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nebmia · 9 months ago

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Reviewing every rpg book on my shelf: 5, Flying Circus

Flying Circus is a a game by Erika Chappell where you fly planes, have messy dramatic relationships, and find out who you are. Sometimes all at the same time. More specifically you fly *rickety planes from the dawn of aviation* and have messy, dramatic relationships, and find out who you are *in an essentially queer way*.

The first thing I love about Flying Circus is it's sheer audacity in taking pbta (usually deployed for low crunch storygame-y titles) and twisting it into a highly detailed and technical system for running dogfights. I think its really clever how Erika has taken the idea of a detailed combat system are re-appraised it from the ground up in the context of dogfighting.

There is no grid based movement here, it simply is not useful in the three dimensional world that planes inhabit. Instead your positioning is modelled through altitude and air speed, with each being tradeable for the other and spend able to perform maneuvers.

Honestly the whole system is rather intimidating (a fact the book freely admits). Each plane requires a little personal instrument panel sheet (and a few extra side sheets) that resemble somthing you would expect in a euro-game boardgame more than an rpg. The system goes as far as modelling how your plane performs as you use up your modelling fuel and with varying altitude. There are also a lot of fairly involved moves that it feels would be a little tricky to keep aware of while running a dogfight. However, from what I hear, the system works well and, once you understand it, isn't /that/ tricky to run. I think this isn't actually that crunchy when compared to your standard tactical battlers, it's just completely new (and working in a zone most people have less of an intuitive understanding of [although its worth noting that most peoples intuitive understanding of medieval style combat is dead wrong]) so we are unably to draw upon our preexisting assumptions.

You will notice I have to fall back on reports and intiitions here because I am yet to be able to play the game, which is honestly my biggest problem with it: it carves such a specific niche that I think I will really struggle to ever bring it to the table. Anyone I have talked to about the game has always responded to the effect of 'I don't think I'm into planes enough for this'.

I am also not half as into planes specifically as Erika Chappell is. But what I am into is getting deep into things in general, and this whole system excels at letting you get incredibly technical and nerdy about your plane (as far as things like exactly what radiator fluid it has, if you use the advanced rules) and making those choices actually matter in play.

ok, that's probably enough about planes (a phrase I anticipate has never once been uttered by the author of this book), what are you doing when you get out of the planes?

The game follows a cycle of mission and downtime, which you spend relieving stress (in healthy or unhealthy ways) and running upkeep on your company. This is where you do a lot of the character work and bring into focus the 'coming of age' narrative that the game intends.

Which seems a good lead in to talking about the playbooks. Each playbook is focused around a particular thematic idea or experience, which is helpfully spelled out directly in a 'themes' section for each one. This isn't a game where you play as a fighter because you want to solve problems by hitting them but rather one where you play as a Fisher because you want to engage with "a queer reclamation of the monstous", or a scion because you want to engage with "privilege and power, and what obligations come with it", or a believer because you want to engage with "a mindset that thrives on radicalism", or a survivor because you want to engage with "a metaphor for what it feels like to be a transgender person escaping an unwelcome or abusive situation".

Obviously, alongside themes you do also get a load of cool abilities to use.

Of the many games that claim to be ghibli-esque but I think Flying Circus hews closest on account of two things: understanding miyazaki's perspective on war and also due to being absolutely unhinged about planes.

#ttrpg #my stuff #Reviewing every rpg book on my shelf #Flying Circus #pbta

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ashadowofburnedoutstardust · 2 months ago

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hello. I have sent this ask to another NZ blog as well but I would greatly appreciate you answering too as I am trying to get multiple people's opinions.

i might have the opportunity to move to NZ. with everything going on in the US I am really scared about Trump and am thinking about taking it but I wanted to ask you about your current ruling party. It seems like they are maybe rightwinng and kind of like the US Republican party are trying to gchange the government to give themselves more power which makes me fear they are another russia back antidemocratwic party like the GOP. do you think this is true ad that democracy is in danger in NZ? Are they popular? Do you think NZ will remain a democracy in the future?

Hello anon,

I'm going to be honest things are a little unsturdy at the moment

Our current ruling party formed a coalition with two other parties but thanks to the vigilance of the New Zealand people (politics is a very common discussion in this country and we don't shy away from it nor our opinions on it) we have managed to uncover the links between particular members of the coalition (the ruling parties) and the Atlas network lobby

It's worth noting that the current ruling government did not win by popular vote and had to form and alliance with two other parties to secure the ruling position

We have very good reason to believe it is related directly to project 2025 and that their reason for doing so is to gain access to drilling for oil in our Territory

There is currently more oil under New Zealand's Territory both land and sea then there is in Saudi Arabia

You may want to familiarise yourself with the geology of gas and oil fields ( we have one of the largest gas fields in the world - the Maui) but natural gas is normally a pocket at the very top of a very large deposit of oil and there is far less gas than there is oil

Here's a little tidbit for you: the official story is that there was a venture made by petroleum companies in order to discover it - technically a farmer on the central plateau found some of his cattle poisoned and got some environmental guys to come and check what was happening turns out what was in his pond was crude oil. How do I know this? The guy that went to the farm to verify it is my father's second cousin.......

Anyway the government of the time covered it up and ensured that oil would not be able to be drilled on New Zealand land so they started exploring out at sea

Back to the political situation

The coalition is made up of three parties which are all to some degree right wing, some more than others

Since being elected they have managed to make themselves the most unpopular people in the entire country.........

Sufficed to say due to the fact that speaking openly about politics in this country is a fairly normal everyday event we have managed to put enough public pressure on the government to back down on several things and many institutions such as universities who have self-governance have defended their positions publicly, others have done it in more subtle ways

For example they defunded Te Reo Maori language education and in response the New Zealand public maxed out bookings in Maori language classes all over the country..........

Our democracy is currently under threat from foreign interference and we are well aware of the consequences of backing down

I can assure you that the New Zealand public will not be doing so under any circumstances, maybe we get that from our Irish ancestors 🤷‍♀️

Personally I think it comes from having been ruled by the British and having our economy intentionally tanked after we removed their influence from indirect power over our government in the 60- 70's right after oil was first discovered in New Zealand which we then insured would not be able to be drilled for on land, having had the French committed terrorist act on our soil by sinking the rainbow warrior, and previously telling the US that they were bullies and vehemently opposing nuclear power which ultimately resulted in a ban of the technology and a freeze out of communal military action and support...........

We understand what it is to be a target of people who feel they are "superior" than you, and by we I mean boomers right down to millennials, our Gen z are currently experiencing their first event but I can imagine that their parents are passing on the stories of the past

They may be the ruling parties in government for now but I can guarantee you that next election they will be voted out vehemently

They are currently planning to attempt to undermine one of our founding documents the treaty of waitangi

This document is a very complicated piece of our history to say the least and due to breaches of that contract we are one of the few countries that have ever paid reparations in terms of the returning of land and money

The treaty guarantees certain rights and the treaties principles bill is basically an attempt to rewrite one of the articles

Imagine someone attempting to rewrite part of the US Constitution - that's how big of a deal it is......

Unfortunately the way our government is set up means it does not rule over the country, it is designed to be in service of it with many checks and balances which is what has prevented many of the things this ruling party has attempted to do

I will simplify it by stating that even the ruling government party can be prosecuted if they attempt to break the law

Attempts to put through policy that undermines statutory laws will be prevented by our national law society, the Human rights commission has issued warnings to the government, as has the sitting waitangi tribunal council

We are lucky that here our journalists have been doing the exact job they should have been

Do I believe our country will remain a democracy?

We have had anti-corruption legislation and the necessary checks in place for a very long time after watching how it happens in other countries and ensuring it couldn't happen here

They can try, but we will not go quietly and we'll take them down with us if necessary

#nz history #new zealand #nzpol #nz politics #nz govt #us elections

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yamayuandadu · 3 months ago

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Hello! I saw your discussion about Inanna on Twitter and got a bit confused. You said that the tutelary goddesses of Uruk, Zanbalam, and Akkad were all "Ishtar" and "Inanna," with the only difference being on a cultic level. But then you proceed to say, "never such a situation as 'there's one goddess named Inanna and one named Ishtar.'" Did you mean that Ishtar and Inanna are practically the same? As a bonus question, who is the deity in the image you posted on Twitter?

I’ll start with the bonus question, since it’s something new, while the rest will pretty constitute reiterating what I already said many times.

Admittedly, I was a bit confused at first, because the last image I remembered posting on twitter was this:

That’s not a deity, it’s a plushie (officially "Ouioui series Y Pathetic Suctipoda") made by the company Itemlabel; they come in blindboxes with between 5 and 12 designs in a series. This specific one is sold out already, though.

Then I remembered I used a crop of the quite unique plaque from the temple of Sin in Tutub as a reaction image at some point:

I’m going to assume that’s what was meant.

In the 1970s it was in vogue to try to link this remarkable work of art with the usual repertoire of entry level monster combat myths, without any real regard for spatial and temporal distribution of these motifs, but that never really caught on and it’s thankfully no longer a thing. As far as I am aware, today there are two proposals regarding this scene which are worth considering. The first is that it shows the defeat of Enmesharra (Wilfred G. Lambert, Babylonian Creation Myths, p. 288). The logic is fairly straightforward: the one-eyed entity has an eerie sun-like head, which according to Lambert offers an interesting parallel to Enmesharra’s epithet zimu, “splendour”, and the fact in a late account of his defeat it is reassigned to Shamash. He speculated scenes where gods with rays coming out of their body are defeated might be related, and offers an interesting insight that perhaps Enmesharra came to be regarded as luminous in some way due to accidental similarity between his name and Inanna’s arguably most famous epithet, Ninmesharra (which is basically the feminine version of the same name; note that there’s also an unrelated god list exclusive Ninmesharra who is an artificial exercise in inventing a wife for Enmesharra to match Enlil’s en-nin pair ancestors). I think Lambert’s arguments are quite compelling and they basically formed the core premise of the non-gay parts of my Inanna story. However, the one-eyed entity has yet another proposed identity which might fit even better. Andrew R. George in Nergal and the Babylonian cyclops points out that textual sources might indicate that a cyclops might really just be a cyclops. While infrequent, references to a mythical creature named igidalu (probably a loanword from Summerian igi dili - in other words, “one eye”, “monoculus”) are known from various sites, including an omen indicating Nergal was known as a vanquisher of such a specimen. It’s worth noting the birth of one-eyed animals was associated with Nergal too, which strengthens the possibility that we’re dealing with a well known myth which simply didn’t survive in written form. The only thing George doesn’t address are the rays, but it’s not like the “monoculus” necessarily had to look fully human-like. With the interesting stuff out of the way, let’s go back to your initial question. A solid chunk of it is already covered by the previous ask response, so I will only cover some misunderstandings you seem to have under the cut. Plase read previous ask responses and check the recommended reading doc in the future though because I'm kind of tired of repeating the same basic points every few weeks.

To begin with, cultic information is the most significant and should not be dismissed the way you seem to do. Most myths were just scribal exercises, offering lists and various displays of personal devotion are what reflects actual religious activity.

Inanna and Ishtar are names. “Umbrella terms” as Tonia Sharlach put it (and that’s without going into the existence of ordinary nouns ištar and ištartu). There was no singular Ishtar and no singular Inanna, there were numerous deities who could be referred to with both of these names. There is basically no sound way to have one “character” named Inanna and one named Ishtar; either stick to having just one - a type specimen of sorts representing a whole category - or go into more detail and include like 5-6. Megaten took the dumbest route and I’m frankly not interested in talking about it anymore. An early example, what I brought up on twitter, is that the tutelary goddesses of Uruk, Zabalam and Akkad (the city) were pretty clearly separate from each other. Separate hymns are dedicated to each of the three in the Temple Hymn collection, for instance. Each of the three had a separate repertoire of names. These repertoires partially overlap, most notably the names Inanna and Ishtar were applied to all three of them (and to a plethora of other deities) but we’re fundamentally dealing with related, but still separate, deities.

It is safe to say I. of Akkad was an Ishtar before I. of Uruk and I. of Zabalam were, but she was hardly the only goddess named Ishtar (indeed, you’ll find specimens as far west as Ebla). There’s a recurring argument that she was, for political reasons, conflated with Inanna of Uruk during the Sargonic period and this lead to the interchangeable use of the names Inanna and Ishtar later to refer to various deities; this is not impossible though it’s worth noting that a lexical list from Ebla, which is pre-Sargonic, already recognizes the equivalence between the names Ishtar (“Ašdar” if you want to go by Eblaite orthography) and Inanna. Also, it’s worth noting that it’s sort of questionable to speak of fully separate “Sumerian” and “Akkadian” pantheons - putting aside the fact each city-state would have its own pantheon, the lines don’t neatly correspond to languages, ex. the names Sin and Nanna probably started to be used interchangeably before writing was even invented - and despite being nominally Akkadian, the former was the one preferred in Lagash, arguably one of the parts of Mesopotamia with the highest % of Sumerian speakers.

Regardless of how the names came to be interchangeable, there’s no clear evidence for the goddess of Akkad NOT being considered separate despite sharing some of her names wirh others. If anything, with time she only became more distinct, with the epithet Annunitum becoming her primary name (and she also got a “twin” who splintered off from her, Ulmashitum, named after her temple). The case of Zabalam is even more complicated. Technically, it is possible the tutelary goddess of Zabalam was not originally named Inanna, but rather Nin-UM (reading of the second sign is uncertain). That’s how she is referred to in the Zame Hymns from the Early Dynastic period; there’s some disagreement whether we’re dealing with a case of an attempt to “Inannize” an originally completely unrelated goddess or if some sort of splintering happened (in which case the name Nin-UM would be secondary). In any case, she is also pretty clearly a distinct deity. The Weidner god list keeps her apart from the “regular” Inanna. Furthermore, while the circles of deities associated with both overlap (ex. Ninshubur and Nanaya occur in sources from both Uruk and Zabalam), the connection with Shara is effectively exclusive to Inanna of Zabalam (save for the awkward inclusion in Inanna’s Descent)

While myths might skip this sort of distinction, it’s worth noting that’s not 100% guaranteed. For example, there’s a proposal that the hostility between Inanna and Gilgamesh, which is a motif originating in Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven (which predates the singular epic by a couple of centuries), might indicate that implicitly Inanna of Akkad or Zabalam was meant instead of Inanna of Uruk (Douglas Frayne, The Struggle for Hegemony in “Early Dynastic II” Sumer, pages 63-64).

#mesopotamian miscellanea

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your-queer-dad · 9 months ago

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Hey Queer dad, I only just found this blog, but I'm writing you anyway, I Don't want to be anonymous, I want my name attached to my story I fear that I'm probably going to explain myself poorly but here goes anyway I am going to be 24 years old this May, I've been on E since 10 - 2020 Ive had to move out to live with my boyfriend of 3 years and it feels like I've all but abandoned my dreams of going through college as an engineer, things were hard to keep up with when covid struck and now I'm a trans-woman living in Georgia USA, I understand that its not as good as my home-state of New York on trans issues, but I have my BF and his Family who are supportive... I'm SCARED as of late sure I live in a fairly chill part of the state, but i'm SCARED like big time, its making my mental health journey harder, and I'm finding a lot of VERY bad thoughts creeping in, mostly about my appearance and all that, I don't look all that fem when i have trouble taking care of my day-to-day hygiene,

My dad is ""Supportive"" as far as accepting the fact that I'm his daughter now, but he and most of my extended family still doesn't use my pronouns or chosen name. My mom, well she left this world, and me alone in it, sure she was never the best to me, but she would have been the one person to support me. When she left I promised myself and her that I would take the little support I spit on and ground into the dirt as a teenager and actually be true to myself.

I know that at this point I am rambling, but I want to put meaning and journey behind my words THANK YOU, for being here for us. THANK YOU for providing a space for us to ask questions, and get parental style advice when we have no-one else and I ask of you this, how does one find community in this world when one struggles to navigate the fear she feels from the world around her?

Hi!! Thank you so much for reaching out. Honestly, it sounds like you've had such a rough time and I am really proud of you. Thank you for sharing your story, I appreciate it, and I'll do my best to help out.

Personal story time: I myself was (and still am sometimes) in a very similar situation myself. And it is scary, it's really isolating to see so much hate from others just for being yourself, and it makes you want to withdraw and hide. And I hid, for so long- it's really hard to show your true self in a world so full of hate and fear.

But I did, slowly, step by step. A little bit every day. Us humans, we're not supposed to be on our own. We're pack animals, like wolves or lions, we thrive off other people's company (some more than others). With mental health, when all you want to do is hide and let the world forget that you exist, what helps you the most is finding others who feel like it and can help.

Easier said than done right?

I'm still working on it, and there's never going to be a stage where you're perfect at it- but every day, just actively trying to engage with others around you, I found helped me. Not running away when people offer help, speaking to new people, finding my local queer community- just actively being aware of my surroundings and gently pushing myself to talk to new people.

The worlds a lot less scary when you have an army of support behind you.

It takes time, and energy. It's hard. And definitely baby steps, small steps. But there are so many good people out there, who will love you and accept you and value you, you just have to find them.

I'm really proud of you, I'm always here if you need someone to talk to and feel free to reach out anytime. Everything will be okay.

- dad x

#ask a finch!#what a lovely ask #lgbt #finch rambles #lgbtq #lgbtqia #trans #transgender #queer positivity #trans joy

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rottish-shifting-journey · 3 months ago

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Shifting and Humanizing my DR

This is simply something I think will help me realize that shifting and my desired reality itself are real, just as real as where I am now. I suggest reading the tags for sensitivities before continuing!

Significant Times I saw while writing; 11:11, 12:34, 2:22

When it comes down to it, in the long run, what I know is that I want a restart or someplace where I can more truly be myself without as many difficulties. And as much as it is for me, I don't want to view it as just an escape to another place. I want to view it as where I truly want to go and that is why I have spent a lot of time undecided about which place to go to. There are so many flaws in so many places that I simply thought it might never work for me and I've realized that's the issue, I've pushed myself into not believing it. No matter how many people I see who have successfully shifted some corner of my subconscious blocking it out and calling it fake, and I need to rewire it. In doing so I'm going to be listing real situations that would or could happen in my realities as a sort of reminder that everyone can shift and that sometimes the mind can be a tricky place.

Think of it as a script and me restating and highlighting what drove me towards that reality, refreshing my mind and rejuvenating my passion for wanting to go. While I am aware of people's experiences in new realities with trauma that mainly is part of my experience of learning life from other perspectives and I in no way undermine it, however, it is up to me what I choose to let happen in my reality.

Raine Lace Willows - My Hero Academia

Starting as far back as I can remember I was a quiet child, keeping to myself as I played with my toys. My parents were usually at work, busy, as my sister was doing school work and keeping me company most days. Mika was and always has been a good sister even when I had my moments of being the brat of a sister I can be sometimes.

Moving further into my life I got my quirk, which did initially terrify me as a child, believing that there were shadow monsters in our house (much like the mythical "hat man"). My quirk was not a mutation of my parents' quirks, because my mother was quirkless and my father had only a weak fog quirk. In my earlier years with my parents in America I never really sought out the idea of being a hero, sure I saw them on the T.V. all the time, but I never really wanted to be like them.

I started going to school and as much as I was ahead of my age level I was fairly silent. I kept to myself, read books, and drew in the outliers of all of my papers when I was finished. I kept myself out of trouble being considered as more of a "Golden Child". I made few friends and kept fewer. Mika was finishing High School and working by the time I was in third grade, she had a steady life but stayed with our parents to take care of me while they were out working most of the time, she took the night shifts.

However, a lot happened after I was done with fifth grade. I had become prone to nightmares, not necessarily caused by anything major but I woke up in tears most nights, for reasons I can't even remember now. I sought comfort by sleeping in Mika's bed when she wasn't home. In the end, the worst happened, my quirk activated whilst I was asleep, Shadows spread around a majority of the house and ended up breaking cords that were in outlets causing sparks to fly and a fire to set near my parents' bedroom.

By the time Mika had gotten home she could see the fire in the house, our parents' room engulfed as she immediately called the authorities to send over firefighters. Even though she was told to stay put she ran inside the house looking for a way to get us out, I was now awake due to the loud ringing of the alarms going off in the house. Stepping outside of Mika's room to being face to face with a wall of flames that crackled and overtook my parents' door.

Mika had spotted me and pulled me from the house as I was in shock for the most part, not registering what had just happened and what we had just lost. When the firefighters arrived a few ambulances were trailing along with them, I was sat in the back of one being looked at wrapped in a shock blanket, as the firefighters pulled Mika aside while they wheeled out two large dark bags from the house. She looked despaired as she had a conversation with them, looking back at me every few sentences.

Skipping a few weeks later there was a small funeral between family and close friends of theirs, and the reading of their wills. I had spent the past few weeks after Mika explained to me that they had died sullen. I felt burdened by guilt, horrified when they told us that the cause of the fire was a wire being ripped from an outlet, knowing then that I had unintentionally been the cause of this.

As the wills were read out, Mika and I were left with almost everything apart from small sentiments that they willed to close friends they'd had since childhood. The savings they had, the property, and the majority of items that had survived the fire. The night of the fire, Mika had received news that her job offer had been accepted, however at the moment that was one of the lower priorities. Between getting custody, and keeping us both alive, she had a lot on her hands, the wills of our parents however were just what she needed though to handle said costs.

We went to a court meeting a few days after the funeral, the judge asked questions of Mika to determine whether she was truly qualified to handle caring for another human being's life. My life. She had explained then that she had a job with higher pay in line, however, that job was in another country, Japan to be exact. She had always dreamed of going there, especially for work, she had even been teaching me some Japanese over the years while we hung out when our parents worked. So I already knew quite a bit, and going to a new place would also be a great reset of scenery especially after the events that had taken place in the last month.

Mika explained how she had set up a savings account with the money my parents gave me in my name to accumulate more until I was responsible enough to handle my own money and the court had ruled her fit for guardianship and she gained sole custody over me. It took only a month before we were moving to Japan. Settling in the Shizuoka prefecture in Mutsutafu, a small two-bedroom apartment, a decent living space especially to reset in. School would start in almost two weeks, having to study Japanese with my sister every day until then. She decided that the easiest thing would be to have me go to the closest school, Aldera Junior High.

I was anxious and disillusioned when it came to classes, most of them were in full Japanese, even with me being a transfer. I had a translator in classes with me to try and keep me up to date on what we were doing but it was overwhelming for the first few months. It didn't help that Japan had a more dense area and that villains were more common to see in the populous than back in rural American towns. Seeing that firsthand was rather odd, I had never seen them fight with my own eyes rather than on a screen, it was more inspiring than I had previously thought, and it reminded me of when my sister pulled me out of the house even though there was a raging fire.

I thought about it when I was in classes and when I walked home... Maybe I wanted to be a hero, much like my sister was to me and much like the heroes on the streets of Japan were to everyday citizens. I started looking more into what it took to become a hero, most trained and studied in Hero Schools, U.A. being the most prominent school in Japan alongside Shiketsu. I watched through clips of the top heroes recognizing All Might from some American news clips and his work in America. I soon made close friends with someone who had a similar liking towards the pro and a fascination with becoming a hero despite being quirkless.

His name was Izuku Midoriya, him and I became friends during the middle of my first year in Junior High. He had a tendency to ramble on about heroes and I didn't really mind, it made it so I had to think of what to say less and it practically forced me to learn Japanese for a lot of the subjects, while he would speak English a lot for me he had a habit of slipping back into Japanese mid ramble. Nevertheless, he helped me a lot with learning what I needed to, while I helped him if he struggled with any English.

What we figured out after a while of hanging out was that we lived in the same apartment complexes, he was in building two and I was in building three a floor above where he was, I met his mother, Inko. A kind soul who also met my sister, she acts like a mother to us as well, inviting us over for meals, Mika and Inko offering to help watch us when the other was busy, mainly when Mika had work. Inko knew the struggle of being a lone caretaker so they stuck together.

We went through Junior high together and it was fun for the majority of the time although in our final year, there were quite a few jabs at him from his childhood friend, rather I considered him a bully, Katsuki Bakugo whom he called Kacchan. It was hard to see, and I heavily regretted being silent, I was petrified of the man myself though, I watched him throw his notebook out the window, and I panicked. I froze up internally my feet guiding me away from the argument. I found myself down by the fish pond where the notebook landed, seeing it sit in the water. Overwhelmed with guilt, I grabbed it out of the water and used my shirt the best I could to dry the pages and save what there was, waiting there for Midoriya.

I saw him sulk down around and his eyes down looking for the book before I came over. I handed it over to him with an apology for not helping, however, he rejected the idea that I needed to even apologize not a lot of people would step in on something like that. I was awkward for the majority of the day after that and as a way of helping myself get over it, I decided to make him some of his favorite food which I learned when we had dinner together a lot of the time was Katsudon.

(TBC)

#reality shifting #my hero academia #MHA DR #shifting script #inko midoriya #izuku midoriya #deku #Raine Lace Willows #Nyx MHA DR #tw death #tw fire #tw bullying

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jamie101 · 1 year ago

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My Favourite Single Player Video Games I Played in 2023

(Inspired by @a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats' post)

Disclaimer: most of these games are relatively well-known/popular, and at least a few didn't come out this year, but these are all games I played this year that had a lasting impact on me.

In no particular order:

Dredge

I was interested in this from the initial trailer, and the final game definitely delivered. You play as the new fisherman of a tiny island town, making ends meet while uncovering uncanny secrets beneath the waves. The gameplay is fun and involved (a mixture of time and inventory management) but easy enough to master. The main elements that have stayed with me are the visual style and score/sound design, both of which really lift the game's atmosphere - it's almost relaxing at times, but never quiiiiite loses that edge of unease.

Book of Hours

I was (am) a big fan of Cultist Simulator, so Book of Hours was one of my most anticipated titles this year. The fantastic tone and writing of CS is still present, really putting these games in a league of their own. The gameplay is still faithful to the first game's style and mechanics, but also branches out in a lot of fun ways - the far more detailed and lively board of Hush House and the nearby village add a much more solid setting. One small issue I take is that the systems and learning curve for BoH are just as complex and involved as CS, but without as much ability to start over and apply new knowledge - BoH is designed to be a single longer playthrough rather than multiple "runs", which might mean you find yourself a good number of hours deep before realising you've been engaging with the mechanics wrong the entire time. This is partly why I'm still to complete the game; I do still look forward to doing so eventually, though.

Darkest Dungeon II

Darkest Dungeon is one of my favourite games of all time. I've played the sequel ever since it first entered early access in 2022, and while I understand why a significant number of DD1 fans seemingly weren't too fond of it (the overarching gameplay is fairly different from the first game, taking a much more roguelite form reminiscent of Slay the Spire) I got on with it well, even moreso since the game's full v1.0 release this year - the progress and updates made throughout early access were really encouraging to see, and the finished game is a very worthy sequel that also works as a standalone title. The transition from static 2D sprites to fully animated 3D models, while maintaining the iconic and unique artstyle of Darkest Dungeon, is also really impressive.

The Case of the Golden Idol

I've been aware of this game ever since watching a stream of the first couple chapters a year or so ago, but was inspired to pick it up myself after the announcement of a sequel at this year's Game Awards (maybe one of the few games announced there I'm genuinely excited for). I don't scratch my puzzle game itch enough, and Golden Idol has made me keen to seek out more - solving a series of interlinked "mysteries" via observation of the environment and participants to obtain words and clues which you then piece together on a separate screen. I got through the game and both DLCs in around 3-4 days, but consider that time very well spent based on the number of genuine "eureka" moments I experienced alone.

Other Games I Played and Enjoyed: Return of the Obra Dinn, Receiver, The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth/Afterbirth/Repentance)

Multiplayer Games I Enjoyed/Am Currently Enjoying: Lethal Company, Party Animals

If you've read this far, thanks very much! This is mostly a personal record to look back on, but please feel free to pass on any recommendations or let me know what your top games were this year.

And With That, the Game of the Year 2023 (and Every Year Hereafter) is: OUTER WILDS

#top games 2023 #I am also currently playing Signalis and Dave the Diver #both of which could have made this list #but since I started them a couple days ago I'll save it for next year!

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atinycupofpositivitea · 2 years ago

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Journaling our 🍵 life tea 🍵

Today in a nutshell 🥜

End of January, yet we still evolve. Well well, I stuck to the skincare routine for the second day in a row, and I'm planning to buy a couple of essential products to ensure that I stay consistent. I really want to put some effort in it. Other than that, I had an alright day, work was chill and I could do some of my prep for the lessons, then I went home, was almost hit by a car, baked a cake and went to the dentist. Cake came out good! I'm proud of myself. My dad also gave me a hand. I already meal prepped tomorrow's lunch so that's sorted out too, and I'm very proud of myself for sticking to a fairly balanced eating. Later in the day I watched some more Queer Eye Brazil (I'm in love with it, it teaches me so much about self awareness and self-love, it's incredible), then I played more of The Longest Journey, and had a good dinner with my family. Scented candles kept me company and I ended the day with some good relaxation stretches and a hot shower. This January has been good to me so far.

Things we feel grateful for 🐦

I'm very grateful for my inner growth and I'm grateful for all those books, videogames and TV shows that teach me something every single day about myself and the world.

Positive affirmations and self-love 💖

I am wonderful. I don't need to stick to beauty standards. My body is healthy and I am worthy no matter how I'm shaped. Karma likes me because I try my best to be just with myself and others.

Things we hope and look forward to ☘️

I hope to keep listening to podcasts about skincare so I learn new things about it and I look forward to doing my hair as that always makes me happy.

Date: 31/01/2023

#positive mental attitude #positive thoughts #positivity #note to self #self love #mental health #self care #positive #self healing #2023 journal

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contemporarybardess · 1 year ago

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Severed || Elora Solo

Parties: @contemporarybardess

Timing: July 25th, 8pm

Location: A bus headed towards Wicked's Rest

Trigger Warnings: Unsanitary tw, medical blood tw

Summary: Elora boards a bus headed towards Wicked's Rest, but meets an unusual man along the way.

It had been raining the entire night and Elora had been soaked from the what little time she had already spent outside. She had hitchhiked for a few minutes before somebody pulled over. She had "persuaded" the man to drive her to her destination rather than killing her. She didn't think he had any intent to do her harm, but she wasn't one to take chances anymore. She finally had the man drop her off near the entrance of the bus station, and then finally, dropped the spell she had on the man, who was now very confused as to where he was and how he got there.

She waved goodbye to him as she hurriedly made her way through the doors of the bus station. She wiped off her black army style boots on the mat before venturing further inside. It was fairly late, almost 8pm, and the depot itself was almost empty. She was hoping to catch the last bus out towards Wicked's Rest.

She had already had such a long journey getting from Charleston to Bangor, she really should have slept and taken an early bus the next morning. But Elora was the type to just finish what she started when she was so close to being done. Once she knew that her journey was at an end, she could rest at an inn as soon as she got to town. She purchased her ticket and took a seat.

"Wicked's Rest, eh?" she heard a gruff male voice say across from her. Funny, she didn't remember somebody sitting there just a moment ago. "You know the rumors about that place, right?"

Elora, frankly, had no idea what to make of this stranger. His general demeanor was very off-putting, and he must have listened in on her conversation at the ticket office to know where she was going.

"I'm quite aware of the rumors, yes. Isn't that just how things are in New England? Every other town seems to be haunted or have some sort of devilish creature running around. That is, if you believe the stories." She gave the man a disapproving look, as if he were childish for taking rumors of the supernatural seriously. "I think it's a nice, cozy, seaside town. And if any vampires come out and get me, well, I guess that's just the risk people up here have to take to enjoy some scenery."

Suddenly she saw that her bus was ready to board. She shrugged her shoulders, and bid the man a good night, noting that he kept his eyes fixed on her until she had to turn her head back around to navigate her way to the bus. She would have to keep an eye on him, one whisper could send him far away from here so he couldn't be a threat. She would use it only if she had to.

As she stepped out into the rain to board the bus, she noted there was no company name on the side of the bus like there usually is. Instead, just an unmarked burgundy colored vehicle which seemed to have the occasional rust spots near the wheel wells. She didn’t linger too long in the downpour to examine the bus much closer. She wasn’t in need of a luxury ride or even a Greyhound, just something to get her from point A to point B.

The driver of the bus was unusual to say the least. Very dark, leathery skin. They wore a face mask, dark sunglasses, and a hat that obscured pretty much all of their facial features. Wordlessly, they extended out a bony hand, palm facing up. Elora nodded, and promptly handed over her bus ticket. Wasn’t there an age limit on this kind of job? The driver seeming to be ancient was bad enough, but they also insisted on wearing sunglasses in spite of it being the dead of night. She figured if she could make it to Wicked’s Rest without crashing it would be a miracle.

She placed her backpack, stuffed as full as possible, on the seat next to the window while she took the aisle seat. The bus doors closed and it seemed as if the bus was ready to depart. She took a look around and realized she was the only person on the bus. Elora smiled softly, looking forward to a quiet and relaxing ride over. That was when he came on board.

The man from the bus station who completely gave her the heebie jeebies. He stepped on at the last minute and quickly handed his bus pass over to the driver, seeming quite unphased by the driver’s appearance. He didn’t make eye contact with her and simply took a seat across the aisle from her, but one row behind. Did he intend to keep an eye on her during the trip? Or possibly ambush her while she wasn’t looking? It certainly wasn’t as if the driver would notice.

Elora glanced back at the man and offered a friendly smile. The man looked at her for a few seconds, then flashed a quick smile of his own before dropping it and returning to a neutral expression. His gaze ventured out the bus window, and it seemed as if it was going to be a peaceful ride after all. Elora sat with one hand resting on her backpack, stealing glances backwards towards the man occasionally. Was he wearing headphones? Well of course he was, it was perfectly normal to listen to music on the bus.

The man just sat there, never making any sort of move, not even looking in her direction. Maybe she was being paranoid after all. She almost started to feel bad about wanting to enthrall the man without needing to. The man who picked her up was one thing, it was a very confined space and he was in control of where they were going. That was a reasonable precaution to take, she figured. But this man was just another passenger, just like her. She silently chided herself for being so quick to try and use her magic.

The rest of the trip passed by without incident, and before she knew it, she was in Wicked’s Rest city limits. The bus creaked to a stop, and the doors of the bus opened. The driver finally spoke, for the first time the whole trip. Pointing a skeletal finger towards the doors, they weakly hissed out “exiiiit”. She looked back, hoping the man sitting behind her would get up first, but he made a gesture for her to go first. Not wanting to make a scene, Elora grabbed her backpack and quickly exited the bus. She heard the footsteps of the man not too far behind her.

She heard the bus pull away, and quickly set her sights for the nearest hotel or inn. She remarked how lively the town seemed to be in spite of it being the dead of night. A good amount of bars, restaurants and clubs were still lit up and she heard the faint hum of music in the distance. If she wasn’t so exhausted, she’d be tempted to join them. After all, it had been too long since she’d gone partying. But as for right now, she just needed a place to lay her head for the night.

Suddenly, she felt a hard tug on her backpack and she found herself on her back, laying on the cold wet ground. She looked up, and saw the man from the bus. She should have known. Why had he followed her here?

“You put up a good disguise. But not good enough to fool me. There were tips of a lone siren heading north towards a town called Wicked’s Rest.” The man then grabbed Elora by her shirt collar and lifted her up. “A safe haven for the supernatural, that’s what the rumors say.”

She was now the closest she had been to the man for the entire brief time she knew him. He seemed relatively young, late 20s-early 30s. She tried enthralling the man, hoping her voice would be even more effective now that she was in such close proximity to the man. She needed to get this man away from her until she could get somewhere safe. There would be safety in numbers, and that would give her time to figure out a way to get him away from her for good. To her dismay, she was met with only a faint smirk.

“Not gonna work on me, but I admire the effort.” The man then produced a blade from a leather holster on his waist. A long, curved blade. This wasn’t just some random psycho, this was a ranger. How long had he been following her? And why target her of all people? She didn’t have much time to think, as he quickly grabbed the knife and attempted to swing it downward into Elora’s face. She blocked the blow by putting her left arm across her face, but was met with the familiar sting as the knife sunk into her arm. The man pulled the knife out in a way that made a large gash that damaged a significant portion of the inside of her arm. He had almost certainly nicked a vein, or even an artery given how much blood she was losing now. It wouldn’t be long until she was completely out of commission, and she needed to make that time count.

She kicked herself free of the man, using his momentary distraction to gain some distance between them. Elora noticed as she tried to ball her left hand up into a fist that she was unable to do so. She could only flex her ring finger and pinky, while the other three remained completely immobile.

“What the fuck?” she muttered to herself, horrified. This man had done real damage to her. Her last run in with a ranger happened on the fateful day that she lost her home, she took a blade straight to the chest and lived. She had no permanent damage from that day, although she did almost die from blood loss. She had no time to assess the damage any further however, as the man was approaching her once again.

Thinking quickly, she used her right hand to swing the backpack off of her shoulders and hit the man square in the face. She had worked up a good bit of momentum, and she had an abundance of clothes, books, and her laptop rattling around in that backpack. Suffice to say, it certainly had a lot of weight to it. The man went down to the ground, dropping his knife. Elora pounced on it, reaching for the handle.

The man also scrambled to reach for the knife, and both grabbed it at the same time. A scuffle ensued, and Elora ended up on top of the man, blade pointed straight at his chest. She threw her entire body weight onto the knife, hoping that she would win against an opponent who clearly had her beat in physical strength. The ranger pushed back as much as he could, but gravity combined with the weight of Elora’s entire body was not on his side. His elbows buckled before finally giving out, the blade sinking deep into the man’s ribs.

Blood began to come out of the man’s mouth, which ran down and mixed with Elora’s blood which had gotten on the man’s chest during the struggle. She had to have hit his heart, and it was only a matter of minutes until the man would be dead. Maybe less. She pulled the blade out and watched as more blood poured from the wound. The man reached up and attempted to get to a sitting position, but all too quickly lost his strength and laid back on the ground. After an extremely tense 2 minutes of watching the man, she finally saw his chest cease its movements.

She finally rummaged through her bag and made a makeshift tourniquet out of one of her shirts. It wasn’t easy, especially given her now very limited use of her left hand. Thankfully, the bleeding had already begun to slow down, and the tourniquet helped stabilize things further. He may not have opened up an artery after all, Elora thought, grateful that her life was no longer in danger. She took out some towels she was intending to use for bathing and held pressure over the wound before securing them on as a makeshift dressing. It would have to do until she could get some proper first aid supplies. She didn’t feel safe enough in this town yet to be seen at a hospital.

She dragged the man’s body into the woods where he would hopefully be devoured by the local wildlife. She took the time to relieve him of anything he had on his person that wasn’t easily digestible. After all, she didn’t want to hurt any of the local animals just because some human decided he wanted to be a dick to her.

She took the time to assess her left hand and noted that she still had no movement in two of her fingers at all. How would she go about life without use of both of her hands? How would her music career take off? She needed those fingers for audio software editing and for playing instruments to use in the background. While her life would be spared, her run in with this man didn’t come without a cost. And now she could only hope that she would find a way around this setback.

For now, however, she would set out for a local inn, and take a much needed rest. She had hoped whoever was at the front desk wouldn’t be too alarmed by her wound and her makeshift dressing. If the rumors of this town were true, it wouldn’t even come close to the weirdest thing they’ve probably seen around here.

#wickedswriting #Elorasolo #unsanitary tw #medical blood tw

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snepril · 11 months ago

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This is Zorua.

Yes, he's a handsome boy. He knows. He's also getting on in years, but he's still pretty spry and the vet says he's in excellent health. That's not why I'm bringing him up. When he was a kitten, Zorua was separated from his mother a bit prematurely (I don't know why - he was a rescue). Consequently, Zorua didn't learn all the necessary cat behaviors he was supposed to get from his mom. For the longest time, he didn't know how to bathe himself properly - he eventually learned how from another cat. He's also fairly skittish, so when I moved into a house with an animal door that couldn't be closed due to another animal's needs, I assumed he wouldn't want anything to do with the outdoors. I was wrong. He took a few timid forays into the great outdoors at night, never going beyond the back yard (as far as I could tell). Until, one night at around 3am, he came bounding inside, meowing loudly enough to wake me up. He's a pretty quiet cat, so at first I assumed he was injured somehow - a concern that only grew when he hopped up onto my bed and immediately began trying to get my attention (meowing, pawing at me, pacing the bed - the whole nine yards). So I turned on the light in a panic... and he started purring. Very, very loudly. He then trotted to the foot of the bed and sat down, as pleased as could be. He had, as it turned out, killed a mole (or a shrew? I'm honestly not sure - it was small and missing about half of it, but it didn't look like a mouse). So excited was he by his triumph over the vicious beast that he immediately brought it to me to show how mighty a hunter was he.

But that wasn't enough for Zorua, no. He brought me several more gifts over the coming weeks, of various sizes and species. He had discovered the joy of the hunt, and as it turned out, he wanted me to share in this discovery. But gifts of his kills were not enough, oh no - obviously I couldn't truly understand the thrill of the chase if all I saw were dead things! So imagine my joy and enthusiasm when, one fine morning, he returned to deposit a live mole-shrew-mouse-thing directly on my chest as I was sleeping. It took me about 30 minutes to catch the damn thing and let it go outside. Zorua watched me the entire time, oh so obviously pleased with himself.

He brought me several more live gifts in the coming months, since I clearly loved chasing the first one. Things came to a head when he managed to kill a bird, signalling that it was only a matter of time before a live one was released in my room while I was sleeping. We tried to keep him from getting outside after that (with mixed success), and he and I moved to a new place where he couldn't get outside shortly thereafter. And for those worrying: I'm aware that being allowed outside is bad for cats and the environment. The house we were in at the time was a special case where I couldn't easily keep him in, and since I've moved he is absolutely not allowed outside - not that he's shown any interest in it anymore. Instead he has plenty of toys and another cat to keep him company. But honestly, I'm glad he got to enjoy the thrill of the hunt at least once in his life - the sheer pride he so obviously felt when he brought me that first trophy of his makes me smile to this day.

cool, thanks!

#he's currently snoozing away on his favorite cat bed right next to me #he's my little buddy

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rottishwisp · 3 months ago

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Shifting and Humanizing my DR

This is simply something I think will help me realize that shifting and my desired reality itself are real, just as real as where I am now.

Significant Times I saw while writing; 11:11, 12:34, 2:22

Raine Lace Willows - My Hero Academia

(TBC)

#reality shifting #MHA DR #shifting script #inko midoriya #izuku midoriya #deku #Raine Lace Willows #tw death #tw fire

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cubedmango · 1 year ago

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once again thanks so much for putting up with my long ass ramblings, and you're welcome too :-) it actually took me a few hours to finish typing out all of it, plus that sort of post-script message afterwards, but it's not like i did it all in one go and there were breaks in between, so it's fine haha. i genuinely appreciate your concern though :') and that's the power of a relatively new fixation i'm really excited about i guess? wjdfjkcnvzs though i did cobble some parts of it from tentative posts and meta i've had in my drafts for a while now, so they're not totally things i had to come up with on the spot the other day at least. and that's okay (i do like what i've seen of your writing though), like obviously no pressure to feel as dedicated as i am when it comes to talking about my blorbos and glup shittos and whatnot - your actual passion for the media is what matters and that ofc manifests in cool different ways for each of us 🫡 [1/?]

(rest below)

ah i'm glad my description of build was intriguing enough for you! i hope i didn't seem like i was laying it on too thick with my constantly paralleling and comparing it to aa though - i mean at first glance, the narratives of aa and build could not seem more different, but in hindsight they both prominently deal with the concepts of truth, justice, corruption, redemption/atonement, identity, and family and friendship in their own ways (though ig that's probably true of kr in general, which then makes sense as for how toku would feature as a major element in many aa cases), even if not always perfectly in either series, but the effort is generally appreciated and still pretty compelling imo. and i really love aa too (i actually discovered your blog and your twitter through your very cool and beautiful aa fanart a while back, and then when i started watching cm, i was pleasantly surprised to also see your fanart in the tumblr tags, so it was nice to see some of my interests align with that of an artist i liked and followed <3) so finding ways to make analogies between whatever i'm currently into with one of my favorite franchises ever seemed like the natural next step haha [2/?]

also let me just say that ryusen is one of the few m/m couples to get me this obsessed apart from narumitsu and the like over the past several years, so that's really my best way of recommending them. again, idk if that will truly be your experience too by the end, but hopefully you'll still find something to like about their dynamic so my being this much of a shill for them won't feel embarrassing later on kjvbrhsfjs [3/?]

and yeah the rings!! they're far from the only gay-coded kr duo to get that kind of official romantic jewelry ofc, but they were apparently one of the first to really make it popular, so yeah their overall cultural impact sure is something to not be underestimated lol. and yup i've found that it's actually fairly common for many companies behind popular japanese media to go for selling that kind of merch, regardless of the actual canonicity of the pairing in question - like capcom, toei/p-bandai, etc. are aware that there's sizeable enough shipping fanbases for said media, and yeah ig selling that stuff while not having the guts to actually canonize said pairings can come off as pretty baity which is not really Great but well that's capitalism and queer/fujobaiting for you ig 😔 and here's what the sento/banjou rings look like btw: www . tumblr . com/kabutoraiger/190132806767/a-new-entry-into-the-growing-selection-of though i can't share a picture of it rn, their names (spelled as sento kiryu and ryuga banjo) are also inscribed on the insides of their respective individual rings :-) [4/?]

as for the 'silly little rabbit with a death wish' part of that post... hehe. you'll Get it if/when you get there >:) btw sento's given name literally means 'rabbit tank' and banjou's given name ryuuga means 'i'm a dragon' iirc (although the former having that name actually has a good in-universe explanation for once, but the latter definitely has no such excuse 😭) - tbh kr (+ other toku franchises i'm sure) is right up there with aa in terms of often corny yet still charming pun names, but because they're mostly in japanese and don't have localized english equivalents, one doesn't always get it right away but i suppose that's what google and wiki are for lol and actually one other particular example that's stood out to me so far is the name of the protagonist from ex-aid (the one played by iijima from odt, and yeah he, inukai, and akaso all knew each other from their time in kr because their shows also had its own crossover movie which also featured a bunch of other popular previous rider protagonists), which is the season immediately preceding build, because it's literally houjou emu - houjou as a pun on the japanese word for 'assistance,' and emu as in short for 'emulator' and derived from the japanese word for 'smile,' because guess what that season was about? doctors who are gamers. so yeah subtlety.exe nowhere to be found here lmao [5/?]

and hell yeah feel free to join me in the madness ^_^ toku can be one hell of a rabbit (lol) hole though, so it might lead you to become interested in other shows and movies of the medium/genre, in which case we'll be in this together as i'm also still beginning to get into other kr shows in particular (like after i finish build, i think i'll be focusing on the earlier heisei seasons of ooo, den-o, or maybe kuuga). as for where to watch it, i don't have one particular strong rec for a site rn, but what i've gone for are kissasian (kissasian . fm/info/kamen-rider-build) or toku . fun (toku . fun/post/watch-online-kamen-rider-build-full-series-49-episodes-english-sub) - obviously kissasian is more of a general site for which to watch asian dramas on, but that's if you don't mind ads popping up every so often and also the subs used are not very consistent like the source for one episode's translation could be a different team/person from the previous episode's, whereas toku . fun is specifically an archive for toku shows and movies, and is more consistent with the subs and is basically ad-free iirc, albeit i think i've also heard said subs on there described as 'usually the most accurate but also the least funny/entertaining' (ig bc tvnihon, their source, tends to err on the side of 'purism' when translating), so whichever is more your style in the end? i personally switch back and forth between the two sites, purely on the basis of if there's a translation i'm not satisfied with, even if i don't know how actually accurate it is lol on a side note, build's opening song 'be the one' by pandora feat. beverly is a nice jam, and it has an official english version where i think the lyrics (+ the original japanese version too) are something that would make one come to realize just how much they fit sento and banjou's relationship by the end of the show :') [6/?]

and thanks again for giving me the go-ahead to keep on rambling ^_^ moving on to build's female characters: there are only 2 really prominent female characters (a few others pop up here and there, or have relatively big roles for an arc or 2, but not throughout the whole show), misora (as mentioned before) and sawa. imo, both are treated decently, being fun and interesting characters with their own arcs not purely tied to the men (although obviously romance with men or the lack thereof are not inherent markers of the quality of a female character's writing, it's worth noting that neither of them are written as love interests (so you'll never get the sense that they get reduced to just that role) to any male character - but tbf, kr and other popular toku aren't really big on romance, even the het ones, in the first place, maybe bc of some japanese cultural conventions or something, but i've heard that the few canon m/f relationships that are present are usually not written very well, which is once more very shounencore of them lol - although unfortunately, there is a guy with a frankly kinda creepy and annoying parasocial crush on misora which most of the other characters don't care for either but it's still played off as comic relief, kinda larry-like in that sense if we're comparing it to aa again, and that's definitely one of the show's major drawbacks; i mean i still think build is overall worth the watch, and again, since you've gone through all of aa already, you'd be a veteran wrt this kind of trope, but regardless i think it's good to give some warning in advance to help you prepare for some of the shit that's about to go down) plus misora and sawa are eventually shown having a personal relationship/friendship with each other outside of the men too :-) however, overall they're still kinda underutilized and underdeveloped (sawa in particular) compared to the guys, plus neither of them are riders, though in kr, that's also definitely not an automatic indicator for whether a female character will be well-written or not, but then again, since we're both aa fans, i'm sure we're already very familiar with the feeling of seeing interesting and compelling female characters not get their full due from their writers, so based on that, build is survivable for sure 😔 [7/?]

and idk how well they would fare next to female characters from other kr seasons, but i also think it's worth pointing out that, for all that build's writer/s are clearly still not immune to misogyny, misora and sawa's overall writing doesn't come off to me as 'so misogynistic it becomes gay' in the vein of idk, naruto or death note, bc again, neither of them were touted as viable love interests to male characters before getting shoved to the side in favor of primarily focusing on homoerotic m/m relationships for most of the story only to still get together with those men in the end, and the only thing build was really marketed as in terms of its relationship writing was the 'heated drama between men' stuff so you already get a sense of what's in store for you from the start, and so ultimately you also don't really feel that annoyed or 'cheated' you know? [8/?]

and then on to akaso: that anecdote was from a full interview with him and inukai from when the show was just starting out - docs . google . com/document/u/0/d/1BwqtHLs5d8Vs2YCJA7XJW3TxhaGta8jo9huEo70ehq0/mobilebasic there's only very mild spoilers for the first episode and then vague allusions to what happens in the next couple of episodes or so, but if you'd still prefer to wait until you've actually watched those episodes to read it in full, i'll just copy here the most relevant parts for what we're talking about: "Inukai: The first scene we appeared together in was…. Akaso: Wasn’t it the first encounter scene? Inukai: [...] At that time, it was really hot at the filming location. During out spare time we just tried to preserve our strength, so we didn’t talk much. Now that I think of it, that day, you were staring at my face the whole time. Didn’t anyone notice? (laugh) Akaso: I was feeling dizzy from the heat, but among all the actors, I suddenly noticed Inukai-kun’s face and was captivated by it, thinking “wow, he is so pretty...” (laugh) The director, Tasaki Ryuuta pointed it out to me. I instantly came to my senses. I’ve never stared at any actress like that before, no matter how pretty, but at that time I suddenly became dizzy and just kept staring in a daze. Turns out, it was a heatstroke (bitter laugh). Inukai: You had a heatstroke because you sensed the dangers of my body (laughs). That was the moment I decided I shouldn’t let my guard down around you. Akaso: Nononono, I wasn’t trying to hit on you!! Inukai: (laughs) Akaso: Please stop, don’t add any unnecessary mental images to the word “partners” (laughs). But when Inukai-kun plays Sento, you get the feeling that he’s a very smart person mulling over a lot of thoughts in his head, I think he looks very pretty and cool. Inukai: That makes me happy, I think. Thank you." [9/?]

so there you have it lol. apparently akaso did use the word for 'heatstroke,' but the translator of this interview pointed out on tumblr that it seems like what happened had no actual severe effects on him, so it was likely just heat stress at most and he just said 'heatstroke' to clearly get the point across or something. in general, akaso during his time on build seemed to have a bit of a pattern of saying some kinda out-of-pocket things that would make one go "oh he really had the nerve to go there huh but like... is he wrong?" like when he also infamously claimed at two separate promotional events that banjou was the real 'heroine' of the story (which makes his previous comment to inukai to not add "any unnecessary mental images to the word 'partners'" funnier) 😭 during the first event, he was asked to introduce his character and then himself, and when he said banjou's name, he added that he was the 'heroine,' at which takada kaho (misora's actor) interjected and pointed at herself to say that *she* was playing the 'heroine' and there was a bit of back-and-forth between them as both kept insisting they were the 'heroine' (all in a lighthearted manner ofc) but in the end i think akaso got in the last word before he passed on the mic to takada so she could properly introduce herself this time, although she didn't bring up the heroine stuff again from what i could tell lol. the video i watched from that first event didn't actually have subs, but you could get the gist of it especially since they said 'heroine' in english. as for the second event, i also watched a bit of its video but i don't think i got to the part where he made the comment, so i only saw later on a screenshot from that same video where what he said was translated as "then, when i read the final script, it said that kaho takada was feeling down because banjo ryuga was the heroine." [10/?]

and. well... neither of them are wrong exactly fnsjngkbs. like ofc misora filled the obligatory female lead role, but generally speaking, it seems like it was obvious even among the cast that banjou, in addition to being the typical male co-protagonist like in a 'buddy cop' type of movie or show, was the one pretty much framed as the story's 'heroine,' imo in the style of a shounen anime or manga to sento's shounen protagonist position (well, the shounen animanga with well-written central m/f romances anyway), with the implication of being sento's love interest in all but name officially also. like... it's still very much subtextual but also wow talk about the lack of subtlety here too 😭 and at that second event, there was another comment he made that made me go "okay come on don't do this to us" but it's related to spoilery series-finale and post-series material, so it's probably best that i save discussing it for when you're done watching, if ever. but well yeah i'm kinda obsessed with his mind for all that like. thank you for continuing to help us fans not sound delusional via all these very enlightening comments (i mean aside from how heavy the subtext already was in the actual story) but also what's his issue 😭😭 [11/?]

btw build isn't actually akaso's first kr show - it's amazons, specifically its 2nd season, which also got released in 2017 some months prior to build's airing. amazons is one of those aforementioned more adult-oriented toku webseries and was meant to be a 'darker and more mature reimagining of the 1974 television series, kamen rider amazon,' but it got more mixed reviews overall compared to build, especially since iirc a lot of fans think it didn't handle said darker themes too well or something (there's cannibal cultists?? i think??? idk if akaso's character hiroki was one of them though). but the upside to it is that it was precisely his work on amazons that got akaso cast on build (from what i can tell, hiroki is nowhere near as dumb as banjou, but there's a similar delinquent vibe, albeit hiroki's aesthetic seems to be somewhat edgier). i find it funny though bc hiroki is apparently a 17 year old high schooler, then a few months later akaso made the jump to playing a 23 year old (which was his actual age at the time of filming) ex-pro fighter... the range of this man jwkfjksfdlms [12/?]

on a final side note about something that's not really relevant to all that other stuff but still kinda funny: i just remembered that apparently back when cm was airing, and that moment in ep. 2 (?) where adachi forces the elevator doors open to ask kurosawa out to dinner happened, people were commenting "well that's kamen rider training for you" and yeah i definitely believe banjou could/would have done something like that. though he probably would have punched the doors in the process too, or because he's a dumbass, he might also let himself get accidentally hit by the closing doors and then that's when he'd punch them in response lmao also i think i'll save my further thoughts on the kamen rider yuri and also the few canon lgbt+ characters the series does have so far + the varying qualities with which they've been written for later messages, bc once again this has gotten far too long and there's already a lot of things here for you to process and respond to so. thank you so much again and bye for now 🙏🏼 [13/13]

thank You again for all the info omg theres so much detail again ur a legend..!! reading it is so fun too i can rlly tell u like the franchise a lot that makes me happy ty for sharing all this w me 🥺 and actually to update u i watched a couple of eps since ur last asks (currently on ep8 kdjfksj i did a littol binging) and 1) it is Very different in tone from what i was expecting! i thought itd be like . moody and serious action etc but its actually rlly silly and thats a huge plus for me i love me some silliness always and 2) did take a bit of getting used to the format (+ to akaso and inukai in these roles theyre so different from cm and odt How are these the same guys) but honestly im rlly enjoying the buildup of the mystery?? and the charas are v endearing i care them already. also i cannot believe they dropped this one me in ep *ONE*

LIKE HELLO??? all i could think at first was "this is so nrmt in turnabout goodbyes coded" with the whole "i believe in you" thing but goddam . u werent kidding about these two huh. i get why the rings now i get it. Man. but yeah big fan of their dynamic so far !! and a little unrelated but im hoping they keep up the bit w banjou figuring out best matches in 1 second its my favorite thing rn fkdjsjfjdfhs

(also also this bit im just . thinking. a lot. kind of a crazy line to drop in the middle of all the silliness isnt it 👁👄👁)

anyway . onto misora and sawa omg theyre so good too ???? misora esp shes so funny and i keep wondering when theyll get into her whole powers deal its been on my mind since ep1 ........ these two are def not getting as much screentime ive noticed but at least the times they show up are great so far and none of that forced romance stuff which is what im used to sadly so ill take it 👍 just hope we do get to their backstories too eventually or im gonna be :(

also little cut to the villains too since theyre p prominent but although i already figured gentoku was involved somehow from the start i cannot for the life of me figure out what blood stalks deal is???? like is he just there for the drama of it all . whys he kind of helping the guys what does it Mean-

THE INTERVIEWS HELPJFKDJF ive heard legends of mr akaso eiji and his out of pocket commentary im understanding now ..... that "heroine" thing is Crazy though like surely he had to have known the implications right ????? doesnt he know that stuff is dangerous to fans come on man 😔 ur right abt the range tho im already so impressed by his and inukais acting in here since its so different from the charas they played in cm and odt but still p similar in how they do emotional scenes so im enjoying seeing those 👀

i think ill keep watching bc mostly i just. Really need to know what the mystery is (and still that "silly little rabbit has a death wish" thing, tho im starting to have a hunch about who its referring to.........) so yeah maybe ill have more liveblogging updates for u next time if ur interested in seeing my reactions akfjkdsjf

(before i go one last thing . ACE ATTORNEY REFERENCE???????)

#also the banjou elevator thing stop thats so funny kdjfkdsjf ????? i might have to draw that actually i can see it happening so clearly #AND!!! yes pls i will take all the stuff about canon queer charas too i didnt know kr had those..... i must know all the Lore..............#oh man this got super long sorry for the big wall of my rambling kdjskjfkg i just have Thoughts u know #my answer

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omglisalithium · 1 year ago

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This is going to be a random rant about the live action One Piece series on Netflix, as well as Disney. They're not related, but this will make sense later. This review will not contain spoilers. Full disclosure: I'm vaguely familiar with the original manga and anime, and my husband helped me write this because his knowledge of the OG series is far superior than mine.

Let's start with the bad:

It's VERY important in any series or movie, regardless of whether or not it's a remake, to properly set the stage so that your viewers understand the goal and know what's going on. My husband called it out immediately at the very start of the first episode that a major line explaining the goal of the show hadn't been stated right, which I feel will cause confusion among new viewers who might not be familiar with the original series.

And now the good:

It was crystal clear that a lot of love and care went into the casting, costuming, the musical score, and the writing. There are parts that are a bit awkward, but I feel like that's just something that happens with nearly every live action remake. The special effects consistently had me floored, and I didn't watch a single episode without saying some version of "that was fucking incredible and I want to know what program they used" with nearly each effect.

Here is where Disney comes in.

What brought me to write a review about One Piece in the first place was that I found that Tomorrow Studios and Netflix only started principal photography for the show in January 2022, and started actually filming in AUGUST 2022. Excuse me??? How is it that Disney has all of the money, manpower, and resources available to them at the drop of a hat and they can't get out a decent show or movie in less than 2 years, and yet a fairly small film company teamed up with Netflix got all their filming done in a few months AND had the best special effects I've seen in years?

And yes, I am fully aware that covid was a thing that pushed a lot of projects back, and also that the live action One Piece had been worked on since 2017, but people, they got amazing filming and editing done on an 8 episode show with each episode being about an hour long in less than a year. How long have we been talking about the Ahsoka show before Disney confirmed a release date? Over 3 years. Even before covid, it still took Disney 2 years to crank out each of the Star Wars sequels. Like hello??? This isn't the 70s anymore. With all the film industry's technological advancements, it's no longer acceptable for a company as big as Disney to take more than a year to get the next show/movie out, only for said show/movie to be very disappointing. It took them a decade to get out sequels for movies like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. I'm sorry, but it's just not acceptable anymore and we shouldn't be putting up with it.

TLDR:

Live action One Piece: 10/10

Disney's ability to get quality movies/shows out in less than 2 years even though they have the resources to do it in 1 year: -10/10

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paradoxcase · 4 months ago

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This reblog of this post came across my dash yesterday, I casually looked this up, and while this is pretty strange, I'm hard-pressed to see where the scam actually is.

So this is the original article about the girl who supposedly names Chinese babies, who is not this lady and whose name is Beau Jessup, from the BBC.

Then Buzzfeed has this article about some questionable things they see about this girl's website.

It's worth noting that several other usually reputable news sites also ran stories similar to the BBC's, and as far as I can tell, none of them have been redacted in any way, and also as far as I can tell, Buzzfeed is the only organization calling this out at all. That doesn't necessarily mean that Buzzfeed is wrong, but I'm just pointing that out.

The Buzzfeed article doesn't really outline how this is definitely a scam, it just points out some odd stuff about the website. IMO, stock photos on a website put together by a teenager is not really a red flag of any kind - Buzzfeed seems to think that some of the photos are meant to be pictures of "employees" working for this girl, but like, she was 16 and all of the other articles are presenting this like she is doing this on her own, and not actually running a company or employing anyone, other than hiring a freelance web developer to make the site. (The Chinese text on the site claims that she is the CEO of a company, but does not mention any employees. Or rather, that's what it did claim at the time of the Buzzfeed article - there are no longer any stock photos on the website and the layout seems to have changed since then.) One interesting thing Buzzfeed does find is that the website is owned by her father's company - they claim there's an actually completely reasonable explanation for why this is the case, which is that you have to own a Chinese bank account to get a Chinese domain name and she can't get a Chinese bank account because she's 16 and lives in the UK. That sounds totally believable to me, and either Buzzfeed didn't discover this was false, or they just didn't check at all. The father's company is also about educating Chinese people about western culture, so sure, it seems like maybe it's not so much that she is doing this on her own as that her father is actually running this.

Except... the website doesn't actually seem to be doing business. According to what Buzzfeed found, it didn't have much traffic according to Alexa, and most actual Chinese people were not aware that the website existed until after it was reported on. Also, the number given for the number of babies named is impossible if you are going with the idea that this was done by one person in the span of time during which the website's domain name was even registered, but a CNBC article is claiming that the generation of the actual names is done automatically using a fairly simple database lookup, so she doesn't actually have to do this manually (and if you go to the modern 2024 website, you can indeed get a list of names with just a few clicks). It looks like they put in the absolute minimum amount of effort necessary to get the website on a Chinese domain name and visible in China and that might have been it.

So, if the website is not actually doing any business and no one who can read the language its written in knows it exists, it's hard to see where this could be scamming anyone. Was it just bait for news articles like this? The articles don't even mention her father's company, so it's hard to see what the point of that could be. Is it a front for something? Maybe they were hoping the news coverage would make Chinese people aware of the website and hook the first clients, but like, the father already runs a business targeting Chinese people, so you would think he would have no trouble getting his daughter's site out there. Was this just a ploy to beef up the daughter's future resume? Or, maybe Alexa and/or Buzzfeed was wrong about the site traffic for some reason, and Chinese people are in fact using it. I have no idea. It's kind of strange, mainly just because of the site traffic stats, but I think it's probably not a scam. The technical details of what the CNBC article describes her doing with the automatic name choosing system are simple enough that it would probably actually be more effort to set up a scam than just write an algorithm and populate a database to do what she claims she's doing.

I wish this was my job.

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cyanidefilledcandy · 2 years ago

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I apologize for how long this likely will be and how rambly it likely will be, but I just feel like I need to get it out.

I just got a call from my dad that my aunt passed away. I'm sad of course....but maybe not as sad as I should be? Mostly I'm just angry...

I couldn't sleep tonight...even on medication, I was up every hour or so, until I got the call and I knew immediately someone had died... Someone unexpectedly once again taken from my family....at the same time of year around the same time of morning...

For the past 4 years, I've lost someone close to me....always around the same time. (And even before that... It's like the cirmustances are always the same.)

August 2008, I couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes no matter what. Then my little sister woke me up around 3-4am and told me my grandmother, who she and I both lived was gasping for breath and she couldn't wake her up.

A few years later, August, I went to visit my great grandmother, someone I grew up seeing everyday, because she found out she had a deadly illness for years that her doctor didn't tell her abour and again 3-4am, we got a call she passed away.

2018 was when things got kicked into overddrive. 2018, I lost my maternal grandmother around Thanksgiving....after being so excited to be able to spend Christmas with her after years of only seeing her once or twice a year. 3-4am.

I lost my cat a month later; a year later.

I've always been more or less accepting when it comes to death...

Even as a toddler, I was always acutely aware of it, scared of it, its inevitability and permenance. At 4 years old (maybe even younger), I had nightmares of Death, coming after my parents, me. Of inescaple apocalypses and definite countdowns for me and those closest to me. I thought about far more than any child likely did or should, but when it happened, I'd mourn and then move on... fairly quickly. My paternal grandmother's death definitely changed me in some way. She was the person I was closest to and nothing out of the ordinary happened the day before. She did the exact same thing we did every year. She drove around got things ready for my sister and I for the beginning of school the following day. And then....she was gone. I felt grief...deep grief, but maybe not as deep as I should. I was sad. I mourned. But then I was numb...

And I have been ever since....

With every new death from someone I love, grew up with and was close to, upom hearing the news, I'd mostly just feel numb, maybe cry for a bit and then more or less carry on.

That is until 2021 when my little sister died after guving birth. Nothing in the world could've ever prepared me for burying my little sister. No amount of the death dreams I'd had or even my worst nightmare where she was actually killed in front of me instead of us just waiting for could've prepared me for that being a reality. As always, I couldn't sleep that night no matter what (though that's hardly anything new these days), and then....at 3-4am, I heard my dad on the phone with my mom and found out she was gone....after giving birth a few hours earlier; after being mostly fine during that time.

I've never had a death hit me so hard and I don't think I'll ever recover. And it changed me deeply and permenantly as a person....somewhat for the better, mostly for the worst.

For the better (which is honestly the only thing other than wanting to be happy before I die), I decided to try and make time with those I love and get better about communicating.

Family has always meant a lot to mw, but I've always been an extreme introvert. I've always enjoyed my own company. I've always been not super affectionate. I've always hated talking on phones (it's nearly a phobia). And at family events, I'd say hello, and disappear soon after because I never know how to behave around people. I've always felt awkward and have been told I make others feel awkward, so I'd rather just not be around them. I also severely hate driving (again, to the point of nearly phobia) that I don't unless I ABSOLUTELY have to (and sometimes not even then). This all got worse when I got severely depressed in my late teens and with the social awkwardness came anger and iritial irritability, as well as anger for at my family for more reasons than one; so I isolated further.

But I said, I would get better about communicating with people and....in a way I have, but not enough...

I still avoid phones calls, except every now and then with people I know will keep me on the phone a long time. (My aunt was such a person.) And I've always been bad about calling people, somewhat the reason above, sometimes because I'm usually so depressed that I don't want to ruin anyone's mood, but mostly because I'm just super forgetful. I'd been thinking of calling my aunt for the past few days; just to check on her and always either forgot or didn't because the time didn't seem right. I also had two mugs she'd ask me to get her from California that I never seemed to have time to drop off to her. .....and now I can't and this why I'm so angry.

At myself. Literally what the fuck is wrong with me?

When my sister died, I had been wabting to spend Christmas with her and my niece, but got hit with such a bad depressive episode that I felt I couldn't deal with anything. I had also had a possible exposure to COVID and didn't want to risk her or the baby...but the depression was the real reason. Then came the next when she was supposed to give birth. She asked me (begged me) to be with her to deliver; but I mostly thought she was joking because she joked like that all of the time. I planned to, I really did, but the depression was still horrible, plus I had anxiety about driving as well as trying to help my sister with a toddler, a new baby, a likely destroyed house because her BD was useless while I barely had my own shit together.

And then she died. Alone....something she always said she didn't want. She always saidbshe wanted the chance to say goodbye to her family.

And I let it happen....because I couldn't get over my bullshit... She thought the world of me and I couldn't even be a good big sister, as much as I've always tried to be.

And now, here it is again, I've lost two more people who I couldn't be assed to communicate with. My great aunt died last November and now my aunt is dead the following January....

And my mom has lost a mother and daughter and my father, a daughter and a sister (as well as both parents years earlier) and I feel like I should be doing more to comfort them and....I just don't know how. I've done my best to communicate to them to please call me if they need or want ro, but other than that...I just don't fucking know what else to do. Other than visit them, which I do try to do, but still not nearly enough.

And I'm just the worst person during grief because I don't know what to do, and I'm too emotionally distant and numb to be of any help.

And concieted since this post is about nothing except me bitching about myself and my feelings.

I've always felt like a shitty person and people would always ask me why.

This.

This is why.

And on top of that, I'm just... mad at the universe. Like I said, I'd missed a LOT of time with family because if work....most of my adult life, in fact. I was working to try and make things better for us all, true enough, but at the cost of actual time with them. And the MOMENT. The moment I decide to let that go and am actually EXCITED to spend a holiday with them (I haven't been excited about holidays in decades), it's like they all start dropping.

My grandmother, my cat, my sister, my great aunt, my aunt. And always around this time of year....August-January....a time of year that used to be my favorite. Warm holidays spent with family, lots of family birthdays (including my grandmothers, grandfather, sister, niece, and now nephew), my birthday, and just I love fall and winter in general. Now it's just a time of my depression getting worse and death. Everything about this time has been tainted and ruined and my mind just keeps asking, why now? Why this time of year? Why nearly always that time of night. I know it isn't a curse, and yet it feels like it. My family are good people. They have their flaws, but they're ultimately good people who try to do good by others, yet are still continously dealt shitty cards.

And it's made worse by the fact that most of my family photos, especially those of my immediate family (my mom, full sister, dad, and me) are pretty much all lost. Some because my mom lost a storage unit and others because my grandmother's house was left to rot after she died. (I literally went one day to find some of our family photos thrown in the yard like a pile of trash and that broke me way more than her death did.) I saved what I could and then they still wound up lost after I moved states. My sister had some of them in her apartment but they were all gone when we went to search her apartment....I can only guess her PoS BD either threw them or took them for no reason at all because it's not like he cared for my family or even my sister if we're being honest.

If anything was left in my grandmother's house, I'm pretty sure the tornado a couple of days ago finished it off...

It feels like my family isn't just dying; it's being erased.

So, I'm just angry at everything, especially myself. I just want to crawl in a ball and disappear or just swallow a bottle of pills and be done with it all. I don't want to do that to my parents, but I know I won't survive hearing something happened to them.

#death #grief

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