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pokemon-dungeon-masters · 27 days

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Progress Update!

I know it’s been a while since I posted an update on here so here’s just a big update dump!

Last time I really talked on here, I was about to run a few beta test sessions. Which did happen but too much happened during the two sessions and I ultimately had to cancel the rest. Which was a bummer but its ok! I got a lot of good data on what did and did not work. So I took a few weeks as a break and got back to work. Most of said work has been reworking the Move dex to be clearer and more consistent. Which brings me to…

The Move Dex is now at version 6!

@bdigfreakingwooper and I, as well as a few others from the discord server, have gone through the entire move dex (again) and its hopefully in the last stages of development! Combat still needs overhauled somewhat so the move dex might need to be updated again afterwards but other than that, I don’t foresee any other big issues so I’m happy with where its at.

It now includes all moves (excluding z-moves & dynamax/ gigantamax moves), a few custom moves (still being added to), Key words, and move range descriptions/examples. I will be posting it here in the near future, once combat has been reworked and a few more custom moves have been added. Here’s a few notable moves that I just want to show off:

I’m sure parts of this won’t make much sense yet so if there’s anything you’re curious about, let me know!

Current Focus

What we’re currently working on is creating an Ability dex, with every ability being adapted to this system. We’ve started work on it and it hopefully won’t take nearly as long as the Move dex to finish (or finished enough). Other than a few annoying ones (looking at Transform) its not too bad! My personal favorite so far is Ball Fetch, the signature ability of Yamper, which in this system has a D6 Chance to regain an Orb after a party member uses it, if User has free pouch slot. Just the thought of little Yamper running to retrieve Orbs is so cute I couldn’t help myself lol.

As for what comes after the Ability dex, I have an ever growing To-Do list that’s slowly being worked through, starting with overhauling the combat system. Then there’s going through all the status effects, weather, terrain, items, Dojo effects, and a bunch of other stuff. Once that’s done I’ll be going back to working on the Player’s Guide, which will be a simple introductory guide to the system, character creation, and a few other important things. After that? No clue. We’ll see what happens!

Other Stuff

The server has reached over 30 members! Its been an absolute blast to hang out in with everyone. I definitely wouldn’t have gotten as much work as I have without those in the server, most notably Nines (@bdigfreakingwooper) who is now the Co-Creator of PDM! She has done a lot work independently as well, like creating a version of the character sheet that automatically fills in stuff like move information and a treasure bag sheet that does the same with items! Its absolutely insane, biggest thanks to her for being here through so much of the development.

Also about the server, I’ve been streaming a playthrough of Explorers of Sky, following the adventures of Team Soy Bois, and it’s been a huge blast. A few of us have even been doing voices for all the characters and some others enjoy just joining muted and chiming in using the text chat. We also have been doing movie nights, going through all the Pokémon movies, which has been on hiatus but will be starting back up next week! Its overall a very chill place and I would encourage anyone following the blog to consider checking it out!

As always, I appreciate the support and interactions from everyone and I will try my best to update more regularly! If you have any questions or comments or anything, my asks and DMs are open!

#pokédungeon #pdm #pdm update #pokemon #pokemon mystery dungeon #thank you so much!#discord server #progress update

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starlytenight · 8 months

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Little Announcement

So... My health is still pretty rough. In needing to meet my own physical and mental needs, I'm going to be pulling a bit of a "Disney" and cancelling my fic---or at least what I was thinking of for "Season 2" as I called it.

I fully intend to finish the Nightmare Saga since it's just a few chapters away from being done, but I will tweak it to give it a bit more of a satisfying ending with some of the set up I have laid down that was meant for S2.

If it puts any of you at ease, most of S2 was not really going to be terribly MetaGala-heavy anyway and just tackled the games I didn't touch as of yet. While it'll be unfortunate to miss out on RtDL, Allies, and FL (among other 'smaller' games,) they ultimately didn't really add much to the boys and their story. It was mostly just seeing Kirby grow up and having the adults effectively supervising/guiding him around heavier moments like Magolor's betrayal, Hyness' treatment and seeing Void Termina make a return to the world, and obviously Elfilis and what happened with him among Galacta's true past and purpose with Morpho.

I plan to add a small epilogue that reveals a few things I was planning to have, including Galacta and Meta's parents (their mothers are alive,) and other little tidbits I was looking forward to writing, but very brief. I can't keep up with this project and for what I've done... I mean. 70 chapters, pretty lengthy ones at that too. Not too shabby.

But I do need to focus on myself and writing does take a lot out of me, sadly. As much as I like my silly little world, I do need to move onto other stuff too. Focus on my health more intensely, have fun in other things I love too. I hope it's not too upsetting for anyone, but I plan for the last few chapters I write to go out with a big bang to celebrate getting this far despite it all.

Once it all ends, I am very open to getting any asks wanting elaboration, headcanons, or even original plans. Ultimately the only game that would really bring any real particular note for Meta and Gala would be FL but by then it would be mostly Kirby's show as a young teen and dealing with what Morpho has in store for them all after dealing with Elfilin and his baggage as Elfilis.

I want to thank you all for sticking by me while I made this little thing. I never expected so many to love it. It makes me so happy to bring even a tiny bit of joy to your lives, but the curtain has to close eventually, and I do need to stop the show before I break something that I might not be able to fix.

#ASMR Chitter Chatter #I'm not leaving the fandom by any means but more shifting back into a more casual enjoyer to ease things on my end #I just want to be able to finish and relax now since I'm again not the healthiest sort #I'm still waiting for more tests and it's not looking too great in being able to repair anything #It's a pretty high chance I just have to live like this and I only have so much energy in me anymore with how little I can do #I want my fic to go out with a beautiful bang rather than fizzle and fade like a hacked cough #I owe the characters that much for helping me through this #A friend suggested I could do one-shots from time to time and that's a maybe if I feel the spark for it

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 4 months

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Magnetic fields in the Cosmos: dark matter could help us discover their origin

We don't know how they formed. Now a new theoretical research tells how the invisible part of our Universe could help us discover it, suggesting a primordial genesis, even within a second of the Big Bang

The mini-halos of dark matter scattered throughout the Cosmos could function as highly sensitive probes of primordial magnetic fields. This is what emerges from a theoretical study conducted by SISSA and published in Physical Review Letters. Present on immense scales, magnetic fields are found everywhere in the Universe. However, their origin are still subjects of debate among scholars. An intriguing possibility is that magnetic fields originated near the birth of the universe itself, that is they are primordial magnetic fields. In the study, researchers showed that if magnetic fields are indeed primordial then it could cause an increase in dark matter density perturbations on small scales. The ultimate effect of this process would be the formation of mini-halos of dark matter, which, if detected would hint towards a primordial nature of magnetic fields. Thus, in an apparent paradox, the invisible part of our Universe could be useful in resolving the nature of a component of the visible one.

Shedding light on the formation of Magnetic Fields

"Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Cosmos," explains Pranjal Ralegankar of SISSA, the author of the research. "A possible theory regarding their formation suggests that those observed so far could be produced in the early stages of our Universe. However, this proposition lacks explanation in the standard model of physics. To shed light on this aspect and find a way to detect “primordial” magnetic fields, with this work we propose a method that we could define as 'indirect.' Our approach is based on a question: What is the influence of magnetic fields on dark matter?". It is known that there is no direct interaction. Still, as Ralegankar explains, “there is an indirect one that occurs through gravity”.

Right from the primordial Universe

Primordial magnetic fields can enhance density perturbations of electrons and protons in the primordial Universe. When these become too large, they influence the magnetic fields themselves. The consequence is the suppression of fluctuations on a small scale. Ralegankar explains: "In the study, we show something unexpected. The growth in baryon density gravitationally induces the growth of dark matter perturbations without the possibility of subsequent cancellation. This would result in their collapse on small scales, producing mini-halos of dark matter." The consequence, continues the author, is that although fluctuations in the density of baryonic matter are cancelled, they would leave traces through the mini-halos, all solely through gravitational interactions.

"These theoretical findings", concludes Pranjal Ralegankar, "also suggest that the abundance of mini-halos is determined not by the present presence of primordial magnetic fields but rather by their strength in the primordial Universe. Thus, a detection of dark matter mini-halos would reinforce the hypothesis that magnetic fields formed very early, even within 1 second after the Big Bang."

IMAGE....In the study, researchers showed that if magnetic fields are indeed primordial then it could cause an increase in dark matter density perturbations on small scales. The ultimate effect of this process would be the formation of mini-halos of dark matter, which, if detected would hint towards a primordial nature of magnetic fields. Credit Image by Lucie Chrastecka

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics

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mariacallous · 8 months

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The number of short-term Airbnbs available in New York City has dropped 70 percent after the city began enforcing a new law requiring short-term rental operators to register their homes. But despite the new requirements, there are still thousands of listings that could be unregistered.

The drop, recorded between August 4 and September 5, the day New York City began enforcing the new law, represents the disappearance of some 15,000 short-term listings from Airbnb. The figures are based on data provided by Inside Airbnb, a housing advocacy group that tracks listings on the platform.

In August, there were some 22,000 short-term listings on Airbnb in New York City. As of September 5, there were 6,841. But it seems some short-term listings have been switched to long-term listings, which can only be booked for 30 days or more. The number of long-term rentals jumped by about 11,000 to a total of 32,612 from August 4 to September 5. These listings do not need to be registered under the new law.

Additionally, Inside Airbnb estimates that around 4,000 rentals in total have disappeared from Airbnb since the law took effect.

That uptick in long-term rentals may show that the law is working, by pushing hosts to offer apartments to those staying in New York City for 30 days or more. The new registration requirement is meant to enforce older rules on short-term rentals in the city, and it comes at a time when New Yorkers face high rents and housing insecurity. Vacation rentals are also known for bringing noise, trash, and danger to residential neighborhoods and buildings.

At a glance, it’s impossible to tell if a listing on Airbnb is registered with the city. Inside Airbnb found that only 28 short-term rentals in New York mentioned having a registration number from the city in their listing, but it’s not immediately clear if those numbers are legitimate, and the number of short-term rentals Inside Airbnb found far outpaces the number the city has registered.

Ultimately, hosts will need to display registration numbers on their listings. New York City has received 3,829 registration applications, reviewed 896 applications, and granted 290 as of Monday, according to Christian Klossner, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, which oversees the registration process. The office has denied 90 and returned another 516 seeking corrections or more information.

Airbnb says it began blocking new short-term reservations for unregistered rentals as early as August 14, but did not automatically cancel stays in unregistered apartments before December 1 to avoid disrupting guests’ travel plans. Expedia Group, the parent company of Vrbo, is working with “the city and our partners to meet the law’s requirements and minimize disruption to the city’s travelers and tourism economy,” says Richard de Dam Lazaro, the company’s senior director of government and corporate affairs. Booking.com did not respond to a request for comment.

But amid the chaotic rollout of the new law, a number of listings appear to be falling through the cracks. A search on Airbnb for apartments in New York for more than two guests returns several results that may break the new law. Entire homes are still available for booking, some with enough space for 12 or 14 guests. One, a townhouse in Harlem, has a backyard with a firepit, a living room with a pool table, and five bedrooms, some with multiple beds next to each other, set up hotel-style. It’s listed for around $1,400 per night.

Some of the listings still available may still be allowed on Airbnb. The new rule allows for hotels to list rooms on booking platforms and to continue to accept guests without having to register with the city. It was not immediately clear if some of the listings still on Airbnb qualify for this exemption. Airbnb did not comment on potentially illegal listings on its platform flagged by WIRED or on the data provided by Inside Airbnb.

Airbnb has fought against the New York City regulations, saying the change would seriously hamper both its business and host income in the city. To register, short-term rental hosts, whether on Airbnb, Vrbo, or elsewhere, must meet a strict set of conditions: They cannot rent out entire apartments, the host must be living in the home and be present during the booking, and only two guests can stay at a time. Hosts and platforms that facilitate illegal bookings could be penalized, but guests would not be.

Small landlords say the law unfairly targets people who try to list their own homes for rent while out of town, and smaller landlords who want to occasionally rent one apartment on a short-term basis. Whether or not the move to regulate short-term rentals in New York works has huge implications for other major tourist cities where the popularity of short-term rentals has contributed to housing shortages and affordability issues. And this initial hiccup shows how complicated it can be to get booking platforms and cities to talk to each other, while also having thousands of hosts apply to register their homes.

Some of the stays could be lingering because the city’s verification system was not fully up and running, according to Skift. But Klossner, of the city’s Office of Special Enforcement, says the office is in the “initial phase” of enforcing the law, and is focusing on working with booking platforms to make sure they are using the registration verification system, and that they are not processing transactions for unregistered stays.

Airbnb is working with New York City to get the city’s verification system working, says Nathan Rotman, a regional lead for Airbnb. Once it’s fully operational, the city’s verification system will flag registered listings, and allow platforms like Airbnb to stop people from hosting short-term days without being verified, Rotman says.

Officials will also focus on responding to complaints about illegal occupancy. “Registration creates a clear path for hosts who follow the city’s long-standing laws and protects travelers from illegal and unsafe accommodations, while ending the proliferation of illegal short-term rentals,” Klossner says.

For now, people who book short-term rentals in New York—be it through Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com—could find themselves caught in limbo. There’s no way for someone booking a short-term rental to know if they’re selecting a legal, registered apartment—or staying in a house skirting the city’s regulations.

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caw4brandon · 1 year

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The Three Conditions (Lore)

It's been a while since my last post and I would like to take this opportunity to show a fun bit of lore that will play an important role in the < Murder The Crow > series.

For a simple rundown. My characters; Sadie mac Lir, Jamie Ann Robyn, and Hector James Dagger don't look human at all. In fact, they always have one offset feature found on their head area.

These features are known as; The Three Conditions also known by its other name; Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil.

- Eyes, Ears, Mouth, and Nose? -

First, let's get down to the basic details.

How did the conditions come to be?

In the universe, the Conditions are an after-effect of being under the atmospheric influence of The Burning Core. Which mutated the said humans of this fictional world; Kingshaven developing highly sensitive conditions to aid them in this once hostile and dangerous world.

These conditions help increase a certain trait but also overamplified the individual to require external aids or accommodations to make their lives tolerable. As a quick rundown, here are the names of said conditions.

Elvenlead - Elf ears with the perk of heightened hearing, and temperature sensitivity. This Condition however comes at the cost of overstimulation to the slightest peak of sound and temperature.

Hollowaye - Darken eyes with the perk of night vision or being able to see through hidden things. This Condition comes with the drawback of light sensitivity.

Grimmjaw - A Venus Flytrap-like mouth with the perk of a strong grip and a uniquely sensitive tongue. This Condition removes the need for teeth and leaves the person vulnerable to all airborne bacteria.

With that said, there are ways to combat the discomfort respectively. Elvenleads found the solution of noise-canceling headphones or earbuds to lessen the stimulation and earmuffs on hand in case of terrible weather conditions. Hollowayes use special sunglasses to help adjust their eyes to light. Grimmjaws learned to use facemasks to cover their mouths thus, protecting themselves.

- The No-Evil Monkeys -

When I originally set out to design my characters, I made the mistake of giving Sadie elf ears but that mistake lead to this peculiar idea of making none of my characters look normal which re-ignited this memory of seeing the monkey statues on display.

My characters and this universe, in general, reflect the phrase; Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil. Which is indeed a part of the inspiration. In an ironic way, these Conditions ultimately reveal the evils found in each sense. Sadie hears all, Hector sees all and Jamie tastes all. (in some way, feels all)

Despite this, for the Conditions. Sadie, Hector, and Jamie are still human in a sense. Peculiar humans if you will but humans still. Said Conditions are categorized as a Dominant Mutation that is bound to appear as one or the other based on the child's gender.

For example, should an Elvenlead mother and Hollowaye father produce a child. The daughters will obtain Elvenlead traits while the sons will have Hollowaye conditions. Under another scenario, if a Havenite (resident of Kingshaven) reproduces with a Normie (human with no Condition) the mutation will follow based on the Havenite parent regardless of gender.

- Do You Know The Muffin Man? -

While I have talked about this very subject in the past, the intention of this post is to lay AN OFFICIAL RULE as to what the Conditions are and provide a colorized version of said subjects because the doodles in the past are all in black and white.

Something I hope to share more after this post is to share more about the respective character's profiles as I am in a bit of a joking mood recently. I've been hinting at the dynamics between these three and I feel confident that I can achieve a lot more for this coming month, despite the fact that it will be a very busy month this coming April.

While drawing this, I was suddenly reminded of the video of about three housemates asking about a certain [Muffin Man] because...I'm just kinda random like that. hahaha~ With that said, that is all for now about the Three Conditions. More to come surely.

Thanks for reading

- Caw4B -

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eternalglitch · 1 year

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With the new tmnt movie coming out, will that shift your interest in rise and cause a discontinuity of like father like son?

Also was this “.. Green staggered slightly, straightening back up as his eyes darted between the portal and Draxum. He dared not back away, but his breath caught in his throat as his heart hammered away in his chest loud enough to be heard.

“You’re lucky that I took an interest in you,” the yokai concluded. “Imagine where you would be if I hadn’t.”

There had once been a spot for him to come back home to, with people that wanted him. But he couldn’t remember exactly when he had realized he no longer was fit to claim that as his home, or why his family had even bothered to put up with him in the first place.

Draxum snorted, finding something in Green lacking. Green didn’t blame him; he could feel the hole within himself, too. “Go on, then,” he ordered. “We better get moving now if you hope to complete these tasks in an acceptable period of time. You first.”

Green didn’t wait for the collar to warn him; he almost tripped over his feet as he ran over to the portal, jumping through without any hesitation this time.

Anywhere was better than there, in that room.

Anywhere.”

Was this a dream or was it like reflected by something that actually happened?

So I actually don't hold much interest in franchises as a way to sell me on something. I might hold interest in specific creatives, but the general brand isn't that important to me. Hollywood is currently running on 80-90% of pre-existing material creation, as in reboots, sequels, spin offs, what-have-you. They do this because they believe they can count on a pre-established fanbase to make more profit with less marketing work, and I... usually want to make them work for my attention still lmao.

This is obviously a personal preference as to how I approach media, and if you are excited already about Mutant Mayhem I am really happy for you! But I don't consider myself a TMNT fan. I was a Rise fan, and Rise is exactly what I would want and I don't want to look for that within a show that was part of the reason for Rise's cancellation. That brings unfair baggage to it and Mutant Mayhem deserves to be looked at for what it is on its own rather than torn apart for being too similar or different to past versions. That happened to Rise, I don't care to do that to another iteration.

So far, all that Mutant Mayhem has really shown is that characters people recognize are being brought back a certain way. And that's cool, but ultimately holds little interest to someone who mainly cares about plot. I'll see how I feel when we learn more about what the movie will actually be about and how well the writing was done. ^^

tldr they have to woo me. And I play hard to get sometimes.

As for how this effects lfls... regardless of Mutant Mayhem, I've actually moved on from Rise three months ago and have already found a new show that I am watching all the time and talking about with my friends. It happens. I still currently plan to write more lfls and haven't changed my plans on that.

And for that particular scene... I'll leave it up to you. You can interpret it as a dream or as a memory. It does the same thing for the story either way.

#glitch answers #lfls

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alphashley14 · 1 year

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One Of Us

A Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated/Mystery Skulls Crossover

Chapter One

Magic

The ultimate power chord.

That’s what they needed to break Rude Boy’s spell.

“Like, Scoob old buddy, old friend, old pal… after everything we’ve been through, is this it? Like, through all the scary monsters and the homicidal parrot, are our friends really going to dance themselves to death?”

“No way!” Scooby growled. Still ever determined and faithful, the dog looked around, his mind scrambling for some sort of answer. But his eyes fell upon Fred, Daphne, and Velma dancing uncontrollably with the rest of the Crystalcovians below, and then he looked over at Shaggy, trying to rouse Luna, Thorn, and Dusk from where they’d been knocked unconscious, and a knot of despair settled in the back of his throat.

It was right at that moment, when it seemed all hope might be lost, that a pink light appeared from below.

And suddenly, the sound of the synth and the strum of an electric guitar drowned out the cursed melody of ska.

In an instant, Shaggy and Scooby rushed over to the edge of the rooftop, looking down in the direction of the sound until their gazes landed upon a cloud of pink smoke. Light within it showed the silhouettes of a very familiarly shaped van, and four figures that came into clarity as the vapor cleared, their bodies bobbing in sync with the tempo of the beat.

The first member of the band that came into view was a girl wielding a blue electric guitar, dressed entirely in blue save her pink glasses, right down to the azure hue of her hair. The second was a scrawny young man on the synthesizer. He had yellow-orange hair, and he wore a white t-shirt, an orange vest, and pants that matched his locks. A small white dog stood just in front of him, looking up at the Ska-tastics with a challenge in his eyes. And finally, at the front center of the band, his bow running across the strings of his pink violin, appeared a handsome young man with magenta hair and a matching suit. The rhythm of the song picked up, and he began to sing.

“The spell you’ve got on me - it’s like magic!

His bow ran across the strings twice.

“Got me feelin’ like falling in love,

From behind the truck suddenly appeared a bizarre spectacle of special effects -

“Got me feelin’ like I’ll never give up on-

Got me feelin’ like I’ll never give up on you!”

- A small orchestra of pink ghosts with little violins, bobbing their bodies in sync with the music in the same manner as the musicians, strumming their strings right along with the lead violinist.

“It’s like magic!”

That was when the song really picked up - Shaggy and Scooby had no ear for music, but the Hex girls knew what they were hearing as they awoke from where they’d fallen: a unique blend of electra and disco with violins and a progressive thrust.

“Like, zoinks! Like, who’re they?” Shaggy asked.

“I don’t know, but they’ve got some killer sounds!” Said Dusk as the Hex Girls came up behind them to look.

“It’s not the same as ours, but that’s the ultimate power chord!” Luna exclaimed.

The Hex Girls weren’t the only ones who thought so either. The band’s pink blasts of music were canceling out the ska, illuminations shaped like those same pink ghosts blasting the Ska-tastics skulls away, and the tired townsfolk below had stopped dancing and were coming to.

“I got you feelin’ like you’re falling in love!

I got you feelin’ like you’ll never give up on,

I got you feelin’ like you’ll never give up on!”

And the lead vocalist sang, with the synth player, the guitarist, and the pink ghosts singing too in a call-and-response verse -

“Magic, Magic!” “Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic, Magic, Magic!”

“Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic!” “Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic, Magic, Magic!”

“Oooh!”

Right as the townspeople began to cheer for the band, the Ska-tastics began to play their ska with even more fervor, entrapping them once again in their spell.

“Yer dead right, mate!

Dead right, mate!

Left right, mate!

That’s right, mate!

Yer dead right, mate!

Top mate, mate!

Yer dead right, mate!”

But the newcomers weren’t finished weaving their own magic just yet, and the Ska-tastics would prove to be no match for the strong bond between the instrumentalists, or the love with which their song had been written. The lead singer and the violinist came together, still playing their parts - and as the two started to dance, eyes shining with joy, he began to sing at her with all the guile and passion of a young man in love.

“It's not the way you wear your hair,

Or you just crept out of bed.

Oh no.

It's not the way you move your eyes,

So it took me by surprise.

Oh no.

Before this night is over, I pull your body closer!

I'mma give it to ya,

I wanna get back!

Before this night is over,

I pull your body closer!”

The blue girl spun back to her place and the singer resumed his strings right as the violins returned, bringing back the people of Crystal Cove with the power of the chorus.

“The spell you got on me - it's like magic!

Got me feeling like falling in love,

Got me feeling like I'll never give up on-

Got me feeling like I'll never give up on you!

It's like magic!

I got you feeling like you're falling in love,

I got you feeling like you'll never give up on-

I got you feeling like you'll never give up on!”

The violins arose in a grand crescendo, building up to the next verse, and that was when Scooby noticed the group’s name printed proudly on the side of their van:

Mystery Skulls.

But the great dane had not even a moment to register it, before the group finally dropped the beat.

“Magic, Magic!” “Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic, Magic, Magic!”

“Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic!” “Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic, Magic, Magic!”

“Oooh!”

That was when from above the Mystery Skulls’ van, arose a great red shape of light.

“Magic, Magic!” “Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic, Magic, Magic!”

“Oooh!”

The shape took the form of an absolutely gigantic fox-like beast, its eyes glowing and sharp teeth bared at Rude Boy, its seven magnificent tails swaying to and fro. The white dog on the street down below smiled at it with a smug sense of pride.

“Magic, Magic!” “Oooh!”

“Magic, Magic, Magic, Magic!”

“Oooh!”

In two great bounds, the beast leapt through the air, above the people of Crystal Cove, and crashed into Rude Boy and the ska-tastics with such force that their equipment exploded.

The Mystery Skulls smiled at the sight of their defeated opponent, and then went on to have fun finishing their song, basking in the glow of the applause from their liberated audience. As the lead vocalist reached his last verse and the violins brought the ballad to a peaceful finish, there was a moment of silence from the audience for a few moments before the people of Crystal Cove exploded into applause.

Once everything finally settled and died down, Sheriff Stone arrested Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics, and Fred did the honors of unmasking them to reveal their true identities:

Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics.

It was just as Velma had suspected: the band had faked their own deaths.

As Rude Boy would go on to explain, the band had intended to make a surprise comeback a year after their supposed deaths with a new hit. But, writing the perfect song had taken so much longer than they’d expected that by the time it was ready, the popularity of ska music had died out. So (because obviously that was the “reasonable” and “logical” thing to do), they had come to the decision that they would make their reappearance as zombies and use an enharmonic chord with special frequencies in the music to force their audience to dance.

As the sheriff loaded the fake ghost band into the back of his car and drove off, Mystery Incorporated finally broke away and went over to meet the group they owed their victory to.

The crowd had peacefully departed, townsfolk headed home to rest after their ordeal. The fellow with the orange hair in the vest was loading his synth into the back of the van, and the blue guitarist and the magenta violinist/lead singer were wrapping up their conversation with Thorn, Dusk, and Luna.

Their girl who’d played the guitar was holding the dog - He was mostly white, with black paws, a black spot on his back, and a mane of black and red fur on his head. A gold and red pendant in the shape of a question mark hung from the crimson collar around his neck, and a tiny pair of gold tinted glasses rested on his snout. It was almost unsettling, how human the animal seemed. The way he looked between the five humans as they spoke was almost as though he understood them. Like Scooby… or like Professor Pericles.

Velma hummed thoughtfully, observing with the rest of the gang from afar. “Is it me, or does that band look… familiar?” Velma asked.

“Jeepers. You might be right, Velma.” Daphne exclaimed.

“Like, yeah. Like, they kinda look like… us.” Said Shaggy.

“That’s what I thought, too. They’re short a teammate. But if I didn’t know any better, they almost look like another Mystery Incorporated!” Velma said.

“Reah! Right down to the van.” Scooby agreed.

“That’s true, gang. The past two generations of Mystery Incorporated have driven a similar one. But we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions so soon.” Fred said.

“Fred’s right.” Velma agreed. “Every Mystery Incorporated has stuck to a very specific formula: four kids and a talking animal. There’s only three of them, and I haven’t seen or heard a peep out of the dog.”

“That’s true… but the original Mystery Incorporated is down to three members now.” Daphne said sadly. The entire gang nodded solemnly, and there was a brief moment of silence at the mention of Cassidy Williams.

“I still think Fred’s right.” Velma said. “And besides: they’re a band. It would make sense for them to have a group van… and the fact that Mystery is in the name doesn’t prove anything!” She said stubbornly. And then she was marching forward, leading the way as the gang went to introduce themselves.

“Hey, Daphne! You guys totally need to meet these guys.” Said Thorn as they approached. They said goodbye to the Hex Girls, who agreed to meet back up with Mystery Incorporated at Shaggy’s House later. Once they were gone, the gang struck up conversation with the Mystery Skulls.

“Well, hey.” Fred said. “Thanks a lot for the help back there.”

“Like yeah man, your song was like, totally groovy dudes!” said Shaggy.

“We’re-”

“Mystery Incorporated! It’s great to meet you. Your friends the Hex Girls were just telling us about you all. That, and ‘The Mystery Machine’ is painted on the side of your van. ” The singer said, pointing at where the Mystery Machine was parked.

“Yep! It’s nice to see that we’re not the only ones in town with an appreciation for a themed, uniquely decorated van. Though, you were definitely much more ambitious than we were. I love the colors! Especially the blue, but you probably could have guessed that.” Said the guitarist, gesturing to the color of her hair, outfit, and guitar.

“Really? You like it? Thanks! I designed the paint job myself!” Fred said excitedly. “I’m Fred, by the way - Fred Jones. This is Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby.”

“It’s great to meet you.” Said Velma. “And might I say I approve of the color you decided to paint your van.” She added, comparing the orange and red to her signature sweater and skirt.

“Technically, it’s Arthur’s van. So I guess it only makes sense that it’s orange. Speaking of which: Hey, Arthur! Come over here and meet these guys!” Called the singer.

The pianist with the spiky orange hair, Arthur, stumbled out from behind the van. “Oh! Hello there… everyone.” He said shyly with a sheepish wave. “I’m Arthur Kingsmen. It’s nice to meet you.”

As nice as Arthur seemed, the gang was stunned into silence after he waved. Arthur’s entire left arm was made of metal - a complex artificial limb.

“Y-yeah. I uh… lost my arm a few years ago.” Arthur chuckled uncomfortably, clutching it nervously with his other arm.

“Oh! Like, sorry man.” Shaggy apologized.

“We didn’t mean to stare.” Said Daphne.

“It was just like, kinda surprising.”

“It’s cool, really.” Arthur said. “Not everyone notices at first, then when they do they’re like: Ahh!”

“I can see why people don’t notice at first. That’s an incredible prosthetic!” Velma gushed, adjusting her glasses and looking at it more closely.

“R-really? You think so?”

“Of course! I’ve never seen a prosthetic that moves so organically! The movements of the fingers are extremely complex - You must have worked really hard to be able to use it with that much fluidity. The prosthetic’s integration with the rest of your body looks flawless! You make it look effortless!”

“Oh, it’s nothing really.” Arthur blushed. “And besides, Vivi helped me out a lot in the early days. I owe her a lot.”

“Aww, thanks Arthur. That’s me by the way - I’m Vivi Yukino.”

“And I’m Lewis Pepper.”

“Nice to meet you!” Scooby said.

“Oh, cool. So, is it not that unusual around here for animals to talk? Great! I’m Mystery!” Said the dog.

Mystery Incorporated stared at the little dog in shock, then they turned to look at each other.

A talking animal.

With that single look, the gang all knew what the others were thinking, and they all came to the silent and unanimous decision that they would discuss the implications of this later, either in the van after this conversation was over or after the Hex Girls left Shaggy’s house later. And with that, they returned to the conversation and gave their best effort to appear as though they weren’t hiding anything.

“Pretty weird how that band was pretending to be themselves… only ghosts. Huh?” Said Vivi.

“And with those words, you’ve just proved that this is your first time in Crystal Cove.” Said Velma.

“Happens a lot more often around here than you would think.” Daphne added.

“Yeah, you would know, wouldn’t you?” Lewis said. “We haven’t been here long, but from what we’ve heard, you guys are quite the team. You solve mysteries, right? And you’ve proved a lot of this town’s tourist attractions to be fakes?”

“Like, yeah.” Shaggy laughed. “That’s us.”

“Thanks a lot for stepping in when you did, by the way.” Daphne thanked them.

“Yeah, the monsters don’t catch us off guard like that very often. Without your band’s help Fred, Daphne, and I might have danced ourselves to death!” Velma exclaimed.

“Oh, it was nothing!” Lewis blushed.

“Believe it or not, that wasn’t even our first rodeo against a large-scale case of musical hypnosis.” Mystery said.

“Us mystery solvers and paranormal investigators have to stick together and help each other out, right?” Said Vivi.

There was an audible record scratch inside the heads of all five members of Mystery Incorporated.

“Uh, like, say that again?” Shaggy asked shakily.

“Oh, music isn’t our main gig. It’s more of a hobby.” Lewis explained.

“Yeah, that’s right. We’re mystery solvers - kind of like you, but when we investigate stuff… it usually turns out to be real.” Arthur said, rubbing his arm again and giving Lewis and Mystery very pointed looks.

“Cults, curses, demons, ghosts, witches, magical creatures, the Weird Tree Lady… we’ve seen most of it at this point.” Vivi said, counting them off on her fingers.

“Can we not discuss the ‘Weird Tree Lady’?” Mystery winced.

“Don’t get us wrong: we are a band. But mysteries have always had this weird way of finding us, so we’re more paranormal investigators than musicians at this point.” Arthur said dryly.

But Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby were hardly listening at that point, their minds reeling at the implications.

Three kids and a talking animal that formed a gang of mystery solvers. It was too close to the pattern to be a coincidence. A third living, active Mystery Incorporated group had just appeared in Crystal Cove. Where one Mystery had just come to a close, another had just gotten much more complicated.

This story was vastly inspired by 'The Mirror's Gaze' by Eternal_Phantom on AO3. You might not see the resemblance now, but just wait until later chapters and then you'll be like: "Oooohhhhh..." Headcanons and other bits of inspiration used in this story were also taken from various other SDMI fics I've read, including one that's rather popular here on Tumblr - 'Purposefully Silent' by OritheReticent. If you've never read either of those fics, let me tell you: you are missing OUT.

Also, miniscule population of fans who are as obsessed with Mr. E and the Ricky/Cassidy ship as I am: wait for chapter two. His role is HUGE in this story.

Chapters 1 through 10 of One of Us are currently posted on Archive of Our Own.

#fanfiction #archive of our own #scooby doo mystery incorporated #mystery skulls #scooby doo #shaggy rogers #velma dinkley #daphne blake #fred jones #hex girls #arthur kingsmen #vivi yukino #lewis pepper #msa #mystery skulls animated #sdmi #one of us chapter 1 #magic

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ihopesocomic · 1 year

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If neither of you were disabled, would you still have made the comic as it is? One thing that bothered me about MP was the fact that the creator, in addition to not being a disabled person, handled this topic very badly. I'm not against a non-disabled person having disabled characters, but when the focus of their story IS exactly that, it always ends badly. Am I wrong for thinking this way?

Personally, I don't feel it's really productive to automatically think that able-bodied individuals can't write stories for the disabled. I can completely understand how My Pride has left you with this view, however but there are other things at play here rather than the creator being able-bodied.

I feel that, as long as you listen to people who are disabled and do non-biased, extensive research, you can still deliver a story that handles disabilities well.

There are folks out there who offer this kind of thing for a living. For example, my uncle is deaf and he works as a consultant in media. So he helps out when it comes to sign language and portraying the deaf community effectively and fairly.

The main issue I've seen with My Pride is that a lot of disabled fans have a very biased viewpoint when it comes to the show and will insist even to this day that there's nothing offensive about it because they - personally - see nothing wrong with it. What they fail to realise is that the disabled community isn't a monolith and that them finding nothing wrong with the show does not cancel out that disabled individuals do have issues with it.

So, when you're a creator and you have your disabled fans insisting that everything is a-OK because they're eager to appease you, it can be hard to realise you've messed up somewhere or even to accept critique from other disabled individuals when it is brought up. It's just very easy to think 'well, this disabled individual has told me what I'm doing is fine so it's fine'.

I'm disabled myself and there have been times when I've messed up when it comes to my own disabilities. No experience with a disability is universal. And that's another thing: disabled individuals can still mishandle themes of ableism. Because they still have the capacity to be ableist themselves.

So, yeah, I don't think the problem is a case of whether or not a creator is disabled. It all boils down to who you speak to (i.e. if you just limit yourself to your fans), what research you do and how you ultimately utilise what infomation you've gathered. Just my two cents on this. - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff

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tokiro07 · 11 months

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What does your "fouryearsandaanime" tag means?

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but you all know I love to hear myself talk, so I'm happy to go over it again!

It's a reference to Community, a sitcom about a community college, wherein one character Abed is a major film and TV buff. In one episode, he was obsessed with a show called The Cape, a short-lived real-world superhero show. When Abed pulls a The Cape-themed prank on main character Jeff, Jeff yells "that show's going to last three weeks!" to which Abed replies "six seasons and a movie!"

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Ultimately Jeff's prediction wouldn't be too far off the mark, the show getting 10 episodes out of a planned 13 before its cancelation, but the Community fandom adopted the #sixseasonsandamovie slogan when fears arose that Community would be canceled. If I recall, there were several points where it got close to or even did get canceled, but when NBC canceled it after season 5, Yahoo picked it up for streaming for a sixth season and is ostensibly planning to release the movie this year. Perhaps I should catch up on the last season before that...

Anyway, I've definitely mentioned this before, but I am of the opinion that the optimal run-time for a Shonen Jump manga is four years, with three years often being unsatisfactory and anything beyond five years being diminishing returns (not naming names but I can think of plenty of manga that should have ended waaay earlier). It's not impossible for a shorter series to be good (Death Note ran for only two years) and of course there are plenty of longer-running series that maintain their quality (One Piece being the most obvious instance)

Some of my all-time favorites, Medaka Box and Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, as well as fan favorites Demon Slayer and Assassination Classroom all had approximately four-year runs and had some of the best endings I've seen in Jump's lineup. Of course there are exceptions, like Promised Neverland's extremely rushed final arc and Nurarihyon's unfortunately timed cancelation (it needed at least one more year to tell the story it wanted to, but it wasn't performing well enough to get the chance outside of a quarterly run in Jump Giga), but like I said, this is just my opinion anyway and an empirical study would likely find fault with my logic

Of course, "andananime" refers to getting an anime, which is effectively the bare minimum requirement for a manga to be considered successful. The manga industry is surprisingly niche, with the more generalized audience only really being aware of it because of anime. More often than not, fans are introduced to manga through their anime adaptations, not the other way around. Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer both performed fine on their own, but their anime adaptations are what allowed them to skyrocket to success. Even the Demon Slayer anime was only performing decently for its first four months until episode 19 came out and set the internet on fire with one particularly well-animated sequence. No one was talking about it before then, and then suddenly it was a household name

Naturally, a bad adaptation won't draw in new readers, which I'm pretty sure is the reason Hinomaru Zumou still hasn't come stateside aside from the chapters that were run when MangaPlus started and got grandfathered in, but that's something only time will tell. For now, the fact that Undead Unluck has an anime announced at all means that the manga is selling well enough to warrant the investment that it takes to advertise it with an anime. I won't go into the economics of it, but the anime industry ain't cheap and requires a lot of different companies to come together to agree that something will be able to produce a return on investment, so making an anime out of a Jump property means that multiple people looked at it and said it was worth throwing money at

In short, #4y+1a is my way of saying I want a manga to succeed and reach a wide enough audience that I won't feel like I'm the only one who loves it. UU is halfway through its fourth year now, and will have an anime by the time it hits the four-year mark, and I've watched its fanbase grow from non-existent to consistently active (albeit small) since its inception, so for all intents and purposes, mission accomplished. CA is still in its infancy and has a much harder hill to climb since it's not a traditional Shonen action manga mixed with Nisio Isin's esoteric writing style, but the transition into this new battle-focused arc looks like it might be able to bolster it just enough to last until it has the chance to snowball into something...not big, but at least decently sized. It just needs to find its tribe, and #4y+1a is my rallying cry to help it do so

Will I use #4y+1a in the future? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how well anything in the future grabs me. The author of Hinomaru Zumou has a new series starting in the next few weeks, so it's definitely possible! I probably won't start any new reviews, though; the candle's already lit at both ends, I don't have any more wicks to burn. Still, you can't help who you fall in love with, so if something new lights a fire in me, I'll have to find somewhere to put it!

#undead unluck #cipher academy #fouryearsandananime

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weekend-whip · 2 years

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(Spoilers for Legacyverse) If Mistake is Wu's and Garmadon's mom, does that mean they're 75% Oni and 25% Dragon or is Mistake also half Dragon and half Oni like the FSM???

Ooh yay, been dying to talk about this one actually (this is more than what you asked for, but it’s all connected, so I’m going for it!):

SO, the FSM is 50% Oni and 50% Dragon; Mystake is still 100% Oni. But in the long run, this doesn’t actually matter THAT much.

Oni genes carry the Essence of Destruction; Dragon genes carry the Essence of Creation. When combined in any capacity, they can manifest in any ratio, regardless of what amount the parents carry. As long as there’s some semblance of Oni and Dragon to be found within, the ultimate combination is going to be random, unless influenced by an outside factor. Could there have been other Oni/Dragon combinations that went unnoticed because one side ended up overtaking the other? Perhaps. Perhaps. (But nothing that actually affects the plot; it’s just a perfectly possible possibility...at the moment).

Anyway, the FSM was the first time both aspects manifested in perfect balance, allowing him to easily harness both the Essences of Creation and Destruction in harmony, and that’s what makes him so powerful and revered (and unparalleled, until the Overlord rolls in). And, not having the dominant genes of an Oni or a Dragon resulted in him being born in a completely new form: that of a human. (Of which he went on to create beings in Ninjago that resembled himself, as referenced in Chapter 15 of Born to Be).

So, knowing what we do, as Mystake is all Oni, and the FSM is part-dragon, there’s going to be at least a trace of both within their children, thus their children are going to have a random genetic makeup, right? Wrong, as the FSM in all his uniqueness has perfectly harnessed the Essences of Creation and Destruction, which again, are associated with Dragon genes and Oni genes respectively. Therefore, by passing on the Elemental Essences to his children, there is an outside factor influencing his sons’ genetic makeup.

From there, this means that the genetic makeup for the Spinjitzu Brothers becomes entirely determinate on the Essence they inherited from their father. THUS, inheriting the Essence of Destruction caused Garmadon to be 75% Oni and 25% Dragon, as one would have expected anyway, while the presence of the Essence of Creation caused Wu to be 75% Dragon and 25% Oni.

Both still have traces of each within them, but due to the Essences, Garmadon is more influenced by his Oni side, and Wu is more influenced by his Dragon side (as implied by the show). Therefore, they could have achieved the balance their father had simply by coordinating with one another, as they perfectly compliment one another (and are consistently incapable of finding balance within themselves, ironically), but the Devourer’s venom led to that not happening.

Which then brings us to the case of Lloyd: he is easily 50% human for obvious reasons, but then what about the rest? Well, while he did not inherit an Elemental Essence, he did inherit the Green Element from his grandfather, therefore cancelling out any dominance Garmadon’s Oni side would have had, leaving Lloyd’s genetic makeup as 50% human, 25% Dragon, 25% Oni.

Aaaaaand, despite having some traces of the Devourer’s venom within him thanks to Garmadon (as mentioned in Chapter 18 and Chapter 28), Lloyd isn’t susceptible to it because there’s not enough Oni in him for it to feed off of, plus the trace of Dragon also suppresses it. (If the Devourer bit a normal human, they’d turn wicked right away; when it bit Garmadon, he was very quickly effected due to his high amounts of Oni, but the trace of Dragon in him also helped him stave it off for so long).

And finally, due to having perfectly balanced Dragon/Oni genes within him, but not to the ideal ratio, THAT is what gives Lloyd the Master Builder/Breaker ability—essentially the Essence of Creation and Destruction like his grandfather before him, but with limitations. Thus, we once again have an individual who wields perfectly equal amounts of Oni/Destruction and Dragon/Creation within him, and when combined with inheriting the Green Element, we now have an individual with unparalleled power...that one would call equivalent to the FSM himself.

Did I spend too much time taking all this into consideration? Perhaps. Perhaps.

#all of this info strictly exists because of legacy!lloyd YOURE WELCOME #ninjago #the lego ninjago movie #tlnm #legacyverse #legacyverse spoilers #(lol that's a new one)#the ninja legacy whip #lloyd garmadon #master wu #lord garmadon #ninjago mystake #first spinjitzu master #the best part is that this logic can still be applied even if mystake wasnt the mother #legacy refs #legacy lore

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stuck-in-the-ghost-zone · 7 months

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MAC!!! GOOD EVENING!!!!!! im thinking soo hard abt interesting fairytale things rn but also. i would LOVE to hear abt ur danny phantom thing?(images aren't loading for me but i think? graphic novel? normal novel?? 👀) ??????!!!! i'm peripherally interested in dp on the basis that my beloved mutual (u) is into it & im!!!! curious!!!! whys it so good!!!! tell me!! free infodump card for u 👀👀👀

THIS ASK IS A MISTAKE. BEWARE. FUCK. DUDE I COULD TALK ABOUT DANNY PHANTOM FOR SO LONG IM NOT EVEN KIDDING IVE GOT . NEARLY 20 YEARS WORTH OF LOVE FOR THIS SHOW. I AM 23 YESRS OLD. THATS HOW SERIOUS I AM . IM.*THE* DANNY PHANTOM GUY THERES A REASON ALL OF MY USERNAMES ARE DP REFERENCES. ohhhh my god. where do i even fucking start. i guess ill start with agit but im still so overwhelmed with love that i have not fully processed yet so prepare for this to be a total fucking mess of words

so. the show ended in.. 2007. and. god the last episode sucks so fucking bad. bad enough that the fandom as a whole collectively agrees it does not exist it never happened . phantom planet isnt real phantom planet cant hurt you if you dont look at it or think about it ever. i could go on a whole. rant about how much phantom planet sucks but instead ill just say butch hartman (<< creator of the show) is a fucking. annoying awful person and he was greedy + wanted more money from nickelodeon than they were willing to give him so they gave him a hard limit on episodes before the shoe would be canceled. so. season 3 goes downhill SO fast and ends with the fucking disaster that is phantom planet . and !!! you know how disappointing it is to have your facorite show have a garbage ending!! it sucks!! so then there was like. a HUGE HUGE long silence where there was. 0 canon content bc hartman considered it a flop and kind of just. abandoned it until he wanted clout (there were a few gameboy games that came out after the show ended + some nickelodeon games that included danny as a character + butch made a youtube channel where he would spout absolute death of the author garbage about the show every time he wanted attention but it was mostly dead silence) UNTIL. AGIT. A GLITCH IN TIME IS THE FIRST CANON SHOW COMPLIANT CONTENT THAT HAS BEEN RELEASED SINCE 200 GODDAMN 7. FUCK . and not only is it canon compliant it is ALSO A CONTINUATION OF MY FAVORITE EPISODE IN THE WHOLE SERIES.

so. my favorite episode. is ultimate enemy. it was one of the 4 movie-length episodes and the basic premise is. danny uses his ghodt powers to cheat on a huge standardized test and this sets off a butterfly effect reaction that leads to a timeline where his family + friends get killed in an explosion and he loses his mind and turns into the worlds most powerful villain <3 you can see why i like it so much im sure (<< guy who has a documented chronic weakness for stories where a good guy turns bad etc)

SO AT THE END OF THE EPISODE. Dan (the evil future danny) is trapped and locked away forever . but at the end of the ep theres a scene that hints to a possible future episode where he escapes !!!! so there was always a teased sequel but this sequel was never created due to aforementioned. budget issues and cancellation. etc. buggest disappointment of my life. UNTIL AGIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was released. july of this year . and i am just reading it now bc its been burning a hole in my bedside table bc it never felt like the right time to read it until this morning for some reason. and fuck its so good its literally everything i wanted.

i dont know how involved butch hartman was in the creation of it but the author (gabriela epstein) is obviously someone who cares deeply about the show and the characters and im so fucking happy about it she did an incredible job. i literally had to pause a handful of times in the first few pages just because the characters and dialogue were written so well and it was like SUCH a breath of fresh air (the fandom is. so bad. its so bad. because its been around for so long people have such insane warped takes on a lot of the characters and its become completely unbearable to me ive had to block the tag and its so painful. this is literally the only reason i am not reblogging dp content constantly. i have to filter it through artists i know can handle the characters properly. if i was not nerfed by the awful fandom it would be 24/7/365 dp lockdown and id be so unbearable) OH ALSO not only is agit a continuation of my alltime favorite episode, it also retcons the garbage pile that is phantom planet in a way that acknowledges that it was a real thing that happened but going back on it in a way that feels so so so so natural for the show. so it wasnt a throwaway "no that was bad lets forget about it" it was a well crafted well thought out "this was real and it sucked and the characters remember it BUT we can play with timeline so things will continue as normal" and . holy shit it was so fucking good. i will begrudgingly acknowledge phantom planets existence if only for agit.

uhhhhhhhh fuck this is so long and i am running our of directed steam so if i keep talking i will just start rambling about the intricacies and holy shit dude i could literally talk about danny phantom for hours and hours and hours and hours if theres anything else u want to know i am the guy . i am the guy forever

#ohhhh my god my hands are literally tired now i typed this out so fast #not putting this under a readmore. everyone deserves to know how annoying i can and will be about danny phantom #this show is like. a HUGE HUGE part of my identity. danny is how i realized i was trans.#im the worlds biggest phantom kinnie im dead serious. i love him so much i love the world and the characters so much.#i have notes ans notes and notes in my phone of carefully curated headcanons that ive had since i was like 12 years old.#i was making stuff for dp before i even knew what the word fandom was.#dp saw me through my abusive friendship and the resulting worst breakup of my life that i am still actively in therapy about.#it means so much to me its MY show. i will allow myself to be pretentious about ONE thing anf that thing is danny phantom #aaaauagahghghhgggghh #basically agit was something i needed so desperately in my life and its so full of love and good characterization #i am like a man who has been starving in the desert for 16 years and agit was a beautiful oasis #asks #intertexts #hi ros <3 sorry i have dp disease every yime someone sends me an ask about it my answer is always 20 years long #friends!!!

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world-of-puppets · 1 year

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Even Marlowe’s Abruptio Update

All the way back in October of 2020, I wrote a post about the horror/thriller puppetry film, Abruptio, directed by Even Marlowe. Back then, the film was said to be released sometime in 2021. But 2021 came and went with Abruptio not getting so much as a trailer.

Recently, I decided to look into the film again to see if I could find any updates. As I feared the film might still be in development hell or had been cancelled.

However, to my surprise, not only did Abruptio finally have its worldwide premiere at the Santa Monica Film Festival on January 17 2023, according to Wikipedia, but the first trailer for the film also dropped just two weeks ago on the Chicago Horror Film Festival YouTube channel.

youtube

I gotta say. It looks pretty interesting. The tone seems to be a bit more serious and slow then I expected. Given the whole bomb implant the main character Les has that forces him to carry out dirty work for a mysterious puppet-master, I envisioned something more action-y and high adrenaline. The tone form what I can see in the trailer seems to be going for something more surreal and dreamlike, almost introspective. Les’s line at the end “I have a bomb in my neck… just like everyone else” plus the movies tagline “everyone’s a puppet” makes me wonder if the movie will use the neck bomb, and the puppetry medium as a whole, as some kind of deeper metaphor of some kind. Like how no individual person is truly in control of their own life and were all ultimately at the whim to larger, enigmatic forces beyond our understanding or control… or something along those lines? Or maybe I’m just reading too deeply into it.

The puppets themselves look… alright. As mentioned before, practical effects artist Jeff Farley worked as lead puppet fabricator on the puppets, and his expertise shows here, visually speaking. The realistic/semi realistic textures, scale and materials look pretty good for a mostly independent, non-Jim Henson puppetry film production. The puppet movements themselves I’m on the fence about. A lot of the movements look rather stiff and stilted, and some bits like the one where that guys head blows up in a warehouse looks very floppy crash test dummy-esque to me. This coupled with the very detailed and realistic yet slightly off look of the puppets, and I can totally understand why some people might be turned off by this trailer and the film itself. I will say though, given the surreal, unsettling feeling this film seems to be going for, making the puppets themselves off beat and uncanny looking/moving feels rather fitting. Though that’s just my opinion. Plus, most of what we’ve seen of the puppets in action is just this trailer so far, so maybe we’ll see some more impressive feats of puppetry performance in the film itself/future clips and trailers. We’ll have to wait and see…

#horror #horror films #puppetry #puppets #trailer #thriller #thriller films #abruptio #even Marlowe #2020s #video #Chicago horror film festival #Santa Monica film festival #Santa Monica film festival 2023 #Youtube

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being-of-rain · 2 years

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Thoughts from my Classic Who watch, this time Season 8: Oops All Master. It’s a long one because I skimmed the episodes to remind myself of what I could talk about, and found lots of good things! I’m really enjoying finding things I like about the show in this watch-through.

I feel bad admitting it, but some of Terror of the Autons does bug me a bit. Partly it’s the way Jo is introduced as such a clear reaction to Liz, being kidnapped so quickly (how exactly did she find the Master on her own in episode 1 anyway?), and being talked down to constantly. Especially when- please forgive me for saying so- Katy Manning’s acting isn’t phenomenal. But maybe it’s just the script being kinda stilted and sexist, I don’t know. Also it’s not often that Classic Who’s special effects feel cheap to me in a cringe-worthy way rather than an endearing way, but the living doll and other CSO effects did it (and they used CSO for some really random scenes too. They really couldn’t find a room to film some Autons sitting up in? They had to make a fake background for that? OK). But that’s enough negatives, there’s a lot to love in the story too. As much as I didn’t like Jo being talked down to, her actual introduction scene when she immediately gets on the Doctor’s nerves is so charming, and she’s just so delightful that it’s easy to see why the Doctor still becomes friends with her so quickly. And speaking of charming characters- obviously the Master is fantastic. Introducing an Anti-Doctor who’s just the ultimate evil genius is fantastic, and obviously he couldn’t have been introduced better than played by Roger Delgado. The fact that he is so overwhelmingly charming, whether casually chatting with his enemies or reassuring and soothing his (temporary) allies, adds so much to an already incredibly fun character. Other random thoughts and fun things in the story: I like how Jo is given some qualifications- in fact when she’s introduced as a qualified field agent I wondered how many times that came up, but was happily surprised to find that her education in escapology is mentioned a number of times throughout her stories and often allowed her to escape bonds quicker than the Doctor! A Time Lord in a bowler hat appearing far above the ground and floating over to the Doctor is fantastic, and also was a great way to introduce the Doctor and the Master’s rivalry. Though it’s hilarious to me that the Doctor is warned about the powerful bomb that the Master has set up to fall and detonate when a door is opened, and what he does with this knowledge is open the door very quickly and try to run fast enough to catch it. Instead of like trying to open the window or something. The Master makes SO many strange and random assassination attempts against the Doctor that he seems to be having a lot of fun with it. They even cancel each other out at some points- the Doctor and Jo are surrounded by the Master’s allies at the circus (not entirely sure what purpose the circus served in the plot other than filling a little bit of time) when they’re saved by policemen... who turn out to be autons who’re planning to kill them anyway! The policemen autons are scary though, and the bit when one gets hit by a car and falls down a steep slope, but immediately stands back up and starts climbing before he even stops moving is so cool, props to the stunt guy. Obviously some of the disguised autons talk, but it still surprised and creeped me out a bit when one of classic faceless autons in the big head masks start talking. Finally, the giant Nestene being summoned high in the air by radio tower is really cool, definitely fits with the eldritch vibe they had in their previous story. Though the Master’s habit of teaming up with the Doctor to defeat the very creature he was teaming up with before is introduced in hilarious style here, the Doctor only needs about one line to make him go from ‘actively summoning the Nestene’ to ‘actively regretting summoning the Nestene’

I’ll try to have less to say about The Mind of Evil, don’t worry! Already the new characters are getting built up with good material, a trend which continues in later stories. Rather than just hiding away and talking with subordinates and victims for the whole time (which he still does a fair bit of here), the Master gets more time to talk with the other regulars which is where he really shines (the scene where he looks after the Doctor with great concern after he’d been attacked just like the Master planned him to be is just so typical of them). Throughout the series Jo and the Doctor are cute together, but there’s some moments when they joke together that stand out as so adorable, and one of them is when they ignore the Master while playing checkers. Benton and Yates also feel like new characters; although Benton’s been around since the black and white days, his biggest part in a story before season 8 was as Evil AU Benton in Inferno. I kind of love the comic relief role he falls into as part of the expanded UNIT cast. He deserves that governor job! As for Yates, he gets some cool action hero parts, but he can also be a bit of a dick sometimes. It’s the army discipline mixed with male chauvinism. For some reason I thought Benton and Yates had each other’s personalities before I started this Classic Who watch, I don’t know why. It was nice to see some humour and humanising moments given to the Chinese characters, but some of it still felt slightly dodgy to me. I see that Big Finish brought back Chin Lee of all characters for a UNIT audio, so I’m curious and hesitant to see how they used her. Oh it does amuse me that in the Master had been laying the groundwork for this evil scheme for at least a year (not necessarily a year for him, but for the rest of the world), but his TARDIS was deactivated at the end of the previous story. So unless it’s been a year since Terror of the Autons (unlikely) he set up this plan first, then got bored of it and was just like “Fuck it, I’m going to go rob a museum with a circus man, summon the Nestene, and make a thousand attempts on the Doctor’s life. I’m not waiting for him to come to me anymore.”

The Claws of Axos is maybe my favourite season 8 story. That’s undoubtedly partly because it’s the one I’ve had for the longest on DVD. But it’s also partly because it goes so hard on the “grubby little money-hungry government men fucking suck” angle. Something I don’t really like about Three is the way he’s sometimes arbitrarily really rude to people, but it’s probably all worth it to hear him chew up Mr Chinn for being a selfish, xenophobic, nationalistic dickhead. I can’t watch some of this serial without thinking of the classic “Doctor Who never used to be political” joke. Another reason that I love this story is how much the Master gets to do in it. And not just scheming and plotting- he instead spends the whole story being forced to work for Axos, having no choice but to work with UNIT, and being tricked into working with the Doctor. Watching him going from prisoner to unwilling workmate, from violent escapee to charming captive in an instant, is great fun and brings out interesting sides of his character. Hilariously, he even starts the story having already been betrayed by the monster he was working with. It’s no wonder he wipes his hands of his matter and rushes out as soon as he can at the end of the story. The Doctor’s selfish desire to escape Earth is always fascinating to see, and the way that’s contrasted with almost sacrificing himself to trap Axos is great. Plus, him materialising back on Earth in an abadoned facility that’s about to explode before taking off again then reappearing a few minutes later in the ruin is a hilarious little moment. Axos is a good, slightly eldritch villain, Bill Filer is a good one-story ally for UNIT, and Pigbin Josh is a funny first victim. Good story all round!

I wasn’t sure what Colony in Space was going to be like, but I really enjoyed it quite a lot. I’m glad that for most of the story the alien doomsday weapon took a backseat to let the colonists vs mining corporation drama play out. In my eyes the Third Doctor’s era has definitely been at its best when the obstacles are very believable, very human greed and bureaucracy, like in this story, the Claws of Axos, and most of season 7. Captain Dent of the mining corporation is one of the most deliciously hateable villains in the show so far, his absolutely brutal disinterest in anything that doesn’t get him extra cash, very much including human lives, just... sucks SO much. It’s just a shame he doesn’t get stronger comeuppance at the story’s end. The colonists are written well too. I love how the leaders Ashe and Winton have opposing approaches to their situation, but although both arguably make mistakes, neither are pigeon-holed by the story as totally right or totally wrong, like so many Doctor Who stories tend to do with sometimes complicated matters. It’s just a shame that with all this good character writing, the same depth isn’t extended to the native species of the planet, who are exclusively referred to as ‘primitives’ and are universally silent and aggressive. But, on another high note, the Master has another great part in this story, arriving more than halfway through in the role of adjudicator who everyone was counting on to clear up the situation. Despite the doomsday weapon staying in the background for most of the story, I do think it’s rather neat how its used at the end to tie up all the plot threads- what the Master and the Doctor are doing here, and why the colonists were having such bad luck with their crops. It also leads to maybe the best Master scenes in the whole season: when he finally has the ultimate power he desires so much within arm’s reach, he stops to try and convince the Doctor to join him. This isn’t just a way of getting him out of the way, the Master has ample opportunity to kill the Doctor at the end, but instead he begs with him to rule the universe alongside him. If he just moved quicker and without the Doctor’s approval, he might’ve won the day. I love it.

The good writing continues in The Dæmons. Sometimes it feels like something that might be broadcast today, the writing feels so tight and focused on a theme- and the theme is magic vs technology, the inexplicable vs the unexplained. It can be hard to tell if this story taking place in an era of Who when the so-called ‘science’ can be so absurd and unexplained adds to or takes away from the premise, but seeing as the story basically acknowledges that (like with the way the Doctor can drive Bessie around and somehow honk the horn through remote control) I’m going to say ‘adds’. Plus, it’s got a hell of a hook (if you’ll pardon the expression) with the Doctor catching wind of a national interest in the excavating of a site themed around the devil, scoffing at everyone’s investment in the mysticism involved, before seeing the news coverage of it and immediately announcing that the dig must be stopped. Heaven knows how the Doctor knows that its dangerous though, he really does possess the all-seeing powers of a Great Wizard when the plot demands it. The Doctor has a moment in the story when he tells Jo to show some respect to the Brigadier as her superior officer after she criticises his blunt-force plan. I’m pretty certain it was written as a joke since she’s echoing the sort of thing the Doctor says constantly (sometimes unjustifiably tbh), but it’s played weirdly straight. And as someone who doesn’t like Three being unfairly rude, doesn’t like Three being hypocritically hero-worshipped by the show, and doesn’t like anyone being rude to Jo, I had to take a moment to get over that line. Be nice to Jo!! But it was just a moment. I do love an extended regular cast, and all of them get good roles in The Dæmons. Benton and Yates as the Doctor’s in-situ backup in civilian clothes (Benton sneakily shooting things to fake the Doctor’s magic is great), Miss Hawthorne and Sgt. Osgood as very entertaining single-story allies. I haven’t mentioned the Brigadier much recently but he’s always fun, like when he’s in his fancy evening clothes at the start of this story. And speaking of clothes, the Master dressed as a humble vicar and then a satanic priest is incredible. And Bert’s newspaper rags outfit when leading the dancers is great too and surprisingly sinister. Anyway, it was nice to see the Master captured at the end of the story, a good ending to the Master season.

#my thoughts #three #jo #benton #yates #master #brig

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demonicintegrity · 2 years

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just wanted to pop in and say that, as a non-ww fan who's been on almost all possible sides of the allegations (been sxually groomed, become codependent on someone w/o their intent, + had sm1 codependent on me w/o my intent), i fully agree w yr take! i get why ppl were/might still be sus due to how the screenshots r presented but even taking all the evidence at face value it doesn't seem "cancel" worthy.

i don't doubt op's feelings + ik how intense it can feel when ur codependent on sm1 but not enough ppl know it can happen w/o the other person cultivating it. ww could have recognized the iffyness of getting involved w a fan in that way + been more understanding of ops mental illness tho often its hard 4 ppl to comprehend how much sm1 else idolizes them esp if they're a small local celeb. it rly seems 2 me like a mutually toxic relationship w real hurt on both ends.

i rly truly feel 4 the op + understand how he was hurt by ww's actions, i hope he can heal n grow from it. it's also so common for ppl w codependent tendencies to feel like they're less at fault for their unhealthy relationships n that's a huge problem that causes these cycles to repeat. but the arguing abt how u can't be groomed if 18+ or a SW (or even naturally tend to be codependent) only hurts real ppl who have been thru it.

i hate 2 see all the victim blaming n debunking n hate toward op! but i think any misrepresentation was a result of his hurt + effect it truly did have on him. ultimately it shouldve stayed private + i find the idea of canceling sm1 due to having an overall unhealthy relationship in the past unsettling. sorry this is so long + thanks 4 putting a sympathetic and logical voice out there!

You’re good nonny, and my thoughts exactly. Op was clearly hurt by this relationship and I will never ever deny him that. I want him to find peace and get better. But how he presented the evidence just doesn’t show any sort of intentional abuse. I’m not saying it’s not possible, the story as he presented it doesn’t even paint Will as that bad of a guy.

I get that Op doesn’t care about listening to Will’s music and it’s more about protecting people from the person, but as I said in the post, the only lesson I gleaned was “watch your codependency and communication issues.” It was never about cancelling, (which is such a stupid fucking fake concept of how consequences are dealt with but that’s a separate discussion.) it was about preventing more hurt and I think that’s a good stand Op is trying to take. A noble one, especially since he opened up during a spiral to do so.

Honestly I think the screenshots of former bandmates saying Will was an asshole holds more weight against his character than Op’s original claims. I still don’t know what exactly my conclusion of it is, because I know nothing about Will’s life let alone his bandmates so I’m still piecing the picture. I put a link to those in the replies of my original post.

I just feel so exceptionally blind and in the dark regarding all this because I have literally only heard Will speak outside of listening to his music once, and that’s because I came across an old stand up clip unintentionally on YouTube. I truly know absolutely nothing about the band as people and that’s why I keep holding my judgments until smth “more concrete” even if realistically these are probably the mostly the evidence will go.

But yea, the absolutely nasty response Op has gotten is awful. It’s partially why I wrote the post, hoping people would learn to have more sympathy for him. I don’t want to assume intentional foul play from him (outside of posting the nude, which is illegal and wrong and unnecessary.) because I know the talks of whether or not said pic was doctored are around, as well as how legitimate the insta convos are and smth about the timeline math. I’m not involving myself in any of that because I am not the person to deduce those kinds of things. For sake of giving Op the benefit of the doubt, I’m assuming this things are legitimate and the slip ups (like how I pointed the change of social media in the post) we’re just genuine human slip ups.

As you said, the derogatory remarks around Op are practically worse the Op’s original claim. Perpetuating an idea that only a certain type of person can experience abuse is very wrong and dangerous. Even I think as the story stands now it wasn’t abuse, I would never say op or anyone in a similar place isn’t capable of being abused. I worry about how that narrative could take off.

#will wood #ask #discourse

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bigskydreaming · 1 year

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Uggggh I’m so disappointed about the cancellation of The Midnight Club, but very glad we got to find out where it was going at least. I wish more cancelled shows would find ways to make that happen, but understand its not always feasible, and also some creators want to revisit cancelled/interrupted stories in some form in later projects.

But I’m so mad we’ll never get to see Cheri’s story because all through Season One I was waiting for hers and at the end of the season that was my ONE big complaint....that she was the ONLY character we didn’t get to hear a story from. Damn.

I looooove the idea though that Anya was supposed to be the lead in Ilonka’s Season 2 story, and Amesh in Natsuki’s, etc. The idea of ‘this is how the Midnight Club lives on....in their friends’ stories’ is just....perfect encapsulation of theme is perfect.

And I really like that Spence was supposed to be the one survivor of next season, the way Sandra was this season. Obviously it sucks that any of these kids die, but the very nature of the premise always meant that most of them would, and that’s okay because this story at its heart is all about reconciling death as a part of life, taking away the fear of it and confronting the idea that its not something that needs to be fought, that you can enjoy your life and not want to leave it and still find your peace with leaving it when the time comes regardless...

That said, I really do like the thought that went into selecting which characters got to leave Brightcliffe by no longer being terminal, and having it be Sandra and Spence in particular, who will live on for years to come......that’s actually really fucking brilliant, considering the journey those two characters have in regards to each other, throughout season one. I choose to believe that Spence reconnects with Sandra ‘out in the world’ and they remain close friends the rest of their lives, who are never afraid to talk or reminisce about the rest of the Midnight Club, because that’s how they keep their friends alive and with them.

Also really bummed that we won’t get to see Ilonka’s Season 2 story because Remember Me is one of my all time fave Pike books, and one of the ones that really stuck with me when admittedly a lot of Pike books did end up being pretty formulaic. Remember Me wasn’t though (and neither was Monster so ugh WHY WOULD YOU TEASE ME WITH THE FACT THAT WAS GOING TO BE CHERI’S STORY? CHERI?!?! TELLING MONSTER??? AND WE’LL NEVER GET TO SEE IT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME HERE!)

And yessssss to the reveal of what the Shadow ultimately was, because I love that theme for this show, these characters and just in general. Always have, always will. Ever since Ursula K. LeGuin used it to great effect in A Wizard of Earthsea, and she didn’t invent it any more than Pike did in Remember Me, but A Wizard of Earthsea was my first exposure to that particular approach to that particular theme. So its always going to come to mind whenever a show, book or movie does something similar with the concept of A Living Shadow that turns out to be not something terrifying or something to run away from, but simply our own fear of the unknown, something that HAS to be faced if you ever want to truly move forward to another chapter, your next great adventure.

Finally, I soooooo called it, that Ilonka and Kevin were the founders of Brightcliffe, reincarnated. Admittedly, its not like it was super unpredictable given that reincarnation was one of Pike’s most oft-recurring themes, and I did get it wrong in terms of WHICH of the founders Ilonka and Kevin were, respectively....but I KNEW that was what was up with them and the visions, so its nice to feel validated there, lol. And I love the idea that this means their story isn’t over and they’ll be back someday, to seek each other out all over again.

Man, I loved this show and hate that we only got one season of it, it REALLY deserved more, as well crafted as it was and with as much love and passion that obviously went into the making of it (if only more shows had this much thought put into their narrative decisions and how to make them pay off thematically as much as just raise dramatic stakes/tension).

But glad we at least got what we did, and that we don’t have to forever wonder what might have happened in Season 2. Especially in regards to the big mysteries we were left with in Season 1, aka the Shadow, the visions, etc.

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