#ritual alice

[katabay]

ALEX CASEY

—I remembered dying in this alley in a dream I had. He was just gonna keep killing me here, loop by loop."

fucking obsessed with what's going on with Casey, in both the narrative and the game play. most immediately, tho, it's just the way that he Has To Die in order for Wake and You the Player to get a gun and a flashlight. sometimes the narrative-gameplay requires a sacrifice-body! feed it your creation, Alan!! except. that's not entirely your creation. there is some 'the things we create when we're scared and want to be rescued' happening re: Alan with Casey. also. the dark presence. the way it gets a hold of Casey is less like a possession and more like a violent penetration or infection. turning these thoughts around in my head like they're on a microwave plate.

also this too

The Scapegoat, Rene Girard (trans. Yvonne Freccero)

bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost

[cissa-calls]

The bridge of the Ballad of the Witches Road (Rock version):

“If I can’t reach you,

Let my song teach you,

What you need to keep our love alive.

If I can’t hold you,

Remember what I told you.

It’s the only way we survive.

We survive!”

The initial blast of words like crying out, like Alice’s mom is pleading out to the world in hopes that her daughter hears. Alice realizing it was written and performed to open the door to the road at concerts and to protect her from the generational curse. To teach other witches how to protect each other. And when she realizes the ballads full potential to not only save the coven, but her love and memories with her mom, she finally unleashes her magic and plays that piano like a witch. The swelling of the music with hope and agency as the entire coven realize that they have survived, witches will survive no matter how many times they are burned (both figuratively and literally). Alice and her coven will continue that legacy, they will prevail and sing this ritual. And maybe Lorna Wu didn’t break the curse in time to do it physically, but she and her love for Alice survives through song.

[lostinmac]

Train Rides in Japanese Cinema

1. Haru (1996)

2. Ritual (2000)

3. All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)

4. A Gentle Breeze in the Village (2007)

5. Hana & Alice (2004)

6. Mio on the Shore (2019)

7. After the Storm (2016)

8. Happy Hour (2015)

9. Nobody Knows (2004)

10. Cafe Lumiere (2003)

[prodigaldaughteralice]

tonight I’m thinking about how in practically every one of ND’s drawings of Ambrosius and Ballister as young knights/squires, they’re absolutely all over each other. Arms around shoulders, head in lap, Ambrosius jumping onto Ballister’s back or looking over his shoulder at a desk by plastering himself to him. Hands in hair and on waists.

and then thinking about how strange it must be to go from having that all the time to being completely alone

[sabinahahn]

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

Miss Stein gets up every morning about ten and drinks some coffee, against her will. She’s always been nervous about becoming nervous and she thought coffee would make her nervous, but her doctor prescribed it. Miss Toklas, her companion, gets up at six and starts dusting and fussing around.… Every morning Miss Toklas bathes and combs their French poodle, Basket, and brushes its teeth. It has its own toothbrush.

Miss Stein has an outsize bathtub that was especially made for her. A staircase had to be taken out to install it. After her bath she puts on a huge wool bathrobe and writes for a while, but she prefers to write outdoors, after she gets dressed. Especially in the Ain country, because there are rocks and cows there. Miss Stein likes to look at rocks and cows in the intervals of her writing. The two ladies drive around in their Ford till they come to a good spot. Then Miss Stein gets out and sits on a campstool with pencil and pad, and Miss Toklas fearlessly switches a cow into her line of vision. If the cow doesn’t seem to fit in with Miss Stein’s mood, the ladies get into the car and drive on to another cow. When the great lady has an inspiration, she writes quickly, for about fifteen minutes. But often she just sits there, looking at cows and not turning a wheel.

From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

#dailyrituals #inktober #gertrudeStein @masoncurrey

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark -- Fun With Trauma

Hi all -- it's time to talk about my VITD trio again! Specifically, today we're discussing their Traumas! :D Now, "Trauma" in Blades In The Dark refers to a condition your scoundrel picks up when they max out their stress during the course of their adventure -- once they fill up all their stress boxes, they have some sort of mental break, can no longer participate in the rest of the current score, and develop a new specific personality quirk that will haunt them for the rest of the adventures. A character can develop four traumas before they have to be retired from life as a scoundrel (either literally retiring or being thrown into jail as a sacrifice to the Bluecoats). On the plus side, each new trauma is also a chance to earn extra XP -- if your character struggles with the side effects of a trauma during a score, you can mark a point or two of XP for it and level up your character a little bit faster. The book has eight potential traumas for scoundrels to pick up -- Cold, Haunted, Obsessed, Paranoid, Reckless, Soft, Unstable, and Vicious -- but as I've thought about my trio and where I want them to go (and what other systems in the book I'd like to use), I've come up with somewhat more bespoke traumas for them:

-->Alice: Our favorite Cutter actually starts with a trauma -- as I've mentioned before, I looked at the description for the Haunted trauma -- "You’re often lost in reverie, reliving past horrors, seeing things" (pg 14) -- and went "yeah, that pretty well covers her hallucinations of Wonderland." (It's the reason she also gets two starting abilities instead of just one -- trade-off!) As for her next potential trauma, I was initially considering Vicious -- "You seek out opportunities to hurt people, even for no good reason" -- but then decided that perhaps a slightly more logical one would be a tweaked form called Overprotective -- "You make sure everyone knows that what's yours is yours, to the point of violence." Alice is, of course, protective of Victor and Smiler even before she picks up this particular trauma, but afterward, she can get a little overenthusiastic about keeping danger away from them, simply because she doesn't want to lose the people she loves again. That house fire where her family died did a number on her head, after all! The pair probably have to rein her in sometimes to make sure she doesn't accidentally cause them more trouble trying to keep them safe. I don't have a specific scene in mind for what triggers it, but I know it would have to involve Victor and/or Smiler getting hurt and her just letting loose to protect them.

-->Victor: My initial ideas for a trauma for our lovely Whisper were Paranoid -- "You imagine danger everywhere; you can’t trust others" -- as the result of a particularly dangerous score that spooked him badly, or Obsessed -- "You’re enthralled by one thing: an activity, a person, an ideology" -- as the result of him getting a little too much into studying the dangerous magic of Duskwall...but then, while researching the Ritual special ability to figure out how to create new rituals for Victor to use, I found the sample ritual "Portal to the Depths" -- which involves singing an ancient song to open a portal up into the Void Sea, swamping anyone unlucky enough to be in front of it with its dark water filled with mysterious starlight and dragging them into the cold depths. The thing is, whenever someone uses this ritual, along with taking six stress, they must also tick a progress clock called "Seduced By The Leviathan's Song."

Cue me coming up with a scene where Victor, having filled up that progress clock, is with Alice and Smiler at The Docks (yes, this the name of a neighborhood in the city; it is self-explanatory) -- and ends up getting mind-controlled by the song of a nearby Leviathan into nearly walking off one of said docks to either drown or get devoured. Fortunately, this is after the trio have started playing with hypnosis in their private lives, and Smiler and Alice are able to stop him in his tracks by invoking their control over his mind -- but the experience leaves Victor with the custom trauma Phobia -- "You are terrified of a particular person, thing, or place and refuse to be near it." As you might imagine, Victor's terror revolves around the ocean, and he refuses to be anywhere near it if he can -- no more scores involving The Docks for this trio!

-->Smiler: Deciding on any trauma conditions for our cheerful combination Leech/Slide was a bit tricky for me at first -- not only is Smiler a naturally-cheery person who takes a lot of things that would stress out others in stride (see them very casually talking to ghosts in "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of"), they also of course end up in possession of the ability Functioning Vice, which allows them to adjust how much stress they clear when indulging their Vice and makes emptying out that track between scores a lot easier. I really wasn't sure which of the ones on offer would actually fit them --

And then. While reading through the "Changing The Game" section of the book, I stumbled across the "Forgotten Gods" section in "Advanced Abilities and Permissions." Which details what happens when your character opens their mind to a forgotten god -- including access to the ability Glorious Visage, which allows the character to hit everyone in the vicinity with an image of the god's form, costing them three stress and causing everyone around them to at least flee in fear or be paralyzed with dread. The more traumatized the character, the more harm they can do, up to killing a specific person by shattering their mind. I was like "Oooooo, wow, creepy but neat" --

And then I was like "Smiler's already been touched by their god..."

Cue the creation of the custom trauma Vessel -- "Your body is capable of hosting the will of a forgotten god -- and they know it." The way I see this working for Smiler is, the first time they overmax their stress, their god Mar-Mal sees this, is like "!!! Let me help!" and straight-up possesses their body for the rest of the score. Fortunately they do leave once the danger is passed -- helped by Victor and Alice going "It would make us VERY HAPPY if you gave us Smiler back" -- and Smiler recovers from the experience, but the door has been opened in their head, and it's not being shut anytime soon. The trauma automatically gives them access to the customized special ability Joyous Visage -- where Smiler can use Mar-Mal's power to stun people with happiness (it works a bit like the "Hysteria" power in VTMB's version of the Dementation discipline, with people getting completely incapacitated by laughter) -- but every time Smiler uses that power, a die must be rolled. On a six, they use the power safely and only take two stress; on a five through two, they use the power but Mar-Mal takes an interest in the proceedings, forcing them to take three stress; and on a one, Mar-Mal is like "time to take over again!" and possesses their body for the rest of the score. On the plus side, Mar-Mal automatically succeeds at everything they do while in control of Smiler's body (they are a fucking god, after all); on the minus side, when they leave, Smiler has to deal with Level 2 "Post-Possession Exhaustion" harm (because hosting the power of a god is no joke). Smiler has mixed feelings about this whole situation -- on the one hand, they're super excited that they can host the will of their god and not die, but on the other...they are a little scared that maybe, one day, Mar-Mal won't give their body back...

And there we have it -- three lovely traumas for my characters to suffer with! I don't know yet when they'll come into play during all the various stories I have planned, but they are there when I need them! I'm sure the trio are thrilled. XD

[manifestdestinytarot]

147/366 - reflect•recharge•return

[timmurleyart]

Jane’s addiction. (Señores y señoras: / Nosotros tenemos más influencia con sus hijos que tú tiene, pero los queremos) 🔥🎤🔥🎶

[rastronomicals]

August 21:

On the 21st of August, 1987, Metallica laid upon us Garage Days Re-revisited, their legendary covers EP.

Like a lot of legendary stuff, when it was re-released and expanded, it wasn't quite so legendary anymore.

On this date in 1990, Alice in Chains released their debut album, Facelift. Certainly one of the best debut albums of the '90's, if not of all times. I still remember the review in Spin that got me to try it out.

Also on that day, Jane's Addiction dropped their third album, and last one that was a big deal, Ritual de lo Habitual.

[imjulia-andilikecats]

WAIT HOLD UP! WAIT A MINUTE!

Note: From a Store Robber to a Feet Rubber

[literarypyrowitch]

TMAGP EP 10 Spoilers

so, when alice and sam left the archives, it sounded like they kept getting farther and farther away. is there a surviving tape? in addition: WHO OR WHAT WAS THAT DISTORTED MONSTER AT THE END????

[ambreiiigns]

i wanna be someone who listens to misfits full time again wtf is ghost

[prodigaldaughteralice]

Comic-universe Nimona oneshot, 2.8k.

When Ballister’s father sold him to the institution, their legal relationship was severed. When he dies, ten years later, it doesn’t make much of a difference. That man’s not his father anymore, after all. Ambrosius accompanies him to his grave anyway.

[lots-of-lesbeans-2]

me when i have a french test tomorrow and i haven't studied at all:

[i-say-spooky-you-say-scary]

Finally started listening to The Magnus Protocol and ohhhh boy this is gonna be rough lol. I got to marathon most of TMA because I started listening by the time the show was part way into season 5 and I can’t imagine how agonizing it must have been to wait for new episodes between some of the cliffhangers and mysteries earlier in the show. But I’m sure it’s also gonna be great. I’m 6 episodes in and fascinated by what’s going on so far. And of course I’m also like okay which one of you poor fucks is getting the Sasha James treatment before too long?

[manifestdestinytarot]

142/366 - gained•lost•remained