#respawn mention

[proxythe]

as long as ur my partner in time >_>

[feyinvestigations]

Quick Question for Respawn fans-- does this little dude have a name? Or even like. A fanname? Is there a group consensus or is it sort of a "name him yourself" thing?

[recursivetransformarray]

the fixed camera glitch saga

[nor3gertz]

apparently you CAN play postal 97 co-op/multiplayer. but its just that the npcs constantly swarm at u like roaches. and ur pc would run like shit. 4/10

[kittycatred]

Hmm... WAIT, RED-

You're able to talk to some of the others on this device, yes? Like Green and Blue? What if you texted them and asked one to go through the portal and find the coordinates of said portal?? Then you could use a compass to find your way back!

(ooc: I'm sure they're VERY available rn-)

hmm well.... that's an...idea...

however, knowing my friends...

if i were to text green right now he'll probably would just say "well MAYBE you should have listened to me !!" or something like that

...which, okay !! fair enough !! but i dont wanna hear that right now !! ugh....

and blue ?? they just got back from minecraft, i highly doubt they'd go back for a rescue mission for me right now, besides....last i heard before they left they had a headache, so the trip probably took too much of a toll on them to come help me anyways...

besides, even if they could....i dont wanna leave without ruben...

we've been through too much, he's always been there and helped save me, so now i have to help save him

[cer-rata]

Fic WIP: "Miniboss"

Talia dabs gently at her eyelids to remove the day's cosmetics. The nights she spent in her youth recklessly falling asleep with a face full of makeup are distant echoes. She has reached a point in her life where the consequences of failing to manage her affairs, even the small ones, weigh heavier than they used to. As one grows, so too does the burden of mortality. It isn't that she doesn't understand her father's desire to transcend those limits, but he taught her through bleak experience what the cost of rejecting one's humanity is. So she chooses to mitigate them though self-care instead.

She finishes cleaning her face and goes to recline on her chaise, intending to sacrifice an hour of sleep to remind herself of the joys of fiction, and the value in dreaming through the perspective of another.

Then comes the voice at her door.

“Mistress Talia! The Lantern is here." They sigh. "…Again.”

Talia groans. She doesn't regret giving the boy her blessing, she is fond of him, and he seems to be just as devoted to her son as he was when he'd been considering killing her. She just…did not expect to see him so often. She spends time with him far more than Damian these days, often without warning, often with questions about history or language or strategy. Damian was also a frequent topic, but that goes without saying. She enjoys the attention, frankly. It has been a long time since she felt valued in that way. She wishes that she could share a similar dynamic with her son, but he doesn't owe her that, and she has neither the desire nor the right to demand it. There's the unspoken hope that Conrad may put in a good word for her, bring Damian with him on a visit perhaps, but she dares not speak that either. She knows that she stands on a lattice of glass and that one unwisely weighed step could lead to ruin.

All that being said, she still does not appreciate him appearing at this late hour. She fixes her robe to ensure modesty, before instructing the orderly to direct him to her chambers.

She feels him before he reaches her door. Since his return from beyond the stars, he's exerted a certain pressure, as if his body can no longer contain his power without it overflowing. It could have been intimidating if he wasn't so goofy still.

So the first thing Talia notices upon seeing him is his his distinct lack of goofiness. His gait is purposeful and businesslike. It is nothing like the vaguely bouncy, idiosyncratically rhythmed, youthful stride that he falls into when he is excited to see her. His face is neutrally pleasant, but the mask still obscures his eyes. He's even hiding his hands behind his back. He's withholding access to his his feelings. He wants her caught off guard for some reason. Her lips tighten.

“Conrad.”

He inclines his head.

“Beloved Mother-in-law.”

Talia rolls her eyes at his cheeky smirk. “I keep telling you, 'Ms. Talia' is fine, 'Lady Talia' is fine, 'Mother Talia' as well…though I do feel that one ages me some. Nevermind, strike that.”

He snorts. “I'm manifesting the future that I want to see.”

“Uh-huh. Well, if you do not have a truly gripping explanation as to why you've come unannounced at midnight, you may be unable to see any future at all.” She allows herself a smirk to match his.

His smile does sour some at that, but she can tell it has nothing to do with her facetious threat.

"It's not midnight in Gotham, to be fair."

"Ah, so I'm the only one sacrificing my leisure hours. Go on then, your gripping excuse?"

He sighs, and she can tell by the way his shoulders shift that he's fidgeting with his hands.

“Gripping might be an understatement. Or too…neutral. I've come across some evidence that a child was artificially created using a mixture of yours and Slade Wilson's DNA.”

He says it so casually that it takes her a moment to fully grasp his words. “...What? How? When?”

“Supposedly about fourteen years ago. He claims that your father created him to use to…harvest organs from and to torture, basically. Has the scars to prove it. A lot of them. Says that he watched Damian from the shadows as he grew.”

Talia shook her head. “Wh…that's…that doesn't make any sense on even the practical level–sorry, ‘he claims?’ The child is alive?”

“Very alive.” His ring glows and constructs a three-dimensional bust of a teenage boy, with stark white hair, tan skin…and her eyes. Her lips.

“Oh my god.”

“Sounds just like Damian, too.”

Talia stands, putting her at a height with Conrad. She looks into his lenses, and he graciously dismisses them so she can see his eyes. They're a little red.

“I've never…I have no knowledge of this. I…what is his name?”

“Respawn.”

“...Pardon?”

“Ra’s didn't name him apparently, so he picked a one he liked.”

Talia grimaces. “...Like I was saying, that doesn't sound right, not from a practicality standpoint for one thing. Growing replacement organs is incredibly easy, there's no reason to create a person just to…my father was not a good man, especially at the end, but that's a level of sadism that I can't see him reaching. Even in his madness the suffering he caused had purpose other than base cruelty. There was always some kind of tangible dividend. “

Conrad nods. “That's what Bruce and I thought too. Respawn is under the impression you were complicit, but he's not sure. Like, I believe you but…there is a complication.”

“What?”

“I looked through his memories of despair and agony. There were…many of them.” His lips tremble and he looks away, taking a moment to regain his composure. Talia thinks she's going to be sick. “Um, sorry. So I looked for evidence of psychic intrusion, chemical alteration, history of the use of substances that could have have made him pliable to suggestion. Nothing. The memories are clear and…and visceral, and correspond to his scars that cover his body. His healing factor wouldn't let him die. Or pass out.”

Talia’s brow knits as she tries to make sense of this information. “So if you can verify the authenticity of his claims, why are you suspicious of the claim and not of me?”

He crosses his arms. “All I know for sure is that he believes his memories and his memories seem real, that his brain wasn't altered. That doesn't mean it happened how he thinks it did. I need a list of doctors your father employed over the past fifteen years.”

“You intend to find people who can corroborate his story.”

“And bring them to justice for their participation.”

Talia holds her chin and thinks for a moment. “I assume Slade is unaware?”

“As far as any of us know.”

Talia grabs her phone from her table and starts pulling up the requested information, forwarding it to Conrad and Bruce when she gets it.

“Alright, you have your list. Is…” She closes her eyes and takes a breath. “Is Damian alright?”

“No.” He replies honestly. She can hear the bitterness on the back of his tongue.

“Right. I'd very much like to meet this, ‘Respawn, and explain to him that I would never have had a hand in this…evil, and that I'm willing to do everything in my power to assist him with–"

Conrad places a gentle hand on her bicep. She can feel the waves of power flowing over his skin. They're roiling, but she knows he's not powered by anger, so he must be charged with... despair? A paternalistic desire to protect? That was the dangerous one for him to pull from, the one that allowed for concerning levels of violence.

“I know, Talia. I know. Um. Let me see what Bruce and Damian want to do and circle back, okay? I'll put in a good word for you, with the kid too. He's...fairly easy to convince if you're kind of him. Which makes everything worse, I think.”

Talia cups his cheek. “Thank you…my…” She sighs. “...Prospective Son-in-law. What…what is your plan if the culprit is not my father, and still lives?”

Conrad looks into her her eyes for a moment before shrugging. "I dunno, I'm kind of a 'crime of passion' guy usually."

[creature-wizard]

Also with reality shifting, there’s this other part of it called “respawning” which is basically shifting but including death. As in like, you shift but also “take your soul with you” which is said to cause the body to naturally die. (It’s been problematic because people call it suicide, but idek if it’s real so how can it be that)

There is someone who made subliminals on YouTube for this stuff and they supposedly respawned.

But the thing is they did actually die and I have their obituary, I can send it to you, but idk if they actually respawned.

It’s hard to wrap my mind around it, because how did they manage to pass away (and maybe “respawn” into another reality), and yet no one else has? Their family said on social media that their death was unexpected. There was no mention of suicide anywhere. In fact the family initially didn’t know the cause of their death. (I assume the family also didn’t know they were into shifting/respawning)

With as many people who practice reality shifting and attempt respawning, it's not outside the realm of possibility that one of them would just happen to die. And without knowing a lot more information (like possible underlying health issues, for one thing), it's impossible to determine how likely or unlikely this person's death was. (I tend to assume bereaved families downplay and/or overlook a lot in these situations.)

[damian-al-ghul-wayne]

abracadabra

*a copy of yourself with same personality and looks appears besides you*

now u have a twin for the day

Oh.

I already have one of these.

But I suppose another will be fine.

[lonewolfinthetardis]

My experience reading Respawn of the Dead

So I decided to read a classic piece of TF2 fan fiction, Respawn of the Dead. It has glowing reviews and it seemed like an interesting idea for a fan fiction, albeit one I've read countless times. I enjoyed the first few chapters, until I came upon something that stayed with me the entire time I read the fic. The characterisation of the mercs.

Spoilers below the line

Yes I know that this fic was published only two years after the game came out, therefore we knew basically nothing about the backstories of our beloved mercenaries. But the way these characters were written rubbed me the wrong way. These were not the lovable characters that I've come to know and love (the exception being Pyro). These were characters that I had trouble visualising in my head, I could not see them as the beloved mercenaries of Team Fortress 2 (except Pyro again, and sometimes Heavy).

The author of course went down the route of "Medic and Heavy are German and Russian, let's make them an ex-nazi and a communist!", which is something that has me fuming. Of all the possible backstories for those two, the author had to choose that?! I honestly thought it was a joke at first, but nope, that was the backstories they chose for those two much loved characters.

Don't get me started on Soldier! This man is a raging homophobe and xenophobe (the fic's words, not mine). This fan fiction is also the only time I've read Soldier using racial slurs about Demo. There's other issues with Soldier, but I don't have time for that.

Other issues I found with this fic were the constant outdated terms, derogatory names, racisms, and homophobia. While I understand that this fan fiction was set in the 1960's, and those terms were common then, doesn't mean that readers had to go in without knowing what they were in for. Which brings me to my next point!

The tagging, or the non-existant tagging. This fic contains extremely confronting imagery, scenes, and language. You'd think that there would be at least some tags right? Wrong. The only tag is the Heavy/Medic ship tag. No warning of gore, violence, major character death, or implied non-con. No warnings about the racial slurs, bigotry, or just general tags telling the reader what the fic is about.

I genuinely don't know why no-one else has brought up the horrible mischaracterisation in this fic before (yes I know it's 15 years old), and I don't get why so many are praising how well it's written?! There are no paragraph breaks telling you where one scene ends and another begins, which left me confused until I came across context clues.

All in all, this fan fiction left me fuming. I understand not getting the characterisation right due to how new the game was, but a little imagination would've been nice.

The only good thing about this fic was Pyro. They were a lovely character, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. It was definitely a refreshing part of the reading journey.

Respawn of the Dead had an interesting idea, but was executed poorly in some places. While some may love this part of TF2 fan fiction history, I will gladly leave it in my "never read again pile".

[alg1905]

2 Demons 1 Angel Ch4 Abigail: The Forgotten Past

Abigail

I knew both of their voices. The silly mask covering Damian’s eyes hid nothing from me. I just didn’t say anything about it yet because there were more important things to talk about. His rhythm thumped fast. His looks are similar to Daniel, but I am sure they are complete opposites. The large man next to him, I also knew. Hamia. I knew that this was my hamia. It was so long ago.

Damian asked, “What are you two talking about?” He was looking back and forth at me and Jason.

Jason was still staring at me.

I bit my lip. “It was a long time ago. I was a kid.  I was tortured by… him.”

Damian narrowed his eyes. “Who?”

I hesitated. I was looking at the floor biting my lip, I remembered what Daniel said to me. Damian cared about him.  He did right in Damian’s eyes. He treated Damian differently than us. I could never care about him, the one who caused so much pain.  The one who took… them.

Jason spoke for me “Your grandfather.”

I slowly nodded.  Damian looked utterly annoyed, but he was hiding his confusion well, I could still tell.  I mean I have been studying that face for the better part of my life. 

Damian’s voice turned cold.  “Explain.”

I took a deep breath. “The… the old man took me away and he hurt me … for a long time. At some point Jason found me chained next to the pit.” My voice trembled.

“You were probably three or four.  This was the time when I stayed with the league.  For years I didn’t remember much about my past, so Talia made me her personal babysitter for you Damian.”  This part sounded familiar to Damian as he was nodding to Jason. “You were about seven when my memory started to fully come back, I couldn’t leave as I was bound to serve Talia.  Once I had my memory back, I noticed Ras going down to the pits nearly every night, about every third night he would bring water.  After six months of this I decided to investigate. I waited and followed him down, hiding behind a bolder. What I saw … there are no words.” He said looking at me. “After Ras went back up, I went to get a closer look.  I saw you battered, scared, branded, and when you heard me-“

I cut him off “I thought it was him again. Before that night, I thought me and him were the only things that existed.  I knew nothing else. Then …” my voice trailed off; Jason picked back up.

“You were terrified, and I tried to calm you down.  I asked your name, and you hesitated and said ‘child’.” 

I flinched at the name. No at the brand, I was given that still haunts me till this day. Damian noticed but didn’t say anything, though I am sure he will ask later.  Damian’s face appeared to be stone, but I saw the tells.  ‘His left hand tensed around the table because of rage, the slight quivering of his lip not wanting to believe one thing out of our mouths’. He hid them well, but not enough for me not to notice. His rhythm pounding faster, as if he should be running.

Jason continued, “I knew she couldn’t live without a name, something to call her own. I thought and gave you the name Abigail. I told you my name was Jason, and I wasn’t there to hurt you. You were so scared. I quickly undid your chains and picked you up, I couldn’t… leave you there. When we came up, alarms went off and I tried to get you out of there. There were assassins on our tail, and they hit me with something.”

“Metal stars.” I whispered. “Many hit you, you were still running. Finally, he came and stabbed you before we could escape. There were others trapping us, he was… about to kill you when a woman came to us with a kid trailing behind.  She told him no, that she would decide your punishment.” Hot tears rushed down my face, “I thought he still took you and killed you. I don’t remember anything after that other than pain.”

They were both staring at me, Damian was visibly showing his shock. “I am going to check on Daniel”. I said, walking into the other room.  I had told them the first part of my story, I needed to breathe before I brought up anything else.

[lafoget]

post @upswings made me remember about this last year edit 😅

i'm still pretty sure that samian would have reacted to the news about his new “brother” somehow like this lol

[phoenixcatch7]

Okay this WILL BE SPOILERS. For totk.

THE GREAT PLATEAU IS CURSED I DONT LIKE IT ToT.

Made it here fine! Easy cruising altitude got the map landed no problem. Minimal enemies. There's a YIGA camped in MY MFING SHRINE OF RESURRECTION. It's all overgrown, that's fine ig, but the YIGA?? Get tf. Out.

Go see the temple, a new message from hylia! Very ominous, but yes ma'am! Off we go to free her from the water under the stone gate. Which gate? Well my first thought was the main blocked off entrance that's now a pond. But let's get a shrine first.

Shrine?? Hello???!

So not only is each original shiekah shrine now a pit to tartarus, there's only one new shrine tucked in the back end of the plateau where a goblin camp used to be. Fine! I'll just run everywhere on foot with my +1 stamina, shall I??

No! It's time for a wtf to hunt you down! The air will turn red with racing clouds, the sky is dark, music is playing backwards, I'm launching myself up the nearest tree and it still isn't fast enough. This is literally the fifth or sixth time I've encountered these, at least two directly ending in my death. They don't even get a question mark from the camera unlike any other miasma monster (for example the depth enemies). I've filled them with bomb arrows and it's made a fraction of a dent in one of them. Hateful hydra eye arm things. They're FAST and TALL. It's like the spindly flesh monster from oot but a hundred times worse. They nearly managed to reach me in the tallest tree!

They eventually leave - whatever triggers their disappearance I truly cannot tell - and grab the dark shards they leave. Okay! Cool! Unappreciated! I go into the pit by the lake, it is VERY SCARY, I get some light roots and reveal a whole civilisation! Giant zelda statues point to an enormous building in the shadows, I pluck up my courage and go over. ???? It's a poe eater statue. Enormous. Full bodied. Stretching down below the bridge I'm on. It's got six sunken eyes and they're all looking at me. I'm absolutely begging this thing not to move, I'm literally inching closer. This isn't a zonai carving at all, this isn't even a zonai room. They've dug into the rock, they DISCOVERED it.

It says the same thing.

I'm terrified. I'm beginning to think that whatever talked to me through the hylia statue, in the temple of time, with her voice and her light, isn't hylia.

Still, I've come too far to back out. I don't think denying this thing is wise.

Up I go! Run all the way from the shrine, off the edge, detour to find a new type of cave goblin or two, blow up the blocked entrance to the plateau. Through the carvings I can make out sort of a face? Hope it's hylia!

It. It isn't. It's the six eyed triangle face that eats souls :). Tells me to go back to the temple. I run onto the plateau (!!! Botw me would be so excited), get ambushed by four black armoured Bokoblins in a row, see 'hylia'. It tells me to bring its body in the depths stones from the four ex shrine pits 'for a reward'.

Nintendo.

What did you do?

[konakoro]

Yeah, we all know the exes respawn after their defeat, but my favorite little detail was that they specifically respawn on the couch at their mom's place.

Imagining the likes of Lucas and Todd and fucking Gideon just waking up on a couch in a basement and their mom's are like "what the fuck is going on how did you get here" and have to explain that they got their ass handed to them by some Canadian twink

[noctiispiri]

is it just me but i can't play in/see 2fort the same way after watching emesis blue

what could be an average 8 hours on 2fort suddenly feels eerie and weird. everytime i go to a certain area my mind just flashes to a scene tied to it, its insane

probably just brainrot taking over again

[sp1resong]

trying to come up with a comprehensive hc for how cycles work

[shield-of-wesnoth]

The revelation that the largeness of a Wesnoth map isn’t actually supposed to be determined by its measurable dimensions, but by how many turns it takes your units to cross was absolutely mind-blowing for me to find out.  Taking it into account, basically every cave level in UMC (and even many mainline) is a “large” map even if they have an amount of hexes identical to or sometimes even less than that in more traditionally-themed maps...

When I think about it, of course terrain that slows you down makes the map “bigger”!  But I can’t help but wonder how many other UMC devs actually know this little fact.  This web page may be getting to be on the old side, but it has a lot of useful pieces of design advice like that neatly laid out to read.