#which is excellent because that's what this system is about babey

[gr3y-plays-ttrpgs]

"dead character haunting the narrative" is all sad and all until it the character is undead, and then it isn't. haunting her office. haunting the park. haunting the corner shop to restock on cigarettes. haunting the park again. haunting the- oh no wait sorry it's sad again the narrative is haunting her

[anipgarden]

*cracks knuckles* Alright everyone strap in.

Hi, I'm Ani, the appointed Milkweed Queen of several Discord group chats, and I'm gonna talk about some of my favorite types of milkweed because its Earth Day, I'm bored, and I had nothing else ready to post. Everyone ready?

I'm not going to give these a formal ranking, I'm just going to ramble about them.

We all know the important reasons to like milkweed--supporting Monarchs, feeding the pollinators, restoring native species to your local habitat and creating an environment for many creatures to live in, that's all fantastic obviously. With that established, this ranking system will have little to do with that. We're talking aesthetics, babey! And any fun facts I happen to toss in are, well, fun facts. If you learn about a new kind of milkweed from this, or want to chime in with your own favorites, by all means let me know!

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)! If you've been following my blog for awhile, you likely know I've been on a Grand Quest to find, purchase, and/or grow swamp milkweed for a few years now. Honestly, though, who can blame me! Look at those vibrant pink flowers, contrasting with those bright green leaves! Love at first sight, I'm telling you. I've also heard that it smells like vanilla. Vanilla! It's also, reportedly, one of the few types of milkweed that excels in wet environments, and even though my environment isn't very wet, we stan a queen for that quality.

Whether you prefer to call it Sandhill Milkweed or Pinewoods Milkweed, Asclepias humistrata is a champion of sandy soils and also my heart. I hadn't looked too far into this species until late last year, when I was helping another friend look at different milkweeds, but how could I not look into this beautiful plant! With pink stems and veins as early as the seedling stage, pinkish-white flowers and a low-growing spread habit, I would be honored to grow such a specimen in my garden. Their inch-thick, foot-long tap roots help them to quickly spring back to life after a wildfire, providing important food and habitat for creatures returning to the area. How lovely!

Redring milkweed (Asclepias variegata) is another species I hadn't looked too far into until this year, and honestly at great detriment to myself. I'll be honest! I may have ignored this queen at first because I'm not big on white flowers, but those red rings...! Ooh, I want this so bad. The leaves are also fairly big and a lovely dark green, which just makes the white and red pop out more!

Heartleaf milkweed (Asclepias cordifolia) is honestly so iconic, I wish it was native to my region! If you live on the West coast... grow some for me please. How can you not love this specimen! Dusty green heart-shaped leaves directly attached to pink stems, these stunning deep reddish-purple flower clusters...! I continued following one of the most annoying people I'd ever witnessed on Instagram for two months just because I first saw this species in a tiktok of his.

Purple milkweed (Asclepias purparescens) is honestly just. A queen. What else is there to say? Look how purple she is! So purple I almost can't believe it's even real, and yet they are! Not native to my region, far as I know, which is a bummer. I've heard they're hard to grow, but if you can manage it? Share your secrets with the world, honestly, we need more of this plant in our lives.

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is honestly just a classic. I love the light pink of the flowers, and those leaves are huge! I've heard they spread like wildfire, but with clusters of blooms like this? How can you even be too mad about that?

Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa). Honestly I'm not going to pretend I was always crazy about this species, but the more I see it pop up on iNaturalist, the more I find myself growing fond of it. These flowers look like crazy fireworks, and honestly, kinda have to stan.

"Oh, Ani, you have so many lovely favorites! Do you have any least favorite--" Tropical milkweed, hands down. I appreciate it's value as more of a 'babys first milkweed' plant but I'm tired of seeing it everywhere, especially knowing it's a bit invasive in my area?

Anyways, these are some of my favorite milkweed species! What are some of yours?

[isa-ghost]

Också! Har The Magnus Archives och rädslorna (eller något annat därifrån) påverkat AMFMN? Typ hur EK väljer att ta över Phil, eller hur det påverkar honom? (Eller kanske något helt annat? Hur du bygger upp världens interna logik?)

(Snälla säg att jag inte blandar ihop med någon annan, och det faktiskt är du som gillar TMA)

Om du skulle klassificera EK’s övertagande av Phil som någon av rädslorna från TMA, vilken skulle det vara?

OHOHOHOHO THIS IS SUCH A GOOD FUCKING QUESTION

LIKE OH MY GOD I WANT MORE ASKS LIKE THIS. EXPLODES.

(Yes I like TMA, it's in my pinned message!! :D)

If there's any bits of TMA in AMFMN, it's totally unintentional (for now, but now you've got me thinking). I can definitely sit and stew on this and dissect the story so far and what I have planned but not written in a way that draws parallels.

As for what fear the Ender King falls under? It's obvious isn't it? Corruption. :)

Greed corrupts. Power corrupts. Two things he has in excess. Ender King physically corrupted Phil. Both in canon and here in AMFMN. Wing, skin, eyes, behavior, all of it. He's corrupted him inside and out.

And I can share this because I've touched on it in the headcanons I wrote that inspired AMFMN's existence: Purging EK from Phil's system, be it the doing of the polycule or of Phil himself (spoiler alert: it'll be both) are going to be very sickness coded, something else The Corruption represents.

Not only that, EK's weakness, water, is the antithesis of another thing The Corruption represents: Filth. Just throw some soap in that water bucket, Fit/Etoiles/Missa/Bagi, you'll save Phil right away. 😆

Additionally, let's talk about rot and decay. Phil's body may be immortal, but it's not built to house a god. He's going to be falling apart inside almost literally, to the degree that Ender King, an entity that doesn't have to eat, is going to be relying on chugging golden apples to the point where Phil rekindles his previously kicked addiction to them (bringing in some of that hardcore lore/popular fanon babey!!)

And let's point out the most obvious part of all: toxic relationships and codependency. Ender King needs a vessel. He's dependent on Phil. He's also a toxic presence himself, controlling and possessive, violent, etc. And if we were to look at things in a "Phil work with me, I'll give you everything you've ever wanted" perspective, that's an unhealthy companionship!!

And while it's kind of a reach, Ender King represents the end. Including Endermites. Which are bugs. So there's that too.

Phil is an excellent Avatar of Corruption (perhaps also touched by The Web, bc of his fear of lacking control), because his greatest fear is being corrupted by The Ender King and his own greed.

Now you've got me cooking up a TMA QSMP AU. Definitely stay tuned for that. I'm thinking hella thoughts.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading updates: september 2023

AHOY EVERYBODY!!! the end of the month has really crept up on me and lo, I have no finished as many books as I thought I would by this point! but so it goes.

also I'm fighting for my life trying to get through all of the library books I have checked out, which is a bummer because there are a bunch of creepy books I want to start reading for Spooky Month! but time is an illusion and I've already made my peace with Spooky Month extending into November, so whatever happens happens, babey! but that's the future, right now we need to talk about what I've been reading for the past month.

A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation (Nguyen Tan Hoang, 2014) - Nguyen's dissertation is a really fascinating piece of queer scholarship, which gets deep (pun somewhat intended) into forms of media often overlooked by academia - gay porn, softcore art films, gay indie documentaries - in search of a new understanding of Asian masculinity and bottomhood. I really like Nguyen's thoughtful study of bottoming, effeminacy, and sexual abjection, all of which he's pretty in favor of, balanced with analyses of the factors of race, class, nationality, and citizenship that complicate how gay Asian men are perceived. it's wide-ranging, it's meticulous, it's kind of hot? I love you, queers in academia.

"You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People (Aubrey Gordon, 2023) - god, okay, listen: this book was a little dry TO ME but ONLY BECAUSE I have already spent years listening to Aubrey Gordon discuss all 19 of these myths and a bunch of other shit on her excellent podcast, Maintenance Phase. if you don't listen to Maintenance Phase either start doing that or read this book! which is extremely well-researched and great for debunking pretty much every "justification" a person might off to try and make their fatphobia sound reasonable. frankly if I could load up copies of YJNTLW into, like, a t-shirt gun to just have on standby to fire at people, I would do that.

Sorry, Bro (Taleen Voskuni, 2023) - yeah you all already know about this book, which is the one in which a 27 year old brings the narrative to a screeching halt to assure the readers that it's okay for her to hook up with a 31 year old woman because despite the so-called age gap both of their brains are fully-cooked. that's not actually the worst part of this book; the worst part is that the prose is unpolished in the extreme and the main character is kind of a dumb asshole. cannot say I recommend it, no matter how desperate you may be for bisexual Armenian representation.

Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (Anthony Christian Ocampo, 2022) - I really like the way Ocampo writes his nonfiction, which is very chatty and extremely accessible (if a little prone to editorializing). I love seeing sociologists writing from the community the community they live in, and these interviews come from second generation queer Latino and Filipino men frequenting the same LA clubs and coffee shops as the gay second gen Filipino author. it kills the presumed spectator that a lot of writing on marginalized communities can fall victim to; here, it's not that brown gay men need to be explained, but rather outsiders who need to make the effort to keep up with their lives. I especially appreciated Ocampo's highlighting the disparity between Latino and Filipino men's experiences in education, where very different sets of racial stereotypes impact their ability to succeed in white-dominated school systems; if you're curious about why Latino and Filipino men are categorized together at all in this study I strongly recommend Ocampo's other book, the Latinos of Asia.

The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett, 2020) - it's always kind of astonishing when something that was extremely hyped-up and buzzy turns out to actually be as good as all that, and the Vanishing Half really was that good. the premise of two light-skinned Black twins separating so that one can "pass over" and live her life as a white woman is compelling all on its own, but Bennett is so committed to every possible angle of this premise: what does it mean to live more than one life? what other ways are people more than one person? it shows up everywhere through this novel: in losing your twin, in transing your gender, in drag performances, in actors, in people moving to new towns where no one knows them and becoming someone else. the moment it really hit me that Bennet Got It was a completely innocuous sentence that identified a Korean restaurant owner in California as a man who had attended medical school in Korea - even this background character, who we'll hardly hear from again, has been a different person in a different life! everyone has these layers and layers and different sides of themselves and it's just beautifully executed. mwah. chef's kiss.

[neon-nocte]

I just finished listening to ars paradoxica and HOLY FUCK this show is incredible

It’s hard to pick a fav character but I really love Esther because she’s so morally grey and is 50 shades of morally grey (excuse the pun) in all the different timelines. Like! Petra hated her for a thing her future self did but that wasn’t her and then time passed and sally got kidnapped by the Soviet ODAR and THEN Esther made that decision

And Sally being fiercely protective over Esther during the trial because she’s her friend, damn it, despite everything. AND progressive 20XX Sally fighting so that Jewish-lesbian-in-the-1950s Esther didn’t get convicted for crimes she technically didn’t do (yet). Because YES she needed to speak to her crimes but she was interrogated as if her Jewishness made her anti-American in ideology and if it got out she was gay she’d have been FUCKED even more than she almost was, and Sally understood that.

And Esther becoming the way she was in pursuit of the American Dream to be able to care for her people so that something like the Holocaust would never happen again 😭😭. She’s Slytherin to the core but still seen as a Good Person TM by our protagonist which is like Harry feels about Snape in the epilogue but if Snape hadn’t been personally abusive to Harry himself

Let’s talk about neuroscience, babey! The concept of Butterfly Syndrome was an ingenious re-hashing of the classic time travel paradox. It changed the stakes and therefore the entire narrative tone and flow. It’s no secret I’m obsessed with neuroscience in sci-fi fiction (I’ve previously been know to nerd out on the neurological implications of being an atypical in the bright sessions) so this was one of my favorite aspects of this show. And then Butterfly Syndrome paved the way for the development of the Plasticity program and Maggie Elborn’s studies which both had profound consequences on the shape of the overall plot and the state of our individual characters and dammit it was just done so well

i’m not as well versed in the literature about how to write sci-fi, but I know that with fantasy, whatever magic system that exists has to come with drawbacks in order to create stakes. You can’t just use magic for 100% of the problems otherwise that would be a boring story and the characters would have nothing to learn, lose, or gain. I imagine this applies to sci-fi, too, when that sci-fi uses technology in a similar was that magic is used in fantasy. This is certainly the case in ars paradoxica with the timepiece and the CAGE and whatnot. My point is that the writers did an EXCELLENT job with formulating the stakes of time travel in a really interesting way.

I’m gonna have to go back and listen to that one TBS episode with Partridge. When I listened to that, the vibe of ars paradoxica that I got was more “esoteric fantasy a la night vale” and less “Cold War government intelligence agency but do it with time travel.” I mean both are good, but ars is just different than I expected. I do love that Lauren Shippen voices both Sam Barnes and Maggie Elborn because that has some really funny implications

And Sally, like, what an MVP. She’s just so sincere but also snarky, and she’s the brain but she’s also the heart. I just want her to be happy!! She got Nikhil back but then she could never see him again. As much as I would have gotten on board with, say, an Esther/Sally romance, I love the ace representation. We love any reminders that friendship love is not inherently inferior to romantic love!! I hope she finds her people. In the final timeline does she get to meet all of the ODAR gang?

I loved the friendship drama. Like how June Barlow hated Sally — that was spicy. And just the way that Petra said “we’re done” to Esther after the Sally-kidnapping fiasco was just *chef’s kiss*. And how ANGRY Petra got when it was suggested that what if Carmen was the mole? The people drama was just very refreshing amidst the government espionage drama. Basically Petra’s whole personality was based on spite (and for good reason) which was very entertaining. But I’m still very glad she made the right decision in the end.

I’ll end this post with my favorite line in the entire show, said by Tonya to Esther in 3x11:

“You may have flown closer to the sun than you’d like to, but I know no one builds better wax wings than you do.”

[eggoreviews]

My Top 25 Games Advent Day 2 - Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (#24)

“Now, excuse me while I help myself to your souls!”

I’m a complete and total Final Fantasy novice. Other than this 13 year old obscure DS title, I have played about 40 minutes of FF7 and that’s really it with my Final Fantasy experience. Somehow though, this game struck enough of a chord with me as a child that it ended up tailing this list.

Let’s get the slightly awkward stuff out of the way. I’ll be the first to admit this game is relatively junior. The entire game is populated with barely developed bird characters (which you yourself are also) and odd mini-games based on fairytales, the final boss fight is basically just a game of air hockey and the whole thing from start to finish is played with the DS stylus. Now, that’s probably a recipe for disaster. But despite the odds, and the fact that near enough everyone on the planet either hates this game or has completely forgotten it, I adored it.

Chocobo Tales sees you take control of a nameless chocobo who receives a name of your choosing and lives on the peaceful, slightly generic Chocobo Farm. And then just as you’re settling down for story time with the farm’s caretaker, a variant of Final Fantasy’s black mage shows up in the form of an edgy bookworm named Croma, and what do you know, he’s brought with him an evil soul-sucking book by accident. Now the whole farm is evil or whatever. I’ll be honest with you, the story isn’t particularly why this placed here; it’s kind of confusing, feels arbitrary and most of it centres around these crystals I’m supposed to care about. Aside from the stellar development of one of the game’s central villains Irma, it’s difficult to latch onto and remember clearly. No, what makes this game so excellent and memorable in my mind is the combat system. I absolutely loved it and I’ve never played anything like it since. You spend the entire game collecting cards depicting the various odd mythical creatures that populate the Final Fantasy universe and you use them to partake in fun, unique and oddly comicesque battles throughout the game. Each card has an element (fire etc.) and its own special ability to set it apart, and all the art of the monsters when they’re summoned is cool as heck! They’re like comic drawings!! And I’m still a child!!

Anyway, the way you fight in this game is via the four slots on the card that are at the top, left, right and bottom of the card. If you have a sword in one of these slots that coincides with your enemy’s card slots (e.g. your left slot has a sword and their left slot has nothing in), you land a hit. If there’s a shield in that enemy’s slot instead, no damage is taken and same goes for you. Add on top of that a sleugh of unique spells and abilities for each type of card and you’ve got yourself a genuinely fresh and interesting combat mechanic that makes it feel rewarding and even necessary to traverse the entire world picking every single card in the collection just so you can build the best deck possible. Admittedly, as I mentioned earlier, it all gets thrown away in the final encounter in favour of air hockey, but hey the music is cool and you can’t have everything.

Aside from combat, gameplay largely consists of those fairy tale minigames. You find cute little story books scattered across the world, most of which are mandatory to actually continue with the main story and honestly, they vary in quality. A few are so unabashedly fun I actually found myself coming back to them after it was necessary to do so, but equally, some suck so hard and make literally no sense from a mechanical standpoint that it briefly sucks the fun out of the game. Either way, the game’s commitment to focusing on fairytales as a central theme works brilliantly and really adds to this game’s unique feel. And then the rest of the time, you’re moving through the world via dragging a stylus across the screen and oh wow, they properly studied the Penguin Guide to Making an RPG World, didn’t they? They’ve got all the classics here; grassy starting area, fire bit, water bit, forest bit and (everyone’s favourite) threatening lightning bit. The graphics are absolutely amazing and hold up brilliantly for a 2006 DS game, but this world is so generic it almost hurts. However, of course, it wouldn’t have its signature Final Fantasy charm, nor would it likely have a place on my list if it wasn’t for the soundtrack. This game’s soundtrack is far better than it has any right to be. If you don’t believe me, have a listen to the game’s various overworld themes for each section of the map, or the battle theme that actually slaps or the mega sad song they use in emotional scenes that really does still bring tears (I really do be like that) or, best of all, this game’s version of Battle at the Big Bridge, which I maintain is one of the most awesome tracks to come out of a video game. I mean, it’s all just so GOOD.

Yes, I know I spent the majority of this review roasting the hell out of this game while simultaneously telling you it’s one of my favourites, but what are you gonna do, I think this is the relationship most people have with this game who don’t actively hate it. It’s fun, it’s wacky, collecting the cards and battling with them is downright addictive and it has just enough signature charm to call itself a Final Fantasy title (vaguely speaking), while also containing enough wonkiness to call itself a mid-2000s DS title. I adore it, in a way that I will never play it or talk about it with anyone ever again.

Standout Moment Award: Basically any part of the game that has combat in it qualifies for today’s standout moment award. I’d say the final encounter too for just the soundtrack alone (Battle at the Big Bridge babey), but also because, you know, I actually quite enjoy air hockey.

Standout Character Award: Irma. Sure, none of the characters in this game are exactly nuanced to hell, but something about Irma’s tragic backstory and her eventual redemption arc just did something for me as a kid. 

Tomorrow: No. 23; The birth of the most notable video game adaptation of Pinball.

[lavellane]

for the oc ask!!: 3, 6, 8: duncan. 1 and 14: nadaia. 20 for both :3c

thank you rami !

3: Post a snippet from your writing that describes your OC.

this is lifted straight from duncan’s bio but i love it so !

“growing up, the young prince was known to be very quiet, shy, and deeply introverted. issues with his immune system meant he was not often able to play outside with the other children of the court, so he spent most of this time indoors, amusing himself with reading, music and chess. he proved himself to be exceptionally intelligent and observant at a young age, excelling at mental strategy games and reading highly advanced literature far above his peer’s reading level. despite struggling with public speaking and the physical expectations of being a king, duncan showed a remarkable eye for politics, and was able to offer his mother and father reliable counsel by the age of twelve.”

6: Describe your OC’s love life.

duncan is in a relationship with ashara’s daughter, nadaia ! they’re relationship is kinda similar to duncan’s parents though (ella and alistair) in that its very…… chill. they’re both experienced adults so it’s less intense than some relationships, but they care for each other dearly and duncan loved her enough to give up becoming king for her ! thats love babey ! anyway they are both easygoing and clever, and they respect each other a lot as experts in their own fields, and duncan especially acts as a massive cheerleader for nadaia’s successes

8: Describe one of your OC’s bad habits.

duncan has a dependency on pain killers - although this is only semi canon because i havent found any lore about addictive substances other than lyrium but. duncan has always lived with chronic pain so this has been his way of coping/managing his pain without having to ask for help, because he has a lot of guilt surrounding the subject.

1: List five basic facts about your OC.

nadaia is super passionate about the deep roads/lyrium/the titans and has spent years investigating and researching all the strangeness surrounding that topic

nadaia lived in orzammer for about two years with the legion of the dead, who agreed to protect her while she studied the deep roads, in exchange for her services as a healer

while there, she obviousl befriended the legion and while they refused to put her at risk by having her help them fight darkspawn, they did teach her how to defend herself. nadaia never did too well with a sword, but she’s excellent at hand to hand combat 

nadaia loves tattoos, and is COVERED in them. they are a bit of a mix of orzammer style mixed with her own dalish ancestry (although she doesnt consider herself dalish, she still likes to respect her roots) and then just… stuff she likes lmao . she’s very big on dumb meaningless tattoos that she just thinks are Neat u kno

nadaia legally changed her name when she came of age from lavellan to da’eralen. the reasoning was that she had never known anyone in the lavellan clan and felt no connection with the name, and felt having a fresh start would be the best thing for her. so she still loves her parent/s deeply, she now goes by da’eralen which (very roughly) means child with little stories.

14: What is one of your OC’s secrets?

hmm depending on how da4 goes, her biological father (solas oof) may potentially be a closely guarded secret between her and her mother.  but if its not neccesary for it to be a secret, she still has scene a LOT of terrifying things in the deep roads, and i hc has learnt things about the titans that she is too scared to share with anyone. 

20: Post a picture or gif that describes your OC.

duncan rehrefuihrfeui

and nadaia