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cursedsleep-blog · 1 year

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Updated Feedback for Streets of New Capenna

I think my original feedback to SNC was godawful for a lot of reasons, not to mention that it was ruder than it really should have been, so I am writing this.

I think New Capenna has a lot of potential but the set and the setting didn't get enough time or polish.

Story

The main story felt kind of rough. I'm not sure if there were rewrites or something, but it felt underwhelming in the end. A lot of important/interesting questions (like about Halo's effects/purpose and Elspeth's past) were left unanswered. Also still disappointed we didn't get a Riveteers story.

The confrontation with Ob Nixilis felt like it was way faster than it really should have been. Felt like the only real impact was killing Xander and crashing the Font. Maybe should've been a 2nd set with the resulting takeover (and the Angelic Awakening too).

Also the angel situation should not have had to be explained on Tumblr.

The side stories were mostly just OK. I liked the pigeon one in particular.

Setting

Going to split this into smaller sections

Humanoid Cephalids: This feels like the human sliver situation to me. Having them for more diversity was a good idea, but I feel like more Dominarian designs may have helped there. I also noticed and did not like that basically all the guy cephalids were big blurple bald guys with tentacle staches and the girls were blurple women just with tentacle themed hair.

The City and the Citizens: Stacking 3 cities on top of each other was cool, but I don’t feel like the set gave enough of an idea of what it was like to live in the city. For all the talk of how this is the big mob set, I have a clearer idea of what life was like for Ravnicans under the guilds than I did for Capennans under the families. The same goes for plain old daily life in the planes.

The Family Concepts are Cool, but Feel Underdeveloped:

Despite the lack of interest in the city outside of the families, I didn't really get a good sense for how any of the families worked & the lack of any apparent pre-angel law/order does not help. Staying away from cops and stuff was 100% the right choice, but there needs to be some sort of law or something: even law/criminal investigation controlled by the Brokers/Obscura would be good, as long as there is a real reason the Family's operations and crimes/murders are kept on the down low.

On the note of the law, as I was double checking to see if their were RTR-esque outfit guidelines I missed, I finally noticed Rogue’s Gallery had a Broker’s symbol on the sides of where the photo was being taken. If Brokers and maybe Obscura were supposed to act as the law despite also breaking it for power, that should’ve been made more clear and been more prominent.

Again, like with the unclear Angel situation post-set and having a decent amount of Angels in the set, it feels like either communication broke down and/or like there was a decently-big rewrite and that it was too late to change some things

Brokers:

Didn't feel criminal enough for the most part. The strong-arming and contract forcing implied in the sidestories seemed to be MiA, and what crime there was just seemed to be generic murder (i.e. Lagrella the Magpie)

Did not feel very magical or interested in the elements of their colors (barring the one Vermin guy who contracts with animals). One or both go for most of the other families too.

Obscura:

More of the Obscura’s mystical side could have been nice (sphinxs, seers, spirits, etc.)

How they operated seemed unclear, especially how they controlled information. What they did have just seemed to be surveillance, smuggling for no discernible purpose, and more generic crime like robbing a vault. Felt more like Dimir then a faction with White.

The hologram things suck. I know I'm taking care to not be rude this time, but it feels uninspired and un-fantastical and I feel the need to be blunt on this point.

Hard to tell apart from the Brokers, visually and operationally.

Maestros

Still too similar looking to the other Blue factions, and they maybe could have been more interested in their colors non-mechanically.

The art theme was great, though the hotel/hospitality aspects while interesting could have been explained/pushed more.

Riveteers (Also My Original Comments Were Real Bad On Them in Particular):

First off, shouldn't have complained about the boxing ring aspect, I did not know my history there.

The worker outfits helped make them distinguishable from the other factions, but I lot of what they wore still felt pretty generic

That said, after looking closely at them again, I noticed a bunch of them have a gold, scale-shaped trim or pattern on the insides of their coats. That is neat, but again I literally never noticed until today (April 27 2023). It and whatever other fashion choices were made could’ve been made more clear either in the stories or on the cards.

It still sucks that they didn’t get a story, as it may have helped flesh them out more (and I was personally curious about how the faction worked/used its colors).

Tangent below:

Calling the lack of a story for the union faction sus may have been out of line or excessive, but then again (as I finally got around to finishing/publishing this after the MAT leak) hiring the goddamn Pinkertons is too!

Like, not relying on trigger happy cops to retrieve stuff seems fine, but WotC/Hasbro REALLY HAD TO GO WITH THE GODDAMN PINKERTONS?!

Alright back to the point of the feedback, sorry for the tangent, but I had to get that out there.

Cabaretti:

The party-goer styling was generally enough to make them distinguishable.

More magical/elemental than some of the others, but still maybe could've been a bit more 'natural' with their parties, techniques, buildings, etc.

Halo being basically potions/energy drinks (even if they were Soylent Green) kind of hurt the flavor of being a party faction.

On that note, the Cabaret faction not having alcohol does feel off, especially in a plane based in the Prohibition era. Maybe its not reasonable due to rating boards, but if there is any faction where it should be pushed, this is probably it.

If nothing else, maybe grapevines and bottles/glasses/imitating customs around alcohol could have helped with the flavor.

Mechanics

All 5 family mechanics were good/fun, and so were the new Hideaway cards. I really liked the Alliance cards that did different things on their 2nd trigger and Gala Greeters, and Shield Counters were successful as a fixed regenerate IMO. They all did play together quite nicely as well, though as I’m about to get into some stuff sort of overshadowed that.

Limited

WU/WG were overtuned, with Inspiring Overseer being ridiculous. Raffine’s Informant and Jewel Thief was also too damn good, especially compared to cards like Brazen Upstart.

Removal was also bad, and Limited felt like it was too much about 2 color decks hitting 2 drops. A bit more removal that didn’t care about Shield counters may have been a good idea, and some existing removal needed better efficiency.

GR Treasure also had no good payoffs beyond splashing, Jinnie Fay, and Stimulus Package. UB 5-MV Graves also seemed weak. On that note, putting the Hearse in a set testing 5-MV graveyards seemed excessive.

Having said that, I don’t think any archetype (except maybe GR Treasure?) was unplayable, but the depth of WU/WG seriously warped the experience for the worse.

Misc

Some things probably could have been more fantastical than just ‘Human with weird looking holograms’ or ‘Fantasy race doing completely normal thing/normal crime thing with no interesting changes’

Titan of Industry and All-Seeing Arbiter were cool concepts/designs and great uses of the “modern magic city” setting. The former does feel more like a Riveteers card conceptually tho, and I do wish the latter had some Ward. Bootlegger’s Stash and Halo Fountain also work well in the same vein.

Giada, Font of Hope is so pushed (and boring) that I don’t think I ever want to play an Angels deck with it. Hope to see her again though, unless she is meant to be gone for good. (I wrote that bit before MOM)

Finger guns were neat, but didn't feel right for the setting without being fleshed out/having reasons and magic techniques tied to them.

Speaking of guns, the violin cases with actual violins in Perrie's story were cool, but stuff like the Arc Spitter felt too Izzet or Kaladesh IMO. (And I was a bit sad too see them return to semi-prominence in MOM)

No matter what anyone says, bug vehicles are cool!

The alt art was outstanding!!! :D All of the artists did a great job!

Wrapping Up

I do worry that blazing through settings like this is going to make finding/creating fan favorites harder. Kaldheim became a favorite due to its concept despite being crunched into 1 set, and Kamigawa was just fantastic and made sense as 1 set, but I worry other planes/settings may not end up getting so lucky.

Overall, the concept and faction ideas are great, but I think a bad story, being poorly fleshed out, OP commons, and being stuck in a single set (rather than 2; 3 would have been way too much) hindered things. I do hope to come back, but with a more fleshed out world.

#cw: alcohol #magic the gathering #streets of new capenna #cursedsleeps mtg feedback #fuck the pinkertons #dammit why aren't bullets working properly

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kingsofneon · 2 years

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faq

Ships that aren’t my jam thnx

cora//law

nami//any male chara

robin//luffy / zoro / sanj (franky and brook and nams are free game for robin ships, as are non-strawhats)

franky//any strawhat (except robin)

chopper or carrot//anyone.

not a big fan of law//lu or zo//san (but i love zolulaw and zolusan lmfao so. hilariously the turning point is zoro in zolulaw and lu in zolusan lmao)

zo//lu will basically always be heavily implied sex-neu luf and i love it very much

not a big fan of age difference prompts (ie. stuff that heavily focuses on experience & lack thereof / daddy kink esque stuff. teacher student got me like 😬)

[that being said I lowkey rlly like dof//lu and croco//lu lmfao]

I got asked abt smoker//tashigi and mihawk//perona and I think I could maybe do smoker/tash but I don't vibe with hawk/perona sorz

Don't talk to me abt deu//ace, bad experience being harassed by fans ✌️ there r one person who can ask me for them and he knows who he is lolol

Bad Things

mpreg (ovipos is fine ‘cause there’s a level of magic/no pregnancy and tentacle/slime monsters are Good Shit)

minor//adult (🤢), and espec, like, rlly bad/blatant power differences like teacher/student (you get one warning and then ill fucking block you. t/s is a big no-go, it squicks me super bad)

different if it’s in a scene or roleplay, but like, you better specify. You get ONE. WARNING. 🔪

nottttt a big fan of dd//lg. Yandere is different but i write it more possessive then obsessive/i think ace is into the fact that sabo's a bit of a freak 😂

non-con/dub-con is more complicated it’s basically at my own Discretion. I do like cnc but it gets tagged, so if you don’t like it, block the tags. dub-con is only bc in some scenes ((like and the heat is burning wild or a cold and sleeping beauty)) it might be more implied/take a while to be specific. Idk? tags will be noncon / dub con / cnc (consensual nonconsent) depending on the vibes.

if i see anyone referring to anything as sin i swear i’ll just delete the ask

same goes for uke//seme//fujoshi//yaoi [dont do it.] [I dont like it.] [I think defining ur ships by who bottoms is kinda dumb + i like introspection and character driven porn so it doesnt pass my vibe check]

im not writing anymore ‘loss of virginity’. especially not for m/m ships. y’all have lost your privileges. Femships have more leeway bc it's cute and also. I just don't like woobifying which is like, what seems to be the Goal of virginity kink, idk. 0/10

Good Things

mas

praise kink

cnc 😳 sowwy

nam//tash or robin//koala

overstimulation

prompts w/ more info rather than just “bondage + ship”

i said no mpreg but consentacles and ovipos is fine

THIS 👏 IS 👏A 👏 KINK 👏 BLOG (for god’s sake take pity on me and send kinks, not just requests for x and y having sex.)

these [1 2 3 4] were my favourite type of asks to answer. i want to show what i mean when i say i like specificity - not that they have to be every-detail specific, but that they prompt a scenario to headcanon/write for. that’s the Good Kush

General Notes

Specify ships etc. in your ask ✌ otherwise i write whatever i want atm lol and it'll probably be mas, but it also makes it helpful to me

no but legit tho specifying ur ships gets rid of a lot of the anxiety i feel abt doing reqs

also if you do “sabo is spanked by marco after losing a bet” you’re more likely to get a req than if you just do “sabo+spanking” or smth like that

Femslash is fucking pathetic and apparently noone will even req it so now im gonna just take fucking reqs and make em femslash if i want ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i only rlly write what i have inspo for lmao so if i dont get ur req done soz.

Feel free to ask abt any aus whenever. i. Miss interacting w/ ppl 🥲

#faq #i actually just realised my pinned post didnt link properly akhhs lmao #so im fixing that'

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trout-scout · 2 years

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🍁🌾💐 For soft oc asks and you can use whoever you would like for it :D <3

Yahoo we're gonna do my version of Older Rose Winters As Raised By Karl Heisenberg because she's basically an original character at this point anyway!!

Edit: Also no one asked for this but the song ‘Horse & I’ by Bat for Lashes is an excellent one for her.

🍁 Where does your OC go when they need to have some time to themself? Would they ever have their own “comfort corner” filled with all the things they like? Do they have a favourite spot outside that feels like its theirs and theirs alone?

Her whole schtick is, essentially, the push and pull she feels in regards to relying on yet resisting the contrasting forces of 'human normalcy' and 'Heisenberg'. This means that Heisenberg represents, to her, giving in to her less-palatable aspects and urges and all the comfort and control that brings. In essence, he's her comfort zone- even regarding all the shit he puts her through (his road to dadhood is a rocky one), he'll NEVER let her down. However when they're on the run & she wants alone time I imagine, in the ways of stroppy teens everywhere, she goes and sits in her Teen Bedroom and blasts LPs because she's kind of a vintage snob just like her surrogate pops.

🌾 Describe your OC through the eyes of someone absolutely head-over-heels in love with them

I think Samantha says something like "you freak me out but I think you're really, really cool" in part 2 and that sums it up, I imagine.

Or I guess like this, I just wrote this so w/e: "Her eyes, colorless against the glistening black of her sclerae, shone with ferine glee as she lifted her arms skyward. The ground around her rumbled, crumbled, erupted into tentacles of pure, writhing mold; amidst them, Rose's hair was whipped in a pale halo around her face, and with her arms raised as if in exultation, she grinned. Hard, and hungry. Maybe she had more of Miranda in her than she'd thought."

💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?

she doesn't handle it! She's very much like 'it's fine let's GO! I feel fine I need to get up!' Ethan-esque, I suppose. Heisenberg would take care of her. He'd probably tell her lie the fuck down but would actually be incredibly worried if she didn't feel better soon, given her healing factor/imperviousness to your average cold or sickness, given her mold- kwisatz haderach- mutant wonder baby status. Reversed, she's acting a lot like Heisenberg acts toward her. She learnt from the best :3

#ask meme #oc ask meme

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lunartearrose · 2 years

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So ive got an idea for a self-made bonus chapter! It involves rider, the s4 and some lore i have for him and his relations to them

Gonna put a cut since it miiight get lengthy, but this is the idea for it!

Btw, theres a certain headcannon of mine that goes with this, and its used in a fic i made! I'll link it down in the replies. It's not necessary, but you can read it to get a better idea of the tension that goes on in this idea!

So its post octo expansion arc, pre ranked arc. Army isn't bee hurt yet and Rider has just come back to the turf scene with yg team. When the s4 show up at the square individually with their teams, they notice a lot of whispers about Rider going around. Nothing that tells directly what's going on, but he will be having a team fight against some newbies later, so the s4 decide they'd sit in to see what's going on with him. The most they bet is that he's got a new trick up his sleeve!

Cut to a turf battle between team hachi and yg team, and the s4 are all shocked to see that rider has a pretty gnarly injury, the sanitizer scar. At the stage they see him, it's barely healed and he's playing more backline than up front, and his aim is most certainly not at it's usual sharpness (tho this aim is only noticable to their trained eyes, most would barely pick this up.) He might even be blind on that side now, but none of them can tell for sure.

Army, aloha, and mask, having previous history with rider, go and try to confront rider about his injuries on their own terms, which he, still rightfully mad about what they did to him, refuses to elaborate on. They pester until the three end up pestering together, then subsequently get yelled at by rider, and told along the lines of "why the hell should any of you care anyways?! Be glad one of your rivals got a handicap!" And tries to leave after that.

But of course the three still follow, having not been told and still concerned for him, especially since the tips of his tentacles are starting to turn the color of his wound. They end up trailing him to a stage not in rotation (maybe even a fest stage) and that's when Rider’s upset enough for something strange to happen - the wound glows and a special immediately ignites from the stress he feels.

"You want to know what happened to me so bad? Fine!"

And this is when the three suddenly find themselves engaging in an inner agent 3 esque battle, Rider’s limit with specials still not fixed. The three just barely dodge his splashdown, and his flings with a hero roller are faster than even mask can swing a carbon roller, not to mention if anybody tries to hit him he's rolling out of the way with a speed hard for even aloha to match.

What's clear to them now is that rider has very much never gotten over the hurtful things they said when their relationship as a team had been ended, and whatever is happening with him now is not helping those feelings! They try to stop him, and survive an inkjet phase, but army is taken out by bomb rush, mask is taken out by bubbles, and Aloha, who coincidentally was the closest to rider (and worst to rider at the time, who's words cut him the deepest), is left desparately dodging the consecutive splashdowns.

The other two had tried to apologize, and that was when they got got, and as aloha dodges he can no longer hold up a cool boy facade and is forced to confess that he had always regretted what he said back then; that he hated how he ended up hurting him and always wished things could go back to how they were, just healthier this time.

Aloha then survives a dead hit splashdown by using his baller, and grabs onto rider in an attempt to make him stop. He does stall for this moment, seeming to listen to aloha for a moment.

After that, a sniper shot hits rider in the face and it's enough to put a stop to the rampage. Skull's here, and he comments that it looked like they needed help - he was here the whole time, he just needed a good opportunity to get a direct hit and didn't want to get involved in being chased with specials.

Despite this, as army and mask get up from being knocked out and aloha carries rider, Skull explains he asked hachi about rider on a hunch and learned what happened in the deep sea, and that the wound is fresh and bothers him still. Oh, and he put salt water in that snipe shot because he remembers that was an old remedy avi's mom used to use for washing dirt out of scrapes, and figured it might do something to help.

The three thank skull for the save and get rider to his house, making sure he gets some proper rest while skull continues to use that remedy to attempt to fix Rider’s wound (and it does a good deal of help, actually! The sanitizer retreats more towards his eye.)

And of course, when rider wakes he and his old teammates have a proper discussion relating to what happened, and somewhat mend things back on good terms whilst aloha does some minor fixing of his gal, because that also barely survived the fight. He gets sad over his busted keychain that suffered that last splashdown, and rider offers to fix it (meaning he had glue) but that's how aloha convinces him to do the wahoo world thing. So yeah! Thats how you get costume arc.

Of course, they all are a bit different from their old selves, bur things are looking up and everyone's happier with being on better terms than before.

Hope you enjoyed this rant!

#coroika #splatoon #rider kun #s4 #s4 army #s4 aloha #s4 mask #s4 skull #writing #idea

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thevibraniumveterans · 3 years

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“What If…?” Wednesdays! 1.01

EPISODE ONE!

WHAT IF CAPTAIN CARTER WAS THE FIRST AVENGER?

Wednesday, Aug 11, 2021.

I watched the episode with my dad, and I loved it! Some parts I found hilarious, and when I think back to how it differs from the “Sacred Timeline” (which thanks to the events of Loki Ep 6, is no more), there were several very interesting things that happened. I’ll list the biggest ones.

1. Steve preps for the procedure, but gets shot, survives, and Peggy takes the serum in his stead. PEGGY BECOMES A SUPER SOLDIER.

2. Red Skull takes the Tesseract. This doesn’t change.

3. (Captain Carter’s infiltration sequence was brilliant.)

4. “You owe me a dance,” says Peggy. Kinda a role reversal, but that’s cool.

5. Peggy goes to rescue the 107th. (“Who are you, the Queen of England?” Not cool, Bucky! 😂, Hilarious, though.)

6. Steve Rogers joins the war effort in a machine called the Hydra Stomper. Kinda Iron Man-esque, before Iron Man. I like it.

7. “Hold on, you can’t even drive a car!” Yo, Bucky, do you ever not stop with the one-liners?! 🤣

8. I love the almost-kiss and then freakin’ Howard turns up and Bucky’s in the car. The HILARITY! 😆

9. Bucky almost falls off the train, but gets saved by Peggy. (“You almost ripped my arm off!” Okay, Bucky, who gave you the right?! 🤣) BUCKY NEVER BECOMES THE WINTER SOLDIER.

10. STEVE FALLS INSTEAD OF BUCKY, but survives.

11. As mentioned, Red Skull has the Tesseract, and experiments with it…resulting in this portal… from which this multi-tentacled creature emerges. it crushes Red Skull…which is odd. He is no more, I guess?!

12. Peggy attempts to stop being pulled into the portal by the tentacled creature, but even with the efforts of the 107th, this is unsuccessful.

13. SHE PUSHES BACK AND PROMISES STEVE A DANCE(just like Steve did in the “Sacred Timeline” before he disappears)…

14. …AND ENDS UP in 2012…

15… in the same facility we saw Loki first turn up in The Avengers. So basically, PEGGY GETS INTERCEPTED BY FURY AND BARTON INSTEAD OF LOKI. As such, the Battle of New York would never happen.

I wonder what would happen next week? I guess we’ll wait and see.

#mcu #marvel what if #captain carter #peggy carter #hayley atwell #steve rogers #steggy #nick fury #samuel l jackson #clint barton #hawkeye #jeremy renner #howard stark #bucky barnes #sebastian stan #what if wednesday #what if series #what if spoilers

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radramblog · 3 years

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Eldritch Moon my beloved

I think most Magic players are going to have a favourite set. Often that’s going to be one they started playing with, or one that really got them into the game, or one that had a limited or standard format they really enjoyed. A lot of people won’t, and that’s okay, they’re allowed, it’s hard to pick favourites sometimes.

But for me, it’s Eldritch Moon, aka the last time we went to Innistrad, and things got a bit more tentacular.

Eldritch Moon had a lot working against it from the get-go.

The Shadows block immediately followed the Battle for Zendikar block, one which a lot of people Didn’t Like. Whether it be for some of the more questionable art direction, for the relatively weak cards and boring parasitic mechanics, and for arguably some of the lamest story the game has had to date. More relevantly, though, it was a pair of sets where a fan-favourite plane was essentially dominated by squid monsters and lost a lot of its unique identity in the process- gone was the fun D&D-esque adventure world, replaced by stark wastelands and a war story with like one good story article. It’s the Tazri one.

And then the next set was Shadows over Innistrad. Another return to a fan-favourite plane, with a huge mystery being built up as to why everything was going to shit again. Why Avacyn and her angels were turning on humanity, why there are all these funky stones everywhere, what exactly Nahiri was doing fucking around on the plane of someone she apparently doesn’t like very much.

There were cryptic hints in the set itself. Its title is a reference to the Lovecraft story, Shadows over Innsmouth, with a fair few cards alluding to the story itself. A few cards did have subtle tentacles in the art, as well as subtle warping of flesh and world. The most damning clue came in the form of a puzzle regarding different flavour texts for the card Tamiyo’s Journal, which gave a particular phrase- “Remember this: they came as three”- flavour text from a Battle for Zendikar card referring to the three Eldrazi Titans, only two of which had been dealt with in that story.

Despite this, people still denied that this was the plot-to-be. There were still rumours that it was somehow Marit Lage again after all this time, or that the threat was a new one, or that it was somehow the Gitrog Monster’s fault. Personally, I wanted to believe this, and desperately didn’t want the next set to be Eldrazi-themed- I’d gotten pretty sick of them from BfZ and OGW and was very much enjoying all the new Werewolves and Madness cards and Delirium mechanic. This was at the point where I was drafting at FNM weekly, and the fun differential between the two blocks was stark.

But of course, the mystery was revealed. It was old god Emrakul the whoooole time! Quelle fucking surprise. And yet it ended up being significantly better than the previous block, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the story is just kind of better. We get to see distinctly through the cards and the plot how the influence of Emrakul has affected the regular citizens of Innistrad, and how all its various factions- the Church, the vampire manors, the packs of werewolves, et cetera- were all twisted in her visage. We get to see the desperate fight against them, with all these gothic horrors warring against eldritch horrors, and against themselves. And we get both Jace doing some surreal journey-to-the-centre-of-the-mind shit while Liliana gets to be the hero and Tamiyo gives us an ending that raises more questions than it answers.

Also, Sorin gets stuck in a rock. Fuck that guy, Nahiri was always cooler, and fuck War of the Spark for apparently just having them make up off screen.

Secondly, the cards. Flavourwise, the three Eldrazi Titans’ corrupting influence manifests differently for each- Ulamog consumes and drains the world, Kozilek corrupts the mind and wreaks havoc on space, and Emrakul? As we see, Emrakul twists flesh into new and horrifying shapes, that the set’s cards display in loving and disgusting detail. While Ulamog and Kozilek’s drones were clearly a part of themselves, the Eldrazi of Innistrad all used to be something much more reasonable before Emrakul made it to the plane.

There are three types of Eldrazi in this set. Firstly- the transform mechanic from Innistrads previous has been played with to suit the needs of the flavour. With the exception of Ulrich, every single double-faced card represents a creature from the world, be it Human or Werewolf or otherwise, that is touched by Emrakul and makes a permanent transformation into something else. There’re masses of limbs, shapes echoing Emrakul herself, and flesh in configurations that Should Not Be. The shift on every card is stark, and in every case, you have to actively put in effort to push them over the edge- and off a cliff which they cannot come back from. This is especially true with the Meld mechanic, with the cards fusing into this giant monstrosity that literally dwarfs every other card on the table.

The next type of EMN-drazi is the Emerge creatures. The mechanic was extremely fun, almost all the cards were eminently playable in at least one format (mostly just limited), and the art is spooky. The flavour of some guy on your table getting fucking chestbursted and having fucking Elder Deep-Fiend pop out is incredible, and each is a great way of showing how the regular fauna of the plane (and flora, like, I think Lashweed Lurker is a plant or something) are mutating in response to the creature’s presence.

Finally, there’s the cards that make 3/2 Eldrazi Horror tokens. There’s less of these and they’re less intense, but by and large they’re a representation of the regular people being affected by the whole thing. Just about every card that makes one of these involves a creature dying in some way (Desperate Sentry, Otherworldly Outburst) or being spawned by an existing mass of flesh (Hanweir, Howling Chorus), and it gives this sense that everybody is affected by this effect.

Of course, that was also a thing in Battle for Zendikar block. The whole thing was Eldrazi, Eldrazi, Eldrazi, with even vanilla 4/3 worms having something to say about fighting them. They key difference of Eldritch Moon is that the flavour of the world is still preserved outside of this Eldrazi presence.

What I’m saying is- the gothic horror of Innistrad is still present despite the eldritch horror of the set’s antagonist. There’s still a corrupt and violent church (albeit with a few more tentacles now), there are still cults and Frankenstein zombies and vampires and werewolves. Innistrad’s tone is compatible enough with the Eldrazi’s that the combination enhances the two rather than diminishes them.

The final thing I want to say is just- the set’s really fun. It has a bunch of my favourite classic limited cards- Thermo-Alchemist, Ulvenwald Captive, and Boon of Emrakul- along with multi-format all-stars like Grim Flayer and Collective Brutality. It has big potential get-there moments with the Meld cards and some of the flip Eldrazi, and splashy interesting cards like Emrakul herself and Harmless Offering. The set drips with flavour that enhances the gameplay, with very little wasted space.

It’s a set I only really have two complaints about. Firstly- lol Ulrich isn’t good and wasn’t what basically any werewolf fan was after. And two- it suffers from an eternal issue that Magic only recently solved, in that it’s a Small Set with a pile of mechanics that it cannot possibly fully explore in its 200 or so cards. The biggest victim of this is Meld, as they could only fit 3 pairs in under the restraints of the set size. And that’s a real shame, considering that it’s a mechanic that we’re probably never seeing again, especially considering the recent Midnight Hunt. I really think there was a missed opportunity to not have a few leftover Eldrazi in that set- whatever happened to the Dronepack? Or the corrupted vampire houses? I suppose, though, that “I want more!” can be the best complaint a creator can get.

Eldritch Moon had big shoes to fill. However, in my eyes, it didn’t just fill those shoes. It filled them and kept filling them until its distended toes burst out the front and sides of the shoes and just kept growing, and bending in really weird ways, and I think I’ve lost the plot of this metaphor. It’s my favourite Magic set, and I don’t see that changing for a while.

#ramble #mtg #mtgemn #eldritch moon #this was the first storyline where jace actually got to be interesting

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tyrantisterror · 3 years

Link

I did a four part series of trivia posts when ATOM Volume 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us! came out, and that was pretty fun! You can see that set of trivia posts here if you’d like. I thought it’d be fun to do another now that ATOM Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! is out - just one this time, because a lot of the trivia I talked about with Volume 1 still applies.

I’m gonna divide this into two sections: non-spoiler trivia, for things that really don’t give a lot of plot points away, and spoiler trivia, for things that DO give away major plot points. I recommend not reading the spoiler trivia until after you’ve read Tyrantis Roams the Earth!, for obvious reasons, and will put the spoiler trivia under a cut.

Ok, let’s go!

- So if you read ATOM Volume 1, you probably noticed that the book is split not only into chapters, but “episodes,” which consist of four chapters a piece. It’s kind of a nod to how the series owes a great deal of its DNA to various monster of the week shows, with Godzilla: the Series and The Godzilla Power Hour being obvious influences. It also allowed me to pepper in some illustrations and cheesy b-movie style titles into each volume.

- The first “episode” of Volume 2, Tyrantis in Tokyo, pays explicit homage to the giant monster movies of Japan, perhaps even moreso than the chapters that came before it. Given how much Japanese media influenced ATOM - from tokusatsu like the Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman franchises to anime like Digimon and Evangelion (hell, the title of this episode itself is a tip of the hat to Tenchi Muyo by way of one of its spinoffs) - it kind of felt obligatory that Tyrantis visit Japan and pay his respects.

- Tyrantis in Tokyo also fits in a tribute to another staple of Atomic Age pop culture: Rock and Roll.

- Kutulusca, the giant cephalopod that appears in Tyrantis in Tokyo, is one of the oldest kaiju in this series, dating back to the first iteration of Tyrantis’s story that I put to paper back in 2001 or so. It’s changed a lot since then, but its fight with Tyrantis goes more or less the way it originally did.

- Old Meg, the giant placoderm/shark, and Nastadyne, the bipedal beetle, both owe their existence directly to Deviantart’s Godzilla fandom. Old Meg originated as a dunkleosteus monster I submitted to a “create a Godzilla kaiju” contest held by Matt Frank, while Nastadyne is based on a Megalon redesign I made during the “redesign all the Godzilla kaiju” phase of DA’s kaiju fandom.

- The second episode, Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace, gets dark as we visit the USSR, which had enough REAL horror with atomic power in its history to make creature features seem a bit defanged by comparison. It’s probably the episode with the strongest horror elements - ATOM’s always been influenced by Resident Evil, and this is probably where that influence shows the most strongly.

- It also features the first fully robotic mecha in the series, the mighty Herakoschei! Its name is a combination of “Heracles” and “Koschei the Deathless,” with the former part being added by its Russian creators to make it seem a bit more international as they offer it to the U.N. in hopes of gaining aid for a very extreme kaiju problem they’ve developed.

- Most of Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace takes place in the Siberian Monster Zone. Its name is a reference to the Lawless Monster Zone in Ultraman, which is such a cool fucking name I wish that I wish I could go back in time and steal it.

- The next episode, Tyrantis’s Revenge, is... full of spoilers, so we’ll move on for now.

- The penultimate episode, Tyrantis vs. the Martian Monsters, is a love letter to MANY different sci-fi stories that involve life on Mars, though the most prominent of them is of course The War of The Worlds (one of my top 3 favorite books) and its various adaptations. From its tentacles sapient martians, the tripodal leader of the titular monsters whose name includes the word “ulla” which is uttered by said sapient martians, the plant monster made of red vines, the cylinder-shaped spacecraft the Martian monsters are sent to earth on, the copper-skinned stingray-esque flying martian who shoots lasers from its tail, and the fact that every chapter title in this episode is a quote from the book, the H.G. Wells influence is STRONG.

- The final episode, Invasion from Beyond!, is shamelessly inspired by Destroy All Monsters, although there’s a dash of “To Serve Men,” Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, and The Day the Earth Stood Still mixed in as well. It’s also sort of a tribute to my first “published” bit of a kaiju fiction - a rewrite of Destroy All Monsters that included EVERY Godzilla monster that had appeared at the time, which my middle school self wrote back in 2002 or so for Kaiju Headquarters, a kaiju fansite I’m not sure exists anymore. Invasion from Beyond! is just as ambitious (but hopefully better executed) as my DAM Remake, with dozens upon dozens of different kaiju duking it out, earthlings vs. aliens.

- There were three different documents I made to outline the final battle of Invasion from Beyond! It’s the largest episode of the series so far and more than half of it is that fucking fight. My inner child is pleased, though, so hopefully you will be too.

Ok, that’s all I can share without spoilers. READER BEWARE WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW THE CUT!

JUST MAKING SURE you know that SPOILERS will follow from here on out. Read at your own peril! YOU WERE WARNED!

(I’m gonna start with lighter ones just in case you scrolled too far and want to turn back)

- There’s a number of explicit Spielberg homages in ATOM Volume 2, from a “we need a bigger boat” joke during a chase with a giant shark to the fact that Invasion from Beyond! opens with a group of people flying to an island of monsters to review whether or not it should get more funding.

- When Tyrantis appears in the first chapter, I snuck in modified lyrics of The Godzilla Power Hour’s theme song. “Up from the depths”... “several stories high”... “breathing fire”... “its head in the sky”... Tyrantis! Tyrantis! Tyrantis!

- The two rock bands in Tyrantis in Tokyo have real life inspirations ala Gwen Valentine, albeit a bit more muddled than hers. The Cashews are inspired by The Peanuts (see what I did there), while The Thunder Lizards are a mix of The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. I wanted The Thunder Lizards to be more akin to the myth of a famous rock and roll band than the reality - less the real Beatles and more the Yellow Submarine cartoon version of them.

- The song The Thunder Lizards write for Tyrantis was written to fit the tune of “The Godzilla March” from Godzilla vs. Gigan, though ideally if someone made an actual song of it it would be its own song. I got the idea from Over the Garden Wall, which used the Christmas song “O Holy Night” as a a starting point for “Come Wayward Souls.”

- Perry Martin, UNNO reporter and peer of Henry Robertson, is a nod to Raymond Burr, with his name being a combination of two of Burr’s most famous roles: Perry Mason, and Steve Martin from Godzilla King of the Monsters (1956).

- Dr. Rinko Tsuburaya is a few homages in one. Her name comes from Rinko Kikuchi (who played Mako Mori in Pacific Rim), while her last name is obviously in homage of Eiji Tsuburaya. Her being the daughter of an esteemed scientist is inspired by Emiko Yamane from the original Gojira.

- Nastadyne’s Burning Justice mode is named after a similar super mode from various Transformers cartoons, though it’s more directly inspired by the Shining/Burning Finger super move from G Gundam.

- Martians sending kaiju to different planets via shooting them out of cannons (with or without cylinder spaceships around them) is another War of the Worlds shoutout. So is martians living on Venus after their homeworld was made uninhabitable, actually.

- Kurokame’s vocalizations are described as wails in explicit homage to Gamera. His name can be translated as either “black tortoise” (a reference to the mythical guardian beast Genbu, which can also be construed as a Gamera reference thanks to Gamera: Advent of Irys implying Gamera and Genbu are one and the same) or a portmanteau of the Japanese words for crocodile and turtle - “crocturtle.”

- Burodon’s name is just a mangling of “burrow down.” It also sounds vaguely like Baragon, who Burodon is loosely inspired by. AND, since Burodon is sort of a knockoff/modified Baragon, that kinda makes him a reference to various monsters in Ultraman!

- The final battle of Tyrantis in Tokyo is sort of a hybrid of the finales of Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster and Destroy All Monsters.

- The Japanese kaiju teaching Tyrantis the art of throwing rocks at your enemies is both a joke on the prominence of rock throwing in Japanese kaiju fights AND the tired trope of an American hero learning secret martial arts from a Japanese mentor ala Batman, Iron Fist, etc. In this case, the secret martial art is throwing rocks at people.

- When introduced to Herakoschei and its pilot, we are told that the strain of piloting this early mecha is so intense that many pilots have died in the process, with the current one passing out on more than few occasions. This is of course a Pacific Rim homage - sadly, no one invents drifting.

- Herakoschei’s design is a loose homage to Robby the Robot and Cherno Alpha, because big boxy robots are cool.

- The Writhing Flesh and ESPECIALLY Pathogen are both hugely influenced by Resident Evil and The Thing. Giant body horror piles of raw flesh, tendrils, mismatched mouths and limbs may be a bit outside the main era of monster design ATOM homages, but they fit the themes and bring a nice contrast.

- I came up with Pathogen long before Corona but MAN it definitely feels different in 2021 to have a giant monster whose name is a synonym for disease driving other creatures crazy in a quarantine zone than it did when I plotted out the story in 2016.

- The chapter title “Hello, Old Foes” is a riff on “Goodbye, Old Friend”

- Minerva, the kaiju-fied clone of Dr. Lerna, is meant to be an homage to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which is a genuinely good giant monster flick. I am sure many of you will also believe I included her because I’m a pervert whose into tall women, but you’d be wrong! I included the seven foot tall Russian mecha pilot Ludmilla Portnova because I’m a pervert whose into tall women. Minerva’s inclusion was just coincidental, I swear!

- Since Promythigor is a play on the archetypal ape kaiju to contrast Tyrantis as a play on the archetypal fire-breathing reptile kaiju, their fight has a lot of nods to King Kong movies. Promythigor attempts the famous jaw-snap maneuver of Kong (with less success), J.C. Clark paraphrases the “brute force vs. a thinking animal” line from the King Kong vs. Godzilla American cut, and Tyrantis slides down a mountain to knock Promythigor off his feet in a reversal of Kong doing the same in King Kong vs. Godzilla.

- Tyrantis sliding down a mountain on his tail doubles as a Godzilla vs. Megalon homage.

- Though Promythigor is the archetypal Ape and Tyrantis the archetypal Fire-Breathing Reptile, I think it’s fun to note that in some ways, Promythigor is the Godzilla equivalent in their matchup, and Tyrantis the Kong. Promythigor has a slight size advantage, was scarred by humans performing unethical weapons technology, and is associated with violent explosions. Tyrantis is a good-at-heart prehistoric beast who humanized in part by his unlikely friendship with a human woman.

- Of course, in the context of the famous quote from the American cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla, they remain in their archetypal lanes. Promythigor is the more intelligent of the two (though not necessarily wiser), and Tyrantis is in many ways a brute reptile. Their battle is a rebuttal of sorts to the assertion that Kong is the “better” animal because he is closer to human. Promythigor’s near human creativity and emotions don’t make him the kinder/more benevolent monster, but instead fuel a very self-centered and destructive attitude that makes him the far more dangerous threat. On the other hand, Tyrantis, who is less intelligent, limited in communication with others by his reptilian mindset and instincts, and simple in his thoughts and desires, is nonetheless a sweet creature that is easily dealt with when others consider his animal needs and mindset. There’s a quote from Hellboy I love that probably sums up all of my writing thus far: “To be other than human does not mean the same as being less,” and that’s what the matchup between these two in particular tries to illustrate: the “less” human Tyrantis is nonetheless more benign than the “more” human Promythigor.

- Kraydi the psychic lizard began life as a soft sculpture I made of the Canyon Krayt Dragon from The Wildlife of Star Wars. The sculpture didn’t look much like the illustration, but I liked how it came out, and so I made it an original monster named Kraydi (see what I did there). Figuring out an explanation for that name in ATOM’s world was possibly the most difficult kaiju naming task in the series, but it worked out in the end.

- Kraydi and Promythigor having psychic powers is a result of my time on Godzilla fan forums in my middle school years. Most of the forums had OC kaiju battle tournaments, and SO many of those kaiju had a wide array of beam weapons and psychic powers just to win the tournaments by beam-spamming and mind controlling their foes into oblivion. There’s a special kind of rage you get when your original creation is beaten by “Fire Godzilla” because he has a genius level intellect and the power of unstoppable telekinesis. Kraydi began as (and still is I suppose) my attempt to do a psychic kaiju well, while Promythigor’s villainy being tied to psychic powers being forced on him is sort of my passive aggressive commentary on people foisting powers on a monster without any real thematic reason for them.

- Henry Robertson and Dr. Praetorius chewing out the laziness of people giving kaiju completely unaltered names of mythic beasts will probably be seen as a jab at the Monsterverse and/or the numerous writers in the kaiju OC scene who do the same, but it’s ACTUALLY a jab at my past self, who had DOZENS of kaiju whose names were just Greek mythological figures verbatim. There are dozens of kaiju named Hydra, Scylla, Charybdis, Chimera, etc., past me, try to make the names stand out! Oh wait you did. I mean, don’t pat yourself on the back too much, you still went with “Mothmanud” as a canon name and never came up with something better, but, like, good on ya for trying I guess.

- Dr. Praetorius takes his name from the evil mad scientis in Bride of Frankenstein, who basically has all the wicked traits that Universal’s Frankenstein downplayed in their take on Dr. Frankenstein. Ironically, ATOM’s Dr. Praetorius is a bit less evil than his fellow mad scientists in ATOM. I really like how his character turned out, he surprised me.

- Isaac Rossum, the pilot of the USA mecha Atomoton, is named for Isaac Aasimov, whose robot stories are to robot fiction what Lord of the Rings is to high fantasy. His last name is a reference to Rossum’s Universal Robots, which is where the word “robot” came from.

- The unfortunate pilots of MechaTyrantis in ATOM Volumes 1 and 2 are all nods to Jurassic Park. John Ludlow = John Hammond and Peter Ludlow, Ian Grant = Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant, Dennis Dodgson = Dennis Nedry and Lewis Dodgson.

- A good way to pitch Invasion from Beyond! would be “what if the staff and monsters were able to fight back when the Kilaaks tried to take over Monsterland?”

- Ok, here’s a fun joke that no one will get but me because it requires a very specific chain of logic based on some obscure and loosely connected nerd bullshit. There’s a rocker in ATOM’s universe named Sebastian Haff, right? One of his songs, “Darling Let’s Shimmy,” is referenced right before a mothmanud larva emerges from the ground in both ATOM Vol. 1 and 2. Ok, so, in the Bubba Hotep, an aging Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff claims he is actually the real Elvis Presley, having changed places with the real Sebastian Haff as a sort of Prince and the Pauper deal that went wrong. Got that? Ok, so, in UFO folklore, a common joke is the theory that Elvis didn’t die, but was rather abducted by aliens (or he actually WAS an alien the whole time - the whole “Elvis didn’t die, he just went home” joke in Men in Black is a good example of this). Ok? Ok. So, in ATOM’s universe, we can surmise that their equivalent of Elvis, whose name is Sebastian Haff, WAS abducted by aliens, and that his song “Darling Let’s Shimmy” is subconsciously influenced by his repressed memories from his time aboard the Beyonder spaceships, which is why it accidentally awoke a Mothmanud larva in Volume 1. There’s a lot of bullshit jokes I put into ATOM, but this is perhaps the bullshittiest of them all.

- One of the most common bits of feedback on ATOM Volume 1 I got was “I kept waiting for something to eat Brick Rockwell, he’s such an asshole.” And I had to smile and go, “Oh, yeah, guess he never got his, huh?” the whole time without letting on that he was going to die here all along!

- Dr. Lerna and Brick Rockwell’s nature as foils to each other is probably most apparent in Invasion from Beyond!, where both are given fairly similar situations - a nonhuman approaches them with a solution to a global crisis - and react to it very differently. I worry that some people may think they both made the same choice and got different results, and that that’s hypocrisy on my part, but I hope I wrote it so you can see how their choices and situations actually differ in key ways, and why their decisions, while similar on the surface, are ultimately very different, and thus result in almost opposite outcomes.

- So, when I planned out this book in 2016, I swear I didn’t know about the Orca from 2019′s Godzilla King of the Monsters. Having the plot hang around Dr. Lerna deciding whether or not to use a sonic device to rouse all the kaiju to save the earth was not INTENDED to be a Monsterverse reference - it came about from me looking at Pathfinder’s take on kaiju, who are all explicitly influenceable by music, and thinking, “Oh, wow, music and songs DO have a major connection with kaiju in a lot of media, I should do something with that.” Whem KOTM came out a few days after Volume 1 came out I realized I was kinda fucked here, because the comparison was definitely going to be made, but I’d also set this all up already and you can’t just change suddenly to avoid looking like a copy cat and make a good story, so... I dunno, I leaned into it a bit, but it is what it is.

- While most people will probably think they’re a reference to the Reptoids of UFO folklore, the Reptodites are more inspired by the Dinosapien of speculative evolution fame and, even morso, by the Reptites from Chrono Trigger. Me wanting to avoid the “lizard people control the government” conspiracy theory trope is one of the main reasons why Reptodites have this non-interference clause with humanity.

- Lieutenant Gray is a bunch of different humanoid aliens rolled into one - a little Hopskinville goblin, a little classic gray, a little this one weird alien with five-fingered zygodactyl hands, etc.

- There’s some Beyonder Mecha in this volume that are basically kaiju-fied versions of the Flatwoods Monster. The species that built them ALSO engineered the Mothmanuds, because connecting Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster is fun!

- Pleprah is, obviously, a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater.

- Tyrantis’s brush with death, in addition to being so very anime, was inspired by my dad outlining how mythic heroes often have to travel to the underworld/land of the dead before they can finish their journey. It’s one of the plot points that I’ve had planned for this series since middle school.

- I’m sure some will view it as hackneyed and corny, but as a person who’s battled with depression for decades, having Tyrantis’s choice to live be the big heroic turn of the finale was very important to me. Tyrantis incorporates elements of a lot of imaginary friends I made as a kid, and in many ways he’s kind of the face of my more positive side in my head. He’s been telling me to choose to live for a while, and while maybe to an outsider it may seem hackneyed, it’s just... very Tyrantis. He chooses life and kindness in the face of pain and struggle. That’s Tyrantis.

- Tyrantis’s powered up form is called “Hyper Mode,” which is another Gundam reference. Originally it was a lot gaudier and involved him turning gold like a fuckin’ Super Saiyan. I opted for something a little more toned down here.

- Also, speaking of KOTM references, I decided to make Hyper Mode Tyrantis’s final duel with Pathogen be a sort of foil to Burning Godzilla’s final bout with Ghidorah in KOTM. Instead of ravaging the city, Hyper Tyrantis’s pulse of energy rejuvenates his fallen allies, and as a result he is “crowned” not out of fear for his supremacy in the wake of killing a powerful enemy, but in gratitude for his kindness. See? Leaning into it!

- And now I can finally reveal that Yamaneon is ATOM’s equivalent of The Monolith Monsters - that is, a kaiju that is also a mineral. I took the “strange continuously growing rock” thing in a very different direction, though, as unlike The Monolith Monsters, Yamaneon is actually alive.

- At various points in the pre-writing process, either Promythigor, MechaTyrantis, or both were going to die fighting Pathogen. I ultimately decided to let them both live, with MechaTyrantis even getting his flesh and blood body back, because I think it’s more interesting and thematically consistent that way. They get a chance to heal their wounds by changing their ways.

- The Great Beyonder and Dorazor both almost didn’t make the cut, as I felt they didn’t have the same pull as villains that Pathogen, Promythigor, and MechaTyrantis did. But then I thought that could actually be the gag - build them up as the final boss, only to have Pathogen take their crown. I want to explore post-face turn Dorazor a bit more, though. We’ll have to see about that in a later volume.

- Volumes 1 and 2 make up what I call “The Ballad of Tyrantis Arc” for ATOM. I call it that because Tyrantis’s storyline in these two volumes was patterend after Chivalric ballads like Yvain the Knight of the Lion. Tyrantis, a heroic warrior who is kind but dumb of ass, learns of strange goings on outside his home and investigates. During his journey into the unknown he falls in love with a powerful woman, whose favor he tries to win. Through happenstance he is separated from his love and, distraught, wanders around fighting various foes to prove his worth, before finally returning to his love a better hero. Invasion from Beyond! could even be seen as a sort of Morte d’Artur, with Tyrantis and a bunch of other kaiju heroes (including Nastadyne and Kemlasulla, who are built up as Hero Kaiju of Another Story) take part in a huge battle that threatens their idealic kingdom (of monsters).

- Volume 2 isn’t the end of ATOM, but it’s designed to work as an ending if you want to tap out here. As a reader I feel a definitive ending is important, but as a writer I’m always tempted to revisit my beloved characters, so I feel giving closure while leaving a few doors open for possible future adventures is a good compromise between these positions. There will be more ATOM stories, some (but not all!) following Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna, but if you want to know that Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna get an ending and the resolution to their arcs such a thing promises, here you go. An ending, if not THE END.

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #A.T.O.M. Trivia

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bansheeoftheforest · 3 years

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four-tea ele-gents + summoner au. henry mentions his dad a lot. and lucy, patrin and elsie want to meet him. henry is a little nervous about it, but sure! he doesn't want his partners to think he's lying to them. he wants to be transparent. but he forgot to tell them his dad is a powerful eldrich being, and lucy organizes a little "meet the parents" dinner before he has the opportunity to say so and telling them after that would be super awkward.

cut to the day the dinner happens. henry straight up summons his giant tentacle monster of a dad, or part of him, so he doesn't demolishes their house. his partners are super confused and kinda scared after they realize what's going on, but dadrich ends up really liking his son's lovers. the results are actually pleasant by the end of the night and his partners and his dad end up getting along pretty well! next thing now, henry just has to introduce his girlfriends and boyfriend to his cult!

(unrelated but kinda related: i do enjoy henry having like, many names in this au. maybe a name in the eldrich language that's super painful to human ears, and a thousand titles his cult gave him, most of which sound super badass. or like a generic ya book title. things like 'heir of the shadows' and 'child of despair' and so on. cliché but kinda scary)

- 🕷️

Spider, dude, you have absolutely no idea how hilarious this is.

Like Henry somehow managing to just tell his partner about the generic parent stuff he and his dad have done together, or that his dad does for him, like "oh yeah, I'm not biologically his son but he adopted me when I was so young I can't imagine him as anything but my dad :)" - "He loves to spoil me rotten. He gives me anything I even think that I want without batting an eye, even if it confuses him" - "He really helped me get to where I am today, I don't know what I would have done without him" - "I get my appetite from him, he could eat an entire planet in one sitting" - "We like to travel a lot, he has shown me parts of the world that I can't even describe". Just like generic stuff that no one bats an eye at. The trio being incredibly intrigued and really wanting to meet Henry's dad (they just imagine him as a classic scottish bear of a man, honestly) and Henry... Completely forgets that his dad is an eldritch god, doesn't get the chance to tell his partners because he feels like it would be incredibly awkward of him, so he just rolls up to the dinner with bone chalk in hand and starts summoning his dad. Huge hulking tentacle monster emerges, but he is awfully polite and does his best to shift into a more... Human-esque shape to not intimidate Henry's partners too much. Henry hastily trying to sputter out a half-arsed explanation while his partners are looking at them both i pure horror and Henry is incredibly scared. Then dadritch starts gushing (in the thickest scottish accent the trio has ever heard) about how much Henry talks about them and how he really seems to love them a lot. For being a tentacle monster and a god, he is awfully polite and friendly. Dinner slowly but surely going better and better and Dadritch/the rest of the trio really starting to get along. Henry dismissing him and wiping off the chalk off of the floor and then turning to look at his lovers, all who are just looking at him with such an amused expression despite still being a bit intimidated. Henry quickly sputtering out that he might or might not have forgotten to tell them that his adoptive dad was an eldritch god. Shit happens.

...

Imagine if the high priestess from Blackfog is a part of Henry's/his dad's cult, but she, Alice, Carmilla and Lucy are friends so she essentially learns that her pal is dating the son of a god whom she worships. Imagine the cult being in even more awe/even more scared of Henry because he has three powerful lovers (whom they are convinced are just his concubines and not actual lovers) and Henry just... Is exasperated.

Henry having thousands of names my beloved <3 I'd love to imagine like... Henry's cult trying to summon him, or just talk to him, but they are awfully polite so they just start rambling all of his names until Henry decides that it's enough. I bet "The Son Of A Thousand Names" is also one of his titles. "Harbinger Of Misery". "Son-god Of Misfortune". "Decider Of Fates". Just a bunch of very concerning names that probably makes Henry wonder if he really is a bad person or if his cult likes to make him seem more badass than he already is.

Also, imagine; the Lodgers/four-tea getting to hear those names, even better if they tease him about it.

#ask #spider anon #banshees au #summoner au #banshees faves #four-tea ele-gents #lucy x henry x patrin x elise

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felassan · 4 years

Text

Some DA4 BTS vid analysis

The sentiments in PW’s recent word on concept art applied and were sensible to bear in mind before the tweet thread was made, and are of course still important to remember now. Dissecting and overanalyzing what we’re given is still fun as hell though, so now that I’ve slept and had yet another pass at it with fresh eyes and a non-vibrating mind, and with the caveat flagged, here are some more thoughts on and speculation about the DA4 BTS video. For context and contrast, here’s some of my initial main thoughts. Cut for length.

Yes in places it veers into wild speculation bc why not

The domes and domed architecture here and here don’t say Tevinter to me. Tevinter architecture has strong horizontals and verticals; it’s more about spikes and boxy blocks than domes and curves. I'm reminded more of Rivain

or Nevarra.

The figure here is dwarven in build. I want this place to be something dwarfy in nature. What kinda technology are we looking at here? The structures actually remind me of the Vaults in Mass: Effect Andromeda. It’s different enough to Orzammar-style structures that I’m hoping we can finally go to Kal-Sharok.

This isn’t Dorian. :[ Crow-style armor (the distinctive metal segments on the arms and legs), sword at his waist. I’m not fussed about this fact though because Dorian is still clearly shaping up to be in the game anyway from the Trespasser slides, TN etc. This guy is instead reminiscent of Mr Longhaired Rogue. Compare the hairline, hair color, length, rogueishness, general clothing style. I think this is the same guy, and I still think this guy is Lucanis.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that third from the right “Ezio” from the lineup is him too - assassin’s hood, AC-style belt insignia.

The brunette here could be a dwarf from her build and the fact that the swordsman next to her (who incidentally has Inquisition insignia on his chestpiece?) is kneeling. She’s reminiscent of the Harding-like woman in the underwater shot, and indeed of Harding. Compare the cape and bare upper arms. Not a surprise, given Harding’s presence in the Trespasser postcredits.

Elsewhere in this shot, the architecture is Tevinter (that doorway and corner). As for the big guy, his clothing style bears a resemblance to Archon Radonis.

This and this follow in succession and look to be of the same place just from different angles. Wings, griffons, blue pennants, the desolate brown rocky environ. I think we’re looking at Weisshaupt in the Anderfels and I hope this means we can finally go there. The dangling Warden plot thread is begging attention what with the civil war, the Warden weirdness in TN, the return of the griffons, etc.

I’m not convinced that the presence of floating objects means the Veil has already come down. We’re going north, and in Tevinter there are buildings which float, so the magic capacity for buildings and similar objects to do is in the mundane world is established already. The boats are reminiscent of aravels though, and funnily enough, Dalish Keepers use their magic to allow aravels to move through forests. In Last Flight, Isseya remembers tales of how Dalish used their magic to float their aravels through forests, and fashions improvised aravels which are held aloft by magic and pulled by griffons.

Zooming in here, the silhouettes of these nearby animals have antlers. These are straight up halla (so they’re horns, not antlers), not horses. I think this image is of an elfy place, perhaps from ancient times, or like the places we travel through in Trespasser (the hills and landscape reminds me of what we can see in the distance in there in the elfy bits), or one of the mysterious ancient elven enclaves which still persist in Thedas to this day, or in the heart of Arlathan Forest.

Our new reptilian pal is potentially along the lines of a lurker, deepstalker or dracolisk (and Tevinter is fond of its dracolisks!). Compare the body structure to lurkers.

The pillars here look dwarven. I wonder if the snowy environment in that shot connects to the snowy environment from the now-infamous tree teaser, which is what follows next. This is unmistakeably dwarfy architecture too, but daylight in the upper levels? Somewhere like Kal Repartha, or perhaps upper halls of the Ambassadoria in Tevinter? The main part of the Ambassadoria is underground so the dwarves who work there don’t have to become surfacers, but there would have to be a part connecting it to the surface so that Tevinter diplomats and so on could go in to do business.

This guy bears a resemblance to previously seen dwarven statues (DAO, dotted around in DAI).

The Crow on the left here isn’t Zevran, I’m afraid. It’ll be another one like the blond lady in Crow-like armor, Lucanis, “Ezio”, etc. For the lady as an example, compare the waist sash and other aspects.

Moving on, there’s a flimsy similarity in this lady.

This place reminds me somewhat of DAI Temple of Mythal concept art.

“Ezio”?

The candle bois in this clearly-Tevinter scene strike me as wisps bound to the candlestick bodies by Magisters for the purpose of serving, like the lil spirit the Mortalitasi had bound to stir her tea in TN. People do that kind of stuff in Tevinter, see Dorian’s banters with Solas. Also in this image the machine-hand form of transport is super notable in terms of implications for technology and accessibility in Thedas (note: I don't mean like there will be a plotbeat based around this or a 'hand', I just mean I find it notable lore-wise that Thedas has tech/magic that can do this and find that important when thinking about accessibility as with Neve's prosthetic etc).

If this person isn’t Maevaris I will cry. The outfit in the middle’s color theme and shoulder features reminds me of her comic appearance, and the one on the right reminds me of her Trespasser epilogue slide appearance. The leftmost image is the least Maevaris-y, but the other two definitely strike me as Mae.

On guns: Not out of the realm of possibility for this world. Dwarves have lyrium-based explosives. Qunari have gaatlok, which is safer to use, and cannons. Varric’s Bianca is a repeating crossbow. An old Iron Bull concept has him with an arm-cannon. With technology like that in Thedas, guns aren’t far behind. Possibly a very recent invention in Thedas and still new to the vast majority of the population? In addition, the Sha-Brytol Earthshakers can manipulate lyrium into a unique explosive (though this is because they’ve drank lyrium and lyrium-infused armor has fused to their skin). Sha-Brytol Crossbow Bolters’ crossbows look very gun-like too, although they’re definitely crossbows, not guns (it’s in the name).

I’m curious about the plot implications of guns in the setting, if they are indeed a thing now. I don’t want them to be too OP or too modern, don’t want the high/dark fantasy vibe diluted, but curious about how they might level the playing field in a world with magic, or might turn the tide in one of the setting’s neverending battles (like the Qun vs Tevinter war). From the look of the possible gun in the lineup, it gives me a “guns in Fable”-gun vibe. Also, I wonder what Varric would think, considering how his past was much concerned with the issue with the secret to making a repeating crossbow and everything that entailed.

Second from the right in the lineup looks like a hornless qunari.

The skeleton entity appears 3 times, almost certainly the same entity in each appearance, and imo from its multiple appearances likely a companion. It’s not Cole (I’ve seen that suggested). If a companion it would be the designated ‘notable’ one on the roster in the way that Shale, Justice-in-dead-body and Cole were. If it’s a spirit inhabiting a body I’m glad the body is a skeleton, because we’ve had a spirit inhabiting a rotting fleshy corpse before already (Justice in Awakening), so that’s been done. I don’t think the green flame is Veilfire or Fade magic; in TN it’s noted that the Mortalitasi Myrna’s necro/Mortalitasi-type magic is emerald green. I like the notions that this is Audricuriosity from TN, a char a la Fane in Divinity, or a Mortalitasi that’s undead in that they (or a spirit mimicking them) have managed to ‘remain’ ‘in’ their skeleton after death, as opposed to just “this is a spirit inhabiting a skeleton”. Anyway, the focus we had in TN on Nevarra, the Mortalitasi and the undead is continued in this video - the dragon dissection looks like it’s taking place in the Grand Necropolis. Or maybe the Fade? The windows in the background at the top look upside down. Btw there is great dissection of the dissection image (ehue) which I recommend to check out here.

Compare his design with Nevarran styles.

Davrin? Suitably heroic, Warden-esque.

Rapier lady is surrounded by crows which reminds me of Leliana’s raven motif (not saying I think this is Leliana). She looks rogueish and assassiny so with that + the crows it wouldn’t be wild to assume Crow. However Mark Darrah retweeted this tweet which compares her mask to this Orlesian fashion.

The insignia on Solas’ new outfit in his concept art looks like the Mask of Fen’Harel from Felicia Day’s DA: Redemption.

This looks like the snowy environment from the tree teaser. Notice the statue of Andraste [?] in the background. The entity’s weapon looks like it would fit right into the Red Lyrium Weapons pack for DAI. Question: What happens when red lyrium infects a corpse or a corpse inhabited by a spirit?? Is that what we’re seeing here? elsewise it’s a darkspawn and red lyrium darkspawn.. [Mordin voice] Implications.. disturbing.

Davrin’s name is one letter off Davri as in Bianca Davri. Curious choice.

Hands-spider and the other Cetus-like monsters: Ghilan’nain, her original creations, and the Horror of Hormak.

The red lyrium tentacles being modeled look like what these guys are fighting off. Incidentally, with the sleek gold armor and advanced weapons/powers, maybe these guys are ancient elves.

The red lyrium environment from the tree teaser now returns. Remember the spirited discussions about whether these tendrils were deep mushrooms corrupted by red lyrium? :D

Then it jumps back to the ominous snowy environment with the statues of Andraste [?]. The statue does however also remind me of the elvhen statues in the Raw Fade in DAI. Note the sky here in the corner which looks kind of like a breach. As for the red lyrium egg - now where have we seen red eggs before? In the Crossroads in Trespasser. iirc Inky uses them to extend bridges in the Crossroads. The egg in the vid even seems to have bits of gold on it. Does the egg have something to do with the weakened Veil here? Is it red lyrium?

This shot is the same dwarven hall as before (see above speculation on the Ambassadoria, Kal Repartha etc). This time we can clearly see that the ceiling is open with ‘skylight’-type windows to the sky above. Possibly reaching, but the foreground structure looks like a dwarven take on the DAI elf tree statue asset. Some elves and dwarves did dwell together for a time in Cad'halash, and we find elven statues in the Deep Roads in Trespasser.

But this particularly sticks out to me because of the nature of Kal Repartha, how it was built on the surface (daylight from the ceiling), trees + Mythal, Mythal striking down the pillars of the earth and what some of the ancient elves did to the dwarves, Mythal + dragons, Kal Repartha + the urtok:

[quoting me] The scholar who was investigating Kal Repartha in the Hissing Wastes found pictures on walls of weapons with dragons (the urtok) worked into the decorations on them as part of an ancient crest. These were accompanied by an inscription of a verse that was passed down by Fairel’s ancestors for generations, from long before Fairel ever led his house to the surface and would have encountered dragons in the sky and from long before dwarves would ever have encountered Archdemons in a Blight. Curious. I suspect these are a holdover from when Mythal struck down the Titans and the ancient elves’ conflict with the dwarves/Titans. Given those events, it’s no wonder the dwarves of that time period had folktales about a dragon scourge.

Still with me??

Now here we are inside Weisshaupt or the Warden fortress from before. Note blue banners with the Warden griffon sigil again. I want to believe there are big open archways in the walls/out to landing-pad style ‘balconies’ in the way it’s suggested that it’s built here because in ye olden times you’d have Wardens on their griffons flying to and from the fortress. Is that Davrin? It looks like it could be the same warrior guy as before, only this time it’s definitely a Warden. What’s happening outside? Why is the light/sky outside sickly Fadey green? Reminds me of the sky in the corner of the egg pic. And of Fade Weisshaupt from DAO.

If he’s not a Lord of Fortune, perhaps a Raider of the Waking Sea. Might tie into why Isabela is there in the underwater picture, or why there’s an Isabela-esque pirate-type lady in that pic at least.

now

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #video games #tevinter nights #tevinter nights spoilers #tevinter nights spoiler #spoilers #spoiler #solas #cole #spirit boy #gpoy #mj meta

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0poole · 3 years

Text

Soul

Breaking news, everyone: Pixar made another slapper.

I’m gonna get it out of the way first, but the only (and yes, only. Not like someone trying to say “only” even though they have many more nitpicks that they just don’t want to talk about) problem I had at all was that the super high realism of the settings of Earth kind of made the more cartoony faces of the people look a little more off. But, it’s kinda like the same thing people were talking about with that cat in Toy Story 4. It looks super real, which is impressive, but I feel like it was almost too real compared to the faces. Obviously it was too real compared to the supernatural settings because that was intentional, but yeah. It’s not even a big problem, it’s just the only one I can think of. I do think the realistic renderings of hair, light, water, etc at least work with cartoony stuff, but apart from that it looked almost like it could’ve been a photograph, with no exaggeration in the buildings or anything else.

I mean, I love the faces, so I definitely wish they went the extra mile showing extra personality and character in the buildings, as faces do with characters. Considering the faces matter like a bazillion times more, I still think they knocked it out of the park on the visuals. People with more investment and knowledge into the topic already said that the faces of any of the people of color felt cartoony and unique while also being true to life and respectful (My family recently stumbled onto some old animations from the 30s and lemme tell ya... We’ve come a long way), but seriously the characters that sold me on the visuals were the Picasso-esque beings who may or may not be the Gods of the universe maybe?

Spoiler boundary of course. It’s definitely worth a watch.

And that’s honestly what made the realistic world so much better. When the accountant guy went into the real world to set the count right, it was one of the most fun I’ve had just watching something. The sheer contrast between him and the world was so much fun, and it even solidified that those beings weren’t even acting in a different dimension or anything. They’re literally just beings that exist, meaning that all the other parts with the unborn souls and such are just as real as Earth. Or, even better, they’re the ones who can just casually rip a hole in dimensions. As far as depictions of Gods go, if they are even Gods at all, I think they’re one of the best I’ve ever seen. They feel like they could actually be how Gods actually exist, since all the commonalities of Gods involve supernatural power, which would suggest they’re supernatural themselves. I mean, I have a story with Gods in it too and they’re basically just that although admittedly a lot less imaginative.

With those guys being my favorite design, second place definitely goes to the lost souls, although obviously for more subjective reasons. 1) They’re purple, 2) They have one eye, 3) That eye is yellow which I always think is the best compliment to purple, 4) Tentacles, 5) Creepy in a kid’s movie. Franky, I would’ve made them a lot creepier, but even then they’re super creepy, if not visually then in their behavior. They’d just be kind of sad if they were just mumbling around, but since the first introduction to them starts charging at the main characters like a deranged monster. Considering how weird everything in that dimension is, finding something that isn’t nearly as innocent as everything else instantly invokes fear, since you have no idea what that thing can and wants to do to you. Sort of similar, I would’ve also made the “In the Zone” moments a bit more crazy and colorful, like when Joe fell through the void between the road to the Great Beyond and the You-seminar (is that how it’s spelled?), but these “I would do it differently”s might just be a fault of my design ideas or just subjective interests. I would’ve watched 2 hours of pure, nonsensical abstract worlds like the You-seminar with no explanation to how they work.

I definitely have a relief with the story, mostly entirely revolving around 22′s character. I was kind of worried she’d be too childish to really enjoy, but I feel like she was done really well. All the major historical figures’ remarks on how hopeless she were both funny and also really tied into her character “flaw” at the end as she was a lost soul. It might not be the most unique character archetype of all time, but it definitely makes sense, with all the people bringing her down implanting in her mind that she was an anomaly, and after a while was just sort of following it. Plus, she seemed genuinely interested in Joe’s weirdness, instead of being super mindlessly irreverent. And her being able to expand Joe’s understanding about his own world, like with the barber and his student, brings her up as more than a whiny, bratty child in the scope of the story. She didn’t JUST learn.

Even though I kind of expected it from the get-go, I’m also relieved that the movie didn’t shy away as much with the dark elements of death. It was kind of suggested that this wasn’t going to be a perfectly casual romp through a magical afterlife like Inside Out was with the mind because of the unborn souls unabashedly saying “Hell” in the TRAILER of the movie. I feel like that alone made the story super interesting, because it shows they’re actually going to be a bit more serious with things instead of just simplifying the unknowable complexities of the before & afterlife. Even with the dead souls going into the Great Beyond, it was a mix of being weirdly peaceful for some and super scary for others. My family thought it was peaceful for the most part, but my mom specifically though it was terrifying, and even though it’s a lot more peaceful than almost all other depictions of death, I can’t blame her. The souls were just kinda accepting it, like they’d been brainwashed or something, but still acknowledged that they were dead and were going into the afterlife. Plus, Joe, being the main character who we are supposed to sort of reflect in a way, was super freaked out by it, so that could easily suggest it’s to be afraid of and the other people are the weird ones.

I think the true message of the story being so strange was better too, because it would’ve been so boring if it fell into a super basic message we’ve heard millions of times. I feel like it has a similar sentiment to the basic messages, but is at least a more interesting way of saying it, if it is even like that in the first place, because it’s also somewhat vague in a good way. I think my brother/mother misinterpreted and simplified things a bit too much, where they thought it was sort of like a happier way of saying “accept your lot in life and don’t change it.” I could probably go on a full other rant about why I think this is wrong, but part of it is I don’t really know how they came to this conclusion in the first place, considering with that scene with that guy who threw the computers off his desk as his lost soul was cured (I guess you could call it that?), who obviously realized he wasn’t okay with his lot in life and was destined to change it. I think they sort of misinterpreted “the spark” and other things it as a 100% for-real, this-is-how-the-real-world-works sort of way, and not as much as a fictional way of saying things. Not necessarily symbolic, but I guess symbolic also? It has some of the same weird logical problems as the Cutie Marks from My Little Pony, except they’re obviously better since Cutie Marks determine your life down to your very job some of the time, while “sparks” are more vague and seemingly up to you. They’re more like when an unborn soul realizes there’s something on Earth they want to figure out, not necessarily their hobbies or jobs. For example, they kind of cited the barber character as the one who supported their point, but I think he does the complete opposite. He wanted to be a vet, but he ended up being a barber. But, they sort of assumed his “spark” was to be a barber, and that his personal interests didn’t matter because the “spark” forced him into a less favorable job. But, in reality, I feel like his “spark” is more his interest in love for the people around him, which is why he decided to get a more practical job to support his daughter (wife? one of the two) when he really needed to. Plus, he still enjoys being a barber because his devotion to love lets him connect to people as he cuts their hair. After all, he seems to be succeeding in his goal, since Joe was just like “Hey, let’s go see this guy he’s the exact guy we need!” People who don’t show love and interest for others don’t make that kind of impression in people’s minds. I feel like if we knew each story of everyone’s life down to the last detail we could fully determine what the mechanics of the world and its people are meant to say from a fictional context, but with such a limited selection I don’t think you can say something so sure. Sure, every choice in a movie is made specifically for a purpose, but I feel like if a movie tries to hard to be like “Oh but don’t worry here’s an exception” a million times it gets bogged down by its own attempt to make the message as obvious as possible.

Anyway...

There are also a lot of neat little details I loved, like how even though they did this for basically no other point in the movie, they made sure to include people from all around the world in that mess of dead souls, firmly sort of putting in the idea that the entire globe is in a sense one single entity that leads to the same place. They could’ve so easily just made everyone speak English for that throwaway scene, but I feel like including people from all around the world was very beneficial. Even the EXTRA little things, like the path to the Great Beyond looking like the neck portion of a guitar with the metal bits that separate the notes, or the facial features of the Gods blurring when they turned their heads in the other direction.

But yeah, who would’ve guessed Pixar made another good movie, right? Even then, Soul’s in the upper echelon of Pixar films. I really hope they (and Disney) realize they can go bonkers with a movie and still benefit/survive from it, since they’re so damn rich and inherently profitable. I think AAA animated movies like this that are the perfect amount of artsy are few and far between, and we need more of them. If anything, I hope they get more artsy, but I guess I’ll still never say no to a fun fantastical romp either. Basically, Pixar has looped me into watching any and everything they produce because it’s never “bad” I think. In the grand scheme of quality, even their worst work (Cars 2) is still not “terrible,” per se, even if it feels like it exists more as a cash grab than a genuine tale.

#soul #pixar #christmas #disney plus #disney+#poole #opinions #rant #rambling #review #thoughts

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lindzem · 4 years

Text

MYSTIC OVERFLOW

(Had this dream last night and it inspired this story!)

Jack rode his skateboard through his small hometown. He sighed and watched as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon.

It was a beautiful and quiet evening. Too quiet sometimes. Jack wished there was more to do, more excitment in his life. He'd already seen and done everything the town had to offer. He was staying with his aunt Toothiana after his parents died in a terrible robbery at a restaurant while on their romantic date night.

Jack was just a baby when it happened and doesn't remember anything about his parents. He does love and appreciate his aunt, but he still feels some longing for a real father figure.

That day Jack decided to go further out of town than usual. However the sun was setting faster than he thought and so he was just started heading back.

He paused when he saw a man walking down this road he had never seen before. He glanced around for any road signs but there were none. He picked up his skateboard, since the road was all gravel and he couldnt ride on it.

He trotted up beside the man and blinked in confusion. For some reason the man was absolutely soaking wet.

"Hey, sir. Are you lost?"

Jack eyed the man as he glanced down at Jack with a smile.

"Me? Oh, I'm not lost. Im on my way to a wedding, actually. But I feel really hungry all of a sudden."

Jack looked even more confused, but laughed a little.

J: Oh? Uh, well wouldn't it be embarrassing to go all...wet like that?

The man chuckled.

"What do you mean? I'm fine. Just really want some food right now."

Jack shrugged it off and kept walking with him.

"Right."

Even though it was pretty strange, it was still the most interesting thing to happen all month, if not all year. Jack walked with the man until they came upon a weirdly cozy looking diner in the middle of the woods. It perplexed Jack, but also spiked his curiosity into overdrive.

"What is this? I've never seen this place before."

The man didn't answer and just walked right into the place. Jack paused with an uneasy feeling before following along. It was completely empty.

The man sat down on a stool and Jack sat down with one in between them as space as he put down his skateboard. Just then a tall man with gray skin and golden eyes walked out from a nearby door. His eyes widened only when he saw Jack.

"What are you doing here, boy? Shouldn't you be home in bed by now?"

Jack swallowed a moment, taken aback by how eerie this man looked. It appears he is the owner. Like some fantasy villain out of a horror movie. After a pause he gathered his courage. He scoffed and pulled out his wallet.

"I'm a paying customer, sir."

The man rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I really suggest you leave. This is no place for a child like you."

Jack leered, not like being looked down on.

"I'll have a coke, thanks."

The man turned his attention back to the soaking wet patron.

"Food, please. Any food. I really need some food, I'm starving.

The gray skinned man nodded and walked off into the kitchen. Jack looked around the interior and saw that rather than that kitchy charm you'd expect from a traditional american diner, it was much closer to a creepy haunted house.

Every furnishing was black or gold and was more with a mystic spiritual theme. Various charms and trinkets lined the walls and countertops. Talk about weird. Jack was jerked out of his thoughts by the soaking wet man slamming his hands on the counter.

"Where is my food?!"

The gray man comes out with a plate of white rice with some sort of black powder all over it and sets it down in front of the soaking wet man. The man begins to grab it by the fistful amd stiff it into his mouth. Jack cringed a little and looked away. He then places a glass with coke in front of Jack. Jack takes a sip and coughs, immediately setting it down with a raised brow.

"Oh god, what the hell? Did you put ashes in here or something?! Gross!"

"I'm just making sure you're alive. Now I suggest you hide under a booth for a few minutes."

Jack looked very confused. This man must be some sort of freaky recluse who doesnt know how to deal with real people. Maybe he could sue him for attempted poisoning and get a good chunk of cash.

Suddenly the soaking wet man screamed and fell back off the stool. He writhed on the ground and yelled in agony as its skin rapidly changed to all gray. In mere seconds his chest split open down the middle and a mass of teeth burst out with a flailing tongue-esque tentacle.

Jack screamed and stumbled off his own stool in total panic. He got up and managed to run to the front door. He grabbed the handles and yanked but they were both locked somehow. He turned back around to see the demonic monster shambling towards him. It rasped and croaked.

"FOOOOOD! NEED FOOD!"

Jack screamed and ducked under the monster's attempted grab. He rushed to try to hide under a booth, his heart racing with fear.

" HELP! HELP PLEASE!"

He heard the sound of the creature coming closer. He trembled and covered his ears. The creature leaned down and screeched at him. Just as it almost grabbed the boy's leg, it was grabbed and yanked backwards by the diner owner.

Jack could hear them fighting. He heard things crashing and breaking. The diner owner cursing with an impossibly calm tone. Jack barely peeked out to see that the diner owner was fighting the monster with a tall wooden spear that had 3 crystal orbs stacked on each other underneath a large sharp black spearhead. The top orb was white, the middle gray, and the bottom black.

It was quite amazing to watch the diner owner fight as if he had done this a hundred times. The monster never even touched him because the man was so agile and precise. Finally he stabbed the monater through its heart. The creature choking and staggering until it collapsed. It disintigrated into a sparkling black powder.

The diner owner let out a sigh and tapped the tabletop with his spear.

"You can come out now, boy. It's over."

Jack had no idea what the hell had just happened, but it was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened in his entire life. He finally got the excitment he always wanted, just never what he expected.

#rotg au #pitchblack #jackfrost #blackice #riseoftheguardians #rise of the guardians #rotg

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 4 years

Text

GEARBOX THIS IS EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED THAAAAHAHAHAANK YOUUUUU

FUCK OKAY TRAILER BREAKDOWN BECAUSE I AM LOOOOOOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS TRAILER HOOOOOLY SHIT

POSSIBLE PSOILERS??? MAYBE? GOD DDDDDAYMN WHAT A WAY TO GET BACK INTO THE THEORY SCENE LMAO

SO FIRST OF ALL I’M NOT CERTAIN THIS IS RELATED TO THE BARMAN/SECOND STARS CULT QUEST I FOUND IN THE FILES AS SOME PEOPLE SUGGESTED, BUT I WILL ADMIT IT IS SUSPICIOUSLY SPECIFIC. MAINLY ABOUT A CULT AND THE FACT WE SEE A BAR HANGING OUT IN THE TRAILER, BUT HEY, I AM NOT GOING TO MAKE ASSUMPTIONS RIGHT NOW I AM JUST GOING TO ENJOY THIS WHILE I CAN

ANd breathe in

breathe okay

okay

im okay.

i’ve watched this trailer like 15 times already oh my god it’s so good. i wasnt so hyped about the casino dlc bc, like, i already spoiled myself on it BUT THIS IS (AS FAR AS WE KNOW) UNCHARTED TERRITORY AND

IT’S TECHNICALLY A WATER PLANET

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

okay

i will stop using caps

for the most part

hhhhhhh

okay.

let’s just be calm. i got this

BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THOUGH????

oh ym goD

the fucking lighthouse sent me. i just. i went feral for a solid hour and a half. just wheezing on my test. i fell onto the floor at one point, don’t remember when. it was so fucking good, i couldn’t feel my goddamn hands

;-; its so beautiful i could stare at this all day hhhhhhh

i just

hhhhhhhhhhhh

oh ym godddd ;-;-;-;-;-;-;

it’s so fucking beautiful

i can’t

okay

we see the gun/health station under the lighthouse so it’s not really THAT big, and we can see a town in the distance. running across the ice sheets is giving me HUGE southern shelf vibes which i am in love with. this whole aesthetic is just ;w; so good

there’s a catch a ride in that town as well so we know this area is fairly big (which is confirmed in a later shot)

and oh my GOD can you imagine seeing some big ol beast lurking beneath the surface of the ice sheets hohhhh

MAN

okay sorry im still not oevr this its just so fckign good

inside the belly of the beast rotting Monster and OHHHHHHHHHHH THE IMPLICATION-s of that. of that. im calm.

we get a look at 2 new enemies and mmmmmm we get a better look at them later on so just look how fuckig beautiful thsi area is with its acid that’s probably rotting stomach acid and AAAAAAAA

first close up of the town, giving me really big uhhhh we happy few vibes? which im not complaining about

TENTACLES asdfghj

anywway more toen, bridge looks like like athenas which is DOPE im hype for more athenas-esque architecture

the TOWNss oh my god im so im love with this aesthetic god. damn.it i need this injected directly into my veins like right N O W

also the bridge is going over another pool of acid, which the tentacle is coming out of. i imagine this monster was sorta acid based, which is funny. since. frozen water planet. and it’s OOZY too. oozy boy means the eridians didn’t make this one! ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

hm who’s ready to face the unintended consequences of our actions?! NOT THE ERIDIANS WHOOO BOY (you cannot tlel me that there are mantakores on this planet and not say there was eridian fuckering going on nooOOPE)

also, side note, DIGGING the spike pit under the house on the bottom right. hope we get to explore that bad boy

ALSO

who are you mysterious figure whose cape billows in the wind? are you just part of the environment?? MAYBE

more town

first look at that BEAUITUFL red barrier which OOOOH I WANNA TOUCH SO BADLY

look at it

LOOK AT IT

NOODLE BOWL

EATS??? food place?? im not sure i can’t read, Jared, 19

see s-ar(?)ed??

THAT

THAT IS BEAUTIFUL

doesn’t look like a corporation shield (no corporation gunk lying around either) and we do know red glowy shit is the New Eridian Aesthetic, so im just saying.

it could be a corporation tho, mostly because uhhh later shots

hold up

that’s not uhhhhhhhhhhh

yeah it CAN’T BE lol

cursetown - something something

these red thingies are probably just rotting monster flesh but it does look very similar to the vines on nekrotefeyo

given how worried wainwright looks i imagine him and hammylocks are being coerced into the whole marriage thing in order to complete a ritual

i mean no judgement but that red background is absolutely garrish for a wedding

1. pirate ship??? please??? look at all the mist outside and the wooden bars

god PLEASE can i get a pirate ship. CNA I PLEASE GET A PIRATE SHIP

Captain scarlett wsan’t enoughhhh

2. why the fuck does she have a tail

DJ Midnight performing Saturday: The Dark Mix Deep W???? Hear The Voices (hmmm) and Let The Music Enter You

gee i wonder if this is cultist propaganda

I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE

BUT YOUR TIMING

SUCKS

IIIII AM HERMEAUS MORAAA

no wait wrong game

BUT BRO TENTACLES COMING OUT OF THE MAGIC PORTALS???? UFCKF UEYS THIS FITS PERFECTLY INTO H2O A- i mean, damn haven’t we got enough tentacles from the destroyer?? wow gearbox... heh. hm.

SO I AM WONDERING IF MAYBE THE GREEN UNDER THE BRIDGE AND SUCH ISN’T LIKE CORROSIVE ACID BUT MAYHAPS SOME SORT OF MAGIC SLUDGE COMING OFF THE BIG OL MONSTER BOY THAT THESE CULTISTS ARE HARNESSING TO TAP INTO something. i lost steam. but i mean MAGIC PORTALS

and we all know where teleportation takes us

MANTAKORES!!! WHICH MEANS ERIDIAN INTERVENTION SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE

they seem like fire/ice boys which i absolutely adore

THIS SHOT IS SO COOL OH MY GOD

LIKE I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN IT JUST LOOKS D O P E

WHAT IS THIS??

WHAT IS THIIIS??

CAN I PLEASE HAVE YOUR JACKET

OH ALSO

I MENTIONED IT IN ANOTHER POST BUT THIS

REMINDS ME A LOT OF THIS

IM SURE THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO CORRELATION BUT I THOUGHTIT WAS FUNNY

ALSO REMEMBER THE BLACK EYES THING I HAVE A WHOLE THINGIE THING IMMA BRING BACK OT IT JUST HOLD TIGHT

THIS SHOT?? OH MY GOD? IT’S LIKE A MOVIE????????? I LOV EI LOVE IT LIV E OT

nND THE WOLFIE BOYS THATTHE ARTICLE MENTIONS

UCKING TENTACLES HFDGDHFGJKH THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL OH MY GOD

HE’ SGOT TENTACLE ARMS LIKE MOTHERFUCKING CHADAM

BRO IM

BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AND A GUN THIS MOTHERFUCKER STILL HAS A GUN

WHAT A MAN

MORE TECHONOLOG Y THAT IM SURE PLAYS A ROLE IN THIS SOMEHOW

BEAUTIFUL

WE SLAM THIS DUDE UP AGAINST A WALL SO HARD SHE/HE/THEY (I ASSUME SHE BC WE CAN’T SEE HER FACE AS A COMMON TROPE)

BREAKS THE WINDOW WHICH LOOKS SUSPICIOUSLY LIKE A WINDOW ON SANC-III BUT IM NOT MAKING ANY ASSUMPTIONS

also red SPARKS WHICH REMIND ME OF ERIDIANS AGAIN

also her whole helmet thingie??? very Guardian-like

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS GIVING ME HUGE HECTOR/KEY/PLANT/ERIDIANBULLSHITTERY VIBES THEY EVEN HAVE THE GLOWING SACS OF OOOOOOOZE

which is another point to the “green sludge is magic/connected to their powers somehow” theory. hmmm i hope we mix neon green and eridium purple. purple/green is my favorite color combo. and ugh with the lovecraftian vibes? be still my beating heart!

WINNIE SHOOTING SOMOHE

i fucking LOVE the laces on this shotgun. so fucking pretty omfg

magic circle MAGIC CIRCLE MAGIC CIRCLE

also new chest it looks like

BROO??? HOLY SHIT?????????

JABBER WOLF!! SO FUCKING COOL

THAT SKULL MOUTH IS SO FUCKING DOPE IT LOOKS LIKE TROY’S TATTOO

ohhhhhhHHHHHH THE MOON IS GREEN TOO DON’T DO THI GEARBOX IM GONNA SCREAM IF THERE’S ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE ERIDIUM

THIS SHOT OHHHH

THE BAR LOOKS FUCKING FANTASTIC OH MY GOD

shots SHOT SHOTS SHOT SHOTS HTOSHSTOHSOHTS

dND the MERFOLK TAIL ON THE FAR RIGHT I DON’T GIVE A FUUUCK WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS THAT’S MER TAIL THAT’S A TAIL FUCK U

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YSEY SEYSEYSE BIGGG

THE BARTENDER OHOH

HAVE I MENTIONED THE GIANT FUCKING MUSHROOMS BTW

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IM GETTTING SUCH DRAGONBORN DLC VIBES I LOVE IT

SWEETFRUIT VILLAGE BTW THAT’S IMPORTANT

YOU ALLL LOOK SO FUCKING AMAZING OH MY GOD

the bartender!!!! his glasses!! AND THE VOICE MODULATOR???

the netch looking boys are called

slithercresses btw and THEY LOOK STUNNING

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

NEW RED CHESTS??? LOOK ERIDIAN TO ME

WHICH MIGHT MEAN------

ALSO THE DIMENSIONAL TRANSFER PROGRAM ON SANC-III WHERE BBY BOY MAUREICE MAKES US A PORTAL TO HELL??? WHICH GREEN OOZE WHICH IS “HECKTOPLASM” BUT MAYBE ACTUALLY N O T

THE STAR OF THE SHOW BABY GIRL GAIGE WHO’SACTUALLY OLDER THAN ME NOW FUUUUUUUUCK

YOU’RE SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL II LOVE YOUR NEW GOGGLES

H??????????????

POSSIBLE NEW PSYCHOMASK UNLESS HE’S JUST GROWING THOSE BONE HORNS IN WHICH CASE YOU GO MAN IM PROUD OF YOU

TENTACLE GUNNNNNN WHICH BETTER LPAY A PART ERIRDIANS YOU FUCKS

THIS PLACE IS WHY I THINK THIS MIGHT BE RELATED TO S O M E CORPORAITON? BUT THEN AGAIN IT MAY JSUT BE THE CULT HEADQUARTERS OR WHATEVER, THAT RED BUBBLED MANSION LOOKS P HQ

FOOD CARTS AND ALSO WHATEVERS IN THAT SWINGING BAG LOOKS LIKE BONES HELL YEAH

this this THIS THIS THIS THIS WHAT IS THIS A NEW CIRCL E OF SLAUGHTEr? ERIDIAN???

THEYRE PUMPING SOMETHING INTO/OUT OF THE CORPSE!!!!!!! ALSO

mutaTED FEET

[something] world! with a skull symbol on the side

both green btw

god YES I LOVE GREEN AND PURPLE IM SO HAPPY

SAILOF HOLE

hammylocks helping us with a fight by some bones and more wolfie boys!!!! i love these little dudes

FIRE MUTATED SLUGS AAAAAAAAA THEYRE SO COOL

ns tHEY CUR L UP INTO BALLS AND ROLL AT YOU LIKE KRAGGONS

AND I WONDER HOW THE SLUGS MUTATED IS IT POSSIBLY THE G R E E EN?

AND THEIR SHELLS LIKE SUCC UP LAVA?????????????

THESE BRAIN-Y BOYS

SO BLUE I LOVE THEM

AND MORE GREEN MIST BY THE WAY OWOWOWOWOWO

another look at a baddie with STUDS THIS TIME

A MAGIC WARLOCK TYPE BADDIE THIS TIME AND HE SUMMONS A STAFF AND ALSO I THINK THAT’S ERIDIUM CANNISTER BEHIND HIM

AND IT HAS SIMMILAR TENTACLESTO THE GUNS DO YOU THINK WE’RE FINALLY GOING TO GET ANA NSWER ASA TO WHY OUR GUNS ARE A L I V E

MORE SNAIL DUDES AND THE GREEN STUFF IN THE BACKGROUND M A N I LOVE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA SNAILS

OOOOOZE

BACK AT IT AGAIN IN MY CYCLONES

GREEN FUCKING PUDDLES

B O N E S FUCKING I HOPE THIS EXPLAINS HOW THE SKAGS ON PANDORA GOT SO FUCKIN LARGGO OUTSIDE OF JUST ‘YEAH THE SEASONS’

this

THIS

ONE

THIS LOOKS LIKE A SAURIAN THE ARMORED ONES THE BASHY ARMORED ONES THAT START WITH ‘C’

TWO THAT GUN IS KICKASS

IT’S GLOWING G R E E N AND IT HAS ***THE TENTACLE BARREL***

OHHHH IM SO READY FOR AN EXPLANATION GEARBO X PL E ASE

GIVE IT TO ME

ALSO THIS

IM EXCITED ABOUT

PROBABLY RELATED TO SWEETFRUIT VILLAGE BC THE MUSHROOMS MAYBE THEY USE IT TO MAKE BOOZE MUSHROOM BOOZE EW

WHY IS HE GRAY?????? HE’S NOT WEARING A JACKET MAYBE HES CRYO-FLAVORED

more sluggus THESE ARE GREEN FLAVORED :O

also, side note

PLEASE TLEL ME THIS WAS INTENTIONAL GEARBOX

LEMME SLAP BLANE’S ASS

YOU *GUYS* PLEASE

BUBBLE MANSION??? GREEN OOZY VILLAIN THAT GOT SLMAMED INTO A WALL??? BABY BABY GIRL

THE R E D

and she’s USING A TENTACLE GUN TOO

THAT’S GOTTA MEAN SOMETHING RIGHT

hhhhhhHHHHH

also ther’e sa fridge on the left lol

also the consoles look similar to that one shot with zane which is why i believe this is part of that bubbled-y mansion.

YES ES YES YES YES YESY SYEYSE

I WANNA RIDE THE SKY TRAM SO BAD PLEASE

I WANNA REENACT UNTIL DAWN

I HAVE A MIGHTY NEEEEEEED

ALSO NOTE THE EYES

AND THE PURPLE HOW IT LOOKS LIKE AN ERIDIUM PURPLE

ANYWAY I HA[VE TO GO EAT FOOD NOW BUT GO LOOK AT THIS LINKN

I LOOKED UP THE NAME OF THE PLANET AND MYTHOLOGY AND NOTHING CAME UP, BUT GOOGLE RECOMMENDED ME

T H I S

https://pantheon.org/articles/l/lycurgus.html

AND MAN OH MAN

“FAMOUS FOR HIS PERSECUTION OF DIONYSUS” THE GOD OF P A R T I E S LIKE IDK A WEDDING PARTY, WHICH FORCED YA MAIN MAN DIONYSUS TO <JUMP INTO THE OCEAN> WHICH COULD HAVE SOME RELATION TO THE TENTACLES

OH AND ALSO LYCURGUS WAS THEN <<<BLINDED>>> WHICH COULD PLAY A PART IN THE BLACK OOZY EYES EVERYONE HAS

DIONYSUS ALSO ENDS UP PUNISHING LYCURGUS WITH MADASS AND WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT RELATES

OKAY BYE

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3 #borderlands spoilers #IM SORRY I POSTED THIS EARLY IT WAS ANA CCIDENCT

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bluemoonpunch · 4 years

Note

hello! could you do a tarot reading of bang chan about how’s his personality? thank you!

For this reading, I was just focusing on his overall energy and the most prominent and stable projection he has coming from his core, and with that, as I was getting into the reading, I was getting a lot of visuals concerning the energetic connections he has stemming from his core. Usually, I will see energy lines as literal lines, just like tightly pulled strings from one person’s core to another, or maybe a core to a soul, or another layer of consciousness, but his energy lines were almost like octopus tentacles. They were a lot thicker towards the core and tapered off as they extended out, and they were very wavy. Rather than stable connections, it was like he’s energetically reaching for something or, more accurately, feeling around from someone or something, maybe multiple people.

The first card out for him was the 5 of Wands which, in the traditional Rider-Waite deck, does depict scattered energy lines as in the form of people beating each other with sticks. It shows opposition and resistance, just a state of stagnation brought on by this tension or argument. For him, however, it’s not so severe, it literally just seemed like a confirmation that what I was seeing is what he projects the most often. He projects this kind of open doorway or an extended hand for people to grab onto. Literally, anyone can grab onto it and kind of enter his space, but on some level, he is reaching out for very specifical people or very specific things, so it seems like the tension comes from this lack of fulfillment. He has all these people or these things around him and he loves them, but they’re not really filling a certain void. I did see that he is a Libra and that seems like a very Libra-esque kind of situation to be in, especially since he’s in his early 20’s.

The next card out was the 3 of Swords which is about heartbreak and loss, which was then followed by The Empress and The High Priestess, both of which were reversed. The Empress immediately took me to this feeling of being without emotional support, or more literally lacking a mother. The connections that he is reaching for could be his family, especially his mother, or another maternal figure. With the reversed High Priestess there’s this kind of “internal damnation” which was such a weird phrase to see with this card, but it’s around literally not being able to bridge the gap. The High Priestess is a gateway, a meeting point, so with her in reverse, it’s like the connections that the tentacle energy is reaching for can’t be made, but it’s not being made due to personal reasons within himself or due to situations that are ultimately out of his control that he still somehow blames himself for.

The idea of family kept coming up after these three cards were laid out and I started getting these visuals that kind of pointed to trying to find a family in people who aren’t actually his family, hence the connections being made that lack fulfillment. I would assume this has to do with continuously trying to find a sense of family within his group or amongst his peers, and just not getting what he needs or the relationships aren’t meeting his standards on a deeper subconscious level. Again, there’s a focus on reaching for the mother, so there’s a need for very stable emotional nurturing and support, which is probably hard to find in a group of young men that are all around the same age as him going through the same struggles and handling the same stress.

The last two cards out were very separated from the other projection and I found this to be the most interesting. It’s Death alongside the reversed 7 of Pentacles. Specifically, he is projecting the idea or the perception of Death towards the issues of the reversed 7 of Pentacles. Basically, this explains why the energy lines were appearing so thick towards the core but so thin the further they were extending out. This pair of cards display energy where he’s pretty much handing out the emotional support, or just support in general, that he would like to have handed back to him. He’s giving people way more than he’s getting in return, or at least that’s how it feels for him, and because of that, there’s this black hole kind of situation going on where even when those tentacles grab onto something it feels like nothing is there, it feels like Death.

Overall, he kind of reminds me of my uncle, who is also a Libra. A very sensitive and emotional Libra with a Leo Moon who seems to have a subconscious mantra of, “I need you to feel what I feel because that’s the only way I know you’re actually here and I’m not alone.” Bang Chan seems to have a very deep need for stability and a sense of safety within relationships and he projects that by trying to offer the same stability and safety to people around him. He could be reaching for maternal connections by being a maternal figure himself in the sense that he is much more emotionally driven when it comes to how he supports and nurtures other people.

More Mini-Readings | Celebrity/Idol Readings

#Anonymous #stray kids #bang chan #lee know #changbin #hyunjin #han #felix #seungmin #i.n.#woojin

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