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fictionz · 1 year

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New Fiction 2023 - January

"Psalms" (1-100) ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Okay so this is where priests pull all the one-liners that they drop during sermons.

"The Husband Stitch" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

Can’t let it go despite the peril.

"Inventory" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

When in doubt, a list.

"Mothers" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

Penitent daughters of singular mothers.

"Especially Heinous" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

You learn sooner or later that they were always dead girls.

"Real Women Have Bodies" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

They’ll always find you.

"Eight Bites" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

When left with little recourse, it’s only natural to sing the song.

"The Resident" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

Make things around people? No, thank you.

"Difficult At Parties" by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

The party parable rings universal.

"The First Peer" by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (2010)

The things we do when we failed to realize we’re not at fault.

"Reservoir Ferengi" by David McIntee (2010)

Can’t make a song bird do your taxes.

"The Slow Knife" by James Swallow (2010)

The only reasonable conclusion to plotting.

"The Unhappy Ones" by Keith R.A. DeCandido (2010)

Carving out the place you’re due from bone.

"Freedom Angst" by Britta Burdett Dennison (2010)

You can play the part, but when will you live it?

"Revenant" by Marc D. Giller (2010)

Once more: Star Trek is primed for horror.

"Work Is Hard" by Greg Cox (2010)

Achieving a satisfactory life.

"The Briefcase" by Rebecca Makkai, performed by Victor Garber for NPR's Selected Shorts (2009, 2023)

The skin is loose but if it fits...

"Paradise" by Yxta Maya Murray, performed by Tanis Parenteau for NPR's Selected Shorts (2020, 2023)

Limited options means limited solutions.

Honor in the Night by Scott Pearson (2010)

That’s the stuff. A cross-generational Star Trek mystery is just my game.

Trapped in Bat Wing Hall by R.L. Stine (1995)

Goosebumps books are simply a delight.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, presented by Rice University Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts (1595, 2013)

Hey, this Shakespeare guy was pretty funny.

"Comet as Paperboy" by Samantha Blysse Haviland (2022)

Forever waiting.

"The Art of Negotiation" by Meghan Privitello (2016)

We’re still waiting.

"Forest Spirits" by Secondlina (2022)

Give them space.

"Forest Spirits 2" by Secondlina (2022)

Gotta have a Joe.

"With Sympathy" by Oglaf Comics (2017)

You can have it.

"it went like this" by chaumas-deactivated20230115 (2023)

Power of the belly.

Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium - Volume One (2013)

Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.

"Full Void Demo" dev. OutOfTheBit (2023)

Oh this is great. I've been in the mood to play a game just like this. 2D movement, careful and considered locomotion, single screen puzzles with no frustrating resets to far back in the level when a player dies. It looks and sounds amazing, and I love the environment design.

Thunderbirds dev. Saffire (2004)

I worked on this nearly twenty years ago but somehow wasn’t sure that I’d actually completed the game. Now I know.

"bugs" dir. k. pakiz (2023)

Of course there’s hats.

"enter initials" dir. k. pakiz (2023)

Three letters, no supervision.

Avatar: The Way of Water dir. James Cameron (2022)

Looks pretty, stops short.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody dir. Kasi Lemmons (2022)

A respectful consideration.

Thunderbirds dir. Jonathan Frakes (2004)

I wasn’t sure about the game, but I know I hadn’t watched this movie. Something in the wake of the Spy Kids era.

M3GAN dir. Gerard Johnstone (2023)

It builds up but doesn’t quite land. Not sure what I expected, but it seems to have done well so they’ll get another shot.

Corsage dir. Marie Kreutzer (2022)

Just follow a person for a while and listen.

Broker dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda (2022)

There’s no conscious family.

Skinamarink dir. Kyle Edward Ball (2022)

You had me without the jumpscares.

Plane dir. Jean-François Richet (2023)

Plane goes down, plane goes up.

Missing dir. Will Merrick & Nick Johnson (2023)

They ratchet up the melodrama.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond dir. Yasuhito Kikuchi (2023)

As lost in the weeds as expected.

A Man Called Otto dir. Marc Forster (2023)

I mean, so would I.

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish dir. Joel Crawford (2022)

This many characters done so well. An impressive story.

Women Talking dir. Sarah Polley (2022)

Stageplay tragedies.

Thunderbirds - "Trapped In The Sky" (1965)

An impressive VFX showcase.

Tales from the Crypt - "The Man Who Was Death" (1989)

This is supposed to be the best the series has to offer? (But I’m here for the cheese anyway.)

The Outer Limits - Seasons 1-3 (1995-1997)

Speaking of cheese, this is perfect 90s sci-fi, and a fine example of Canada’s dominance of 90s TV production.

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mommybard · 8 months

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Oh sure, everyones heard of slutty bards. Of lewd rogues who pick pockets while giving handjobs. Of sorcerers getting bred by various monstrous beings to get more sorcerer magic in their line. Of paladins who are totally fighting to defeat evil, not because they’re secretly masochistic cuties who want so badly to be overpowered and taken by those they fight.

But where’s the love for the wizards? Hmm? The abjuration dommes holding off their playthings orgasms. Countering every attempt they make to finally get the relief they need. Warding them against being able to reach that peak without permission. Covering their pets in various glyphs to punish or reward them, as the situation demands. The conjuration monster fuckers, constantly summoning various beings of the other planes to try them out. From the elementals of the Earth Plane, to the devils of the Nine Hells, even the eldritch beings from the Outer Planes. Some of them even open portals just to their holes, leaving the other end with a friend or even where someone might stumble upon it and put their body to use.

Those fucking divination voyeurs. Peeking in on everyone else, touching themselves as they watch the whorish acts of their fellow wizards. Loading up newbie adventurers with tales of prophecy, when they really can’t wait to scry in on them and watch them getting ruined by the monsters they were “prophesized” to slay.

The enchantment mind controllers. Hypno addicts controlling and warping the minds of their loyal minions. Rewriting every part of their brains to serve them. Planting suggestions, rewriting personalities, corrupting and twisting innocent cuties into wanton whores desperate for more.

Illusion…bah. Exhibitionists more like it. Strolling around naked as can be while they make other people see them in splendid outfits. Hiding in plain sight as they touch themselves or others. Going invisible so they can more easily eat out or suck off someone under a table. Projecting an image of them just sitting in a theater naturally while they’re stroking themselves raw. Bunch of deviants.

Don’t even get me started on those necromancy sadists. Inflicting terrible wounds on those they capture, just to heal them up after. And endless cycle of pain and pleasure until their subjects break. Just so they can get them to sign away their bodies and souls to the necromancer. Degenerates.

But the horniest of them all? The most depraved ones, the ones that deserve the most love? Definitely the transmutation wizards. Shaping both their body and others to suit their needs. Sculpting the thickest cocks, the bounciest tits, the most breed-hungry cunts, the roundest asses. Or on the reverse. Tiny tits that are ridiculously sensitive. Barely there penises that can’t help but squirt every time their owner is teased or humiliated. Needy boycunts that refuse to cum until their owner’s ass is being violated and recked. Really, is there any nobler school of magic~?

#nsft post

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maegalkarven · 6 months

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I'm struggling to turn this piece into full thing, so here's the snippet.

cambion!June(Durge) and Gortash meet for the first time, at the HoH.

The party is…lame. This is a really rude and ungrateful thing to say, considering he had to beg, bargain and manipulate his way into being allowed out of the vault and into the other layer of Hell altogether.

Why uncle Raphael even bothers to live in this weird parody of a castle is a wonder, and in Avernus of all places. Couldn’t find a layer of Hell higher than that? Clearly not.

Still, the house isn’t that bad; it is flying by some means unknown, and has a great view out of the windows and many balconies; something Juniper’s vault lacks.

“A great view, isn’t it?” and speak of the devil. Well, the cambion. Uncle Raphael walks into the balcony, a glass of something looking like wine but distinctly different in hand. “Don’t suppose you have seen the Blood War before, have you?”

“Is that why you chose Avernus of all places?” June asks, but can’t help to look down at the battle. It is a marvelous view, a true chaos of war at its very glory; different kinds of devils and demons attacking each other and trying to overpower the foe.

June has always admired the demons for their chaotic nature, not what he’d tell his relatives of that. Must be the godspawn blood speaking in him, the blood of a God of Murder.

June wonders what it’s like to be Bhaal’s son, what it’s like to walk a god among men and leave a trail of blood and viscera behind. To be free in your actions, to roam the streets of mortal men like the nightmare came from the Outer Planes.

To live, not waste away inside one of the numerous vaults of the Lord of the Eighth.

“Juniper,” his uncle calls out rather impatiently. “I asked you a question.”

“No, I suppose I haven’t,” he stares down as a massive blast of magic tears through the ranks, breaking bones and tearing flesh. Oh how he wants to jump down to them, to join, to let his hands drown in the blood of-

“Juniper.”

“I am listening,” his tail twitches in irritation, his wings flutter.

Whose of his grandfather’s oldest servants and allies claim he looks just like Mephistopheles did back in the old days, when he had not yet claimed the more classical look of the devil, full of red and fire. They say his grayish-blue skin are akin to his mother’s, what his wings, horns and claws are the same deep shade of blue of grandfather, what the sooty black scales are nothing but perfection. Juniper doesn’t particularly care it it’s the truth or not, he is so rarely out of his confinement any interaction feels like a breath of fresh air.

More often than not he, a proud son of two powerful beings, is reduced to nothing but another treasure in Mephisto’s vault. Just another pretty magical curiosity, not a living being. Not achdevil’s kin.

“I don’t think you do,” Raphael complains. He sports the look eerily alike to Mephistopheles’ current visage: same red of skin, same horns, same wings, and same draping cape. He is clearly compensating for something.

“No, I truly do,” June smiles weakly. “It’s just you rarely have something interesting to say. I wonder if it was even worth leaving the vault at all,” he wrinkles his nose. “At least there I have every magic tome my heart desires for consumption, every secret of the universe laid bare before me.”

He is lying, of course, but not too much. He is allowed to study a generous amount of books out of his grandfather’s endless library, and is allowed to conduct his own experiments. If anything, it’s even praised.

His uncle huffs. “Very clever,” he rolls his eyes. “I dare to say I am the better conversationalist than you are, my dear bloodthirsty kin.”

“I haven’t killed anyone yet, have I?”

“But you want to, don’t you? I can feel it boiling under the surface of the flesh, blood hot as hellfire, lower impulses raised-“

“Are you trying to provoke me into something?” June raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t buy into the servants’ tales of me going into rampages and killing lesser devils left and right, did you?”

Raphael studies him.

“Are those lies?”

“Yes.”

No. Bhaal has been insistent in his attempts to claim his vile blood of late, the result of it shown in the bloody tapestries hung around the Mephistar. If grandfather was displeased, he did not show it. His uncle smiles.

“I think you’re lying, my dear one,” he cups June’s cheek gently. “I think you’re sick and tired of playing Mephistopheles’ little pet. I think,” he steps closer. “You want to be let out.”

June takes a step away, his back hitting the railing. Below the war rages, in all its blood, fire and glory. Below him devils and demons alike live and die for something what’s worth living and dying for.

Raphael corners him by the railing.

“My sweet poor Juniper,” he hums. “Father really doesn’t pay you attention you deserve. You truly are a marvel, the last Bhaalspawn alive.”

That jerks June up.

“The last one?” he can’t help but take the bait. “But I thought the Hero-“

His uncle smiles like the cat that just got the mouse.

“The hero is dead, along with their last remaining kin,” he tilts his head to the side. “You’re the only child unlucky god of murder still retains. And just far enough away to be out of his grasp,” he toots. “I wonder if you feel it in your blood, your unholy calling-“

“My unholy calling is here,” June argues. “In Hells, in Mephistar. I am the grandchild of-“

“Of the archduke of Cania, I know,” Raphael interrupts. “But does it matter? Does he even care?”

At that the young fiend bristles. Of course grandfather cares; he took him in, raised him in his very own Citadel, gave him the education- -and locked him in a vault.

“And does he care about you?” he retorts. “At least I was created with some thought given, some intent behind. And you? Just a single slip of Arcduke’s, nothing more.” Raphael presses him harder into the railing.

“Careful,” he smiles, all teeth and promise of the pain to come. “I’d hate to hurt your delicate little wings; they haven’t seen enough flight, have they? Don’t think they’ll hold your weight all the way down.”

“Uncle,” June tilts his head to the side. “Are you threatening me?” he feigns ignorance. “Why? Did I say something to upset you, hit some chord perhaps? If so, I do apologize. Insulting the host in his own house was not my intention; especially the one is so…sensitive.”

'The sensitive host' sneers and almost pushes him off the balcony, but a new voice clears the throat. Raphael and June turn around to peer at the young man standing at the threshold.

#dark urge: june

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jungle-angel · 10 months

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Even More Farmcore Prompts

Well....I couldn't help myself, I didn't know what else to do for prompts but with summer winding down I'm saving all the cozy fall ones for September-November when it's cool (lol). Taking requests for Top Gun Maverick (any character), Outer Range, Bad Times At The El Royale, Catch 22 (Hulu), Salem's Lot and Press Play.

"I wanna see the sunflowers get as tall as this house"

"God this tractor is so old, I think we're gonna need to get rid of it soon"

"Wait, why are the cows loose?"

"You little demons better not be teasing that bull again!"

"We're gonna have more huckleberries than we know what to do with"

The old kitchen in the farmhouse and all the good stuff that's made there

Running a farm store with their s.o

Culling the orchards at harvest time

The farm dog helping his/her master

Fixing the scarecrow

Adopting new horses or animals

"God the piglet is turning into your little shadow isn't he?"

The baby trying to help with the chores.....again

A surprise visitor

"This is the absolute last time I'm duct taping your boots, you're getting a new pair as an early Christmas gift"

Chopping wood for fall

Helping the neighbors with their work

The kids running wild on the property

Their favorite critter

Closing up the barn for the night

"Have you ever delivered a calf or a foal before?"

Patrolling the farm at night for trouble

Making the farmhouse super cozy

Their first baby being born on the farm (or any of the children)

Gathering around the fireplace

Sunday dinner on the farm

Rocking chairs on the porch

Barn dance

Flying in a little crop duster plane

Fixing an old barn on the property and finding something amazing inside

Fresh made bread

"You and your dad make the best maple sugar candy I've ever had"

"What are we gonna do with a 10,000 pound backhoe?"

"I think we better sell some of the milk and eggs at the stand next week, the fridge is getting full"

"Darlin, there's more bunnies in the hutch pen!!"

"We have more wool than we know what to do with"

Skunks hiding under the porch but also following the farmer to help eat the pesky bugs

"I think we've got a storm comin"

The kids playing on an abandoned tractor or truck on the property

Old wives and farmer's tales

The kids making a tin can telephone to the other farm nearby where their friends live

Waking up on the farm

The kids playing in the hayloft

Sex in the hayloft (SMUT)

Staying up late and sitting on the porch to see if aliens will make crop circles in the fields

Making little walking trails all around the farm

Lying in the tall grass with their s.o after the chores are done

"I'd take a farmer's life over city life any day of the week"

"Leave your muddy boots at the door"

Moving the herd

#top gun maverick #outer range #bad times at the el royale #catch 22 hulu #salem's lot #press play #pete maverick mitchell #bradley rooster bradshaw #robert bob floyd #natasha phoenix trace #mickey fanboy garcia #reuben paybak fitch #javy coyoyte machado #jake hangman seresin #rhett abbott #miles miller #major major #ben mears #harrison knott

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badragonplays · 4 months

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Dragonfinds got some new books today for DND adventures. I got both copies of The Isle of Dread, Legions of Hell, Tales of the Outer Planes, Lankhmar City of Adventure & Thieves of Lankhmar.

#DND #TSR #minatures #dragonfinds #dungeonsanddragons #dungeons and dragons #rpg #ttrpg #dnd1e #dnd2e #odnd #adnd #lankhmar #planescape

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omniversecomicsguide · 1 year

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OUTERVERSE READING ORDER: TALES FROM THE OUTER DARK (2010-PRESENT)

Head into Mike Magnola & Chistopher Golden’s even darker world! The OmniverseComics.Guide brings you the OUTERVERSE READING ORDER: TALES FROM THE OUTER DARK (2010-PRESENT) where Lord Henry Baltimore, Joe Golem & others stand against supernatural forces attempt to break into the earthly plane...

Hit the link below to see our reading orders for the comics chronology, key covers, story breakdowns & more!

Reading Order: Outerverse: Tales from the Outer Dark (2010-Present)

This guide to the Outerverse will be updated as new material is released from @DarkHorseComics

#Outerverse Reading Order #mike mignola #baltimore #christpher golden #outerverse #tales from the outerverse #lord baltimore #joe golem #dark horse comics

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female-malice · 1 year

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Have we wandered so far from the source that we cannot return? Will climate crisis isolate us even more in our cities as nature becomes more unpredictable? As we try to use our science, our computers, to save us? Or is the doorway to return nearer than we know, just as in that moment when we awake and our dreams are still present, before they are lost with the daylight? What would it mean to return to this numinous land, alive in ways we no longer understand, where the Earth can speak to us in its many voices? Or more vital, can we transition through this present self-created crisis without this inner and outer knowing, without this awareness that was central to so much of our human journey?

It is easy to dismiss the magical world as just a fairy tale belonging to childhood or old tales, to maintain that what we need at this moment more than ever is hard science, that carbon reduction and loss of biodiversity are our most pressing concerns. And yes, there is important work to be done reducing our industrial imprint, restoring wetlands and wild places. But if we do not remove the rational blinkers from our consciousness, how can we respond to the deeper need of the moment and recognize that we are part of a fully animate world? If we are to become partners with the Earth, living our shared journey, we have to once again speak the same language, listen with our senses attuned not just to the physical world but also to its inner dimension. We cannot afford to continue to dismiss so much of our heritage—the thousands of years we were awake to an environment both seen and unseen.

–

This is an interesting essay. As with all things, I think the best conclusion is balance.

Science alone can't save us. We can produce detailed data analysis of our own destruction and still race to meet it.

A spiritual awakening is not enough to save us either. There was a huge spiritual awakening environmental movement in the 70s and 80s. And what did they accomplish? Well, they started some free love cults and left litter in the woods.

Pitting Earth science and spiritual awakening against each other is extremely unproductive.

Instead, we need to recognize that these are not opposites. Empirical rational fact and spiritual emotional connection are not opposites. The physical plane and the spiritual plane are not separate. They are one and the same. We dream in the physical plane. We're awake in the spiritual plane. Our mind and body are one. Spiritualists who dream of metaphysical connection need scientific tools. And scientists who study doom and destruction all day need spiritual support.

#cc

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chronotopes · 2 years

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2022 is nearly over. time for 2021 personal writing wrapped

(2020) (2019)

salvaging this post for drafts because i don’t wanna miss a year and i have important professional reasons to be ruminating on theme’s and such in my writing

poetry:

“dancing balls of yellow light”, february. emotional breakdown poetry that i had literally no memory of writing until i decided to scour my notes app. #girl

“The sonnet holds a self-destructive place...”, march-ish. I was in the last gasps of a three-year Really Stupid About Something Phase, and wrote a super groundbreaking and original meditation on petrarchism after discussing him in class. I’ve written better things, and also worse things.

“London”, August. In the summer of 2019, I made a call that every time I or someone I cared about was on an airplane I’d write a poem titled after my/their destination. Plane poetry is for hacks but only if they publish it.

“Philadelphia”, December. See above.

Four completed pieces in total.

fanfiction

CHOICELESS HOPE, January-March. A fucking ILLUSTRATED FANADVENTURE about postacanon terezi pyrope, predictably unfinished. Was anxious about starting this one because I was afraid of not finishing it. Then I didn’t finish it, and nobody died.

“the truth must dazzle gradually (or every man be blind),” May. Kanaya & Terezi relationship study. Underrated.

“When the open road is closing in,” (published in the dirkjake zine). Flash fiction hastily brainstormed on a trip to the outer banks; postcanon jake and brain ghost dirk have a talk about the modernist crisis of representation, because, like, of course they do.

“In other words, please be true,” December. - Sequel to a dirkjake space au written for dirkjake week 2022.

Three completed pieces in total.

AL2RNIA, which is kind of fanfiction and kind of origfic, i guess

AIVIDE THE PREQUEL, the whole damn year. The monster. All-drafted, half-published, not-to-be-completed-in-the-foreseeable-future. Anyway, this is a novel about a girl who hates college and sucks at lesbian dating.

the aivide epilogues, sequel to aivide the prequel. very, very unfinished. a novel about a girl who was looking for a job. and then she found a job. and heaven knows she’s miserable now.

Heartbreaking! The Two Worst Women You’ve Ever Met Have A First Encounter - fun little vignette that was meant to be the intro to the aivide epilogues, in which aivide’s evil mom and vinbre’s even eviler mom meet for the first time

A bunch of character-buildy exercises from a guy with a ~Hyper Fixation?!~, including aivide’s disco elysium skills and her thoughts on the cast

Two complete pieces in total.

ACTUAL ORIGFIC (FOR MY SINS, I TOOK A FICTION CLASS)

“cass & laura, nashville pride,” february. psychological realism assignment that started out being called “one semi-final hour in nashville, tennessee.” a secret about me is that i am not good about writing psychological realist literary fiction, meaning that this is just a creative nonfiction piece with enough names, details, and places changed to make that plausibly deniable.

“Two Stories.”, February. Fairy-tale assignment for the same class. Frankly, the most competent piece of fiction I have written as an adult without cribbing from either a fictional property or my real life. Plays around with fairy tales and why we tell them. Confused my fellow participants in a very shitty three-person Zoom workshop.

“HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE: Or, a Smart Girl’s Guide To Persistent Boys.”, March. Lol. Another one that i always forget is not a nonfiction essay because i wrote it as what is basically a nonfiction essay. My professor, god bless him, astutely pointed out that it was, in fact, gender horror.

“The Saviors of the Galaxy! (And all that happened after.)”, April. Science fiction assignment. Introduction to what, scope-wise, is much more of a science fiction novella than a story. Pretty good; my professor was impressed, at least. What he didn’t know: the protagonists were based on June and Rose Homestuck.

Three complete pieces in total.

NONFICTION (2021 was my nonfiction flop era. huge L.)

“In another world, you die at eighty,” May. Lyric essay written the day of my friend’s funeral. (The world wasn’t this one!)

“Where Light Doesn’t Die,” April. Hypertext memoir about my trip to St. Petersburg; a more grown-up version of “Four Russias,” which I wrote in 2020.

“What Ceremony Else?”, November. Lyric essay written like six months after my friend’s funeral. About ghost tours and such.

Three complete pieces in total.

FINAL ROUNDUP CALLS

Works i was most excited about writing: AIVIDE THE PREQUEL and all of the other al2rnia writing

Work i am most impressed with in hindsight: “Where Light Doesn’t Die,” honestly the fairy tale and science fiction assignments, “In another world, you die at eighty.”

Work that could feasibly help me on an mfa application: “What Ceremony Else” if i changed just about everything about it (lol)

#writing adventures

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pandorasboxofhorrors · 2 years

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2022-#2: The Adventure Continues 8

The Adventure Continues details the activities and plot lines in my Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with me as Dungeon Master. Last year, The Adventure Continues 7 followed the adventures of high-level characters, Zanzinabe, a dark elf fighter/fire elementalist magic-user, Qa’hr, a part human/part illithid fighter/wild magic-user, and Douterango, a gray elf fighter/magic-user/thief. They are a high-level adventuring party who travel to many planes of existence, rarely having serious problems or consequences. In their last adventure, “SOS from the Ixlan Galaxy,” they followed up on a strange signal Qa’hr received via wild magic. The signal was from an unknown galaxy far away, the Ixlan Galaxy, and they were able to pilot their magical vehicle, Cloud 9, there. They eventually located an unfamiliar intergalactic spacecraft on the outer edge of the Ixlan Galaxy. On this vessel they met a Vitrum, an intergalactic robotic species that was so advanced that it was created with interdimensional technology by a long dead alien race. The Vitrum informed the space travelers that the Ixlan Galaxy had intergalactic visitors frequently, all looking for the infamous Library of Knowledge which contained the secrets and all of the knowledge of the universe. The Vitrum directed them to a spacecraft it encountered looking for the Library, and soon the adventurers found and boarded that spacecraft, the Nostromaz.

They investigated the derelict ship which was in poor condition and owned by the Planascapian alien race, a flat-headed humanoid species which they met. The Nostromaz had been attacked, and the crew were under control of aliens on an upper deck. Zanzinabe, Qa’hr and Douterango made it up through the decks, battling robots and controlled Planascapians until they found their dominators, a couple of Lovecraftian Yith aliens. The Yith were apparently themselves being directed by a very powerful undead alien with a pentagram-like head, a Pentebri. After the Pentebri escaped the Nostromaz via psionic probability travel, the adventures found a technological gate which took them to the planet Hali where the Library of Knowledge was located. They soon found themselves in the Library and they began learning the secrets of the universe…for just a few seconds, then things became very slow for them, barely moving a millimeter a minute. They were virtually timestopped permanently; the SOS was all a lure to trap them here. They heard in their heads that they were now safe in the library of Hastur, the Yellow King, the King of the Far Realm, and there was no escape, and here ends the tale of Zanzinabe, Qa’hr, and Douterango, not dead, but forever trapped. At this point the campaign shifted to a single character who had not been focused on before…

Years ago in my campaign, the player character gray elf ninja, Lorien, had a clone accidentally magically made. This clone was sent back in time in a limited time vessel. His name was Faerlight. The vessel was powered by wild magic, and had five uncontrollable destinations in time, apparently random. The time vessel appeared externally as an old wooden door, but internally it contained a few Tardis-like extradimensional rooms. There were no controls, the time machine was completely automated. All that was known was that the five destinations would involve critical missions in time where much good could be achieved. After Zanzinabe, Qa’hr, and Douterango were left frozen in the Library on Hali, the playing sessions all focused on Faerlight’s five missions.

Faerlight wore a face covering and full ninja suit. He threw shruikens and gas pellets, and he used arcane ninja abilities. His weapon was a magical anything weapon that changed into any weapon type upon his command. He moved through the shadows and attacked quickly and relentlessly. He was a threat to just about anyone or anything. The best image of him is Nightwing-like as seen below. A time traveling ninja!

Faerlight’s first adventure was, “55 Million Years Ago: The Citadel of Anacreon.” Faerlight found himself in the First Age of his planet of Terra, in prehistoric times with dangerous dinosaurs and extinct exotic life. But he saw smoke from a fire from a nearby cave, and went to it. He found within the cave what appeared to be a primitive man who strangely directed him down a river. The man looked like a young Vincent Price, and vanished soon. Faerlight traveled down the river by magical flight for about fifty miles, encountering extinct birds and hungry hostile dinosaurs. The river led him to a flat topped mountain with a large building on top of it, the Citadel. The mountain was surrounded by jungle that was inhabited by a superior tyrannosaurus rex species, Indominus Rex. Faerlight made it to the Citadel, and found it inhabited by primitive humans who were following tasks, all under deep mental control. He explored the Citadel until he reached its deeper levels.

Faerlight found in the lower levels a temple that the humans frequently visited where their “Boss” was, a huge statue that they worshipped. It’s eyes were gems that controlled their minds and gave them their instructions, utilizing famous D&D artwork as seen above. Faerlight shut down the mind control temple, and continued exploring. He surprisingly found another time machine, which explained where the people came from. He was so far back in time that the most advanced mammals were squirrel like, so the people were not from this time. The time vessel was out of power and slowly recharging over hundreds of years…as the controlled humans performed the necessary upkeep of the building. This second time machine was recharging for hundreds of years, and had a few years left to be fully recharged. And when it was fully recharged, it would send a signal and wake someone up. Faerlight found that the person behind this scheme was asleep in a temporal stasis bed. He found the person, and it was Anacreon, a major villain of the early days of the campaign that disappeared long ago, having stolen a time machine. Anacreon was the leader of the Phantoms, a chaotic evil alignment sect that attempted to destroy the world by summoning Cthulhu. Before Faerlight could reach him, he saw Anacreon surprised by a third figure. The third figure was shining golden yellow hues and appeared godlike yet frightening. Faerlight watched as this figure, Hastur, the Yellow King, put Anacreon under his control against his will, and they both vanished together. Faerlight then managed to send the controlled human captives in Anacreon’s half powered time machine back to the future from whence they came. Faerlight left this prehistoric dinosaur-land knowing that the Citadel was the first building on the planet, and could probably be excavated in the future.

Faerlight’s second adventure was, “20,000 BD: Mistoplix Conquers the World.” The time vessel took him to 22,000 years before he left to the continent of Dorse long before it was named as such. At this time it was still barbaric for humans, but civilization was soon to flourish. He emerged in a war camp, and found a commander, Dors. He learned that the world had been conquered by one man, Mistoplix. Mistoplix, similar to the Superman villain, was a wild magic-user who made a copy of Anacreon’s time machine before he first used it. Mistoplix was an insane chaotic neutral wild mage who was thoroughly corrupted by wild magic. Chief Dors was the organizer of the resistance. The resistance had to fight Mistoplix’s forces: large, exceedingly strong and tough lion-like monsters he created, capable of killing dragons, the Grazzat. His forces also included a mysterious aquatic species, the Aboleth. Mistoplix was known to be located in the Asian islands of Aleutia, and Faerlight set off via flying carpet over the ocean, to defeat the only magic-user on the planet for before there was any magic-use.

Upon arriving near Mistoplix’s neon purple glowing palace, Faerlight was approached by a lawful good, super-intelligent creature appearing vaguely horselike with a horn: a ki-rin named Uogata. Uogata was the last survivor of the Aleutian resistance. Faerlight soon made an attack at night on the purple palace as Uogata kept guard. He found within a lavish large bar with intoxicated Nezumi rat men. He found Mistoplix’s designs, and they were dangerously crazy. He intended on using his time machine for extremely nefarious purposes, this taking over the world was just a diversion to his larger schemes. Mistoplix intended to go back in time, create the universe, and make himself god. Faerlight found Mistoplix, but he jumped into his own time machine and escaped. Faerlight then determined a second destination for himself in this time zone: the continent of Aborgin. In his time it was named Amorgin and was an accursed continent, more dangerous than anywhere, and in this time it was where the aboleth kept their headquarters. At their headquarters they possessed magic items Mistoplix gave them that had to be destroyed. They had a magic item that created Doomeye water, water that semi-permanently subjugated peoples’ minds. They also had a device to open a gate to the Plane of Water, and it very much appeared that the aquatic non-humanoid aboleth species intended to flood the planet for themselves.

Faerlight travelled to Aborgin and found that the aboleth had built a huge platform. They had also constructed magic devices across Aborgin to transform the continent. Faerlight discovered terrible secrets about the aboleth. As a DM, I had previously barely ever used the aboleth because I knew that their backstory would be very rich, detailed, and had to be correct. So Faerlight learned that the aboleth were not from his planet, they originated from the Far Realm, the Twilight Zone of the planes. They did not die from old age, ever. They were very powerful and super intelligent. They arrived a few hundred years previously via a gate from the Far Realm. The aboleth were here to terraform the planet, and they had already transformed Aborgin from being an Africa-like continent into an an accursed house of horrors. Faerlight found and destroyed his two magic item targets, but then something unexpected happened. The sky cracked open, and an enormous chaotic flying tower appeared from the Far Realm and proceeded to land on the huge platform. The aboleth flying city of Xxiphu had arrived, filled with hundreds of aboleth. This was the end of the world! Faerlight dashed inside, tracked down a creature called a Living Gate, and slew it. This then closed the gate to the Far Realm, sucking Xxiphu back to the Far Realm. Faerlight caught up with Uogata, and they travelled back to his time vessel. Faerlight met again with Chief Dors, who the continent would be named for, and he noticed he also looked like Vincent Price, the man he met millions of years previously. Faerlight and Uogata then left in the time vessel for his third mission.

In Faerlight’s third time travel mission he continued to move forward in time, this time to, “925: The Pyramid of Evil.” He was now about 1,200 years before his own time. The two travelers found themselves in a bar in a small unknown town. It was under heavy attack when they arrived. A wounded warrior was collapsed in the bar, and came to consciousness and spoke to them. The man looked like Vincent Price again, this time older. Faerlight was sure that he was speaking to the same person on each mission, but this individual continued a conversation millions of years later as if no time had passed. This enigma was directing him on each mission. His direction this time was towards an incredible flying black pyramid above the desert town, shooting laser beams down and attacking the town. Faerlight flew up to the pyramid on Uogata the ki-rin’s back and found the main doors propped open. Inside were adventurers from the region battling organized militant undead forces. Faerlight joined a party of adventurers and they were not good individuals, but soon they were all killed or dispersed by aggressive undead attacks. Faerlight and Uogata stumbled across a black Tabaxi cat man thief creeping about the pyramid, named Midnite, and he joined them. He was all that was left of the defending forces. Together the three of them defeated, locked up, or ran away from the undead in the pyramid as they progressed through it.

The pyramid was one of the pyramids of the Devilish Design, each pyramid having a purpose from the lawful evil devils from Hell. These pyramid had been located and the subjects of adventures in this campaign over many years. This pyramid was Mephistopheles’, and in it his deathmaster son, Arawn, was in full control. Arawn was the first villain in my campaign, a creator of undead appearing as Angus Scrimm’s Tall Man from the Phantasm films. Arawn had been defeated a long time ago, but a splinter of himself still existed in the Year 925, also due to time traveling. The party encountered powerful skeletal liches and new undead Arawn created like battle wraiths and red glowing pyramid liches. Arawn started literally crashing the pyramid into the town, flattening it and destroying it. Faerlight and his party found Arawn, and he was quickly defeated before they set the pyramid on a course into the sun, destroying it. They returned to the destroyed town with Midnite, and in the remains of the bar there was a surprise. Faerlight entered the bar to be screamed at by an enraged Asmodeus, ruler of Hell, accompanied by two deadly pit fiends. He demanded to know why a time traveler was destroying his Devilish Design pyramid, and the huge hulking pit fiends approached them to tear them apart. Suddenly a time stop was put over just Asmodeus and the devils, and Medwyn the mage stepped out of the shadows. Medwyn is the campaign’s mage who created the Timelord class from Dragon Magazine #65. Lorien knows Medwyn in the future, he is a well known character, one of the most powerful mages on the planet. Medwyn quickly explained that he detected the disturbance their time vessel made, which brought him there. He sent them away and the three escaped via the time vessel from Asmodeus and the Year 925.

The fourth time travel adventure took Faerlight decades after the time he left, to the future, in “2150: Azrath’s Final Secret Base.” However, before the trio could investigate that, they were attacked within the time vessel! Asmodeus had sent a greater pit fiend into their time vessel to investigate it. It was defeated without too much destruction, and they arrived in the year 2150. Faerlight stepped out of the time machine into the Dorse city of Obsidian. The time vessel had arrived in the back of a wagon in motion transporting old doors. He landed on the street and a carriage suddenly stopped for him. Medwyn stepped out of out, 1,200 years older since he was last seen, and he was with Lorien’s adopted father, Olorin. Faerlight became bewildered and stumbled into the carriage and found himself in a ride with another Vincent Price incarnation, asking about how the third mission went. This fourth mission was about a master vampire, Azrath, another major villain in the campaign. Faerlight learned that Azrath had been defeated by this year, but he had kept a secret base with his original body ready to reclaim his soul upon death. There he slept until he would be forgotten, when it would be safe to emerge. Faerlight, Uogata, and Midnite were directed into a funeral home. This led them to a small dungeon. Since the vampire was sleeping and trying to remain hidden, there were very few living creatures in the dungeon. There were various golems and undead, but there was one controlled caretaker, a strange psionic goblin, Zeekly, who they freed. It was hard to find the lair of the master vampire since sections of the dungeon had been collapsed, sealing them completely off and hiding further sections; see the map below. This mission was quick, and they soon left with Zeekly the goblin. They travelled a couple of miles outside of Obsidian to the wagon with the doors and the time vessel. Faerlight surprised the three that they were parting company: they were staying in the year 2150 and he would proceed on his final mission. They were all surprised to then see Lorien, the person Faerlight was cloned from, along with a spacecraft he parked nearby. He took Uogata, Midnite, and Zeekly away speechless into his spacecraft as they waved at Faerlight as he left in his time vessel.

Faerlight proceeded on his final time travel adventure, in “The Year Zero: When Gods Walked on Terra.” This time he went back in time 2,150 years to the campaign’s equivalent of the Christian year Zero. There were no gods birthed in this campaign, but they did appear. In the year Zero it was known throughout history that the good gods walked Terra in the ancient city of Urbs and delivered the laws and ways to live in the form of tomes such as the Bonus Leges and the Book of the Old Time. But Faerlight’s time vessel had an enormous collision before arriving at its fifth and final destination. There was an explosion, and the the time vessel actually collided with Mistoplix’s time ship. Both ships passed through each other and Faerlight saw Mistoplix cursing him. Both time ships were badly damaged by the collision and were virtually destroyed, falling apart and melting into nothing. Faerlight’s vessel landed in the year Zero, and he jumped out just as the vessel disintegrated. He was in a sage’s quarters in the city of Urbs, an old sage who looked like an elderly Vincent Price. He quickly briefed Faerlight in this mission. Mistoplix’s vessel had crashed down the street, and he intended to subvert history by appearing to the people of Urbs as Deus, the gods of the gods.

Faerlight quickly dashed outside. Coming down the street was a procession of a couple of golden glowing good gods followed by the people of Urbs. They were heading towards Mistoplix’s crashed time vessel. Faerlight ran inside it, and found that its destruction had been slowed but not prevented. Mistoplix’s time vessel’s interior was weird, altered by Mistoplix’s uncontrollable wild magic surges. Faerlight soon found Mistoplix, a battle ensued, and one of Mistoplix’s own wild surges, randomly triggered by his own attack spell, extinguished his own existence. Before leaving, Faerlight rescued Ranavenificus, an unconscious Grippli frogman who was a wild magic-user Mistoplix apprentice. Faerlight popped back outside, the vessel disintegrated, and Faerlight fell into the procession. He ended up in the Urbs town square where the lawful good and chaotic good primary gods themselves cast a god spell as part of a ceremony. The spell was to get the favor of Deus, the unseen god, the unknown god of the gods, the creator of the cosmos, the god not even known to exist, the god of no known alignment. What the two good gods did not expect was that instead of receiving a vague sign of favor from this formality of a spell, Deus himself was manifested in physical form, shocking the gods. He appeared with a beard, old, wise, and most certainly appearing exactly as Vincent Price. A recession parade took place, and Deus briefly spoke to Faerlight, and asked him how his missions went, correcting via time travel five problems best resolved by time travel. He told him that during the short ceremony that he had concocted the plan of Faerlight’s missions and had simultaneously met him in each mission in those few seconds in other time zones. Deus existed outside of time. He then congratulated him and told him to spend a year and live and rest. After then, Faerlight would return to Lorien, reincorporating their souls, and Lorien would then remember everything Faerlight did on these missions. Deus said farewell, the gods vanished, and Faerlight was then approached by a young Medwyn. They debriefed, and Medwyn took Ranavenificus to send in forward in time to join the other three Faerlight picked up on his travels. Faerlight then took a well deserved vacation, for one year.

At the end of that year Faerlight expected to die, but instead Deus showed up on his doorstep one last time. He explained that Faerlight became known in his missions as the Agent of Deus, and someone is trying to summon him, so there is one last mission. Faerlight was handed a glowing silver scroll to give to those who were summoning him. He was then sent to them, into the farthest future, appearing in a foggy dark realm filled with assorted spacecraft and various vessels. The outer edges of this small realm was some sort of translucent bubble, like the strongest of forcefields. Faerlight was then approached by an ancient alien who explained they are in the last few minutes of the universe’s existence in the very far future. Everything is rapidly collapsing, and they called for the Agent of Deus for help. Faerlight handed them the silver scroll, and they read it. It contained the coordinates for a secret location, the one place that anyone could survive the collapse of the entire universe, a special realm. The spacecraft all rapidly departed, and Faerlight stayed behind looking out of the bubble at the swirling disintegrating universe. He watched the outer planes swirl into nothing as everything collapsed into a swirl of fireworks and colors…and then he woke up in the present day, the year 2135, and he was Lorien…

But Zanizinabe, Qa’hr, and Douterango are still trapped, frozen in time by Hastur in the Ixlan Galaxy! The campaign then proceeded to follow the semi-retired high level player character, Olorin, for his last adventuring season. He intended to start out by trying to find Zanzinabe and company, but he also intended to visit the Shrine of Deus, that has fallen out of the caretaking hands of the druids and into the ownership of a somewhat shady young professor, who happens to look like Vincent Price…

In two days, there will be hourly posts for the artwork for the monsters encountered in these Dungeons & Dragons adventures!

#halloween #d&d #dungeon master #aboleth #far realm #hastur #yellow king #lovecraftian #vincent price

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jeeperso · 2 years

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D&D Quotes Without Context

Ravenloft Edition, Har-Akir Arc, part 5

"Jonni, I will get the spray bottle.” “Jokes on you, I had to pee in that on my last watch!”

"I know the tale of Beni. He was said to be to That Guy as Strahd is to vampires.”

Gorbash: “I Hate Undead Insects.”

“Eddie, you got a circle of RAID?”

As you guys approach the end, an Imp materializes next to the switch. ”Welcome to the tomb of the Scarab King.” Jonni Eldritch Blasts him.

And suddenly, Poom was there. Because she can teleport.

"Very well, usually our prey is a little more worked over, but you managed to get by the scarabs and the gate without getting hurt, so we'll wait till the rest of the dungeon breaks you before we get our cut.” Poom: "That's very reasonable of you.”

“Fuck, this was built by a fan of hidden object games.” "Noooo! Not a puzzle trap, I hate those. Unless someone else has solved it and left clues they can take a long time to figure out.”

“Maybe there’s one of those ‘one of us always lies’ tests. Gorb can distract Marsh while I beat the shot out of them.”

GM: Getting through the hall will require a Dexterity check for each of you. Unless you want to fly over it or have some other way around. Player: Poom telelports to the other side.

Poom checks out the wall writing. Looks like it was written in blood, probably by an unlucky adventurer. Jonni: “Something about the Castle Aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh.”

GM: If you were to hazard a guess, the sandstorm illusion was meant to trap those inside in a perpetual sandstorm until it drove those in it mad with monotiny. player: Monotony. GM: That too.

"Ventilabis puga, Frank.”

You enter the next chamber. It looks like the main burial chamber. There is a large onyx coffin on the ground, with several smaller coffins on the side. In the corner there is a small Har Akir child, curled up and crying. Jonni: “Well, I look forward to their adoption and, soon after, inevitable betrayal.” Gorbash: “…If this is a trick I will be pissed. If that’s an actual child I will be more pissed.”

Gorbash: “…How many necromancy-wielding assholes can we piss off in one tomb raid?”

OOC: So help me if the Mummy from Darkstalkers comes out of that tomb…

Inside the tomb there is a 10 foot tall skeleton, with a hugely distorted rib cage, large enough to hold a smaller person inside. Clutched in its hands is a large black book with a skull on the front. Jonni: “If this is one of the Inhumanoids I am fucking out.”

This is a Devourer. As mummies, vampires and liches are to humans, Devourers are to beings of the outer planes. The unquiet spirits of angels and fiends, created by Orcus himself. Jonni: “Skip to the end, how do we kill it?”

“No fair, you’re supposed to wait till we grab the book!”

GM: Marshal, you are now on hyper time.

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Jonni flies up out of melee range and shouts back. “Fine. Let’s you and Gary fight.” She makes her Naruto hand signs and a creature of Shadow rises up in front of the Devourer. “Gary! Kick his ass!” “GODSDAMMIT, GARY! THIS IS WHY I NEVER SUMMON YOU!” “ONLY THING YOU’RE GOOD FOR, GARY!” Gary is texting his therapist now. OOC: HAIL TO GORBASH, TERROR OF THE UNLIVING! OOC: But we've already got Eddie. We even have a New Eddie back at camp. Too many Eddies. Gorbash will fix that. Poom cast "Overclock" on Gorebash. OOC: And from your class you can cast it on two of us at the same time rather than needing to concentrate? GM OOC: Welcome to third party products. Jonni: “Nyx, you’ve got an inter dimensional hidey hole, right?” Nyx: "Put that thing in a a regular bag, I don't trust it not to try and corrupt everything inside my pouches.” Jonni: “Ugh. Fine. But as the least corruptible person here, I’m carrying the bag.” “Maaaaaarsh! I needs the tongs!” You head back to the surface. When you reach above ground, you find that its night. Or at least overcast. Kat is waiting for you. ”Um Marshal, I think you need to see this.” Jonni: “Told you.” Out about 100 feet away from the tomb there is now a river of blood, at the shore is a skiff, where there is a figure standing. He reaches up an d points at Marshal. Jonni: “What fresh hell is this?” Marshal: "Charon. Ferryman of the dead. My patron has summoned me. Fresh Hell is exactly this.”

OOC: Zaslav is the Tiger Force at the center of all things. To die in Reality TV is to die for Zaslav! OOC: I’d say they could at least do a DC themed reality show where you’re forced to go through existence in Darkseid’s vision of the world, but you could get the same effect taking a film crew to CPAC. OOC: MOTHER FUCKER THEY GOT RID OF SHADOW DEMON POSSESSION IN THIS EDITION. OOC: Gorbash has his shining sword, Marshal has smite, and now Nyxie has Glowy Stabby Stabs. OOC2: And Jonni, as always has her hotness. OOC: And we learned Gary blows ass. OOC: Okay, I know Marshal is Big Bird in this scenario. Are the rest of us all collectively Snuffy? OOC: I couldn't type it out fast enough on my phone but my thought was "SHIT HE BROKE OUT THE GREEK, SHIT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL!” Jonni: “NO ONE PUTS JONNI IN THE NO FUN BOX!” Hades: “Do you want to go in the Super No Fun Box?” Jonni: “Everything I do legally counts as sex. Everything.” Hades: “It’s true; I checked.” OOC: So Jonnis is gonna go off and have fun with Alecto and Tisiphone, and Marshal can get stomped by Gilgamesh and Bible fruit. OOC2: Jonni is gonna defile that banana. OOC: If Marshal is dealing with those Two, Gorbash is jumping in from the stands. "Like hell am I letting my buddy get double teamed." Pause "Yes Jonni, I'm aware of how that sounds.” OOC2: What’s this! It’s Jonni from the stands with an illegal foreign arcane casting!

#dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #quotes without context #ravenloft #har-akir

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disastardly · 18 days

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0 - Tales of the Outer Planes (Descent prequel) for WIP Wednesday!

“Hey Robbie.” The words were a billion little fire ants biting his throat, crawling around in sand inside his skull. He coughed. Nothing came up, he didn’t think. Couldn’t feel it if it did, just the scrape of ants and knives. Robin smiled down at him, watery and weird. The world was too bright, so he closed his eyes again. So much better. He breathed in, fingertips expanding like balloons, and gently he patted out at his side, careful not to pop. Nothing. Something that was nothing. No one. No Eddie.

#wip wednesday game #wip wednesday #my writing #tales of the outer planes #stranger things #descent into the depths of the earth (or at least milwaukee)#to find a king #steddie #steve harrington #robin buckley

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talesfromthebacklog · 1 hour

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Tales From The Front Log: Endless Ocean Luminous

5/10

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This was a $30-$40 game labelled as a $60 one. It’s fun but after a day or two you’ll find yourself quickly bored. Yikes. I don’t have a lot of nice things to say about this one. I’m not angry at it, but I’m just going to lay it all out as it is.

Endless Ocean suffers from what I consider to be the worst thing that can happen to a game. It’s just… not much to talk about. It’s largely nothing. Good games will be remembered. Bad games will also be remembered. Maybe not made again, but we still talk about trite like Superman 64.

Nothing games? No one talks about. Which is sad because I love games like this, but I don’t see this as a franchise Nintendo will continue to make because no one from the casual sphere will be asking for it after this. (And despite what many folks believe, you need casuals to buy games like this from companies like Nintendo to convince the corpos that they are still worth making).

Let’s talk about this ocean diving game and where it went wrong.

Firstly the story-mode. Hate it. The story itself is very… okay. Nothing special but serviceable. My big problem is the progression. It’s locked behind doing TONS of exploring instead of just letting players enjoy the story at the pace they want to enjoy it! (Probably because players would finish it in a matter of hours and put it down forever because it would have little left to offer. The replay value is nonexistent and there is no incentive to play longer.)

Additionally the only person who ever speaks is your AI computer companion and I could not give less of shit for anything that thing says. It’s dull and lazy. All the divers just flail around. You’re telling me we can have special magic fish which I can suck the light out of the save magic coral, but no communicators so the divers can actually speak to each other? Okay💨.

I’m being harsh here. But when I see a $60 price tag with Nintendo’s name attached I expect more than this. And while I am going to get into the stuff I like it’s hard to ignore to mediocre nature of the game.

For example this game is just… empty. It feels weirdly lifeless despite being heavily populated by fish. Probably because they don’t feel like they’re really there sometimes. You can swim right through nearly all the models. The maps are huge but I actually think this is a disservice because they largely don’t do anything interesting with them. There aren’t many different biomes to visit randomly, you can’t interact with anything other than treasures that just give you nearly meaningless currency. It’s just diet New Pokemon Snap. And Pokemon Snap arguably does the job much better despite being on rails.

And the more I think about it… the more I realize that it really does have a LARGE amount of similarities with New Pokemon Snap in terms of story and function. Even down to the luminescent giant creatures! I would almost say if you want the Endless Ocean: Luminous experience of wandering around looking at stuff you should just go play that. The environments are prettier, Pokemon react to your presence, Pokemon react to each other, you interact with environment, you get items, and you get tons of unique biomes. Or just play the original Endless Ocean games because they’re way better.

In Endless Ocean: Luminous you’re just kinda dropped off in a big blue pool. The water even looks kinda hazy when you’re in it. There’s no weather, no sunsets, no beautiful ocean moonlit nights. Just… big blue planes of nothing. And there are fun places to explore sometimes. Like ruins, old ships, some caves, and the depths. This is in the minority though.

In majority there’s big flat sand planes of fucking blue nothing. With rocks. And you’ll spend more time there than you will anywhere else. Especially in multiplayer.

That’s all you really do in Endless Ocean: Luminous. You wander around and look at shit. Which I like games like this in theory. Outer Wilds and Paradise Killer are also “look around” games. But they also have compelling narratives and gimmicks to keep players hooked. And I’m not arguing it’s not fun to poke around in Endless Ocean: Luminous. I did have a fun time swimming around. I’m just also saying you’ll get bored quick.

This extends to the multiplayer. Which boils down to who can wander around and look at everything the fastest. That’s it. You’re given emotes but players rarely interact with each and are given basically no incentive to. I guess you can join the mode to feel less lonely. It’ll get you through the story mode quicker than working on your own.

I just… additionally one of the big selling points was you could be with up to 30 people in a room but this isn’t quite true. It’s up to 10 random people. The other TWENTY you need to have friends or join a stream. And practically NO ONE was streaming this on Twitch ON LAUNCH. The amount was painfully low for a Nintendo IP. I wasn’t expecting Mario numbers but it was kinda pathetic. 🤷‍♀️ I was genuinely disappointed. The large amount of players in one room sounded fun.

But at the same time 10 players on one map can actually be too much at times and leave little for players to do as you witch hunt for the one fish that hasn’t been scanned. A weird conundrum.

So… what did I like about this game??? I did mention I would talk about stuff I liked.

The variety of fish was good. I like that all the fish got factoid excerpts that could be read aloud. Though I’m irked I can’t play the verbal explanation and look around at the same time. While the game is very basic it’s still fun to pole around and look at stuff! There is interesting stuff to look at. I appreciate the fantasy elements.

I like the idea of the fish bosses you have to lure out. Though I wish luring them out required learning about the fish and using something special for that fish to get them to reveal themselves. They want it to be a big grand event but it’s really not:

The fish models actually look really good and detailed. If you know your ocean life you can properly identify the fish for what they are. As someone who loves ocean life this actually matters to me quite a bit. Weirdly enough I’m disappointed the plant/coral life was lacking. It would’ve been a good way to add to the catalogue. Might just be a me thing but ocean plants are as equally interesting as the fish.

I appreciate that there’s no combat. As I don’t have a strong gut for ocean horror. (I have to play Subnautica with creature aggression turned completely off.)

Though the game isn’t afraid to throw ugly surprise fish at you. It’s not scary but you do initially go “Alright. You’re attempting to have some spice here”. It’s mayonnaise but I guess you could call mayonnaise spicier than water.

Fish companions. Great choice. Being able to unlock bigger fish friends over time and respecting their dive capacity was also a great choice. My favorite ended up being the starfish since they could just attach to your tank. Too cute. (Though… we needed urchins in the game too. Just saying…)

The customizable avatar and emotes is… cute. Really. I swear. But you likely won’t last long enough to unlock anything truly complex before moving on.

The idea of events is cute, but don’t mean much. It’s largely just increased rates for rare creatures to appear. Eh.

In short Endless Ocean: Luminous is a fairly empty game with a LOT of padding for $60. You can tell they wanted a cozy game that players would play for longer than a few days, but you likely won’t. I’m not going to argue it’s valueless to pick up. I’m just going to say that you deserve to not buy it at the price Nintendo wanted us to buy it at.

Buy it on sale. If at all.

#nintendo #nintendo switch #gaming #tales from the backlog #tftb #video games #gamer #cozy games #endless ocean #endless ocean luminous #Youtube #game reviews #video game review #video game #ocean #diving #ocean game #fish

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longlistshort · 2 days

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There are many little stories within Sascha Mallon’s lovely installation for Wolf Tales, on view at Kentler International Drawing Space. It includes sculptures and drawings, with pieces emerging from the walls. Each little section captures the imagination.

The press release below includes a poem by Erich Fried, as well as a more detailed discussion on the artist's motivations and process.

WOLF TALES “It is madness says reason It is what it is says love It is unhappiness says caution It is nothing but pain says fear It has no future says insight It is what it is says love It is ridiculous says pride It is foolish says caution It is impossible says experience It is what it is says love.” – Erich Fried

This installation synthesizes the artist’s engagement with drawing, glazed porcelain, and mohair silk crochet yarn, bringing all these elements into one monumental work that flows around the edges of the space. For Wolf Tales, Mallon is going back to her roots of drawing after being actively engaged with molding, firing, and glazing porcelain objects. In this exhibition she is primarily a draftsman on a quest, mirroring the main heroes of the story as they go through transformations. Going back to drawing in this more monumental format signifies for Mallon her long-cherished wish of making this method more dynamic, forgetting its static nature, and allowing drawings to flow.

The titular wolf is an ambivalent embodiment of spirit and energy that is at first at odds with a human presence of a girl and then goes through a series of spiritual and physical changes, inner and outer shifts. In his newly published autobiographical book, Japanese author Haruki Murakami devotes significant attention to how a narrative of a novel shifts when characters are presented indirectly versus being contemplated from within their own mind-frame. In her drawings for this exhibition, Sascha Mallon likewise changes the degree of her engagement with the heroes and heroines whom we see. Themes of belonging, sustainability, mistrust, loneliness, and connection are based on narrative points presented through figures of a human girl, a wolf, a raven, and others. Yet Mallon uses her subtle drawing skills to connect disparate parts of the narrative so that we can subconsciously see the connections and let the story unfold in our own time. The tale we see is one that stays with a viewer long after they leave the space. Drawing in motion is what this presentation underlines, tying all the elements together in one mandala directly drawn on the wall by this practicing Buddhist. The drawings are airy, frequently working with and playing with a negative space.

As do many artists, Mallon creates narratives based on issues she faces in her life, and as a Buddhist she thinks often about one’s perception of reality, how we create reality, how we can make a better world by changing the mind. She is fond of questioning rather than responding, leaving spaces for stillness and freedom for the viewers. Mallon’s body of work does not develop from project to project, it is one big story that keeps changing and transforming itself. To an observer, it is more of a conversation that she continues having with herself by visual means, artistic practice presented as a gestational thought process. You do not know where it starts and where it ends; it is fluid and dynamic.

As a story, Wolf Tales also develops on multiple planes and in multiple temporal frameworks. It is not a fairy tale, but rather an artistic representation of ideas and feelings, thinking through the poem by Erich Fried, which has occupied a special place in Mallon’s life for many years. Out of all of these narratives and feelings, she weaves characters and stories in the way that fairy tales do. There are no solutions. It’s about what is happening with our lives and our emotions, and it is complex. In the seminal analysis of fairy tale structure that Vladimir Propp published in 1927, the author outlines seven main characteristics important for a fairy tale (Zaubermärchen ): miraculous helper, miraculous spouse, miraculous adversary, miraculous task, miraculous object, miraculous power or gift, and other miraculous motives. In our time we need to emphasize the importance of miraculous, which could be understood to mean harmonious, compassionate, human.

Mallon is not a research-driven artist, as what we see on the walls is transmitted (or unearthed?) through sitting still and reflecting upon dharma talks and her work as a resident artist at The Creative Center at Mount Sinai Hospital. Working with people who have limited capacities affects Mallon, bringing an existential degree to her contemplation of humanity, anger, attachment, and suffering. A native of Austria, she studied art therapy, but ultimately developed her own intuitive technique of drawing and sculpting in order to perfect what she needed to say. This self-taught quality and a certain remoteness from the official and often overtly commercial art system creates a space for honesty, deep engagement, and compassion in Mallon’s works. Being informed by the understanding of larger and more painful experiences influences one’s ability to look at life. Mallon’s life informs her works and vice versa. Even with her patients she tries to find the healthy part and work with it.

Miraculous is an element of the drawings around us. Sascha Mallon offers to bring each of us home, just as a wolf and a girl who are tied in an ambiguous, but ultimately symbiotic relationship are able to do. What is the alternative if we turn away instead of looking into each other’s faces? Compassion is an essential part of Mallon’s work, a quality that we see less and less of in the polarized society of today’s United States. For the artist, an enemy that is initially perceived on the outside turns out to be an enemy on the inside. In this story, the lines get blurred, become vague and nonessential: you don’t know any more if it’s describing a girl or a wolf. Yet the hope of the artist is that through her heroes we are able to move toward peace rather than confrontation.

—Nina Chkareuli-Mdivani is a Georgian-American curator, writer, and researcher living in New York.

This exhibition closes 5/25/24.

#Sascha Mallon #Art #Art Installation #Art Shows #Kentler International Drawing Space #Brooklyn Art Shows #Drawing #Erich Fried #Fiber Arts #Group Show #Illustration #Mixed Media #Mixed Media Art #NYC Art Shows #Sculpture #Storytelling #Wolf

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amanita-the-spore-druid · 2 months

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Short sci-fi story

An Expedition in the Demonia Anomaly was probably the worst mistake the Galactic Council authorized. It was 2155, nearly 100 years since Earth's discovery. The crew consisted of three Humans, all Terrans from some desert region in what they nebulously call The East, a Derovian male descended from an invasion deserter and from the Jupiter colony in Sol, and a Glastanoi linguist who ironically spent her whole life on Salis-Zevrum before the mission.

The living conditions on board the Enterprise were uncomfortable for everyone. The Enterprise was a research ship, built for a sterile environment and heavy carrying capacity. As such, the temperatures were far too cold for everyone. The Humans drank a deep brown tea that supposedly had a stimulating alkaloid in it. The thick leathery skin of Derovian's was luckily perfectly adapted for far lower climates. It was the Glastanoi, however, who had it the hardest. As an amphibian, she had to spent a majority of time in her bunk under a heat lamp and took the blankets of unoccupied bunks.

The Demonia Anomaly was a section of the outer galaxy shrouded in an impossibly massive nebula of Demonia; an exotic matter that is triggered to Warp space for faster than light travel. While passive In space, CMB radiation is however enough to make it warp photons and distort any attempts to view it. An ancient extinct species on the other end of the galaxy had supposed data logs saying to avoid the Anomaly at all costs. They also showed images of robots that vaguely resembled the Machina Sapenis who requested the Expedition.

It was over a month of travel, longer than most of the crew had ever traveled in warp space at once. The rest of the crew barely had time to think about such technology before alien intervention introduced it, but the Human’s made light of every detail of the ship in reference to classical films about such technology. Some of these fictions, including ones with FTL travel spoke of the incredible lengths of time it took to travel. While they were usually way off, traversing galaxies in months on occasion, it was still so funny to the humans how right they were. “True science fiction is predicting the traffic jam not the automobile.” one quoted.

“And what the hell is an automobile?” Asked the Glastanoi, the translator hardly doing justice to her confusion. The Humans tried and, poorly, explained cars. “So imagine a cart, but with two more wheels. And you sat in it, and electricity- " “Or explosions.” one added, “Pushed it.” the last finished. The Derovian and Glastanoi, born to species with century long feuds, bonded over a Confusion in humanity.

“Why not just walk?” Asked the Glastanoi, dumbfounded as the Remervan and Glastanoi were so muscular and had such a metabolism that after road building and maintaining was done with ease most people simply walked between cities. With enough rest stops to keep less endurant species going. “Well Humans didn't have the energy to do that most of the time.” “Also maintaining waking roads has been a bit of a problem historically.”

“What about trains? Long distance, and a road that doesn't need to be protected for the most part.” Asked the Derovian, who grew up not only on a colony centered around efficient transit but hearing tales of the homeworld built with such accessibility in mind. “Well trains are a lot, you know?” “True, makes sense these automobiles would be invented first.” the three Humans looked at each other in silence.

They all signed a massive breath of relief when the system computer alerted them that they entered a range of a location they were set to. It was on the ancient species’ maps, which shockingly also used the same 3D plane and used the same origin (Sagittarius A). As they stepped to the bridge to view around them, the crew regretted agreeing to come.

All around them was torn up machines. Robots in a hardly canine, or even lizard like, with charred osnium plating from the looks of it. Wires and components lay astrewn, bits of and flickers of plasma as the electricity ignited gasses and Demonia. And all 5 agreed, that looking at the machines gave a soul filled feeling like looking at a living thing. Even the Humans, known for paranoia due to something they called the ‘uncanny valley’ felt this to the fullest. Perhaps more than the others.

And the creature at the center. About the size of a Dwarf planet, was an unexplainable mass of light. Everyone understood it. It shifted, looking like an angel or demon to the Humans, what the Glastanois called Vama the goddess who sent the nature mothers orders to the lower gods, and the Derovians knew as a servant of the Heavenly Bureaucrat. It pulsed strong radioactive energy, at the same rate as a human heart beat, and was emitting energy.

That's what it was, energy. They could only say as much, because aside from the bright light the human saw, the Glastanoi who saw infrared and heat waves saw a burning and almost Blinding warmth, whilst Derovian saw ultraviolet and was given a headache behind his third eye. There was constant shifts in the gas, reactions and decay at random with no pace, and then the pulse of the nuclear radiation increased. Like it became excited

The ship detected sound waves, repetitive in a pattern and rhythm and put it on a spectrophotometer. They played it, a song? Laughter. They tried to turn on the Demonia drive, but something wasn't working. Upon inspection they realized, the energy from the anti-matter reaction wasn't releasing. The everything went silent, and then.

The power shut off, and so did the lights from everyone's eyes.

The angel was hungry, and soon enough these ships could feed him faster than it take the robots to recreate again.

Sorry if u read it, erm kinda mid but I was bored and love this setting

#scifi #science fiction #writeblr #queer writers #space travel #sorry for spelling mistakes #sorry for major lack of context

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