#questing crew

[archerinventive]

Thank you to the crew!

Hi all. I hope you've been doing well this month.

As I start to play catchup on archiving recent faire season shenanigan's, I wanted to first and foremost start with a shout-out out to the crew that joined me at this years Midsummer Faire.

Every year comes with new challenges and obstacles to overcome, and this year was no exception, but through it all, it was the team that made it as fun and memorable as it was. ❤️

I feel truly fortunate to have found the squad I have, and I'm so grateful to have had their help and support this season and the days outside of it.

Thank you all so much. You truly add the feeling of family to faire. ❤️

More event photos coming soon. ^^

Crew: @unicorn-shieldmaiden , Rae, Liv F.H, Loni, Emma R, Alexis Baker, Anthony Orange, Ila Belle, and friend Isa L. :)

[isimp4shrimp]

Dnd gang as that olympics shooting meme (one of the squads of all time truly)

Template under the cut

[kyurochurro]

I STARTED HOUSE MD! :ºD

[demaparbat-hp]

Maybe... the Fire Nation's got a point?

AKA the Katara Willingly Joins Zuko In His Quest To Find The Avatar AU

[doodledrawsthings]

Nine sols workplace comedy mockumentary AU taking place during the construction of the eternal cauldron project leading up to Eigong dropping Yi off a cliff send post

[adventure-time-news]

Now that we've had some time to process today's announcements, here's a slightly more in-depth breakdown of the three new Adventure Time projects.

HEYO BMO

Heyo BMO will be a preschool show starring BMO. The Animation on Max Twitter account says that it "follows little BMO as he approaches each challenge he faces with his unique brand of enthusiasm and a curiosity to learn and fill his database."

This is the only project of the three for which we have received some promo art so far, which might mean it's the furthest along in development and the most likely to premier first, especially if they used rigged rather than traditional animation as is often the case with preschool shows. This promo art was created by 3D artist Crisppyboat, who has previously worked on a handful of web projects and indie games. I don't think this is the style that the entire show will have, but who knows.

Other people confirmed by Variety to be working on Heyo BMO are Adam Muto, who has been showrunner on everything Adventure Time since season five of the original show, and Ashlyn Anstee, who storyboarded on Obsidian and has written many children's books.

This show is especially interesting given that Adam Muto has often joked about the inevitability of a preschool spinoff of Adventure Time, and now that has finally come to pass while he is presumably still running the show.

SIDE QUESTS

Side Quests will be a "prequel series" to the original Adventure Time, likely meant as a return to the early seasons' storytelling style. It will be mostly episodic rather than serialised, meaning episodes will each tell their own story without much of an overarching plot, and it will target the original show's young demographic. Ice King is confirmed to be returning in this series, but that's about all we know about the plot.

Interestingly, Variety did not attach Adam Muto's name to this project. Instead it mentioned that Nate Cash will be involved. Nate Cash was supervising director on Adventure Time between seasons three and five, often alternating with Adam Muto in that role. So if Nate is producing Side Quests and Adam is producing Heyo BMO, this will be something of a return to form for both of them.

One question that I've seen a few fans ask is who will voice Finn in this show. Jeremy Shada can't really pull off the season one Finn voice anymore, and they've run out of younger Shada brothers to defer to like they did after the pilot episode. So a new casting feels likely to me, with Shada continuing to voice an older Finn in other projects like Fionna and Cake and the movie. Speaking of which...

UNTITLED ADVENTURE TIME MOVIE

This is the announcement that we know the least about. To give some historical context, an Adventure Time movie was announced all the way back in 2015 but never came to anything. There was also allegedly a plan to end season five with a TV movie back in 2014. Elements of these two movies were later recycled into the plots of several later episodes, most notably Something Big, and possibly Distant Lands: Together Again.

This latest attempt involves Adam Muto, as well as Rebecca Sugar and Pat McHale, who were both influential storyboard artists in the early seasons of Adventure Time before leaving to make their own shows; Steven Universe and Over the Garden Wall, respectively.

According to MidouMir on Twitter, who was live-Tweeting the Warner panel at Annecy, a brief synopsis was given as something like "Finn and Jake set out to find a birthday gift for PB but their adventure will lead them to world changing stuff." Other than that we know nothing about the plot.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Adventure Time wasn't the only show to get spinoffs announced today. Regular Show, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, and Scooby-Doo will all be receiving new series too. We don't know anything about the Regular Show spinoff, but the Fosters spinoff will be a preschool show like Heyo BMO.

All of this appears to indicate that Warner's current animation strategy is to recycle characters who have already proven popular in order to try and attract a new generation of viewers. Original fans of Adventure Time are beginning to get old enough to have children of their own who might enjoy something like Heyo BMO, plus since the end of shows like Amphibia and The Owl House there has been a vacuum of popular "fandom" shows for the older children to younger teens demographic, which I imagine is what Side Quests is aiming for.

To be fair they have also announced a handful of brand new projects; Lovey Dovey, Bad Karma, and Barbara are all new shows announced today.

What are your thoughts? Is there anything I missed? Be sure to let me know!

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

Hi! Thank you so much for all your analysis, I really enjoy them!! Did you find it strange when Alhaitham, at the end of the event, said he is not interested in visiting the temple of Silence for that gem? Because Alhaitham has always been one to pursue knowledge (sometimes to the extreme, i.g archon quest, where he offers to be taken as a hostage instead to learn more about the truth) Even Kaveh was confused by his answer. I wonder if Alhaitham only meant it in a "I wouldn't go through the trouble JUST for this gem" or if this might be a potential hint to his next storyquest? Idk, it just stood out to me that even Kaveh commented on it, when he knows Alhaitham the best.

i'm glad you enjoy them, thank you so much!! anon this is a delicious sumptuous question, this ??? inkling has been rattling around in my head since finishing the quest, so thank you for giving me a chance to break my own thoughts down about this!

alhaitham's own thoughts about the wedjat eye are that there is little more research to be carried out, as the wedjat eye is perceived as a piece of history, whose purpose and meaning has already been identified - and this can contrast against his active research pursuit with the forbidden canned knowledge capsules as it was uncertain what danger they posed, and the root of the danger

but kaveh points out (as you rightfully say) that since the gem is a legendary historical artifact, it's strange that alhaitham isn't interested in at least seeing it, to which alhaitham states that he refuses to go to the temple of silence to do so because it's too far for him, which is so funny to me??

as if he isn't seen roaming around in the desert and going on research trips to ruins in his character trailer, as well as the latter part of the archon quest taking place in the desert. i suppose that since alhaitham had personal motives to be in the desert these times, and, apparently the wedjat eye doesn't particularly interest him, that he isn't willing to make the journey this time, okay give us nothing!!!

alhaitham brings up the chance of the wedjat eye being brought to the akademiya for appraisal, and says that in that case, he would take a look, as he likes to know when interesting things are brought to the akademiya - which can be seen as well in his story quest, where he keeps files on interest on his desk that the player can read

i think it's interesting that it is sethos himself who directly invites alhaitham to look at the wedjat eye for research when it's now contained in the temple of silence, as in cyno's second story quest, when the temple of silence is explored, sethos gives cyno and lord kusanali permission to choose people deemed "worthy" to pursue knowledge in the temple of silence, warning that they must be careful with their choice of candidates

cyno then extends this invitation to kaveh and alhaitham, with them seemingly being these 'candidates', as kaveh says he is interested in visiting the temple of silence in order to look through ancient documents, with cyno saying "that day will come" which seems to imply the temple of silence being at the centre of some future event

each sumeru event (an odd textual mystery and now nahida's birthday event) since then has, of course, included sethos, as he is now a mainline sumeru cast character, and the mention of the wedjat eye now belonging to the temple of silence is consistent with maintaining the organisation as a pivotal part of sumeru

whilst alhaitham's reluctance to physically go there seems to be for comedic purposes, in line with him not helping with the celebrations as it isn't part of his job description (oh but you can head on over to port ormos for no apparent reason to yap with kaveh and leave to go back to the house of daena? like it's a brisk stroll away?? SICK!) i think it's very likely that we'll get more of an exploration of the temple silence in future events (or perhaps a sethos hangout which i am once again asking for), especially (as you say) alhaitham is associated with pursuing knowledge, and the temple of silence is described by sethos to be the hub of this, i'll assume that there has to be something there that entices him to make the journey

as for the wedjat eye being brought to the akademiya, i'm not so sure if this will be explored in an event or character story? the purpose of it seems to be fully explored in this event, with candace being the only one to be able to operate it, and with alhaitham saying that there's no need to study it further could be a narrative choice of essentially wrapping up this story thread - but who knows?? (thinking along these lines, it's notable that candace shows the wedjat eye to the traveller and paimon, but doesn't reveal it to alhaitham and kaveh when directly discussing it, ensuring that the two never see it...? worms in brain actually)

going back to the temple of silence, the information it actually possesses regarding king deshret's civilisation being a mystery, as well as the wedjat eye being a gift from king deshret now being contained there, (along with mehrak's core being from king deshret's civilisation which i think would be very !!! to explore), is really interesting to me, especially with the emphasis on there coming a 'day' in which it's possible for the temple of silence to be explored by the main crew, or those that cyno and nahida select as candidates. i'm very much hopeful that hoyo will fulfill this foreshadowing!!

[electric-plants]

yaoqing trio absolutely FLOUNDERING any time they need to have conversations with people outside of each other is my aesthetic btw

[eddiesketti]

He's ignoring you Cyno....

Patreon | Kofi | Shop

[ghostyclay]

Forgive me I beg for the plea from this one who cannot art for something very specific but if you would be very kind as to fulfill this mental image I have had for forever but have very rarely seen can we maybe perhaps have a long haired Keralis?

I KNOW ITS A WEIRD TAKE BUT

I HAVE ALWAYS JUST IMAGINED HIS CHARACTER WITH LONG HAIR ESPECIALLY THE LUMBERJACK SKIN

If you even consider this I will be so happy thank you thank you 💖💖💖

There u go!!! Sorry it took so long lmfao, hope u like it :D

!!HERMIT/TRAFFIC ART RQ OPEN!!

(Also, i might switch to trad art for a while instead of digital cause my migraines have been getting a bit worse and I'm trying to avoid screens as much as possible)

[thatimageoftomscott]

well guess what tom appeared in my dream last night. it wasnt really abt him tho. took place during the newest lateral and it was tom lum having an existential crisis abt modern yt. tom scott turned into a leopard meerkat thing halfway thru.

tom scott has reached his final form. a leopard meerkat thing...

[dykedvonte]

Evilest mod I've seen is one that makes Danse a dog person and gets rid of his cat with a dog! If you are out there and reading this mod creator I am finding your location and bringing knives and hammers

[apostle-therock-peter]

"welcome to america" by lecrae is the closest a mainstream christian musician can get to anarchist christian/socialist christian/communist christian without people noticing because they're just grooving to lecrae's masterful flows and the epic beats and "this couldn't happen to me" etc etc etc

[sacriou]

She’s a hypocrite but I love her so it’s ok. (Referring to sylv)

[eirikrjs]

Fuck you been up to lately, Eirikr? How's your health progressing? Any games you've played or series/movies you've watched lately?

Yo!

I've been doing well, thanks for asking!

My medicaid reset after the new year, which means it's covering my therapy again after a 2 month lapse. Americaaaaaaaa

Here's what I've been consuming with my time:

GAMES:

First game I bought for my PS5 Pro. It's been very playable with only one hand, though getting the platinum is going to be out of reach until I can use both hands again. I've loved it, especially the combat, though the mandatory minigames during the main story were irksome. Yes, the original had mandatory minigames too but this game goes too far with their density, especially during Costa Del Sol, which I felt was the game's nadir.

Progress: Post game has been more enjoyable than the main game. Open world suits the combat engine. I've completed every region's data for Chadley. This includes the moogle wrangling. One-handed. Very irritating but I'm proud I could accomplish that.

A sale enticed me, plus I haven't played X in over 20 years. I may not even play X-2, it was the game that broke my unwavering faith in Square(soft) and ultimately led me to try out other JRPG publishers, eventually Atlus with Nocturne (it and X-2 were released in the US within a year of each other).

Progress: Just beat Seymour at Mt. Gagazet. I forgot that this game has some real teeth during certain bossfights. I suppose I'll be setting myself up to once again completely remake Sphere grids and min-max characters like I did circa 2002. I thought I would be annoyed by the game's pacing and the inability to skip cutscenes but the story is still good and I don't think I would have wanted to skip them anyway. I had forgotten so much, especially about Dream Zanarkand.

I haven't been enjoying this one as much as I'd hoped. Part of it I think is being spoiled by the FF Pixel Remasters' boost options to eliminate grinding. DQ3, on the other hand quickly became relentless, so, in lieu of grinding I didn't want to do, I lowered the difficulty to the "Dracky Quest" Easy mode. And it's been strange, since its major conceit is that it won't allow you to die. Any mortal blow still leaves a character with 1 HP; this includes the monster arena, which is the kinda cheese I do enjoy since you get great reward for winning those. Now, I would have preferred some kind of attack/HP rebalancing instead of perma-endure so I felt my equipment/party choices still mattered for something.

Progress: Reached Zoma's castle so I'll probably beat it tomorrow. I've still been having lots of fun rounding up monsters and exploring, so it hasn't been a total wash. For being a Famicom game originally, the scope is pretty staggering. Still, I'm an FF guy at heart.

SHOWS:

An absolute delight from start to finish and probably the best Star Wars production of the Disney era after Andor. I'm legit sad it's over with no Season 2 in sight.

Castlevania: Nocturne season 2

After feeling a bit whelmed by the first season, other than the surprising inclusion of Juste, I felt this one was an overall improvement and an interesting adaptation of series elements without being bogged down by them. Plus it embraces Castlevania's SMT-like side. Fingers crossed for more with this same creative team; they seem to have planted some seeds for a potential future Soma story within this season.

YouTube

I watch a lot of Dan McClellan, a Bible scholar and his companion Data over Dogma podcast.

[artimeanatheart]

Aaron Character Analysis-Quests Book One

Time to start Quests! This one's only going to be one part, because Aaron's barely in the book. He has about one scene and we don't even get his POV. I think this is the one book in the whole series where we don't get Aaron's POV. But! Not seeing a lot of him or learning much about what he was up to during the time skip leaves lots of room for fics and headcanons!

He's Happy!

"Unfortunately, Aaron would never tell the story, and Alex didn't like to-he said it still hurt to think about and he wanted to forget it."

I feel like Quests gets a lot of hate, but it's really not that bad. Sure, I'd say as a whole it's not as strong a series as the first seven books, but it has some really good stuff going on. And Dragon Captives is actually a pretty strong start to the series.

"Thisbe and Fifer loved to hear about how Aaron had once been very bad and had killed Artime's beloved Mr. Marcus Today, because it was such a horrible story. It seemed so unreal and impossible when they thought of their loving brother and this peaceful land they lived in, that they sometimes forgot it was true. It occurred to Thisbe that if Aaron could have changed so much since those days, maybe Alex could have too."

One thing it does pretty well is introduce the idea that stories, even stories about things that actually happened, don't reflect the reality, which goes on to become a pretty major throughline for the rest of the series, if I'm remembering right. One of the ways it does that is through the lack of the older Stowe twins' physical presence while the presence of their stories is referenced quite frequently throughout the book. Mostly in Fifer and Thisbe thinking about their relationship with Alex and how they wish he was more like the Alex from the stories. But that's also true for how they think about Aaron.

"Thisbe grinned. She still felt terrible about hitting the beast, but Aaron almost always made her feel better about everything."

We see that Fifer and Thisbe have a pretty good relationship with Aaron (partially because Alex was the one who raised them so Aaron actually got to be their brother instead of a father figure). They get along with him and Thisbe especially feels comforted by his presence. They hear the stories about when he was evil and the things he did and they just can't imagine it. How could their compassionate, quiet older brother kill someone?

"Fifer couldn't picture her kind, gentle brother Aaron killing anybody. He was ashamed of it, he'd said once. His biggest wish was that he could go back to Quill when he and Alex were ten and take the blame for drawing in the dirt, for he had broken the law in Quill too-he just hadn't been caught. That way both brothers would have been declared Unwanted and sent to their deaths, and they'd have magically found themselves in Artime together. And maybe Aaron wouldn't have done so many things he regretted."

But we know how. We lived through that time with Aaron and were right beside him as he fought his way into being a better person. Fifer and Thisbe have only ever met the redeemed Aaron and are too immature at this point in the story to understand just how much people can change. This contrast in how we view Aaron (and also Alex) versus how Fifer and Thisbe view Aaron sets up some nice dissonance in the series.

"Aaron looked up at the noise, and his smile spread and lit up his tired eyes. He set down the two gourds he was holding and opened his arms wide. The girls went to him to give him a hug."

Anyways, onto Aaron's brief appearance in this book. He's happy! He's smiling and soft and making jokes.  It feels so earned to see him happy. Like I said, we watched him fight for this peace and happiness, so it's rewarding to see it get paid off. A purely happy Aaron is a very rare Aaron to see. We don't see him happy at all in the first five books of the series, maybe a little hesitantly happy in books six and seven, but mostly stressed and lonely and unsure. And after this book, well. . .he's going through it. So I'm enjoying seeing him happy while it lasts.

"While Quill, with Artime on its southern border, made up the middle island of the seven in this world, this one was called the Island of Shipwrecks, and it was the easternmost island of the narrow triangular chain. This island had once been ruled by a constant hurricane. Back then it had been stark and ugly, but now the sun shone six days out of seven on a maze of rock structures, with blooming flower beds and gardens all around."

Aaron has also made his home on the Island of Shipwrecks. He can always pop on over to Artime to say hi to Alex and his sisters, but he doesn't live there even though I'm sure Alex would have been happy to have him. He's pretty notably absent from Artime on the Day of Remembrance. He didn't seem to have any intention to go over until Fifer and Thisbe brought the news of Hux's arrival and no one seemed to be expecting him. I wonder if he thinks he'd be unwelcome in Artime on the Day of Remembrance, even though he helped them win the battle that the day's the anniversary of. If that's what he's thinking, then I don't necessarily think he'd be wrong, considering what happens later in this serries.

"A few minutes later Aaron strode in, his son Daniel wrapped in a blanket in one arm, apparently asleep again. Aaron had several long, thick vines draped over his opposite shoulder."

Another fun thing about Aaron in this book: he's a dad! I think it's fun that he's implied to have popped by the Jungle with Daniel. He's likely already introduced him to Panther. I do wish that we'd gotten to see more of him parenting but I'll take what we got (that's pretty much my relationship with his arc in Quests in a nutshell). It also leaves a lot of room open for speculation and fic-writing. I enjoy imagining some hurt/comfort stuff with Aaron having doubts about his ability to be a father and Kaylee or the scientists comforting him. There's no way he didn't have doubts about that.

"The practice had troubled Henry horribly, so he'd set out to make the transition less traumatic for the newcomers. From the time he and Thatcher were barely twenty, they began adopting Unwanteds, and now they had quite the large family."

It's also kind of interesting that he and Kaylee got married at twenty-two and then waited five years to start having kids. Twenty-seven is still young to be a parent, in our world, but it's kind of established that people in Quill/Artime tend to have kids young. Nadia must have been in her twenties or early thirties when she had Alex and Aaron to have had Fifer and Thisbe fifteen years later. Carina was in her early twenties when she had Seth, and that wasn't treated as anything unusual. Henry's only twenty-three in this book and Thatcher's around his age and they've already been adopting kids for years. And no one seemed to have an issue with passing off a couple of toddlers onto Alex to raise when he was only seventeen. The fact that Aaron and Kaylee waited a while after getting married to have kids in this context points to the fact that one or both of them didn't feel ready to be a parent for years.

"Kaylee began. 'Aaron, just when I realized I'd never see the family I loved ever again, you came along. You're everything I'm not-the complete opposite of me. You're quiet, private, caring, and adorably naive. You're my best friend and the love of my life. I'm so happy. . .' She broke down a little, and a wave of anguish clouded her eyes, but she went forward. 'I'm so happy that when I lost everything, I found you.'"

Speaking of Aaron and Kaylee. . .we get to see their wedding scene! At least in the B&N exclusive edition. I really needed that sweet, fluffy scene after the ending of this book. Even though the scene was more about Alex, Sky, Fifer, and Thisbe than either of the couples getting married (because Lani and Samheed got married at the same time, which is actually kind of funny considering the fact that Sam low-key hates Aaron).

"Aaron wiped his eyes and swallowed hard. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and said, 'Kaylee, you're immensely brave-a hero. And full of surprises, and so much laughter, even with all you've gone through. You feel everything, every emotion, very deeply. I admire that so much. You teach me something new every day. Without you. . .well, I don't know what kind of man I'd be. You make me better. I want to be with you. . .forever. As long as possible.'"

Anyways, Aaron and Kaylee's part of the scene is just very cute. The two of them really love each other for who they are and not who they think the other could be. Neither of them goes into the relationship with an 'I can fix him/her' attitude. They don't try to force their partner to grow. Even so, just being around each other makes both of them want to grow anyways. They probably have one of the healthiest romantic relationships in the series. Unlike some of the other couples, who we never see without each other or who start spiraling when they're apart (like uh. . .Lanheed and Skylex respectively), Aaron and Kaylee are still their own people who are capable of functioning on their own. They're not attached at the hip and are still two independent characters but they're always happy to come home to each other at the end of the day.

This book does a good job on getting us up to speed with where Aaron is now and setting him up for his arc later in the series. Even though Aaron isn't in this book much, the couple moments we get with him are so in character and make me so happy to read about. This is exactly where I would have wanted Aaron to be ten years post-Island of Dragons. He's happy and stable and content with his life. Unfortunately, that's not going to last.