#token games podcast

[zaxpearson]

Watch "Bayonetta 3 Director's Cut (What If)" on YouTube

#eyonex #zax #podcast #token games podcast #youtube #token games #tgp #talk show #bayonetta #3 #bayonetta 3 #director's cut #dlc #what if #? #token podcast

[funishment-time]

For the ask game, give me ............ Sonia Nevermind!

- goshdangronpa

MISS SOnnNIAAA

Sexuality Headcanon: as much of a sin as it is, she's one i Headcanon as mostly straight based purely off vibes. mostly. (everyone at HPA is on a scale: she's just one end of it.) however, i do love sapphic content of her, especially with Chiaki and/or Akane

Gender Headcanon: she's our token Cis, too. poor Sonia. but just as every friend group needs the Crazy Ass every friend group needs the Cis Girl At The Club you know what i mean

A ship I have with said character: i'm boring and mostly ship her with Gundham but come on, they're so funny. their dynamic, impeccable. their children, resistant to Psychiatry. this is yuri to me

A BROTP I have with said character: she and Hina like true crime podcasts and talk about them together

A NOTP I have with said character: i don't think i have one for Sonia in particular actually!

A random headcanon: she comes out of the NWP post-DR2 with some severe memory issues/holes in her own Personal Timeline. (i headcanon generally it caused some brain damage in a few of the ex-Remnants.) while she heals the best she can, she is forever under the Impression that though she did evil shit, her Country is still mostly standing, just she's been exiled from it. everyone plays into that delusion as much as possible; however, almost supernaturally, she immediately forgets any Big Revelations about her past the next day after a long sleep. a blessing or curse from Chiaki? who knows. but everyone takes turns tucking in the princess after she accidentally picks up a Newspaper

General Opinion over said character: 10/10. she is not Some Woman With Flexible Legs

#danganronpa #sonia nevermind

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Lucas on the Line Review

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 1 of 2)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 2 of 2)

Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors Review

Stranger Things Flight Of Icarus

Stranger Things Episode Reviews:

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 1 of 2)

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 2 of 2)

Synopsis: Set between the events of seasons 3 and 4, the book follows Lucas during his freshman year of high school as he attempts to chart a different course for his life, taking up basketball as a means of trying new things and getting out of his comfort zone. However, Lucas soon realizes this won't be as easy as he initially thinks: His attempts to blend in with the popular crowd put him at odds with Mike and Dustin, his relationship with Max is deteriorating, and Lucas is forced to face hard truths about how insidiously racism is woven into Hawkins and what it means to be one of the few black kids in a mostly white town......

Observations:

Lucas on the Line acts as a conclusion to what I call "The Outcasts Trilogy," which began with Rebel Robin, followed by Flight of Icarus, and ending with this book. All these Tie-In novels center around three characters (Robin, Eddie, Lucas) who are considered outcasts in Hawkins: Robin is secretly a lesbian in a homophobic culture, Eddie is the town freak due to his interest in D&D, guitar, his low socioeconomic status, and his family's reputation because of his dad's criminal past, and Lucas is a black kid in a society where racism and prejudice are still prevalent. All 3 characters deal with feeling inadequate and unwanted, and attempt to cope with their situations by either blending into the crowd, or else attempting to escape Hawkins. All 3 of them eventually face hard truths and learn to stop denying the aspects of themselves that make them unique.

In Lucas's case, now that he's older and in high school, not only is he beginning to realize the implications of what it means to be black in a neighborhood where racism still lurks, but he's also beginning to understand his family's history, as well as coming to terms with an uncomfortable truth: As much as his friends care about him, they will never truly understand the bigotry and micro-aggressions Lucas is forced to endure as a person of color.

The show has touched on themes of bigotry and racism before, both in Lucas's interracial relationship with Max (which makes him a target for Billy) and the type of bullying he experienced from Troy and James. However, this book expands on those themes by going more into Lucas's fears and insecurities at being discriminated against for being a nerd AND being black, as well as finding someone who understands what he's going through. It also, IMO, deconstructs the "token minority" trope by showing what it's like to be considered that in a group of white friends from the perspective of said minority character, and how dehumanizing it feels.

This book left a lot to ponder. It's not perfect, and there are some flaws in its structure (mostly relating to continuity errors and missed opportunities), but it does inspire discussion, and gives a solid point-of-view to Lucas's character.

Part 1: Lucas's Journey

For as much as this fandom talks about Steve's character development (not that the discussion is unwarranted), Lucas is also another character (next to his sister Erica) who's had subtle but notable growth over the course of the show.

Season 1 had Lucas start out as a loyal member of the Party who was invested in finding Will, but also at odds with Mike and Dustin over El due to his distrust of her (something which got him a lot of flak from fans at the time). All of this came to a head in the junkyard when Lucas realized El was deliberately misleading them so they wouldn't find the Gate, leading to an ugly fight within the group. However, once things settled down, and Lucas realized El's misdirection was her attempting to keep them safe and not an act of maliciousness, he apologized for how he acted (with El also apologizing for lying) and welcomed her into the group, formally accepting her as a friend and member of the Party. Notably, in spite of his misgivings, he never betrayed El to the authorities, demonstrating that his heart was in the right place.

Season 2 continued on with this development. Contrast Lucas's acceptance of Max into the Party and his willingness to reach out to her vs how he initially acted with El in S1. It's notable since, at the time, Mike was hostile towards the idea of Max becoming part of the group. While Lucas had a crush on Max (which is normal for a boy his age), what separated him from the others was his willingness to listen to Max, who had always felt unheard in her house. That conversation on the bus rooftop in S2, where she opens up to Lucas about her home life and how she fears she's becoming like Billy, was meaningful to both of them, not just in Lucas reassuring Max she was a good person, but also Lucas really seeing Max for who she was and loving her for it. And in spite of the threat Billy posed, Lucas refused to be scared off by him (even kneeing Billy in the groin when he pinned him to the wall), and that willingness for Lucas to fight for Max was one of the many reasons Max finally stood up to Billy and made it clear to him that she was done with his abuse.

Season 3 showed Lucas was still navigating his relationship with Max (after getting dumped 5 times), as well as doing his best to advise Mike about his relationship with El. He also got some cool moments, from saving El from the Meat Flayer by chopping off its tendril, to gathering the fireworks to use against the Meat Flayer at the Battle of Starcourt. In spite of this, I remember at the time some fans (including me) wished Lucas had a bigger role in the story. The Duffer Brothers must have heard those criticisms because Lucas ended up getting his own arc in the next season.

There were a lot of great moments in season 4, but Lucas's story was a favorite for me because of how relatable it was. He was in high school trying for a fresh start. He still participated in D&D (Hellfire Club) but also joining basketball because he wanted to break out from being the nerd who was picked on all the time, and because he enjoyed the sport and wanted to give it a shot. He was discovering his identity, which is a big part of the high school experience. Adding onto this, a part of him wanted to achieve popularity as a way of being recognized instead of constantly looked down upon. He got what he wanted when he won the basketball championship............and then experienced firsthand the darker side of popularity, which forced Lucas to ask himself if this is what he really wanted.

Lucas on the Line expands more on the S4 arc by showing the events that led to Lucas doing basketball, and how that put him at odds with Mike and Dustin for a while. We also get to see the circumstances behind his breakup with Max, as well as her spiral into depression following Billy's death.

Something I appreciate is the book doesn't shy away from the trauma and PTSD Lucas is dealing with. The show usually gives that focus to characters like El, Max, Will, Joyce, Hopper, and Nancy, so it's refreshing to see how Lucas has processed everything since Will's disappearance in 1983. The answer is not well. It's even gotten worse since the Battle of Starcourt:

Similar to the way Robin in her novel talks about Hawkins High as a metaphorical monster, there are multiple instances where Lucas makes comparisons between his living situation in Hawkins and the Upside Down:

Granted, this is a metaphor that anyone who's watched the show enough times can pick up on: For as much as Hawkins presents itself as an idyllic neighborhood, there is rot within it, and NOT just from the Upside Down. The town has deeply rooted bigotry entrenched in its structure that takes on many forms (racism, homophobia, bullying, fear-mongering, forced conformity, etc) which the characters are forced to endure on a daily basis. From a symbolic standpoint, the Upside Down is all the nastiness within Hawkins that's covered up with a pretty surface. It may be a town that presents itself as perfect, but the moment you actually take a closer look at your surroundings, you realize that "perfectness" isn't genuine, and that people who present themselves as friendly can reveal just how awful they are in the right circumstances.

I live in a neighborhood like this, and I've been forced to learn time and again that some people in my town (though not all of them) have deeply rooted prejudices and will normalize being cruel because they can get away with it, all the while justifying their behavior as normal. Becoming cynical and cautious is how I've survived it. It reminds me of how Max thinks about her abusive situation with Billy: If you keep the monsters close to you, you're never caught by surprise.

Getting back to Lucas, he's painfully aware of this. Part of his PTSD and trauma isn't just from encountering the horrors of the Upside Down, but also from all the years he was bullied in school:

Lucas explains this to Mike and Dustin on the show, but part of his reasons for joining the basketball team is because he thinks it'll get him in with the popular crowd, and people will stop harassing him. What he doesn't understand (and what Mike and Dustin pick up on pretty quickly) is that even if Lucas changed everything about himself to fit in, he will always be walking on eggshells with that group. If he does everything right, he'll be tenuously accepted, but if he gets one thing wrong, or makes the team look bad in any way (even unintentionally), they will rip him to shreds. I even question what would've happened if Lucas failed to make the winning shot at the championship game: Would the team and the crowd have been as accepting of Lucas for that, or would he have been ostracized on the spot?

I know there are people in this fandom who vilify Mike and Dustin for going to Hellfire Club over Lucas's basketball games. As time has passed, I maintain they made the right call. Not only were they bullied by the basketball jocks way before they joined Hellfire Club (with Jason doing nothing to stop it), but they could see Lucas was deluding himself, and that these were not the kind of people they wanted to be friends with. At least with Eddie, they were accepted for who they were without having to make major changes to their identities to fit in. Even with Lucas, Eddie still welcomed him into the Hellfire Club despite his initial reluctance and the fact Lucas was on the basketball team. He didn't care that Lucas was black (which was a problem for several white basketball jocks like Lee Garroway) or that Lucas had extracurricular activities outside of Hellfire. He just cared that Lucas wanted to be there and was willing to invest in their D&D Campaign.

(SIDE NOTE: This is a big reason I roll my eyes hard at Billy stans who whine about Eddie being a similar replacement for Billy. The major differences between Eddie and Billy is a.) Eddie wasn't a bully, b.) Eddie didn't care about becoming Kings of Hawkins High like Billy did, and c.) Eddie could afford to be in the same room with Lucas for more than 30 seconds without being racist towards him or wanting to attack him. Enough said.)

And it should be noted that while Mike and Dustin are skeptical about Lucas doing basketball, they eventually accept it and even show up to one of his basketball practices (along with Erica) where Lucas does his best and still gets shit from his teammates for how he played.

Both Mike and Dustin saw how Lucas was being treated, as well as the fact Lucas was benched up until the championship, and they rightfully concluded that even if Lucas became popular, a.) It wouldn't change how THEY were being treated (no matter what Lucas told them), and b.) Lucas would forever be trying to live up to expectations from others until he became a shell of his former self. It's a lot like what Chrissy Cunningham went through where she maintained the perfect popular image as the Queen Bee of Hawkins High at the cost of her mental health and well being.

To Lucas's credit, he eventually realizes this at the end. As angry as he was at Dustin and Mike for skipping the Championship, he came to understand why they made that decision. When the time came between choosing Jason and the basketball team vs his friends, he chose his friends:

Caleb McLaughlin even noted this in an interview post S4: Lucas wanted to find acceptance, but the problem is you can't force other people to accept you. Mike and Dustin, in spite of their flaws, accepted Lucas for who he was. Jason and the other basketball players (with the exception of Jay) only accepted Lucas when he either made the team look good, or when they wanted something from him.

This doesn't necessarily mean the book (or even the show) paints Lucas wanting to do basketball as a wrong thing. It was a choice like everything else. Lucas's reasons for wanting to do basketball went beyond just wanting to be popular: He wanted to try something new. He wanted something he was passionate about. Not only did he find that, but he also got to share it with another teammate who understood him: Jermaine "Jay" Demario.

Part 2: Lucas's Relationships with other characters

Jay is a new character from the book who's not only one of the few black kids in Hawkins, but also one of the only basketball players who treats Lucas decently and takes him under his wing. He's the one who encourages Lucas to step out of his comfort zone and try out basketball. He's also one of the few jocks (though he doesn't consider himself a jock in the traditional sense) who's a decent person, and Lucas looks up to him as a mentor the same way Dustin does with Steve. Jay gives Lucas useful advice about balancing his extracurricular activities with other aspects of his life, and he's the one who trains Lucas to do well at basketball, from practicing after school with him, to having Lucas check out videos of NBA playoffs and finals to improve his skills. He also accepts Lucas wanting to do Hellfire Club, and tells him there's nothing wrong with being both a jock and a nerd.

Speaking as someone who made Varsity for cross-country and track & field AND took AP classes during high school, I can relate to that last bit! 🙂

Jay was a cool character, and I'm sad he wasn't in the show. It's nice Lucas was able to have a friend, however briefly, whom he could confide in, and who understood the issues Lucas dealt with because of who he was and where he lived (more on that in a minute).

Erica's relationship with Lucas also gets a bit more time here. She's still snarky towards Lucas, but there are moments demonstrating she cares for him. For instance, despite initially criticizing how Lucas played during a practice, she is pissed when Lee and some other basketball players call Lucas a racist slur:

Later on, after Lucas becomes the target of a bomb threat, there's a quiet scene where Erica comes in to hang out with Lucas. Even though she doesn't verbally say it, it's clear from her demeanor she's genuinely worried for Lucas's safety:

She may exchange barbs with him, but she knows where to draw the line. The fact she also showed up for all of Lucas's basketball games on her own accord (minus the championship) despite Lucas being benched conveys she supports her brother in her own way. I liked the evolution of Lucas and Erica's relationship in S4, and I'm hoping that continues into S5. If the final scenes of S4 are any indication of foreshadowing, they'll likely be working together, so we'll probably get to see more of their sibling dynamic.

Max's relationship with Lucas also gets focus. For the most part, they are not in a good place. Ever since Billy's death at Starcourt Mall, Max has fallen into a deep depression and become withdrawn from everyone, including Lucas. A good chunk of the story is Lucas trying to reach out to Max and make it clear to Max that he's there for her. The problem is he doesn't know how since Max keeps rejecting any attempts to hang out with him, or for him to help her. The dynamic is sadly realistic for anyone who's had friends or family who suffer from chronic depression and feel frustrated or helpless when they try to help that person recover. Lucas does everything he can for Max in the book, from giving her the space she needs, to offering to listen to her. We also get to see Lucas's perspective on why he cares so much for Max (just like Max's novel showed us why she was attracted to Lucas):

What's sad is Max does understand what Lucas is trying to do. She knows he cares about her. At the same time though, she can't pretend things are normal anymore, or that she doesn't feel immense guilt over how she wished something horrible would happen to Billy and got her wish granted (as she admits to Vecna in the S4 finale), or that her life hasn't changed for the worse:

BTW, the breakup between Max and Lucas that's alluded to in S4 happens in the book. It's during Thanksgiving when Lucas sneaks out of his house to give Max some Thanksgiving dinner while she's at the skating park. It's also the first time Lucas hears Max play "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush and truly understands the meaning of that song........and what it means for their relationship:

What's admirable about Lucas is that, in spite of what's going on with Max and her attempts to distance herself from him, he still keeps fighting for her any way he can, right up to the end of the book when Vecna tries to kill Max the first time in the graveyard. And it pays off. Those memories she has of her time with Lucas, combined with the moments she shared with her friends, allow her to break free from Vecna, to remember she has something to live for, that she has people who care about her, and that she doesn't have to be consumed by guilt over what happened to Billy.

Speaking of Billy, the few times Lucas brings him up, he does NOT talk about Billy in a positive light. If there was any doubt about whether Lucas hated Billy, this book puts that to rest. One passage in particular stuck out:

I know Lucas is projecting his anger towards Billy in this moment (not that I blame him), but the idea that Vecna/The Mind Flayer was drawn to Billy because of the darkness in his heart is an interesting idea. We know Vecna initially spared El at Hawkins Lab while killing the other kids because he saw a lot of himself in El (both with her struggles developing her powers, and her treatment under Brenner and her "brothers/sisters") and believed El would be grateful to him for "saving her." It's also implied on the show (and by Vecna's actor, Jamie Campbell Bower) that Vecna feels the same way about Will, which is why he has a creepy interest in him. Billy in many ways resembles Vecna in his rage and sadistic desire to hurt everything and everyone around him, and that aspect may have attracted Vecna to Billy. Granted, it's hard to know if that's the case since Billy was initially driving that night to hook up with Karen before crashing by the warehouse where that piece of the Mind Flayer was nesting, but it's also possible Vecna could have sensed Billy before then, and thought he'd make a great candidate to put his plan into motion.

Then there's Lucas's relationship with Jason: Lucas picks up pretty quickly that something's off about Jason, particularly when he's preparing for the prep-rally speech by slamming his hands in the lockers hard enough to leave dents. Lucas also isn't impressed with Jason's speech, and rightfully notes that Jason invokes the Starcourt tragedy for "cheap audience reactions" (which is why Max looks hurt in the scene when Jason brings up Billy). There's also a scene after Jason's confrontation with Eddie in the cafeteria where he and Andy make disparaging remarks about people who live in trailer parks. When Lucas speaks out against that (because Max was forced to move into a trailer park after Neil left Susan), Jason loses his shit:

By the time of Chrissy's death when Jason's organized the basketball team into hunting down Eddie and tortures Gareth for information, Lucas finally understands just how unhinged Jason is, and even compares Jason to Billy:

I know some people defend Jason on the grounds that Chrissy's death impacted him in a negative way, and that Patrick's later death made things worse because it happened under circumstances that couldn't be explained, which is why Jason jumped on the "Hellfire Club is a Satanic cult" bandwagon. While there is some truth to this, it ignores how Jason already had negative qualities brewing underneath, and that Chrissy's death didn't create these issues, but instead brought them to the surface in the worst way possible. Jason already had inherent prejudices against D&D and anyone he deemed as a "freak" (as depicted in the Flight of Icarus book) and the show established that he had a very self-absorbed, hot-headed, entitled attitude even before things got bad. Maybe he was initially able to keep these negative qualities under control, but they didn't magically manifest out of thin air just because Chrissy died.

Regardless of whether we chose to admit it, we all have a dark side. We all have aspects of our personality we're not proud of. Jason is no different in that regard. The problem is the lack of self-awareness on his part about those flaws, combined with his self-righteous belief that he was doing the right thing even though his actions put innocent people in danger.

I could sympathize with Jason over the deaths of Chrissy and Patrick, but my sympathy ended when he organized a Witch Hunt against the Hellfire Club (who had NOTHING to do with Chrissy and Patrick's deaths) and not-so-subtly threatened Nancy at the gun store and made it clear he intended to go after Mike. At that point, I was done with him. Judging by the final conversation between Lucas and Jason, where Jason refuses to hear Lucas's explanations about what's going on because it doesn't fit with his preconceived notions, Lucas was done with him as well:

Jason: "I never should have let you in the door."

Lucas (coldly): "And I never should have knocked. I thought I wanted to be like you. Popular. Normal. But it turns out normal's just a raging psychopath."

Truer words have never been spoken.

Part 3: Lucas's Experiences with Racism and Bigotry

Lucas has been made the target of racism by characters like Troy, James, and Billy on the show, but this book is where Lucas begins to understand the full ramifications of what it means to be black in a world where racism is ingrained into society. We also get to see how it psychologically impacts Lucas and feeds into his worst insecurities.

Take Lucas's introduction to the basketball team for instance: For the most part, his tryout is average (not awful, but not spectacular), but Jason still allows him on the team for one particular reason:

There's always been a question in the fandom about whether Jason was racist in the same way Billy was. I know Caleb doesn't think so, and argued Billy was worse (and given the the amount of mental gymnastics certain fans have done to pretend Billy wasn't racist, as well as Caleb's experiences with racism in the fandom, I get where his position is coming from), but this book suggests otherwise. Jason may not have been as overtly racist as Billy was, but there is a soft bigotry at play here in Jason allowing Lucas on the team BECAUSE he was black as opposed to Lucas's actual skills. Some people will probably argue against Jason being racist because of his friendship with Patrick, but that's basically the "I can't be racist because I have a black friend" argument.

What's depressing is this haunts Lucas for the remainder of the book. In spite of how hard he practices to get better, he can't shake off the idea that he was only let on the team because of his skin color (and because of the stereotypical idea that all black people do basketball), and not because he earned it. This is reinforced by other members of the basketball team, led by Lee Garroway, who not-so-subtly takes every opportunity to remind Lucas of this:

Speaking of which, this book introduces another bully in the form of Lee Garroway, and he's a loathsome piece of work. Like Billy, he is outwardly racist towards Lucas, but he takes it a step further in targeting both Lucas and Jay because he, along with several other members of the team, are pissed that they made it to the subs roster (thinking Lucas and Jay only got that position because they're both black) and could potentially make Varsity, which is a position they all want. This all culminates in Lee rigging both Jay and Lucas's lockers to spray them with glitter, and then later rigs Lucas's locker again with a bomb that almost kills a janitor working at the school. Lucas manages to catch Lee in the act by planting a camera in his locker after the first attack, and even though the footage gets Lee's friends expelled, Lee is still let off the hook because his father is a donor to the school and bribes Mr. Higgins into covering it up. It's similar to what happened in Flight of Icarus when Eddie accuses Mr. Higgins of looking the other way when it came to athletic players like Tommy and Jason who bully other students and are allowed to get away with it because their fathers have the principal in their pockets.

Remember that profoundly stupid comment from the Angela apologist I talked about in my review of Darkness on the Edge of Town?

This is why that comment struck a nerve: Putting aside how this take is completely devoid of critical thought, it misses the fact that the reason bullies like Angela, Jason, Tommy, and Lee feel justified in their behavior is BECAUSE most of the adults enable them. At best, they do the bare minimum in disciplining these teens, and at worst, they look the other way and punish people like El and Eddie who try to stand up for themselves and others.

And I'm sorry, but the "They are children, none of them are responsible for what they do" excuse can take a flying leap into a volcano for all I care. If you deliberately make a bomb that you know will put someone in the hospital (or even get them killed), you are responsible for your behavior. This isn't like Lee was incapable of understanding what he was doing was wrong. To imply otherwise is stupid beyond belief. 🙄

What's infuriating is not only does Lee barely get a slap on the wrist for what he did, but the bomb threat was enough to cause Jay and his family to move, meaning Lucas lost one of the few friends he could depend on.

On top of that, this isn't even unique to Jay's situation. Both of Lucas's parents also have history which involved moving around to find a place where they could, at the very least, be tolerated in their community. All the while, they knew on some level they'd never truly be accepted:

Lucas's parents did the best they could in trying to protect Lucas and Erica and raise them so they wouldn't have to go through the same circumstances they did. The problem though is that racism has become normalized to such an extent that there isn't a way to escape it.

On a related note, this is why I find the current attempts by Conservatives to stop Critical Race Theory from being taught in schools to be vile: These people want to pretend racism is a thing of the past, like it isn't still impacting people of color in the United States to this day, and are perfectly okay trying to whitewash history and limit any attempts at discussion to achieve that goal. It's been an ongoing issue where I live (to the point that last year, three new members were elected to the school district so they could push their agendas and prevent CRT and other "undesired talking points" in schools), and I know it's been an ongoing issue elsewhere in the United States (*cough* Florida *cough*). John Oliver did a brilliant breakdown of this last year, and I highly recommend watching it:

Just like with many of the other books in this series (Darkness on the Edge of Town, Rebel Robin, Flight of Icarus, etc) Lucas on the Line illustrates that many of the social issues these characters experienced in the 80s continue to be a problem today. Very little has changed, and while people might be more willing to hide their bigotry, or pretend it's something else, that doesn't mean it's gone.

Part 4: Missed Opportunities and Continuity Errors

Like I said before, this book isn't perfect, and has its flaws. I can't speak for what notes Suyi Davies, the author of the book, got from the Duffer Brothers and Netflix, but there were some major contradictions that were hard to ignore.

For instance, there's a flashback where Lucas is supposed to be in third grade and first experiences discrimination against him when the other kids are afraid of swimming with him because they think his "blackness" will rub off on them. While the flashback is effective in showing the insidiousness of how kids can be bigoted at a young age, it's undermined by the date this flashback is supposed to take place in: June 6, 1981. At this point, Lucas would have finished fourth grade, not third grade. On top of that, it's mentioned that Lucas wasn't friends with Mike, Will, and Dustin yet, but that's not only contradicted by other tie-in materials, but also by Dustin's claim on the show that he didn't join the Party until he was in 4th grade, which would have been around 1980. For Lucas to be in third grade in 1981 and not know any of his friends at this point makes no sense.

Then there's the third act of the book, which takes place within the first four episodes of S4: The show establishes the events in those episodes takes place between March 21st-24th, 1986. However, the book changes this so it takes place between April 4th-7th, 1986. The reasons for this are unclear, especially since this book came out AFTER S4 premiered, but I suspect it may have something to do with "Birtdaygate" (i.e. the Duffer Brothers forgetting Will's Birthday was supposed to be on March 22nd). I can't tell if Netflix was trying to retcon the dates because they were embarrassed by "Birthdaygate," or if S4 was originally supposed to be set in April before they changed it to March at the last minute (which begs the question of why they did that), but it is something that's been on my mind for a while now.

Moving past these errors, I was disappointed the book didn't expand more on Patrick's character despite having the opportunity to do so. In the show, Patrick demonstrates a friendlier side to Lucas during their time together, and I know it was speculated at the time that there was more to his interactions with Lucas. However the book doesn't explore that angle, and we don't get a lot of information about Patrick. It's frustrating because, out of all of Vecna's victims, Patrick is the only one that doesn't get his backstory fully fleshed out. We see why and how Chrissy, Fred, and Max were targeted, but it's only implied in Patrick's case. Lucas speculates Patrick had an abusive father, but neither the book nor the show elaborate on this, which makes Patrick come off as a wasted character, especially when his death could have had a bigger impact on Lucas.

Finally, this is just a minor nitpick, but I was unhappy that the book didn't seize on the opportunity of Lucas and Steve playing at least one game of basketball. There's a scene in the book when Steve offers to go one-on-one with Lucas, and Lucas turns him down:

For the story's sake, I get why they had Jay be the one to practice with Lucas as opposed to Steve, but it still feels like a missed opportunity, especially when it was implied on the show that Lucas and Steve's had a better relationship after S2 following Steve protecting them from the demodogs.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I would recommend this book. It's interesting seeing things from Lucas's perspective, as well as how he views his relationship with others, and how he copes with his trauma. The book does a stellar job exploring how the racism inherent in Hawkins has impacted Lucas's life and well-being, and it's also a relatable journey of finding your identity and rising above the stereotypes people place around you and your community.

As for where Lucas goes from here, I'm wagering that he'll have a role in bringing Max back from the coma Vecna's placed her in, and that they'll finally get that date night at the theaters.

#stranger things #lucas sinclair #racism #caleb mclaughlin #erica sinclair #sue sinclair #charles sinclair #anti billy hargrove #anti jason carver #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #max mayfield #lumax #patrick mckinney #jeramine demario #tgh opinions #tgh reviews #lucas on the line #stranger things lucas on the line #vecna #the mind flayer #bigotry #eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #angela stranger things #suyi davies #steve harrington

[foxes-that-run]

High Infidelity

At 21-30 mins of the Broken Record podcast Aaron Dessner said High Infidelity and Would've, Could've, Should've were written and recorded in her house in L.A after the Haylor Grand Prix 2021 Grammy's. He also mentions The Great War and Hits Different.

High infidelity is about the affair covered in Reputation. Unlike Illicit Affairs, which is regretful, High Infidelity has no regrets, only Reputation era indignation at having dated Calvin Harris.

Like all good Haylor dalliances we are blessed with so many songs:

15 January 2015 - Walking in the Wind: Harry and Taylor last seen together - at a birthday party. In February she meets Calvin.

17 May 2015 - Woman / Exile - Tavis PDA at the BBMA's.

2 January 2016 - Now that we don't talk: Hendall PDA yachtgate.

15 February 2016 - Sweet Creature / I did something bad

22 February 2016 - Calvin writes Ole, shades Haylor & Hendall

29 April 2016 - High Infidelity: TIWYCF released. Day after Gigi's birthday. Taylor and Harry both in LA and MIA

2 May 2016 - Getaway Car - Met Gala where she meets Joe/TH.

Taylor played I did something bad with high Infidelity in the 29 April 2023 Eras show.

High Infidelity Lyrics

[Verse 1] Lock broken, slur spoken Wound open, game token I didn’t know you were keeping count Rain soaking, blind hoping You said I was freeloading I didn’t know you were keeping count

Taylor is feeling hurt by Calvin, like her trust is broken. He did interviews that she was on a break, they wouldn't work together when they already had and he took credit for her work.

[Chorus] High infidelity Put on your records and regret me I bent the truth too far tonight I was dancing around, dancing around it High infidelity Put on your headphones and burn my city Your picket fence is sharp as knives I was dancing around, dancing around it

Calvin was bitter when they seperated, he ranted on the internet about it. The picket fences sharp as knives is a wonderful lyric to tell that he was looking to settle down, but that she could not trust him because he was the worst.

[Refrain] Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th? Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?

In the refrain is where we connect this to I did something bad. This is what you came for was released April 29, although Taylor had worn a jacket with the album cover on it to her only visit to Coachella the week before she was MIA on April 29.

She had been at Gigi Hadid's birthday the night before then disappeared till May 2. Harry was also in LA and also missing at that time. Based on the songs they both and Calvin Harris wrote it is implied that Harry and Taylor were MIA together.

I love 'chart the constellations' in his eyes, even when shes mad AF at Calvin she can't help compliment Harry.

[Verse 2] Storm coming, good husband Bad omen Dragged my feet right down the aisle At the house lonely, good money I’d pay if you’d just know me Seemed like the right thing at the time

Another reference that Taylor felt trapped by Calvin and that he was using her. It is interesting then that rather than being open about who the affair was at the time that she was extremely public about meeting TH at the met and wrote Getaway Car.

I think this could be for a few reasons, Harry and Taylor had been badly burned with publically dating so would have wanted to keep that secret. It also would have outed a longer affair, around 15 February until May 2. That is more substantial than in Getaway car, as reflected in how many Haylor tracks are on Reputation.

Also, it's not clear when she and Calvin really broke up, it was announced after the Met and he was upset throughout the summer. He also said he had been a beard. In the original Gorgeous lyrics said they hadn't seen each other for couple of months, which tracks.

[Refrain] You know there’s many different ways that you can kill the one you love The slowest way is never loving them enough Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th? Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?

Here I also love the line of 'Brought me back to life' her self-confidence was so low dating Calvin that she no longer felt like herself. The Shakespeare reference is Sweet Creature is about an affair, but it is the nicest love song. I can see seeing Harry at that time 'brought her back to life' and got her to end it with CH.

[Post-Chorus] Oh, there’s many different ways that you can kill the one you love And it’s never enough, it’s never enough [Outro] Lock broken, slur spoken Wound open, game token I didn’t know you were keeping count Rain soaking, blind hoping You said I was freeloading I didn’t know you were keeping count But, oh, you were keeping count

The final kick to Calvin comes with 'oh, you were keeping count' ouch.

#haylor #midnights

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark, Happy Friday! I enjoyed listening to your Logistics Drive to Work podcast today. It's a very important subject related to Magic for me and logistics, particularly related to tracking and mental load issues, are one few things I feel are getting significantly worse in recent years. Even if you make it easier to get specific additional game pieces required to track to play Magic (i.e. tokens, keyword counters, stickers in booster packs) keeping track of them in paper Magic significantly contributes to the mental load. Do you really think it's worth it? Yes, sometimes you have a slam dunk mechanic like double faced cards, but I question if mechanics like the Initiative and Day/Night are worth the logistical tracking hurdles for paper Magic. For 25 years, Magic had a relatively low tracking logistics issue. Sure, you had +1/+1 counters, level up counters, loyal counters and simple creature tokens, but it was always very easy to track any of these mechanics with a standard six sided die. So why did things have to change? Magic continues to introduce several new and interesting mechanics each year that don't rely on outside game pieces and complex logistical tracking so it doesn't feel like Magic is running out of design space. Day/Night, stickers, keyword counters, die rolling, Venture and Initiative and extremely complicated creature tokens are all relatively new to Magic (within the past 4 years or so). I feel in recent years design isn't being conservative enough about weighing the logistical consequences for introducing more tracking logistical issues and extra game pieces aside from the cards. Does anyone else at WotC feel this way or not really? Are more mechanics like this the new normal or is this just an example of the pendulum swinging in one direction for now? I'm asking about this because all of these new logistical tracking issues make the game feel burdensome (even though the mechanics are fun), they fundamentally exacerbate the mental load, especially in eternal formats like Commander, and they cause me and my friends to make far more misplays and errors which creates a "feels bad" effect. Thanks for everything you do Mark. Keep up the good work. I hope this isn't coming off as too critical or negative. I'm a mega fan of Magic and enjoy numerous things about the game including the upcoming ONE set but this logistics issue is a big deal to me.

You touch upon the companion issue, mental load, which is another podcast I have coming up.

The data was telling us we'd been a bit under what the players wanted/could handle, so we dialed it up a bit. Did we dial it up too much? That's a good question, and something we're monitoring.

Whether it's a new normal or just the pendulum swinging will have a lot to do with the data we get.

Which means this is a fine question for all of you. How are you feeling about current Magic when it comes to the overall complexity, including logistics and mental load?

[radicarian]

Seeking recommendations for works of fiction (prose preferred; animation, most video games, comics okay; live action, podcasts, visual novels a hard sell; any media not listed, I'd at least be open to hearing about??) where there is a principal antagonist who's not actively on page / on screen / etc much before the end of the story BUT NOT in a Ganon way. Like, it's not that this is the Dark Lord (gender-neutral) we are accruing plot tokens to eventually fight; rather, this is the guy (gender-neutral) who's been fucking stuff up for us/opposing our goals this whole time and it's finally time to meet face to face and settle this. I would like to see examples of how this can be handled.

[jiriceks]

the cbj HIFE game is at like 2AM here and i'm not gonna stay up for another one of their half-assed grab bag nights so i'll say it now: i hope they lose because it's what they deserve for another season where they crammed every marginalized group into the one 'recognition night' and so everybody gets shafted. they usually put the bare minimum effort into HIFE nights but man they put in negative effort this year

like what are these ugly jerseys?

they couldn't even do the token rainbow outline. they're so scared that the homophobe they actively pursued in the offseason will get freaked out.

the team literally pushed a lot of the work of highlighting fans from underrepresented groups onto a fan podcast and it's so fucking lazy and i'm so angry. i don't even why i started this post but i just needed to get it off my chest otherwise i'd be too annoyed to sleep.

#R talks #i hope something fun happens for the queer fans #like cbj9 imploding at center ice

[zaxpearson]

Watch "Life Stories S 04 EP 7 Student annoys teacher to the point of out leaving the state!" on YouTube

#storytime

#zax #eyonex #podcast #youtube #token games podcast #talk show #tgp #life stories #storytime

[shifterglitter]

About Me

Greetings Shifters and curious minds alike. 

My name is Vi (“Vee”), I’m 30 years old and have been on Tumblr since 2009. 

Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon, and Sagittarius Rising

My main account is @purplepirateadventures, however, that is an 18+ account and I do post NSFW stuff on it. I will keep everything on this blog SFW and 15+ friendly (as I do curse a lot).

I identify as genderfluid/queer. I am comfortable with all pronouns. So whatever you perceive me as is correct. My favorite Pronouns if you are looking to butter me up are: It/Its, Ve/Vir, Fae/Faer, Bun/Buns, Spri/Sprout, Cubi/Cubiself, and Dem/Demonself.

I am Abroromantic and Abrosexual (Ace Spectrum)  https://lgbtqia.fandom.com/wiki/Abrosexual (+ level 5 monster lover)

I recently started experimenting with Shifting and am using this platform to connect to others in the community and document my experiences.

When I am not shifting or working overnights at the local Airport I am watching Anime, Maladaptive Daydreaming to music, or reading Monster Smut. I am also a witch, a rock collector, a member of the TST, and an oracle reader. (If you’d like a DR Channeling, or other reading I could use the practice so please DM me.)

My Favorite Podcasts are: Myths Magic and Murder, Desert Skies, What Fresh Hell is This?, and Tower 4.  My Favorite Anime are: Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, and Trinity Blood. My Favorite Artists are: Ghost, Sleep Token, Dread Buffalo, Markiplier, Save a Fox, Hollow_VA, Momolady, and SiobhanKaufmanArt. My Favorite Books of last year are: Bloodshed, A Court of Wings and Ruin, Forget Me Not, Thrawn, and Iron Widow.  My Safe food is Potatoes. My Safe texture is Velvet. 

Some People you may hear me talk about:

I come from a very abusive family, however, in my adulthood my siblings and I have become incredibly close. I am so grateful for that. So I am the oldest of 3 children. The middle child is my brother, Joshua, who is obsessed with 3e DnD and THC products. While Wilhelmina (Willow or Mina for short) is the chosen name of my baby sibling (trans/questioning); their hyperfixation is miniature war games like WH40k and Battletech. We are all writers, painters, and neurodivergent. 

My best friend is a guy I met through boy scouts in middle school. His name is Nick and he is a pharmacist. 

My platonic soul mate's name is Harley. They are on tumblr, but I'm not going to out them because they aren't a shifter. I've recently reconnected with them after an extended falling out.

All of these important people in my life are not spiritual in any way so I don’t see myself opening up to them about all of this. 

I have an orange cat named “Abraham Delacy Giuseppe Casy Thomas O’malley”, or Mr O’malley for short. And an energetic little Blue Merle Corgi mix named “Tax-Evasion”, whom we all call Eevee. You will see pictures of them here as my millennial ass can not help but share my fur babies with the world.

How I discovered Shifting

My Favorite Shifting Tools

My DRs

Main & Active DR Waiting Rooms Distant Future DRs Original Creation

My Original Methods

The Stitching Method The Candle & Mantra Method The Traveler Method The Plasmoid Method

#about myself #navigation #shift #reality shifter #current reality #shiftblr #shifting community #reality shifting #shifters #shifting #desired reality #shifting consciousness #reality shift #shifting realities #shifttok #shifting blog #shifting motivation #anti shifters dni #shifting antis dni

[whitebelt-witch]

keep thinking about that one video game podcast who had a native american dude on to talk about custer’s revenge and he rightfully chewed them out on tokenizing him for the show and all they could do was apologize for the rest of the episode

[bobaheadshark]

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

too many unnamed sport rpf ones LOL. outside of that there were quite a few on the backburner but i am mentally prodding at two sydcarmy ones!!

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

probably the horrifying squid game gong yoo rpf story (jagiya). tonally that was the most spooky thing i've ever written so it would be vaguely interesting as a contemporary korean new-gothic psychosexual horror film i feel. i was gonna be vaguely embarassed about that choice and it's 2024 and i've decided to no longer give a fuck

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

great question linny... i have a love-hate relationship with my finished fics and i hate re-reading them, but maybe this section from the sydcarmy christmas one 'cus i was trying to write something that was fun and light for christmas instead of angstville which is the barely habitable clime where i kinda live usually.

----

It’s the comfortable silence of gentle work. Syd had made a token effort to add to the festive vibe, and they’d argued back and forth about what music to play, until Syd finally grabbed the phone and smashed the button for Indie Christmas on Spotify. They sit through an ad about teeth whitener and a podcast ad about mindfulness before Eels starts blaring, all tinny from her phone speaker.

“You couldn’t spring for Premium? Do I pay you that badly?”

“I download all my music, usually. Just not sure Andre 3000’s weirdo jazz joint is like super fun for the 25th? Anyway, my dad’s usually got his vinyl at home.”

-----

it's been like four years since i started writing fic and i feel like i'm only just starting to skim the edge of what my actual desired writing style is, so that has been... interesting to navigate!

asks from here <3

#bobah speaks #asks #thank u linny #q

[corrosivesquid]

Allow me to introduce myself

Hello, I'm Squidsy and I was here for a long time, left and now I'm back again! I'm a twitch streamer and ttrpg designer for Lost Guide Games, a small part of what is Trauma Bond Studios. We are a small group of friends who all spoke the same language and got to know eachother through our trauma and have since help eachother make it.

We focus on designing games that involve inclusion, growth, healing (not the soft kind either), and mental exploration.

Fuck Fairy Godmothers was our first game for the 2nd Caltrop Core Jam and inches saying no to societies happily ever after.

Burnt Matches was made for the Breathless Jam and explores how well you do under stress, facing your fear, and how far you're willing to go in the face of that fear

Peace Keepers is a solo breathless game where you take the form of a stuffed animal and protect your ward for the nightmares that haunt them

Ink Spill Stories and Ink Spill Adventures invites you to create and write in a limited amount of time either alone or with a group.

Currently we are working on Neon Shadows a Belonging Outside Belonging game with a card based token and play mechanic. The characters are based on the 9 enneagrams and it is set in a dystopia, aetherpunk society. It focuses on growth, found family, and how group dynamics can affect the individual.

We are also working on Longwatch, a custom mechanic game that focuses Heavily on reward and consequence of the parties actions.

We also do actual play ttrpg streams, workshop streams, and have plans for other exciting things!!

You can find these and more on our linktree

There will be things I post that are not ttrpg such as funny things, witchy stuff, food, etc. If that's not your jam, block the "#not ttrpg" because I'll be tagging it as that.

#ttrpg #ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #narrative #ttrpg stuff #come say hello

[fureal]

𝕔𝕦𝕥𝕖 𝕥𝕒𝕘 𝕘𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕤!

━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━

𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕘𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕪: @icedespressoo ⋆˙⟡♡

𝕗𝕒𝕧𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕣: grey scale & earth tones

𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘: take me back to eden - sleep token

𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕞𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕖: sisterhood of the traveling pants & twilight (lol.....)

𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘: alluux @ twitch

𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘: random nosleep short stories

𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕟: starting a new job! $$$$$$$

𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕠𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟: listening to podcasts while playing zelda games, currently on majora's mask

𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕞𝕦𝕥𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕤: @oathome, @floaren, @pavlovaprin, @pchfuzz, @spr1ng, @soys, @0806cafe, @pink-club, @likorys, @94miu

no pressure dearests! ♡

#diary

[cmrosens]

Creating Fantasy Religions 2

Another thought dump because some holidays are coming up and I'm still writing Yelen and Yelena, and if you like my world building, I put a lot of thought into my contemporary-set stuff too, so you should check out my Gothic Horror with tentacles books and other stuff here:

Main Questions I'm Thinking About:

What festivals exist in your world and when are they?

What fun games and traditions are done at these festivals WHICH HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CURRENT MEANING AND EMPHASIS OF THAT FESTIVAL and why?

For example: in my world I'm developing now, I wanted to have a difference between urban religions and religious practices vs folk traditions and rural religious practices.

The Society in the Present Day of the Story

My society is a merchant society, with an oligarchy and a Lord Protector of the Guilds (and... everyone else), which developed after a big revolution. The Revolution happened about a hundred years prior to the story taking place, with a counter revolution 85 years before, and further uprisings in the provinces after that which are still in the living memory of some elders.

Merchants are traders. So you have a lot of exposure to philosophical and religious ideas from all over the place, merging in certain points and contexts, and developing under their own steam.

Meanwhile in more rural places, you get survivals of older forms of religions and traditions, which you can't stamp out easily. They'll be preserved in some form somewhere, even if they go underground, or pop up in other ways in superstitions and other things.

The Society's Ancient Mythology

SO: the mythology I've got is kind of Sumerian, but leaning on a lot of tropes that you see across the ancient world like the War in Heaven and the Cataclysm.

The idea is that the original pantheon = the mad gods, who can only be accessed via a channel who has reached the point where they are totally incapable of rational thought or any kind of coherence. This is "the empty place". Touching a person in this state or being near them means that your prayers now have an access route to that god (they cannot mediate for you, they have to remain in that state, incapable of thinking, so that your prayers can be funnelled via them in that moment).

Depending on who you want to talk to, which group of the mad gods, your vessel/accessor needs to be put into that state in one of the following ways:

intense pleasure

intense pain

intense fear

total peace

So basically, if you need a prayer to be heard, you need to either deliberately drive someone into that state to act as your access point, or find someone designated to this role who can put themselves into this state for you. [There is no concept of mediation. You can't mediate when you can't think. If you are the access point, you can't pray because the point of reaching the empty place is that you're not capable of doing so. You are only a channel for the prayers of others.]

This is recognised as an inherently problematic ancient thing, for a lot of obviously fucked up reasons, including ableism and the elevation of people with mental illness (without wanting them to have support or means of recovery). Also basically driving people to the brink again and again is going to create a lot of mental health issues and have knock-on effects politically, economically, socially, etc.

Legal defence for heinous crimes - "I did all this for the gods" - oh ok, well.. pay a small godfine to the family of the person you tortured and be on your way. I'm still thinking about how "godfine" might have remained in the society's vocabulary and be an idiom for bribery and corruption, as in a token amount you pay to cover up your crimes, and how pronunciation would have changed so now it's a word like gofin > goffin > guffin, and if you call a politician a guffin you now mean they are corrupt and taking bribes.

The torture gods in particular, accessed via those who have reached "the empty place" because of the pain they're in, are very messed up. Similarly, war bands would terrorise villages and towns purely to push people to the point of complete mindless fear to act as prayer-channels for them.

The mad gods had 10 Offspring who sprang out of various objects and were not "birthed" but popped into existence as a result of things the mad gods did. Haven't nailed this down yet as it's not really relevant, but you know the kind of thing...

"And after many had died of the terrible drought, Kegel (long may they rot) was finally so irritated by the prayers sent via the temple prostitutes that they caused a great rain to fall to make the land fertile, and some of the rain fell on the pit dug for the drought-dead, and from their bones sprang Perash (long may they reign), who saw the suffering in the land and had nothing but hate in their heart for Kegel from the moment they were born..."

The 10 Offspring were the antithesis of the mad gods, and so there was a war in which the mad gods were all slaughtered, and the 10 realms were created for the Offspring to share between them. The mad gods started to rot. The rot drove out the Offspring, who cannot return there. This is the raw essence of all curses and curse magic.

The War resulted in the First End of the World, (caused by a series of disasters, including plagues, fire, and finally a flood) and only the Favoured 10 survived, each one patronised by one of the 10 offspring and offered a place in one of the 10 new realms of the afterlife, depending on the manner of their death (this had nothing to do with whether they "deserved" to be there or not).

That's the mythology. It's not actually clear to what extent people really did worship the mad gods in this way. There are definitely indications that there were warband gods and gods of violence and so on, and old rituals involving flagellations and sacrifice, and the concept of accessing them was definitely a thing, but how much of this has been exaggerated is unclear.

The exaggeration began to justify the foreign rule of the Rein kings, after the conquest, where their rule was framed as bringing light and civilisation. The Revolution reframed this history and emphasised that at the time of the mad gods, the social structure was all about kingship and divine right to rule, so associated savagery and barbarism with monarchy. The Rein kings may not have practiced mad god worship, but their rule got twisted up with the mad god worship in the anti-monarchy rhetoric anyway, framing merchants and the merchant guilds as ordinary people striving for sanity and balance. It no longer matters that the Rein kings had nothing to do with the mad gods. They are successfully linked to them in the public imagination.

Modern Day Belief

Cut to modern day, most people are vaguely aware of the myths. They still believe in different realms of the afterlife you go to depending on how you die (not how you live). Some religions do have concepts of eternal bliss/eternal punishment based on your life choices, and this has permeated into this religion too, and now there are some additional texts and developed ideas and teachings around this that merge different schools of thought.

The merchants have their own religion which is like the Freemasons, and it's known as the Fraternity. This does has a concept of hell, but specifically for those condemned in life as criminals by their justice system - you go to the eternal dungeons after death, in that case, and spend your afterlife working for your freedom and parole into the limbo space and then journey to the place of rest.

The Fraternity has adopted the old Offspring gods and their festivals, and still keeps them around but more as downgraded spirits, which are of lesser importance in the urban areas where the Fraternity is strongest, but are still of primary importance in much of the mainly agrarian provinces (which leads to more legislation and codification of folk belief there, more suppression, and more culturally-ingrained suspicion of rural places).

Festival example: Midsummer

So: Belesh is an Offspring god that used to be the god of light, credited with creating the chariot of the sun after the First End of the World (before this the sun was a static light in the sky, and the moon was also static, and people didn't know the difference between day and night because the mad gods didn't bother to work all that out). Later on, the wheels of the sun chariot were conflated with the wheels of time and fortune, and you have lesser gods looking after those. There's the gatekeeper, Erish, who has 2 heads and is epicene/intersex, and guards the East and West gates for the sun and moon as they roll across the sky.

As time goes on, like maybe a thousand years later, Belesh is now the spirit of the midsummer festival when the sun is at its highest point. Honey mead is the traditional summer drink and there are special conical tents set up (mead tents) where the tent shape is reflecting the celestial idea of the highest point, reaching to the sky. People play games like the withy stick game, where kids have cloth targets or similar pinned to their backs and other kids try to collect them by swiping them off with bendy sticks [or whipping them off with ribbons if you're feeling a bit health-and-safety conscious.]

This isn't anything to do with Belesh.

It's a survival of a very, very, very old festival in the summer that included ritual flagellation. This might be evidence of mad god worship, it might be something else that is conflated with it. We'll never know, it wasn't recorded. Now, it's just a rather dangerous kids game, but the most fun ones are usually a bit dangerous.

My MC doesn't know that. She learns it as a side comment from the other MC who is concerningly interested in torture. She meets him when his enchanted castle is set with a midsummer feast including the centrepiece of a golden belesh wheel with sapphires dripping from it, festooned with fruit. He's one of those people who's like, "DID YOU KNOW" about stuff he's interested in.

Conflation of Lesser Deities with the Mad Gods

Meanwhile, Erish, who is really all about duality but is now also kind of the patron/divine representative of non-binary and trans people in society (you have men, women, and erish-folk, and can identify as any of those 3, with erish-folk being an umbrella term that some people don't like to use and others still do, not because it's a slur but because they want a secular term instead, or find Erish as a mythological figure or deity problematic).

Erish was the gatekeeper of the celestial gates, and has become conflated with Kegel in the provinces. Erish is a lesser god anyway, and not one of the 10 Offspring; they were more a demigod via Belesh's line.

The reason in the provinces for why Erish doesn't have their own afterlife is that they can be accessed and worshipped via pleasure, which you don't really get after you're dead in the same way (according to the Fraternity beliefs about the spirit body).

Erish isn't interested in you once you're dead, then. Erish is all about how you live now.

Fraternity adherents want to stamp this out, because this is seen as being too close to mad god worship, and that's now linked to monarchy, and therefore (in the Republic) social dissidence.

Therefore, Erish worship can be living an authentic life as a non-binary or trans person, but is also a euphemism for orgasm. It's developed in certain areas to be exclusively related to sex, and a cis sex worker might say they "lead Erish worship".

Which is 'correct'? The debates rage on, particularly among those who adhere to political factions that want to stamp out sex work as being a danger to public health, but mainstream thought is both can co-exist.

My pansexual MC is a cis aromantic allosexual sex-positive sex worker, and she worships Erish professionally, with anyone. She would say both.

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