#mysterium 2023

[meowthiroth]

Just wanted to share a batch of costume photos from Mysterium last weekend! I'm super happy that my mangree fursuit was such a hit! Still can't believe I was so comfortable wearing it at Cyan's HQ on Saturday considering the heat, but I guess dry heat really does hit different! if I tried suiting like that at home this time of year I would FRY.

The whole weekend was so much fun!! I'm so happy I got to see all my friends from last Mysterium again, and make a whole bunch of new ones! And getting to meet & chat with Cyan in person was awesome too!!

I hope I'll get to see as many of you again as possible in Montreal next year!! 🩵

[magpies-gold]

Back From Mysterium

I did a very small couple of posts before this, but Saturday at Mysterium blew my expectations out of the water, and so I decided I needed to circle back around and try again as a much bigger post.

First, foremost, and coolest - yes! I got to meet Rand Miller (bonus infamous RAWA just to the left as well)! Even better, for once in my life my social anxiety didn't turn me into a non-verbal lump and I was able to say a grand total of two full sentences and a greeting. If you know me at all, then you know that that's quite the accomplishment. Usually @timmcosplay has to do the talking for me when I inevitably choke on my own tongue, but by a quirk of fate we got separated (he wanted to get our Book of Ti'ana signed and got yoinked into a different line up from me, who wanted photo evidence) and I had no choice but to attempt to be a functional human. My theory is that I've talked to Rand's face so many times during the intro to Riven (I always talk back) that it was just second nature to say hello the second he looked at me. Genuinely, though, he's so kind and so patient and I'm stoked that he made time to meet all of us and then spend a couple hours even after that being a presenter and answering heaps of questions.

Tim may have not been with me directly, but he was still creeping in the sidelines getting photos of me getting photo'd and briefly chatting. ;)

Ultimately, we were split into three groups and everyone ran through the events of the day in a different order.

Tim and I were on Team Ytram (or Team Forg as I insisted on calling it) and had little Rivenese froggos on our badges.

After the meet and greet, we got lunch. It was simplistic fare, but the fact that we got hot dogs and Cool Ranch Doritos out back of the Cyan HQ means that they were very special hot dogs and Cool Ranch Doritos. Legendary!

And then... they actually allowed my wee goblin self and Tim to go through the iconic archway entrance and to scramble around their actual studio. I've seen pictures of the place on the internet before and knew how neat it would be to some degree, but now I know where everything is!

In no particular order....

Iconic signage and that giant honkin' Moiety dagger that Adam Savage apparently worked on?? It is truly large in person!

Costumes from Riven! Including Catherine's dress, which I remember my mom was always cooing over when I was playing the game on my clonky PC in the late 90's, and Gehn's costume, with Tim posing (and having not totally slightly held up the rest of the group by getting detail shots for cosplay purposes, no, no, he wouldn't do that....)

Art! Design sketches and THE MAP.

The infamous elevator wherein you'd better know your D'ni numbers if you want to get anywhere (I would get stuck).

And then... artifacts!

They had THE LEVER from the beginning of Riven. Did it never occur to me that the lever was a real lever? THE LEVER IS A REAL LEVER.

Plus there were goggles and books and Gehn's gun (AKA the only Game Over inducing object in Riven) and more character design sketches with actual costume fabric swatches! That last bit made Tim make high pitched glee noises, as someone who both designs and makes costumes himself.

There were presentations after all of that. Trailers, talks, a non-profit project to digitize over a hundred hours of behind the scenes footage from the making of Uru and Riven and other things, which we got a sneak peek of. They showed off a snippet of the remake of Riven. There was just so much. It was hours and hours and I was practically vi-bra-ting by the time we finally were ushered back to the bus and back to Spokane.

I will never entirely get over the fact that I was able to go see all that with my own two eyeballs. As someone who's been enamoured with the universe surrounding Myst island for the full 30 years of its existence, ever since I was 8 years old, who used to make big calligraphy posters of passages from The Book of Atrus and The Book of Ti'ana and tape them up all over Thorhild Central School whether my fellow students and teachers wanted me to or not, and who was so solidly influenced by the idea of books as literal doors to other worlds that it became a foundation for how I view my own characters and stories (namely that I'm no god, and they do have a life all their own), this is a treasured memory.

[dragondroid]

"[Myst] was never just a game to me. It's always been a real place."

- Rand Miller, on worldbuilding

[t-squaredproductions]

Mysterium 2023 Photo Op with Rand Miller

I got the chance to take a picture with Rand Miller, one of the developers of Myst, last weekend!

Of course, I wore my Watcher's Pub Jacket, but also brought along the Locked Myst Book, and a little character, Little T-Squared, that I hope to get back to in future projects!

He liked everything, but he got a chuckle out of Little T-Squared, dressed as Atrus (along with Riven's prison book) the most!

Wouldn't you know it? I also had a chance to re-meet Richard A. Watson (the developer behind Myst's D'ni Lore and language; I met him in 2006) and show him the Myst book as well! (When I showed someone else, they were eager to show it to him, which is how it ended up in his hands!)

[tv-moments]

A Murder at the End of the World

“Chapter 5: Crypt”

Director: Brit Marling

DoP: Charlotte Bruus Christensen

[kidpix-album-covers]

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium (2023)

[anonymous-ivplay]

Inktober Day 11: Wander

Let me tell you I am SO GODDAMN HAPPY with how this turned out!!! It's not perfect nor does it get all the canon details right, but it's still worth every second of the three hours I put into it. The scene it depicts is from the Selenitic Age in the game Myst, and the young woman is meant to be my own self-insert version of the Stranger. Fundamentally Myst is about taking your time and exploring every inch of the game as you look for puzzles to solve, which makes it the definition of "wander" to a T, and I could not pass up this beautiful image that came to my mind.

[blurryumbrellas]

I promise I’m not dead! Writing an album and having art block will do that to you tho- anyway FOLLOW ME ON ART FIGHT ‼️

I’m looking forward to all the attacks and the like! (Hopefully I can keep my promise to myself ‘n actually do more this year 🫠)

[why-i-love-comics]

Invincible Iron Man #13 - "The Mysterium Marauders" (2023)

written by Gerry Duggan art by Juan Frigeri & Bryan Valenza

[talesfromthecrypts]

top 9 characters i loved in 2023

tagged by @hellboys (leo my dear friend leo)

Sent out invitations to the "I love sex and violence convention" and something crazy happened. One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just does not belong (her name is Doric and I love her).

Characters: Lestat de Lioncourt (Vampire Chronicles), Ellie (Evil Dead Rise), Gabriel May (Malignant), Julia Cotton (Hellraiser), Astarion Ancunin (Baldur's Gate), Eva (Fascination), Netvor (Beauty and the Beast 1978), Doric (DND: Honor Among Thieves), Louis de Pointe du Lac (Vampire Chronicles)

tagging @mysteriums, @andstarry, @thesoldiersminute, @scarychristmas

[saintsenara]

Ooh 5, 6, 11 and 12, for the ask meme?

thank you very much, anon, for sending in some questions from the 2024 review ask game!

5. what ships captured your heart?

tom riddle/augustus rookwood, who are now my babies for life:

6. what characters captured your heart?

i have become enormously - and regrettably, because i'd always considered them to be bits of extraneous gristle who didn't matter in the slightest - interested in both rodolphus and rabastan lestrange.

11. what fic was the most difficult to write?

towards the end of 2023, a person i am very close to lost a much wanted baby at a late stage of pregnancy, and has had to spend the year grappling not only with the cataclysmic grief of that loss, but with the way that loss feels alongside the joy of another person we're both close to giving birth to a healthy child.

both a tiny speck in a vast universe and o magnum mysterium - which deal with merope gaunt's dreams for the son she'll never know - were things i was already planning to write. but even my position at the periphery of this grief changed the process of going about that profoundly.

12. what fic was the easiest to write?

the war of the roses. i'm having a blast with it.

[dundreary]

TES-Inktober 2023, Day 20: Power

Surprise, it's the Mysterium Xarxes again!

Link to the prompt list and further info

[juststeveandtonythings]

IIM #11 recap: Emma and Tony go on a honeymoon to Hawaii. Tony surfs with a dog. This is important.

Okay, fine, they're not in Hawaii just to surf with dogs. Hawaii is close to Krakoa, so instead of consummating their marriage, Tony gets back into his Mark Nil suit to look for mysterium on Krakoa as Emma remotely assists him. He does get caught by Orchis apes (apes who work with Orchis and have PhDs, obviously) - they were also on Krakoa looking for mysterium - buuut Tony accidentally kills the one who found him and he's able to find the big stash of mysterium that Emma was guiding him to. (Also, more possums!)

He also finds a book that says "For Mum" from Emma's kids or something? I don't know enough about her to comment on this - maybe they're clones or whatever. In any case, Tony offers to bring it back to Emma, but she sadly says to leave it there because she doesn't need that physical evidence lying around, so he leaves. As he does, he feels like someone's watching him - an editor's note says that Immortal X-Men goes into more detail, but I did not and will not read that title since it doesn't have Steve or Tony, heh.

Life goes on in NYC as Tony continues to play possum. Tony engineers stuff in his sex dungeon place, which is now secretly a lab, and makes a cane out of mysterium as he pretends he's just a boring married dude now who is definitely not building stuff anymore, nope. Then, once he's done with his cane, he shows it off to his friends!

Carol, Strange, and Spidey are all unable to do anything to the cane: Carol (at the Jarvis Lounge) can't break it with sheer force, Strange can't magic it, and Peter doesn't get a Spidey sense feeling from it. Tony is pleased, even as Strange warns him that no one really knows what's up with mysterium. (Strange is apparently also safeguarding the "For Mum" book on Tony's behalf - very sweet of Tony.) Peter asks what Tony's gonna do with the cane, and Tony basically says that yeah, they're gonna whack all the Sentinels on the shin with a bunch of these canes (aka make mysterium weapons to fight them, presumably). The beginning of the end of the war approaches!

- Invincible Iron Man Vol 5 #11 (2023)

[heckcareoxytwit]

Doctor Strange tries to fight Dormammu and exorcise him out of the human host but he's too strong for the mage. Since Doctor Strange could not defeat Dormammu without killing the human host, he takes a walk and chats with the Dark Dimension lord instead as a distraction. They spent their whole time chatting until they reach Jean Grey who helps Doctor Strange to exorcise Dormammu out of the human host by using the Mysterium the anti-magic stone.

Doctor Strange v6 #3, 2023

[tv-moments]

A Murder at the End of the World

“Chapter 6: Crime Seen”

Director: Brit Marling

DoP: Charlotte Bruus Christensen

[scarlet--wiccan]

Wasn't a mutant-specific inhibitor and more of a specific-to-powers one but Billy did have an inhibitator in the YA/Runaways Civil War crossover that prevented him from hearing his spells being spoken (which I guess stops him from casting them which I never really got?) So presumably something that blocks Wanda from physically casting, proportional to her skill level/ability and even if she's relying on chaos magic as a source, would stop her as well.

Yes, but that's not the question I was asked.

In the Civil War crossover, the warden of the Cube-- a detention facility for aliens-- outfits Billy with a device that prevents him from, specifically, hearing his own voice. It makes sense-- at this point in continuity, Billy has no real magical experience or knowledge, and speaking his intentions out loud is the only way he's figured out how to focus his power. That's why he relies on his chanting gimmick. Disrupt that method, and you disrupt his only means of spellcasting. But, I mean, it would been a lot simpler to just... prevent him from speaking at all, rather than making him selectively deaf.

People have definitely tried similar things on Wanda over the years. In Vision & Scarlet Witch (1985), Nekra and Black Talon attempt to prevent Wanda from using her hex power by binding her hands in such a way that she couldn't even move her fingers, because, at that point in time, she relied on motion to cast her hexes. She manages to wiggle one of her pinkies free and starts casting tiny hexes to undo the other ropes. Similarly, in Scarlet Witch (2023), Joseph cuts off Wanda's fingers to prevent her from using magic long enough for Hexfinder to make her entrance. Fortunately, Wanda was able to use healing magic to grow them back.

If you're fighting someone like Wanda or Billy, preventing them from manually casting spells is one of the only ways to get a leg up. Twice now, Orlando has had enemies muddle or block Wanda's memory so she can't recall any spells-- the Wizard in the first issue of SW&Q, and the Eliminator in the most recent issue of Scarlet Witch. Doom's done it to Billy twice-- he uses a mind spell to trick Billy into believing he's lost his powers in Children's Crusade, and in GotG (2020), he disables Billy's magic by stabbing him with Excelsior.

Point is, you need to really go out of your way, as a writer, to find obstacles and stumbling blocks for such powerful magic wielders. You need plot devices like the low mysterium around to create stakes and tension. A lot of the people reading and posting about these books don't seem to understand that.