#underwater utopia

[dmdunamancer]

From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson

"Artist Ayana V. Jackson creates an undersea realm honoring those who jumped or were thrown overboard during the trans-Atlantic slave trade." (Smithsonian Magazine, 8 June 2023)

Where There Is No Origin But Memory I

The Self-Forgetfulness of Belonging Will Never Be Mine I

Consider the Sky and the Sea

Some People Have Spiritual Eyes II (featuring the dress which also appears as "Use the Stars to Fix a Celestial Navigation Point," with materials including Ghanaian currency, paste, cotton, raffia reed fans)

When the Spirit of Kalunda Comes So Does Kianda

Some People Have Spiritual Eyes I

Reliquary: The Sea Has Nothing to Offer but a Well-Executed Grave

It is Only When You Lose Your Mother That She Becomes Myth

I Summon the Voice from the Deep I

[images from the official exhibition website]

Also -- for those interested, many of these garments and models appear in video-works in collaboration with other artists! Very cool.

[nestedneons]

By jilt with stablediffusion

Cyberpunk art commissions

Ko-Fi

My free ai workflows

[ai-arts-gallery]

in search of Atlantis

[libelelle]

what if silver saved the future but he goes back and everyone is living underwater with submarines and shit would he like that

Hmmm good question. He would be thrilled there are people but the fact they are living under water... something made it so they had to i assume so he wouldnt be too happy about that. That would be a big problem for him. This being said i think if Silver could solve that issue in that time he might, since there are so many people. I do also think he'd find zooming around in the water fun : )

[thankskenpenders]

One question that's been haunting me since I binge-read most of the blog whilst doing testing is: in your opinion, what is the primary difference in the worlds of Archie Sonic and IDW Sonic? Obviously part of that is Penders' influence vs. Ian's influence, one's obviously based more on the games than the others, etc... but I feel like more than that, the two comics have a vastly different feel in terms of how their world generally just works in-universe. I'd like to know if this makes any sense, or if I'm just crazy.

I mean, the IDW world literally is the game world now, so yes, there are some pretty huge differences that are immediately apparent.

I'd say that where both incarnations of the Archie universe were much more of an "anything goes" sci-fi/fantasy world with all these different factions and kingdoms and whatnot, the IDW comics depict a more mundane modern/near-future setting that just so happens to have some highly stylized scenery and be inhabited by cartoon furries. (And off-screen humans, now that the two worlds have been reunited, I guess.)

I mean, it's right there in the names of the planet. Archie was set on the fantastical world of Mobius, but the IDW comics are just on a fictional version of Earth. Most of the sci-fi elements are Eggman's creations. There are still plenty of fantasy elements, but they tend to be hidden better. They're a thing for Sonic and his friends and enemies to discover on their adventures, not an everyday fact of life for the normies. In the Archie comics you had people living in medieval kingdoms and underwater societies and Mad Max wastelands and floating utopias and all this other stuff, but in the IDW comics they tend to live in pretty normal modern cities. I'd argue that this makes Sonic feel like more of a larger-than-life hero in the IDW comics, since he's always seeking out adventures in these corners of the world that the average person doesn't know about. Joe from Station Square's never been to somewhere like Sky Sanctuary or Little Planet

I know some Archie fans think this means the worldbuilding in IDW is "bad" or "boring" since there aren't a bunch of high-concept fantasy locations being introduced, but it's just different. The way they did things at Archie was fun, but this matches the vibe of the games much better

[wander-wren]

i’ve been trying to look for critique of 17776 but it’s actually quite hard to find. not because i dislike it (i don’t think you could look at my blog and come away thinking i dislike Football Satellite Story) but because i just like to see critiques of things i like sometimes. opens up the old brain.

plus there are certainly things that i could critique in the story, i just haven’t quite figured out how to articulate them. most of them feel like quite low-hanging fruit, anyway—the whole narrative is predicated on time essentially pausing in the 2020s, plus apparently all bad things have been eradicated (war, hunger, money, i don’t know if it’s explicitly stated but i assume bigotry etc). american government still exists as it does today, at least in name—there is a president and governors. quite a lot to unpack there.

i read 17776 as a utopian story. it’s not a perfect world, but as jon bois says several times, the imperfections are necessary, deliberate, chosen. therefore….don’t they make it perfect? up for debate. it’s certainly the only utopia i’ve encountered that i respect, for the simple fact that it never turns out to be a lie or boring.

that said, there is SO much of the world of 17776 that we don’t see. we don’t see disabled folks, and we especially don’t explore what that looks like with the nanos. we don’t see people from the places that were underwater, that juice tells us survived and “continue their cultural practices elsewhere.” we don’t see anyone wrestle with the premise, that is—no more children. no making new families. no change. a flooded world. an infinite sun. the unfairness of everyone who didn’t make it to the end of the world. and of course you can say, to the last bit, that it’s been 15,000 years, people have already done all of that wrestling. you’re telling me it doesn’t still hit them?

that’s not even touching on the fact that we don’t see the rest of the world. we don’t know what happened to it, what the politics are, what land has even survived. jon bois is very insistent on glossing over all of the difficult questions.

and i’ve written before about how i admire that, for the guts alone if nothing else. why don’t people die? who knows! what about this bad thing? it’s gone. what about this problem with the world? it’s fine.

so 17776 is flawed, mostly in that it is deeply american and apparently uninterested in engaging with the less comfortable parts of its premise. for the first, i want to know what else anyone expected from a story titled “17776: What Football Will Look Like In The Future.” for the second, i maintain that changing that would require that jon bois had simply written a different story.

17776 is ultimately a positive narrative to me. i almost said hopeful, but it’s not that. there’s no hope after the end of the world, there’s no need for hope. it’s just content, despite the occasional dips. this is the part i struggle to articulate, because i so clearly understand where jon bois needed to go, and it is obvious that he was steamrolling over any pesky bits that would detract or distract or slow him down in getting there (again: guts). i respect it.

would telling those grittier narratives, turning this utopia into a dystopia, be worthwhile? certainly, to some. would it wreck the existing themes/message? very probably. would that make a better story? do the themes deserve to be wrecked because the way they were presented is flawed?

up to you.

[inklings-challenge]

Since we're less than a month away from sign-ups for this year's Inklings Challenge, it's time to address what I call:

The Team Chesterton Problem

The Inklings Challenge divides writers into three different teams, which are each assigned a type of fantasy and a type of science fiction, and writers can choose which one they want to write. The fantasy categories are easy: Team Lewis is portal fantasy, and Team Tolkien is secondary world fantasy, which leaves intrusive fantasy for Team Chesterton. Intrusive fantasy gets by far the least stories written for it, probably because people are intimidated by fantasy with a real-world setting, but that would be okay if the science fiction category drew in people.

In three years, we have had two stories in the Team Chesterton sci-fi category. Both last year.

With Team Lewis having space travel and Team Tolkien having time travel, the first two years, Team Chesterton had a technology category. Since that covers everything from steampunk to mad scientists to robots to cloning technology to cyberpunk, you'd think there'd be a lot of story potential for any type of writer. Not one. The third year's category, Adventure, tried to make this wider story potential clearer, so people didn't think they had to be technological experts to write in this category. We got only a couple of stories.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's too broad of a category. Space travel suggests a specific genre. Time travel provides a specific inciting incident. Technology and Adventure have a kind of "everything else" vibe, which could make it difficult to come up with a specific story in a short time frame.

So I'm considering other options:

Mystery

Pro: Chesterton-related, specific genre that can be applied to a fantasy or sci-fi setting

Con: Not inherently a sci-fi genre; requires a lot of thinking to apply it to a speculative fiction setting

Dystopia

Pro: Specific genre with specific vibes. Chesterton-related

Con: Vibes are depressing and people may not be drawn to it

Utopia

Pro: Less depressing than dystopia. Could even be combined with dystopia

Con: Who's willing to admit that they think they've invented a perfect society? Outdated genre.

Travel

Pro: Fits with time and space travel. Would suggest planet-bound adventures--finding hidden lands, journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth, underwater cities, you name it--while providing a specific event to base the story around, so it's less broad than adventure.

Con: Would take a lot of explanation to get to that definition. Has a lot of the same "too-broad" problems that Adventure has

Cyberpunk or steampunk

Pro: Specific genre with specific vibes

Con: If people don't like those vibes, they're out of luck. People could think they need to know a lot about technology or history to write in this category.

Superhero

Pro: Fun genre! Specific genre trappings and tropes to easily base stories around. Can feel very Chestertonian. Nothing that would make people think they need to stick to real-world science

Con: People might be burnt out on superheroes. Might turn to fanfic instead of original fic. Not a great companion genre to time and space travel

I had been hoping to end this with a poll, but there are too many options and variables here, so instead I'll just ask for general feedback and ideas on what genre would be most appealing and the best fit for this challenge.

[venomspecs]

THIS was my Epic the Musical

Song about missing Ithaca and how the gods have driven him away from his home, set right after they get blown off course after leaving Troy

Homer (yes, you heard that right) replaces Demodocus as the Phaeacean bard and sings a song about Odysseus leaving his family to go to Troy and his eventual return. Odysseus is also disguised as a woman

The sirens do what sirens do lol, they want Odysseus to jump in the water so he can join them in their underwater utopia

[apradonite]

workplace christmas party

(surface lore under cut)

Back on the surface, Alexis Kane’s god-given name was Virginia Wulff – and instead of a lavish underwater penthouse, she lived in a dingy old studio in Jersey City. Going door-to-door and living paycheck-to-paycheck, her last place of employment was a location for a telephone production company, where she worked as one of their many smiling salesmen. It was as much of a road block as her other sales gigs were, but as the war came to an end and women were kicked out of the workforce in droves, there weren’t a whole lot of options. Selling overpriced rotaries to schmucks had to do.

Still, Wulff was always an ambitious woman, and even the jail cell of a dead-end job couldn't keep that locked in. She worked her ass off day and night, and eventually became one of the best salespeople in the company’s location. She won’t bring up the occasional tampered sales report or faking invoices with outside friends. It didn't matter how meager the achievement was in the grand scheme of things, just that she was the best at something for once.

McNamara worked in the office while Wulff was peddling in neighborhoods, so their interactions were minimal. Wulff knew her as more gentle and sweet compared to some of the others, but she never knew her much deeper than that. Never knew of any family, pets, or other friends she might’ve had. She saw her as a bit of a doormat then – hearing her regularly over-apologizing to customers that were obviously in the wrong – but she kept her mouth shut. McNamara didn’t have strong opinions on her either, but believed they had a generally cordial relationship. Unfortunately that was proven wrong in late 1947, when McNamara unexpectedly entered the office late at night while Kane was there “reworking” the numbers on another co-worker's report.

It was an accident; she didn’t mean to kill her. But she did mean to hit her over the head with a decorative vase during her panic.

She never checked her pulse. Not while she hauled the body and scraps of vase to her car, and not while she buried her in a shallow grave. Lying to the police was the easy part, but the Herculean task was managing the guilt months later. Admitting her murder wasn’t an option, but god knows she could only tell herself that she was just stepping on others to reach for the top so many times. She needed an out.

Her golden ticket was from accidentally eavesdropping on a couple of drunkards: An underwater utopia for people who want to escape from the economic and political perils of the surface. Somewhere a person could have a fresh start and others wouldn’t ask too many questions.

Wulff would’ve laughed at the idea in a normal situation. But a name change, a stolen recruitment letter, and a boat ride later, Alexis Kane left her baggage at the door to finally make a name for herself. Or did she?

[biscuitsofthesevenseas]

A Sea Cookie Hyperanalysis Post (Sugarteara/Wandercrab)

I couldn't think of a proper title. WARNING: Long.

Now, anyone who has at least seen/clicked on this blog before knows that the Ovenbreak sea cookies are my absolute favourites. I love them. However, making analyses tend to take a long time for me due to being a crippling literary perfectionist especially when it comes to characters I like, which may be why i ended up writing up this post waaay later than i intended to. Fashionably late too, as Wandercrab is now over a year old.....shoot.

But anyways, this analysis will be split over two posts. This first one will be mostly about Sugarteara, the next one Wandercrab. (For the sake of my sanity i am not confusing myself by bringing up Octopus here. They're going in the next chapter. ) There will be some mention of the Tower of Frozen Waves gang, but I wont be talking ahout them much. Mostly due to me generally not being as interested in them as much as the underwater guys.

Small note that I am not a media literacy wizard and may have interpreted some things wrong despite my research! I've tried making it as best as i can though, because not only is this a pretty self-indulgent post, but I kinda just... you know. Want the best for my lil guys. They deserve the best.

Anyways, moving on!!

The Role of Sea Fairy Cookie

First, I want to quickly talk about Sea Fairy. Because not only is she an interesting character, but she's also indirectly (or directly, if you interpret it that way) the reason this whole storyline happened in the first place.

Lore wise, she's probably one of the most interesting CROB legendaries (I specifically say CROB because I know that her lore in Kingdom is very different). She's constantly trying to escape the darkness trying to consume her, the curses inflicted upon her by an unknown higher power, all the while looking to the sky in search of hope. Misery lies in every corner of the ocean, to her. And when the threat of death and corruption is so near, it makes sense, actually. She fights fate already by simply staying alive. The moon, so close yet so far away, is the embodiment of the hope she's been searching for. The only source of light when the waters she calls home are darker than the night sky. The Tower of Frozen Waves is a symbol of escapism, yes, but also hope. Everything about her echoes hope. Because she has it rough, she truly does, but she'll suffer her fate again and again and countless more times so long as she lives and breathes.

Despite this all, she's also very willing to discard her hopes and dreams if it means her domain doesn't suffer as she does.

Which leads to events such as this happening:

Hmm Sea Fairy why are you all the way down in the deep ocean what happened here-

The Lost City of Sugarteara

An underwater city crafted from a legendary being's profound sorrow. A place that seemed radiant, almost a utopia, but in reality, the opposite was true. To the point where the being who held the grief had to keep herself captive in the city in order to not have the darkness seeping into the place spread to the rest of the ocean.

So if its fall was inevitable, then why did they make the city in the first place? We know the place didn't instantly materialise but was instead an active choice made by the founders, so why did they have so much faith in the pearl? Even knowing that the raw emotions of the divine was not something to be easily reckoned with?

And I think that this logic can be explained by the simple fact that Sea Fairy was, to them, nothing short of a god. She was the being who had sole and complete power over her domain and their home, the one who bestowed compassion to everyone throughout the seas. To them, a treasure with such connection to her as the Sacred Pearl, was a blessing. And what better way to memorialise the Almighty Sea's fallen treasure than in the form of a civilisation? A place where everyone the pearl has blessed can come and celebrate it and the prosperity it brings?

However, no matter how much they protected, decorated and celebrated the place, the denizens could not hide that the city's existence was one of sorrow, just like its source, the pearl. The emotions of despair infused into the treasure were never meant to last forever, trying to keep it from deteriorating was impossible, and soon enough, the people realised this and they left. One by one, until the faith that had held the city together in the first place was suddenly on the verge of a devastating collapse, only delayed by the steadfast loyalty of two.

Now cut to a depressed crustacean leading two children (well, it is heavily debated as to whether Sorbet Shark is actually a child or not) and Wave Drop (another one of Sea Fairy's treasures, this time it's one of happiness and she left it on the tower as far away from the ocean as possible, while her treasure of misery was left to sink. Oh, symbolism, my best friend) down into the frozen city to save Sea Fairy from her fate once more, and also defeat the Very Evil Manta Ray trying to hold control over the city via the captive Sea Fairy. So really, all of their goals are being met here. There isn't much left of the city, apart from the buildings and sugar crystals, and they don't encounter much on their way to the temple.

Only thing is, the Very Evil Manta Ray speak Lobster had been doing pretty much consisted entirely of lies. Most of what they said at all in the cutscenes consisted entirely of lies, full stop. However, these were lies that Lobster themselves actually believed in a way. To them, they were the only one of the two left actually doing something to bring the denizens back. It didnt matter that it involved seemingly corrupting the one thing that held the place together, it just mattered that it did the job. To bring back the city's glory. Which is why they were surprised when Mocha Ray decided to oppose them. Surprised, hurt even, to the point where they genuinely believed she didn't actually want the people, and in turn, the city back. That she herself was the corrupted one. After all, one effort was better than what seemed to be nothing, so why prevent it from happening?

Peppermint and Sorbet don't know this however, for the better or for the worse, and when they eventually get into the temple (after a bit of experimentation with Wave Drop), they're met with Mocha Ray's iconic first appearance that, while iconic, also seems to play along with the lies they've been told about her.

Everything about this scene screams "villainous". The context behind it, the barriers, heck, even the lighting seems villainous here. The general mystery surrounding her as up to this point, the only information we know about her being the few words spoken by Lobster (the untrue ones as mentioned above). If the city was just as abandoned as they said it was, then why lock yourself up in one singular place? Why lock yourself up in what is basically the core of the city, the one place that dictates the city's existence? What else could you be doing there, other than scheming? Other than villainy? This mystery is what made the lies so easy to believe. We never saw Mocha's own side of the story, heck we never even saw HER up until now.

Which is why it comes as such a surprise when the two guardian's intentions seem to do a complete 180 when they both reach the pearl. The supposed villain ends up taking the good side, trying to protect Sea Fairy, and in turn, the entire ocean from harm, and the supposed hero takes the other. They then proceed to fight to the death, with Mocha Ray being overpowered, until Sea Fairy manages to come back to her senses and quickly eradicates the city (which was directly linked to both of their powers, but I'd say it definitely affected Lobster's more. I mean, they lost their claw. Again. It's a bit of a stretch to say Mocha's powers were directly influenced by the city at all, since it has been showed she kept them even after Sugarteara. )

But one thing I want to quickly talk about is the dynamics between the two. They're complete opposites. In personality, in morals, their roles in the story, they're on opposite sides of the spectrum on almost everything. Even design. (I think the fact that if you inverse their colours they end just having the other's ones was very intentional.) They literally could not be more different if not for one thing - the fact that they were both guardians of the same city. A similarity that shouldn't have as much impact as it does. The fact that these two, despite having their different reasons, were still the only ones who actually stayed until the end. They both were the only citizens who didn't leave on their own accord and actually had it taken away from them, unlike literally everyone else. And weirdly enough, that makes them more similar and intertwined than most of the characters in the entire franchice. Sugarteara is just like that.

But that's where the similarities end. Because even though they are both left with practically nothing by the end, they have some VERY different reactions to this whole situation.

Mocha Ray is surprisingly unfazed. Calm. Which is a bit uncalled for as she is the one who almost died in that. And when such an important place to her had suddenly been lost, you'd think there would be a small amount of grief. But no. Instead, she immediately looks to the future and eagerly tells everyone about her plans. And admits that maybe the city was doomed from the start. In a way, she's sort of facing her own fate head on, like Sea Fairy. (which by the way, their dynamic is hella interesting too because well, Mocha at this point is most likely Sea Fairy's biggest worshipper. She lived in the city crafted from and dedicated to one of Sea Fairy's treasures, and lived the best part of her life in the temple as a priestess specifically while also being one of the last denizens left before the whole destruction happened. And she was definitely the last one who still believed in Sea Fairy's will to keep the treasure and the city alive. The tremendous influence is showing here and I love it.)

She carries on, fully knowing rebuilding a city that in her eyes is just as beautiful as the place she left will take a long, long time. Despite having almost no remnants of a plan on how to get there. I say almost none, because her plan at the end of this is to find Lobster, who seems to have entirely disappeared (We will get to this later). You know, the guy who almost killed her?? The one who attempted to corrupt Sea Fairy with the darkness in the first place???? What the heck??

But in Mocha's perspective, it makes sense. Because she knows they are quite literally the only other person with the same goal as her. It also helps that despite moving on (somewhat) fairly quickly, she's also stuck in the past, and I would say almost as rigid as, if not more rigid than Lobster. Because at least Lobster's viewpoint of a person can change, hence the whole switch up with Mocha Ray. But Mocha still sees Lobster as a good person who is simply misguided, because of how they were back when the city thrived. So rigid, but in an hopeful way that could be confused as blind trust, but it really isn't that. Naivety? Maybe.

Its just a bit too bad, seeing how Lobster is her foil and all, because on their side of the story....

Yeah. That. The weirdly ominous scene where we find out that the plan to corrupt Sea Fairy via the pearl was not their own. Instead, that can be credited to the aptly named Eerie Anglerfish (who just so happens to be a messenger-type creature made by Dark Enchantress. It's unknown whether this is just a random fish corrupted and turned into a spy for evil, or whether this is the voice of DE herself.) But the reason I say it's aptly named is.. well.... look at the way it convinces Lobster to carry on.

Manipulation at its finest. The way this is worded makes me think that, no, makes me sure that Eerie Anglerfish was watching Lobster for a long while before making a move. I mean, there was lots of time, and there would've been more if Lobster didn't try and corrupt the pearl. Watching, of course, to try and bring Sea Fairy to the darkness. She seemed like the easiest target to DE as well, too hopeless and pathetic to protect herself, but powerful enough to have some sort of value. And as always, with a being such as her, there will be followers. Even DE had some. Now they were indeed loyal and would follow her every order, but there weren't any that could traverse the seas, and her goal was to conquer all of Earthbread, was it not? Including the domain of the lonely ocean. How? Via the lonely ocean legendary. Where? In the lonely ocean city. The only way to do this, however, was to recruit a new member, one who could access the domain which wouldve been unpassable to any of her other servants. And to DE's surprise, when the time came to strike, there only seemed to be two to pick from. Perfect.

Mocha Ray was out of the question. Despite being the closest to Sea Fairy, she most likely never even met the angler, because for a start, the temple, where she permanently resided was filled with barriers and traps of her own making. But even if the angler could get to her, she would absolutely not be convinced. Because as mentioned earlier, she is Sea Fairy's biggest worshipper, and would more likely kill the angler than be swayed. Mocha ray, following Dark Enchantress? Nope. Not happening. Non. Nada.

So that just leaves one. Lobster. Surprisingly easy to manipulate seeing that they had practically the same amount of loyalty to the city as Mocha, despite it showing in drastically different ways. And in those opposite ways lied opposite chances. Watching the two guardians fall apart, latching onto one was a piece of cake. Playing around with falling loyalty and watching it slowly dissipate as the target loses trust in the being meant to protect them? Easy.

When compared to the indiscernable mind of the temple keeper, the crystal-clawed sentinel's thoughts could be read like a book.

All she had to do, for them to join her, was provide a remedy. A cure for the dying, sacred city.

But with the plans of Dark Enchantress, the remedy was not going to work anyhow. It was never going to restore the glorious city, only conjure a twisted version of what was once a place of radiance. It didn't need Sea Fairy to fail, but she wasn't expecting it to end this way either. So she did the only thing she could possibly do without losing this newfound follower.

Another remedy. Another cure. Sugarteara was gone, so where else could they go? And the city would be revived. Back to its rightful glory, with newfound powers and a leader they could actually trust.

All of this, with one small condition. Their loyalty.

An offer they could not refuse.

TO BE CONTINUED !!!

This is the end of the first half of my hyperanalysis! (This took way longer to write than I intended, almost two months of pure procrastination) The wandercrab sector will probably arrive three years late if I'm being honest (just like the actual update), but I had a lot of fun writing this! If you actually got to the end then thank you for being one of the people actually interested enough in my words!!

Until next time!

[randomvideogametournaments]

Horror Game Protagonist Bracket: Round 1 Match 11

Character Info:

James Sunderland: The protagonist of Silent Hill 2. An average store clerk, James is a depressed man who lost his wife, Mary, 3 years ago to a terminal illness. He received a letter from the assumed dead Mary, telling him to go to the town of Silent Hill.

Source: Silent Hill Wiki

Jack: The faceless protagonist of BioShock. After being the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean, he finds himself in the underwater city of Rapture, where it's utopia-seeming entrance quickly turns out to be nothing but a façade.

Source: BioShock Wiki

[6-and-7]

Final Scores for Classic vs. New Who

Classic: 81 New: 71 Tie: 5

Additional breakdowns below the cut

By Doctor:

1 vs. 9: 10 1: 4 9: 5 Tie: 1

1 vs. 10: 19 1: 7 10: 12

2 vs. 10: 17 2: 8 10: 9

2 vs. 11: 4 2: 3 11: 1

3 vs. 11: 24 3: 13 11: 11

4 vs. 11: 11 4: 8 11: 2 Tie: 1

4 vs. 12: 30 4: 12 12: 17 Tie: 1

5 vs. 12: 5 5: 3 12: 2 Tie:

5 vs. 13: 15 5: 12 13: 3 Tie: 0

6 vs. 13: 8 6: 4 13: 3 Tie: 1

7 vs. 14: 3 7: 0 14: 3 Tie: 0

7 vs. 15: 9 7: 6 15: 2 Tie: 1

4 vs. Shalka: 1 4: 1 Shalka: 0 Tie: 0

Cushing vs. 8: 1 Cushing: 0 8: 1 Tie: 0

Individual Stories

An Unearthly Child vs. Rose The Daleks vs. The End of the World The Edge of Destruction vs. The Unquiet Dead Marco Polo vs. Aliens of London/World War Three The Keys of Marinus vs. Dalek The Aztecs vs. The Long Game The Sensorites vs. Father's Day The Reign of Terror vs. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances Planet of Giants vs. Boom Town The Dalek Invasion of Earth vs. Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways The Rescue vs. The Christmas Invasion The Romans vs. New Earth The Web Planet vs. Tooth and Claw

The Crusade vs. School Reunion The Space Museum vs. The Girl in the Fireplace The Chase vs. Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel The Time Meddler vs. The Idiot's Lantern Galaxy 4 vs. The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit Mission to the Unknown vs. Love & Monsters The Myth Makers vs. Fear Her The Daleks' Master Plan vs. Army of Ghosts / Doomsday The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve vs. The Runaway Bride The Ark vs. Smith and Jones The Celestial Toymaker vs. The Shakespeare Code The Gunfighters vs. Gridlock The Savages vs. Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks

The War Machines vs. The Lazarus Experiment The Smugglers vs. 42 The Tenth Planet vs. Human Nature / The Family of Blood The Power of the Daleks vs. Blink The Highlanders vs. Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords The Underwater Menace vs. Voyage of the Damned The Moonbase vs. Partners in Crime The Macra Terror vs. The Fires of Pompeii The Faceless Ones vs. Planet of the Ood The Evil of the Daleks vs. The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky The Tomb of the Cybermen vs. The Doctor's Daughter The Abominable Snowmen vs. The Unicorn and the Wasp The Ice Warriors vs. Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead

The Enemy of the World vs. Midnight The Web of Fear vs. Turn Left Fury from the Deep vs. The Stolen Earth / Journey's End The Wheel in Space vs. The Next Doctor The Dominators vs. Planet of the Dead The Mind Robber vs. The Waters of Mars The Invasion vs. The End of Time The Krotons vs. The Eleventh Hour The Seeds of Death vs. The Beast Below The Space Pirates vs. Victory of the Daleks The War Games vs. The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone Spearhead from Space vs. The Vampires of Venice Doctor Who and the Silurians vs. Amy's Choice

The Ambassadors of Death vs. The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood Inferno vs. Vincent and the Doctor Terror of the Autons vs. The Lodger The Mind of Evil vs. The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang The Claws of Axos vs. A Christmas Carol Colony in Space vs. The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon The Dæmons vs. The Curse of the Black Spot Day of the Daleks vs. The Doctor's Wife The Curse of Peladon vs. The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People The Sea Devils vs. A Good Man Goes to War The Mutants vs. Let's Kill Hitler The Time Monster vs. Night Terrors The Three Doctors vs. The Girl Who Waited

Carnival of Monsters vs. The God Complex Frontier in Space vs. Closing Time Planet of the Daleks vs. The Wedding of River Song The Green Death vs. The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe The Time Warrior vs. Asylum of the Daleks Invasion of the Dinosaurs vs. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship Death to the Daleks vs. A Town Called Mercy The Monster of Peladon vs. The Power of Three Planet of the Spiders vs. The Angels Take Manhattan Robot vs. The Snowmen The Ark in Space vs. The Bells of Saint John The Sontaran Experiment vs. The Rings of Akhaten Genesis of the Daleks vs. Cold War

Revenge of the Cybermen vs. Hide Terror of the Zygons vs. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS Planet of Evil vs. The Crimson Horror Pyramids of Mars vs. Nightmare in Silver The Android Invasion vs. The Name of the Doctor The Brain of Morbius vs. The Day of the Doctor The Seeds of Doom vs. The Time of the Doctor The Masque of Mandragora vs. Deep Breath The Hand of Fear vs. Into the Dalek The Deadly Assassin vs. Robot of Sherwood The Face of Evil vs. Listen The Robots of Death vs. Time Heist The Talons of Weng-Chiang vs. The Caretaker

Horror of Fang Rock vs. Kill the Moon The Invisible Enemy vs. Mummy on the Orient Express Image of the Fendahl vs. Flatline The Sun Makers vs. In the Forest of the Night Underworld vs. Dark Water/Death In Heaven The Invasion of Time vs. Last Christmas The Ribos Operation vs. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar The Pirate Planet vs. Under the Lake/Before the Flood The Stones of Blood vs. The Girl Who Died The Androids of Tara vs. The Woman Who Lived The Power of Kroll vs. The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion The Armageddon Factor vs. Sleep No More Destiny of the Daleks vs. Face the Raven

City of Death vs. Heaven Sent The Creature from the Pit vs. Hell Bent Nightmare of Eden vs. The Husbands of River Song The Horns of Nimon vs. The Return of Doctor Mysterio The Leisure Hive vs. The Pilot Meglos vs. Smile Full Circle vs. Thin Ice State of Decay vs. Knock Knock Warriors' Gate vs. Oxygen The Keeper of Traken vs. Extremis Logopolis vs. The Pyramid at the End of the World Castrovalva vs. The Lie of the Land Four to Doomsday vs. Empress of Mars

Kinda vs. The Eaters of Light The Visitation vs. World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls Black Orchid vs. Twice Upon a Time Earthshock vs. The Woman Who Fell to Earth Time-Flight vs. The Ghost Monument Arc of Infinity vs. Rosa Snakedance vs. Arachnids in the UK Mawdryn Undead vs. The Tsuranga Conundrum Terminus vs. Demons of the Punjab Enlightenment vs. Kerblam! The King's Demons vs. The Witchfinders The Five Doctors vs. It Takes You Away Warriors of the Deep vs. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

The Awakening vs. Resolution Frontios vs. Spyfall Resurrection of the Daleks vs. Orphan 55 Planet of Fire vs. Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror The Caves of Androzani vs. Fugitive of the Judoon The Twin Dilemma vs. Praxeus Attack of the Cybermen vs. Can You Hear Me? Vengeance on Varos vs. The Haunting of Villa Diodati / The Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children The Mark of the Rani vs. Revolution of the Daleks The Two Doctors vs. Flux Timelash vs. Eve of the Daleks Revelation of the Daleks vs. Legend of the Sea Devils Trial of a Time Lord vs. The Power of the Doctor

Time and the Rani vs. The Star Beast Paradise Towers vs. Wild Blue Yonder Delta and the Bannermen vs. The Giggle Dragonfire vs. The Church on Ruby Road Remembrance of the Daleks vs. Space Babies The Happiness Patrol vs. The Devil's Chord Silver Nemesis vs. Boom! The Greatest Show in the Galaxy vs. 73 Yards Battlefield vs. Dot and Bubble Ghost Light vs. Rogue The Curse of Fenric vs. The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death Survival vs. Joy to the World Dr. Who and the Daleks vs. Doctor Who the TV Movie Shada vs. Scream of the Shalka

[brinaarcadia]

SOFIA LAMB

"Utopia is not a place... but a people. It will exist the moment we are fit to occupy it."

Sofia Lamb is both an Oxford-educated psychiatrist and philosophical idealist. She was brought to Rapture to counsel the populace. Her worldviews were shaped by her experiences aiding the survivors of the nuclear blast of Hiroshima. She herself was very near the blast, but miraculously survived - only to find that everyone she had met for the past several years was dead.

The US justification for the bombing - the "greater good" - was a perversion off her own beliefs. She believes that genetic biases toward the self have doomed the surface world, and so she sought refuge in the underwater city of Rapture.

Her intent in joining Ryan's great experiment was to transform the closed society into an enlightened one through psychiatry - ultimately to abolish human suffering amongst the Utopian. Her daughter, Eleanor, was raised in isolation from other children, intended as a genius-level intellect trained to promote Lamb's philosophy. An underground religion began to form around her, born out of the city's disenfranchised, and Lamb took full advantage of it.

But Lamb's collectivist ideals conflicted directly with those of Andrew Ryan, and she mysteriously vanished during the Fall of Rapture. Later, she crossed paths with Subject Delta, murdering Eleanor's beloved bodyguard in order to retrieve her from his care.

Now that Ryan and Fontaine are gone, Lamb has returned - and it seems she has a new plan for Rapture...

[obscure-horror-game-protagonist]

BEST OBSCURE(?) HORROR GUY, ROUND 1

SUMMARIES:

Clancy Jarvis (Resident Evil 7: Banned Footage) - Clancy was the newest member of the Sewer Gators, a paranormal investigation group responsible for a moderately successful Internet series by the same name. As his first assignment, he was to work as the cameraman for the group as they investigated the Dulvey Haunted House, only to lose sight of his coworker Andre within the abandoned building. After finding Andre's corpse, Clancy awoke in a room with his other coworker, Peter, only to then witness Peter be decapitated. Afterwards, Clancy awakes in a basement and is hunted by Jack Baker and monsters made of a mold-like substance, then he awakes in a bedroom where he is forced to escape from Marguerite Baker, then he awakes in a shed where he is forced to play a life-or-death game of blackjack, before finally awaking at a birthday party scavenger hunt, where he is brutally burned to death after the cake explodes. Most notable trait: The ability to eat rotten meat and mold until he dies, if you so wish.

Simon Jarrett (SOMA) - Simon Jarrett was a Torontonian comic book store employee who, after sustaining severe brain trauma in a car accident that cut his life expectancy down to mere months, volunteered for an experimental form of brain scan that had the potential to vastly extend his life, or at least improve his quality of life for the time he had left. The scan, while being fully comprehensive and effectively a form of cloning, ended up putting Simon in critical condition. This created a divide, where "Simon 1", the original Simon, lived the last months of his life, eventually dying on his death bed, while "Simon 2", the brain scan, lived on. 100 years later, "Simon 2" awakens within the PATHOS-II facility, an underwater research facility, and has to do "Some Amnesia shit idk the game is a spiritually successor" with the help of another brain-scan person named Catherine, who resides in a handheld device that Simon 2 carries around. At one point, Simon 2 transfers himself in what he believes is going to be a "brain" transplant, only to realize he has effectively cloned himself once more, and is now "Simon 3." Simon 3 is given the option to either kill Simon 2 or spare him (undertale) and Simon 3 eventually does one last brain scan to effectively clone himself aboard "The ARK", so that Simon 4 may live in a utopia. Simon 3 is forced to spend the rest of his existence underwater, and Simon 2 is either dead or alive depending on player choice, while Simon 1 died 100 years ago in Canada. Most notable trait: Based on his appearance, personality and profession, he really seems like he would have been a YouTuber in 2009.

[realmsofgames]

Bioshock 1 and 2 Review

Underwater is one of the best themes for any setting or story. The best X-Com game is terror from the deep. Because its underwater. Building an art-deco late 19th/early 20th century American planned city at the bottom of the ocean is so supremely wicked and should be impossible to fuck up. In BioShock you fuck around in the most mediocre repetitive levels engaging in the most mediocre repetitive gameplay while you're told a mediocre story about the contradictions that led to the downfall of a libertarian utopia and your role in it. Repeatedly. They made a mostly unfun game with a novel setting that is used to, we ESTIMATE, 20% of its maximum potential. They got a second chance and made the exact same game. 16 hours of the same thing. In two they push a more engaging anti-utopian angle which could have been good, but rather than presenting an interesting idea about what might be done to better society or pointing out something interesting about people driven by utopian ambitions, you get some actual utopian hippy shit about like, being a good person I guess. The other message people definitely discern from this sort of empty, seemingly, anti-utopian shit is just some TINA capitalist realism garbage, which is evil. What the fuck is up with the parental angle? It lacks any substance that I can discern at all. There's also some shallow drivel about free will and self-awareness. What am I a 14 year old?

High Minded Take of the Review: A bunch of kids (including adult gamers(kids)) who were unloved by their parents were enthralled with the idea of being the parent that they didn't have. They didn't know about foreshadowing yet so the dumb plot points the developers presented as twists were moving. They were moved by extremely vague themes that they'd never experienced before. Free will, utopia, forgiveness, family, and anything else those idiots thought they could jam in there. They got to be a wicked guy in a suit using magic and murking fuckers with firearms in a cool city. Those kids loved this game for those reasons so as an adult you might get tricked into thinking these games were more than they are.

Rating: This game is fucking gay and the setting should have been used in some CRPG made by a homosexual man or woman born in the 60s. We give it 4 Mario mushrooms out of 10.

[pix4japan]

Ubara Island: A Diver’s Destination

Location: Otaki Town, Chiba Prefecture, Japan Timestamp: 09:49・2024/07/10

Pentax K-1 II + DFA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6 + CP + 10-stop ND filter 73 mm ISO 100 for 3.0 sec. at ƒ/5.6

From the scenic vantage point at the end of the Ubara Utopia Trail, you can gaze out over the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean to the tiny Ubara Island. This idyllic spot off the coast of Myojin Cape is a popular destination for scuba divers and snorkelers alike.

Whether you're a seasoned diver or new to the underwater world, Ubara Island offers a delightful blend of beauty and biodiversity that promises to captivate and inspire underwater adventurers.

Access details and sources for further reading available in my full write-up, (1-minute read): https://www.pix4japan.com/blog/20240710-dive