#quest route

[rookflower]

whichever one of us is a person first

[oderu]

long time no panic blooming

[jajatoc]

See this lil' thingie on my neck? It's a Steppe talisman... against maras like you!

Day 12, Amulet

[poyameows]

I want to play different routes on Disco Elysium but the idea of purposely being mean to characters and not trying to help everyone in the game makes me want to cry.

[nikysavi]

I understand why they're cutting out fighting in Bachelor's route. But I'll miss it

[bumblebeehug]

What if nalu doesn't become canon during 100yq but at the end of the next spinoff-

Well I’ll first kill Mashima then kill myself I think.

[sleepyorchidmonster]

You know, considering Nahida's and Rukkhadevata's self-sacrificing tendencies (I'll just use my power and turn into a twig no problem) alongside Deshret's often insane and reckless ideas (who makes an agreement for an ancient dragon to consume you after your death????) it's honestly a miracle that Rukkhadevata wasn't just perpetually aranara-sized during her time ruling alongside Deshret and Nabu Malikata.

I can just see Nabu Malikata returning from a business trip to Liyue or something, only to find a panicked Deshret sitting next to a potted plant that looks like a mini Irminsul.

Turns out Deshret got a little bit too silly with his last search for forbidden knowledge and Rukkhadevata had to use almost all of her power to stop the potential crisis. Now he's trying to find out how to care for a plant that's literally Irminsul while waiting for the Aranara to arrive.

Another time, Deshret came back and found Nabu Malikata babysitting Rukkhadevata, who had turned into a child.

And, while both gods know that they should probably ask the rainforest dwellers for help, they kind of don't trust the sages. Especially when the Grand Sage at the time suggested keeping Rukkhadevata locked up in the Sanctuary of Surasthana until she regained her powers..... So now there's an unspoken agreement that only the desert and Vanarana are safe places for a weakened Dendro Archon.

I would also like to point out that the (former) Grand Sage barely escaped with his life.

After that initial scare, Deshret would probably come up with a way to transfer dendro or knowledge to Rukkhadevata so she'd get her powers back, but the funniest option would be both him and Nabu Malikata having to do the whole Aranyaka quest to host the Festival Utsava.

People wonder where the Sumeru God Kings are, turns out they're organizing a festival for the Aranara (Deshret and Nabu are doing the preparations, Rukkhadevata is currently a child and is just playing with the Aranara).

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I feel like changing skies maybe include the Erins’ attempt to combat the “warrior cats is ableist” views most of the fandom have.

I also feel that they are going to mostly succeed and people will be pleasantly surprised with a few minor issues, or this is going to be some of the most ableist stuff in all of warriors and there is going to be no in-between.

[penguino713]

Pathologic Fest Day 21: Blood against Blood

“Nevertheless, the microscope is immune to magic. It sees through all charm and deception.”

[thepastisalreadywritten]

12 June 2024

Wreck hunters have found the ship on which the famous polar explorer Ernest Shackleton made his final voyage.

The vessel, called "Quest," has been located on the seafloor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack on board on 5 January 1922 while trying to reach the Antarctic.

And although Quest continued in service until it sank in 1962, the earlier link with the explorer gives it great historic significance.

The British-Irish adventurer is celebrated for his exploits in Antarctica at a time when very few people had visited the frozen wilderness.

"His final voyage kind of ended that Heroic Age of Exploration, of polar exploration, certainly in the south," said renowned shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who directed the successful search operation.

"Afterwards, it was what you would call the scientific age. In the pantheon of polar ships, Quest is definitely an icon," he told BBC News.

The remains of the ship, a 38m-long schooner-rigged steamship, were discovered at the bottom of the Labrador Sea on Sunday by a team led by The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS).

Sonar equipment found it in 390m (1,280ft) of water. The wreck is sitting almost upright on a seafloor that has been scoured at some point in the past by the passing of icebergs.

The main mast is broken and hanging over the port side, but otherwise, the ship appears to be broadly intact.

Quest was being used by Norwegian sealers in its last days. Its sinking was caused by thick sea-ice, which pierced the hull and sent it to the deep.

The irony, of course, is this was the exact same damage inflicted on Shackleton's Endurance - the ship he used on his ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917.

Fortunately, the crews of both Endurance, in 1915, and Quest, in 1962, survived.

Indeed, many of the men who escaped the Endurance sinking signed up for Shackleton's last polar mission in 1921-1922, using Quest.

His original plan had been to explore the Arctic, north of Alaska, but when the Canadian government withdrew financial support, the expedition headed south in Quest to the Antarctic.

The new goal was to map Antarctic islands, collect specimens and look for places to install infrastructure, such as weather stations.

Shackleton never made it, however, struck down by heart failure in the Port of Grytviken on the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia, the last stop before reaching the White Continent. He was just 47 years old.

After his death, Quest was involved in other important expeditions, including the 1930-31 British Arctic Air Route Expedition led by British explorer Gino Watkins, who himself tragically died aged 25 while exploring Greenland.

Quest was also employed in Arctic rescues and served in the Royal Canadian Navy during WWII, before being turned over to the sealers.

The RCGS team members carried out extensive research to find Quest's last resting place.

Information was gathered from ship's logs, navigation records, photographs, and documents from the inquiry into her loss.

The calculated sinking location in the Labrador Sea was pretty much spot on, although the exact co-ordinates are being held back for the time being.

A second visit to the wreck, possibly later this year, will do a more complete investigation.

"Right now, we don't intend to touch the wreck. It actually lies in an already protected area for wildlife, so nobody should be touching it," associate search director Antoine Normandin said.

"But we do hope to go back and photograph it with a remotely operated vehicle, to really understand its state."

Alexandra Shackleton is the explorer's granddaughter and was patron to the RCGS survey.

"I was thrilled, really excited to hear the news; I have relief and happiness and a huge admiration for the members of the team," she told BBC News.

"For me, this represents the last discovery in the Shackleton story. It completes the circle."

The explorer continues to spark interest more than a century after his death.

Hundreds of people visit his grave on South Georgia every year to pay their respects to the man known by his crews simply as "The Boss."

"Shackleton will live forever as one of the greatest explorers of all time, not just because of what he achieved in exploration but for the way he did it, and the way he looked after his men," said David Mearns.

"His story is timeless and will be told again and again; and I'm just one of many disciples who'll keep telling it for as long as I can."

—

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE FRGS FRSGS (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic.

He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

[fancifulplaguerat]

I’m so not normal about this

The way that Artemy tries to make Daniil feel better despite not caring solely because Daniil is upset, the “you are also better-crafted than me” like Artemy is telling him not to think of himself as some worthless unloved doll because look at yourself, you’re so much more than that; just that last line the compassion the kindness in it I cannot stand this. I’m not even that into Burakhovsky in canon but this is the most romantic thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life (←light hyperbole) 

I’ve gotten too desensitized to the doll ending that I forget what a gut punch it is. That line “Strangely, there is still not a word to be heard from the Powers That Be. Perhaps they became bored of it all... or were called back home for supper” plain devastates me. Just the futility of it all, how pointless all the characters’ suffering was, in particular the healers’. Though I enjoy the theatre-framing in Patho 2, the ‘children’s game’ meta in Patho Classic gets under my skin far more, as there’s some ‘purpose’ in Artemy/Daniil/Clara suffering onstage, playing their roles for an audience. While Patho 2 implies futility with the ‘you aren’t important, you can be recast,’ that idea of ‘you are not important, and everything you did meant nothing’ hits me harder in the game framing because the healers aren’t even worth being replaced. Everything is just some kids’ make-believe that can be tossed aside when they get bored or are called away. 

But I fucking love “The Powers That Be” concept because it’s so perfectly ominous and vague. Could be anything, likely the government, but sike actually it’s two children who orchestrated your entire living nightmare. I love the subtle references to them throughout the game, too, such as a plague victim telling Daniil “I keep hearing children’s voices... the girls are crying, and the boy is laughing... We mustn’t scare them...” or Aspity asking, “Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat... Can you hear the kids running around?” And granted this might not truly be about The Powers That Be, but it certainly feels like it could be. Or the foreshadowing on Day 1 of the Bachelor Route when Daniil asks the kids, “How did it even cross your mind... to play epidemic!” And Clara directly references them when she goes underground with Artemy, warning him to talk as little as possible so “they who are beyond the wall won’t hear you.” 

She elaborates: 

“I can only feel them. They are obscure. They are the ones in charge of everything here. They’re big but narrow-souled, trying to hide their wretchedness from us. It was all their doing. They haven’t revealed themselves yet. [...] Their time hasn't come yet. They are waiting in the wings. They will probably break into the world when it ends. Tomorrow they will show themselves...” 

I highly enjoy Measly and Thrush’s presence being all over the game unbeknownst to the player and characters (excluding Clara). 

And it creates even more futility to me because there’s no catharsis of just anger against some cruel puppet-master, like I can’t be angry with these children who are just playing. Especially how they ask, “Heal the town, please! Just look, it’s so wonderful... It’s alive and it’s our favorite one... We won’t be able to make another one like this. If it can’t be helped, then it will disappear forever. You know how much we love it?” They’re just kids who want you to save something that they love; even if they can be devious they don’t really have malicious intentions. But even their fears about losing their town aren’t real and I’m just going to go outside and start eating handfuls of dirt 

[casual-praxis]

Imagine a villainess isekai, but with a vidow twist

Got your attention? Great! So picture this, the plot of the Four Swords manga, but it's some dating sim-type game that's blown up in the modern world. In theory, you'd be playing as Zelda who managed to avoid capture and travel with the colors which are presumably still Link split into pieces.

Of course, you'd have your typical romance routes with each of them, on top of the neutral route which is more of a "power of friendship saves the day" type deal (as well as a "harem" ending that has them fuse back into Link by the end of it), all while dealing with Shadow as a recurring villain, our technical "villainess" in this scenario.

But here's the twist: Vio is the one who got isekai'd.

Instead of becoming the villain, he's become one of the four* love interests for the protagonist--although he's completely uninterested in her or any of the others. He'd actually only played through the game once in his previous life, and even then he didn't really remember if he managed to romance anyone, never mind finish the game.

He was pretty confused when he suddenly awakened his memories while standing in the Four Sword Sanctuary, having just successfully driven off Shadow for the first time with the others. And with that revelation came several thoughts in quick succession.

Namely, "Oh, that's why I never beat the game."

The villain, who had several moments of introspection and a fully fleshed-out character arc, hadn't been a romance option. Not even a dlc or secret route. Which in Vio's (totally not dramatic) opinion, made the game basically unplayable.

So of course he was going to have to fix that himself. Plot be damned, he was going to end up with Shadow or die trying.

Cue up the fourth-wall-breaking shenanigans and hilarity that ensues from someone not at all trying to blend in with the world around them. Vio quickly goes from being the "smart one" to the "unhinged one" as he mumbles to himself about event flags and route points.

He's got a whole notebook dedicated to the most nonsensical gibberish such as "how many times I've talked to x person" and "how long until chapter 4." When prompted about the tallies on the first page, Vio merely shrugs and says he's keeping track of their shadow. Whatever that means.

I like to think the forest scene would be pretty much reversed from the manga canon and instead have Vio be the pursuer. Like, he's just shaking Shadow by the shoulders and rambling. Something like, "I know everything about you and I will kill anyone you want me to. Please allow me to join you."

Shadow, of course, doesn't know whether to be flustered or freaked out, so he settles on the happy middle ground of "lowkey kinda into it."

Within the dating sim's original story, anyone Zelda was on the route for would be the one to meet with Shadow, and she would show up last minute to help fight him off (so no betrayal scene would ever occur). Meanwhile here, Vio takes the first chance he gets to bail on the narrative and begin his plans of total Shadow domination (take that as you will).

Vio ends up being more of a threat than Shadow, on account of his vague story knowledge and general lack of care towards anyone that isn't Shadow (if he's going to be put into a game's world, he's going to treat it as such). He's totally down for overthrowing the big bads, murdering anyone in his way, and ruling the ruined world at Shadow's side. But luckily, Shadow does still have his character development arc, and manages to negate the worst of the damage before it's unfixable.

Whether or not they switch sides or just keep doing what they're doing on a slightly less destructive scale is anyone's guess, I haven't thought that far ahead. This may or may not have been completely incomprehensible, Grammerly has lit the whole thing up in yellow (orange?).

Unrepentantly unhinged Vio is a good flavor. It pairs nicely with "somehow has the moral compass" Shadow. They're an odd pair, but as time goes on, it becomes pretty apparent that they're equally obsessed with each other. This can only end well.

[guiltycorp]

oh the immediate panicked switch to first-name basis lmao

and Artemy refusing to return the favor of course...

[finncakes]

nearly forgot it's his birthday month. based on one of my favorite photographs of orville peck <3

[polyhedroning]

I see you, you nasty bitch.