#you can never leave the magic

[synthsays]

<30

Back in November of 2021, I started writing all about Fraggle Rock. This book is filled with art, a couple of my favorite Fraggle Rock quotes, and a lot of writing. I have finally finished it tonight, after almost two years. I dedicated this book to Jim Henson, his performers and all who have worked on his numerous projects. They made my childhood truly remarkable.

Fraggle Rock will always be my favorite Jim Henson production. Like Madame Trash Heap said, “You can’t leave the magic.”

[electoons]

I love the college of winterhold. everyone there is casually deranged and there's like an alarming number of students and staff who threaten you immediately when they meet you. it's always one of the first questlines I do. which makes it even funnier when you get made the arch-mage of the college. I'm level 12 and got through this questline knowing exactly 3 spells. what do you mean you want me to lead the college. this school CANNOT be an accredited institution

[justaz]

arthur (prince of camelot) still has to study under a tutor bc yknow uther wants him to be very intelligent before becoming king or something bc its super important idk idc anyways merlin is doing chores in his chambers while arthur is squinting at a book and merlin eventually caves and asks him what he’s reading and arthur gruffly explains that its a collection of stories from greece that make absolutely no sense so merlin asks him to read them outloud to him. arthur of course teases him and calls him an idiot and asks how he could possibly help but does as he’s asked and reads the stories to merlin as he does his chores. merlin (being crushed under the weight of destiny and tormented by the prophecies that kilgharrah spews) understands the stories almost immediately and gets all excited and starts rambling about them with arthur. arthur is glad to have someone who understands so he can give something that reflects a hint of understanding to his tutor who accepts it and moves onto the next unit of education.

the thing is, arthur finds more stories in camelot’s library and brings them up to his room to read them aloud to merlin under the guise of completing his studies but really he just wants to watch as merlin’s eyes gleam when he understands whats happening and listen to him ramble on and on about them bc he’s gay. the stories stick with merlin though and he realizes that they’re cautionary tales, that the heroes who were told too much of their future doomed themself to fulfill them - that them fighting the prophecies led to their completion. merlin takes it to heart and gives a big “fuck you” to kilgharrah before forging his own fate and helping morgana with her magic and handing out an olive branch to mordred and now everyone can live happily and peacefully in an albion teeming with magic.

[wonderlandhour]

Ok, call me crazy, but I have a theory. And it might not necessarily be a theory, maybe just an observance, but I noticed something with Malleus Overblot.

Warning - Spoilers for Book 7

So as we all know, the main plot point that leads up to Malleus overblotting is Lilia leaving NRC due to a loss of his magic. But over the books, I've noticed something. In Book 6 we learn that overblots are less a sudden intense outpouring of blot and negative emotion, and more like the tipping point of an amalgamation of years of buildup. I find that made a lot of sense with what I'd noticed, because with the blot gathering cut scenes, even in parts where it seems like things are going pretty well (like with Azul, Jamil, and Leona all having the upper hand until almost the very last moment), it gives a sense of dread and things taking a darker turn.

And while some of them make a lot of sense (Vil's ever growing obsession and losses to Neige or Riddle's constant fights with the main gang and his own dorm), in the instances where the blot buildup doesn't makes sense, Book 6 fave it clarity.

But I noticed that there's always a tipping point. A snap where you can see the character in question starts acting differently or odd. Riddle was violent and sudden, all of them were. But Azul was the first and most obvious example of this snap that I noticed. Leona destroys everything he worked so hard for, it cuts back to us and the tweels, and when we get back to Octanivelle, Azul's gone batshit. Literally. He snapped in every sense of the word. Riddle's snap wasn't obvious to me aside from the absurdity of Ace punching him, until I looked back. Riddle's snap was Trey going against him. Leona's was finding out he not only got found out, but got foiled. Jamil's was thinking the whole world saw his plans (which I believe was actually less just his own plans getting fucked but also a reaction to the fact that if he got found out by thr Asim's, his family might not survive their wrath but that's for another time.) Vil's snap wasn't even what lead up to him attempting to poison Neige, because he acts normal right after when Rook takes the juice. His snap is Kalim stopping him from hurting Rook with said poison. Idia's snap, I don't think was in the underworld talking to the original Ortho. I think Idia's snap was hearing Ortho call him Idy.

But Malleus? While the lead up is all about Lilia's impending leave, his loss of one of his only people. The only person who's been there his whole life. His dad. He's no where near Lilia when he snaps. He's already snapped when he shows up in the party with Silver and talks Maleficent monologuing. You can so easily spot his snap, because similar to Azul, he goes batshit. Silver notices it right away with Malleus laughing suddenly.

The begs the question, why did he snap with Silver. They were talking about Lilia, and Silver was crying, but to me. It didn't feel like that snap was about Lilia. It felt like it was about Silver. I'm one of those people who believes that Malleus and Silver are like brothers. They have a bond like that, even if they don't act on it in cannon. They're supposed to be a prince and bodyguard, those are their roles, and they're good at playing them for a reason. But that's the thing. If that's all they were, why would Silver, who doesn't show that much emotion is general, who's calm and collected, who runs out in what seems like a near panicked state to find Mallsus before Lilia leaves, start bawling his eyes out in front of Malleus. With barely a nudge?

They were both essentially raised by the same man. They are brothers through Lilia. Malleus has almost no one, he clings to Yuu because they treat him as if he were just another person. Just as Lilia does. Just as Silver often does. Sebek is the only one of the group who treats Malleus the way we could expect someone from Briar Valley might. Sebek is a whole other thing, but wouldn't Silver, who was raised by Lilia, who was taken in by his grandmother the queen, who guarded his and acted as her general, treat him similarly?

He does! We see it in events like the Glorious Masquerade, he is still Malleus's bodyguard for a reason! But if Lilia's relationship with Melanor was like Silver's with Malleus, it makes sense that their relationship would reflect that of their parents. And it has the added effect of Malleus being an orphan as well, and as far as I can tell (and an eng player trying to not get too many spoilers), Lilia takes a major role in Malleus's youth. He might not have been there constantly when he was younger, but he was there. And he was the only one who (besides probably his very busy grandmother) didnt treat Malleus as something to be feared or revered.

But what does this all have to do with Malleus snapping and overblotting? Malleus and Silver have a very specific relationship in cannon. Its professional decently often, but it's also soft. Silver will absolutely protect Malleus, but he knows that he doesn't always want or need it. He doesn't need to be observed like a hawk 24/7 if something goes sideways. (Seen in how quickly he and Sebek check on Malleus after the attack in book 6, and how calm Silver is while Sebek is panicking over a missing Malleus he wouldn't leave alone later on).

Malleus barely has to say anything to Silver before he breaks down in tears about everything with Lilia. I know as someone who be very private with what's bothering me, the only person who could get me to break down that hard and that fast would be someone I consider family. Silver so inherently trusts Malleus that he'll sob and cry in front of him with so little. He's desperate and shattering. The only person he let see that was Malleus.

Then Malleus laughs, and Silver's caught of guard. That basically proved that this is his snap, because it pretty much fully implies that this is out of character for the prince. Silver would take the laughter and the teleporation is sride. Instead he's shocked and bewildered through both of those things, confused when they show up at Diasomnia.

Malleus only goes back and quickly overblots because he'd already hit the point of overblotting. But it required blot, and he hadn't used any magic for that blot like everyone else until he got back and everyone started fighting him. He overblotted because losing Lilia killed him. But he didn't Overblot until the only other person beside the newcomer Yuu (who was also trying to figure out how to leave him) who treated him like a normal person expressed his exact feelings.

Neither brother wanted their dad to leave, but Lilia was leaving, and it broke Silver. And thus, Malleus snapped and overblotted because of Silver.

Anyways I'm not very good at articulating myself sometimes but this is just a long-winded way of saying I think malleus actually only fully overblotted because his little brother sobbed for their dad leaving them and his need for the few people he has was combined with his need to protect them (aka the sweet dreams and forcefullness of them) and Silver's breakdown was just the final straw. He kept Lilia and everyone else via their dreams safe because it meant they were all together and happy.

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

There’s no way Jayce came out of the fucking Infection Dimension perfectly healthy except for his leg (and his mental health)

He had an open wound on his back before he even went in!! and then the one we saw on his leg! (which was broken in fucking half!!) like did y’all see how thick the fog was?? He was breathing that shit in for months!! That man was probably dying!!!

[possamble]

I absolutely really need to be writing anything but random ideas while I procrastinate and this is so awful rough bc I literally wrote it on my phone in one sitting while avoiding work but

Do you see my vision. Her Nosy Bitch Syndrome would actually be good for him when they've both chilled out a little in the postcanon.

[kyouka-supremacy]

That fic from Akutagawa's pov that remarked how although Dazai had left a bomb under Chuuya's car, at least that showed he had thought about him before going, while he never cared enough to spare a thought for Akutagawa.

[ghostoffuturespast]

Honestly, getting real tired carrying and supporting other folks around here when most of them aren't returning the favor...

[fangirlforeversthings]

The goat, the King, the man,

Teldryn sero

[valeffelees]

only bad thing about being in a fandom where one of the characters canonically has wings is the painful lack of classic wingfic. where is my everything's the same but people have bird wings watford au where one day baz notices simon hasn't been grooming his wings bc of an injury to his ribs so he sits on his bed and makes a whole fuss about how "i'm not doing this to be nice, snow, your wings are just a travesty to look at" and then proceeds to carefully and lovingly tidy his feathers in drawn out silence while they both pretend grooming someone else's wings isn't one of the most intimate things you can do for another person. will this heartbreak never end

[dent-de-leon]

TAZ Ethersea my beloved.....

[supersunshine10]

Random Sorta-long Rambling abt MLP

Okay I haven't watched every episode of FiM, I do rewatch a few eps time to time, so maybe this was said somewhere I didn't know or forgot about,

But honestly was it ever really said that Twilight canonically became immortal and will outlive her friends when she became an ailicorn? I see this all the time in fanworks, I even hear ppl act like this is 100% canon when I don't remember if it was??

Tbh I haven't rewatched MYM in a long itme, but from what I remember it was extremely vauge on anything to do with specifics of Twilight and her friends in the future. Maybe I forgot but I really don't remember there being any hint that Twilight outlived her friends or was immortal specifically, for all we know they could all be dead.

And don't get me wrong I don't mind or care if it's used in fanworks/fics or whatever, but it just seemed weird to me how sometimes I'll hear someone talking abt Mlp and bring this up as if it was 100% something that is canon and idk it kinda bugs me a little bit

[summertimemusician]

Linktober Shadow Day 6

Shadow Beast

The Twilight Princess fan in me really came out on this one huh? I blame the sleep deprivation. We never quite addressed the effects of the Twili Magic on Twilight and how it's only sheer force of will and the fact he's so darn kind, Midna's influence and Time teaching him the Song of Healing first being the main factor in making sure he doesn't fall huh? Even more so than the One Cutscene. We also need to talk more about the fact we technically kill Midna's people and how by the end of it all Twi is so changed by the Twilight Realm who's it's own can of worms that, much like Time he can't quite go home as himself me thinks, as a treat to myself

Mostly Twilight x Reader, this goes out to all of the folks who never quite recovered from Twilight Princess and the fact we never got that sequel (I mean it gave us BOTW and TOTK and Wild, but at what cost?), but can be read as Link x Reader either on the platonic or romantic.

Don't think there's any warning this time but might edit later if needed.

Actually yeah there is one warning

TW:

References to body horror typical to Twilight Princess, though I recommend not reading it I'd you're squeamish period.

Even after so long, you and Twilight could still remember the beauty and solemnity of the Twilight Realm, with it’s zircon skies with clouds of trapped fire and rains of viper obsidian.

The silence of the infection upon the realm of light broken only by the echoes of the howling elegy of the Twili and Interlopers who came before creeping over the land like rot and wither over flowers, the lament of the lost spirits of the people and animals of Hyrule falling over your spirit like a shroud, a shared hymm from two worlds reality had been twisted, only both of it’s princess, one filled the luster of empyreal sorrow in her mind and one with the scorch abyssal fury in her heart knowing to see the reflective tragedy befallen to their people. With Link as the one who restored the memory of what once was in both worlds as divinity and calamity sang in his bones and you a witness to the restoration of harmony to the discordant symphony, the two different songs of light and shadow refusing to let go of either of you in an eternal duet.

(Once touched by magic, it shall never leave the one if holds onto Twilight may have been the one with the Beast in his soul, with the howl of a wolf, the bite of shades in his veins and the lament of innocents taking precedence over anything purely because he learned how to silence the whispers of the one’s who made a grab for heaven’s throat and we’re pushed in the cracks of reality for their prideful vánitas even as he could taste it in the back of his tongue, twining around his ribs and overgrowing into his shattered mirror heart like vines, flowering with the divinity and eternal nature of the Hero’s Spirit, already having the hunt of the Fierce Deity in it’s veins and the remains of cursed divinity welcoming the new aspect merrily so he could bear it. The song of the innocent wrongly punished among the sinners rang into your mind, scratched at your skin and dug it’s claws around your throat, chocking you with sorrow and regret, more willing to leave gouges than to let go of someone’s who’s looked into the reverse side of the sacred realm and wept with grief for it’s people and the curse of it’s beauty.

It would never leave you, Link or Zelda, who learned who love the darkness the way Midna did, madness and unsightly delight and all.)

While the people of Hyrule merely became trapped as observers at best, if they were lucky, Midna’s raging grief and resentment quickly became obvious, once she revealed that rotten Zant had done to her and her people, twisted into a new form, distorted in body and trapped in mind like the animals and beasts of Hyrule, their pain driving them in becoming feral attack hounds for the usurper, their howling screams as much sorrow, wailing in an attempt to let their agonized, tortured souls to escape from it’s mouth, a futile attempt to flee from the strain of reality forgetting their true form in favor of Zant’s twisted design, of being used as sentient canvases for cruelty and ruthlessness, of their will being stepped over in favor of corrupting recreation.

Of how it only didn’t quaff down at Midna’s mind because of the nature of her ephemerality, fully beloved by the Realm of Darkness, of how she loathed him for it and wouldn’t wish her fate of that of her people’s on any living or dead soul, once she came to love the Realm of Light through Zelda’s sacrifice.

Which was why, when you saw three of the victims of the telltale twisting from darkness utilized with the intent to drive one insane, a familiar looking plate of stone engraved on the remains of ashes from their identity, the curling of distorted, solid darkness making crooked mishapen manes, bent out of shape from their too long torso and long, long arms adorned with twitching, deformed claws, you feel very justified in way your blood froze, holding onto Wild’s arms and yanking with all you had so his shot will miss, his yelp of surprise swallowed by the bone cracking, blood curdling screech from one of the beasts as a Skyward Strike grazed it’s petrified flesh.

You feel something warm drip down your ears, taste the promise of violence and the cry of lost souls on the back of your tongue and swallow it down as the memory of the Twilight Realm attempted to bite and crack your ribcage to quaff down your heart, to devour it bones and all, calling out in desperation, “Don’t! That’s a person!”

Sky freezes, as still as a statue, Legend curses the heavens crimson in a way you are so glad Wind isn’t around to hear as he retreats Twilight snarls, the wolf in him revolted and disgusted, you wonder if the Twilight is singing in his mind too as he restrains himself from reaching for the crystal as nails just a tad too sharp invite droplets of blood to one hand, grimm as a graveyard “We need to get them together anyway, felling just one won’t be enough.”

You grimace, releasing Wild, keeping your eye on the Shadow Beasts and another on your group, pointedly not mentioning the twitch in Four, amethyst clouding his gaze and the prism of his eyes turning gray with memories you and Twilight both knew all too well, of the grimace in Time’s otherwise stony countenance, you’d wished to avoid bloodshed of whoever was turned against their will, but you and Twilight both knew that might not be possible, death, unfortunately, might be the greatest mercy you can grant these poor souls.

(The Twilight is harmonizing in your ears, jeering, you feel the Interlopers insanity and the Twili’s lament on your teeth. As lovely as it could be cruel, the merry feeling upon meeting, the sorrow at a parting.

If you ever see the Shadow, you might just try indulging the echo by offering it’s blood as tribute. You'd make it hurt. The fact it learned the spell used to deform reality in such a way was cruel and vile.)

“Legend, how is your magic?” shoots Warriors, analyzing, calculating, it snaps the purple back into Four’s gaze, brings his mind back to focus as he reaches into his inventory for his Moon Pearl, Twilight is circling the beasts with single minded purpose, herding them together and prowling as he would as a wolf, Wild thankfully listened to your warning and had switched from the more destructive Flame and Lightning Arrows to ice ones. It doesn’t contain them for long but it gives a few precious seconds to strategize.

Legend catches on, switching to the Ice Rod on one hand and grasping his own Moon Pearl with the other, Sky has another Skyward Strike ready, but doesn’t release it, you switch from your sword to accepting a Magic Rod tossed at you from Wild, “Good enough.”

You breath in shakily, the symphony of the Twilight Realm has quieted, more lament than anthem as it’s Hero steps back, returning to your side, he nods grimly, “... Then, let’s end this quickly.”

You know your will boys will do their best to heal them, and failing that, you hope that they’ll hear the requiem of the Twili rather than the lament once they’re at peace, that they'll find some form of threnody.

It is a horrible thing, to be forced to die as a beast.

[probablygayattorneys]

Okay, now that I've had time to get my bearings and sit with Another Code and really think about what I want to say about it, I am prepared to do so.

First off, the Switch remake is not Trace Memory. In fact, if you were like me and played Trace Memory as a kid but then it kind of fell off your radar and you didn't buy a used copy on eBay to replay it before you replayed the remake, you would be forgiven if you had a little niggling feeling that you couldn't place that you had seen all of this somewhere before, but not where. Ashley's name isn't even the same - Robbins is spelled with only one b, which I do understand is the same as in the original UK version, but was still quite jarring to someone who's only played the US version.

I didn't feel like I was playing the same game. There's not a single puzzle that I remember as being the game, and where the original made use of it's hardware, so too does this game, having puzzles that depend on the gyroscope, which might be frustrating if you're playing in docked mode and the controller you tend to use doesn't have gyroscope controls.

It is certainly more fleshed out. There are more parts of the map that you get to visit, and you learn more about the Edwards family, though it also felt like it unraveled more threads than it was willing to wrap up, which is peculiar because it also got rid of one of the most interesting aspects of the original game, which is the multiple endings. No matter what you do, the game funnels you into the "good" ending, which I won't say more details about, just in case anyone reading this hasn't played it. This is a little annoying, because it feels like it's taking away one of the things about the game that made it so special, that the choices you make ultimately matter, but is also overshadowed by the fact that I suck at this game and always have, so I never got the good ending on my own, so now knowing why what happened had to happen and how things ended up the way they did... it's nice to have the closure I was never skilled enough to achieve on my own.

Another cool aspect of this game is that Sayoko being Japanese is not incidental - they actually spend time explaining various aspects of Japanese culture, instead of DTS cards Richard's diary is left on origami cranes, and there's a sweet moment where they talk about the meaning of the name Mizuki. As well, there's actually more depth given to Sayoko's character, even though she was still fridged.

So ultimately... Is it a faithful 1:1 recreation of the source material? No. In fact, you might feel frustrated because it feels like the game is treating you with kid gloves - from things like the forced good ending to the fact that anytime you're working on a puzzle, you just have to press a button to get hints and if you go through all of them it basically just tells you the answer straight out - which, in all fairness, it is.

But is it still worth playing? Yes. It's still a good game, even with the oversexualization of Ashley and the fact that with the camera, you spend most of the game looking directly at her ass and she's 13 years old. If you like puzzle games, which if you don't why are you even following me, it's definitely a worthy entry into that catalogue, which does seem to have been drying up lately.

Now, do I want them to make a remake of Hotel Dusk in the same style?

Hell fucking no. The game was good, but not "I trust you with my baby" good.

[amyriadfthings]

.

[transmasc-rose]

One more AU to propose: at the end of Brotherhood, taking ac3's declaration of how the Apple works as fact, Desmond sees the satellite not working, sees Abstergo failing--and rather than kill Lucy, either manages to turn and kill no one (unlikely, given Juno's influence) or ends up stabbing Shaun and/or Rebecca instead, with the idea that maybe, if he talked to the Templars, he could make them understand, that their plan is flawed, that they need to try something else--

Because if the Templars, in all their money and planning and resources are failing, how could the Assassins succeed?

(This would royally piss off Juno.)

I don't think this would go well. I think, even if he and Lucy succeeded, made the Templars change plans, and that worked, the result would be bittersweet at best. A lot of people dead or under their control, with the Assassins being in an even worse state. Power granted to the Templars that make them rise even higher.

There's a good chance they don't succeed at all.

But he'll never know if things would go better if he'd chosen the other path.

(Maybe there's a world where he does convince the Assassins and Templars to work together on this. But that's a much kinder world than the games see fit to give him. So that is out of his grasp.)