#so I unliked like 300 posts just now

[arolesbianism]

I love so oni so dearly but I can also tell that I am too much of a lazy bitch for this game sometimes lol. There's definitely a lot of features that I could make such great use of if I bothered to actually try using them but I will forever do things the more wasteful and inconvenient way because that's just how I roll babey

[genericpuff]

Dyou ever feel disappointed (?) that there aren't more eyes on LR? I know you keep it on the DL to avoid Rachel's wrath but I 100% know the only reason it's not more popular is that not enough people know about it. You put in a lot of work that we all really love but I know the notes count could be higher. Is this something you care about? We can try to spread it more if so, but going back to the Rachel/not intruding on LO spaces point...

Ouu so that's a good question, but honestly... nah, not really. And I'm not even saying that to be "humble" or whatever, it's literally just... what y'all are seeing in Rekindled is, to me, a step away from my usual patterns and habits that I've been dealing with for years now. It's forced me out of my comfort zones, but most importantly, it's got me creating purely for the fun of it, for the self-indulgence, without any of the usual pressures I've forced upon myself in the past for the work I do to "mean something" or for it to "be successful". It's not just the tip of a massive iceberg, it's practically a whole ass detour. Rekindled is like one of those road trip movies where the reluctant stickler gets strung along by the aloof weirdos, driven off the beaten path, and winds up realizing by the end of the crazy journey that it was worth taking the long way home.

That's not to say making Rekindled doesn't come with its own unique pressures or that I don't take it seriously, but they're different from the pressures I've dealt with in the past and the nature of Rekindled being what it is means... I don't have to take it as seriously as the car crash that was my original work prior to it? 💀😆 (which I already took way more seriously than what was healthy for me, in hindsight). Like I can take it seriously as a creative project that I wanna see through, especially where it's meant to "fix" stuff that felt misguided / done poorly in LO, but because it's effectively fanfiction, I can separate it from the expectations that came from my original work. It can never pay my bills, so I don't have to worry about it doing so. It shouldn't be the only thing I'm ever known for, so I don't need it to amount to my legacy.

A good example of what I mean are what you brought up - the notes count. Thing is, compared to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook and even Youtube, posting exclusively to Tumblr over the past couple years has been great for my mental health. Unlike those other platforms, my follower count isn't on full display to both myself and others. There's no real bearing on notes beyond clout, and that clout only exists within Tumblr - going "viral" on this hellsite doesn't amount to the same things as going viral on a platform like Twitter, for the most part my work still stays within its respective audience where it's meant to be and even if I do have an episode "take off" in notes... it doesn't really matter? Like to me there's virtually no difference between a post that has 300 notes and a post that has 30,000 notes. And I actually do have a couple posts that have "taken off" like that. It's neat but it's also like... okay, life goes on. Except now I'm gonna keep getting notifications about that one post forever LMAO

Granted, it would be different if the posts were actually intended to get as many eyes on it as possible - like if they were posts meant to generate income in some way through advertising Patreon, Ko-Fi, merch shops, etc. - but it's rare that I ever do that because obviously with Rekindled being what it is, I can't really profit off it anyways.

And that's okay! I've spent enough years worrying over the online "gains" and bearing the weight of my work's responsibility to my livelihood on my shoulders.

Rekindled is fun. Even when it's stressful, when an episode goes up late or when I'm still finding myself procrastinating, it's fun. It's neat that it now has a TV Tropes page and that there are some Youtubers who talk about it every now and then, but... the novelty of those things comes paired with the pressure and fear of knowing my work is being perceived outside of my own scope. Sure, that's just what happens when you share your work online, but even I , in all of the hubris I had to have to create Rekindled in the first place, can't pretend like I'm infallible to that sort of thing. Every time a Youtuber talks about it, every time there's a thread in /r/webtoons about it, every time someone besides myself uses the #lore rekindled tags, I have to live with the small but real consequences of doing what I do - the anons taking it upon themselves to judge me in my own inbox, the Youtube commenters forming their own opinions based on what they assume are my intentions (even when those assumptions are often false), the redditors arguing back and forth over the virtue of transformative rewrites.

It's a small price to pay, for everything that I do here. I can't very well sit here on my pedestal talking shit about something like LO without taking some of that shit in return regarding my own work. It's only natural people will have misinformed opinions about what I do, or will take it upon themselves to dissect and debate and discuss my work regardless of whether they even like the work or not. I try to take it as proactively as I can, that it's a metric of success in and of itself - what I'm making has made people feel something, for some joy, and for others, frustration. The art has done everything it could ever do, for better and for worse - it's made people feel and think and talk. Most of all, it's made me feel and think and talk, and create, and experiment, and fail, and succeed in ways I never thought myself capable before. It's more than I ever expected - and all I really needed to come out of all this.

----------

All that aside, it's not like Rekindled isn't already doing a lot in the way of "expanding my reach", so to speak. Though it is just Tumblr, I've gotten to meet so many amazing readers and writers and artists through this project, and that's at the heart of why I make comics at all. I'm not joking or exaggerating when I say that Rekindled literally couldn't be what it is without the community that surrounds it. And that's a community that I'm hoping will still be interested in hanging with lil' old me even after Rekindled is over.

Rekindled isn't my first rodeo and it certainly won't be my last. In fact, I'm currently (finally) overcoming some of the burnout that's been persisting over the past couple years with my original project, and I'm breaking down walls I literally couldn't have broken down before. I hadn't realized I had been suffocating, and Rekindled wound up being that breath of fresh air that I needed to live again.

It's gonna take time, and there's still a lot of healing happening on my end, but I'm making plans again for what I really wanna do esp for when Rekindled is over, and it's exciting, and scary, and most of all, hopeful.

So all that's to say, if you (anon) or you (everyone else) are really interested in "boosting" my work and getting more eyes on it... well, I suppose I better start sharing more of it outside of just Rekindled, shouldn't I? I hope that when I do, it's welcomed as eagerly as you all welcomed Rekindled. It'll be quite different, and likely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope all the work I've done on Rekindled so far - and what we still have left to accomplish in the future - proves what I'm capable of and allows for the opportunity to really connect with my work, wholly me. Y'all took a chance on me when I first started posting those lil' glow edits and the first scrappy sketches of Rekindled back in the day, so I hope when the time comes, y'all can take that chance on me again <3

And hey, here's a fun fact for you to close out this long response - though it might not be a major platform, judging by the metrics I can see on the surface from other comics alongside it, I'm pretty sure Rekindled is carrying like 90% of the current traffic numbers on Dillyhub LMAO Like seriously, the next highest liked / subbed comic I could find on there didn't even amount to a third of the amount of likes and subs I have on there just through Rekindled. It's actually hilarious, but also kinda sad, because damn... the devs really have abandoned that place. So it's not exactly all that impressive. But that's pretty much exactly why I chose it as a mirror in the first place - I sure as shit wasn't gonna test my luck posting it to Webtoons or Tapas, and the only reason I even wanted a mirror site in the first place was to give non-Tumblr users a place to read it (without being badgered to make an account and without having to sift through all my rants and essays LMAO) so Dillyhub just kinda made sense as a place that was functional enough to host it but not big enough to draw any unwanted attention. Sooo I guess what I'm saying is, you're welcome Dillyhub?? 😆

[hoodoowoman]

5 sins of ts3 CC-creators...

I started my annual revision of CC for my lepacy save, and I just want to rant about CC... But before that THANK YOU TO ALL ACTIVE TS3 CC CREATORS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING, THIS IS JUST TO GIVE US ALL (ME INCLUDED) SOME IDEAS REGARDING IMPROVEMENTS WE CAN MAKE. 1. No polycount in post. As a gamer who experienced huge in game lags because I was using thousands of 3454981345976134856786 poly stuff now I consider what to put in my game more carefully. It takes a lot of time to check every item I've downloaded in bulk (usually it's more than 300 items at once) whether it's ok or no for my game (I'm using up to 15k hair and up to 10k other stuff) and would be great if all had a habit to put polys in infobox about their cc. Would save a huge amount of time, really. You can check it in s3pe, tsrw or blender. 2. No custom thumb. I understand, we all are lazy at times, and not all of us pro photographers, BUT it really helps to identify CC and author (if all thumbs have something in common) if there is something you want to get rid of. It takes literally 5 mins to do a custom thumb. 3. Not making unisex stuff actually unisex. Come on, guys, it's a 21st century. Males deserve more love in ts3. And don't get me started about other ages… Basically, that's why I started converting, because I CRAVE more unisex and uniage CC. 4. Not checking suitable categories for your stuff. Loafers in athletic or sleepwear? That gorgeous hair is perfect for the official outfit, but it's nowhere to be found in that category. And my favourite — high heels for swimwear, so your sims could swim with style👠! For a ccholic like me with f.e. 1000+ items only in “Hair” folder, it sounds like a nightmare to click EVERY item and check categories. I'll do it anyway (cause ts3 has me in a chokehold T.T) but I mean........ 5. Not making recolorable preset. Unlike TS4, TS3 has beautiful colour wheel! Non-recolorable presets might be good, but what truly gives you freedom is to recolour it however you'd like. Please, please, PLEASE make at least one recolorable preset for your stuff. I'm begging you on my knees 🧎‍♀️ You can revisit your old CC to make it better, you can reupload the file on SFS, and it will still have the same link. Let's make ts3 cc better. It deserves it. You can add anything else you want to be improved in the comments section, yeah...

[enchanting-chit-chat]

Beetlejuice's Backstory and the Black Plague 💚🕷️🥀💀 PART 2

Hello, hellooo! I’m thrilled that so many of you enjoyed my previous post! 🎊 This is the second part of a series dedicated to the Black Plague era, BJ’s past life, and other movieverse theories.

If you missed it, here is PART 1.

Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) and many, MANY speculations.

In the previous segment, I analyzed various pieces of evidence and concluded that Beetlejuice was:

definitely a plague survivor.

possibly a monatto by profession (though this is still debatable).

most likely Italian, living in Italy during one of the historically significant outbreaks in European history.

However, we still haven’t addressed the million-euro question: Which plague outbreak did he live through when he was alive? And the reason I avoided this question until now is that it’s basically impossible to tell for now. Here’s why:

Reason number 1. The two most notable outbreaks in Italian history occurred in 1350 and 1630. However, after the first incident, the disease reappeared in smaller epidemics every few years across Europe. Additionally, upon rechecking my sources, I discovered three more significant outbreaks:

in 1658, mainly affecting Naples.

in 1749, confined to Sicily and Calabria.

the very last one, in 1815, affecting the Bari area (Noicattaro)

After these outbreaks, the disease seemingly disappeared from Italy for good, which is great news but leaves us with many possibilities.

Reason number 2. In both movies, Beetlejuice has repeatedly proven to be an unreliable narrator. This means we can’t take his origin story at face value.

For instance, his claim of being over 600 years old completely contrasts with the clothes he and Delores are wearing in the backstory sequence. That style of fashion is typical of the Baroque period, which flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s.

To keep it brief: Beetlejuice’s neckband, his three-piece suit, and Delores’ outfit visually suggest that the backstory is likely set in the 17th century and definitely did not occur before the 16th century.

On top of that, consider that Tim Burton navigated various historical periods throughout his filmography: think about Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, Big Eyes, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I believe that it’s unlikely that historical inaccuracies were unintentional.

For context, here is what Beetlejuice and Delores would wear if their story was actually set in the Middle Ages, around the 1300s-1400s:

…not quite the same impression they give during the backstory, is it? And lace cravats were invented in the 1660s. This fact alone is significant because:

It would suggest that Beetlejuice is actually 'younger' that what he stated: Personally, I believe he might be around 300-400 years old. However, this is just an approximation, and I might be wrong.

It would imply that the backstory he narrated and showed us might be a lie (partially or entirely).

Or… perhaps he lied earlier about being 600 years old, but the backstory is the actual truth? Maybe he never learned to count properly… who knows?

My point is that there’s no way to discern what is true and what isn’t. All I can do is analyze what I see with my own eyes, hoping to find some answers. And yes, this means that, in PART 3, I’m going to delve into historical fashion, in unnecessary detail.

But that’s fine, I enjoy making sacrifices for this team. 😀

Until then, have a fantastic week! ✨

[kimberleyjean]

What did Adam change? (Part 1)

To follow up on my recent reblog about the baby swap, I'm going to take a closer look at Adam where we leave him at the end of S1. Because, by the end of S1, Adam had changed quite a few things... and I'm going to use both the TV show and the book to provide evidence.

To become the Young's real son, I don't think Adam really needed to change all that much. He just says the words to Satan, Satan disappears, and that should be it, right? But no, because Adam goes much further, and I think he does it because he can.

Because Adam has opinions, you see. Opinions on how the world should be and what he wants to happen. Except, unlike Agnes, who needs to write a prophecy and then wait 300 years for her descendant to enact it, Adam can just make it so.

The Other Two Babies

I originally thought about putting all the things Adam changes into a single post, but instead I'm going to make this a short series of posts, because he changes a fair bit. Let's start with where we left off with the baby swap, crack open a copy of the book and discuss the changes for Warlock and Greasy first.

Warlock

Here's some excerpts of Warlock flying home from Megiddo to America (my bolds for emphasis):

It was Sunday afternoon. High over England a 747 droned westwards. In the first-class cabin a boy called Warlock put down his comic and stared out of the window.

...

And now he was going back to the States. There had been some sort of problem with tickets or flights or airport destination-boards or something. It was weird; he was pretty sure his father had meant to go back to England. Warlock liked England. It was a nice country to be an American in.

...

And Warlock flew on to America. He deserved something (after all, you never forget the first friends you ever had, even if you were all a few hours old at the time) and the power that was controlling the fate of all mankind at that precise time was thinking: Well, he's going to America, isn't he? Don't see how you could have anythin' better than going to America. They've got thirty-nine flavors of ice cream there. Maybe even more.

So it's Adam who has sent Warlock back to America, despite Warlock wanting (even, expecting) to be on his way to England. And he's controlling the fate of all mankind.

Greasy

Likewise, he has changes for Greasy Johnson too (the discarded baby who grows up to win prizes for his tropical fish).

The plane was at that point passing right above the Lower Tadfield bedroom of Greasy Johnson, who was aimlessly leafing through a photography magazine that he'd bought merely because it had a rather good picture of a tropical fish on the cover. A few pages below Greasy's listless finger was a spread on American football, and how it was really catching on in Europe. Which was odd… because when the magazine had been printed, those pages had been about photography in desert conditions. It was about to change his life.

Adam is deciding here how to alter Warlock and Greasy's paths. Warlock wants to be back in the UK, but Adam thinks America is better, while Greasy's magazine is changed to American football, which I guess is implying he's going to become an American footballer.

Now, not everyone may be aware, but these parts weren't in the first release of the novel. It only came about later, in the American edition. Apparently the changes were in response to prompting from the American editor, but they got "carried away" making those changes (source).

Season 3 (warning: speculation)

So, do you think this could be relevant for S3? For me personally, the fact that these bits were added later makes me wonder if this was helping to set up for a potential sequel. It's certainly poetic - just like the baby swap that originally involved all three, we are now implying a potential adolescent swap of Greasy, who is interested in American football, and Warlock, who is interested to return to the U.K.

If you've read at all about the hypothetical plot of the proposed written sequel, you'll know that it involved a trip to America, ostensibly to look for a lost Jesus. So, if the next book was originally meant to be about going and finding someone (Jesus?) in America, then Greasy or Warlock could make sense. It would be a switcheroo all over again if Warlock had left for the UK and Greasy for America.

Another alternative is that all three could end up converging in America, since Warlock already lives there and both Adam and Greasy have interests in going there. But if that's the intention, why mention that Warlock wants to be back "home" in the U.K.?

So, those are my possible takes on how this passage can be interpreted. I know there are some theories that either Greasy or Warlock may be the Second Coming. I've also seen a theory now that Adam himself could be a contender (both spawn of Satan and spawn of God - it'd certainly be interesting!). I'm not placing bets on any of these outcomes just yet.

In addition to this passage in the book, we also see some interesting changes made by Adam which are featured more prominently in the show - one's that have implications for the ineffable husbands.

Part 2 coming soon!

Thanks as always to everyone at the @ineffable-detective-agency (including @noneorother, @embracing-the-ineffable, @lookingatacupoftea, @251-dmr, @somehow-a-human, @maufungi, @havemyheartaziraphale, @theastrophysicistnextdoor, @dunkthebiscuit, @komorezuki, & @ghstptats).

[always-is-always]

Concerts in 2025..... and ticket prices...

Without revealing too much about myself, I'll just say that when I first began going to concerts, I didn't have to go into debt.... The concert ticket was about the cost of a couple of albums. Yeah.

When I started poking around online to see what astronomical amounts people are paying to go see Hoseok, I'll admit that I was thinking something around $300 USD or so. And, THAT is astronomical, in my opinion.

So when I saw that people are paying more than twice that amount, I was beyond shocked. AND, disgusted. Disgusted because many ARMYs are willing to pay that amount even though they cannot afford it. AND, management knows that. AND, management does NOT care.

Hobi does not need the income. He's already a multi-millionare who does not have to work another day in his life, if he chose not to. Just like all BTS members. None of them need to earn money to keep a roof over their heads, or to keep food on their tables. Unlike many of us who call ourselves ARMY....

So where does the line fall, when it comes to WHO is accountable for those astronomical ticket prices?

That is a big question.

I don't have an answer, but I do have an opinion. Those are two different things....

It's not just Hobi's concerts, it's actually all mega-artists world-wide. Included are the Taylors, the Gagas, the Cold Plays, and all of the performers out there who are wealthy beyond measure, who continue to sign the dotted lines on contracts for these events, without making any stipulations to keep tickets affordable for the fans.

Am I the only one who refuses to put herself into more debt, to buy a ticket to attend a 2-hour event that I would also have to fly to, and also book hotel rooms too??? AND, feed myself? Where is the line?

Maybe it is because I am a self-supporting woman who works and spends every penny supporting herself in life. Maybe. I'm well beyond that age of living at "home" with parents or such.

Maybe it is because I can see how HYBE and BIG HIT as well as any other major company in the industry know how to literally milk fans for every dollar possible, all while making it look like fans/ARMYs are helping the performers, or are somehow fans/ARMYs are able to be closer to the performer in some distorted way... Just look at how they have monetized BTS content. Look at how much they produce now and put behind a pay wall... I'm thinking about those "documentaries" that have been in theatres, on Weverse, and on Disney +, all the books and merch...

Yeah. I'm a bit over the extreme ways that those management companies impose monetary burdens on fans, and they do so in really manipulative ways that fans can't even see.

So I'm guessing that what we will see next year when BTS's comback tour is announced will be ticket prices that will be far beyond what is reasonable. I mean, we are seeing it with Hobi's tour. And, in my very opinionated opinion, it is insanity.

Of course I would jump in a heartbeat to go see them, IF the tickets were fairly priced. And, I mean fairly. I mean, literally less than $100... If they are filling a stadium multiple nights (4 nights as an example) with 80,000 fans, that is still a lot of money for the event. ($32,000,000)

Until people start to speak out about this, and to take action with their wallets, the tickets will continue to spiral up in price. Sad as it is. If ARMYs just go along with it, believing that they are somehow supporting Bangtan, nothing will change.

Unless someone like Namjoon takes a stand, we won't see anything change. If anyone in K-Pop could start to turn the tide, it is Kim Namjoon.

Anyway.... I've splattered my thoughts here in this post.... it's kind of raw, and it is definitely unfiltered (classic Aries)... lol... I'm just tired of seeing fans taken advantage of, in the name of "fandom". No matter who or what the performer/group is.

I'm done giving my hard-earned money away to companies that just want to milk every penny they can. Especially when prices are not fair.

Yeah. I'm done.

[vintagerpg]

So, my pal Clay sent me a box of books. They weren’t a gift, they we more like an extended loan and they amount to perhaps the most direct “please post about these books” I’ve gotten since the feed started. I’ve taken care of a few at this point, but now, well. Ptolus. How the hell do I tackle Ptolus in 300 words?!

Ptolus (2006) is a massive all-in-one setting book for D20 designed by Monte Cook. It consists of a city and two dungeons, one above — the Spire — and a megadungeon below. The book runs 670 pages and features a density of information — maps, cross-sections, various type sizes, sidebars, tabs, cross-references — that I am not sure has ever been achieved before or since. It is truly a monument to a particular moment of BIG DESIGN in RPGs that was fueled by the near universal adaptation of D20. Unlike a lot of other similar projects (World’s Largest Dungeon comes to mind) there is a ton of deep thought and care on display in nearly every design decision I’ve read.

I wanted this book real bad when I learned about it a couple years after release, but it was already scarce. If I had gotten copy back then, it might very well have become my favorite RPG book ever. I’d probably still be playing in it. Because you totally could, there are decades of adventures here. Reading it cover to cove now in 2023 just feels like an impossibility. It’s too big! It works really well as a book to dip into a read a box or two to think about, for inspiration or rumination, but I wouldn’t know where to begin in putting together a cohesive campaign here. I don’t think my brain can fit it all in! I appreciate the painstaking detail, don’t get me wrong, but I would much rather this thing be carved up into a bunch of small books. That’s the main reason I didn’t back the recent re-release on Kickstarter; I knew before Clay ever sent this to me that this book was going to defeat me.

[iamirhen]

Baby Platypus Problems

Previous part - Next part

Start Road to Recovery

Listen to Nico, everybody needs friends!

I'm going to be honest, this chapter almost killed me but at the same time I really wanted to post it.

I hope the panels were self-explanatory, but dispossable pads were not a thing that existed in the past. Women used mostly rags to deal with periods and Hunter does not have any in her room anymore. Even if she is an adult woman, she just can't know that pads are a thing that exists now.

Up to this point, Hunter is not a very likeable character. She is cold, cocky and standoffish. She does not show a lot of personality besides her cold warrior facade except for her deadpan humor. She is almost boring until you realize that she has been desperately running girlboss.exe to cover up for how lost she has been feeling.

She is having the worst time of her life. She is overstimulated and confused. She went straight from being one of the most terrifying apex predators in the planet to not being able to propperly take care of herself. She does not know how a modern kitchen works, so she can't cook until someone teaches her. Wired bras are a thing now AND you have to wash them in a washing machine. That she doesn't know how to use. And also Tony expects her to use that damned Superlink thing.

She is one minor annoyance away from crawling back to her grave.

Waking up 300 years in the future after being killed by your own mother should be terrifying. But the experience of living in a world where where everybody else knows things that you don't and take for granted is fairly common for neuroatypicals. So I decided to use that as inspiration. And there are few things more frustrating and terrifying than asking for help for something that you are supposed to know or be able to do on your own.

But the truth is that you will find people who are happy to help you. Some will even appreciate the fact that you dared to be vulnerable with them. And life does get easier when you have friends you can rely on.

So no, she's not a girlboss, she's a miserable baby platypus and I love her for that. Because I have a soft spot for slightly unlikable, disfunctional characters.

I have checked this like 100 times in search for mistakes but in case I missed one, please let me know :)

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Dev Log - 2024 January + February

Overview

January and February saw ups and downs in activity, but overall significant progress was made. The start of the year was initially slow due to breaks, but activity picked up slowly. You may have noticed that there were less promotional posts or updates in general during this time, as we were focused on development. Thanks to these efforts, though, we’re fairly optimistic that this will be the final dev log for Chapter 3.

As for me (Stahl) personally, I have not been able to do much this time round as I have been busy (hence lack of public updates), but this time round invaluable progress was made by others in the team.

Quick rundown:

First round of playtesting has been done - This was a very rudimentary one aimed at finding basic bugs

NPCs are now mostly finished, and our writers are now working on flavor text and side writings

Portraits are all done and implemented

Battles have been planned out in more detail

Various organizational changes

Extra writers and RPGMV members have been recruited

Updates

The first round of playtesting is complete! This one was rather rudimentary, containing only basic story points. The aim was to test progression and to fix major bugs, both of which we’ve now finished. There are still some major aspects missing, like flavor texts and quests but vital components to main progression like cutscenes and maps are completed and being tested. Hopefully, this round of playtesting should wrap up soon, and more will follow. 

Minor and Side contents

There’s still a lot of design decisions to make, mostly regarding seemingly minor aspects of the game that actually take large amounts of resources. A lot of thought must be put into whether these features, like flavor text and shops, are worth the amount of time needed to make them, and if so how much. 

Due to this chapter being a real world section and story centric, the remaining gameplay would be left to mostly side quests. This is an interesting challenge, as unlike base Omori, Sunny is not familiar with the city like back in Faraway town, meaning it’s more challenging to find opportunities to give him quests. 

As for Reverie specific side content, battles won’t completely be abandoned in the real world. They’ll be taking forms in various challenge battles found throughout the city. For a rough idea, think of the Jackson poster found in Hobbeez from the base game.

Miscellaneous Changes

Another thing yet to be done are tweaks to previous chapter content. They will mostly affect quality of life, but some will also be major gameplay changes. Here’s some examples of planned changes (not exhaustive):

Picnic allows the player to change difficulty mid game (Trust me, later dream world chapters will feature major difficulty spikes and players may get stuck)

Hit Rates on equipment changed, mostly heavily nerfed. This makes evasion buffs actually relevant (and also, 300% hit rate is just silly).

Some skills entirely changed (e.g. Spaceboy Preserve will change into another Attack skill instead).

In game info to indicate that emotion influences Enemy AI very strongly in reverie compared to base game.

Conclusion

Overall, development on chapter 3 is reaching its later stages, reaching the first round of playtesting. This should hopefully be the last dev log in relation to Chapter 3 development.

As thanks for reading this far, here is a remade portrait of real world Sunny! It’s a bit more softer than the previous one, and the proportion has been improved as well.

[reineyday]

Ten people I'd like to know better!

tagged by: @robinticism which, hello!! i love ur fanfiction sm and i hope u know this 😭🙏💖

last song: i am currently listening to patd's cover of the greatest show haha my playlist is on shuffle. when i hit post on this, the song playing is america's suitehearts by fall out boy. everyone please check out manofbeskar's mishanks band au fic, bc it got me listening to fob's folie à deux album for literally three months straight. tho i've loved america's suitehearts since it came out in 2009ish, i've only come to appreciate the rest of the album this year 'cuz of manofbeskar so thank you. 🙏

(i lied, i typed that but then spent so long triple-checking my answers the playlist's moved onto asymptotic by louie zong. what's this, rei? u have a fic rec for this song too? here's a haikyuu!! matsuhana math team au i love dearly. the fic reminds me of the song, except ofc it's a happy ending, unlike in the song aha.)

favorite color: red & golden yellow :) i'm a warm colour palette typea gal. i even prefer my cool colours warm-toned lol. they feel richer to me when they're warmer.

last book: i'm somewhat ashamed to say it's been a VERY long time since i read a real book. i tackled a short french YA one like, last year? 'cuz i borrowed it from my friend and i'd wanted to to return it. i can rec u an ongoing 300+k bloodweave fic i just finished that i can't stop thinkin' about tho.

last movie: i watched the wild robot w my dad recently. super cute! another movie in the list of movies that tell me to my face that i will always fall in love with sly and charming rogue types that deep down only want to be loved. 🥺💕

last tv show: been watching the ravening war dimension 20 dnd campaign! if that doesn't count, i've also been watching dandadan every week (last week's episode tho!!! SO good omg).

sweet/spicy/savory: savoury most of the time, but also sometimes sweet. very rarely spicy, but not unheard of.

relationship status: single ✌️ i'm a mess and probably demi lmao.

last thing I googled: SPOILERS FOR NYT CONNECTIONS but i was googling crab types. comb crab? not a thing. ❌️ fiddler crabs, however! ✅️

current obsession: oh god, uh. astarion. it's astarion ancunín from bg3. my camera roll is filling up and it used to be so i could draw mihawk in his outfits but now it's just 'cuz astarion's hair is stupid pretty. please see also: my previous answer about rogue types who only want to be loved.

ah, also been getting more into dnd in general--(re)started bc of watching neil newbon (astarion's voice actor; i know, i know, but HE'S SO GOOD AT HIS JOB) doing an actual play one shot as astarion with sam béart who voices karlach (yes, okay, i am like every other bisexual and fell for the pretty rogue vampire and the big red barbarian with biceps for days okay), but also brennan lee mulligan and aabria iyengar, both of whom i love. and then i graduated to watching the bg3 cast's other APs and also mismag s2 and now the ravening war. it's a slippery slope. and my cousin wants to run a one-shot campaign so now i've got a guy too! his name is lysander and he's a dragonborn fighter. 🐲⚔️🔥

(here's the one-shot i'm talking about btw! aabria is the gm, and the table is neil and sam playing astarion and karlach, and then brennan lee mulligan and anjali bhimani who play some really great pc's! neil & sam refer to the story in the halloween one-shot they do with the va's of wyll and lae'zel later on, too. it's cute!)

looking forward to: mmh the aforementioned campaign, i suppose. here's hoping lysander makes some friends!

no pressure ofc but tagging @ofkingsandlionhearts @16th-of-a-twigg @andaniellight @albifrons @eyesonstars-feetonground @giurochedadomani @starlightbelle @incalamity @conartisthaiji @spikyiwaizumi

[fuckyeahbaldursgate]

Viconia - Plot Support extraordinaire

Just to preface this as I don't want this to seem like I am hating on BG3 as a diehard fan of the original series because I really do love BG3. I've completed it twice now and think it will absolutely be joining my annual rotation of BG1/SOD/BG2 playthroughs but it has its problems, much in the same way that the originals themselves have problems as well.

So after my Sarevok post I wanted to treat Viconia to the same critical analysis as unfortunately I think she also gets the short end of the evil plot stick. I get it, evil characters can be hard to get right but again similar to Sarevok, in my opinion, her character regresses to evil Shar mook number one rather than actually being Viconia. Worse still she's entirely at the mercy of being wrapped up in ShadowHeart's backstory.

Anyway this is a bit of a deep dive into Viconia's issues in BG3. Spoiler warning for both BG3 and BG2.

1. No Grey DeLise.

Again, similar to Sarevok, another prolific voice actor that has done recent video game work seemingly not approached for the role. I can't help but think that some of this is down to the rushed nature of act three generally and Larian just having to get whoever they could for the job in the time that they needed it. Unlike Jaheria and Minsc there's no attempt to mimic her original VA or get someone who sounded like her so she ends up sounding completely and utterly different.

This version of Viconia sounds haughty and stuck up which while the original Viconia VA has a degree of arrogance, she is also pretty sultry. Haer'dalis even comments that she has 'the throaty voice of the most expensive courtesan' and Viconia deliberately plays on the stereotype of the sensual female drow with certain male party members for her own benefit e.g the male Bhaalspawn, Edwin, Sarevok and even Anomen (I cover this a bit here and here).

2. Her in game design...just isn't great.

Let's be honest, combined with the voice, Viconia's design basically makes her unrecognisable. She looks like a generic old drow lady to the point that I did have 'Is that meant to be Viconia?' moment when I first met her.

Now I appreciate there is minor controversy with Viconia's original BG2 portrait (which is probably the most recognisable image of her) because the artist actually used a famous porn star as the base for it.

For info, this was a common practice at Bioware at the time as they used to use lots of different images as bases for portraits. They finally got into legal trouble for it in NWN where due to various copyright claims they had to change quite a few portraits.

More recently, I think that Beamdog actually did quite a good job of recreating a faithful adaption of her original portrait in Siege of Dragonspear while presumbably navigating the original copyright issue.

In comparison to her BG3 portrayal, my first impression was she looks incredibly old. Now as far as I'm aware we've never been given a canon age for Viconia but we do know she was around for House DeVir being defeated by the Do'Urden house so she has to be at least 100 years old by the time of BG1... but her character level is between 2 and 6 (depending on the party's XP) so a relatively inexperienced cleric. With that in mind I definitely assumed she was on the younger side (maybe 200-300?). Either way 5e elves can live between 750 to 1000 years although there are instances in the Forgotten Realms books of drow living to over 2000. Now tack on the additional 120 years for BG3 in my mind it would definitely put her in the middle aged category but not necessarily anywhere near the end of her life. Critically she would be aging much slower than Jaheria but with those wrinkles she looks WAY older than her. I honestly feel cheated of an interaction between the two about how hagged and old Jaheria looks in comparison to herself.

In terms of her outfit, although initially she wears the Sharite mask and hooded outfit, which is good for concealing her identity, we eventually end up with Viconia in a spider adorned dress. This seems like a strange choice given the spider motif when she literally stopped worshipping Lloth for Shar - maybe she's being ironic? The lack of armour,when she's a cleric that knows there's a good chance she's about to have a fight seems kind of stupid. If you do choose to fight her, she then looks entirely comical in her light dress accompanied by an enormous oversized shield and mace.

For me though this really identifies her design problem: her leather armour was a critical part of her original design. Given that we only see portrait style headshots of BG characters, the decision not to include her leather corset with the three straps and the head band is really what makes her unrecognisable. It would be like removing Minsc's head tattoo or Jaheria's braids or Sarevok's armour (which even with all the problems I talked about in my post, at least he got to keep that).

My hope is that some enterprising modder out there makes a more BG2 accurate version of her in future. Larian, please give my lady her leather armour back or maybe even a justicar outfit!

3. Ignores her BG1/2 alignment, motivations and twists her original epilogue.

Now I do appreciate BG3 deliberately assumes that the events of BG1/BG2 are a little bit fluid, which Jaheria confirms this when she talks about the bards that tell stories of her slaying gods or bedding them depending on which one you listen to. But the game goes onto confirm certain events in Viconia's history that don't really make sense:

A.) The game confirms that Viconia did travel with the Bhaalspawn but not for the entirety of the game. Minsc informs you that after trying to dissect Boo she was expelled from the group. I have to admit this story didn't gel with me at all because it implies Viconia is some sort of chaotic evil idiot (reminder: Viconia is neutral evil with a 16 INT score and 18 WIS score in BG2) who would deliberately provoke a giant raging berserker man by murdering his beloved pet. Like that's the sort of thing I could see Xzar (who is completely and utterly mad) doing but not Viconia. What benefit would she get out of it? Maybe it would be a good tribute for Shar but that would be a pretty short term benefit. In fact in BG2 Viconia offers begrudging respect to Minsc for his effectiveness in battle, she knows he's powerful and she wants to be on the right side of that. Minsc for his part does what he does with many of the female characters, particularly in BG2 and makes her a proxy substitute for Dynaheir offering to protect her. That's not to say she won't insult people (Aerie and Jaheria or characters who she perceives as weak often get the brunt of it) but she's generally smart enough to stay out of an actual fight. Important to note that in any of NPC conflicts that end in a fight in BG1/2 (e.g. Kivan, Ajantis, Keldorn) it's never Viconia that's starts the fight.

B.) The Waterdeep cult.

In Viconia's epilogue, which you only get if you kept her for the end of Throne of Bhaal and you didn't romance her, Viconia goes on to do a few things which you can see below (obviously massive spoilers for BG2) :

So it feels like Larian has taken the first part of this ending but nothing else, which really leaves a lot of questions. We know Shar isn't entirely happy with Viconia based on her diary entries so why is Shar still giving powers to a woman that basically killed a whole bunch of her followers? Why is Viconia still working for a goddess that hates her? Why is she so accepting of Shar's plot to groom Shadowheart as her replacement? Why on earth hasn't Viconia got the fuck out of dodge, which is pretty much what she has been shown to do in the past? And this comes neatly onto my next point.

4. Viconia is just a plot device for Shadowheart.

I love Shadowheart and I love her arc but honestly Viconia being the Mother Superior just felt like a way of inserting her into the game in a way that didn't really fit especially when Viconia's diaries in BG3 show that she knows that Shar intends for Shadowheart to essentially replace her as one of her prominent followers/chosen. The whole plot ignores two critical points about Viconia and her backstory:

Firstly the reason Viconia left the Underdark in the first place was because she refused to sacrifice a child to Lloth and Lloth turning her brother into a drider after he saved her from being sacrificed. Now Viconia is many things, she's self serving, cruel and dedicated to her own survival at the expense of anything and anyone else (quintessential neutral evil through and through) but at the same time she threw away her position, caused the downfall of her house and got most of her family murdered to save a child. You're telling me she would then willingly go along with Shar's plan to deliberate plan to kidnap and repeatedly torture a child for YEARS whilst also training said child to replace her? My girl doesn't have many lines in the sand but harming children definitely seems like one of them. I actually wandered whether Shadowheart not liking to harm children / prefers saving them is not just about her being a secret Selunite but also a potential a hint of Viconia's influence.

Secondly, that plot seems to ignores Viconia's other primary driver, which is to survive: it's why she leaves the Underdark, it's why she travels with the Bhaalspawn, it's why she worships Shar and it's why she murders an entire cabal of Shar's followers after one person betrayed her. Now if we ignore that she has qualms about children, you're telling me that she would instead essentially train her replacement to be an amazing cleric who is 99% likely to murder her? I'm pretty sure Viconia would have tried to kill Shadowheart way before her becoming a justicar or simply skipped town as she has done before.

The alternative?

Personally I would have liked to have seen Viconia ultimately involved in a plot to overthrow the Mother Superior or maybe doing something even crazier like going after Shar herself out of revenge following her fall from grace after the events of the Waterdeep cult. Maybe she works with the Absolute to get her revenge and keep her divine powers - hell who better to help Ketheric with the Nightsong in Shar's temple then an ex priestess of Shar?

If not the Absolute then Shar's got plenty of enemies and Viconia has converted before. Maybe she could have joined the team to achieve a particular goal while giving fans of the original series the opportunity to have one of the original evil characters to join the crew. I would have loved to see the contrast with Minthara who is still fairly fresh from leaving drow society and a complete blunt instrument compared to Viconia's more subtle ways. Maybe Viconia would take the paladin under her wing, maybe introduce her to a new patron god (something I don't think is ever explained is how Minthara still retains her divine powers given neither Lloth or the Absolute are fueling them anymore). Shevarash the elven god of revenge, would be a fantastic fit for both of their back stories (which would also be a nice little throw back to Viconia's heated / sometimes fatal arguments with Kivan in BG1) presuming that Viconia could get over her disdain for the elven pantheon by that point in the timeline. The fireworks with Jaheria of course would be grand while Minsc I feel would be very conflicted given his mind's tendancy, as noted above, to sub in any female magic user as Dynaheir.

[atopvisenyashill]

didn't want to add this to the mmd post because it's kind of off-topic, but it has always struck me that the story the boy in meereen tells ALSO echoes robert's rebellion. the slaves rose up and killed the boy's father and brother, raped and killed his mother, one of them is still living in his father's house, and one is even fighting for dany now. it sounds very much like dany seething about "the usurper and his dogs." the westerosi rose up and killed dany's father and brother, raped and killed her sister-in-law, one of them is still living in dany's father's house, and the man who killed her father even directly serves the king. but dany issued a blanket pardon for all of that—not unlike robert dismissing tywin's actions toward elia and her children. she's no different from robert and she doesn't even seen it.

wait okay this is on the topic of what i wanted to rant about lemme paste that here-

the “you’re doing a slavery apologism” thing is very annoying because certainly i think it’s possible to get really bogged down in or even disingenuously frame a group of people violently reacting to or overthrowing a despot as being inherently bad and unnecessary. but it is incredibly obnoxious how much people default to the “you’re doing slavery apologism” when it’s like. well. but you see. dany sacks the city. and the thing is. the whole mirri chain of events is started because dany is clearly triggered by the raping happening when drogo sacks the lhazareen village. she interferes because, even though she can’t admit drogo is a bad man, she understands on some level that he raped her and that these men are raping these women right now, and technically in her name. she can’t live with it. she knows what the brutality of a sack looks like because her trauma response to the brutality of a sack caused arguably thee most important moments of her life.

“well but she was stopping innocent people from being raped, in meereen she’s sacking slavers.” correct! she was on the other side last time. her side were the slavers doing the sacking. the great masters. and she was still so horrified by what they were doing she tried to stop it. so if she can recognize that some things morally cross a line regardless of intent despite the position she was in. surely. there had to have been at least a handful of abolitionists in meereen, no? but she’ll never know because she sacked the city despite knowing how unhelpfully violent of a way it is of taking a city & having access to an army that purportedly won’t commit particularly heinous acts she explicitly tells them not to commit in the unsullied.

and like yeah, the thing is that, like, idk it is very silly to say that a rebellion is justified bc like, morally speaking i think robb has a right to be like “joffrey can kiss my ass actually” but he very much lets the situation escalate into a war because like, he wants to be the hero, the young wolf in battle and not another king who knelt, and he gets to say that joffrey can suck a fat one bc he was a born a lord and well if he gets the dudes who also killed mycah or jory, that’s nice and all but no one’s asking mycah’s parents or beth cassell what THEY want done with their relatives’ murderers are they.

COMMA BUT. even the smallfolk were sick of aerys lol like that man was out and out burning randos alive there’s a REASON why robert was able to hide through the battle of the bells, there’s a reason why he manages to launch really the only successful rebellion in the last 300 years, and it’s bc he was up against a guy that just SUCKED. it doesn’t really get more justified than robert’s rebellion lmao like a lot of them are left in a situation thag is very much “well what else are we supposed to do here” because aerys is straight up saying “hand me more people to torture to death” and random sex workers in the crownlands were going “actually you can kiss my ass.”

COMMA BUT. Not only were Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon (and I would argue Rhaella, Viserys, and Dany) just really obviously and objectively not aligned with Aerys or even RHAEGAR for that matter, Robert doesn’t even do like a half assed “well let me execute amory lorch for it and we’ll call it even” type thing, he straight up…….pardons everyone for crimes they did during the sack.

it’s obviously not a perfect metaphor and there are some contextual differences. the lannister army aren’t an army of newly freed slaves getting the slaves in the city to join their uprising against the freedmen. but a) we’re back to ‘dany has an army that won’t rape or kill anyone she tells them not to at her disposal’ that she could have used to make sure taking the city doesn’t spiral out of control and she purposefully doesn’t use them in that way and b) well well well we’re back to khal drogo sacking the lhazareen village aren’t we.

she was that boy. and she chose to kill the slave. i’m not saying this inherently dooms her. i think it’s really important to point out characters like arianne, asha, & theon, who do stuff that are a) goofily violent that get innocent people harmed and b) a part of their culture that they just kind of uncritically emulate without doing any sort of introspection into how they would react and have reacted while in a position of powerlessness. it’s in fact a very important part of the story of basically everyone, from jaime saying he’d rather be dead than a cripple to asha fleeing a forced marriage only to run smack dab into a shieldmaiden from bear island (a place she may very well have uncritically and stupidly attacked herself!) to force asha to face the fact that this culture she’s fighting for, even with her more forward thinking ways, has some pretty fucked up foundations. but i think this is all obviously calling into question what exactly is motivating dany and whether dany is the right person to be doing any of this!

[sailorsol]

Thinking about Pacific Rim on the way to work this morning, as one does, and how there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how nuclear reactors generate power. They would be terrible power sources for mechas, not just because of radiation concerns, but because of how much stuff they require. Like, inherently, you need the reactor but you also need a cooling system that generates steam to power a steam turbine to generate power in an electrical motor. Even a small reactor system like in a nuclear powered submarine is significantly larger than most people think.

Like, a Los Angeles class fast-attack submarine is 350 ft long. Almost half of that space is taken up by the power plant system. That's 175 ft, or over 50 m. That's roughly equivalent to a 14 story building. Gypsy Danger is 260 ft tall. If 1/3 of its height is the torso, that's ~80 ft. Not enough room for a small nuclear power plant. And that's with what we were capable of building in the early 2010s. That space also doesn't take into account all of the coolant needed, whether it's a water-cooled reactor or a sodium-cooled reactor. And that's not even considering the weight of all of that stuff. Plus the fact that, while a sodium-cooled reactor may be more efficient, it is also highly flammable. There's a reason Jimmy Carter refused to allow sodium-cooled reactors on US nuclear submarines, and he was basically considered the father of the nuclear navy.

On top of all of that, nuclear reactors are fussy. They don't like getting knocked around. There's a lot of delicate instrumentation, and the entire system is running at high temperatures and high pressures. We're talking 250 to 300 °C (482 to 572 °F) and >2000 PSI (136 atm, or 136 times normal outside pressure). You need a very robust system of pipes and pumps to handle that sort of thing, and if any of it breaks, at best you're getting irradiated water and at worst you could be looking at a hydrogen or sodium explosion depending on the type of cooling system.

All of these concerns regarding weight and size are basically why nuclear-powered jet engines never took off (hah). Yes, they were actually being designed, by both Pratt & Whitney and General Electric, the two major jet engine manufacturers in the US. While the GE design was "relatively" small, it was a direct air cycle, which means that the air powering the turbine was heated up directly by the nuclear reactor, meaning that the exhaust from the engines were irradiated. So using it meant spewing radiation behind it.

That's not even taking into account that the first nuclear-powered jaeger was built in ~2014, a time when nuclear power was especially contentious. If it had been pre-Fukushima, when the "nuclear renaissance" was still holding strong, I could believe that they may have tried for a nuclear-powered jaeger. But post-Fukushima? Not so much.

So yes, it's highly unlikely that we would have developed nuclear-powered mecha. What's more likely is that we would have seen huge advances in rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, and electric motors. We are just now seeing in the early 2020s an electric motor that can generate power on the same scale as a combustion jet engine, but the amount of power to run that motor is still beyond the capacity of what we have for battery storage. And the problem we see, of course, with the rechargeable batteries being used in electric cars is that they tend to catch on fire.

All that being said, yes, I recognize that it is a sci-fi movie and the science aspect is more or less just ignored. But this is what happens when you have a bored writer who has also been in the power generation industry for nearly 17 years.

Tl;dr. We wouldn't have used nuclear-powered mecha, we probably would have advanced electric motors and batteries by leaps and bounds.

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

Hihi idk if I can ask multiple of the questions on the list but I will.

1) favorite character to write about this year

2)current number of works in progress right now

(And a bonus because I’m curious)

3) favorite character from titans and why?

of course you can send multiple!!! I never mind getting multiple asks in one message

12. favourite character to write about this year

I had to think about this a little, because usually I say that my favourite character to write about is usually just whoever I am writing about at the moment (which, right now, is Jason Todd) - but I think my favourite character to write about this year has been Isaac Lahey from Teen Wolf. He is a character I discovered for the first time this year and I immediately fell in love with him. He is so much my type - his backstory of being abused immediately resonated with me, and I just love everything about his character in general. His caring and protective nature, his attitude and witty mouth, his softness - like when he sheds tears after realizing that he can take away the pain of an innocent animal. Oof. Fucking OOOOOF

It also doesn't hurt that he's fucking gorgeous. But actually, despite popular belief, I always find myself attracted to characters based on their character traits before their physical traits. Like with Isaac, when he first appeared on screen, I was like "who's this fucking guy?" - I wasn't like "omg pretty blond boy". I found myself going nuts over his looks after I fell in love with his wooby backstory, his fuckboy smirk, and his tsundere actions protecting his soft inner core.

I fucking love him, and writing about him (even in fics I have yet to finish and post) has been one of the highlights of my year.

fanfic end of the year asks - send me some?

18. current number of wips (works in progress)

This is such a difficult question for me to answer. Because if you count every single fic I have started and not yet finished, then it's like - 200. 300. Maybe more.

But for me personally, I don't consider works I have started but not yet finished as 'works IN PROGRESS' because I am not making an effort to actually progress them every single day. They are just - there. And I will make progress on them later when I am ready.

Works I am actually actively progressing: one.

(It's The Jaws of Life - as I have talked about on @sundrop-writes)

At any given time, the number of fics that I am actually actively working on, is always one - maaaaybe two at most. Because if I try to focus on any more than that, then I never get anything done. I know some people wonder how I post so consistently, and that is one of the big keys to it - I have to focus on working on one fic at a time, even if it feels a bit like homework sometimes. And I only abandon a fic partway through if it starts to completely stall out my brain and I get absolutely nothing done and I know that I can work better on something else (and usually when something else feels more inspiring to me).

So yeah - technically it's just one. But the works I have yet to finish or even just docs that I have opened and written down scraps of ideas for later - that is a fucking lot. Hundreds.

bonus: favourite character from Titans and why?

I thought this would be kind of obvious from my blog, but I will say it.

GAR!!!!!

MY GREEN BABEY BOOOOOOOOOY

I really love all the characters from Titans, and there's not a main character that I hate - tbh, unlike with other shows, there's not even a villain that I hate. I think that they're all really compelling and interesting to watch as villains, and with some of them (like Adamson and The Family) - I wish that they would have gotten to stick around longer and be evil for more episodes because I find them so interesting to watch.

But Gar is my favourite. He's actually the reason I started watching the show in the first place - because @nctzenkane sent me pictures of Ryan Potter and was like "there's this hot guy playing Beast Boy in a new Teen Titans adaptation and his whole bare ass was out" and I was like "... I've got time for naked man ass" (and while watching Titans, I got A LOT MORE OF IT THAN I EXPECTED. it was nice)

I came for naked man ass and I stayed for the amazing character analysis, intense emotional moments, delightful humor, and in depth themes about loss of identity and transformation at a time in my life when I really needed it most. And now Titans is my life blood and I have never felt more at home than I do when I watch the show

And Gar is a huge part of that for me. He's light hearted but he is using that to hide his pain - he always tries so hard to lift others up with optimism and brightness and laughter but so often others fail to do the same for him, he is the emotional stronghold of the team and never thanked for it, and I relate to him so fucking hardcore. And I just fell in love with him in so many ways

Though, like I said, I fucking love all the characters for so many reasons

[moonshynecybin]

Hello, i'm very new to motoGP but why is KTM supposedly going to pull out of MotoGP/2/3? Is there a clear reason like financial trouble or legal reasons? At the start i thought it was gonna be only GP but all categories sounds extreme

KTM the motorcycle manufacturer (not KTM racing, who are a smaller part of the company) did really well during covid and then borrowed a bunch of money (THREEE BILLION DOLLARSSSSSS) to open up factories and make more bikes, anticipating that the trend of upward success would continue and that they could pay back their debts. when the bubble popped “post-covid” and they failed to maintain that trend of growth and they DID build those factories, they just owed all of that fucking money back with no real way to pay off the debt. unfortunately. crucially, they’re still a successful company in the sense that they are still selling that baseline level of motorcycles, they just didn’t grow enough to even BEGIN to cover the massive amounts of money that they owe, which is how we get here.

so in order to avoid claiming bankruptcy, they entered into a process called self-administration, which is a restructuring option where they work with the courts to basically cut costs and try to avoid having to pay the full breadth of their debts. the austrian government is interested in this because KTM is a huge employer and a big part of the economy so they don’t want the whole company to go under etc.

in terms of the smaller arm that the company has in motogp, this is BAD, because it seems in general a lil silly to spend oodles of cash on developing a special airplanemotorcycle for an entertainment sport when you owe your employees their salaries from november (when they ENTERED this agreement they owed €40 million in wages to staff. coincidentally, the yearly cost of their grand prix racing efforts is also €40 million according to gpone dot com) and you’re laying off 300 of those employees to boot. so even if they make more money than they spend while racing, they’re still up against bad optics and the option to just. not spend that 40 million euro.

in terms of the lower classes, it looks even more bleak. KTM is a massive supplier of bikes for moto2 and moto3 AND red bulls rookies cup. they’re kind of THE bike for the little guys, and if they leave i really don’t know who is gonna fill that gap! the lower class teams are also kind of famously unprofitable, and render less visibility as an advertising tool than the main class, so i reallyyyyy think its unlikely that KTM maintains their current level of investment, and i really don’t know what other shiny idiot team would step in to compensate.

one of the main candidates to potentially be that shiny idiot is red bull racing, who as an austrian-based company that has seen ENORMOUS success in formula one might be willing to bear some of the cash burden and throw some money at these bikes (like they already do for the rookies cup). unfortunately, red bull management has somewhat recently changed hands into a comparatively less racing-friendly group, and KTM has subsequently denied any chance of a rescue of their motogp project from them. of course, if they lose their involvement with ktm AND with marc in like the same year, their visibility in the sport would DRASTICALLY decrease, so perhaps that will have an impact in the future, but it looks like no

however it should be noted as well that motogp is probably one of KTM’s most effective marketing tools as a company— their slogan is “ready to race,” so i do believe that they really want to remain in motogp (especially if the senior class is turning them a profit), even if that might be out of their reach for now. it looks like they’re definitely pulling out of moto2 and 3, and MAYBE the premiere class, but the logistics of WHEN and HOW MUCH are all largely unknown. ultimately, we will just have to see

[beauty-and-passion]

TMA - Chapters 31-40: One mystery solved, 300 left

And so, here we are. We reached the end of season 1.

Let’s not waste too much time here: I want to see what it will be about and if there will be any juicy foreshadowing of season 2.

<< Main Masterlist < Previous post 

_______________________________

MAG 31 - First Hunt

“Hunted. Yes, I think I’m starting to know the feeling.”

Are you, Jon? Are you? Then why are you still recording statements in this goddamn Institute? Have you not listened to all the times I told you to go away?

I don’t understand what is he doing: he knows there are worms everywhere, he knows they’re surrounded, he’s not even leaving the Institute anymore. And he is the one asking what is Jane Prentiss waiting for.

No, Jon, the real question is: What are YOU waiting for? Why are you still here? Is it possible that the ���crimson fate”/curse/whatever is keeping him there? Did the curse activate already? Can someone please grab this man and ran out of the Institute?

Speaking of the statement… it’s so useless, even Jon refused to pay attention to it. And if Jon didn’t care, then why should I?

_______________________________

MAG 32 - Hive

Wow. Wow. That was truly something else.

Seriously, I love the emotional rollercoaster that is this series: if one statement is meh, the next one is a bomb. If one is forgettable, the next one is memorable.

And this is no exception: if the previous statement was boring, this one is huge. Honestly, I didn’t expect Jane Prentiss’ statement now… and I definitely didn’t expect it to be like that! I think this is the most captivating statement so far and not just because of its content, but especially because It’s different, both in style and structure.

It’s different in style because if all other statements have this problem of sounding all very similar to each other (and not because Jon reads them, but because the vocabulary and the stylistic choices are the same, no matter if the statement comes from a student, a criminal, or an old guy), this one has its own voice: Jane Prentiss’ voice. This writing style is unique to her and to her only.

And it’s different in structure because, unlike all others, this isn’t an account of events but rather a stream of consciousness, that offers us a wonderful insight into Jane’s mind and feelings.

And, at least in my case, it made me think about a couple of things:

*

1) The humanity in the supernatural

Until now I saw Jane just as another supernatural creature, detached from us and from any other human being. She isn’t like us. She is clearly alien to humankind. She is something else.

But here, we see her being a human, just like all of us. She is fearful, doubtful, scared. Just like any of us would be. She has conflicted feelings: she wants a connection with the hive, she feels it’s the right thing to do. But she’s also very scared. It’s so simple and yet, it conveys her humanity so well.

Especially because she does what everyone else would do: she searches for help.

*

2) Prey or predator?

It’s very interesting that Jane decided to go to the Institute to ask for help. Until now, we have seen a lot of people going to the Institute to record statements - in some cases, even right after something happened. In a way, it’s as if they all subconsciously feel like it’s the best thing to do. As if the Institute can “protect” them from whatever they met. As if, by giving their stories to the Institute, they have an “immunity” from the danger.

If my theory is correct (i.e. the Institute hides the scariest supernatural shit of them all), then Jane went to the Institute because she subconsciously knew the thing hidden inside it was more powerful than the hive. So she did what prey do: they hide behind a bigger predator.

But Jane isn’t a simple prey anymore: she is becoming a predator. She is connecting with the predator. So she can see further than a prey and recognize the real prey:

This part is wonderful, because I can perfectly picture the scene in my mind. I can see Gertrude Robinson giving Jane a pen and paper, then leaving. I can see Jane looking at Gertrude through the glass. I can see her gaze. It’s so powerful and stylistically perfect. 10/10, Love it.

*

3) Food or connection?

Another element that caught my interest is how Jane always refers to “the song” the hive sings: a song that talks to her, reassures her (“Sings that I am beautiful”) and promises her good things (“I can be consumed by what loves me”).

But do you know what this song doesn’t do? It doesn’t lie. It doesn’t lure Jane into a sense of false security. On the contrary: even if the song tells her good things, Jane is still scared and full of doubts, to the point she asks for help.

That's strange, isn't it? If the hive just wanted to eat/consume Jane, then why scare her? Why give her the understanding that something awful would happen and that she would take part in the violence? Why didn’t the hive sing just to deceive her? It could’ve just sung that she was beautiful and perfect and they would’ve been happy together forever.

But no, the hive’s song was honest. It was a song that helped her understand the hive.

Hence why I don’t think the hive ever wanted to hurt Jane. On the contrary: the hive wanted to find someone receptive enough to “resonate” and “understand” it.

*

4) All other supernatural shits

If I am right and all the hive wanted was to find a human being who better resonated with it… then was it trying to do the same with every human being it “latched to”? Was it trying to do the same with the girl from MAG 6? And with Timothy Hodge?

In MAG 26, Michael said that “the flesh-hive was always rash”: is it because the hive latches to human beings without truly connecting with them as it did with Jane?

But also: if this is what the hive tries to do… is this what every other supernatural shit tries to do too? Is every supernatural shit “singing a song” and trying to find the human being who will better resonate with them?

And if this is what they’re doing, then how many of the previous statements I read were not just recordings of weird events, but actual attempts to connect? Is this what Simon Fairchild tried to do with Robert in MAG 21? Is this what the supernatural shit in the Institute tried to do with Gertrude Robinson? Is this why she died? Because she didn’t connect with it? Is this the “Archivist’s crimson fate”? A sort of test to see if the Archivist can resonate with the supernatural creature in the Institute?

*

5) These little shits have names!

If this one is called “the hive”, then I suppose everyone has names. Micheal already has a name, but considering the MAG’s name is “A Distortion” I suppose his name is… idk, Mr. Distortion? That’s kinda funny, but I prefer Michael: it better shows how much of a good boyo he is.

_______________________________

MAG 33 - Boatswain’s Call

Mh, there’s a lot of interesting stuff here.

First of all, we have Tim. Hi, Tim! Glad to know you’re the organized guy here.

This, again, makes me think: this series started with Jon being all like “This place is a mess, I’m here to organize everything and put some order”. But now we find out Jon made a shit ton of mistakes. Very weird, coming from the guy who talked so big about being precise and organized.

So now my question is: was it done on purpose by TMA’s author? Were the mistakes intended to be there? I’ll admit it, I didn’t notice them because I suck with dates and numbers, especially if they have no sense like the case numbers (by the way, I appreciate the explanation, because I thought they were just random numbers).

If these mistakes were made on purpose, then it was a clever writer's choice, because it showed us more about Jon as a character. Now we know he’s not as perfect as he seemed. He can make mistakes. He can be faulty. And being faulty is what makes a character more real, so extra points for that.

However, these mistakes made me think about something else: what if they are proof that Jon isn’t as qualified for his job as he seemed? I mean, Tim looks like a more proper Head Archivist to me: accurate, detail-oriented and with a good memory. Still, it was Jon who got this promotion.

Before MAG 32, I would have joked about Elias being so useless as head of the Institute to hire the less qualified candidate, but now, there could be another reason why Elias chose Jon despite (probably) more competent people. Maybe it’s because Jon has something that can better resonate with the supernatural shit in the Institute.

Ah, so Martin is so scared by the worms to show his tongue to Tim all the time and asks if “it’s infested”. Nice try, bro, next time tell him that you’re oh-so-very-infested and only a French kiss will save you.

O-oh, so this statement features another member of the creepiest family of all time: Peter Lukas. Is he Evan Lukas’ dad, uncle or grandpa?

And, again, the Lukas family appears associated with a fog. Is the fog a supernatural shit? After all, weird things happened in the fog with Naomi too, so maybe it really is the fog.

Also because the fog kinda ate Sean Kelly. Just like the tomb at the cemetery in the fog tried to “eat” Naomi. It’s also very interesting that the third mate refers to this event as “a hard choice”, as if they were forced to feed someone to the fog.

Is this how this supernatural shit in particular works? It needs to be fed? Well, after all, I think that the supernatural shit in the Institute needs to be fed too, so maybe that’s another aspect of these things. Just like they need a human to resonate with, they also need to eat. I really want to know more about them.

One last thing: Elias “gets very twitchy when we look into anything that might conceivably have funding repercussions”. I’m starting to think he gets “very twitchy” not because of money, but because he knows something/he’s in cahoots with the Lukas family and doesn’t want anyone to look too much into them. I want to know more about this guy, he’s just too suspicious at this point.

_______________________________

MAG 34 - Anatomy Class

This statement was weird.

I immediately noticed something was wrong with these names, mostly because I knew John Doe is the placeholder name usually used to refer to dead people whose identity is unknown. I searched for Erika Mustermann and found out it was another placeholder too. So I asked myself: what if all of them are placeholders? It was extremely satisfying to find them all.

And it was great from a writing perspective too, because it perfectly explains why Dr. Elliott doesn’t remember what these guys look like: it’s because they’re all unknown. And since these names are usually used for dead people, it also explains why they’re all very silent and soulless.

I also really liked the idea of them “adjusting their bones” and asking simple questions, because it plays around the concept of “unknown figures” who are trying to look human/alive by asking things and trying to “replicate” them.

It’s a great idea, so the statement should be great too. But it’s not. It’s barely interesting. And I don’t know why, but it’s just… okay.

However, I would give a point for the heart lesson, because it was hilarious. Just imagine, a class with seven creepy figures, each of them with a beating heart in their hand, spraying blood everywhere, trying to look as scary as possible… and Dr. Elliott just points at one heart, then leaves. It was very silly and it made me smile.

Speaking of the apple: it’s weird, fine, but it’s just an apple with teeth. Again, not creepy enough to get my interest.

_______________________________

MAG 35 - Old Passages

“He was dressed all in black, with heavy looking boots and a T-shirt with the logo of some band emblazoned on it”

One sentence and I just knew it was him. My man, the searcher of Leitner’s books, the rebel goth/punk of my heart. The man who just appears and deals with the shit, because mommy “knows everything of this stuff”, but she clearly taught him everything too.

And, since my man Gerard is back, my other favorite man is here too: Jurgen Leitner, aka the menace for mankind. Of course he’s from Norway, I can bet everything he’s from Alesund and he probably looked the supernatural shit of the Institute in the eyes and this is why he has this weird power of creating creepy books. I love him too.

Also, how hilarious it is, to see this man being all like: “Sure, sure, I have all the permits you want, just dig a goddamn hole in my office. What? Do you still want to talk to the owner of the building? But I have everything! Listen, you don’t deserve explanations, powerful shits are working in the back. Okay, you know what? Fuck you in Norwegian”. My man Leitner has business to do and chaos to spread, how dare they stop him from doing his job.

I also loved how Gerard apparently has a sixth sense about where to find Leitner’s books. Or he can smell them like a dog. Still love him.

So today's Learner book was hidden in the shadows and little bones fall from it while Gerard runs away with it. Mmmh, where have I heard something similar?

“Mary Keay took the book back from me and passed it through the shadows once again. More bones fell.” (MAG 4)

So that’s how Gerard found it. He stole it from… Leitner’s weird hidden library or whatever? What an absolute boss: he went, took the book and vanished with some weird magic. I love this rebel boy.

And in the end, even more familiar people: Breekon and Hope deliveries are back! And they have voices! And they talk in the creepiest possible way, almost overlapping the end of Breekon’s sentences with the beginning of Hope’s. And there’s a package for Jon.

How much are you gonna bet that it’s more silver worms? I can almost hear them crawling inside that box, ready to jump on him. Gosh, I really hope that I’m wrong. But in any case, please, do not open the package. If MAG 2 taught us something is: do not open the weird shit delivered at your door.

_______________________________

MAG 36 - Taken Ill

Another okay statement about a weird illness that takes control of a building, the obligatory Guy Who Doesn’t Exist (John Amherst, in this case) and lots of dead people.

But hey, we have something very interesting here: an old man and a young woman with a deep scar over her right eye. Who are these two? And why did Jon immediately think about Trevor Herbert, the Vampire killer from MAG 10? Could it be that he’s alive somehow? Well, I won’t be too surprised: after all, I think Gerard is alive too, so why couldn’t Trevor be alive as well?

And since we’re fishing people & stuff from previous statements, what better way to end this one, if not with more connections? As soon as Tim said they got a table, I KNEW it was the one from MAG 3. I asked for it to come back, and here it is: my beautiful table with the missing piece.

While speaking of the Zippo with the spider web design, there are two possibilities:

the Zippo is a reference to Spider Mom from MAG 16

the Zippo has been delivered by the spider lady I vaguely remember. And that means she will come soon. And if it’s true, can’t wait to meet her.

_______________________________

MAG 37 - Burnt Offering

Well, Jon, if Elias told you to burn the damn table, you burn the damn table. If even this guy, who is suspicious AF tells you to get rid of it, you do it without a second thought.

But nooo, let’s “preserve the knowledge”, “self-preservation is overrated” and “Andorra isn’t a nice place to live”. Goddamit Jon, don’t make me enter the story and throw you out of this Institute.

Speaking of the statement itself, it would just be “guy finds a random circle in the woods and suffers the consequences”, if it wasn’t for two details that caught me by surprise.

The first is that despite Jason North’s concern, it wasn’t his son Ethan North to die, but Jason himself. I wasn’t expecting this, I almost expected Jon to say that “oh look, this poor alcoholic took the life of his son”.

The second thing is, of course, Gertrude Robinson’s photo in that weird ritual circle. Why was her photo there? Who put it there? How many supernatural shits were messing with her? I thought it was just the one in the Institute… but this circle? Really, I don’t know what to think :/

_______________________________

MAG 38 - Lost and Found

I vaguely remembered the name Salesa because it was just too weird to go unnoticed and I was right: he’s the same guy from MAG 14. And if Gerard can smell Leitner’s books, Salesa seems to have the same power of attracting weird supernatural shit.

Also, he has “several crates packed to the brim with heavy-looking volumes” and I can bet everything that in these crates there are at least a couple of Leitner’s books, waiting for their chance to spread chaos in the world as their author intended.

Speaking of the statement, the idea that a supernatural creature lives inside the vase and steals stuff from whoever owns said vase is pretty funny. In the end, it literally said: “Jeez, fine, take back your book and your shoes. I’ll steal yo husband instead”. Adorably stupid, it put a smile on my face.

what an ending! First the epic return of Spider Mom or one of her friends, then Jane Prentiss’ worms: there are too many creatures in this Institute and they’re not cute at all. Gosh, I hope Jon and the gang are all okay.

_______________________________

MAG 39 - Infestation

All the stuff that happened here. ALL THE STUFF THAT HAPPENED HERE.

Let’s take one thing at the time:

*

Martin is insane (and yet, perfectly IC)

This man spent his time in the Archives analyzing how the worms were moving and the angle and the speed, trying to find out the best weapon to get rid of them. He’s insane.

But you know what? It’s actually coherent with what we saw from Martin until now: he is an anxious guy, he overthinks stuff and he has no self-preservation instinct at all. It’s not so strange that he kept thinking about the worms and tried to find weapons to protect himself - and using them too.

*

Jon and skepticism

I’ve spent my previous post repeating that everyone had to leave this godforsaken Institute asap, but I was still accepting them not doing it because I know it’s necessary to suspend my disbelief for a while, in order to enjoy a story.

However, since the author of this series is a competent writer, he knows insufferable readers (like me) will probably question why these lovable idiots are still in the Institute and find it annoying/boring/clichè too.

So, he provided an answer. An answer that:

shed some lights on Jon’s character

is coherent with what we know about him until now

Now, I understand why Jon kept recording statements despite all the weird shit happening around him. Now I know and I understand. He’s not doing it because he’s blinded by skepticism: he’s doing it because he wants to know what happened to Gertrude and because he doesn’t want to leave a mystery behind. If he dies, he wants other people to know.

And yes, this is coherent with what we saw until now! Just think about it: at the end of every goddamn statement, Jon always tried to add evidence and make some research: he always tried to bring something real, concrete, tangible. Something that would prove these statements are not just shapeless words.

Speaking more about skepticism: I love that someone finally addressed Jon about it and I love it was Martin, who has proved to be much more prone to believe in the supernatural.

And I love Jon’s answer. Again, it’s very realistic: they have a storage full of supernatural shit, of course Jon believes it’s real. They have actual tangible proof.

So he pretends skepticism. And he has a very valid reason to do it.

*

The supernatural shit in the Institute is watching

Now I am 200% sure that Jon is actually being watched. There are too many eyes in this series to be a coincidence and I’m starting to think they all belong to whatever supernatural shit is hidden in this place. That thing watches Jon and it probably “possesses” him or similar considering he “loses himself a bit” whenever he reads and I LOVE LOVE LOVE he mentioned it, because I noticed how Jon was getting too much involved every time he read, but I didn’t say anything.

One example? MAG 38:

“I’ve been in the antiques business for a long time. It’s not what it used to be. [Nervous chuckle] I’m sorry, I know.”

This statement isn’t being recorded by the person involved, Jon is reading it. But the nervous chuckle isn’t something someone who is reading would do: this is a reaction someone who is speaking would have. Someone who is telling their story.

When I listened to it, I immediately found it a very odd detail and I thought it was just a writing mistake from the author. But now, I find out it was made on purpose.

TMA’s author is more competent than I thought.

*

Jon and Martin are the best couple

They’re already bickering like an old couple. I love them. And yes, I’ve decided to ship them. Don’t care if they don’t end up together, still ship these two.

*

“Real statements”

Jon’s words about the real statements are extremely enlightening and, again, they make the whole series much more realistic.

Until now, I supposed Jon is just a vintage guy who likes to record stuff on a tape recorder because it was more fitting with the atmosphere of “uuuh, old Archive” and because there was no Internet connection at all. Sure, in MAG 1 Jon talked about bringing a laptop, but he also said: “I believe the first computer to ever enter this room is the laptop that I brought in today.” So I simply assumed this place hadn’t a connection. After all, we’re talking about an old place: it’s plausible there’s no Internet.

But now, we have a much better explanation about why Jon uses a tape recorder! And it’s because of the nature of the statements themselves. Only the real ones can be recorded on tape.

I was very pleasantly surprised when Jon said: “Of the hundreds I’ve recorded, we’ve had maybe... thirty, forty that go on tape.”. Not only it’s much more realistic that, in all these months, he didn’t record 38 statements only, but hundreds, but it’s much more immersive too: we are not listening to all the useless pile of stuff, we are listening to the “selected” material.

*

Tim is my new favorite character

Tim is the best character. Sorry Gerard, sorry Leitner, sorry Michael: as soon as Tim did this, I fell in love. He’s a wonderful idiot and he deserves the world <3

*

Martin and Jon are the best couple part 2

They are the best couple, period.

*

A lighter?!

Sasha needs a lighter? I know one, I know one! the spider Zippo! Use that one! Will someone use it? I hope that.

*

Elias is finally here

Finally, Elias decided to show up. Thank you, Elias, for honoring us with your presence. Where have you been until now? To the Suspicious Guys Anonymous Club?

I mean, just look at how he expresses his concern: his new Head Archivist is trapped with most of his staff and they will probably die if he and Sasha don’t do anything, it’s a dangerous situation, they should do something immediately… and his main concern is that he doesn’t really want to find another Archivist so soon.

Wow, a man who truly values human life, now I definitely trust him, yes sure.

Tim is the best character

I love how Tim casually addresses being surrounded by death, before tripping on a shit ton of gas cans Martin hid “from the worms”. The beautiful clash between Martin’s insanity and Tim being the best character <3

I also love how he just… pulled down his pants? To make them check if he was bitten?

Tim is the best character, period. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

*

WHAT THE FUCK

So Sasha found the table from MAG 3… then Not!Sasha found her.

What.

The.

Actual.

Fuck.

Is… is Sasha alive? Is she dead? Where is she?!

*

Final showdown!

Jon VS Jane Prentiss. I didn’t know I needed this fight, until I reached the end of this recording.

I am ready.

_______________________________

MAG 40 - Human Remains

Wow. What a ride has it been.

So, let’s examine every statement:

Elias: he’s still the most suspicious guy ever but you know what? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Show me your innocence, Elias. Show me you’re a good guy.

I mean, he seems surprised about the discovery of Gertrude Robinson’s body. And he seems to know nothing more aside from “Gertrude wasn’t there and her desk was covered in blood”. Let’s see how innocent he is.

Tim: my new favorite boy got attacked by the goddamn worms, even though he did some pretty cool stunts. But he also said something very interesting about them: it’s as if there is something in the Institute that makes them “sluggish”. Yes, I’m pretty sure that it’s the supernatural shit of the Institute that did that.

Also, the worms tried to make a doorway for a weird room hidden in these passages? What? How? I don’t think I understand, but my explanation is still the same: the goddamn supernatural shit of the Institute. All its fault.

Sasha: if my boy Tim got hurt, at least he’s still alive and in one piece. Can’t say the same about Sasha. Where are you, Sasha? Have you completely been replaced by Not!Sasha? Where did you hide her, you impostor?

Also, Not!Sasha literally called Michael “Yes, Michael... With the bones in his hands.”. So that’s basically a confirmation that he really is the one mentioned in MAG 8. And she said: “We still don’t know much about him, do we?” which, translated from author-to-reader means “Michael will come in season 2 and we will learn about him”. Yes, please, more of my Best Boyo.

Martin: poor Martin, he really REALLY doesn’t deserve any of this shit. He needs a proper vacation, away from all this shit, where there are no worms and no problems. My offer still stands: Andorra is still a beautiful place to live.

Vacation aside, just how many goddamn rooms are hidden here? Tim found a room, Martin found a room, if we’re not careful we will find 200 rooms hidden everywhere.

And in this room, here she is: Gertrude Robinson. And she’s not dead because the supernatural shit in the Institute ate her, not because some other shit sucked her blood or made something else. She has been shot. Just shot. Three times in the chest. It was a goddamn execution.

…

Welp, sorry Elias, you had your chance. I can already see you with the gun in your hand, pointing it at Gertrude. It was you, you goddamn suspicious man. I know it was you.

Jonathan: so, some tapes have been stolen. What a coincidence, they are the tapes of MAG 24 “Strange Music” and MAG 26 “A Distortion”. What a coincidence, they’re the only two tapes in which Sasha talks. Wow, I wonder why these two tapes in particular disappeared, I wonder who made them disappear…

Not!Sasha, I know it was you. Everyone knows it was you.

And Jon, instead of being satisfied with this resolution of Gertrude’s “case”, he’s even more determined to get to the bottom of this.

“I’m going to figure this out, and I’m not going to stop. They’ll have to kill me first.”

Just… don’t tease them, Jon. whoever is behind all of this (read: Elias and the Lukas family) I doubt they would think twice before shooting you in the chest like they did with Gertrude. Don’t test your luck too much.

_______________________________

In conclusion

Update on my theory about the supernatural shit in the Institute:

This shit (which I will call “Big Brother” for obvious reasons) is watching everything. The Lukas family brought it from Norway and uses the Institute as a “feeder” to feed it. Gertrude Robinson, as Head Archivist, was supposed to be “tested” and see if she resonated with it, to become… I don’t know, Big Brother’s new body or something similar.

But before the right time came, she found out what Elias/the Lukas family wanted to do. And she tried to defy them/escape from her fate. First, they tried to get rid of her in some magic other way (like the ritual circle from MAG 37), but when they somehow failed (maybe Gertrude had someone protecting her, just like Jon seems to have some “protectors”), they resorted to a good old gun and bam, problem solved.

And yes, I’m sure it was Elias who shot her.

So, since Gertrude was dead, Elias & the Lukas family decided to just feed the rest of the staff to the supernatural shit and find a new Head Archivist that will resonate with Big Brother and, hopefully, become its new body.

Jane Prentiss was somehow okay with Big Brother - or just with the idea of bringing more violence. While Michael wants to protect Jon. And same goes for the Spiders Gang, which includes the spider lady I remember and Spider Mom - who I think are the same person. Maybe the lady can turn into a spider, why not?

And since I’m speaking of turning into other things, I have a theory on Michael. Since TMA’s author seems very competent and creative, I want to give him more credit. Hence, I believe there is a reason why this season has been packed with a lot of people named Michael. And no, I don’t think the reason is a sudden lack of creativity - especially coming from a guy who invented a ton of different stories and names. I think there’s a reason if all these guys are named Michael and the reason is that these Michaels are all the same Michael: Michael the Supernatural Shit.

After all, this Michael can warp/twist/change his bones and (probably) body too, so would it be so impossible that all the random Michaels in several MAGs were always him, just with a different appearance?

One last thing: my impression about the series until now is still positive. This first season served as a introduction to the characters, the mysteries and the structure of the series itself and did its job very well. There’s a closed ending with the resolution of Jane Prentiss’ mystery and we find out how Gertrude died too. But there are also enough open questions to keep you involved: what really happened  to Gertrude? What is the Institute hiding? What about Michael? What about all the other mysteries?

Sure, not all statements are perfect and the writing isn’t perfect either - and it’s a shame, because considering all these statements come from different people, it would’ve been a great writing exercise to give a different voice to each of them.

However, I’m not too critical of this. Mr. Sims (TMA’s author, not the character) wrote 40 statements each with its own kind of horror/mystery and they are all connected to the main story that will develop throughout 5 seasons. That’s A LOT of work: expecting perfect writing from each statement would be unattainable and, from my side, unreasonable.

What’s more important, for me, it’s the attention to details and boy, there’s A LOT of it. When I started this series (and like I do every time I start something), I didn’t give any trust to its author: it’s too easy to find sloppy works made without any care, than find something meticulously organized.

With these 40 statements, Mr. Sims is proving to me that he has a vision, a big picture and that he knows how to put it into words. There is love and care, there is attention, coherence and internal logic.

Hence why, now I want to give him more credit. And with that, my expectations are rising as well: first I just wanted something good, now I want backstories. Why? Because backstories explain the present. Decisions, personalities, events even: all can be explained with a logical, coherent background.

Let’s see if Mr. Sims really thought about everything ;)

So, one season done, four more to go. How many things will happen? Will Sasha ever come back? Will Elias stop being suspicious for five minutes? Will Martin take a vacation? Will Jon survive all of this? And what about my favourite boys? Will they come back too?

I am hyped for season 2 and ready to start, so I’ll surely be back in a week with more posts.

>> Next post

(How about a coffee? ☕)

_______________________________

TAGLIST:

@royalprinceroman @mudpuddlenl @allmycrushesaredead @aquatedia @whatishappeningrightnow @effortiswhatmatters @bella-in-a-bag @doydoune @forever-third-wheeling @payte @hypnossanders​  @idontreallyknow24​  @imcrushedbyarainbowoffical @patton-cake​  @hereissananxiousmess​  @purplebronzeandblue​  @cynicalandsarcastic​ ​@lost-in-thought-20​ @andtheyreonfire​ 

@riseofthewerewolf​ @rosesandlove44​​  @chewy-rubies @groaaaaan​ @arya-skywalker  @csi-baker-street-babes @queen-of-all-things-snuggly @reesiereads @dracayd-universe​ @starlightnyx​ @stubbornness-and-spite​ @averykedavra @joyrose-fandomer @mihaela-tbg @igonnatalknothing

@thatoneloudowl @grayson-22 @softangryfuckingdepressed @theotherella  @boopypastaissalty @nevenastark @varthandiveturinn @roses-bubbles @cuter-on-the-inside @coldbookworm @snixxxsmythe @charmingcritter  @analogical-mess @emphasis-on-the-oopsie @selfdestructivecat @yangwalkerao3 @the3rddenialist