#xibalba game

[alertachiapas]

La nueva variante de Covid que predomina: Xibalbá

En la mayoría de los contagios del sureste mexicano ‘Xibalbá’ predomina; se trata de una mutación de Omicrón, igual que la conocida como ‘Perro del infierno’.

En la mayoría de los contagios del sureste mexicano ‘Xibalbá’ predomina; se trata de una mutación de Omicrón, igual que la conocida como ‘Perro del infierno’. Esta variante es la que domina actualmente el territorio de la Península de Yucatán, sin embargo ha presentado casos en el sureste del País. La variante conocida como Perro del Infierno ha presentado casos en Ciudad de México, Yucatán,…

[darabeatha]

/ It's late here but I still can't go to sleep because the mosquito trapped in my room is still here and whenever I see it, it disappears but it keeps taunting me and coming back and I can never catch it

[quil12]

I have been running through the Abandoned Factory in P2 IS for like 4 hours now - not because I'm trying to find a specific demon - but because I'm trying to contact all the demons in the game with Jun and Taysuya to find out which of them are homophobic

[gameboymania]

[heartsong1994]

Bringing back so much nostalgia, thank you, Jorge R. Gutierrez.

PERFECTO

Miren me gusto mucho esta parte que lo hice un gif

[whencyclopedia]

The Ball Game of Mesoamerica

The sport known simply as the Ball Game was played by all the major Mesoamerican civilizations and the impressive stone courts became a feature of many cities. More than just a game, it could have a religious significance and featured in episodes of mythology. Contests even supplied candidates for human sacrifice and became literally a game of life or death.

Origins

The game was invented sometime in the Preclassical Period (2500-100 BCE), probably by the Olmec, and became a common Mesoamerican-wide feature of the urban landscape by the Classical Period (300-900 CE). Eventually, the game was even exported to other cultures in North America and the Caribbean.

In Mesoamerican mythology the game is an important element in the story of the Maya gods Hun Hunahpú and Vucub Hunahpú. The pair annoyed the gods of the underworld with their noisy playing and the two brothers were tricked into descending into Xibalba (the underworld) where they were challenged to a ball game. Losing the game, Hun Hunahpús had his head cut off; a foretaste of what would become common practice for players unfortunate enough to lose a game.

In another legend, a famous ball game was held at the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan between the Aztec king Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (r. 1502-1520 CE) and the king of Texcoco. The latter had predicted that Motecuhzoma's kingdom would fall and the game was set-up to establish the truth of this bold prediction. Motecuhzoma lost the game and did, of course, lose his kingdom at the hands of the invaders from the Old World. The story also supports the idea that the ball game was sometimes used for the purposes of divination.

Continue reading...

[dyvimwhitehart]

i will actually never be over the narrative importance of azteca. yes it’s the first time the wizard fails, but that failure results in the destruction of an entire world, which means the death of most of its denizens and a great deal of its culture. and the fact that it’s predated by worlds like dragonspyre and celestia, specifically

azteca was less accessible to the rest of the spiral (in comparison to worlds like wizard city, marleybone, zafaria, etc) already. by the time the yw reaches it, they’ve already been to their share of since-destroyed worlds. they are, however, always seeing the aftermath of the destruction

they’ve wandered around the destroyed academy in dragonspyre and seen the lava moats in the streets and talked to the ghosts, all those things coming together to slowly paint a picture of what was once a functioning society. and then the real tragedy of that, i’d argue, hits full-force in the hall of time when the yw gets to step into and witness the old dragonspyre in all its beauty and greenery. i think this has to be a really pivotal moment for the yw because old dragonspyre looks somewhat like wizard city. they’re a child that’s realizing, if i DONT succeed in beating malistaire, current dragonspyre is what my world and all the worlds i’ve visited since will become. and they DO succeed!

and then they are sent to celestia, another mostly ruined world. it’s brighter than dragonspyre, but there’s a hell of a lot more activity, and the overall tone is much different. however, the wizard has been introduced to destruction in dragonspyre and has had their worldview of places like that forever changed. they know what was at stake and what has since been lost. it’s a great way to start the second arc that i think can pair really well with the young wizard’s growth to young adulthood. this is where morganthe is introduced, and the next chase begins, and once again— they know what they have to do and the consequences of what happens if they don’t succeed

but there’s just absolutely no way they can see azteca’s destruction coming. even if xibalba is an ever persistent presence, even if ruin has been foretold— the wizard has never lost! morganthe plays them like w fiddle! and azteca is the first destroyed world they spend a long time in prior to its destruction. they get to know it’s citizens, they spend time in some of the most beautiful and lush locations in the game, they immerse themselves in aztecan culture and practices. they grow to care about this place before it’s all wiped away so that, when it is, stepping into the ruined zocalo doesn’t feel the same as stepping into the ruined basilica or the celestian base camp. it has to hurt so much more, feel so much heavier, like a personal loss rather than just a mission loss

and to go to khrysalis right after that? to immediately have to rally the burrowers and the mantises? to walk around a world that was thought to be lost, but is still clinging on, and have to do that all over again????? man

[darklinaforever]

Here is the first list of ships that may most likely interest you if you are a fan of Darklina ! Essentially it's about enemies to lover, or a dynamic reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast !

▪︎ Merlin & Morgana. (Mergana) | Show, Merlin BBC. [Tragical Ending]

▪︎ Halbrand / Sauron & Galadriel. (Haladriel / Saurondriel) | Show, The Rings of Power. [In progress]

▪︎ Rey & Kylo Ren / Ben Solo. (Reylo) | Star Wars, postlogy.

▪︎ Osha & Qimir. (Oshamir) | Star Wars Show, The Acolyte.

▪︎ Dracula & Mina. (Dracmina) | Movie, Dracula 1992. [Tragical Ending]

▪︎ Sarah & Jareth. (Sareth) | Movie, Labyrinth 1986. [Open Ending ?]

▪︎ Dongfang Qingcang & Xiao Lanhua / Orchid. | CDrama, Love Between Fairy and Devil. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Xiang Liu & Xiao Yao. | CDrama, Lost You Forever. / Book, by Tong Hua. [Tragical Ending]

▪︎ Tantai Jin & Li Susu. | CDrama, Till the End of the Moon. [Open Ending] / Black Moonlight is Guaranteed a Bad Ending Script, by Teng Luo Wei Ji. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Erik & Christine. (Erikstine) | Le fantôme de l'opéra, by Gaston Leroux. / Phantom, by Susan Kay. / The Phantom of the Opera, 25th anniversary, at the Royal Albert Hall, by Andrew Lloyd Webber. [Tragical Ending]

▪︎ Raistlin & Crysania. | Trilogy, The Legends, from Dragonlance universe, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. / Musicals. [Tragical ending]

▪︎ Warner & Juliette. (Warnette) | Book series, Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Julian & Jenny. | Trilogy, Forbidden game, by L.J Smith. [Tragical ending / Open Ending]

▪︎ Addie & Luc. | Book, The Invisible life of Addie Larue, by V. E. Schwab. [Open Ending]

▪︎ Vasya & Morozko. | Winternight trilogy, by Katherine Arden. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Marya Morevna & Koschei. | Book, Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente. [Open Ending]

▪︎ Kasta & Zahru. (Kastaru) | Trilogy, The Kinder Poison, by Natalie Mae. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Jude & Cardan. (Jurdan) | Trilogy, Folk of the Air, by Holly Black. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Corien & Rielle. (Corielle) | The Empirium trilogy, by Claire Legrand. [Tragical ending]

▪︎ Ruhn & Lidia. (Ruhnlidia / Daynight) | Trilogy, Crescent City, by Sarah J. Mass. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Feyre & Rhysand. (Feysand) | Book series, ACOTAR, by Sarah J. Maas. [Happy Ending / In progress]

▪︎ Elain & Azriel. (Elriel) | Book series, ACOTAR, by Sarah J. Maas. [In progress]

▪︎ Emilia & Dorian. | French book series, Vila Emilia, by Elodie Faiderbe. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Laila & Darius. | Trilogy, When the Stars Alight, by Camilla Andrew. [In progress]

▪︎ Jane Eyre & Mr Rochester. | Book, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronté. / Show BBC, 2006. / Movie, 2011. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Will & James. | Trilogy, Dark Rise, by C.S. Pacat. [In progress]

▪︎ Laurent & Damen. (Lamen) | Trilogy, Captive Prince, by C.S. Pacat. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Evangeline & Jacks. (Evajacks) | Trilogy, Once Upon a Broken Heart, by Stephanie Garber. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Agnieszka & Sarkan. | Book, Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Auren & Rip / Slade. | Book series, The Plated Prisoner, by Raven Kennedy. [In progress]

▪︎ Ash & Mary-Lynnette. | Book series, Night World, volume 2 : Daughters of Darkness, by L.J Smith. [Hapoy Ending / In progress]

▪︎ Hades & Persephone. (Persades) | Webtoon, Lore Olympus, de Rachel Smythe. [In progress] / Greek mythology.

▪︎ Xibalba & La Muerte. (Xibamuerte) | Animation movie, The Book of Life. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Beauty and the Beast. | Fairy Tale. / Animation Movie Disney. / Movie, Jean Cocteau 1946. / Show, Once Upon a Time. [Happy Ending]

▪︎ Chise & Elias. | Anime, Mahou Tsukai no Yome, 2017. / Manga, The Ancient Magus Bride, by Kore Yamazaki. [In progress]

[tarjapearce]

Hear me out the book of life x bbg miguel 😍 it could either be like La muerte reader and xibalba Miguel and if that’s to ooc for Miguel then Manolo Miguel and Maria reader🙏 I feel like it’s a little ooc either way but PLSSS😞🙏

🤭 It's fine dear. I think, Miguel would do a great job as El Catrin, I feel his personality is more inclined to go with it, and the reader, well, Xibalba. Mischievous, kinda tricky but still so so loving and a softie for him :')

No proofread, just randomness ahead

"Why would I want to rule the Land of the Forgotten?" Black wings tucked behind your back as you stared at Miguel. Red eyes blinked unamused at you.

"Why can't we share? I could do a pretty good job too."

"Mi cielo, Who would watch over the land? You have the talent for it."

"You're just saying that cause you don't wanna share. The Land of the Forgotten is boring! With capital B! Nothing ever happens. It's so depressing all the time. No colors, nothing!"

"It's your realm. You're there cause you cheated on a wager." His finger flickered your nose.

You groaned in annoyance. Of course you would try and ask but to no avail. His decision absolute.

"Let's make a wager then." Smirking you planted yourself before him, his nose flared softly but waited for you to finish.

"A wager?"

"Yes. A wager . See those two boys there? They're always fighting for that girl's attention. And you and I know that only one of them will come out victorious."

"And?" His eyebrow quirqued.

"If my boy wins, I'll have your land. If the other boy wins?-"

"You'll stop meddling with the affairs of men" He caressed your cheek before disappearing.

"But it's the only fun I have left, my dear! You scared of not winning?" Your fingers walked over his chest and smirked.

-----

The wager was on. He had blessed the boy he rooted for with a pure heart, but you on the other hand had given the little jerk of a kid, an ominously beautiful looking black and green medal. The Eternal Life Medal. Whoever wielded it could be no harmed not killed. Your plan had been on a roll without any signs of stopping. Now everything you had to do was wait.

----

The two boys turned into men, both persuing their passions. Yours turned into a respectable and famous soldier that always ended up living to tell the tale thanks to his magic medal none knew about. And Miguel's boy had grown into a famous bullfighter. Even though both were different the love they had for the girl, now a lovely looking woman, remained the same.

But you had seen the hesitation in Miguel's part of the bet. Despite him being a famous matador, he didn't wish to inflict any more pain in the poor animal. He wanted to sing.

The woman seemed impressed by his act of mercy. You would have to step up in your game if you wanted the Land of The Remembered.

----

A two headed sneak had bitten Miguel's boy, he had gladly took his role among the dead if that meant to rescue his beloved.

A rare sight among the perverse humans. A pure heart. Of course it was cheating, but it'd make you one step closer to be the ruler of such wonderful and colorful land.

---

Your name echoed through your old realm as Miguel roared, full of anger. He had discovered what you had done.

"Repugnante hija de burro leproso! Hiciste trampa. Otra vez!" ( You misbegotten daughter of leprous donkey. You cheated. Again!)

"I did not do such thing!"

His boy was there, facing you, needing answers. And so was Miguel.

---

You had put Jim through his worst fears, a maze that somehow he was able to decipher, and the final test. El Toro. (The Bull)

A manifestation of every single bull slayed by his ancestors.

-

Miguel's boy had won the wager. You were to return to your realm.

"I believe you've won the wager again mi amor. Just like my heart, all over again."

His eyes softened and a bony finger was brought to your chin.

"I'm really sorry my love. Would you ever forgive me?"

"I do"

He pulled you closer to give you a deep kiss as the skies exploded in colors.

-----

(Love this movie btw 🥹❤️)

[neathyingenue]

thanks to @the-avaricious-meddler's journal i can now explain just a few reasons WHY this es is so bad!!! brought to you by my not-even-that-extensive knowledge of maya history (my dad is central american, i majored in spanish, and i spent a semester in mexico)--

(1) the jaguar is not a villain just because it's a carnivore! it's a symbol of power and beauty made even more poignant for indigenous people in the wake of the conquista!

(2) the lords of xibalba weren't seen as these great guys! in fact, the popol vuh, the mayan creation myth, features the heroes defeating the lords of death (xibalba) in a ball game!

(3) yes, there were ritual killings in the pre-conquista americas, but they were way rarer than colonial history would have you think. also like literally every culture has ritual killings, it doesn't make a culture inherently violent

(4) holy shit the idea of a deferential indigenous leader who turns out to want your blood is so pervasive in racist conquistador accounts (if you haven't read hernan cortes's journals, don't, they are disgusting) holy shit

tl;dr the es puts its own assumptions onto maya culture! like thinking jaguar=scary=bad, or existence of underworld gods=people worship those gods=people worship death=people are bloodthirsty, or colonial-era accounts of indigenous people=how it actually was back then. at best that's ethnocentric, at worst, it's white supremacist!!

(anyway i'm a sensitivity reader on the side so failbetter hmu if you want to do BETTER and not FAIL (ba doom shh) )

[gabbbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

Ways i think Anazareth would curse the other Nightmares, if they ever get on her nerves

+some small headcanons here and there

Xezbet Xerbeth: He gets transformed into a soul for 12 hours. You are what you eat.

Drugia Fleuretty: She has to experience a nightmare, specifically one that she designed. Creator tormented by creation

Barbatos Barrabam: No eating Durian for a week, self explanatory

Exael Lanithro: Anazareth hasn’t done anything to him yet, but if he did ever get on her nerves somehow—She’d expose his secret love for perfume and jewelry making to the underworld.

Abducius Morail: Anazareth summons a comically large magnet. You know the rest

Lilith Lilitu Lilit: Stealing her stuff, appearance swapping, putting her on fire for a few hours, Reading her diary publicly, Period Cramps transfer beam, basically anything that can (temporarily) screw Lilith up, Anazareth will do.

Chaugnar Faugn: nothing, she’s on good terms with him

Nyogtha Z’mog: same as last entry

Zoth Ommog: Period Cramps transfer beam.

Shub: No causing famine for 12 hours. She’d probably curse Shub simply for stealing and eating her stuff

Yog Sothoth: He has to wear a pink pretty princess dress for a week. And he has to play with Quachil every day

Quachil Uttaus: Timeout corner for 5 minutes, works like a charm

Yan Luo Wang Diyu: literally nothing. If she ever dared to curse or even wrong the princess she’d be dead and gone

Orcus Dis Pater: same as Yan Luo, because Yan Luo would exterminate anyone who dares hurt her husband

Ishtar Ereskigal: Anazareth performs a ritual to summon Animal + Pest Control in Ishtar’s room when she isn’t home

Teutates Taranis: Anazareth cuts his hair. Specifically into a bowl cut

Ah Puch Xibalba: Period Cramps transfer beam.

Dagda Crom Cruach: Anazareth doesn’t really have an issue with this guy ever, but simply for fun, she’d probably just turn the Soul Scarecrow…into a Soul Scarecrow in a box. Jack in the Box treatment. Either that or give him a proper pair of legs for a certain amount of time (i hc him having a single stick for a leg)

Izanami Yomi: Nothing yet, but if she ever tries anything with her, she’ll probably case a spell to (temporarily) deform Izanami’s face, just to give her a taste of her own medicine

(Evil) Chester: “Who?”

The Nightmare Clown: Period Cramps transfer beam + she has to automatically win the next 5 games he plays against her in

Mask Girl: It’s messy…The 3-times thing is actually the curse itself. Basically, the 3-times girl was saying some stuff about Anazareth, and Anazareth caught word of it through one of the other neighbors, so she eternally cursed the poor soul by not being able to enter ANYWHERE, unless they’re let in 3 exact times. All of this, just because she was talking bad about Ana…

[darabeatha]

    ❝ phh............ ❞

[eggbert9000-blog]

My Thoughts on Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSX)

I Think my introduction to the Persona series is quite unique compared to other people. Like many I heard about the series from the modern trilogy (3, 4, 5), The first Persona game I had tried was 4 when Golden was released on Steam, but I never completed it at the time.

(I since have completed 4 by the way, I thought it was fantastic!)

However for whatever reason Persona came back onto my radar around early this year right off the heels of me completing Final Fantasy VIII for the first time, gaining a new appreciation for underrated JRPG's. That's when I thought to myself "why does everyone talk about Persona's 3, 4 and 5, But not 1 or 2?" So I did a little digging and found that the Persona 2 Duology had developed a sort of "cult classic" feel to it and that it had one of the best stories in the whole Megaten franchise. (I can't attest to that as I have only delved into the Persona side of the series as of now, but the rest of the series is now on my list of things to complete). I also learnt that the PSP version of Innocent Sin botched the difficulty of the original PSX version, so that's why I decided to play through the PSX version as my first Persona game.

So what did I think?

Overall I thought it was fantastic! However I have some problems with it. So let's start with that.

Demon Negotiation

This was one of the things I was most excited about going into the game, and I think it does a good job at showcasing the characters personality. However the amount of options that the game gives you is overwhelming and makes you feel like you are just guessing when you are not using a guide for contacts, which is what I ended up doing because I got too frustrated with contacting.

(4 options per character, including pairing them up... oh man...)

However I found ways of working around it. If I ever wanted Tarot cards I would end up going to the Abandoned Factory, making a contract with a demon, and then farm Free Tarot from them to use them on whatever personas I wanted. I also ended up using the Prime and Ultimate personas often as they were pretty good while not requiring any fusing.

Overall Slowness

There were many times in the game when I thought that the game felt sluggish. One of them involves the encounter rate. Now listen, I'm a little crazy and I would say I love random encounters in JRPG's and I don't even care about high encounter rates, which this game notoriously has (even though I don't think its that bad), but in the PSX version there is this noticeable pause between getting the encounter and the game putting you into the transition, which threw me off a couple times, but I got used to it. What really bothered me was the lack of a minimap in the PSX version, which as a first time Megaten-er, gave me a sort of hard time. Very often I would have to pull up the map, which took a second or so, but it got annoying quick. What I find particularly confusing in hindsight was that the previous game, Revelations: Persona, had a minimap, so I think its a bit strange that they decided that they didn't need one for the sequel.

(This was also one of those things that was fixed in the PSP version, but I think the PSX version is still worth playing over it, but thats a discussion for another time).

There are also moments in the game that I felt dragged a little bit. Like around the middle of the game after Aoba Park where you go to defuse the bombs around Sumaru in places like Smile Hirasaka and GOLD that I didn't find super interesting. Or places like Xibalba where it just feels like its going on forever. It felt like I was just going through the motions.

Aaaand thats about all the problems I had with it.

"Wait that's all that you had problems with?"

Yup! I think this is one of my favorite RPG's that I have played in recent memory. It's time to talk about what I loved.

The Setting

This is something I think the original Persona trilogy does extremely well, These games have some of my favorite dungeons in any RPG i've ever played, especially the Persona 2 Duology. It reminds me a lot of the MOTHER series in the way that the dungeons are (mostly) grounded in reality with the obvious exceptions. Like one moment you are running around the club and the next you are trying to save kids in an Aerospace Museum. Then you are running up Mt. Katasumuri in the deep forest. Or you are exploring the aforementioned Abandoned Factory with some of the most kickass music ever heard in a video game. Sumaru City as a whole is one of my favorite settings in a videogame.

The Music and Tone

The music in this game is incredible, 'nuff said. Every dungeon I entered I was excited to hear what banger was about to come on and I was treated almost every single time. Sometimes the music is a jamfest like with the Abandoned Factory or Smile Hirasaka. Or sometimes is melancholic and sombre like Mt. Iwato or Aoba Park.

I think the music represents the tone/atmosphere of the game incredibly well. Dark, but with plenty of cool or humorous moments to not make it completely depressing.

Now I don't think that the story of Innocent Sin is the "darkest best story in the whole francise" as many try and sell it to be. But they would be correct in the fact that Innocent Sin definitely has Dark or Sad undertones that make it one of the most emotionally investing stories. Oh I should probably talk about what I thought of the story...

The Story

It's really good, like it was one of the main driving forces as to why I wanted to complete the game. I won't go into spoilers here but all I will say is that I loved the way the game balanced out the serious stuff with a lot of humorous things. The concept of rumors becoming real is such a cool idea and I think they knocked it out of the park, starting with relatively small stuff like "I heard this ramen shop sells weapons", and having it escalate to something being a whole threat to the world, made it really investing.

The characters too, are fantastic. They all feel like family and I couldn't help but care about each and every single one of them. They all have such great chemistry and I loved having them as the party.

One character I really fell in love with was Tatsuya himself, because unlike other silent protagonists like him, he feels like an actual persona and not someone you are just supposed to self-insert yourself into. He has his own personality and past, you learn throughout the story how much he cares about his friends and his determination to protect them all, evident through how he carries his zippo lighter everywhere, which I wont mention the lore significance of. And all of this is not even including his involment in Eternal Punishment where he really gets his time to shine, but this review isn't about Eternal Punishment so lets leave it at that.

Eikichi is a lovable guy and I love his personality (and his weapon is badass too), same with Lisa where I felt her whole romance with Tatsuya was done very well in that it dosen't get in the way of her main personality, I really liked her chemistry with Eikichi.

Maya is a person who I really ended up caring for and I love how she acted as the big sister or leader of the group often, Without going into too much detail, this group really loves Maya and that connection is something I really enjoyed and it made me care about Maya a lot as well.

I also want to use this opportunity to talk about something that I think the Original Persona Trilogy does that's cool in hindsight. They all feel really connected, it's really cool how Yukino from Persona 1 is just a party member again and you get to see how she grew, and just being able to see the P1 cast around Sumaru and how they are doing in life. It makes the world feel lived in, and like every game and the stories in them matter. And that world building is something that I feel like is sadly lacking in the later entries.

Overall this game is worth playing for the characters and story alone.

CUSTOMIZATION!!!!

This will be the last thing I talk about to keep things a little short but I'm just going to say that the customization in this game is some of the most fun things about it.

The fact that everybody can change their personas is MASSIVE and SO MUCH FUN.

I often found myself thinking "OH! If i fuse that guy I could do THAT fusion spell, or I could get THAT spell that would be really good"

And the fact that they can swap personas ON THE FLY gives me a customization rush that I haven't felt since playing with Final Fantasy VI's Espers or Final Fantasy V's Jobs.

I could swap a character from being a healer to damage dealer or debuffer and there was no limit to how I could do it. It was fantastic.

And Im gonna use this oppertunity to talk about the combat because in the PSX version I find that it's really smooth and fun to do once you get the hang of it.

And Fusion Spells are such a cool mechanic, it reminds me a lot of the Dual and Triple Tech's in Chrono Trigger and I was all for it!

And of course, shoutouts to Nova Kaiser being one of the coolest spells in and RPG, its so satisfying to use.

Conclusions

I love this game, and I couldn't think of a better way to be introduced to the series. After I beat Innocent Sin I immediatley went and beat Eternal Punishment, and then Persona 1 right after that.

The Original Trilogy is something that I think deserves to be remembered and praised, as they are magnificent games that I think unfortunatley are not as accessable to a general audience.

But I implore to whoever cared enough to read this to give it a shot.

I do think that the PSX version of Innocent Sin is the best because the PSP's botched difficulty is not the only problem I have with the port. The menus feel awful to go through, and I feel like Atlus knew that too and fixed it with Eternal Punishment PSP and made it more like the PSX menus. But at the end of the day IS PSP has a better translation, more quality of life, new bonus content and remastered music which is also pretty good, so whatever version you prefer is the best version.

So Please give Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and the rest of the Original Trilogy a shot, you might find a gem and a new incredible JRPG that you never knew you would like just like I have.

[cetaceanhandiwork]

I saw a comment on the Fallen London wiki, where someone wondered whether it would be possible to "actually" revive/fix Mr Candles, as opposed to SMEN's mission to the High Wilderness which (as far as I can tell, having never Knocked myself) settles for mourning or avenging him.

My reaction was "well, this is the Neath, and the whole point of the Neath is to be a refuge for the audacious and the impossible, right? So there should be some way to do it, even if it's not in the game."

But then that got me thinking... how would you do it, exactly?

Part One: Body

First off, the requirements to revive the dead, even in the Neath, are apparently pretty heavy. Cups manages it at the end of Nemesis, with a ritual requiring Master's Blood, a bathtub full of Hesperidian Cider, a number of specially-prepared candles, and the remains of the deceased.

Of these four, the first two are obtainable in-game. Eye-wateringly expensive (fun fact: a bathtub is seven firkins), but still.

The third is also obtainable... at a cost. There's probably a reason that the Seeking Road, despite being as misaimed as it is, tries to spell Mr Candles's name in candles.

The fourth... well. SMEN ignores it, except at the very beginning. But the physical remains of Mr Candles apparently still exist. "IT IS NORTH UNDER GRANITE." Probably in Xibalba.

But there's a problem with the Cups Process: it can't restore the mind. In Nemesis, this was an unfixable problem. But for Mr Candles... its mind survives, and we know where to get it.

Part Two: Mind

The Mr Eaten of SMEN vascillates between two agendas: revenge and grief. Why? My theory is that there are two Mr Eatens in the Neath, each an incomplete remnant of the original Mr Candles. We know that one of them is imprinted in the lacre of the Bazaar. That would be the grieving one; aside from the obvious practicalities of what can and can't be described in the language of grief, we know that when you "Accept the Name" from the Eaten Mr Sacks, your Question is immediately shifted to "What is Forgotten" even if you previously set it to "What is Due".

Then where is the Mr Eaten of revenge? Well, where was Mr Candles most likely to leave a part of itself behind? I think the obvious answer is Parabola. It's a place where even the Masters are vulnerable, and if some impression of him didn't remain there, then we wouldn't have dreams of Death by Water. But this Eaten has been warped, too. The Strange Dreams of London interact with each other, after all, and none more than those of Storm. Storm is the other dream-remnant who dreams of going NORTH, and has his own reasons to want to pass the gate of Avid Horizon and bring down a reckoning upon the whole Neath and its lawlessness. When the Bag a Legend protagonist crafts the hungry knife to kill Mr Veils in retribution, they even use Storm's thunderbolt to do it. Some part of Storm has rubbed off on the Parabolan Mr Eaten, I think, and caused it to hyperfixate on the plan of revenge at any cost.

Part Three: Putting the Pieces Together

So now we've found the disembodied mind that the Cups Process cannot, on its own, rebuild. But how do we safely reunite those minds with their body?

If the grieving remnant is imprinted in lacre, then it can be read out of lacre. It's Correspondence, albeit a different dialect written with a different orthography. A sufficiently dedicated Correspondent could "accept the heart and lights" of the Eaten Mr Sacks and then transcribe them. And if there is a concern that "lacre cannot bury the law", then perhaps they should get the help of a Steward, whose whole craft centers around burying the Law, to enact that "no forgotten victim shall be forgotten" while the work gets done.

As for Parabola's Mr Eaten, well, the protagonist has successfully visited the dreams of dead Masters before. Get someone good enough at Glasswork to find the center of the dream. Speak the Name, to grab the attention of the dreamer, and then transport it in a Mirrorcatch Box; the endgame quests of Sunless Sea have shown us that this is a convenient way to contain and transport Parabolans who could not survive in the Neath.

With this, all that remains is to transfer these thoughts into the newly resuccitated Mr Candles. Irrigo is the obvious tool for this; we know that it can lubricate thoughts and memories, allowing them to flow freely from one person to another.

But using the Nadir itself for this purpose would be too dangerous. We'd risk permanently losing the precious canoptic jars which we'd worked so hard to recover. Instead, we need someone skilled with precision application of irrigo, of the "inks of undernight", to perform the transplant. We need Millicent Clathermont's remnant... whom, if we have St Eruzile's Candle, should already be present within us.

And what about the most fundamental obstacle? The notion, put forward by the authors themselves, that there is no longer such things as a Mr Candles, just an absence where a Mr Candles should be?

The Seeking Road has given us the solution to that, as well. The process for filling that void appears every time someone finishes St Gawain's service. St Gawain's Candle is, above all else, an emptiness in the shape of a person, filled with glory and coaxed back to life.

Perhaps it's presence as the final candle of the Seekers is no coincidence either.

In Conclusion

So this is the shopping list.

Mr Requiem, transcribed from lacre into Correspondence

Mr Reckoning, contained in a Mirrorcatch Box by Glasswork

The Inks of the Undernight, and a skilled hand at them, to return the two remnants of Mr Candles's mind to its body

The blood of a living Curator, for the Cups Process

Seven firkins of Hesperidian Cider (or another highly concentrated medium of the Mountain of Light's vitality) for the Cups Process

A number of specially-prepared candles, for the Cups Process

The physical remains of Mr Candles, NORTH UNDER GRANITE

Much of this is familiar. Much of this is stuff that SMEN gives you, for reasons it never deigns to explain before it sends you off to Avid Horizon to ruin everything.

Perhaps this was always the plan, originally. Perhaps Mr Candles, forseeing (as Winking Isle implies) the betrayal, prepared the Seeking Road as a means of resurrection, and it only got bent out of shape later. Perhaps by some ineffective Tragedy Procedure which smudged the Seeking Road but failed to erase it, or perhaps by some Mithridatic scheme of Nicator (who entire stake in the matter, as a player for White, is by his own admission “to bring light to the Neath”), or perhaps just by the Eatens’ tug-of-war between revenge and regret accidentally yanking the path past Xibalba and through the Gate.

It'll probably never be a part of the game. But in the realm of fanfic... the realm of "what might be possible"... who knows?

[vitamimesea]

(spoilers) P2 Eternal Punishment Ending thoughts...

Finished watching a playthrough of Eternal punishment yesterday and I have so many thoughts about that ending. What happened to Tatsuya after he left? What about the people in the ruined world??

I couldn’t stop thinking about them last night so i wrote my headcanons on how both universes goes on after the ending. 

Eternal Punishment's timeline continues to P3, P4, and P5 (since the P2 gang gets a brief mention in P3’s easter egg TV show it is technically canon to the mainstream Persona games)

EP Maya and the adult gang are the only ones left in their timeline who know of the existence of the Other Side. They have to shoulder the burden of not even dropping any hints about it to the Tatsuya, Lisa, Eikichi and Jun of their universe :”)

Only Maya, Eikichi, Lisa and Jun’s souls transferred and merged to their bodies in the EP universe. This can explain why Katsuya, Baofu and Ulala couldn’t remember any events of IS. 

Now what about the P1 gang? They exist separately from the EP universe’s version of themselves (and are still Persona users except Yukino because she gave her persona to Jun). Katsuya, Baofu and Ulala also still exist in the IS universe (Remember how Tatsuya refers to EP Katsuya as ‘not his brother’?). I’ve read several headcanons that Tatsuya becomes completely alone after returning to the IS timeline but that fate is just too cruel so let him have some company ;_;

And what about Naoya?? I’d like to believe that he survived and got to Sumaru just in time to help his friends with battling the Last Battalion. 

Tatsuya’s decision to return to his timeline mostly stemmed from guilt. He blames himself for ‘helping’ to destroy it, and the fact that the people he knew still existed in his world, so he couldn’t just leave them there. 

After Tatsuya returns to his ruined world, he gathers the party of P1 and this universe’s Katsuya, Ulala and Baofu and find a way to rebuild society. They make a team kinda similar to SEES with Tatsuya as the leader. Demons still roam the city (unfortunately) so it’s also the team’s task to fight them. 

Philemon still watches over the world and assists the team. The velvet room and the Collective Unconscious also exists in this world and is perhaps the only connection to the EP side.

Rumors still hold power in Sumaru City and Xibalba can still make thoughts into reality, and its power is utilized by the team to help the city sustain itself.

They’re trying to find a way to restart the Earth’s rotation and turn the planet back to normal so they can return back to the surface. (So it’s pretty much like Skyward Sword)

[malistaire]

idk if this is a controversial take but i don't like how some malistaire fans vehemently hate morganthe "but she caused a mass murder genocide" i get that's horrible! but guess who was on xibalba as her right hand man. and guess who nearly caused mass murder genocide trying to revive a loved one. no one or their actions are 100% innocent here!! morganthe was in, the game's own words GROOMED to become the shadow queen by the spider magi and malistaire in his undead form was manipulated by her and was generally delusional from sheer grief. i hate to break it to you but both characters have interesting backgrounds and have big flaws and ughhhhhh i could go on about this forever. everyone's problematic. they're villains. idk what else to tell you. god forbid a woman do over the top villainous things.