to know the depths of the angry edge lord. and by depths i mean karkat got angry at gamzee for typing in a way that he didnt like so he yapped like a chihuahua. nah, but seriously, i do like karkat tho, hes growing on me but only bc hes a bitch baby and his whole personality makes me want to mock him so thats the reason im not that annoyed and think hes funny, and the most harmless troll. even more so than tavros. and thats saying something. 7.5/10 bc im generous.

4. then gamzee... the high juggalo troll who has the worst typing quirk imo, i cannot for the life of me read it. but hes chill, i actually really like gamzee. hes funny and the least problematic as of right now. 8.5/10.

5. terezi’s introduction next i think. she likes playing as a lawyer with her stuffed dragons, ie by roleplay, shes blind, can see through licking, and she likes eating chalk, maybe its even nutritious. shes good. 9/10. 

6. uhh in the process of these intros, there are teams being made? karkat joins gamzee and terezi in, i THINK, the red team?? bc terezi likes red?? could be wrong, i dont remember the teams except that its red/blue to represent sollux’s duality in those colors. terezi then tries recruiting AC but AC is like lol sorry i have to ask this friend of mine who has authority over me for some goddamn reason and terezi goes yuck tf i hate that guy................... yeah thats all we have on the teams. pretty sure sollux had smth to do with karkat about the making of the leaders, and they did the “i hate me” and the “no i hate me more than u hate u” or whatever the fuck that was. they got embarrassed afterwards and deleted their messages. im pretty sure they have no messages because everything ends up being mutually deleted so their logs are actually empty. ngl, kinda enjoyed their convos, made me appreciate their characters. i hope we get more because its good content. i also dont know what order this whole thing is in, who contacted who first? couldnt tell you. ill remember later on. and since im basing this off from memory alone, gotta deal with what i remember. uhhhh so yeah. we havent met all characters yet so the teams have not been officially decided but we got the bases, which is that.

7. god i found it, and the only thing im looking at right now is the terminology list i made and what the fuck?? what the fuck?? you miss a few weeks and suddenly the word nubslurping comes up and you forget what the fuck youre reading.

8. im PRETTY SURE aradia is seen after that whole team fiasco?? or its sollux... maybe. wait. its sollux, right. i just knew someone gets introduced mid way through is all. actually, someone gets introduced after every 20 pages. i have no idea. but ik aradia and sollux go hand in hand.

9. oh shit. OH SHIT! RIGHT! I REMEMBER! so this occurs in the latest session i did, and not the beginning of act 5, but AG and aradia team up, right?? and sollux fucking gets manipulated by them and ??? idk??? they make him find the game, reprogram it and then make him believe its going to end the world (which in hindsight is true, but anyways) so he refuses to play it which was AG’s plan all along so she steps up and becomes leader in his place. but aradia says sollux will still play the game no matter what, but she never went through with the plan for AG but it was apart of a prophecy? that sollux wouldnt be the leader at all? that he’d still play? but it had to go according to plan so it could succeed??? we just dont know why yet. anyways, point being, she still cares for sollux since she did it for him rather than for AG. and thats what i recall. god tf i forgot about that whole drama until writing down “sollux and aradia go hand in hand” which gave me violent flashbacks to the memory.

10. oh and id give aradia 9/10 and sollux 7/10. i do like sollux but if i put him higher than karkat, id get crucified. so im keeping them around the same.

11. man i really like sollux and aradia tho, i may have put him at 7, but i really like their dynamic and i really hope they make up and aradia explains herself about AG. because from one side it looks shitty. and while sollux is rude and never makes up his mind, he apologized to aradia after going off, and that was the only time ive seen him be sincere, so im pretty sure he cares for her to some extent. and i think its somewhat mutual? considering the whole “did it for him” thing. man, i see potential because i actually like both their characters. theyre well written. may not have the best personalities, but i appreciate well written characters and homestuck has the best ones ive seen in a while.

12. oh shit, hell yeah, the more i write, the more im connecting the dots and remembering. however, the more i write, the more i want to just make an analogy post but thats not for now. jesus christ its not all about analogies, mack, this is a recap. but.. how does andrew do it? to not go off track??? hard. telling ya.

13. anyways, didnt we break the fourth wall at some point and have the demon gods or whatever the fuck speak to us in third person for the first time in the comic, after having only gone into second person narrative, right after we were introduced to sollux and his “virus”? the uh, the phrase “the demon was already here” was said, or something along those lines. first line in homestuck to give me the creeps ngl and i appreciate it bc it gives me motivation to know what the fuck its about. its cool bc you have no idea where its going and it sure doesnt have anything to do with the current plot, since the trolls’ session/game doesnt have fucking demons so im curious as to what the fuck that was about. and if i really have to make a theory, i feel it has something to do with aradia’s voices in her head which also connect to the gods rose heard when she started disregarding rules and told dave to look at derse without listening to music bc it was as if he was purposely blocking away their calls. like holy shit, that gave me the shivers. while i do want to know more about wtf happens after act 4, trolls are taking priority right now. just like we did with the intermission. no discussing the kids unless necessary. treat this as its own separate comic. and THEN we can connect.

14. ANYWAYS, tavros’ intro???? that comes afterwards?? with the fiduspawn that made me gag a little on the inside? yep. remember that. fuck that lol. -1/10 but tavros himself is MAYBE a 6/10? i wish we explored his character more in his intro bc right now he just looks like a character made only to be a victim rather than have any depth and i feel thats robbing someone of their full potential. give me more personality andrew, rather than a quivering boy who falls prey to bitches. im expecting more throughout the comic honestly and i hope he gets growth so hes not looked as a “victim” but rather his own character. he is still sweet, and i like him because i want to protect him, but id rather have more info, you know what i mean?

15. oh hell. kanaya had a chainsaw at some point. that made me happy. and didnt she cut off tavros’ legs?? and he got robot ones? and some creepy dude was looking and we called him saggy tits bc hes sagittarius? right? neat. that did happen. pretty sure saggy tits is ACs friend that tells her what to do. the more u know. OH and they all have colored blood similar to their text colors lol. that i remember... so tavros has brown, terezi has blueish green, um. karkat has grey the loser. and apparently it forms a rainbow which is nice. rainbow is good.

16. i dont remember anything else actually

17. wait no i do. AG appeared. shes a petty bully. idk what to say about her. we didnt get that much, except that she hates tavros but is okay with aradia. she also looks like a bottle opener. actually, i think she teamed with aradia to gain leadership rather than to “be friends”. and while that is similar to how karkat did it, meaning the gain, the motivation and how they earned it is entirely different. kinda seeing a trend tho. the leaders of the red/blue teams are both characters who wanted the role, but never had it to begin with. only to win their way into the position. but rather than ask non-stop like karkat did, AG manipulated others so she could be successful. not too sure if she also used aradia for that, or is actually motivated to become friends since they were “past enemies” and she needed a rebound. pretty sure its somewhat both. while AG did mostly use aradia to speak with sollux, what she doesnt know is that aradia is a bad bitch who never even thought about AG and only followed through with the plan bc she had a plan of her own. i guess we’ll look into that later. i lowkey want to know their history.

18. OH AC!!! she appeared for a second as well. love her. shes amazing. 9.5/10. and you may ask yourself, why am i saying “i love this character” but none of them are 10/10?? weellllll its because, and i cant stress this enough, 10/10 belongs to kanaya, i dont make the rules. im waiting for her introduction, shes my favorite and its obvious. sorry.

19. oh huh seems i forgot about the term “lusus”. which.. is.. their parents but not really, its these fucking weird ass creatures that the trolls fought in a cave or something as a child. i dont fucking know. terezi hatched hers and it died? gamzee’s also died but his goat sea dad was never really there to begin with so while it is sad, its more sad that gamzee never saw him? um.. karkat killed his own by exploding his computer bc sollux said dont run the virus and karkat said u cant tell me what to do and did it anyways. so thats on him. but apparently theyre supposed to die, to become prototyped during the game, right? yeah. i remember now.

20. thats.. about it? idk anything else, nothing is coming back to me apart from the shit above. huh.... im surprised how quickly things do come back to you the moment you rant about the plot tho.... handy trick.

cool. neat. fun. this took me too long. but im glad i remember a little bit.