The stars have joined us. Let us stand together, now and always.

The Wonder Years ~ Came Out Swinging

Steampunk Astrolabe Table with Ui by Davison Carvalho

fuck everything

I woke up at 6am and went for a wander.

Cornwall forest | Poldark

Reblog for the best of luck in all your D&D adventures

Ruiner

Droplets - A Degenesis Short Story

She was shivering from the cold, sat in the corner on some rotten wooden steps in this decaying corpse of a house, half consumed by the marshlands. She had a blanket, something the Anubian had fished out of one of the bags, but it was already damp from the rain leaking through the sorry excuse for a ceiling. Every few seconds a droplet would hit her silver hair and send a shiver down her spine. I almost felt bad for the kid; this sort of life wasn’t made for eight year olds. We’d been on the road ever since the Hellvetic’s border crossing, but despite leaving the snow behind weeks ago the chilling winter air had followed us like some sort of omnipresent mark of impending dread. And in all this time the kid hadn’t had a single hot meal. At first, the Anubian had protested, but lighting a fire was too risky. Even the oaf Jacques had accepted that comfort could be a tactical risk. I looked over at the mountainous Furor, only to discover he’d fallen asleep, slumped over, half covered in mud and embracing his spitfire like it was his lover. What I’d done to deserve getting stuck with these two mercenaries I’d never understand. I could have taken this job alone; despite my lack of parenting skills; even with the child I’d be able to move faster and quieter without these two. Maybe when the Anubian falls asleep I could grab the girl and leave. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following us. I’d felt it ever since Bergamo. That’s what made me feel cold, not the weather. I checked the mollusk; nothing. Good. The last thing we needed was one of them. Scrappers, Apocalyptics, even Resistance fighters I could handle, but I doubt we could handle much more. The snorer was a pyromaniac consisting of little skill, and the Anubian was little more than a witch doctor. Still, just a few days more of being stuck with them. Once we got to Aquitaine and delivered the girl, I could relax for a few days. Suddenly the whole room filled with light. Then the sound of gunfire- no, thunder. Great. The paranoia had set in. I glanced out the window, almost hoping I’d see anything but shadows, only to notice I couldn’t see anything clearly through the condensation building in my gas mask’s goggles. I pulled the claustrophobic leather off and started wiping the glasses down with my thumb. I heard something move behind me and whipped my head around. The Anabaptist had finally woken up, slowly stirring from his slumber. I exhaled heavily and put my mask back on. I still felt uneasy. Any moment now a pack of gendos could come from the cover of the trees. I looked out the window, studying each detail of our surroundings. Nothing. Nothing in the darkness. I was just jumping at shadows. My focus shifted from one building to the next, and then slowly settled on the raindrops of the window. Strange…. It almost looked like they were forming a pattern, diverting in directions to create some intricate shape. “Your heart is pounding.” My eyes snapped to the little girl. She was watching me like a spider observing a fly caught in a web. I opened my mouth to speak. “It’s not his heart, girl.” The Anabaptist interrupted, quickly rising to his feet as he headed to the window. Had he seen what I’d seen? He pushed past me grabbing my splayer. “This mean what I think it does?” He continued. “Psychonauts!” I breathed. He chucked me my splayer as he hoisted his spitfire up. Suddenly the room filled with light, as if lightning had struck, blinding us. Our vision returned immediately, but in Jacques’ place red mist hung in the air. Then came the sound of a thunderclap and shattering glass as the world caught up the moment. “Look after the girl!” I shouted to the Anubian. In an instant I was moving, adrenaline taking over and rational thought gone with the wind. In mere moments I’d exited the house and was crouched down in the remnants of an old cobblestone street. The shot had come from the east, and suddenly I found my legs taking me in that direction. The working part of my brain woke up and faltered my steps. What was I dealing with here? What sort of Psychonaut could do that? I crept along the side of a sunken house and peered around the corner. Nothing. It could be anywhere. I could barely see 15 feet in front of me and the rain was deafening. I turned the next corner to look back at the house with the girl. Still nothing. I tried to focus, clear my senses, and try to think of what to do next. Wait. What was that? Breathing! I whipped around, splayer at the ready, but something hit the shaft knocking me off balance. A bone cracked. Stars filled my eyes and then my face hit something hard. The ground. I tried to raise my weapon above me but it went flying out of my hands. Defenceless. I was going to die. The rain clapped against my mask like thunderous applause for my opponent. My vision began to fill in, revealing my assailant. Not a Psychonaut? It was a cloaked figure, with mottled skin covered in threadbare bandages. It held a gun unlike anything I’d ever seen. I could hear the exhale of breath rattle through the loose teeth of this corpse. It slowly raised the gun and levelled it at my head. I closed my eyes. But the gun didn’t fire. I opened my eyes and felt a blinding pain, like an axe had split open my head. The thing stood there stationary in agony, frozen. I looked around to see stones floating. Then I saw her. The silver haired girl stood in the street, her mouth open in a scream.

The reason Todd Howard has ported Skyrim so many times it’s because he keeps getting the same radiant Quest from his faction leader

Re-playing Assassin’s Creed IV  ▪  [4/?]

The journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass. And then you see it. White shores… and beyond. A far green country under a swift sunrise.

han solo is just a dude who made charisma his best stat but can’t roll above a four at any given time

Fun Random Facts About the LOTR Soundtrack

Most composers spend just 10-12ish weeks working on a film’s music. John Williams spent around 14 weeks on each Star Wars movie, 40ish weeks total for the whole OT……but composing the LOTR trilogy’s soundtrack took four years

The vocals you hear in the soundtrack are usually in one of Tolkien’s languages (esp. Elvish). The English translations of the lyrics are all poems, or quotes from the book, or occasionally even quotes from other parts of the films that are relevant to the scene

When there were no finished scenes for him to score, Howard Shore would develop musical themes inspired by the scripts or passages from the book. That’s how he got all Middle-Earth locations have their own unique sound: he was able to compose drafts of “what Gondor would sound like” and “what Lorien would sound like” long before any scenes in those places were filmed

Shore has said his favorite parts to score were always the little heartfelt moments between Frodo and Sam

Shore wrote over 100 unique leitmotifs/musical themes to represent specific people, places, and things in Middle Earth (over 160 if you count The Hobbit)

The ones we all talk about are the Fellowship theme, the main Shire Theme, and the themes for places like Gondor, Mordor, Rohan, and Rivendell…but a lot of the more subtle ones get overlooked and underappreciated

Like Aragorn’s theme. It’s a lot less “obvious” than the others because, like Aragorn himself, it adapts to take on the color of whatever place Aragorn is in: it’s played on dramatic broody stringed instruments in Bree, on horns in  battle scenes, softly on the flute with Arwen in Rivendell….

Eowyn has not just one but three different leitmotifs to represent her

Gollum and Smeagol both have their own leitmotifs! Whose theme music is playing in the scene can often tell you whether the Gollum or Smeagol side is “winning” at the moment

The melody for Gollum’s Song in the end credits of the The Two Towers is the Smeagol and Gollum themes smushed together (it’s Symbolic)

And then there’s the really obscure ones. Like there’s a melody that plays at Boromir’s death that shows up again in ROTK in scenes that foreshadow a major death or loss

Wikipedia actually has a list of these leitmotifs, click this link and scroll down to check it out if you’re bored

Shore wanted the theme music to grow alongside the characters– so that as the characters changed, their theme music would change with them.  

You can hear that most clearly in the Shire theme. Like the hobbits, it goes through A Lot 

Like compare the childish lil penny whistle theme you hear in Concerning Hobbits/the beginning of FOTR with (throws a dart at random Beautiful Tragic Hobbit Character Development scene because there WAY TOO MANY to choose from) the scene when Pippin finds Merry on the battlefield, where you hear a kind of shattered and broken but more mature version of that same theme in the background 

I could write you a book on how much I love the way the Shire theme grows across the course of these films 

Unlike the hero’s themes, which constantly change and grow, the villain’s themes (The One Ring theme, the Isengard theme, etc) remain basically the same from the very beginning of FOTR to the end of ROTK. Shore said this was an intentional choice: to emphasize that evil is static, while good is capable of change

Shore has said that between all the music that made into the movies and the music that didn’t, he composed enough for “a month of continuous listening”……..where can I sign up

Owls by giant haha Via Flickr: Dishonored 2 

Altered Carbon | end of episodes