#so many insane creations and awesome people

[deepfriedtoasters]

I MET SLIMECICLE AT OPEN SAUCE!!!

[ilyfynn]

and it's here. the boxing au, written for mcytblr aufest.

Feinberg does first place, and first place alone.

Welcome to the ring. We hope you enjoy the show!

kier @im-bored-so-i-draw's gorgeous, brilliant art, which is the basis of this work:

@mcytblraufest

thank yous and bonus fic beneath the cut (very long)

many many MANY MANY MANYYYYYYY thanks to:

the mod team for organizing and running the event. i'm unbelievably grateful for the time and effort it must have taken to keep all of this up and running, so thank you for fuelling this creation of ours <3

@theembergazer for perpetually being there for me and listening to yap on about the fic. you are goated and lovely, and i hope you don't hate me too much for it.

@bioluminescentfrog also for listening to me yap. i appreciate it goat <3

@goober890 again, ALSO for listening to me yap. i know i put you through intense torture talking about it. but it's here now. i appreciate you so much - you're one of the people who can boast of having read my works before i shifted focus. thank you thank you thank you <3333333333 the happiest of birthdays to you :3 (everybody wish him happy birthday right NEOW)

all of mcsrblr for having to put up with me going on about the fic. it must have been exasperating. sorry about hiraeth's multiple month hiatus. i love you mcsr - don't you ever stop being awesome ppflower

and last but most of all,

kier @im-bored-so-i-draw.

it has been the pleasure of a lifetime writing this au. i can still remember going fucking insane over whether i would get your frankly absolutely stunning gorgeous art. and then i did and it was absolutely unreal. when i walked into this i didn't expect to produce what i ended up producing. i never would've dreamed of writing a 22k+ fic in 2 months.

and kier, you have GOT to know this, half of the writing was done by you. if not in reality, then in spirit - all those times i thought i was going insane by staring at the doc, you pulled me out of it. i am absolutely, eternally grateful for your consistent presence throughout this entire journey. because that's what it was, wasn't it? a journey, starting with new beginnings and ending with - if i allow myself not to be modest for a moment - a masterpiece. this is my longest work to date. and i have you to thank for that. from complaining endlessly in the google doc to watching httyd together, you have been there the whole time, and i cannot stress enough how absolutely wonderful all this has been.

so thank you. thank you! thank you for everything. thank you for starting this gorgeous au with your art, and thank you for making it come alive in the same way. your art is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, impeccably beautiful. i am in love with it.

thank you for choosing to participate in the aufest at all, and thank you for supporting me as i mentally collapsed struggled to write halfway through. thank you for your patience, and kindness, and all those words and emotes and gifs - they mean so much, and i will forever be grateful.

i could not have done this without you, kier. we've made it, see? we've made it! look how far we have come. only the Universe can see how thankful i am. i love you because you are love. you are one of the kindest, most brilliant people i have ever interacted with. remember that.

i hope the future holds more for the both of us. i absolutely hope that we will immediately recollab on - gets shot and dies

but i couldn't let this go without gifting you something you haven't seen yet. so. just for you, have silverrreign's side of the story.

enjoy :3 (for those who are not kier please read the main fic first there are spoilers 😭)

[sleepitysleepyspees]

I like how so many people are like. "oh yeah, [EPIC song] was my introduction to the musical" and then I'm just over here being all autisticly "I could never do that because it would be out of order and spoilers and-"

anyway, EPIC is awesome. hard to believe we've come to the end of the story. it's been less than a year for me but it feels like it has actually been twenty years. maybe I'm just impatient, maybe it's because I spend more time thinking about my hyper fixations than fulfilling my basic needs, maybe Jorge is just insanely talented and that's the answer to any question anyone has ever had and ever will have. guess we'll never know.

thanks Jorge and everyone who took part in creating this wonder of human creation.

not only do I enjoy every second these songs are entering my ears, but I have also found an amazing group of friends through this musical (hello @skylerashford @madrone33 @captaincorgi128 @yummyorgans @kixrru and many more)

this musical has affected my life in so many ways, I don't think a single one of which is negative (unless you count the "I'm not doing christmas if it means I'll miss the stream" but uh.)

[ronsenthal]

🪖 HBOWAR Fandom Q/A 🪖

Thanks @sharkboyandlavalieb, @ronald-speirs and @footprintsinthesxnd for the tags!!

Name/ Alias:

Jess / Jeska / whatever you want really I just don't like my full name

Country:

Brazil, zil, zil

Which of the series have you seen - BOB, P, GK, MOTA:

All of them!!! BoB is a long term relatioship while I finished both TP and GK last year and I'm really looking forward to more MoTA

Use an emoji or ONE word to describe your favourite character in an hbowar miniseries:

😾 LISTEN, IT'S HIM!!!!!

Ultimate ship (if any):

Has to be winnix

Favourite fic (yes I made this q&a just to get fic recs):

SHIIIIT I have tons of fav fics and I list all of them on my #fic recs but I'll list some of the ones I'm always re-reading x Better This Way series by @blurredcolour x Kinky Ron Series: Part 1 and 2 by @@footprintsinthesxnd x In The Bleak Mid-winter by @blurredcolour x He definitely doesn’t hate me by @brassknucklespeirs x Meine Liebe by @mads-nixon x Ares and Athena and the prequels Evaded by Hypnos by @softguarnere x Guiding Light by @holdingforgeneralhugs

What are some ways you interact in the fandom?:

I'm a all-in-one mess because I reblog stuff, create some content like fics, gifs and edits and I try to spread positiviy and love around like giving feedback and sending random love to my mutuals

Favourite colour:

Always changing but somehow blue always comes back to me (rn it's green)

Current favourite song:

I would say Common People by Pulp because it's always blasting on my headphones lately

What would you say if I held up a can of peaches?:

I would stare you down with my amazing thick eyebrows and tell you It's a can of peaches, sir

Complete this sentence: “Where the hell is ___ company?!”

F!!!!!

Other accounts or socials?:

Only this one here but if anyone want my other socials just send me a message

List one other fandom member (mutual or a follower you admire) for some appreciation:

I'll tag more than one because I can't just pick one right? - @ronald-speirs my partner in crime and the other half of ron's last brain cell, really awesome, sweet and precious - @ewipandora my love, my Lew and the one who is contantly making me smile and deserves the world!!! - @easycompanys talented, sweet and lovely, we exchange so many ideas and tips for creations I love our mutual admiration society - @basilone another fellow creator that I admire so much and I'm so happy to exchange ideas, feedback and tips here and there - @sweetxvanixlla my schatzi, truly one of the sweetest and most special souls you'll ever find, her talent and sensibility it's insane - @mutantmanifesto the talent is insane and matches the sweet and precious personality, love everytime we have our convos

Tags:

no pressure!!! @blurredcolour @ewipandora @easycompanys @mutantmanifesto @panzershrike-pretz @georgieluz and everyone else who wants to :)

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

to complain about sims more i'm still pissed the sims 4 is a gutted corpse of a mmo no one wanted. and that’s not the developers fault! genuinely, the sims development team seems really sweet and friendly and skilled, they were never the issue. something i've always appreciated about the sims is that the developers have always had a very positive relationship with the fans and their creations, they’ve always been super encouraging towards modding and cc and i genuinely think it’s awesome of them. mad respect to the devs for even making the sims 4 functional when it had to shift genre completely halfway through development they have to be insanely skilled to even get it functional and i don’t think they deserve any animosity. as far as i can tell, they’re a bunch of smart, kind, and clever people doing their best with a game doomed to fail to begin with.

but like. the fact the sims 4 was even meant to be such a genre shift is disgusting. genuinely fucking appalling behaviour from ea. like it completely strips the series of it’s identity and is a blatant slap in the face to its core audience. like, the sims audience is just straight up different to a lot of other games. it’s incredibly diverse, of course- more so than any other I’ve seen- but it tends to skew older, skew female, and skew towards those with an interest in programming and/or storytelling. and while obviously not all of them will dislike mmos, older adults have jobs and kids to care for, and those with an interest in creating their own mods or stories either cant or have to do it collaboratively. a lot of these are people who got into the sims specifically because of the features it’d lose as an mmo! and it’s such an insult they’d throw so many people under the bus for a quick cash grab and then leave their devs with a barely functioning mess when they got backlash from simcity.

and they’re!!! still trying to find ways to exploit the sims and make it online to get even more money from its audience! these are devoted people, they’d have to be to spend enough money to play the sims, and ea keeps looking to exploit that loyalty to get people to pay for products they KNOW they don’t want bc they’d rather scam people out of money than make good games for slightly less money. and it’s so fucking sad. all respects to the devs for trying to make the sims 4 fun and functional you all did a really great job with the parts you were given but like the sims 4 is an example of corporate greed (and performative activism- ea Says all this shit about diversity but I don’t forget that they whitewashed sims in the beginning including the franchises mascot like they were so scared of having a woman of colour as their icon) and it makes me sad

[initial-lime]

“Hunter what’s with the 9+ hour buried playlist, like what’s the goal here?”

Insanity, someone has to. Civic duty. Obsession even

That thing is my everyday playlist also, like I’m not just keeping a white elephant, I have genuinely listened to that monstrous thing a million times trough and it’s just not enough. Still the walls draw near on me, 9 hours is nowhere NEAR enough

I actually spend a lot of time going trough music, reading every lyric and evaluating the beat itself to make sure it fits the buried and isn’t just a song that has “rocks” or whatever in the title

Also I take my role as “most insane and unhinged about the buried” very seriously, if you or a friend has a buried playlist or song recommendation send it my way so I can look trough it (: many very awesome songs have been added from wonderful people around here

Yours, forever deep below creation, Hunter

[rosekasa]

🥑🐝

hi anon!!!!

writers' truth & dare asks

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

immediately my best friend @renwatchesanime ahdjsja. they would bring out their apple pen and notability and our criminal law textbook

i think id also text @jattendschaton for emotional support because i feel like bren is the person ive sent so many vns to like 'am i bad person for this?? i feel like a bad person' and bren is very good at either reassuring me im not a bad person or honestly saying 'what you did wasnt ideal but i love you and understand you and you'll be fine'

🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

BUTTTTT I HAVE SO MANY 🥺🥺🥺 IM BLESSED WITH SO MANY PEOPLE ANON!!!

@mozzygan : morgan my beloved: someone who never lets anyone feel forgotten! it's such a wonderful trait to remember people the way she does, especially when she does so many awesome things day to day already!! i feel like someone's priorities say a lot about them as a person and this is so true with morgan

@asukiess : autumn my beloved, she's always cheering me on 🥺 she is such a beautiful person in terms of literally everything -- personality, appearance, her brain, her creations -- and it feels like she is so Fully beautiful that just being around her makes you feel beautiful too

@ladyofthenoodle : noodles has known me since i was sixteen and has always felt like someone i know would stand by me regardless of how active i was in the fandom. i think the thing about noodles that has always inspired me is just the insane level of dedication she has to things in her life -- her work, her fics, her friendships, everything. to me she is someone extremely purposeful and very admirable!!

@jattendschaton : brenu has also known me since i was a baby and she has made me feel so loved and safe in her presence, even back when i didnt really believe i deserved it. bren has such a loving soul and i think it really shows in everything they do. their writing, their art, their tags on reblogs, and ESPECIALLY in conversations, you can tell that they are extremely full of love. talking to them feels like getting a hug. you can't NOT feel secure with them, even if you don't feel secure in yourself.

@hakucho-art : mika is my opposite in the ways that are so important to me. she is all the ambition and fire and fierce steadfastness to get what she wants that i lacked before i met her, and the best part is it's so natural to her that she doesn't even do it consciously. she is the person i turn to when i need to be reminded to stop thinking so much about what's the right thing to do and instead just do the thing and figure out what's right later. they are so amazing in every way and literally a case study on how to be naturally successful

@renwatchesanime : ren is my best friend and is quite literally always there for me. like, i never feel like im ever in an unescapable bind bc i know ren will somehow help me out. my fav thing about ren since forever has always been their brain. they're so fucking smart that i was jealous of them before we became friends. their thinking patterns feel like they catch all the things mine miss, and they're so insanely good at connecting information together and making it make sense. they're quite frankly an absolute genius and they dont give themselves enough credit for it.

[self-loving-vampire]

Been playing a little bit of Guild Wars 2 with the girlfriend (husband joining us shortly as well).

To no one's surprise I am playing a necromancer.

I have a few thoughts about the game but also feel like I haven't seen that much of it yet despite already being level 50. Still haven't done any dungeons or anything.

You level up truly insanely fast in this for some reason. One time I even went from level 41 to 45 all in one single XP drop and I still don't even know what I did to get that.

Some positives:

1- You don't actually have that many buttons to press. In some other MMOs like this (FFXIV being the one I played most recently) you have a whole lot of cooldowns, three-part combos, mobility skills, and just stuff you're supposed to press in a specific order in order to contribute optimally. Here it's pretty simplified to just 10 buttons, half of which come from your equipped weapons and the rest having limited predefined roles.

Consequently, the buttons you do press end up feeling a lot more substantial and distinct. There isn't really an action I have seen so far that feels like strictly filler.

2- You get to make some choices about your character's backstory and motivation during character creation, and these choices seem to come up in quests as well. This is not entirely unusual in single-player RPGs but the other MMOs I have played tend to avoid that sort of thing entirely. Another rare thing is that some of the story quests also have some branching paths.

3- I really like that it's not a subscription-based game, and even seems to have a very solid free to play version. I still think the lack of a mount during that is rather evil but still way better than subscriptions.

4- You seem to have a decent amount of options for customizing your playstyle, with multiple talent lines to pursue, different weapon types giving you very different skills rather than just having different stats, and eventually also things like specializations.

This is especially nice relative to FFXIV's complete lack of anything remotely similar, with all characters of a class always having all of the abilities for said class (as long as they did their quests). According to a friend the logic there was that people would become toxic over other players having sub-optimal builds and mandating them to use only the most effective skills, which is 100% something that happens but this is still a trade-off I don't really like.

5- I like how a few of the zones are in active war, with NPC armies invading towns and attempting to capture them while players gather together to defend them.

6- My flesh golem turns into a fucked up zombie shark when I go underwater.

The negatives:

1- The game's presentation and world so far seem pretty much just "okay" in my opinion. It's not generic (haven't even seen an elf or anything yet), but it's also not particularly inspiring to me so far. Maybe when we get to see those elder dragons things are going to pick up? Zhaitan definitely looks like an awesome villain for a game to have but simply hasn't arrived yet.

2- Similarly, a lot of the zones are large enough and include so many different sub-zones that so far they haven't quite managed to have the most coherent central identity the way zones in games like WoW or OSRS do. This isn't all that bad but still affects the way I think about them. Maybe this also gets better once I get further away from the "green hills and forests"-type starting areas (although I feel like I have seen like three or four areas with that aesthetic already).

3- The materials gathering for crafting seems to be somewhat unbalanced. You level up so fast and get sent to new zones so quickly that you soon begin stockpiling crafting materials that you don't have the skill to use because the first tier of them seems to last all the way to maybe rank 75? It's as if the game used to have a slower pace that was more in line with that but now you just zoom past the stage where you're collecting tier 1 materials before you gather enough to move up to start using tier 2 materials.

That would also explain why I haven't crafted anything worth using so far. I'm getting significantly better stuff just from questing as I level.

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

you tagged that post saying that you could talk about our mutual boy (ral) for hours. what are some headcanons you have? :)

OH BOY i have some

So. I'll start this off with a preface: I know OF events in Ral's life, and I know OF what happened in The Gathering Storm + the other War of the Spark novels. But I haven't ever fully read through them myself directly. So... take all of what I say with a grain of salt. I won't act like what I say is authoritative in any regard - this is me just having fun with the scrunkly sparkmage I know about

(more under the cut)

I am sure I am very unique in this regard (/s) but I can't help but headcanon Ral with like... hella ADHD and/or anxiety?? He's one of those people where he is FANTASTIC at what he does (heehoo izzet science), even if his methods are insane (that's just kind of a given for the Izzet), but he knows absolutely fuck all nothing about anything else. Aside from some street knowledge from when he worked beneath Bolas, he is utterly an idiot in most other facets of life.

I particularly imagine generalized anxiety sprouted up after War of the Spark, given how he adamantly believed he was doing the right thing... only for it to turn out that turning on the beacon was exactly what Bolas wanted him to do after all, and thousands, if not millions, of people died for that decision. Sure, Ral has done terrible things before, but... inadvertently making a choice (and having a hand in the creation of a machine!) that costs SO MANY PEOPLE their lives and nearly burns down the city he loves.... yikes. I struggle to see how that WOULDN'T give ANYONE anxiety

That being said, I imagine his anxiety manifests in like the "can't stop talking when I am nervous" way or the "I talk myself up in an annoying fashion and act like I think I'm better than I am" way, because otherwise, he starts to feel like the Horrors(TM) are becoming a little too real. Every time this guy tries to do something good, it BACKFIRES HORRIBLY, and he always feels like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Always

I headcanon that he 100% was the one who went "we should go public with our marriage" @ Tomik and Tomik was like "People will flip, we are guildmasters. Of opposing guilds" and Ral was like "so? Do I give a shit?"

I imagine they probably DID try to hide it for a while, but Ral was secretly relieved when it happened and probably accused anyone that acted like it was a bad thing of homophobia, thus shutting them up instantly, even though he knows 100% nobody cares and they're just concerned bc of the flagrant political corruption

All in all I just headcanon him as always WANTING to do the right thing, but just as well, he's still a bit of a chaotic little shit at heart, and oftentimes, his attempts at "doing the right thing" seem to backfire more than when he ISN'T trying - which is how it becomes very easy for him to obsessively become wrapped up in things and do things, sometimes reprehensible things, that he will later regret

Oh and I headcanon him as absolutely being a bit crushed under the heel of Niv Mizzet. At first, he thought being the guildmaster of the Izzet League was going to be AWESOME - and then he very quickly found out that Niv having the powers of Living Guildpact, looming over his shoulder constantly, meant that he was little more than a puppetmaster for Niv for the Izzet, and so even now, he's still under the dragon's thumb. On one hand, he still respects and reveres Niv, but post-WotS, he's lost a lot of love for the dragon, as Niv allowed him to shoulder much of the blame for the beacon even though it was Bolas who implanted the idea in Niv's mind.

Also also also the fact that he needs that gauntlet to effectively make use of his lightning?? Feels a lot like a disability allegory to me and as a disabled guy I latch onto that a Normal(TM) amount. I love love love the gauntlet and seeing him with it and fiddling with it or using it makes me incredibly happy. MAGICAL DISABILITY AIDS!!

(Once again I stress that these are HEADCANONS that are only loosely based on canon....but yeah I have fun thinking about this guy. SCRUNKLY GAY SPARKMAGE MY BELOVED)

[melissa-titanium]

i am SO fuckijng happy over this ia m SO fucking happy over this i hope everyone knows i hope every one knows. biggest fucking artistic inspiration ever. ever. EVER and i am fucking losing my mind i cant beleive theyre back. i cant . beleieve tehyre back. can you tell its That Time Of Month i have cried asctual tears over this twice now. twice.i cant beleive theyre back . i cant beleive it guys guys the world is good? art lives on . art lives on . i feel like i sound insane talking about this but it makes me so fucking happy its so cool to see people i knew come back from vanishing . my awesome friend tirk come home. tsukkisaur come home. all the other artists ive known/spoken to who vanish because of mental health reasons i hope you are doing well & eventually have the motivation/desire to come back and post not for others but for yourself. i hope everyone who has decided to step away from their platform for good have a wonderful life and carry the love i and many others had for their creations and thoughts through their hardest days.

favorite fucking artist just came back from the dead and is now mob psycho posting i have a reason to live now

[punkpandapatrixk]

You’re allowed to be savage🚀and fly high🛰

[Back to Masterlist]

Pile 1 - An Evil Genius(?)

X The Wheel of Fortune, 5 of Wands

Priestess of Good Fortune & Gold Magus (Johannes Faustus)

Are you aware that you're a master manifester? Even if you aren't aware of this yourself (maybe for now), you're powerful beyond belief. Literally, with just the power of your mind, you can turn any situation around to be in your favour.

It's just sometimes you aren't confident enough in yourself because there's a lot of doubt in your mind. Either that, or you're often too caught up in the tiny details of how things should be done that you don't get things done at all...

Aaand... maybe that's also how you've attracted misfortune rather easily, too.

The title for this Pile doesn't actually mean you're an evil person. But, because of the nature of your goodness, you could be tempted to sabotage your own success. I know that sounds crazy but try to analyse your patterns to understand how your mind tends to want to do things the hard way. See it now?

To some extend, you do this because you feel bad for having things the easy way. This world somehow favours hard work to a point of obsession. You could subconsciously have been dragged into believing that your success will only matter if you've earned it the hard way.

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 - A Charming Inspiration

4 of Cups Rx, 6 of Wands

Priestess of Energy & Silver Astronomer (Galileo Galilei)

You are a charming social butterfly. Even if you don't see this of yourself, others do see you this way and admire the positive vibe you emanate everywhere you go. You generally have a great energy and people look up to you a lot because your confidence makes them feel motivated. Maybe people just don't tell you enough that you make them feel this way?

Meanwhile, you also have this intellect that pierces through the core of things, so it's quite rare for you to get stuck in a rut for long. You're smart, brave, and positive. Maybe you don't see this as something extraordinarily amazing, but once you understand that not that many people have this insane combination of positivity, you'll appreciate yourself a bit more.

You do have a dualistic nature though. So maybe this is one reason you don't (sometimes) think too highly of yourself. You're sharply analytical to begin with and can be your own harshest critic. You're more aware of what's lacking in you and you think you need to improve yourself all the time.

Of course, you do that because you have a good heart. You want to be better so as to be more liked or more useful to the people around you. But the thing is, you're already an inspiration to so many people by just being yourself.

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 - An Alien, Quite Literally

King of Cups, 2 of Wands

Priestess of Integrity & Red Astronomer (Johannes Kepler)

You're a master at controlling your emotions. You're almost hardheadedly logical and analytical. The way your mind works is like a science project. You're constantly experimenting with trials and errors. Always growing and expanding in your own eccentric ways. You can't be tamed. You're wild because you know your genius.

Flaunt that and don't ever abide by common rules, honey. Don't let them confuse you nor make you doubt yourself. Your uniqueness (in all ways) could literally change the world—if that's one of your interests. You're setting an example for others who are struggling with believing themselves! You're like a wayshower without even meaning to; you're just being you and doing your things—because that's what you do.

Actually, you aren't particularly concerned with the state of the world. You like your own world, after all. Whether inner or outer, you have a world of your own creation that's a million times better than this world. You may not realise how awesome this is of you. Not that many people dare to actually dream the things you dream about all the time. You can make them a reality, of course. If you want to.

That's the thing with geniuses, you decide for yourself what you ultimately want to do. Depends on how interested you are in the cause/project/whatever. In that way, you are powerful. But you're also constantly searching for meaning. This world looks so little to you and feeling restricted is no new friend.

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Feel free to support me on Patreon if you love this kind of content🍑I create stories and tarot readings that calm the mind & heal from within🍒

[Back to Masterlist]

[loveydoveylex]

💫 RAYMAN GO!!!

RAYMANRAYMANRAYMAN (DOES A LITTLE DANCE)

THANK Y'ALL FOR THE ASKS! hope both of your weekends are going good!!! NOW. RAYMAN. let me take you on a JOURNEY through the years, powered by my autism.

let's start off by asking ourselves a question like we're french philosophers. who is rayman?

rayman is the creation of a man named michel ancel. ancel had always loved videogames, and he had spent much of his life doodling little characters and coming up with ideas for them. around 1992, ancel created his favourite character: rayman!

rayman ended up being left with no arms or legs in order to be easier to animate due to, y'know, several technical limitations at the time. this ended up being a fantastic decision, because not only was it unique and creative, but it opened up for so many more possibilities than normal in regards to his moveset! ah, but i'm getting ahead of myself.

around that same time, development began on a game starring ancel's new character. at first it was planned to be released on the super nintendo, but this was scrapped and it got reworked into an atari jaguar game instead. and such, in 1995, the world was introduced to our platforming limbless wonder ❤

following the release of the first rayman game, it was quickly realized how much potential this series had for its future. tons of edutainment games were created, the game got ported to a whole bunch of different platforms, and eventually, a sequel was developed for the n64 and pc in 1999. i present to you, rayman 2: the great escape!

i would insert a joke here about "Rayman had a rough transition into 3d" but that couldn't be further from the truth. rayman's transition into 3d got nothing but praise! this game has been included in multiple lists for the greatest games of all time. suffice to say, this is a common favourite among rayman fans, and for good reason!

a fun fact about this game is that it has been ported to basically every console imaginable. it's like the doom of platforming. you could probably play rayman 2 on your calculator. rayman 2 microwave speedrun when?

anyways, during this time, a tv show was also in production! it unfortunately only got four episodes in before it was cancelled, but it's still great fun. billy west voices rayman, it's hilarious, i recommend giving it a watch. it sort of follows the scrapped plot that the original rayman 2 had.

before we get to my BELOVED rayman 3, i want to point out one port of rayman 2 in particular that's interesting: rayman revolution, released in 2000!

rayman revolution is the ps2 port of rayman 2, and let me tell you, it's got, like, hours worth of more content than the original game did. it SLAPS. in my opinion, it's my favourite version of rayman 2, but some people feel it's a bit over-bloated with all the new added content. i think it's awesome though. it's got an openworld hub world and everything!

anyways, moving on from rayman 2, we get to my FAVOURITE game in the entire franchise. i love this game so much, i could gush about it for HOURS. RAYMAN 3: HOODLUM HAVOC.

I LOVE RAYMAN 3 SO MUCH, Y'ALL. IT'S INSANE. i literally have practically the entire game memorized in my head.

so for this game, michel ancel actually wasn't directly involved with a lot of it. he did, however, help out with a new redesign of our titular main character! this was 2003, everything had to have that early 2000's edge, and rayman was no exception. so he donned a hoodie, got some sick new kicks, and got a fresh sharp new haircut. and he looks SO GOOD Y'ALL but i'm not going to go into how handsome i think he is because i'm gay enough already. BUT SERIOUSLY, COME ON, JUST LOOK AT HIM, HE'S SO BADASS.

MY LOVE ❤❤❤❤❤

although rayman 3 didn't do as well as rayman 2 did, it wasn't considered a BAD game or anything (i will fight anyone who thinks this is a bad game 😤😤😤), and so the franchise continued... and we got, uh. rayman raving rabbids, in 2006.

i'm using an older ps2 cover here purely because i think it looks cooler but the game was primarily developed with the wii in mind seeing as it ended up being a party game. initially, it was developed as rayman 4, and it was supposed to be a platformer like the others (i could rant about the scrapped prototype for a WHILE) but they tossed that concept aside because they wanted to incorporate the wii playstyle into it.

i am not a huge fan of the rabbids. they're like the minions before the minions existed. i actually didn't even know they were in the same franchise as rayman until i got into the rayman franchise, because they ended up branching off and ubisoft favoured rabbids games over rayman... so he sort of got abandoned for a while. in the period between 2006 to 2011 we got some rabbids games. i'm not going to go over them because 100% honestly i do not care for them a whole lot HAHA.

well, 2011 rolls around, and our boy rayman is back in the spotlight with RAYMAN ORIGINS!

despite its title, it's a direct sequel to rayman 3, not a prequel (though it was originally supposed to be, and it was gonna detail rayman's past and how he grew into the hero that he was, but that idea was put aside last minute).

rayman's returned to his 2d platformer roots and he's here to just go through goofy shenanigans and kick some ass and i can respect that!

in 2013, we got a sequel to rayman origins, rayman legends! another great game. i played this one with two of my friends and i had so much fun.

both really good games!

anyways for the next near-decade we just got a bunch of mobile runner games that recycled origins and legends assets. they're fine, nothing noteworthy.

nowadays, ubisoft hasn't paid much mind to rayman anymore, despite him being the mascot that got them where they are today, and they still seem to favour the rabbids, considering that they got in a game with MARIO before rayman did. but it seems like ubisoft hasn't completely forgotten about their old friend... :D

let me tell you. 2023 cannot come fast enough.

[radiation]

Some may knowing this some may not...but exactly a year ago was wayneradiotv’s “wayner must survive” 24 hour vr minecraft charity stream benefiting no kid hungry! heres the poster for it:

due to a whole lot of generous people, the total amount raised was $105,437.09, which is absolutely INSANE and amazing

i didnt really talk about it much when it happened, but I worked on the minecraft mod used in the stream. i thought since it’s been a year, it’d be a good time to go down memory lane and talk about some of the stuff i worked on and funny stories about that and the stream in general! this is gonna be super loose and all over the place but maybe it will be interesting to some1. also this is long as hell so be warned

SO wayner must survive was a 24-hour long stream where wayneradiotv on twitch would be playing minecraft in vr for 24 hours straight to raise money for charity. the premise was that the day/night cycle of minecraft would be in real time. about the first half was during daytime in the game, then when night fell, multile waves of twitch subscribers chosen thru a drawing would come to attack wayne every hour.

it was decided that a minecraft mod would be created for the stream, the purpose of which was to 1. integrate donations with minecraft, with donations triggering a choice of various in-game events as incentives. for example, you could choose to spawn a weak enemy with a custom name, create a sign with custom text, dump a bucket of water on wayne’s head, and other various ways to mostly inconvenience him 2. create interest for viewers through original content that would be revealed over time 3. assist in creating stretch goals, bigger events that would be triggered in game once certain donation milestones were met

honestly i forget details about how i was brought onto the project but it was thru shelly @fetalpile on here, who is a friend & someone i’ve collaborated a lot with since then (including on the game in my pinned message!). she was the director of the mod project. the team that she brought together to work on it ended up being called Team Waterflea (and i actually came up w the name!) I think id describe my role as like, some kind of assistant creative director? and general artist. i helped with general ideation & organization, as well as creation of music, art assets, and builds

i didn’t do much during the actual stream though but i floated around a bit and saw some stuff happening behind the scenes

NEXT im gonna be going over some things i made for the mod. this is just gonna be my own contributions, but i really wanna point out that sooooo many others put so much work on this stuff and did so much more than i did. it would take me AGES to give people credit for all the crazy and awesome stuff they made for it and i dont have ages to write stuff, but just know like. THIS IS the tip of the iceberg, seriously, cannot give everyone else enough credit. but yeah that being said here are some of the things i worked on and some stories about them!!

i’ll start with music & sound:

1. composed a couple music tracks

originally there was talk about having a custom soundtrack for the mod, replacing the default minecraft music, which definitely wasnt gonna work out. so we decided to put some songs on cds instead. i definitely put too much energy into this LOL but i was honestly just excited to write music. in the end it didnt turn out too well, for some reason there was no volume control on ingame music so that shit just blasted. extremely fuckin loud. so it had to be mostly foregone, a lot of other ppls tracks werent played either which is really unfortunate. part of a track i wrote got played but it was so loud it had to get stopped part of the way thru

that being said here are da tracks i wrote! heres the one that got played and heres the one that didnt. i was also working on a third track that was like. a ripoff of clubbed to death basically but i never finished it

oh yeah also i came onto the server during the stream a while after the stream started so i wasnt aware of the whole jank CD situation at all. so i got a jukebox and put in a cd that played fuckinnnnnn this track, meaning to just play it for myself for fun but turned out it was for the whole fuckin server to hear. i think wayne had minecraft audio muted or something because it didnt play on the actual stream (thank god) but i felt SO bad like i had no idea

2. came up with the “pig scare”

can be seen here!

it was a donation incentive for $69.42? Basically if you donated that amount, wayne would have reduced visibility because of a pig sliding across the screen along with an obnoxious audio track. my idea for the audio was just like... a really annoying bitcrushed midi seinfeld-esque riff. here’s a link to the track i wrote if you wanna hear it more clearly

it’s actually a reference to one of my FAVORITE videos since like. god idk 5 years ago at this point i think? but i had only recently learned actually had ties to the radio tv solutions crew. i will not link the video here for various reasons but there is a reason why its for $69.42 LOL. but yeah i guess i was going for something thatd be a reference for those who are in the know but isnt alienating & could still be entertaining for those who arent. implemented by shelly btw as are a LOT of these things so huge credit to them

3. i voice acted milkwalker!!

U can hear milkwalker in the last clip i linked, but heres a better one

if you know me you know i sound nothing like how the milkwalker voice sounds... i did the voice by 1. going to the basement where nobody could hear me 2. holding my nose 3. straining my voice beyond belief and making it crack 4. pitch shifting the recording to be lower and adding reverb. i think im still pretty happy with it!

the voice clips for taking damage were “uh oh” in which i accidentally channeled the fuckin teletubbies and “owie” which was liiike peacock from skullgirls. that one was more on purpose tho

now, onto builds, which are probably my biggest contribution to the project

as i mentioned before, halfway thru the stream, various waves of "assassins” would come to attack wayne, which is why its called “wayner must survive”. there were 10 waves with groups of 3 people in each wave, and each group was assigned a “class” - theyd use custom skins, attacks, and sometimes armor based on what their class was. this would add variation and mystery to the fights to keep interest! there was a lot of time and thought put into these different classes and they were so fuckin cool and well done, shouts out to everyone who worked on them

to keep them organized and give each class a place to equip their items, we decided on creating dedicated bases for them. i made 8 of these bases, 2 of them were started/mostly completed by others but i dressed up a bit. i also had a little bit of help on interior decoration

i do not know where the file for the minecraft world is and i don’t know if i’ll ever find it, so i’m gonna take screenshots from the VOD and then talk about them. here is the point in the VOD where the builds show up if you wanna watch that instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7JoVQ-Z-Bk&t=2h46m07s

VERY SADLY because i cant find the world, you cant see any of the interiors of the builds, which ended up looking really cool! so i guess youre just gonna have to trust me on that one. if anyone who was an assassin has screenshots please let me know! but yeah enjoy some janky ass screenshots

1. clowns’ tent

the inside of this one had a little tightrope made of fence that you could jump off to onto a trampoline that was slime blocks covered in carpet!

2. cliparchers’ watch tower

clipart + archers. thats it. i was pretty happy with the inside of this one, i had a lot of banners going on and it was kinda multi-tiered. i think this is the one im saddest about losing.. o well

3. wizards’ tower

floating lanterns!! and futile efforts to limit the growth of vines

4. slayers

this guys eyes glowed in the dark a little and also kinda followed you! there was also a fireplace and some beds inside, it was pretty cute. i know i put a funny secret message in the top of the hat but i forgot what it was...lost to time. this is one of the ones im happiest with for sure

5. food criminals’ restaurant

i didn’t make this one, charlotte did, but i helped flesh it out a little and add some different kind of blocks on the outside. this had a drive through window outside and they only served rotisserie chicken. also a fast food restaurant counter inside, some checkerboard flooring, and then a sleeping area upstairs

6. duelists’ millennium puzzle

this one was really hard to pull off, making a pyramidal shape with the symbol in the middle clear was. tough. im really happy with how it turned considering how insane like. a gold pyramid with detailing also in gold is to make in minecraft. the inside was initially really dark with minimum lighting but mobs KEPT spawning there so i had to lighten it up a lot. it was pretty cool tho it had a kind of altar, nice kinda unnerving atmosphere

7. necromancers’ ss dolphin

not much 2 say about this one. the necromancers were basically sending ghosts of pikmin after wayne since he killed so many pikmin on his streams of the games. and i naturally made the ss dolphin..OH i did have kind of a cool section by the window for a captains seat and some navigation, put some diff buttons and levers around to make it look functional. also used shulker boxes that were colored the same as the pikmin (red/blue/yellow) to store them

8. artifacters’ ????

some kinda crazy upside down coral structure hanging by chains for the artifacters. these guys were based off of jpeg artifacting so everything was fucked up and glitchy and weird colors. original design was done by cottoncandywlw and doctor_synthesis so credit to them for that, i just dressed it up a bit, adding the diff coral colors. which was kind of a challenge since colored coral has to be touching water. i had to make creative ways to hide the water it was touching. also you reached it by stepping on a block that teleports you up there, which i thought was really clever @ whoever came up w it

9. engineers’ 2fort

i couldnt really get a good picture of this one but. yeah. speaks for itself

10. MONKey’s church of all kong

fuck... i like forgot what the whole church of all-kong thing was about but. monkey monks with red eye motif thatst basically it. i had some help on the interior of this one but i forgot whom it was by. library, spiral staircase, and naturally a bunch of barrels upstairs. shouts out to whoever did that

also on the left is just like. a cherry tree. i was gonna add more for decoration but i didnt have time so it ended up just being confusingly out of place and for some reason i feel embarrassed over it. oh well

here’s a pretty good pic of a few of em!

but yeah, these were super fun to work on and i loved adding a bunch of little details on the inside to make it more fun for everyone :D

OTHER STUFF

1. wizard spell

i came up with the idea for the “wizard spell” - the wizard class had an attack where they cast a spell that launched various bad ass pictures of wizards at you and then exploded on impact. i gathered the assets for it, here they are. imagine these exploding in your face (the word wizard included)

2. cliparchers

i made original designs for the bows the cliparchers used, i have the non-resized versions somewhere but i dont wanna get em rn

a. you bow, that launched you in any direction

b. ddr bow, that launched directional arrows that would push whoever hit around in the direction of the arrow

c. hi bow. if it hit you it said hi

d. drop bow. you hit the ground and make an explosion. deadly when combined with da you bow, u can basically dive bomb people

i tried to make em pretty visually different and also in kind of a clip art style as best as i could for the low resolution!

3. helpty humpty

fuck this guy. scrapped donation goal idea that i wanted to be in way too badly but i hate him now and i hate looking at him. he was basically a bonzi-buddy type virtual buddy that would be “installed” into minecraft once enough donations were made. he would be a pop-up on the screen, basically just a UI element. the idea was that he would just say a bunch of bullshit unhelpful tips, give out fake quests and challenges, and have a really conflicted personality. actually really reminds me of the gnome from the half life alyx streams nowadays in a way? but yeah i drew this and i dont like it. i designed him to be unbearable to look at and i guess i succeeded. ultimately im glad he was scrapped cuz i think the humor and timing couldve easily been a huge miss also we were afraid someonewould think hes attractive. fuck this guy

other stuff

-the clowns have an attack where they hit you with a cream pie and the pie covers the screen. this waasnt my idea but what was my idea was to superimpose the text “PIE’D!” over the pie splat so it didnt look like uh. something else. and i saw 0 comments about it so i think we succeeded in that

-i had the idea for scorpy to make a fucked up video to play at the end of the stream to celebrate the money being raised and proposed it to wayne who agreed, i cant take credit for anything beyond that vague suggestion but this was the video that was made. it freaked me out at first but now i think its so funny

-my favorite moment from the whole thing was when we were getting really stressed out about the twitch integration not working out. but then we recruited a bunch of really good coders on board who jumped in a call and worked out the issues together and that was like. zen moment. it was amazing hearing people work through the problems and discuss that stuff in real time, just fixing everything super quick and in a really great harmony. that was fuckin crazy and so inspiring

again... has to be said although ive listed my contributions, they are nothing close to all the hard work and effort everyone else put in. this shit was insane, so much money was raised, the twitch integration was PERFECT, like im astounded. 

i hope this wasnt too boring hahaha but i had fun writing it either way :D i am still so so so  thankful that the charity drive was so successful and im really honored to have been involved in something for such a good cause

[icology]

ohh, this is so lovely! the amount of awesome creations that many of us never even came across during all of these years is absolutely insane and I'm glad fans like you keep finding and passing them around!

embedding the link down below so people can reach it more easily:

not to alarm everyone but there's an ico content shortage on this website and I need to know who's going to step up and keep the legend alive for future generations

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael After Midnight: Dune

I’m a big fan of David Lynch and his bizarre, trippy films with their surreal atmospheres, so right out the gate I’d be predisposed to like his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel. I’ve never read it, sure, but I’m familiar with Lynch’s work, I’m familiar with the batshit behind-the-scenes story of this film’s creation, and most importantly I love giant sand worms, and frankly that might be though for this movie. I get the distinct sense that even if I read the book, it would barely help me parse the madness unfolding onscreen.

Most of the madness is courtesy of the Baron and his goons. The Baron is a floating fat man (and is even described as such) and his goons inexplicably include Sting, of The Police fame. At one point, Sting steps out from behind fifty fog machines wearing nothing but winged panties, and the Baron wastes no time making lustful comments about the man. This is the level of sanity the movie operates on all the time, but especially in the scenes involving the Baron.

From what I gather, the conflict in the film is a much more black and white affair than the novels, which is readily apparent by how cartoonish the Baron is. Again, he is a floating fat man and he’s covered in pus-filled sores, he bloodily murders a slave boy in a disturbing fashion, he forces an enemy to milk his cat for an antidote… and don’t even get me started on his over-the-top death scene. Thankfully, I think his cartoonish antics add a bit of fun to the film, although I’d be remiss in not mentioning how many see him as a homophobic stereotype thanks to his homoeroticism, sissy antics, and his disgusting sore-covered body bringing to mind AIDS during a time when that was ravaging the queer community. While I don’t think it’s a reach to claim that Baron is stereotypical in some regards (especially when taking into account Herbert’s own feelings on gay people), I honestly don’t think I can call Dune the most homophobic movie ever based solely on the Baron as some have. Even if it’s all intentional, he’s kind of par for the course for a queer-coded villain from the 80s and 90s. I don’t see him as any worse than Governor Ratcliffe; he’s funny enough that he’s not completely offensive, but he’s not hot enough where you can give him the Ol’ “Draco in Leather Pants” treatment (this is what Sting is for, though it’s more Leather Panties in that case).

Enough about the Baron; what about the rest of the cast? This is honestly where the film really shines, because even with the absolute insanity going on around them every single actor here is putting their whole pussy into their roles. Look no further than Patrick Stewart, a man incapable of half-assing a role even when it’s a literal shit emoji, who delivers every one of his lines with dignity and gravitas as if he were performing Hamlet. And there’s a reason Kyle MacLachlan went on to have a respectable career after this. Everyone is taking their roles seriously here, which adds a certain charm when absolutely ridiculous lines are uttered with total earnestness.

And if there’s anything here that there’s no fault in, it’s the effects, costumes, and set designs. Some of the stuff is dated such as the blocky early CGI used for the battle armor, but that has a certain charm to it; almost everything else is 80s sci-fi perfection, with special mention going to the utterly alien Guild Navigator and the completely awesome sandworms. Throw on top of that an epic soundtrack by Toto of all bands (Yes, the same Toto that did “Africa”) and this is a beautiful film to look at and to listen to.

Still, it’s not surprising why this film is relegated to being a cult classic. It’s extremely inexplicable and hard to comprehend, even for a Lynch film, and a big sci-fi film like this being as inaccessible as it is will do it no favors. And that’s all on top of a troubled production that is readily evident in the finished product and just how bizarre it is. The story is lacking polish and feels like it was watered down from something far grander, even never having read the books. I can also see why Lynch was ultimately disappointed with the movie; even with it being as weird as it is, it doesn’t really feel like a David Lynch film.

Still, this isn’t a bad film by any means, and there is plenty to love here even if it’s kind of messy. Great acting, great effects, great music… Dune is basically a must-watch if you like 80s science fiction. Everyone else I would recommend to go into it with an open mind. It’s sure to disappoint a hefty chunk of audiences, but hey, such is the fate of a cult film.

Now how does it stack up to the new movie? That’s a review for another day…

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Let’s Talk about Quantum Mechanics

I love Quantum Mechanics. It’s by far my favourite branch of physics for the very simple reason that it’s fucking bananas. Like, it’s legitimate to interpret the maths in a way that suggests we live in a constantly branching multiverse where every action in which different outcomes are possible leads to the creation of an entirely new universe- the ‘many worlds’ interpretation. But it’s equally legitimate to interpret the maths in a way that suggests a particle occupies every conceivable state simultaneously (though not with equal values of probability) until something happens to cause its wave-function to collapse, at which point only one action is taken within a single universe. So… infinite multiverse or particles existing in multiple places and states simultaneously to accommodate the same range of possibilities. Or some combination of both, since we’re fairly certain that particles exist as probabilistic wave-distributions regardless of whether we live in one universe or many. Like I said: bananas. And the thing is, everything I just said is a wild oversimplification and might be slightly off the mark, because I’m not a physicist. The fun thing is that, even if my depiction of the theory is sketchy and rough, the actual full complexity of reality would be much, much more bananas, not less. Which is awesome.

The thing about Quantum Mechanics is that people tend to give up trying to understand it, especially because all the famous quotes about it relate to how insanely complicated it is and how it doesn’t conform to our intuitive understanding of reality and is, thusly, impossible to picture. Hands up who’s heard the line “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics”? Well, it’s probably true that a layman like you or I is never going to be able to wrap our heads around the maths, which is what justifies all the bananas-ness of Quantum Mechanics. However, I think the idea that we can’t conceptually grasp it or visualise it is absolute drivelling bunkum that does nothing but contribute to a sense of false mysticism around a fact of our physical reality that we should all make some effort to wrap our heads around. Our concepts and visualisations might compare to reality more like an impressionist painting than a photograph (because, again, we’re not physicists), but for us lay-people that’s probably sufficient. I don’t really have the time or specialised knowledge required to talk you through picturing every aspect of Quantum Theory, but as an interested amateur with a fairly solid conceptual grasp of the ideas, I can give you a reasonable grounding in the basics. To return to the analogy of a moment ago, I can’t show you photographs of the true nature of reality, but I can share my impressionist sketches with you and help you get one step closer to conceptually grasping the quantum universe.

Let’s start at the beginning. The word ‘quantum’ sounds very, very cool, but it just refers to the principle that reality is made of indivisible integer units of fundamental, elementary stuff. Or, to put it another way, subatmomic reality is quantised in whole numbers: you can’t have half an electron or 12% of a Higgs Boson. That’s pretty important, but not immediately so, so just stick in the back of your noggin and we’ll come back to it.

Now, the other major precept of Quantum Mechanics is that particles aren’t solid units of matter in the way that we understand in the macrocosm- I’m not just talking about probability distribution (though we’re getting to that). I’m talking about the fact that most fundamental particles in our reality aren’t really separate from space-time at all, but are actually excitations in fundamental fields that exist at every point in space-time. What is a fundamental field? Well, here’s where I can help you visualise shit! Imagine a flat surface, but give that surface the ability to flow and move and form different patterns. Maybe picture it as a lake of quicksilver, or as a sheen of shimmering colours. It doesn’t really matter- this is an analogy, not a literal representation of what’s happening. Now, imagine that something happens to disturb that flat surface. It forms a spike like a very, very localised wave- as though someone threw a big rock into it. N.B. Nobody threw a big rock- stop picturing the quantum world filled with tiny elves throwing rocks (this note is as much for my benefit as yours- I’m a whimsical man). Anyway, the surface is a fundemanl field and that spike- that deformation of the flat surface- is a particle. Now, this is where things get tricky. Imagine that there are lots and lots of flat surfaces- one for every fundamental particle- all existing at the exact same point, overlapping one another. One surface- one field- is for electrons, while another is for Higgs Bosons and another is for photons, etc. Now, with the mind’s eye, zoom out. This set of flat surfaces is just one point in space-time. You can zoom out infinitely and see that there is an identical set of surfaces for every point in all of space-time. Every excited, deformed surface is a particle, and every flat, tranquil surface is empty space. Boom. If you can picture that, you have a basis for visualising the essential connection between particles and the universe they exist in. You have also grasped, visually, that there is no distinction between matter and energy at this scale, because fields just described are both points in space-time and particles (which make up matter) and the only difference is, well, energy.

Okay, that’s a pretty good way to visualise one aspect of Quantum Mechanics (probably not the best way- get an actual physicist to yell at you about the inaccuracies of this model sometime), but it’s good enough for us muggles. There is, however, two problems with it. First and foremost, it makes the imaginary surface ‘flat’ and therefore two-dimensional in order to make an excitation in that surface easier to picture. Points in space-time are not two-dimensional. Fundamental fields are not flat. But that’s okay. Our first visualisation was just to help you understand how particles exist and what they are. Now that you’ve got the general idea, instead try picturing the fundamental fields as a sort of mist with pretty average distribution. The mists swirl and coagulate suddenly as energy is pumped into them (don’t worry about from where) and become denser and more coherent and suddenly there’s a perfect sphere in the mist, formed from the mist yet distinct from it. This sphere is our three-dimensional version of the spike; it is a particle. Of course, particles aren’t really spheres either- it doesn’t make sense to talk about them as having shape at all, in fact. Nor are fundamental fields mists- they’re more like invisible zones of potentiality. However, the human brain can’t picture something without giving it a shape and colour and it doesn’t hurt anything to picture a particle as a sphere or the field from which it emerged as a mist. In fact, as analogies go, it’s very serviceable. It allows you to visualise a process that doesn’t have a direct analogue in a macroscopic cosmos. So, for the purposes of analogy, the mist is a field that can be excited and that excitation is a spheroid fundamental particle. Congratulations. Your first visualisation allowed you to understand the process and the second has allowed you to make it three-dimensional.

Of course, I said there was two problems with the initial model that we used, and now it’s time to address the second and trickier one. You see, points in space time (whether you imagine them as surfaces or misty areas) aren’t like pixels on a screen, and nor are the particles that emerge from them. They’re not discreet things with definite, defined locations. We have to accept that our nice, neat sphere doesn’t actually have a defined location in space-time connected to a neat point. We talk about ‘points’ in space-time because it makes it easier to picture fields filling each point and allows you to visualise the way excitations in one particular place create particles. But now that you understand that, you’re ready to upgrade your visualisation of the particle itself. You see, the particle is a particle, but it’s also a wave. It exists not as a single, solid mass but as a distribution of probabilities. Did that sentence make sense? No? Okay, let me explain. Imagine that our sphere is actually lots of transparent, insubstantial spheres, moving through one another, overlapping, dividing, collapsing into one another. Some of the moving, spheres appear more substantial than others. And the really trippy thing? They’re all really the same sphere! What you’re looking at, in your mind’s eye, is a particle existing in multiple places and moving at different speeds, all at the same time. It is more likely to be in some spots than the other, which is why some of the sphere-instances are more solid-looking than others. It is less likely to be in other places yet- in a sense- it is there too. This is what is meant by ‘probability distribution’. If the particle is observed or measured- that is, if it interacts with a system that brings it into observable contact with our macrocosmic world- it will cease to act like a wave and cohere at any of the points within its probability distribution, becoming a single, solid ball again in our mind’s eye. This is what scientists mean (well, roughly) when they talk about the ‘collapse of the wave-function’. According to the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, this essentially ‘deletes’ the non-used possibilities. According to Many Worlds (or some versions thereof), they persist in other universes. The maths works out either way.

Now, every single fundamental particle in existence- from the odd lone ones drifting through the infinite night of space to the very densely-packed ones that make up your own body- are all doing the same thing all the time: existing as fuzzy regions of uncertainty until something collapses their wave-functions. When they interact with one another, they become larger regions of uncertainty that are less fundamental particles, which can interact with one another to become even less fundamental until you eventually get protons and neutrons partnering up with electrons to form atoms, which make up… well, everything in the universe that you’re familiar with. Where the transition happens between ‘buzzing region of quantum uncertainty’ and ‘actual solid thing’…  I have no idea. Somewhere around the large-molecule stage, maybe? Seriously, I told you I wasn’t a physicist. However, I hope that by sharing my own visualisation with you, I’ve helped you picture Quantum Mechanics- or, rather, the very basic building blocks of Quantum Mechanics- just a little better. Doubtless, my visualisations are sketches, not photographs, but they are proof that there is nothing conceptually inaccessible about Quantum Mechanics. All it takes is an imaginative leap.

DISCLAIMER: Like I said, these are sketches of how QM works intended for lay-readers like me, not a complete and totally accurate description. However, I have striven to avoid wild inaccuracies and blatant untruths. If anyone spots anything that I’ve just gotten spectacularly, amazingly wrong (outside the necessities of analogy, I mean), let me know so I can put up a correction.