#THE EPITAPH TO LOST GAMES

[tigirl-and-co]

For a series so very steeped in theology, Zelda sure doesn't wanna tell me anything about the afterlife!!!

#Larking about with Link #loz #we even get ghosts in MULTIPLE games #and souls #as of totk we know there is an afterlife and that one can get lost on their way to it. that's all #we have graves and epitaphs #im just. ginne ANYTHING

[feverdreamjohnny]

The Epitaph of Anything Goes

I decided that this morning I would talk about The Museum of Anything Goes and the subject of lost media.

For the uninitiated, The Museum of Anything Goes is an obscure "game" released in 1995 by Wayzata Technologies, a company that is so far under the radar that I was unable to find any useful information about it outside of TMoAG.

All I could uncover is that they published a few multimedia projects (which are essentially lost now) alongside some asset discs (clipart, SFX, etc.). That's it.

The brains behind Wayzata are even more difficult to locate these days: there are only two main names credited inside of TMoAG - Michael Markowski and Maxwell S. Robertson.

The game alleges that Michael and Maxwell are well known in the art world, but any additional information about the duo is scarce beyond the confines of the museum. Attempting to search for either name online turns up plenty of rabbit holes - but none of them have anything to do with the Michael and Maxwell responsible for TMoAG.

This is particularly fascinating because it essentially means that TMoAG is the only accessible record of their lives. Before we dig any deeper into that statement, let me step back and actually address what this game is.

The Museum of Anything Goes is, by definition, a virtual art museum. Functionally it's a prerendered point-and-click adventure game where you can explore a bunch of multimedia exhibits that give the surface-level impression of a children's edutainment game, but once you start exploring further it reveals a side that firmly plants the game's feet into a haze of substance abuse and surreal humor.

Many exhibits are essentially just toying around with the astonishing new powers of CD-ROM. Everything has to make noise. Everything has to spin and flitter around. There's an air of genuine excitement for the medium, and I can't help but find it extremely charming.

The game also functions as a scrapbook, filled to the brim with photos of random trips to the zoo and snow-mobile rides with friends. At one point we even get insight into something as specific as Michael's one-year job as a tutor at a Chicago middle school, where he talks about how it opened his eyes to how poorly funded and mismanaged the school system is.

It's simultaneously quaint and chilling to see so much personal history packed into a world doomed to obscurity. As I explore the deeper parts of the museum, I contemplate if the creators are still alive today. It's a bit morbid, but imagine that - you create a single obscure game with your friend and it's all the world can see. TMoAG is currently the only surviving piece that gives any insight into who these two men were.

While many exhibits are lighthearted or nonsensical, there are occasional moments where the game dips into the eerie.

One exhibit has the player kill a man by dropping him from the sky, and after burying him you open the coffin to a video of a rotting pig carcass being put into an incinerator.

Other exhibits just feature simple 3D renders shifting around a dark screen while haunting groans play in the background.

While I would never refer to the game as "scary," its darker moments combined with the occasional mature subject matter definitely begs the question: Who is this game for?

You have to remember that this game came out long before the concept of "alt-games" had become codified in the digital space. Sure, unconventional digital art had been around before the advent of 256 colors, but TMoAG was being sold on disk as a game! It came out 2 years after DOOM hit shelves!

The trend of using the PC for entertainment was certainly on the upswing around that time, but It's not like TMoAG had a massive audience to find a niche in. With its mature themes it certainly wasn't suited for the kids market either, so who was it for?

At the end of the day, it's a moot question. We already know the target audience for The Museum of Anything Goes: Nobody. It doesn't have an audience because by its nature, TMoAG wasn't being made FOR someone, it was being made BY someone. It's a raw, unfiltered form of personal expression.

I think games like these are pivotal, because they question why people assume a game has to exist for the sake of being a consumable product. TMoAG certainly has the shape of a product: it features an intro cutscene, it has a tutorial, it features intuitive UX, it even has a map! These are all features that are solely integrated to provide comfort to an end-user. But once you actually wander around the museum for a bit, you realize how bizarrely its packaging fits its contents.

I think TMoAG is criminally underrated. It's not because its core content contains some earth-shaking truth, it's because the game defied all odds and cheated death.

How many thousands of other personal projects were deemed a little "too exotic" to be archived? How much history was lost these past 40 years as the digital space evolved and ate its old skin?

God knows how many other TMoAGs we'll never learn about because they weren't lucky enough to be preserved.

The Museum of Anything Goes isn't just some nonsensical art piece, it's a grave marker for so much lost media. Its existence is a reminder that some people's lives were fossilized, then macerated into nothing because a construction company built a skyscraper over them. The only evidence we have of those other games existing is this little fossil that somehow slipped out from under the skyscraper unscathed.

Even though so much has been lost, TMoAG survives as an epitaph.

#the museum of anything goes #TMoAG #writing

[pheavampire]

Epitaph for corrupted magistrate Astarion

The more I think about it, the more I’m disappointed with Astarion’s plot. Which kind of hurts a bit, because he was the first and main reason I was so hyped for this game.

I’m aware that this in unpopular opinion and everybody loves to help him with his trauma etc. Don’t get me wrong, this is one of the best narrative parts of the whole Baldur’s Gate 3 - if not the best. Well written, nice, interesting psychology and objectively very good.

But I really, really hoped for corrupted, disgraced nobleman who lost everything because his own greed and who now must deal with it - if you didn’t hear about it, this is what Larian’s CEO said 3 years ago about Astarion:

„A disgraced nobleman who used his position as a local magistrate to serve a vampire clan by feeding them prisoners, he was eventually too corrupt even for them and was effectively sent to serve as the personal slave of a powerful vampire.”

I wouldn’t even mind to be able to „fix him”, but I imagined it would be rather letting him understand what a hypocrite he is. I wanted to see a powerful, selfish person in the place of those who he harmed. A person who slowly realises he kind of deserved what he got.

I also wanted Cazador to be more interesting. Cruel, evil - sure, but not that one-dimentional and pathetic character who’s only function in the game is to be a punching bag the player can joyfully kill with nothing but pure satisfaction. I imagined he particularly enjoys tormenting Astarion, because he understands his ironic position. An abuser who abuses another abuser.

Just imagine you and your party breaks into his palace (or crypt) only to learn from Cazador, that Astarion isn’t only the victim. You’re angry, maybe a bit confused, but your vampire companion already changed, at least partially, and the choice to help him isn’t as obvious as it is now. I suspect it could look like this in the earlier phase of game development - lines like „So Cazador was around just when you were bleeding to death on the street? What a coincidence” or „Some Gurs attacked me because of my decree” strongly suggest some cut content the player was supposed to discover later.

My guess is Larian observed players’ reactions during early access and decided this approach is too risky and made Astarion much more sympathetic. It’s not controversial to feel sorry for the innocent victim and it’s not controversial to adore him, even as a fictional character. But giving to such a popular companion an evil past? That wouldn’t be a very popular decision.

Also, I bet they realised they overscoped some storylines and had to make them much shorter and less complicated. Quite typical for gamedev actually.

So yeah, I’m happy I finally have a tormented elven male vampire spawn I wanted for so long in a (kind of) mainstream story, I’m happy he is so popular. But at the same time… sigh.

#astarion #baldur's gate 3 #larian studios #Good night sweet asshole prince #I will miss you

[kit-williams]

How do you think the Astartes would react if they were ever offered to see the ruins of the civilizations that their own was inspired by? Like taking an Ultramarine on a vacation to Rome or a Thousand Son to Egypt? Odd question I know but I’m just ticked by it because not only to the Astartes have to deal with the fact they’re on Holy Terra before the Emperor revealed himself but they’re learning all this stuff that didn’t survive into 30K.

(Again sorry for not properly tagging people)

@egrets-not-regrets @liar-anubiass-blog @barn-anon @bleedingichorhearts

They'd be ultimately curious... the Olympian Iron Warriors looking at Athenian ruins... the Macraggian Ultramarines in Rome... and Prosperan Thousand Sons looking at these ruins and being all

Perhaps they would be flattered that their culture was brought about by a shared zeitgeist that is human cultures that spring up from the cradle of humanity as while there is stuff that is unique to certain planets and certain times... beliefs... etc... to feel the honor that a part of your culture and your identity was shared by someone long dead. (Like how we can find a connection with the epitaph for a dog from Rome)

As for learning about stuff that might have been... lost to the age of strife sort of deal... yeah you best believe they are eating up knowledge. Because its all a careful game of trying to manage your resources but also wanting to help better humanity as a whole... with the legitimate concern of them trying to kill each other if someone advances too quickly.

#warhammer 40k #reply #space marine husbandry #space marine husbandry sentience #answer #lore drop

[free-for-all-fics]

Various Slasher Prompts! This list includes: Brahms Heelshire, Ghostface, Thomas Hewitt, Jason Voorhees, Asa Emory, Jesse Chromeans, Severen Van Sickle and Bo Sinclair. Pls tag me if you’re inspired by any of these ideas and I’d love to read it! 🔪❤️🩸(Special thanks to my bestie @tinalbion!)

1. You’re either born with unique doll-like features or you’ve gotten extensive plastic surgery to look like a doll. Either way you have the face, hair and body of a life size porcelain doll. You’re beautiful and look practically perfect in every way. But it’s sort of uncanny how you dress and do your makeup and hair to look so much like a living doll, almost like you’re an imitation of a human. How does Brahms react? How do you react when you meet this man who’s been living in the walls and wears a porcelain doll mask?

2. Resident Evil Village Crossover: You’re a doll maker like your sister, Donna. You may or may not have mutations and/or the ability to bring dolls to life and control them like she did. After Claudia’s and your parents’ deaths, all you and Donna had left was each other. Naturally, you were very close. You made dolls together, tended to the garden, and left flowers at Claudia’s grave periodically. You were the only person Donna showed her face to, but she still had bad days where she couldn’t bring herself to take off the black veil. Not even for you. You’d never leave the house or go to the village without her because she wouldn’t let you. She used her dolls to keep watch over you while she was away. She always accompanied you outside, afraid something bad would happen if she wasn’t there to protect you.

After her death, there’s nothing left for you in Romania. You’ve never been allowed to step outside the village walls before because of how agoraphobic and overprotective your dear sister was. You’re scared and anxious to travel abroad all alone, but you have no reason to stay here. After burying Donna with Angie in the family cemetery and giving your final goodbyes, you leave Beneviento Manor without looking back. You travel to England, only bringing your personal favorite doll and some small yet precious family mementos that you cherish.

Somehow you meet Brahms and it’s remarkable how alike he is to both you and your deceased sister. Like Donna he has dark hair, hides his face, and speaks through or otherwise uses a doll that’s important to him to communicate. He, too, loves to play games like Hide-and-Seek with his victims. He’s lonely and doesn’t want you to leave the Heelshire mansion either, just like how Donna forbade you from leaving Beneviento Manor without her. Like you, his life is marred by tragedy. His entire family is deceased and he has lived alone in a creepy old house since his parents committed suicide, just like how you and Donna spent your lives after you lost your own parents in the same manner. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Brahms was a long lost brother of yours that was separated from you at birth. Maybe it’s fortunate he has no blood relation to you. So what happens now? (Platonic or Romantic is up to you)

3. Ghost of Thornton Hall AU: You’re Brahms’ twin sister and were beloved not just by your family, but by the entire village. Everyone who knew you loved you. While Brahms was “odd”, you were everything but. Your parents tried to love you and Brahms equally, but you inevitably became their favorite child. When you died with your brother in a house fire, the village suffered a great loss and everyone mourned you deeply. Even 20 years later, your absence is still felt by the village. Flowers and gifts are left at your grave. Your epitaph reads, “Dear Sweet Y/N, Please Come Back”. Rumors and ghost stories spread that you and your brother still haunt Heelshire Manor. Village children make up the rhyme, “Fire So Red, Night So Black, Dear Sweet Y/N, Please Come Back,” and dare each other to recite it in the cemetery at night over and over until they scare themselves silly. Except you didn’t actually die. You were sent away after Brahms nearly killed you. It was a terrible accident and he never meant to hurt you, but it was too much for your parents to bear. So they faked both of your deaths and sent you abroad to America to live with a new family while they kept Brahms hidden away in England.

On your 28th birthday, your adoptive parents tell you the truth and reveal your birth name (omitting the parts about your brother and the fire). You’re sent a letter in the mail that has no return address, but looks like it’s from someone you know. It’s your friend’s handwriting and signed with their name. You haven’t seen them in a while, but they’re inviting you to their house in the English countryside - all expenses paid. How can you say no? Unbeknownst to you, this is all a trap set up by Brahms to bring you back to Heelshire Manor, whether you remember he’s your brother or not.

On the drive there, you stop by a cemetery and see a beautifully decorated gravestone covered in flowers and gift offerings. With your name and birthdate engraved on it. Naturally, you freak out, especially when you see your death date listed as 20 years ago. You’re not dead! So how and why is this here? You’re perturbed and have so many questions but is this really a mystery you want to unravel? The only place you’ll find answers is inside Heelshire Manor. But If you step foot into that house, there’s no going back. You’ll be past the point of no return. Once you come home, Brahms won’t let you leave.

4. Ghost of Thornton Hall inspired AU: A local newspaper has a front page story that reads as follows: A dreary cloud descended over the English countryside yesterday afternoon as services for Y/N Heelshire brought the entire village to a complete standstill. A large group of mourners braved the pouring rain for a chance to pay their final respects to Ms. Heelshire before the private internment on the Heelshire family’s estate. A beloved and charismatic member of the influential Heelshire clan, Y/N was fatally injured during a fire on the Heelshire estate. Since news of her death, outpourings of grief have been seen throughout town, but none were as spectacular as what occurred during her funeral service. Brahms Heelshire, brother to the deceased, was carried out by local police following a violent outburst. Witnesses allege Brahms Heelshire grew agitated during the services, causing thousands of dollars in damage and a few minor injuries. No witnesses were willing to comment to record and Brahms was later released without charges to the care of his family. There is currently no evidence that what transpired that fateful night was anything more than an accident.

“What’s the story with the locked room upstairs?”

“It’s Y/N’s. We don’t go in there.”

“It might help me figure out what’s going on if I could take a look around.”

“Best of luck. That door locked itself up tight the day of her funeral. There’s not a key in this world that’ll open it. I’ve tried.”

Are you truly dead or has your death been faked by your parents? Did young Brahms intentionally try to kill you or was it truly an unfortunate accident and misunderstanding? Will you one day return home to Heelshire Manor and darken its doorstep or does the ghost of your memory forever haunt the halls? It’s all up to you to decide.

5. Crimson Peak/Haunted Mansion AU (no incest!): You’re Brahms’ twin sister. Since you were children, you’ve had murderous urges like he does. Except while Brahms was “odd” and didn’t have many friends, you were a beautiful little girl who looked and acted sweet. You’ve even fooled your parents into thinking you were a perfect social butterfly. But in secret, you’d do weird things like mutilate your toys, etc. Other kids and adults fell right into your traps. It was easy for you to pretend to cry about being lost before isolating your victims and killing them. Covering it up was also easy: No way could a child overpower an adult or do such a terrible thing! But after Brahms killed Emily Cribbs, your parents faked his death by setting the manor on fire. It was up to you to play the part of the perfect daughter and heiress.

20 years later, you’re a stunningly beautiful woman and shine brightly amongst society. Your parents are deceased, and the wealth you and Brahms have accrued from your inheritance and parents’ wills is drying up. You’ve become a somewhat prominent and popular socialite, so you and Brahms hatch an ingenious plan: You go out in society, travel to America and other countries to seduce wealthy men into marriage. Once you bring them back home to Heelshire Manor after your honeymoon, you work your magic on them until they believe themselves to be in love with you. Any weird or strange noises your new husbands hear in the walls you wave off as just the rats, the old pipes, etc. The house is old and often creaks and “breathes” when it shifts. Any concerns they come to you with, you comfort them but tell them they’re just not used to the English countryside air yet. It usually doesn’t take long for you to convince them to sign the papers and leave everything to you.

You and your brother then kill them together and dispose of their bodies. You put on an award-worthy performance as a worried wife with a missing husband, which soon turns into a grieving widow. Then you collect their money and assets, and repeat the pattern as needed. Gaslight and Girlboss. You’re a very successful Black Widow and everyone in the village is none the wiser because you’re such a convincing actress. Brahms and you cover up your crimes so well. Besides, you’re such a darling and do so much good and charitable work for the village that you would never be capable of doing such a heinous thing! You’re so friendly and everyone in the village loves you. You just have terrible luck in love, that’s all!

6. Orphan inspired AU: Heelshire Manor has become a (in)famous though unofficial haunt. The abandoned house has been an attraction for tourists, ghost hunters, and paranormal investigators around the world ever since rumors and speculations from village pub talk have been spread through word of mouth and posted on the internet, exaggerated over time to garner the most attention. The truth behind the story of Emily Cribbs’ death and the fire at Heelshire Manor has been twisted ever since it first got published on online blogs. What was an unsolved crime has now become a ghost story, an urban legend almost. The manor is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Brahms Heelshire and his sister ever since they both died in a house fire when they were children. Videos posted on TikTok and YouTube show strange phenomenon: Porcelain dolls and other objects moving by themselves, inexplicable noises like knocking, the voices of the ghost children, and telephones ringing when the lines are revealed as disconnected and dead. Doors have been shown to shut and lock on their own, and dead animals that were definitely not there before are left lying about in the open. Threatening messages such as “GET OUT” appear written in blood, etc. Some videos even feature rare sightings of the little Heelshire daughter’s ghost. She looks exactly the same as she did on the day she died.

Except you’re not a ghost and neither is your brother. He’s been moving through secret passageways inside the walls and mimicking the voice of a child perfectly. You were born with a rare genetic disorder that makes you have the appearance and voice of a child even though you’re an adult woman. Unwitting people trespass onto your property and break into your family home to film scary ghost content, so you and Brahms take every advantage. You give them the scares and ghost activity they so desperately want then, when they least expect it, you and Brahms strike. You and your brother murder them even if they’re still recording. The videos capture their final moments as they struggle to fight and survive. You and your brother relish in the sounds of their screams or dying breaths as they gasp for air or choke on their own blood.

You then take their phones and cameras, stopping the recordings at just the right moment before you post the videos yourself. Peoples’ skepticism and eagerness to denounce something as fake for clicks or clout works in your favor and allows you and Brahms to get away with endless murders. You then promptly destroy the phones, cameras, or other recording devices and dispose of them just to be safe. The locals know better but are too afraid to go near your house. Nobody ever heeds their warnings and people keep coming like lambs to the slaughter because they think it’s all fake or staged. And since people think you and Brahms are paid actors and it’s all just an elaborate hoax, nobody is gonna bother to investigate. No matter how many people go missing or end up dead, it’s never going to stop. It’s an endless cycle you and Brahms delight in.

7. You’re dating Stu and Billy. You love them both and they love you so it’s perfect that you share and do things as a trio. But because it’s high school and the 90s, nobody understands your poly relationship and you get relentlessly harassed and bullied in school for dating two guys at the same time. You’re called a whore or slut, sarcastically asked by guys for threesomes or hookups since you, “open your legs for two guys already so what difference would it make”, when you’re just trying to get stuff out of your locker or get to class. Thanks to annoying cliques of popular girls, rumors may start that you even have STDs or are pregnant. Even at home, you get creepy or annoying phone calls from girls asking who’s better in bed or guys asking for sexual favors. You’re tired of all their shit so you disconnect your landline phone, which makes your boyfriends worried when you start skipping class and they can’t get a hold of you anymore.

Billy and Stu find out about the situation sooner or later, whether you tell them or not. When they started their Ghostface killing spree, they didn’t have a motive. But now they do. They start tormenting and killing your harassers and bullies. You don’t know your boyfriends are Ghostface and you may be a suspect for a while and questioned by police, but Billy and Stu don’t like that. They’ll take care of it and clean up their mess so that evidence points to someone else (like Cotton Weary) and you’re cleared. Whether you eventually find out they’re Ghostface or not is up to you. How you react to the reveal of them being Ghostface (whether they confide their secret in you and tell you all they’ve done to protect you, or you find out accidentally by being in the wrong place at the wrong time) is up to you.

8. You’re Sidney’s sister and Mickey’s girlfriend. You’re his muse for his film aspirations and often help him with his amateur filmmaking whether it’s brainstorming ideas, traveling to locations, writing screenplays and scripts, etc. While his intentions were the same as Billy’s when he first met you, everything changed when he unexpectedly grew to love you just as much as he loves film. He doesn’t want you to get mixed up with his Ghostface plot anymore. But his methods of protecting you look suspicious and you start to have doubts and feel uneasy around him. When you vent about Mickey to your classmate, Cici Becker, she puts these ideas in your head that he’s either cheating on you and/or wants to break up and is just waiting for an opportune moment. She compares his behavior to her own shitty “boyfriend”, Ted. Why did he ask Hallie to go with him as his date to the mixer party and didn’t even tell you about it? Why else would he be gone and out late so often or not answer your calls? Little do you know, this is why Ghostface later kills Cici. Similarly, he killed Randy for having the audacity to think he had a chance of scoring or dating you.

All his efforts of protecting you blow up in his face when Nancy Loomis shoots you anyway during the final confrontation. Sidney kills Nancy before the vengeful mother can kill Mickey while he’s distracted and unaware of his surroundings. He’s at your side and trying to stop your bleeding, too busy apologizing to you and asking for your forgiveness. He assures you that you weren’t supposed to be here or get hurt, but you don’t know if you can believe him. You’re torn between pushing him away because you’re scared of him and feel betrayed, or accepting his help because you don’t want to die and you still love him. You know it’s fucked up, but a part of you wishes you could pin all the Ghostface attacks on Nancy somehow. You know you’re not thinking straight due to the blood loss, but a part of you still doesn’t want to see Mickey, your Mickey, dead or in prison. You stop Sidney from killing him and she relents, for now. You’ll all be going on a trip to the hospital, but what will happen between you and Mickey afterwards?

9. 10 Things I Hate About You AU: Mickey is paid off by another student to take you out on dates for whatever reason. He’s asked you out multiple times, but you kept turning him down, aware he’s kind of a player and gets around campus. But he persists and eventually does something like Derek did for Sidney where he makes a spectacle of asking you out. So you finally cave and say yes. What started out as a monetary transaction became genuine as he got to know the real you, past the introverted and antisocial exterior you exhibit at school. You’re tempestuous, feisty, and rebellious, but have a very sweet and sensitive heart deep down. You’re tough but he really likes you. Hell, maybe he even loves you as the semester progresses.

You agree to stay up late to help him with his final project for his Film Studies class, but then you both get distracted and bored with filming the documentary. You decide to film a sex tape instead. Something special and private, just for yours and Mickey’s eyes only. He treats it like a passion project. He directs you and acts alongside you as if you were scene partners in a high class art film. During the filming of this sex tape, you tell Mickey you love him. Even if he doesn’t say it back, you feel like he doesn’t have to. You already know he loves you too. But then everything goes to shit when you overhear a heated exchange between him and the student who’s been paying him off. When your sex tape is mentioned, you think he’s shown the tape to other people and feel used and lied to.

“Nothing in it for you, huh? You were paid to take me out! I knew it was a set-up!”

“It wasn't like that!”

“Really? What was it like? A down payment now, then a bonus for sleeping with me?”

Mickey chases after you and insists that he doesn’t care about the money, he cares about you. But after what you perceive as his betrayal, you refuse to listen. You storm off, accusing him of not being who you thought he was. This drives Mickey to become Ghostface and start killing. He wants revenge on those he believed played a part in turning you against him, starting with the punk who bribed him. He’ll come up with a plan to make things right and win you back, one way or another. Even if he has to eventually kidnap you and/or pretend to be the hero and save you from Ghostface. He’ll come up with an elaborate plan and find a way to prove his love for you is real. Even if he has to commit a few murders along the way and pin them on someone else.

10. You’re Sidney’s sister and have been dating Mickey. Murders start happening again following the release of Stab and you get calls from a new Ghostface. You ask Mickey if you can come over; it’s very important that you talk to him in private and it can’t wait. When you arrive at his dorm, Mickey is concerned about your mental and emotional state. You don’t look well. You’re paranoid and stressed, still traumatized from the Woodsboro Ghostface attacks 2 years ago. He acts as a loving and supportive boyfriend, comforting you and distracting you from your anxious thoughts with kisses and more. This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve stayed over at his dorm nor would it be the first time you’ve slept together, but this time feels like a goodbye. You urge Mickey to stay away from you for his own safety because Ghostface is after you and your sister again. Whoever it is won’t hesitate to kill your loved ones to get to you. You tell him you’re leaving town and try to break things off, but Mickey is stubborn and refuses to let you go. He loves you and swears he’ll protect you, but he feels like there’s something else you’re not telling him and demands to know what it is. He blocks the door and stops you from leaving. You’re acting weird and look like a sleep deprived mess, so you’re not going anywhere until you tell him what’s going on with you. You break down and reveal it’s not just you or Sidney you’re worried about anymore: You’re pregnant with Mickey’s child.

After that, things seem okay between you and Mickey. The killings have slowed down so maybe it’s over. But then you inadvertently find a Ghostface costume hidden amongst all his stuff in his dorm while he’s out, and you rightfully assume the worst - that he’s playing you the same way Billy played Sidney. Mickey admits that while that was the original plan, the plan changed when he unexpectedly fell in love with you. He swears he wasn’t the one calling you and that it was his partner, Nancy Loomis. He told her to stop and leave you be after you told him about your pregnancy, but it seems Nancy didn’t listen. He’s lied to you all this time and you don’t know if you can trust him anymore. It isn’t until after the final confrontation when he saves you from Nancy and takes a bullet meant for you that you believe him. He put his own life on the line to save yours. To hell with the film, Mickey wants his family. He wants you and your unborn child more than fame.

11. When you were a baby or toddler, your parents were taking you on a family road trip. They stopped at Luda’s shop for gas and/or snacks. A new and young mother of two boys herself, Luda adored you at first sight. She noticed your eyes were two different colors. You were unique and special just like her sweet Thomas. He’s about your age too, or maybe a little older. Your mom and dad were polite as one of them held you in their arms and told you to say hello to the nice lady, waving your arm for you because you were too shy. Luda gave you an old but pretty doll to play with, and your little smile made her heart swell at how cute you were. You were such a sweetheart and she was sad to watch you leave, but was happy you had parents who loved you despite your mismatched eyes.

When your parents later hit a cow in the middle of the road and died upon impact, Charlie Sr. came along and found you in the backseat, covered in your parents’ blood. He cursed to himself when he heard your shrill crying and screaming. You were confused and frightened but luckily unharmed. He pulled you from the bloody wreckage before the sheriff could show up and take you away. His wife always wanted a daughter, so he brought you back to the house. After he told Luda what happened, she cleaned you up. She rocked you back and forth, hushing you and lulling you to sleep. What a horrific tragedy to have befallen your lovely parents and for you to be in the middle of it. Luckily you were young enough that you wouldn’t remember your birth parents or anything from what’s happened. She’ll love you and raise you as her own. Tommy will have a sister to play with. What’s your upbringing like as you grow up with the Hewitts? With your eye condition and his skin disease, what are you and Thomas like as siblings from childhood to adulthood?

12. You died at Camp Crystal Lake and Jason, this poor man, was so devastated that he was in denial and didn’t want to bury you. He’d just tuck your deceased body into bed or on the couch like you were only sleeping and Pamela had to softly tell him it’d be best to bury you properly. Her sweet boy was hurting and her voice comforted him as best as it could. So he buries you, his best friend and lover, in your favorite spot in the camp. He leaves wildflowers for you every day he visits. Of course Jason would be merciless to those that caused your death (if it was caused through foul play and not by an accident or natural causes) and any trespassers after that. One day a group of typical teenagers at Crystal Lake were telling scary ghost stories and fucking around with a ouija board, or one teen in particular was just being absolutely stupid in trying to go around the camp and "resurrect the Camp Blood Slasher" as a joke.

But joke’s on them, it resurrected you instead of Jason. When you come back and Jason sees your grave is empty and has been disturbed, he thinks someone stole your body. He’s about to go on a rage fueled murder spree - until he finds you in his cabin. Your hair, skin and clothes are covered in dirt and grime. You’re shaking like a leaf and your eyes are wide like a startled deer. You know you died, you still remember that day so vividly. So you have no idea how you’re here now. You’re alarmed that you have no heartbeat or pulse. You have no need to breathe like a normal human. What’s happened? Why are you like this? What day is it? Somehow, you’re now risen and immortal, just like Jason. But while he’s a zombie, you may be more like a vampiric creature that needs blood to survive. Jason has to do his best to console and comfort you like how Frankenstein’s Creature tried to do with his Bride. There, there. You’re safe now and back home with Jason. He’ll never let anything bad happen to you ever again. He’ll teach you what he knows about being undead as best as he can.

13. Orphan/Criminal Minds inspired AU: You’re Asa Emory’s younger sister and the only other member of his family who survived your insane father’s familicide and macabre setting of the dinner table. The experience fucked you both up and warped your minds. The chemicals your father injected you with didn’t kill you, but they stunted your growth permanently. You escaped with Asa before your father could kill or stuff either of you, but you’re frozen in the body of a little girl. Even as an adult woman, your petite stature makes you look and sound like a child. Sometimes your brother takes you with him on “exterminator jobs” and lets you design or set traps. Other times you’ll lure in victims by pretending to be lost or in need of help. Most people can’t ignore a child in distress and you’re such a good actress. You’re so relieved and thankful to Asa for not infantilizing you. He speaks to you and treats you like the adult you are when you’re in the privacy of your house or otherwise not hunting for victims.

But you’re often angry and envious of adult women, frustrated at your own body. You ask your dear brother to bring back “dolls” for you to play with when he’s working. You’re both artists; While he’s a licensed Entomologist, you’re a master seamstress. He creates masterpieces with his collection of insects while you create beautiful garments for your victims. Asa steals jewelry from houses for your personal use. Sometimes you use parts from different bodies to mix and match in order to create the “perfect woman”: What you think you’d look like as an adult had you been able to grow normally. After you sew the body parts together, Asa preserves your work through embalming and puts it in the hotel.

Other times, you ask Asa to bring back beautiful women alive. These women are abducted by your brother and then paralyzed due to being heavily sedated with drugs through an IV. They’re conscious but cannot move or speak. You wash them, tend to their wounds, dress them up in clothing you made, and do their hair and makeup. You pose them however you want and talk to them like they’re your friends. You care for them until you either grow bored or they inevitably die from the drugs. Asa disposes of them or moves them to his hotel for his own artwork. As fucked up as it is, you and Asa truly love each other as siblings should. You do what you can to protect and care for each other and keep yourselves safe and under the radar.

14. Doctors were able to save Jesse’s baby by performing a post-mortem C-section after his wife killed herself. But knowing what kind of man he is and the gruesome details about the heinous crimes he’s committed, they falsely reported that you died in the womb along with your mother so that Jesse wouldn’t think to come after you and you could have a chance at a normal life. You were adopted by a new family and live under a new name, but sooner or later Jesse finds out one way or another that his child is out there somewhere, alive. He’s livid at this deception. He’s gonna make the people who faked your death and kept you away from him all these years wish they had never been born. Death is too merciful when there are many a worse fate he can arrange. He may even kill your adoptive parents just to eliminate all obstacles that would potentially get in the way of him taking you back. Either way, he’s going to kidnap you. It’s inevitable.

He’s your father and he loves you, even if he shows it in strange or scary ways since he can’t talk and is often surrounded by blood, gore, and death (Remember how he used a creepy Text-To-Speech program with his victims’ voice recordings on his phone and patted Princess’s head with his knife? Yeah. It’d be like that). When the time is right, he may even show you his face and tell you the story of what happened to him. When he heard the tragic news from Spann, he mourned for you rather than for his wife. While she was a means to an end to keep up a cover, he wanted more than anything to have a child of his bloodline to carry on his legacy. He never loved her, but he always loved you from the minute his wife told him she was pregnant. Once he has you back, he’s going to call you by the name he would’ve given you. The name your adoptive parents gave you is wrong. Your past life is dead. You always have been and always will be a Cromeans.

He’s filthy rich so he’ll spoil you and give you practically anything that your heart desires. But he’ll keep you under close watch and heavily guarded. Every room in the massive and luxurious mansion you live in has security cameras monitoring your every step. You feel like a bird in a gilded cage. Of course you can go outside and go anywhere you want! A trusted employee just has to drive and accompany you everywhere you want to go. Doesn’t matter if you’re old enough to drive and have a license or not. He won’t let you escape. He’s missed out on so much and he wants to get to know everything about you. He wants to mentor you and raise you to be his heir. One day you’ll inherit his “business” when you’re old enough and he either retires or is gone. Everything will be left to you and you’ll want for nothing. He’ll kill anyone who tries to usurp him or steal your rightful inheritance (cough Preston cough). He’s trying his best to be a good father, but given his line of work, well, it’s…complicated.

15. You and the slasher of your choosing love to make snuff films/sex tapes. You kill your victims in creative ways because you’re not just committing murder, you’re making ✨art✨. You do all sorts of weird stuff with your “subjects” (use your imagination) and then have sex in their large blood puddles while they bleed out and/or next to their freshly deceased bodies. You film it all on tape. You and your slasher are smart and resourceful so that the tapes can never be traced back to you or fall into the wrong hands and get exposed to the wrong people. You use voice modulators, never show your faces, etc. You’re both sick and twisted, but you aren’t incompetent or stupid to incriminate yourselves. You could send your tapes directly to the police and they’d never find you. That’s how experienced and skilled you both are.

16. Near Dark and House of Wax Crossover ideas: Your older brother, Severen, made the stipulation that he wouldn’t join the clan unless he could bring you with him and turn you when you became an adult. You were still a child or teenager at the time and were his responsibility in your human life. You’re the only person in his family that he ever loved and he practically raised you (for better or worse). While you were still human, the clan would use you as a lure to fish for victims or to run errands for them during the day. Severen taught you how to defend yourself and gave you a trusty weapon to carry with you in case of trouble since he couldn’t be with you during daylight. In your vampire life, Severen’s love for you remains the same. Your brother can be cruel, violent, aggressive, and sadistic. But as your vampire sire, he taught you how to use your beauty and charm to seduce your victims. He emphasized the importance of never showing hesitation about killing. He and you make a chaotic duo. You hot-wire cars to go on high speed joyrides and eat the cops that try to pull you over, commit arson and theft, etc. You put on ✨performances✨ whenever you murder. It’s not enough to just kill. Yawn! That’s boring. You and Severen have to dress up and play a role. You have to make up a character or story. Or walk over a bar counter and slit throats with your boot spurs, etc.

Your road trips with your clan land you in Ambrose where you meet the Sinclair brothers. You really like them, especially Bo. He’s handsome, charming - A dangerous yet cunning murderer. Just like his brothers. All three of them put on stunning performances! Lester gives lost folks a ride into town, Bo sabotages their cars while they sleep then plays the part of a friendly mechanic, and Vincent silently lurks and slinks in the shadows. The brothers work together to murder their victims and put their embalmed bodies on display in the wax museum. Sometimes their victims are still alive while paralyzed in wax and posed. How avant-garde!

You spend most of your time with Bo during your stay and Severen hates that. He hates any human who has the audacity to flirt with or try to seduce his baby sister. It’s always been you and him for over a century! He doesn’t like that Bo is butting in and taking up your attention and time. He once saw you and Bo turn up the music in the garage and go downstairs to some secret room. He knew what you and Bo were doing down there and nearly blew a gasket. It took every last bit of self restraint for him to not barge in there and rip Bo’s head off from his shoulders and gorge on his blood. He had to leave and go out hunting to calm down.

Severen loves you, so he’ll begrudgingly tolerate Bo but his patience has always been thin. You may have to turn Bo and take him as your companion if you want him to live. If Bo isn’t your mate, your brother will probably snap and cut off his face or kill him in the most horrific way he can think of. The only thing stopping him right now is you, since you seem happy with Bo and are in love with him. (Don’t worry, Bo and Severen will warm up to each other and become best friends eventually. They’re very much alike.) Even if you have to turn Lester and Vincent and bring them along to get Bo to agree to your terms of joining the clan, that’s no problem. They’d be useful with their talents and welcome additions.

OR

You’re the youngest Sinclair and only daughter, so your elder brothers are very overprotective and almost smothering in how much they love and look after you. (Maybe you were born kind of sickly and that chronic sickness has been with you all throughout your life, even as an adult.) They practically raised you since Trudy and Victor were absent or neglectful even when they were alive. It was always one of your brothers who had to watch over you to make sure you didn’t run too far away when playing outside. They were your playmates and kept a close eye on you to make sure you didn’t get hurt or kidnapped. If you did get sick or hurt, they took care of you and made sure you had the right medicine and everything you needed.

Bo killed your father to protect you when the doctor went mad after Trudy’s death and tried to “fix you” with his heinous medical experiments. You would’ve been killed if your eldest brother hadn’t acted and shot Victor with his own shotgun. When he and Vincent were old enough, they pulled you and Lester out of foster care and brought you back home to Ambrose. You’re an adult now, and shit goes down when Severen and his clan just randomly drop in unannounced at Ambrose. Lester didn’t drive them in. Who are these punks? The cowboy vampire seems drawn to you and is stuck to your side like glue from the moment he meets you, always incredibly flirty and charming. Your brothers probably don’t like that but what can they do against a vampire clan? What can they do against a vampire who’s found his mate and it just so happens to be their baby sister? That’s right, nothing!

Severen hates that you’re hurting and suffering from your chronic illness. The medication you have to take and strict routine you live by daily seems like a lot just to remain somewhat functioning. He’s disappointed whenever your brothers interrupt your time together and take you back to the house to rest because your illness is worsening. The creep that he is, he may climb through your bedroom window to watch over you while you sleep just in case you need something while your brothers are busy murdering people. He’ll want to turn you sooner rather than later so that your illness dies off with your human self. The transformation is painful and difficult, but you’ll become not only stronger and faster, but also incredibly hotter. You’re hot now, so imagine how sexy you’ll be as a vampire!

But your brothers can be stubborn and will need lots of convincing first. Of course they’d love it if you were healthy! if vampirism can truly expel the illness from your body and it’s what you want, they won’t stop you from making that choice. But they’re not just gonna give you away to some vampire as if you’re property, even if he is your “mate”. Something this serious calls for a good ol’ sit down with the entire clan at the kitchen table. Good thing the vampires have all night, because this discussion is gonna take hours. Your brothers are gonna pull an all nighter while they interrogate the vampires and set down some ground rules. Severen would do anything to have you, even if it meant turning all of your brothers into vampires. They’re your family too, so If you want them to join the clan and they agree to being turned, he’ll welcome new members in without complaint for once.

#slashers x reader #slasher fandom #brahms heelsire x reader #brahms x reader #Brahms Heelshire and sister reader #ghostface x reader #billy loomis x stu macher x reader #mickey altieri x reader #Thomas Hewitt and sister reader #Asa emory and sister reader #chromeskull and child reader #jason voorhees x reader #severen x reader #Severen and sister reader #bo sinclair x reader #Sinclair brothers and sister reader #various slashers #random fic ideas #random prompts #fic ideas #fic prompts #pls tag me if you write any of these #i’d love to read it

[woodchipp]

I'm gonna be honest - along with OMORI pressuring the player into choosing the good ending lest Sunny kills himself, the whole DUET cutscene doesn't strike me as anything but very blatant emotional manipulation either. Every mention of it I saw was followed by fans talking at length about how thoroughly devastated they were left by that moment, but if you look past the Feels and focus on the Reals, what is there to be devastated about, really?

The (supposed) purpose of the cutscene is to show Sunny placating his depression by recalling the good times he had with Mari and his friends... except that is exactly what he's been doing via Basil's photo album throughout the entire game. That's what Memory Lane, which you have to go through right before the final boss, was there for. And just like the aforementioned two, the good times showcased in DUET are glurgy, meaningless fluff. They don't tell you anything new about the characters and they don't show them helping each other through thick and thin as people you could call "real" friends are supposed to. The fact that the cutscene itself looks like a PowerPoint slideshow or something you could theoretically cook up in Windows Movie Maker doesn't help, especially if you remove the music track altogether.

I think one of my "favorite" moments is Sunny and Mari meeting Kel and Hero, which is represented by the latter two literally popping out of thin air

You'd think that as a story with the power of friendship as one of its central themes, the game would show how the characters became friends in the first place and what makes them gel together, but no. This is all you get.

It's the same thing with Aubrey and Basil. The gang meets Aubrey for the first time while she's crying on the sidewalk before the game cuts to her introducing Basil to them. Was them comforting Aubrey over her lost shoe enough for her to befriend them? How exactly did she and Basil meet? I dunno, you tell me! Think about the plot so the writer won't have to!

So emotional. So peak. Two hundred thousand dollars was spent on this.

Speaking of Sunny and Mari, the cutscene's Peakest™ moment is the smash cut from a bright shot of Mari embracing a younger Sunny to a gloomier shot of the older Sunny sitting there all alone and morose, which delivers the message with all the subtlety of a nuclear bomb explosion

she passed on The Emo to him. truely devastating. also why do they both look malnourished. what the hell is this artstyle

Yes, game. I get it. The grass was greener when Mari was alive. That's roughly her gravestone's epitaph. What is the point of this? What am I supposed to cry about?

That brings me to what I believe is the main problem with DUET, and a problem with the game itself as well - the story doesn't put in any real effort to flesh out the characters you're supposed to feel bad for, yet expects you to feel bad for them anyway. Even after playing the entire 25 hours of this game, I don't know anything about Sunny, nor can I recall anything noteworthy about him except from him calling lemons "oragnes". I don't know anything about who Mari really was except that she's treated by the narrative as if she was Jesus in the flesh. They're not characters - they're effectively cardboard cutouts, and I have no idea why the game's imploring me to shed tears over two cardboard cutouts.

The cherry on top is Omori straight-up vanishing after the cutscene ends. One could argue that Sunny's victory was temporary, but that's not indicated - Omori seems to actually vanish once and for all after the game's events, and the main menu even features Sunny himself as opposed to Omori to mark the change. Because we all know that severe depression can be treated by thinking happy thoughts, right? tfw the powerpoint slideshow was so cringe that even the depression decided to peace out

Maybe I wouldn't have been as harsh if the story had Mari kill herself instead of it being a cover-up for manslaughter. Maybe then I'd have been able to see the tragedy. But given the context of the plot twist, all I can see is a coward and a liar soothing his well-earned guilt over committing a serious crime and lying about it in the most laughably melodramatic fashion possible.

#omori #omori game #omori fandom #omori sunny #omori mari #omori kel #omori hero #yeah yeah call me a psychopathic monster. whatever #I know that's the only refrain y'all can employ when anyone points out any problem with your game lmao

[moreteethplease]

Devlog: The Museum of Found Things

> Play it here!

Your search for something you've lost leads you to a strange little museum. Stay a while and browse; who knows what you may find?

The Museum of Found Things is a short bitsy game where you explore a rather strange and unusual museum—a place where lost things just might go. It was made for the BITSY FEST jam.

Devlog under the cut.

Choosing A Concept

When I saw the theme of the game jam, "museum", my mind began spinning with ideas almost immediately.

My first idea was to make a game with the concept that everyone carries a museum inside of them, filled with their experiences and memories. If you're lucky, someone might let you visit their museum, and you have to take care of your own museum and curate it if you want to let people in. This was more in line with the stuff I tend to make: prose accompanied by visuals and a heavy-handed metaphor.

But my last few bitsy games have all been like this, and they've been fairly sad or serious, so I wanted to do something just a little different. I toyed with the idea of making the museum a very lighthearted, joke-filled experience. I considered forgoing the whole museum thing and making it more of a cabinet of curiosities linked to one strange and eccentric person. Ultimately, though, I felt that these were too similar to my previous games.

I was lying in bed on vacation with my partner when a song began to play in my head: "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns. I thought, what if it was a museum of lost things? I mulled it over, but I felt that this concept was somewhat overdone already, and I didn't want to just rip everything from a musical song.

I talked about this with my partner, and he said something about how if they're in a museum, they can't really be that lost anymore. This clicked everything into place for me. It would be a museum filled with things that are found, whether because they're always getting misplaced or because they've were lost long ago and finally rediscovered. And thus, The Museum of Found Things was born.

Making The Game: The Rooms

I made the game by first determining the rooms in the museum and what each one was meant to represent. I really can't help myself with metaphors, you see.

I decided that each museum room should look almost exactly the same except for its star display in the center of the room. This made it much faster to make each room, as I just needed to copy sprites and add dialog to them.

Most of the rooms are adequately explained via both text and subtext, but I wanted to highlight my favourite exhibit. In the fourth room, which is dedicated to things that are found renewed and reclaimed, is a glass display case featuring replicas of people's tattoos. This is meant to signify feeling like your body is yours again, and I tried to illustrate that clearly: one has a Medusa tattoo, one has a semicolon tattoo, and the final is one half of a pair of top surgery scars.

Outside of the museum, I added a small grave dedicated to a former partner who passed away. I thought it would be amusing to write the epitaph on the tombstone in the style of Lemony Snicket's Dismal Dedications. I think she'd find it funny.

Making The Game: Everything Else

Writing-wise, I tried to keep the tone light, even when heavier subjects were discussed. The heaviest and most serious exhibits I allowed to speak for themselves.

I always like using borksy hacks to do all sorts of fun stuff, and this time around, I used it to allow me to edit rooms from textboxes so the curator's sprite only becomes interactable after a player has examined everything in the room. I also used borksy to allow dialog choices. I remember the first time I used the dialog choice hack for my game Making Tea At The End Of The Universe. It wasn't too difficult, but it took a bit of trial and error. I'm so proud of the fact that this time I had no trouble with it at all!

I had trouble with the curator sprite. I wanted them to be memorable and strange without being too detailed and taking away from the relatively simple museum rooms. After a lot of unhappy reworking, I remembered I'd downloaded some 16x16 fantasy sprites by kcaze a while ago, and they're all free to use! I chose a djinn sprite and adapted it, adding animation as well so the curator appeared as lively as their personality.

Sadly, I couldn't find any music that I felt truly fit the vibe of the game better than silence did, so the game is silent for now. I doubt I'll change that, but hey, you never know.

Well, thank you for reading this! If you're interested in playing the game, check it out here!

#devlog #bitsy #indie dev #indiegamedev #indie game #interactive fiction #gif warning

[247reader]

Day 6: Ada Blackjack!

It was 1920 in Nome, Alaska, and Ada Blackjack desperately needed work. She’d been born Ada Delutuk, sent to a residency school after her father’s death, and only recently had escaped her abusive marriage, obtaining a divorce and then walking forty miles with her son in her arms. Then that son had contracting tuberculosis, and Ada had been forced to sign him over to an orphanage - with the understanding that she could reclaim him once she had money for his care. And then, opportunity knocked.

Eccentric explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, he of the “friendly arctic,” had hatched a bold plan. Members of his previous expedition - Stefansson not among them - had survived months marooned on lonely Wrangel Island. Perhaps a more prepared group - Stefansson, again, not among them - could colonize the island for Canada! He wanted at least one Inupiat seamstress among his hand-picked crew of scientists, likely remembering Kiruk’s aid on the previous expedition, and Ada was hired… though it came as a shock to her to find that she was the only Alaska Native on the tiny expedition: five men, herself, and Vic the cat.

By the end of the first year, the situation on barren, freezing Wrangel Island was dire. Game was sparse, and one crew member, Lorne Knight, was already weak with scurvy. The three remaining men set out for help - and were never seen again. Ada nursed Lorne, but there was nothing she could do to prevent his slow, lingering death - and soon she found herself the only living human on the island. Ada and Vic were rescued after two years on the island, and she was finally able to reunite with her son. She moved to Seattle, where he would receive the best tuberculosis treatment, and made a second marriage that ended in a second divorce. She and her family later returned to Alaska, where she died at 85. Though she avoided the spotlight, her second son, Billy, never lost sight of his mother’s accomplishments. He composed her epitaph: “The Heroine of Wrangel Island.”

#ada blackjack #american history #indigenous history #inupiat history #polar exploration #history #awesome ladies of history #october 2023 #my art

[wraith-caller]

Elden Ring and the 5 Stages of Grief

The story around Those Who Live in Death is often characterized as being about prejudice. They didn't choose to be what they are, the game paints the Hunters of the Dead as blindly seeking an enemy to contend with, Rogier says they are in need of saving, and Fia seeks to "stay their persecution". Alongside the omens, the misbegottens, and the albinaurics, TWLID are just another rung on the Golden Order's "not fit for life" ladder of being. But there is another lens we could view this story through, and I don't see it brought up very often. I'd like to suggest that this is a story about death and the very human reactions to it, manifest in the behavior and actions of the characters integral to the Duskborn questline.

🚨🚨SPOILERS AHEAD🚨🚨

Darian - Denial

"Those Who Live in Death fall outside the principles of the Golden Order. Their mere existence sullies the guidance of gold. Tainting its truth. And so it is the vermin must be exterminated... Down to the very last."

Darian is presented to us as someone staunch and unflinching in his beliefs, to the exclusion of all other perspectives. The Order has told him that the dead are vermin, and that's all he needs to know. But it's not just their word he's taken. He's witnessed the bloodshed and pain that the living dead inflict on others, and he laments it. We meet him beside a dead man, killed by TWLID, and he tries to keep us from running headlong into the same fate by warning us away from the Mariner. Darian has only seen the cruelty and the violence of death, has been mired in it as a hunter, and relentlessly pursues an end to it. He is denial, resistant not just to death but to change.

Devin - Anger

"Soon you will know, filthy witch! The wrath of D!"

This one's probably simplest to argue. Devin's singular scene in game is all about gaining vengeance for Darian, and he makes repeated use of the word "wrath". Death has forced its way into his life, first in the face of Godwyn that drives him mad, and again when his brother, the other half of his soul, is murdered. When we meet Darian, his sword is planted in the earth and he is praying for the dead. When we last see Devin, his sword is raised high and covered in blood as he curses Fia's mutilated corpse in anger.

Godwyn - Bargaining

"O brother, lord brother, please die a true death."

Like Miquella, Godwyn is more of a presence that hangs over the events of the game rather than much of an active element within it. It's hard to dredge up much about his character to make this link. But there are some pieces connected to him, such as the quote here from the Golden Epitaph, a weapon made in his honor, which come from a place of bargaining. There is Miquella's desire to bring him a true death, the mourning of the Crone in the Deeproots("he should have died a true death!"), and the desperation of Fortissax to forestall Godwyn's death. Godwyn himself may almost seem to be begging us for relief, his deathroots erupting from underground as cries for help, spreading his face on the backs of crabs and the castle of his descendants so that someone may see him and take notice of his agony, and possibly deliver him from it. While the bargaining stage is generally geared in the opposite direction, begging for life, Godwyn and those few who know of his fate, may know it is too late for that, and so they beg for a true death instead.

Rogier - Depression

"This is unfortunate...Couldn't change a thing."

While Rogier is a character described as concealing his anger, regret, grief, and fear, his aloof bearing is most reminiscent of someone a bit more numb than anything else. Yes he is friendly and polite, but we're told by the game that this is a mask, and it's something not entirely uncommon in high functioning individuals afflicted with depression. He's someone that has lost everything else - the higher purpose a tarnished may find in the sight of grace, his friendships, whatever past he left behind before either dying or being exiled to TLB, even his life. He gives us, a near perfect stranger, his belongings, easily admitting he has no further use for it, reminiscent of the way a dying/suicidal person might start wrapping up the loose ends of their life. All he has left is his research, which, without our help, he'd have lost the ability to continue. Rogier clings to this final thread, hopes of seeing it through to the end, but his parting words to us are about a void he feels himself falling into, something deep and fathomless, and in the end that void consumes him.

Fia - Acceptance

This is goodbye, my dear. But I am satisfied.

Fia's quest revolves around not just the acceptance of TWLID, but uplifting them, mothering them, weathering the blows an unkind world would rain on them. Death is not an idle interest or a vague abstraction to her, but her profession, her purpose. Where Darian looks at what the dead have done and sees violence and blood, Fia sees the meek in need of a merciful mother. Death is not something to be reviled, but embraced. She even goes to her own end with grace and poise, knowing that the creation of the rune will kill her. She is content with her place at Godwyn's side, and readily accepts her end.

#elden ring #elden ring meta #d hunter of the dead #d beholder of death #godwyn the golden #sorcerer rogier #fia the deathbed companion #godwyn #the age of the duskborn #wraith meta

[veovis-of-kveer]

This summer I worked on a little Myst fan game titled Epitaph. Cyan had some fixes they wanted me to implement and unfortunately due to a hard drive crash in August I lost the Unreal project and the final build which contained Everdunes (shown above.) I eventually took down the earlier build from my website due to Cyan requiring specific additions and changes to the game which I could no longer implement thanks to said HD crash.

#myst #d'ni #gaming #epitaph #fan game

[ot3]

thoughts about the beginning of umineko chapter 6

this short interaction here has been making me feel insane

like theres just so much swirling around my head here

whatever relationship beatrice and kinzo had seems, to put it lightly, fucked up. as much as beatrice seems to hold pride in her title of family alchemist every time we actually explore her relationship to kinzo it seems like a fucking hostage situation

whatever beatrice's relationship to battler is it involves the events of 6 years ago, when battler attempted to leave the ushiromiya family

kinzo being fully confirmed dead before the games start, battler's piece solving the epitaph, and battler becoming the game master and thus the sorcerer at the end of game 5 has him both inherit kinzo's position literally and metatextually.

beatrice was theorized to be kinzo's mistress, and in the game where beatrice showed up as a piece the siblings all hypothesized that she was the long lost child of kinzo's mistress come to stake her claim on the family fortune

and on the subject of long lost children battler has said that there is a chance that he was the baby natsuhi pushed off a cliff 19 years ago, which. well for starters if that's true then what does that mean for his biological relationship to ange? they have the same hair color. what does it all mean. anyway

game 5 also showed us more of natsuhi's feelings of respect towards kinzo and desire to belong to the family proper which, obviously, were not in any way returned by the real kinzo himself and were only there in her delusions

erika uses the 5th game to essentially frame natsuhi for having an affair with kinzo, essentially forcibly casting her as his mistress despite her only seeing him as a father

i dont know man i dont know like this isnt even Theorycrafting i am just trying to untangle the rancid vibes happening in umineko and its impossible. it really took me awhile to get hooked here but i am fully invested in beato's wild ride. on a tangentially related note this stuff with featherine and ange is VERY orv.

#umineko

[findusinaweek]

Music in AC Odyssey

I really wish someone with more musical knowledge would break down the leitmotifs in AC Odyssey’s OST. But I haven’t found anyone yet, and I’m tired and bold so here goes. 

“Legend of the Eagle Bearer” ties AC Odyssey with the larger Assassins' theme of “Ezio’s Family” from AC 2. This is continued in “Enter the Animus”.

The “Korinth” track and “Brasidas” track clearly are tied together, probably because that’s where we first meet him! (This is also why I headcanon that if Brasidas death was faked after Amphopolis, Alexios would take him to the city where they met. It just makes sense after listening to them together. I already picked out their house.)

There is also a clear Myrinne theme that I guess could be a larger familial leitmotif, usually with feminine vocalization or humming. The song that plays when you first start the game is (“Odyssey-Greek Version”) is similar. The game musically starts you out reminiscing and humming along to the familiar theme (and that hits me hard when Alexios hums it).

The song “A Happy Family” transitions from the family/Myrinne theme to cult of Kosmos leitmotif to some kind of inversion of the “Legend of the Eagle Bearer” main theme at 2:46 and I think it’s the best section of the soundtrack. 

I hate the Isu/”Enter the Animus” leitmotif, it’s jarring when I’m just wandering Greece. 

As for the world music:

“Ceremony and Celebration” is from the Epitaph of Seikilos, which is the oldest surviving complete composition that has musical notation (that we know of). It came from a stele, the lyrics translate as: While you live, shine/ have no grief at all/ life exists only for a short while/ and Time demands his toll.

“The Lost Shield” is my favorite shanty that I 100% badly try to sing along to when I play as Alexios. I think about Brasidas’ shield a lot too. 

I usually have an all female crew when playing as Kassandra and “Song for a Young Girl” has such beautiful harmony, I like to think we’re like sirens. Underestimated, beautiful, and then deadly. 

#I figured out how to edit text?! #ac odyssey #game soundtrack #The music of AC Odyssey #the flight #mike georgiades #messolonghi cultural center choir #epitaph of seikilos #music #ok it's 4am #i think about this a lot #emotionally attached #brasidas #alexios #kassandra #myrinne

[beevean]

20, 21 and 16

Already answered 21, I can't think of much else :P

But since I was asked 24 and not 21 (I just noticed it, sorry!), I'll do it here :P

16) you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

The idea of Sonic breaking down in tears. I absolutely love when Sonic emotes, I'm one of the three people who enjoys Lost World's story after all :P but crying isn't the only way to express emotions. Some people don't really do that, and Sonic is one of them.

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring

'06's and Frontiers' stories, although I don't know if '06 can be considered fully canon. I'm sorry, watching cutscenes of those games bores me to tears.

24) topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

SONIC NEVER KILLED ANYONE, HE'S A MERCIFUL HERO, WHY DO YOU WANT HIM TO BE THE PUNISHER

EGGMAN HAS SOME GOOD IN HIM, YOU CAN SEE IT WHEN HE HELPS SONIC SAVING THE WORLD

STARLINE DESERVED "BIG OOF" AS HIS EPITAPH AFTER ALL THE EVIL HE DID (THAT SONIC DIDN'T KNOW OF AT THE TIME)

idw is the worst thing that has happened to the fandom since '06 killed everyone's hopes and dreams

[searchingforserendipity25]

Can I ask Maglor for the ask game please? :)

Character Ask Game 💚🤍🖤

Maglor

Thank you so much @theghostinthemargins <3

I loved writing this even if it took some time, it was so enjoyable (too many Maglor thoughts to be easily ordered!)

one aspect about them i love 

Everything! Favourite blorbo. I have a big weakness for characters who are very alive to their role in the narrative and try to talk over it while removing themselves from it, the tension of narration as agency/acting as foretold is delightful. 

To narrow it down: I love that he wrote the Noldolante. I love it.  Regardless of the angle you take with it, he was doing something with it, and the vast possibilities of interpretation comes across as playing into the authorial intent of it all - it’s a work of mastercraft to be judged, as the deeds were judged. It’s a fascinating situation from every ethical and emotional angle, and the idea of such a text/work of oral memory/manifesto/epitaph/elegy existing, outlasting him, lingering as his last word and testimony - delicious!

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

 Sometimes exiting the narrative while making a very pointed point that the narrative you’ve composed is over is the best possible choice! 

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character 

Nomadic at heart, and all the time too. Hates cities; genuinely believes Turgon lost his mind in the Ice to think Gondolin is a good idea (laughs about it very tastelessly in public); very concerned about Finrod, hence the regular invitations to hunts outside the caves of Nargothrond. 

The Siege was nightmare for many reasons, but honestly? Mostly because they had to stay stuck in the same side of the Mithrim. Fully aware that Fingolfin was on to something about wanting to attack Morgoth during the Long Peace, but also knew the Gap would be the first place to be sacrificed for that gambit, and simply did not care for that.

This decision did not age well, but got too attached to the freedom and challenges of the Gap (hello fun blood-rituals!) to consider doing anything else. Especially on Fingolfin’s terms. It took a long, long time for him to even be sorry about that, never mind actually regret it. 

as well as

one character i love seeing them interact with

 Maedhros. They bring a fun ‘bros bickering over the camping fire’ energy to every slaughter and divine judgment that I really like. 

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Fingolfin, actually. The recognition of the second-born is very bitter. 

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

A minstrel isn't just a guy that sings sometimes! It's a fully official position with political, spiritual and religious, life-long implications. I'm not saying he's getting paid to be the spiritual spokesperson of the Noldor, but I'm not saying he's not not getting paid, in the days of Valinor, when competition for the (then mostly decorative) position of leading singer are an outright cesspit of intrigue and political machinations.

 Unrelatadly, Indis was the one in charge of the jury to decide who received the honour; they developed a very intense frenemis situation when Maglor, in the one and only time he set himself to compete with Curufin for Best Son (also to get some pocket money), set himself to the task with all the drama and verse of an ambitious tiny-sized prodigy around 16 in human years. 

 Nerdanel thought it was hilarious, and absolutely refused to put in a good word with Indis for her son. India also thought it was hilarious - he was very short, his stack of scrolls was very tall, and his demands for a dozen organs and a five-hundred singers for the chorus was cute, as if - but never let it on, and that turned out to be a good influence on Maglor. 

To, uh, a limited degree. He definetely learned a great deal about public relations and the backstage production of narratives to go with the diplomacy needed to calm down primaddonas, that’s for sure, if not necessarily for good.

(He did get the big extravaganza, eventually).

#theghostinthemargins #i'm sorry this took ages! it was. a weird week #this was a lot of fun! #asks and answers #maglor #headcanons

[construingseacats]

Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 14: Boiler Room

Sun, Oct 5 1986 - Indeterminate

The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.

And we’re off… with another Wikipedia section.

I kind of let it slide last time, when they were talking about Maria and childhood development, but I want to take that back now. George lost both his parents in a horrific murder moments ago. There is absolutely no way he would be engaging in intellectual discussion about the specifics of locked room mysteries, in the same way that the trio shouldn’t have been going “this is also interesting from a sociological standpoint!” a couple hours after they saw their parents/love interest mutilated in an abhorrent murder scene. Bad writing.

Gonna be real: this is fairly uncomfortable. It’s played lightheartedly, but hitting Maria several times, even semi-playfully, feels very inappropriate after the scene in the rose garden. None of these characters are acting anything like they should under the current circumstances.

This story is very obviously fictional and fantastical in nature.

And so we get to the big scene. While the first twilight is my personal highlight of Episode 1, I’m pretty sure most people agree that this one is probably the most important.

So, Yasu throws away the title of furniture, and sacrifices the Kanon persona, knowing there is no turning back now - there’s no shortage of analyses for that. What really stood out to me here was the roulette discussion - it’s something that has been brought up quite a few times, as the concept of the Demons’ Roulette is pervasive throughout Umineko, but I haven’t had any major thoughts on it so far. Here, as the focus, I think the roulette is a reflection of the massacre as a whole.

Yasu wants to be stopped - but she, at this point, knows that’s almost certainly not going to happen. The family are too caught up in their own drama, they’re too self centred, their thoughts have turned to staying alive rather than solving the Epitaph. They want to solve the murders, but they’re not on the right wavelength to understand Yasu. Her motive is inscrutable, her methods esoteric. The Ushiromiya family is doomed. The roulette is red or black.

She, however, is the zero on the roulette. Yasu is the green. When Kinzo spoke earlier of the high risk, high reward of the roulette, this is what he meant - either everyone dies, Yasu gets her revenge, we see the likely outcome of red or black. But if someone solves the Epitaph - if someone understands Yasu - if someone discovers her, this extra spot on the roulette, they win. And she wants to be understood. By someone - anyone. She wants them to win.

Beatrice’s game is one where she always wins; she casts a dice and cares not for the result, as she is content with any. If the roulette is red or black, the house wins, she profits. But if the house loses - and the family are rewarded with their 10 ton payout - she still wins. Because she has traded all the gold for an honour that no money could ever buy.

Man, it always feels unfortunate when I have to go directly from making a deep point to a more surface level observation, or comedic note - but I do like the consistent use of “makeup” across the murders. Very funny when it’s quite literal for the faked deaths. But even for the real bodies - earth to earth - it adds this layer of doubt and fantasy to the level which should have none.

Yasu has had little control in her life. She has suffered because of the actions of others, from the moment of her conception to where she is now. The events of October 4 and 5 - presuming the roulette hits red or black - is a final gambit to wrestle control back from the world that denied her. And just as Yasu decides to go out on her own terms, Kanon wrestles the stake from his chest, a final action that gives him the say in his own demise. It is an act of agency - an act of one who is no longer furniture.

Kumasawa, once again, is having WAY too much fun with this. She can’t even hide the smile this time.

I think there’s something to say about the Ushiromiya pride being their downfall here - bodies are dirty. They don’t want to disgrace their own hands with them. They must send for the doctor so that they may make the inspection. If any of them had taken a pulse, checked for themselves, or even tried to rush to assist - the plan would be over. But Yasu knows that these people will fall prey to the fantasy. Why would they help her? No-one ever has. This must have been cathartic to write.

So given the Kinzo situation, this must be the moment that Natsuhi immediately clocks the servants as being culpable. Being aware of what she knows, and aware of what she knows they know, contextualises a lot of her upcoming jitteriness towards them.

You know, we haven’t had Kanon’s death tip yet. I suppose it might be because they’re going with the whole “he could be alive in Nanjo’s office”, but it’s another cute little hint that something’s off here.

Oh we have it again with the characters going off about the history of polydactyly in the family. Umineko is at its best when we are really feeling the human behind these characters. It’s at its worst when they’re listing off facts in a scientific manner right after someone close to them just died.

Oh yeah we get Kinzo’s death tip before Kanon’s. This scene is so suspicious before you even start to really think about it.

So that means Krauss and Shannon are in the clear, right? After all, we saw Krauss with half a face, and Hideyoshi told us that Shannon was there with half a face as well. It’s a good thing that there are no co-conspirators here who would lie to us to preserve the mystery.

Oh, the clock’s getting bigger as we progress through the Epitaph. I like that a lot. Very imposing.

#umireread #umineko #umineko spoilers

[maxwell-grant]

Jojo bingo: Vinegar Doppio/Diavolo

Doppio/Diavolo is one of those characters that I find deeply fascinating, more so than well-realized, which I guess could be said for a lot of other favorites of mine. Everything great about him is almost all in the build-up that ends with an pretty unsatisfying pay-off by the time he gets lost in the Chariot Requiem shuffle (quite literally so), and then gets even more lost once GER happens and, y’know. Diavolo is more famous for his “death” than anything else which is, fitting, in a way, but doesn’t exactly do much to alleviate the idea that he’s pretty unsatisfying as a main villain. I do think there’s a lot to like about Diavolo in regards to his build-up and the ways he’s presented, I’m a lot more generous on the guy than most JoJo fans seem to be. He’s on the bottom of my favorite main JoJo villains but still a character I really, really like. 

He’s definitely he one main JoJo villain who got an undeservedly horrid fate, maybe the worst fate possible and one that countless other JoJo villains deserved far, far more. There’s lots of room to argue over what works and what doesn’t about the Vento Aureo finale but, regardless, I do think it’s a solid concept on it’s own, I do love some GER jokes myself and I like that it gave him a niche as “the guy who’s dying forever”, I like how some fan works play with that idea.

I’d say upfront that my favorite thing about him is how the anime presents him. Now obviously this doesn’t sound like high praise, but so much of JoJo wins me over due to presentation and I definitely think the anime did the best it could and beyond with the character. I love the sounds used for his powers and transformations, I love the ways they adapted or visually changed the phone conversations between Doppio and Diavolo, I love King Crimson and Epitaph’s effects, and I especially love the fact that, unlike prior parts where the villains only really had one theme to go with, they gave him NINE THEME SONGS to go with on the soundtrack (that’s not counting his sung opening interlude), making use of separate motifs to represent Doppio, Diavolo, King Crimson, Epitaph, their key battles vs Bruno and Risotto and the finale, and etc. All of these songs build off each other in their shared motifs for the two and sporadic usages of phone noises, death shrieks, distortion effects, chorus, clock ticking sounds, pitch shifting, all of these mixing and matching and making part of the tracks to capture how discordant and powerful he is. The soundtrack for Part 5 makes Diavolo one of the most musically interesting characters in the entire series by sheer variety alone.

I love Diavolo’s build-up as The Boss and how we kind of grow accostumed to thinking of King Crimson as The Boss, with how frequently he speaks and acts through King Crimson first and foremost. King Salami is an all-timer Stand design, wonderfully expressive, wonderful power, wonderfully vicious and strong even without it’s game-breaking bullshit, it has a wonderfully deadly build-up in how it’s every appearence is heralded by a main character dying. and it works to put one among many layers of separation between us and The Boss along with Doppio, who adds another interesting twist in that he’s visually and functionally indistinguishable from the protagonists. It’s a wonderful way to let The Main Villain operate as Protagonist without spoiling anything about said Main Villain even when we quite literally get inside his head and see him juggling variants and frantically calculating ways to stop his feral manchild alter-ego from getting themselves killed or exposed. I like Diavolo because he’s pretty damn funny, he’s deeply ridiculous and self-destructive even as he makes a lot of genuinely clever plays and moves to stay ahead. I’ve seen him described as the kind of JoJo character that Nicholas Cage could play and I agree with that, he can be brutally comedic in ways intentional and unintentional.

I’m also obviously taken by characters with split/multiple personalities, and I do think the concept is used very interestingly here, in how Diavolo and Doppio function and relate to each other. Diavolo/Doppio is definitely the one main JoJo villain I most definitely have headcanons for because I find them fascinating to think about, to explore. I actually really like that they kinda subvert the usual good/bad thing in that they’re both different kinds of bad, and the seemingly “good’ personality Doppio isn’t actually good at all, merely terrible in different, more aggressive and less self-centered ways. Fandom Doppio is such a boring misread on what a horrid, feral, yet endearing character Doppio is and how great the dynamic between the two is. I love that their main point of contrast personality-wise is that Diavolo is deeply, murderously self-centered, where as Doppio is deeply, murderously selfless, completely willing to disregard his own safety and throw himself headfirst into certain death for the sake of his Boss, who despite caring for Doppio (as much as he can care for anything), doesn’t look back once at the prospect of leaving him behind to ensure his own survival. It’s like if DIO and Vanilla Ice shared the same body and mind, it’s a pretty interesting concept for a dual-identity villain to begin with. 

My take on the “who’s the original personality” debate is, whatever idea I find the most interesting to go with at any given moment, but personally I think it’s less that one is the original and the other is the alter, and more so that they were always co-pilots of the same body (the anime kinda leans in this direction by showing their eyes shifting when they were a baby, something that wasn’t in the manga), and their separation was just further compounded with time (to the point Chariot Requiem classified them as separate spirits entirely). Neither of them is quite “complete” as a person in their own right, it just so happens that one personality sublimated the other to the extent they radically embody two different periods of the same person’s life (Doppio recognizes his hometown as his hometown, despite not being able to recognize himself and Diavolo as the same person). 

I do love fanon takes on Diavolo x Doppio that play up the idea of Diavolo as a protective alter created to protect Doppio, and I even like Diavolo’s finale behavior a lot better with the idea that he always has been this fundamentally immature and childish being, a shy young man’s idea of what a big and untouchable grown man looks like, and without Doppio, with no smokescreens to hide behind, he’s reduced to his naked self, a raving beast perpetually clawing for power and untouchability (in a sense, a way for Giorno to truly overcome his fate by defeating and taking the reigns from, who else, a man exactly like his dad at the bottom line). The idea Diavolo remembers everything where as Doppio remembers nothing, not even his given orders, because Diavolo was created to be a scary and invincible man, where as Doppio was created to be the carefree young boy they once were. One a violent single-minded protective entity driven by a desire to separate themselves from their past at all costs, the other a fleeting memory of a person meant to take the front seat and enjoy life free from the burdens of a past. 

Everytime we see Diavolo fronting, he’s cowering under blankets and hiding in the shadows, where as Doppio gets to go out and play soccer and pet frogs. Diavolo has no wants or desires other than just expanding his criminal organization and protect his identity (even his mad chase for the arrow is more so to keep it away from his enemies and stop them from challenging him, than wanting to do anything with the arrow’s power), and one could argue that his main goal with creating Passione to begin with is just an extension of his clinically paranoid concern over his identity. He follows Kira in the sense that he has no real ambitions, merely an obsessive desire to keep on living exactly the way he does right now, with no possible risk to it, hence why he has to kill Trish, because even though she’s just an average 15 year old who’s literally never even met him, the risk that she could sense and identify him, which she could because family in JoJo works like that, is enough. 

Canonically, all of this comes back to his desire to protect himself at all costs, but I really like (and kind of prefer) fandom takes that instead play with the idea that Diavolo’s doing all of this to protect Doppio, as the only thing about themselves that they were able to salvage from a disastrous past they’ve gone through such absurd lengths to kill and bury. I like the fanon idea that all he ultimately cares about, all he really has that’s worth caring about, is Doppio (and canon Diavolo does care for Doppio, even if mostly out of self-preservation), and his most redeeming quality would also be the one that’s caused literally all of his sins, every murder and torture and drug empire and beyond done by him or in his name (I think one of my consistently favorite things about certain JoJo villains is the ways in which their best qualities, morally speaking, tend to be their scariest traits or lead to their most destructive actions). 

I get that a lot of what I’m describing is more fan conjecture than canon, but I do like canon Diavolo. I just also really like some fan ideas of him that give him more attention than the Vento Aureo finale could. Not all of his concepts are used as interestingly as they could have been, but I liked them as they were, I like this guy quite a lot and I wouldn’t even mind that much if he somehow came back, if nothing else to be freed from his horrid fate, Jesus Christ Giorno, I know GER was acting independently and that you didn’t know what it was doing or gonna do, but what the fuck is wrong with you that your soul manifested this abomination to begin with, you could have just sniped his head with that scorpion beam and thrown him in the river, you didn’t have to go ahead and somehow outdo your father in sheer eternal pointless cruelty

#replies tag #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #vento aureo #jjba part 5 #golden wind #jjba doppio #jjba diavolo #king crimson #character opinion bingo