#and through thinking about those skill sets i came to realize things about their characters

[fool-in-his-wedding-gown]

you guys love to joke about [x arcana character] not being able to cook but tbh i think they can all cook to at least some degree except for maybe nadia & even then that’s just because she’s never needed to learn. they are all at least in theory good cooks. in my brain.

#i've actually had extensive thoughts about this because #the deep Fandomification of characters often comes with reducing them to like. #memes & incorrect quotes & a lot of times that comes in the form of '[x character] can't cook' #for whatever reason #idk i think it was a lot more fun to. just now. sit down in my notes app & think #about each character's backstory and the skill set that gives them to ask the very silly question 'can this character cook?' #to which my answer to all 6 of them is yes to some degree but it varies because they all have different life experiences & different ways #that they would approach something as simple as making a meal #and through thinking about those skill sets i came to realize things about their characters #that never would've occurred to me had i not asked aforementioned very silly question #& idk thinking about that will always be more compelling to me than memeing a character to hell & back #so that only a shadow of their actual characterization remains #sorry for being autistic about the fucking arcana it will happen again #pleiades posts

[sanzu-sanzu-sanzu]

sae

i think that more than sae’s switching from striker to midfielder what’s sadder for me upon knowing the bit that we now know of the itoshi backstory (note: through rin’s pov) is the whole fact that sae had to go through it all while being in an entirely different country. at 13 years old. completely by himself. apart from having to face this huge wake-up call regarding his skill level with regards to the world’s, he also had to deal with the crushingly different environment, language, culture, and people. no way that those did not affect his getting the results that he wanted.

this got me thinking that, even though (i’m guessing) the more widely accepted reading right now is that sae’s got his ego crushed, i also feel there’s another possible explanation for sae’s extreme bitterness regarding japanese football. (yes, it’s extreme, he doesn’t even wanna be associated with it!) japan propped him as their ‘striker’ because in a way he was the closest thing they had to a striker. and then he gets to play in a world-class setting and realizes that japan was not developing his true talent at all, which could mean two things:

1) the football he grew up playing prioritized teamwork more than the individual (and this is exactly what ego jinpachi is railing against when he started blue lock) and so this mentality hampered his striker motivations/his ego. 

2) sae realizes that they were blowing smoke up his ass because they wanted him to be that striker, when they actually didn’t know what a striker was or was supposed to be; and hence he’d lost some precious time training, instead, for the role that fit his skill-set better: being a midfielder.

because sae’s the kinda guy who sets unforgiving standards—even and especially to himself—in pursuing his goals, standards that even made him recognize the brutal realism that he isn’t fit for best striker in the world, hence his laser focus on being best midfielder instead. he’s not gonna waste his perfect passes on strikers that are unable to score, he’s not gonna waste his energy on a team that won’t be able to keep up with him, and he’s not about to waste his time and his future in a country, in a football, that’ll waste his potential. if someone like him finds out that his time was wasted that way, of course he’s gonna be furious and unforgiving. (not that it’s too late now, but he could’ve started earlier, you know what i mean..)

it’s no wonder the ideals and philosophy of blue lock appealed to him then (whereas the current japanese football federation could eat shit as far as he’s concerned lol) especially with their focus on the assertion of one’s ‘ego.’ the insistence that your football shouldn’t have to depend on a teammate/your team/someone else to be great, because you yourself should have that power, the confidence/ego, and the skill to back it up. sae, anri, and ego are probably all in the agreement that these are the vital things that could help a japanese football player in the world stage.

i always thought it fascinating how there seem to be some parts in the story wherein ego (or even anri) would be explaining something, a blue lock principle or whatever, as if he were speaking to or referring to sae, even without sae being mentioned or shown in the page. blue lock is for players like sae (and oliver aiku, and many others that came before) as much as it is for the younger, much more ‘unpolished gems’ like rin, isagi, barou, etc. 

i also think that while the sentiment (throughout blue lock maybe) seems to be that the striker is the best position of all and that everything else: meh, and that sae is somewhat of a tragic character for ‘settling’ on being a midfielder, i hardly think it’s tragic. it’s fair to think so (because plot) but it’s really not so bad, considering there’s many midfielder stars out there in the world, too. nowhere in the story did it also say that sae couldn’t compare to the strikers of the world; he only said that the world is filled with amazing players, and that he wants to become the top midfielder in the world not because he lost to strikers...i mean, seeing him play, his scoring ability is very much still top notch even for a midfielder. he simply has very high standards, so if he’s at his best in his passing, he wouldn’t be expecting any less from a scorer.

the striker being the like ‘main character’ in the team (according to blue lock) is not a bad thing, though—i mean they are the principal scorers so they kind of are in a way lol—because for the purposes of ‘reseting’ their current football landscape and mentality, that’s kind of important. i guess blue lock is like, we’re all about building the no. 1 striker because it’s what japan needs at the moment, but it goes without saying that the other positions are just as important, too.

#anri 🕷 #sae 🕷 #itoshi sae #sae itoshi #sae #itoshi #blue lock #bllk #blue lock sae #sae blue lock #bllk sae #sae bllk #itoshi sae blue lock #blue lock itoshi sae #ego jinpachi #anri teieri #ego

[bogleech]

People really don’t seem to understand what I mean about AI art generation already rendering a lot of artists “obsolete.” Every time I talk about it people say “don’t worry, it can’t replace all the work that goes into animating a character or sculpting a usable cg model or building a costume!” and that’s all true, but those jobs begin with just a concept on paper, and the entire industry of conceiving that concept was basically just murdered in its sleep. For instance I asked Midjourney to combine an Owl with a Barnacle and got this:

I genuinely envy this as a creature design. It’s exactly something I’d have been glad to have come up with and use in my main setting as a monster. It’s also something I’d be highly impressed by as a concept if I saw it walking around in a horror movie or a video game. To top it all off, it looks like a legit surrealist horror painting you might see used as the cover of a story compilation, or just a one-off illustration in a sci fi magazine. All of those things would have previously meant that someone was paid to think of the idea and produce the image.

Someone else in the same chat around the same time asked the bot to make “an eerie space entity” and got this:

If I saw this on deviantart years ago I’d have thought “holy shit, that is terrifying and gorgeous and totally original, somebody HIRE this artist!!!” ....even now there are no visual cues that actually tell me this was AI generated. I’ve already seen people with similar painting styles and aesthetics all my life. I also asked it to combine various pokemon together, and it had NO idea what pokemon species I actually meant, yet it still came up with some things that you could base some pretty fun little video game characters on:

Again I see people saying “this can’t replace the animating and sculpting and other hard work that goes into realizing a concept!” and that’s true, but for many artists, “realizing the concept” is basically the only skill they ever honed and has been their entire career. A lot of people didn’t learn to animate or sculpt or build, nor do they even actually want to, because simply making up neat ideas that no one’s seen before, drawing them, and maybe passing those drawings on to those other skillsets is what they like to do and what they’re proud of doing. I know because that’s me, I just like thinking of creatures and illustrating them, and that’s all I really wanted to do as a “job” in the art world. People will still seek real artists when those real artists have a certain personal flair that really stands out, especially if they just personally value human creativity as a principle, but *JOBS* in just “character design” or “background design” don’t typically care. Movie productions just have a bunch of artists draw a bunch of stuff for the producers to look through until they like something, and then they pay a different set of artists to put that idea into the product. The latter half of this process will be fine, but no studio is going to see a need to spend money on the first creative step once they all catch on to this.

[protectingtulpas]

Hey there! Apologies if the start of this ask sounds familiar. We're not comfortable with using Tumblr yet, and might have accidentally sent an incomplete ask.

Anyways, you seem pretty cool! Asking for some advice...

So, back in September, I found out about tulpamancy and decided to try my hand at this stuff. And it worked, so now I have an amazing bestie who i'll be calling Star (they/them) for privacy, and we're working on getting them to the front.

And so here comes my main conundrum. After a while of me and Star just hanging around, I notice another presence in the head. I tried ignoring it for a bit, but eventually I tried calling out to them and they replied. After a little bit of talking, we figured out that they were called Hero (they/them), and that i'd accidentally made them by thinking about having another "brain friend", as we like to call ourselves.

Any advice for avoiding this kind of thing happening? As much as I love Hero and Star, it would get very full very quickly if this kind of accidental creation thingy keeps happening. And to clarify, i'm not mad at this "incident". We've all worked it out pretty quickly, and nobody is to blame. Sorry for the wall of text ask haha, but this is something we're curious about!

Hey! You came to the right place, cuz this is something we sort of experienced ourselves! It was super weird at first, and it took a while to convince my host that the newbie was actually there. So basically, this is a combination of two things- for one, roughly a third of tulpas (that're aware they're tulpas, ahdhsf I'll find the statistic link later) are unintentional, which means you go through the process of tulpa creation without actually realizing you're doing it. (This is kinda common in writers!) So it's definitely not an unheard of thing! The second part is that once you've made your first tulpa, you've already gone through a lot of the initial mental training it takes to make the jump to being polyconscious. It's a *lot* easier to make a second tulpa than the first. You spent so long thinking about them and wanting them around that they ended up here!

RE: getting a lot of people eventually, we don't exactly have a lotta control over that cuz we're also disordered, but we definitely have some tips if you're not comfortable expanding your system that shhoouuulldd work better if you don't have big dissociation and memory issues.

One, try to focus on what you have and avoid daydreaming about having new headmates. Try not to let yourself have consistent "characters" you imagine in situations, or what it might be like to have x fictive, or whatever- there's a saying that goes something like, "people are gonna think about a red truck if you tell em not to think about a red truck, but if you tell em to think about a purple bear instead of a red truck they're gonna have more success" or something like that. Focus on doing other things with the headmates you have instead.

Two, and this helps more with fictives for us, but if you feel a certain identity or set of emotions or perspectives or whatever is starting to get a bit intense and might gain autonomy, try associating those feelings or identity with yourself or another (consenting) headmate in the system as much as possible. Like oh that's so relatable or this character is so me, etc etc. Connect em with an identity that already exists if u can. Like for example, my host's trying to avoid a fictive coming from their past life lately by confronting and associating themselves with it as much as possible. That way the separation is eliminated before it can really take hold.

Three, if you feel the need to still ""do tulpamancy"" that isn't just living regular life with ur tulpas, try expanding your range of skills! Imposition is an awesome skill with practice, as well as things like headspace immersion, holding onto front as a non-host for a long time, and more. There're tons more heights you can reach!

Good luck, anon!

#tulpamancy #created system #tulpa #tulpamancy advice #endogenic #pro tulpa #pluralgang #endo safe #tulpa safe #plural community

[glassprism]

Tell me more about the Thief video game series please!

Yeesss I definitely can do that!

So in a nutshell, the Thief series is a trilogy (there's a reboot but I refuse to acknowledge its existence) of first person stealth video games centering around a thief named Garrett. The games were released in the late 1990s and early 2000s and were basically revolutionary in its use of light, shadow, noise, and enemy AI, and a lot of it came to define the stealth genre. Games like Dishonored are kind of a successor to it.

The world of Thief is set in an unnamed city (well, it's just called The City) of indiscriminate time and place that has elements of steampunk and magic, and which is controlled by three factions: the Pagans (nature-loving people who worship a god of chaos and disorder called the Trickster), the Hammerites (a pseudo-Christian-inspired order that worship a god called the Builder and push for industry, technology, and order), and the Keepers (a shadowy faction whose purpose is to keep the balance between the other two). Garrett was trained by the Keepers but, being the snarky antihero that he is, he decided to use those skills to do, well, thievery, and really just wants to stay clear of all the political infighting; unfortunately for him, he tends to get caught up in potentially world-ending events and just has to go along and save everyone, again, to his eternal disgruntlement.

Each of the three games, fittingly, has Garrett doing battle with some aspect of the factions. You can get the general story of Thief: The Dark Project just by watching the cutscenes (which is basically iconic for me since I grew up watching my dad play the game; I think the levels, the music, the atmosphere, have burned itself permanently into my brain) and, you know, admire Stephen Russell's voice work as Garrett. But in a nutshell, this first game has Garrett fighting the Pagans; at the behest of a woman named Viktoria and her friend, Constantine, Garrett is lured into stealing a gemstone called the Eye, only to find that, oops, he was working for his world's equivalent of Satan combined with Pan, who wants to destroy all industry and revert the world to total wilderness. There's betrayal and a shocking reveal that Viktoria is actually some kind of tree nymph and she rips out Garrett's eye and leaves him to be eaten by monsters.

So yeah, I ship them.

Because (before anyone side-eyes me) of the events in the second game, Thief: The Metal Age. With the Pagans defeated, a faction of the Hammerites known as the Mechanists come to power (think of them as, like, the Protestant offshoot to the Hammerites' Catholicism), and their evil plot is to rid the world of all life so only mechanical beings will inhabit it. Despite the whole, you know, "ripping his eye out and leaving him for dead" thing, Garrett and Viktoria realize they have a common enemy in the Mechanists (who want Garrett dead because he did kind of defeat a literal god in the previous game) and team up to take them down. And here's where stuff gets fun, because even though Garrett should probably know better (the literal first cutscene of this game is him going, "I equate love with getting caught"), his interactions with Viktoria gradually grow more flirtatious. And while Garrett complains about it all the way, he goes through a great deal of character development because of Viktoria, learning to care more about the world around him and not be so self-centered. At least to me, it felt like this relationship, which started out as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", could become something more.

And then Viktoria dies. And it's kind of Garrett's fault. His reaction to it, and his flat, emotionally dead words after, really says it all (especially if you play the game and see his reaction to other people dying, which is basically just, "Welp, they're dead now, better make use of what info they gave me").

But yeah, it's just... the potential of it! The what could have been! The fraught backstory! The way they become better people because of each other anyway! The enemies-to-friends-to-maybe-lovers of it! So much to have fun with there!

Oh, and in the third game, Garrett joins up with the third faction, the Keepers (it's implied that he does so because of all his character development in the second game and Viktoria's influence on him) and has to battle against a monster in their ranks. Which really brings the game full circle and ends the trilogy perfectly. It's a decent game. My sister played a lot of it.

But yeah, the first and second games are where my heart lies, just because of the nostalgia and the memories associated with it but also because of the shipping potential. I kind of want to write a fic of them... add it to the, you know, 6 that exist...

Now have 10 hours of the Horn of Quintus music.

#GP gets asks #pureanon #that was fun I should do this more often #not Phantom

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

2022 MOVIE OF THE WEEK #35

die hard. can you believe i had never seen this movie until this year’s holiday season? cuz i can’t really believe it. i went through such a bruce willis phase when i was younger, i used to own the dvd set of moonlighting and i watched him on friends and in movies with matthew perry and the fifth element was a classic in my house...somehow this one just escaped me, i think because my mom’s Action Men tastes were very specifically adrian paul and chuck norris. whereas mine can probably be best described as ‘aw shucks schlubby charm,’ dudes who just seem more normal until they are required to be badasses. bruce willis, david harbour...i can’t remember what other actor i realized he reminds me of while watching this, but i know i told leander and was pleased by the realization, so i’m sure there are more examples.

anyway, this was so not on my radar; i didn’t even know what it was about other than through cultural osmosis. when a movie is mentioned as often as this one, you Know It even when you don’t. though there is a specific kind of joy that comes from finally seeing the line ‘yippee ki-yay, motherfucker’ delivered in its original context. that was fun. 

until pretty recently, i didn’t know alan rickman was the antagonist--that was a large part of why i watched. and boy does he make a meal out of this role. a significant chunk of this movie was just me thinking about what a great actor he is in this. his line deliveries are so delicious that i made a mental note just to mention ‘ho...ho...ho.’ as something nobody else could have had as much fun with. i was truly sad when his character finally died, because of course that ending was always going to come, but i didn’t want it to. the mark of a good villain is actually wanting more of them when you’re not supposed to like them in the first place, and he was an excellent villain--clever and funny with his own moral code, perfect to face off against bruce willis’s unexpected hero.

besides alan rickman, the other reason i decided to watch this (with @actuallylukedanes​ and their fiance who had both seen it before) was that it was featured in an episode of you are good, a movie podcast i like, which meant i’d already heard about the plot and figured that might help me enjoy it more. (normally if they discuss movies i intend to watch, i skip those episodes to avoid spoilers, but i never planned to see this one. lol.) anyway, they watched it as one of their christmas picks, and i knew there was a big debate about whether or not it counts as a christmas movie.

now that i’ve seen it, i feel like the debate is settled and it is OBVIOUSLY a christmas movie, no question. it is in my opinion a movie about a bunch of people (including john mcclain) having the worst christmas of their lives, and there was something i found oddly comforting about that. with my shiny new holiday depression this year, i wasn’t in the mood for any holiday movies--but i would rewatch this one every christmas, because like any good christmas movie there is a party and people remember that family is the most important thing. but UNLIKE other christmas movies, it has alan rickman taking his craft super seriously while bruce willis is in his softest and prettiest young phase, which i adore. and things explode.

(i also need us all to move on from this ‘is it a christmas movie?’ debate so people can be converted to the cult of my much more underappreciated christmas fave, batman returns. tim burton said gotham christmas but make it creepy! and michelle pfieffer learned better whip skills than harrison ford just to manifest it. the true spirit of christmas is being reanimated by cats, and using your new nine lives to flirt with a wealthy orphan while seeking vengeance on anyone who wronged you.)

i’m sure i could go on, but you can tell how old this movie is from the poster up there--i was barely ALIVE when this came out, lol. so i am very late to the party and i doubt a ton of people need me going on and on about it. besides alan rickman and bruce willis, i didn’t know most of the cast, but they all did a good job, there was at least one plot thread that didn’t go the way i expected, and i was pleasantly surprised by that. this movie’s racial politics make me reeeeally uncomfortable, but it’s not at all unusual for its time. the one honorable mention i’d give in casting is to the actor i grew up watching on family matters who plays a central role in helping john survive. he’s portrayed as a black hero, but he can’t just be one because he’s john’s emotional support system throughout the movie--no, he has to become a ‘real’ cop again by shooting a guy. at the same time, you have two major comic relief characters, and both are young black men; one driving john’s limo and the other handling technology for the villain. there’s a same sort of ‘balance’ with the movie’s two asian characters, the seemingly kind company owner who’s murdered early on versus a team member of the villain whose role is also tiny.

the movie is also trying to say stuff (or is just accidentally saying stuff based on the era) around post-soviet american perspectives, but i feel like the racial element sticks out way more because it goes uncommented on. like since it’s clearly not something the plot thinks about, these choices are even more noticeable and important because they reflect the buried stuff.

idk, i just have a lot of feelings about the fact that john’s friend over the radio couldn’t be really redeemed unless he used his gun. or about the fact that he and john are both cops in the first place, so even this sort of ‘everyman’ action movie is promoting the idea that while the fbi and other bureaucracy is useless or will even make things worse, good cops are the only hope we have. 

and his marital reconciliation--i basically just threw up my hands with that one, because i don’t think a near-death experience on christmas will automatically save your marriage. but at the same time, if your wife’s problem with you is that you wouldn’t follow her to her new job, and you finally show up there and save a whole building full of people while she’s in it...then yeah, okay, whatever. maybe that’s all it takes. i mean, if i were her, i’d probably be willing to consider applying for jobs back in new york after that anyway. they’ve definitely earned some kind of happy ending.

in conclusion, i loved this movie. it is an action movie classic in the truest sense of how that felt in the 80s and 90s, and it features bruce willis at his finest and alan rickman briefly doing an american accent and a whole very huge lot of broken glass. broken glass is basically a character in this movie. die hard was an excellent christmas choice for me this year and i’m glad i was welcome to join in the watching. :)

#actuallylukedanes #convinced me to start posting my completed reviews even when they're out of chronological order #so here we go! #die hard #2022 motw #bruce willis #alan rickman #i have the best best friend

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13e10 wayward sisters (w. robert berens, andrew dabb)

is this a spinoff setup attempt? not sure i have the... whatever. to watch it. another longer than necessary recap but at least the music is mixed better than 13x09. but this is made more like a music video (or fanvid), can't say i'm feelin the music they picked but whatever. usually their pre-ep recaps are (sometimes too) snappy. is this the same editor as 09 i wonder. they had the same DP forever basically. so yes, it is the same editor and he only did 27 episodes in the series, definitely gonna keep that in mind as i slog my way through the end of the series. see if i can pick up the tells like i was doing and not realizing with the composers 🤪

generally down for claire being a badass and all, but like. being outnumbered with monsters that have physical advantages and her not having been doing it very long, is a little hard to swallow. generally the show presents hunting as something that should be done not-alone? and if she's gonna get into a wrestling match with a werewolf instead of just shooting it... whatever. whatever whatever

well, at least jody is freaking out/yelling at her about it. but like, jody can't be her hunting partner fulltime, so maybe she needs to get set up with one of the other hunters they know.

another scar comparison for bonding moment (11x15 which was more a direct jaws scar comparison reference)

SAM No no no, don’t tell me it tastes like chicken. DEAN No, Sam it’s a lizard. It tastes like a lizard.

all right that got a chuckle out of me

cute cute

CLAIRE Yeah. Jody always said I’d get myself killed, hunting, and I’d be like, good. If I’m going to go out then that’s how I want to do it, doing something great

yeah need a smidge more self-preservation skills i think before doing this alone

these uh, bad place monster guys are. something. very predator movie monster vibes with the jaw situation, stringy bits and clicky noises

that big skull is so goofy looking.

is there some reason they just didn't run straight into the nexus no stopping. wtf. kaia had to die first for no reason

JODY No, this isn’t on you, not all of it, I told you to go. CLAIRE No. I didn’t even think, I just raced in, no plan. I said I’d protect her. I get it now, why you are the way you are, with me. Because of the… this feeling…

all righty. kaia had to die for claire to learn a lesson.

CLAIRE I came back to Sioux Falls to save Sam and Dean Winchester and I did. No, we did, we saved Sam and Dean. All of these amazing women, my family. They don’t know it yet, they think I’m staying because I’m broken but I’m staying because I need them, my family, my army. The thing that killed Kaia is still out there and I don’t care if I have to tear another hole in the universe, we’re going to find it. And I’m going to kill it.

LOL omg the diary and voiceover. how very vampire diaries

i mean, it's sweet

uh huh 🥴

(wiki)

On May 11, 2018 it was announced that Wayward Sisters would not go to series, with network president Mark Pedowitz citing on May 17th: “We are big fans of the characters and the women who played those characters… We hope they continue on as guest stars on Supernatural… But we did not feel creatively that the show was where we wanted it to be. And we felt we had a better shot with [Originals spin-off] Legacies.”

isn't the originals a spinoff of the vampire diaries? lol spinoff of a spinoff had better potential 😬made it 4 seasons!

#supernatural #spnwatch #spn 13x10 #robert berens #andrew dabb #wayward sisters

[imperiuswrecked]

People be shipping Shuri with Namor. Like I get she’s like 22 and he’s 500 years old. Like she is literally a very young adult. A woman at 22 is different than a woman at 30 or more. They are saying it’s like Thor and Jane. But Jane is an older woman and one who is more mature. Maybe I seen too many crime shows idk Shuri and Namor rubs the wrong way. Not because Namor a bad boy or anything he has his reasons for him being upset.

I knew people were going to ship them some people already did before this movie came out. In the comics they don't have any kind of relationship like that, they barely interact and Shuri loathes Namor. continued~

I don't care so much about the 500 year old age gap because, like I get it, it's fiction, its like Vampires and all that immortal romance stuff (look I'm not talking Twilight here, I need people to know I literally hate Twilight but every assumes I talk about them when I bring up vampire romance stuff, but I really can't stand reading high school romances/aus or whatever). It's not like a real 500 year old dude is gonna turn up that women need to worry about vs real life situations with actual abuse and power dynamics.

Like I hope people realize it's all fiction but also apply their common sense/critical thinking skills that what happens in fiction is not an excuse for abuse/power imbalance in real life and that they shouldn't let the fantasy be held up as "it happened here so that must mean it's romantic", but also I side eye those mass produced books/movies about older/younger dynamics they try to portray it as a good thing to have your personal space/rights stripped away for the Romance. It's really based on what the couple is vs the plot imo. Like people are ok with Thor/Jane because Jane is older but she is never going to be as old as Thor, but they were framed in a really cute way so people don't care about the thousand year age gap vs Shuri being younger but still an adult however she went through alot of trauma and is more vulnerable when she first meets Namor vs Jane being pretty much ok when she met Thor.

With immortal romances I don't really care so much of the age it's about how the characters act, like Namor wasn't aggressively coming on to her, he wasn't coming on to her at all. He treated her with respect befitting a Princess, he upheld customs of his people for properly greeting royalty of another Nation. He was charming and open and honest with Shuri and people were going to respond to that scene between them. I personally don't ship it because of what happens with [REDACTED] in the movie and I personally think that Shuri would never get over that so anything set after that event wouldn't make sense to me. Then again I never shipped them before the movie tbh. I don't want to tell people what to ship, that's not my business and some fans might enjoy seeing Shuri, a WoC, in a romance with a handsome Merman because there is a imbalance in fiction in regards to WoC having fantasy romances vs white leading ladies.

I have more thoughts about their relationship in my long post that I will have up soon.

#imp answers #princess shuri #mcu namor

[darkestprompts]

The Penitent Heart AU - Part 2

or “Reynauld invents Charismatic Christianity to cope with widowhood”

Continuation of Part 1

Cut because this got longer than expected

So Reynauld emerges from the Cloister, tells the people outside to gather all the Hamlet (that’s when he finds out the Heir is dead) and, hopefully, goes take a shower while he thinks of what he’s going to say. People are anxious. Reynauld’s expedition was meant to be the last mission, the end of the evil plaguing the land. They want an explanation and for someone to say what next. He has to bring them truth, leadership and hope.

One important thing to remember is that Reynauld is a soldier, but he’s also very likely one of the most charismatic people in the Hamlet. Not in that he’s necessarily one of the most likeable, but he can sure as hell inspire people and get them to do what he wants. Most of his camping skills are about encouraging others through speeches or his own presence, and he even gets a battle skill to rally others and keep them from breaking. Tin man talk good.

So he goes out and tells them everything, about the Heart of Darkness, about the Ancestor’s betrayal, about the battle and their friends’s noble sacrifice. But all throughout he’s also weaving a narrative that tells them: yes, you were lied to, yes, the evil is not gone, but that doesn’t mean your pain was meaningless. The work is simply not over, not yet. That’s where his budding worship of Dismas finds his way into his speech. Because the story he’s already constructed about Dismas’ death and sacrifice gives *him* hope, he uses it to try to spread that hope to others. He’s, after all, a man of faith.

So, how does that pan out?

The audience may be primarily of the Hamlet’s so called heroes, but they aren’t an uniform crowd. They have their own beliefs, biases, and most importantly, their own relationships with the ones that died in the Darkest Dungeon.

First of all, I think there’s a real risk of offending those close to the two other characters that perished in the fight. By emphasizing Dismas he may come off as diminishing the role of the others. Not that he’s trying to do that, and he’s sure to sing their praises too, but comparisons are a big part of our sense of justice. They may feel the need to put their own spin on the story to “set it right” as it spreads.

The other group is those half a dozen that actually knew Dismas well, and are probably at least familiar with Reynauld and how he works, and see what is happening. Because while the idea that Dismas is a hero at heart and would do everything to save his friends if given the choice is not strange at all to those who knew him, what Reynauld is making out of him *is*. Dismas isn’t some saint or prophet or god of redemption that bestowed the holy word to Reynauld. They realize this is coping, however, it’s likely they don’t know how to approach him to get this crazy idea out of his head. He’s a stubborn bastard when he wants to be.

Then there are those that are more or less neutral. Those are the ones who have a chance to be swept away by Reynauld’s rethoric. I think that, except for very few, they don’t buy the full story as told. But that’s not the important part. The important part is that the seed is planted, and even a little bit of supersticious thiking can make it sprout. 

Imagine this: many of the heroes scatter, be it because they are #done with this eldritch bullshit, because they are following the trail of the monsters, or because they want to protect the places they came from. And they tell stories of this far away Estate, all they have seen and what little they know about why the things are as they are now. They even met the people who killed the evil cultist god that wanted to destroy the world! That’s the sort of thing you brag about. And maybe, influenced by Reynauld’s words, they pour one out for Dismas when they drink, or they flick a lucky coin at the crossroads or hold a day of rememberance. This unwittingly starts a Dismas-as-folk-hero tradition that gets seamlessly integrated with local folklore and beliefs.

On his front, though, Reynauld’s got a new crusade to lead. Convinced or not, he’s probably the last halfway legitimate authority at the Hamlet (who else they are going to ask, the Caretaker?) capable of continuing the fight against the cult and its monsters. My idea here is that the world is transitioning into a DD2 hellscape, but perhaps not as quickly. So the willing heroes gather around for an actual war outside of the dungeons. They got to protect the surrounding settlements, reinforce some kind of base (the Hamlet could barely survive Vvulf!), prepare for the worst that’s yet to come. They need recruits, contacts in other towns, all sorts of help.

That’s when Reynauld’s words really start to catch on. Because:

 1. the world is falling apart and this guy who’s doing something about it, who stabbed an evil god in the face, tells me I should be grateful to this man/entity(?) that it’s not a lot worse.

2. reinforced hierarchy is a great way to ensure superior’s beliefs are respected and reproduced

3. an advancing army makes sure your words are impossible for the wider world to ignore while protecting you from being burned at the stake for heresy

There are other factors that make a potential theology where Dismas survived and defeated the Heart of Darkness from within appealing:

1. Obvious “devil” figure to fight against and a defined enemy in the cultists. The enemy is powerful but, in a sense, already laid low.

2. The central figure is human and relatable. As the ascended penitent thief, Dismas is a lot more accessible than the abstract Light. (Compare to how the cult of the Virgin Mary exploded in Christianity, partially because a human mother who suffered in life is more approachable than God the Father)

3. Focus on immediate action. People are lost, Reynauld teaches them they must fight back, that humans have the power to overthrow cosmic horrors, that they are not helpless against them.

4. It’s easy for light worshippers to graft his new beliefs into old Church of Light tradition to the degree they are comfortable with. This will blend well if there are places who are already getting familiar with the idea of Dismas-as-folk-hero. Absolute rejection gets less common as the belief becomes widespread and acceptable, it becomes more of a matter of what spin and interpretation you want to give to it.

The Church of Light will surely strike back against this massive heresy, but let’s be real, can they afford to open another front with the cultists around? I can see some staunch traditionalists thinking that Reynauld’s movement is an worse threat than the Cult because it has the potential to affect the Church from the inside, but how much will this influence anyone with the arms to take a stand? Reynauld is still a crusader, who’s to say he won’t provide a much more inspiring leadership to other crusading veterans? And if pretty much anyone can say “wait, I’m a faithful of the Church, we just think the Dismas guy was allright and hold a vigil in his memory” how hard is it to root out heresy? 

My point is, if Reynauld can’t win against the Cultists, neither can the Light win against Reynauld.

#darkest dungeon #the penitent heart au #dd reynauld #dd crusader #darkest dungeon ending spoilers #dd highwayman #dd dismas #should I detail this further? #feedback appreciated

[from-the-notebooks]

Of Varying Variability

One thing that I think is under discussed in ttrpg creation is how one’s dice system affects variability. How often wild and chaotic results, positively or negatively, change the course of the game definitely helps shape its tone. Games with more realistic tones tend to have lower ranges, such as how Gurps and Traveller use multiple dice to create a bell curve. Others emphasize chaos through rules for drastic success or failure such as in Cyberpunk and Dungeons and Dragons. These work to create different tones in the game. Bellcurve systems encourage less daring actions than those with flat probability curves (some systems with rules for criticals could even to be said to have a concave probability curve) as they make the unlikely more unlikely and draw more of a players focus towards managing their odds rather than with dealing with the chaos of the dice.

Variability is also determined by the comparison between the range that the dice can reach and how wide the range of modifiers is. For example, in D&D the range of modifiers between a skilled character and an unskilled character is between +5 and +0, or about 1/4 of the range of the dice. In Fate the range is from +4 to +0 which is about 1/2 of the range of the dice with a much more bell curved dice system. This works with allowing D&D characters to be well rounded and drawing the focus for Fate players to be racking up invokes (which add +1/4 dice range each). The shared characteristic across all of these games is that they have one level of variability for all actions because they have a singular dice system. This is for two reasons, simplicity and mechanics. Simplicity calls for a singular ruleset as more dice systems would bring up more rules around when and where they are used and more for a player to remember. Mechanics call for a singular dice mechanic because all the rules need to work with that dice mechanic. One can’t just use the d20 system and 2d6 interchangeably because they have a different average. Even exchanging d20 for 3d6, which does have the same average, results in a dice system with a range of about the same (1-20 vs 3-18) and makes the advantage/disadvantage mechanic core to the d20 system unwieldy to implement (just roll two sets of 3d6 and take the lowest ain’t exactly streamlined). A while ago I came across the flux dice mechanic in Traveller 5th edition and realized that the idea behind them could be used to create a system that easily had different levels of variability. Flux dice work in Traveller 5th edition by rolling two six sided dice, one positive one negative. The result of the negative die is subtracted from the positive die and the result is the result of the flux. This gives a bell curve of -5 to +5 with 0 as the average. What caught my eye with this is that it would have a bell curve with a center at 0 using only two dice no matter what number the dice were. So here’s the concept that I’ve been dancing around this whole time. What if you had a system where switching dice system, and the variability that comes with that. So let’s use something like flux dice to do that. Take the flux dice concept and use it for d4s, d6s, d8s, and d12s. This won’t change the level of bell curve but by changing the range it changes the luck. Let’s say the range between the skilled player and the unskilled one is +3 and +0. With a positive d6 and a negative d6, the skill range would be 30% of the dice range but with d4s it would be 50%. This works without messing with the simplicity problem because the mechanic is still exactly the same: roll two dice and subtract the negative from the positive. This works on the mechanics level because any rules around modifying, for example, “a die“ or “the positive die“ still work no matter what the die actually is and rules around the highest and lowest number can be stated vaguely instead of specifically as a 6 or an 8 or what have you. I’m not entirely sure what I’d use this for to be honest. One idea is that manipulating which dice are use could be tied to an ability player’s could have. Though that might be a bit niche and not of that much consequence. Another is that different kinds of checks might use different dice or that it might depend on situation. It could be just on fiat, with situations the GM/Referee/DM/whatever determining more chaotic having a larger number and those more calm having a smaller one. This is just an idea for dice for now but a game might be coming eventually that will make use of it. But if someone else want’s to take it first, feel free!

#tabletop roleplaying #ttrpg tumblr #ttrpg design #indie ttrpg #roleplaying games #ttrpg #ttrpg community

[goombasa]

Live-A-Live is Lovely!

Live-A-Live is Lovely

So earlier in April, while delving into my backlog, looking for something to play that I hadn't really played before, and I came across one that my girlfriend and I had gotten for Christmas, but ended up shelving because of so many other things going on at the time: The remake of the (formerly) Japan-excluses Super Famicom RPG Live-A-Live.

I had a little bit of experience with this game, or at least the SFC original. I'd emulated it way back in college (like over ten years ago now), and applied an unfinished translation patch. I didn't know at the time that it was unfinished patch, so there was a big mix of finished dialogue, dialogue that still needed some passes over, and original japanese (mostly where names and objects were concerned), and for some reason, text in combat was completely scrambled, just utter gibberish, so I didn't have any idea what my characters attacks were, or what they did, or what items I had in my inventory.

Needless to say, while I fiddled around with the game, I didn't end up getting very far with it. And that was that, I didn't really think much about the game for years afterwards. And then out of nowhere, this game gets not only a remake, but a remake seeing international release. Well, I wasn't about to say no to trying this game again, especially with an official translation available, and a rather beautiful face lift with the whole HD-2D look it was given.

And so I played it all the way through. And I realized that this is really something special and I was finally able to experience it to its fullest.

Live-A-Live is an RPG, but it is a far cry from a traditional one. Instead, the game is made up of seven (seemingly) disconnected stories, each one taking place in a different era of history; prehistory, imperial China, Edo Japan, old west, present day, near future, and far future. You play through each story as a different character, and every character and chapter feels incredibly different, with varying goals, mechanics, assistants, and tones. For a quick primer on each:

Prehistory: A young caveman, after his coming of age ceremony, journeys to save a woman that he loves from a rival tribe. As language hasn't been invented yet, the characters communicate with grunts and growls, and word balloons, and in order to find your path, you have to use your keen sense of smell to locate prey or targets for you to fight or items to find.

Imperial China: An old Sifu, knowing his life is near its end, searches for an heir that he can train so that his martial art is not lost to time. The Sifu is past his peak and as such, can't level up. Instead, you train your chosen heir to level THEM up by fighting them to make them strong enough to inherit your skills.

Edo Japan: A young shinobi is tasked with infiltrating a castle and rescuing a mysterious prisoner that may be the only one capable of averting a bloody future for Japan. The castle itself is maze-like and hard to navigate, but this chapter's main gimmick is you can choose to either fight no one, or kill every single living human (totaling 100) in the castle. You can choose to go in between as well, but these two challenge paths are the major gimmick for the chapter and will net you certain rewards if you manage to pull either of them off.

Old West: A wanted man rolls into town just in time to assist in defending it from an incoming gang of outlaws. Another one where you cannot gain levels and there isn't really much combat; instead, you have fifteen minutes (give or take) to scour the town for trap-making supplies, assign those supplies to the townsfolk to make traps, and then at sunrise, the more traps that have been set successfully, the less enemies will be there to assist the boss in the final encounter. It's a short, but tense story.

Present Day: A fighter seeks to become to strongest and topple all in his way. Yet another where you cannot level up, and  the entire chapter is an homage to Street Fighter 2. As opposed to the last story where there's very little combat, this story features exclusively combat, with the big gimmick being that you can learn each opponent's special attack by having them performed on you, and then they're yours to use as you wish. You can even go back and refight opponents you've already beaten if you missed a move, but once you beat your last opponent, you're thrust into the final fight of the chapter.

Near Future: A young man with psychic powers races to stop a cult from resurrecting a dark god. This one is, straight up, an anime, with hints of battle shonen and super robot thrown in. This chapter is closer to a traditional RPG, though you can see where all your opponents are, and can choose when to engage with them or not, but the higher your level, the more the enemies will scale to compensate for your growing power.

Far Future: A newly activated service droid attempts to keep himself and the rest of the crew alive as they transport a very dangerous creature back to earth. Apart from the final boss, there is no combat in this chapter. It's actually more like survival horror, as you sneak across the ship, avoiding the alien that's out to kill you while you try to figure out what's causing everything on the ship to go wrong.

As you can see, a lot of care was taken to make each chapter feel as unique as possible, each chapter even having its own director to make sure that they were as different as possible. Add to it, every chapter is not only a self-contained story that could probably support a much longer experience, but probably the best part of each of them is the fact that they respect your time. While some of them are really short (the old west chapter only lasts upwards of 30-45 minutes), none of them are overly long. You can beat every chapter in under four hours or so, and it's legitimately impressive that in that time, you get a full story with interesting characters. It's a lot of fun, and that does make it special on its own, the fact that it's essentially an anthology with each story having a particular theme. But then it really gets interesting with what happens after the seven chapters are completed.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

So I really, really want to talk about the rest of the game's storyline, but in order to do that, I have to venture into heavy spoilers. I'll say this, whether it's the original game, or this remake, I heavily recommend playing it for yourself and experiencing the game through your own eyes before reading forward, because I am going to be spoiling the big reveal for the game. If you've already played the game, or you don't mind spoilers, read on.

SPOILERS START HERE

Hokay, so, remember how I said each of the chapters has an overarching theme? Sometimes it's more prevelant, other times it's more subtle, but you can very clearly see it with each character you play as.

Prehistory: Pogo the cave man fights for love, and his pursuit of love eventually helps to bring two warring tribes together, ending their feud and bringing about peace.

Imperial China: The Sifu fights to help three troubled youths inherit not only his martial art, but also his life philosophy, to help them constantly better themselves and become the best that they can be through said inheritance, not just of his strength, but of his knowledge.

Edo Japan: Oboromaru is trusted by the prisoner implicitly to do the right thing and to help make japan a better place by eliminating only those who seek to use their power to make the country worse.

Wild West: The Sundown Kid learns how to reconnect with others and find companionship after years of isolation and loneliness as he helps them survive the trial of being attacked by an outlaw gang.

Present Day: Masaru wants to become strong, but not just physically, he also wants to have moral strength, the ability to use his ability to help others, rather than lord his power over them.

Near Future: Akira desperately wants to carve out his own destiny rather than have his fate decided for him, constantly doing what he feels is right rather than letting others dictate it.

Far Future: Despite being a robot, Cube's curiosity and humanity allows him to overcome trials while still showing immense compassion for those around him, wanting to get as many people back home to earth safely.

Again, on their own and in a vaccuum, these are still great stories with nice resolutions for the main characters, and each of the bosses in each story basically represent the opposite of what they are attempting to achieve. Pogo's final boss is a dinosaur that is full of nothing but hate and rage, and cares only for itself; The Sifu and his surviving student fight a martial arts school that cares little about inheritance because it believes power is more eternal than knowledge. Cube fights a rogue AI that is obssessed with perfection, regardless of the human cost. It's good stuff, having a villain that heavily contrasts each hero.

But then, you start to notice that every final boss has a particular naming theme… ODO, O. Dio, Odie O'Bright, Ode Iou, OD1O, Odi Wan Lee, Odeo… see what I mean?

Then we come to the hidden eighth chapter; the middle ages. You play as a knight, Oerstead, who must find and vanquish the Lord of Dark… Odio. What makes this chapter unique is how… un-unique it is. This is a very basic, by-the-numbers RPG story that would fit in just fine in a Dragon Quest game. There are random battles, a large kingdom to explore, you gather allies that fill the general roles of a traditional party and go to fight the dark lord and save the princess your lady love.

But then… everything starts to go wrong. The beast you fight turns out to be false. The mentor figure dies of the plague he had been hiding from everyone, still bitter and jaded from his time as a hero, which he hates in hindsight. Your best friend tricks you into killing the king, your remaining friend in the party sacrifices his life so that you might flee and clear your name, and in the end, you not only are forced to kill your friend, but watch as you are rejected by the woman that you love as she commits suicide in front of you.

Overcome with despair and hate, Oerstead, who has been a completely silent protagonist this entire chapter, if everyone wants him to be a monster, if he's been denied everything that he has earned for doing everything he was told to do, then he will be the monster everyone sees him as.

He will be the lord of dark, the embodiment of human hatred that transcends time: Odio.

And that's when it hits: You've been fighting various incarnations of Oerstead as Odio all through every chapter!

And then you get the next chapter.

The game's true final chapter, the 9th chapter, the end of time, is unlocked after beating Oerstead's chapter. After choosing your hero, which can be any of the seven (or Oerstead, though the chapter dramatically changes if you decide to play as him), you're dumped into a lifeless, empty version of the map from the Middle Ages and have to traverse it, not only to find and recruit the other characters, but also find several hidden dungeons, each one holding one of the characters' best weapons. There are also tons of bonus bosses to find and fight for rewards as well.

Now this chapter, as great as its setup is, is a bit annoying because it keeps the same idea as Oerstead's chapter of random battles, which can be very tiring after a while, and keeps Akira's gimmick of enemies scaling with the average level of your party. You can also only ever have  four characters in your party at one time, and will have to replace a member if you find someone when your party is full, with them returning to the same area where you initially recruited them. You also can't remove whoever you choose as your hero from your party. If you're playing the remake, it's important to switch out your companions to make sure they're all leveled up as much as possible and learn new techniques, especially characters that couldn't level up during their own chapters (except for Cube, who, being a robot, needs to use a very rare drop in order to increase their stats). It's honestly genius because this last chapter can be as short or as long as you want it to be. While I did say it is the longest, that's mostly only if you want to recruit everyone and find their hidden dungeons.

And the way that they incorporate all the little touches and gimmicks into this chapter are so cool. Each dungeon is themed around the character it's based on in some way. The Sifu's Inheritor, for example, has to use specific techniques in order to shatter boulders that are in their way. Sundown's dungeon involves you having to find your way through it, grabbing the gun, and then getting out before the bell tolls 8 times, or you have to fight a super hard bonus boss. Cube's dungeon, much like his chapter, is devoid of combat, instead full of movement puzzles you have to solve to progress. Out of all of them, Akira's is probably the strangest. The only way to enter it is to use his teleport ability to escape from combat, which has a chance of accidentally planting him in the dungeon, which is a maze full of various souls of the people that you met in Oerstead's chapter.

But if you don't want to bother with the dungeons or even recruiting everyone, you don't have to. So long as you find the key to the final dungeon, which you will know since you beat the Middle Ages chapter,  you can go there and take on Oerstead at any point if you want. I wouldn't recommend it, but you have the ability to go there at any time to take on the final boss, it gives you a pretty good level of flexibility, and honestly, while it can be annoying dealing with the random battles all over the place, exploration and discovery is something that this chapter does very well, and I love the detail that choosing certain characters as your main hero can make certain tasks easier. For example, if you're playing as Sundown, Masaru will join your team without a fight, since he doesn't want to tangle with someone who has a gun. It also, of course, changes the dialogue you get during the final boss since only your hero talks directy to Oerstead.

Of course, this is all if you didn't choose Oerstead as your ‘hero’ during this chapter.

If you chose anyone but him, you win the day and refute his assertion that humanity isn't worth saving, by showing the lesson or philosophy that your character learned during the adventure they had that led to them defeating their incarnation of Odio. But if you choose to play as Oerstead, you can prove his philosophy right, but fighting against the heroes and attempting to defeat them, and going on to destroy time itself. It's such an incredibly downer ending that flies in the face of the upbeat positivity that the rest of the game enforces that I kind of love it. You can help all these characters reach the apex of their potential, rediscovering their humanity or finding their hidden inner strength… only to rip it all away and say that hate wins. It's kind of incredible.

SPOILERS END HERE

This game really feels like something special. I'm just said that I didn't get an opportunity to experience it when it was new, and considering that sales of it were apparently very low when it was first released, I'm willing to bet that this remake is a totally new experience for pretty much everyone. I really hope that this remake does well, because not every cult classic or niche masterpiece gets a second chance like this.

Live-A-Live is very much not a conventional RPG, especially for the time it was made. It's a very experimental anthology, and while it might have struggled during its time, the fact that someone saw enough merit in it to give it a full on remake AND get it released internationally speaks volumes about how word of mouth and positive reactions to it have sort of turned its fortunes around some thirty or so years later. There are some games coming out now that kind of homage its ideas, like the Octopath games, but I don't think a big studio would ever take a risk on making something like this again. That's totally fine though, I can't wait until some indie developer out there gets bold enough to try and make their own Live-A-Live down the line. We've already seen spiritual successors to a lot of big names that have fallen by the wayside in one form or another, so I think it's only a matter of time before the smaller cult classics and sleeper hits start seeing their ideas and aesthetics enter the indie scene as well, though I'm sure there are plenty of examples already.

For now though, I'm just glad that this game got its second chance and is out in a format that more people can find and enjoy, because it totally deserves it.

I doubt this will lead to any sort of remake renaissance or anything but uh… Square, if you're listening… Bahamut Lagoon is sitting right there, all on its lonesome.

Just a thought.

#Live-A-Live #Unusual RPG #Narrative First #Remake #It's so nice to see #Never thought this would be localized #Y'all should play this

[taliabaysal]

Little pearl, you think you're in gold, but I can see the dirt in your lines | ABOUT TALIA

NAME: Talia Azize Baysal

AGE: Twenty-Eight

GENDER & PRONOUNS: Cis Woman, She/Her

FACE CLAIM: Aslihan Malbora

EYE COLOR: Brown

HAIR COLOR: Brown

HEIGHT: 5'6"

DATE OF BIRTH: December 13th, 1995

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

ZODIAC SIGN: Sagittarius

LEVEL OF EDUCATION: High School

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: None

OCCUPATION: Singer/Songwriters

HOMETOWN: Kismet Harbor, OR

IN TOWN: Less than a month

POSITIVE TRAITS: Effervescent & Charming

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Reckless & Impetuous

CHARACTER BACKGROUND (TW: DRUG USE, ADDICTION)

Since the moment Talia could speak, she had the desire to sing every word. Her parents amounted it to the dreams of childhood and brushed it off, but it was something she had never let go. Her father despised it, but indulged his middle daughter knowing that when the time came she would do the sensible thing. Her parents wanted their daughters to get a degree and have a 'normal' life. However, Talia wanted none of that life, even if it meant giving up other things.

Her father was a force, one that she fought tooth and nail  against and no matter how much he pressured her to give up every  prospect, she refused to bend. Talia did appease him and followed in her older sister’s footsteps to go to university but she only lasted a year  before dropping out. Due to her lack of direction and purpose, her father decided to line up eligible Turkish bachelors for her to meet and hopefully marry. Appeasing her father could only go so far and she finally put her foot down, refusing to move forward with any marriage.  However, he refused to accept it and was ready to force her to settle down until she took her things and left.

With everything she saved up, she moved to Los Angeles at twenty in hopes of making it big. She refused to use any sort of help financially from her family and struggled to make ends meet as well as pursuing her dream. In a city full of girls who wanted the same things she did, she found it difficult to establish herself and then realized that what people wanted was her pretty face. Talia would use that pretty face in hopes of getting more time on a stage so that someone could discover her. Time and time again she was promised things in return for that velvet voice of hers and each time she was let down.

Eventually, Talia found the fame she had wanted for so long. It was the dream she had that finally came to fruition and she thought it would be everything she ever thought it would be. The music she had written, putting her entire heart in was being sung to fans all over the globe and yet Talia felt an emptiness and loneliness. She was on top of the world and it wasn't what she had expected. For every person that loved her, she had those who hated her and it gnawed at her confidence. Talia tried to maintain her composure, the same set of skills that had gotten her this far, but she felt helpless until she turned to drugs and alcohol to soothe her tired soul.

A extra shot here, a bump of cocaine there felt harmless to her if she could just get through her life. It wasn't hurting anyone and the confidence that accompanied it was more rewarding that anything else. Until it became more than a small habit to maintain. Suddenly her life was being dissected by the media as she partied more and acted more 'strange.' Talia was on the cover of every magazine calling her a floozy and a drunk despite maintaining a persona she had crafted for the public. It all culminated in a night passing out in a club and ending up in the hospital. The official cause was exhaustion, thanks to her sister's excellent PR skills, but Talia needed a break.

It's unspoken with her family why Talia is back in Kismet Harbor, even though the reasons are the habits she acquired while living in L.A.. She doesn't talk about it with anyone, despite trying to go to aa and na and still continues to secretly drink. All she's waiting for is the time to ride out the publicity storm and head back to where she belongs making the music she's wanted to her whole life.

#kismetharbor.intro #i know the graphic says dilan #but i cannot be bothered to make a new graphic

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Harbor Lights by James Lee Burke

Dark and disturbing look at times, places, and people I had trouble relating to or liking. At times I wondered if the author saw himself in some of the characters he put into the stories and if so, what that said about him.

HARBOR LIGHTS: This story has a man’s son encounter things he would have been better off never seeing or thinking about. Infidelity, mental illness, abuse of authority, war, and secrets left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the story.

GOING ACROSS JORDAN: Migrant workers, pushing unions for the workers, two men doing what they think is right, another man abusing status and power to rape a woman, a beating and death, MacCarthyism, and more. Not sure if two came out happy in the end or not.

BIG MIDNIGHT SPECIAL:  Prison is not a place I would want to be and especially not in the South when this story was written. Choices were limited and freedom for Arlen rather difficult to achieve in a healthy manner.

DEPORTEES: Three generations with issues to deal with. Alcohol abuse, rape, deportation of illegal immigrants, another corrupt cop, and a murder again didn’t leave a speck of light for any at the end of the story

THE ASSAULT: A widowed professor with a daughter who is beaten outside a bar does some sleuthing that gets more than one person in trouble. Another story with bigotry, murder, and consequences that no doubt follow those that survive

THE WILD SIDE OF LIFE: Elmore, a seismographer, is a Vietnam veteran who realizes some he works with are corrupt and evil, he tries to save a woman in an abusive relationship, and seems incapable of dealing with his demons and settling down.

A DISTANT WAR: Strange story of a father and son having car trouble and ending up in what seemed to be a time-warp-alternative-dimension. Creepy and disturbing with historical elements, racist people, and a feeling of disconnection. Not sure what happens to the main characters.

STRANGE CARGO: Ghostly story with Broussard talking to his daughter’s ghost, another corrupt cop, murder of an innocent man, mixed messages, and the feeling at the end that nobody in the story was happy and there was no hope for anyone.

Did I enjoy this book? No

Was it well written? Yes

Would I recommend it to others? Only if they like dark unsettling stories without hope

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for the ARC  - This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

BLURB

A dynamic, gripping collection of short stories from “America’s best novelist” ( Denver Post ), the New York Times  bestselling James Lee Burke Harbor Lights  is   a story collection from   one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge A boy and his father watch a German submarine sink an oil tanker as evil forces in the disguise of federal agents try to ruin their family. A girl is beaten up outside a bar as her university-professor father navigates new love and threats from a group of neo-Nazis. A pair of undercover union organizers are hired to break colts for a Hollywood actor, whose “Western hero” façade hides darkness. An oil rig worker witnesses a horrific attack on a local village while on a job in South America and seeks justice through one final act of bravery.  With his nuanced characters, lyrical prose, and ability to write shocking violence in the most evocative settings, James Lee Burke’s singular skills are on display in this superb anthology. Harbor Lights  unfolds in stories that crackle and reverberate as unexpected heroes emerge.

#James Lee Burke #Atlantic Monthly Press #NetGalley #Stories #Dark #Gritty #hopeless #bigotry #rape #corruption #unionization #migrant workers #deportation #murder #crime #prison

[tokiro07]

Martial Master Asumi ch.2 thoughts

[Fight or Flight]

I said I probably wouldn’t do this for MMA like I do for Undead Unluck and Cipher Academy, and it’s hard to say if I’ll have much to say or the time to say it going forward, but right now I have both, so here we go!

Much like how I spent the first several reviews of Cipher Academy drawing parallels to Medaka Box, I can’t well help but compare MMA to Hinomaru Zumou at this point

Asumi is a fascinating contrast to Hinomaru: Hinomaru had such a deep and genuine love for sumo that he was able to overcome all of the natural disadvantages that his genetics predisposed him to through sheer grit and perseverance; Asumi, on the other hand, actively wants to avoid violence and conflict, and only attained the skills of a martial artist by practicing with his grandfather out of guilt and obligation, but otherwise views himself as someone with no love for the sport and his potential involvement in it as disgraceful to those who do

Of course, his avoidance of martial arts is rooted in fear, not hatred, so naturally he’ll sooner or later come to find that love which will likely become the driving motivation going forward, but for now, he’s on the opposing path to Hinomaru. When Hinomaru was faced with his own weakness (his stunted size compared to everyone else), he forged ahead and made something great out of himself, whereas when Asumi was faced with his (the knowledge that even the strong can die sudden and meaningless deaths), he turned and ran, believing the pursuit of strength to be ultimately meaningless and hoping to find something more fulfilling

Neither of them is wrong for their choice, nor are their interpretations of the barriers they faced necessarily wrong either, but in the context of their characters, Hinomaru’s love of sumo was meant to be a flat character arc where he had the “right” approach that would show other people the flaws in their characters, while Asumi’s fear of martial arts is the beginning of a (hopefully) positive character arc where he comes to realize that the joy he felt when fighting those bullies to protect Yuya is what makes martial arts meaningful to someone like him, not the pursuit of strength for the sake of it

Fittingly, this is where their love interests come in: Reina hated sumo and Hinomaru, but from Hinomaru’s influence came to love both, making her the prime example of another character learning from Hinomaru’s flat arc; Okiba has a genuine love for MMA and sees not only Asumi’s potential, but his repressed feelings, and it is her influence that will allow Asumi to undergo his positive arc

I get the impression that this reversal of approach was actually what inspired the entire series in the first place. Being a male exclusive sport (female sumo being restricted to amateur settings and outright forbidden in professional or ritualistic settings), sumo made for a series with limited opportunities for female involvement, pretty much exclusively showing them as spectators or supporters. While Kawada executed this well, I always got the impression that he wanted to be able to show the women fighting as fiercely as the men with how he depicted their mental fortitude whenever possible. While MMA doesn’t have mixed gender matches to my knowledge, there is a female division, so Okiba will definitely have the opportunity to show her stuff in the ring while likely getting the chance to take on men outside of it too

Aside from the relationship between Asumi and Okiba, the thing I’m most excited about seeing is the development of the theme of safety vs. excitement. I don’t think that this series is going to be used as a way to say that being safe and comfortable is wrong, just that doing so inherently offers less excitement. Pursuing excitement, on the other hand, inherently carries risks; Okiba got hurt during some incident that almost definitely involved recklessness in her use or pursuit of MMA, which while it may have been worth it for her, should naturally go to show that there is value in living life in a way that’s safe. Pursuing strength won’t protect you from death, and in fact may hasten its coming, but to some people, a short exciting life holds more value than a long safe one. Asumi is pursuing a long safe life, but everyone else can clearly see that it isn’t what he actually wants and that it isn’t satisfying him. The objections he gets aren’t from people saying that the choice he’s making is wrong, they’re from people saying that it’s wrong for him specifically. The back and forth between being able to use MMA to protect people and make connections with them vs. the risk that MMA will take away those that Asumi cares about or take him away from them while also not guaranteeing safety from the outside world is sure to make for several interesting conflicts going forward, especially with how much nuance is available to the topic. I’m not going to detail all of the ways I think it could go here, doing that always seems to result in disappointment, but I think this theme can get a lot of mileage and could even branch off into many other themes that would be just as interesting

With such a strong pair of introductory chapters, I’m feeling confident that this series will make a connection with its audience and generate the kind of staying power needed to last in this industry. Here’s hoping that Kawada can keep up the momentum!

See y’all next week

#martial master asumi #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews

[risetodelirium]

Hi! Sorry if that last ask came off a bit rude, I was half asleep when I sent it! I think I get what you’re saying, but the belief isn’t that you can create a whole new reality. Just that you have the ability to shift your consciousness to a reality that already exists. A reality where you are more successful, where you’re an avenger, or you go to Hogwarts, or whichever world you might choose. “scripting” is just specifying which reality you want to shift to! This is just an example, but - “In my DR I’m 25, I’m a Jedi, I’m friends with/dating Obi Wan Kenobi, etc” lol of course we can’t just create a new reality at will! Also most shifters aren’t doing this to hurt/murder anyone or do terrible things, it’s more about meeting comfort characters and having experiences you couldn’t otherwise have!

I completely stand by what I’m saying here in regards of the fictional realm bs. Comfort characters. Go outside. However, I am completely aware that visiting an alternate reality is real. I’m not gonna get into it, but I know in my heart of hearts what shifting actually is and it’s not this asinine talking to fictional characters you never had control over to begin with nonsense.

Ok answering these because my visceral hatred for this has regurgitated itself from my tiktoks. That’s the thing, in these existed realities that you already exist in, what happens to the person your supposedly controlling? You’re just imposing your will onto them? Zero consequences? And what makes you think they wouldn’t be able to do the same here? Making Obi-Wan a Sith!!! What???

The insane god complex that this inferiority-complex witches have is remarkable. Again, I get it, I really do. The idea of going into a world that exists around me would be amazing. And I talk as someone who would be considered a shifter. Dream control comes very easily to me.

So, I’m not saying it’s completely off-base. That would make me a skeptic. I do think we’re capable of dreaming about separate planes while looking through the eyes of ourselves in that plane of reality. I do not think however, that we have this insane god-level amount of control. You realize that right? Being able to control the reality to your very whim would make you a god in some aspect?

And another thing, if one can so easily shift into a reality and super impose their will on someone without being noticed, why come back? I would stay, go into a coma here I don’t care. There’s really no excuse there aside from personal reasons, so you know, one could shape the very reality they seemingly did not create.

I think what really sets me off is people going into a fictional story. Something that could otherwise not exist without someone creating it. I do think this world exists in its own pocket, solely by the whim of its author and those with the authority to change it. I don’t not think it’s capable by some 2-bit teenager with the social skills of chicken. (Ironically, I like to imagine a kingdom hearts sort of scenario)

And here’s the final nail in theoretical coffin, actually, this is how I know it’s not real. Your variety of shifting completely takes away the free will of the characters inhabiting the world. The same way that some god put us on this earth and gave us “free will” while also saying that it’s their will. And somehow, your are completely unaware of this. You are not shifting into a reality, you are in fact just hitting your subconscious over and over with the same rhetoric while already having the visual acuity of the scenario you’re trying to create. I bet you could get the same outcome watching a movie over and over again for a couple of days.

#shiftblr #Wiccan #magick #I’m a witch don’t talk to me

[eponymoussquared]

Escape from the Plot Hole: Part 5

This is where things get..possibly a bit too meta. Except I think I managed to get so meta I looped around to not being meta at all...I don't know, decide for yourself.

Again, please start from the previous one for this to make the most sense.

================================================

His thoughts were disjointed and confused, but a few realizations stood out among the noise. First off, that he was really, actually, in a movie. Which meant that he was either crazy, or he was a fictional character. Neither was particularly appealing. However, being crazy seemed somewhat more likely, although if he was crazy, Jonah wouldn’t be able to find proof of it himself. He was, however, pretty sure he wasn’t fictional. If he was, he’d surely be a lot dumber, and already dead. Lucky for him, he was genre savvy from all the movies he’d seen…

…What movies had he seen? He couldn’t remember any of them by name, come to think of it, or any examples of the tropes that were so ingrained in his mind. Of all the times to have memory problems. His mom would…what would his mom do? Jonah’s thoughts suddenly stopped there. He couldn’t remember anything about his parents. In fact, the more he desperately searched his mind he couldn’t remember anything except the camp, his knowledge of movies, and that he had been there for a few years. Ever since… good god, he didn’t even remember the year! Jonah wracked his brain for something, anything that wasn’t related to the camp, or horror flicks, anything from a favorite color to a bit of random trivia. And yet there was nothing. He couldn't even recall his last name. So why did he remember the camp? Because that's all my character is, he thought. I’m supposed to be dead,maybe make some silly quip about how stuff like this only happens in films. Everything I am is just this, because according to whoever’s making the movie, that's all I am. Just collateral damage.

Jonah's thoughts spiraled deeper and darker. He realized he’d been shaking, and pinched himself—not to wake up, this time, but to focus. The pain helped ground him in the now, pulling him from the dread that he was slowly gaining awareness of. Think, Jonah. He encouraged himself. If your entire identity is being well-versed in horror, you must know a way to survive. How do you live through a horror movie? The first answer that came to mind was ‘you don’t.’ Not helpful, brain. The next was “be the protagonist.” He was pretty sure he wasn’t the main character. If he had to guess, that brown-haired girl he’d met earlier was. Of course, even if he was, that hardly guaranteed his survival. In fact, the only real way to survive a horror movie he could think of was to not be in it.

…Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. Normally in stories like these, cars broke down, it was raining, or there was some reason for everyone to stay at the dangerous place. Yet, if he was just an extra, the story wouldn’t really care if he was gone, would it? Heck, he was supposed to be dead. Disappearing would work just as well. Of course, that meant leaving. He could wait till day, but for all he knew it would just never come. He would have to get to his car.The question was, how? Well, maybe he could just walk there. After all, the story considered him already dead, so…

Jonah paused. Did it? He was a fictional character who was supposed to be dead that had apparently gained self-awareness. He had no idea how any of this worked. In fact, maybe it would try to murder him to fix the story at the first opportunity. Heck, the killer seemed annoyed he wasn’t dead. So how would he manage to stop that? He didn’t have any talents. He didn’t have anything except knowledge of horror that would only be useful to the most die-hard nerds.

…Then again, maybe that left him some wiggle room. He didn’t seem to have a past. It hadn’t been written. So maybe he did have those skills. Maybe he had the exact set of talents he needed to get out of the situation. Maybe he had trained his whole life for this moment.

#One Level Down #writing #getting close to the end #and also to some of the weirder parts #Escape from the plot hole