Hi I'm Alex, I'm a cellist and I arrange VGM (Video Game Music) for orchestras and smaller acoustic ensembles to play! I've decided to make a masterpost with links to the PDFs since I do be posting about my writing whenever I get excited about it
I've uploaded the scores to patreon cause it's convenient and there aren't a lot of PDF hosting places I'm aware of that are like, reputable. But fr if you want the scores and you don't wanna patreon me just message and I'll send you them free. gratis. I don't gatekeep
My latest projects:
"Song of Giga Rosa" from Xenoblade Chronicles 2
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"Moebius Battle" / "Moebius Battle M" from Xenoblade Chronicles 3
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Prior Work:
"Roaming The Wastes" from Xenoblade Chronicles 2
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"Homecoming" from Xenoblade Chronicles 3
(Link coming as soon as I finish the harp part! It's basically done I swear)
Battle Medley from Octopath Traveller I
(Link will come once I can be bothered to finish the last 8 bars of guitar. idk im not a guitarist guitar is hard)
"Uncharted Worlds" from the Mass Effect series
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Fable Trilogy Medley
Official Post from Alex Tompkins
Wii Shop Theme (Smooth Edition)
Official Post from Alex Tompkins
"Spider Dance" from Undertale
Official Post from Alex Tompkins
"BergentrĂźckung / ASGORE" from Undertale
Official Post from Alex Tompkins
"Sans / Papyrus" from Undertale
Official Post from Alex Tompkins
"Heartache" / Toriel's Theme from Undertale
Official Post from Alex Tompkins
Plus my two oldest that I won't link cause I want to revisit them someday, the Mii Channel Theme and Korobeiniki/Tetris Theme
Stuff that's in the pipeline:
Battle Medley from Xeno 1 (You Will Recall Our Names, Obstacle In Our Path and Mechanical Rhythm)
psychiatrists: You canât stop this medication cold turkey. You need to stay on your meds no matter what. If you donât stay on your meds I wonât treat you as my patient anymore
psychiatrists when you need your meds refilled: yeah I can do that in about 10 business days. oh you need it right now? or youâre going to end up hospitalized? meh I donât care. good luck idiot
Really annoys me that the most like fleshed out and well written questline/background/romance combination options for DAO and DAI are like the least interesting character options.
Dragon Age Origins: I did not play DAO to be a heterosexual human woman and yet being a straight girl can give you the biggest plot payoff (Alistair becomes king, does not have to marry Anora, you become queen, massive Grey Warden W). Playing DAO as some dude lets you have SUCH an interesting romance with Morrigan AND make your own demon baby without having to bully Alistair into fucking anyone (i do not enjoy coercing Alistair into having sex with Morrigan, even if it does save his life). Leliana and Zevran are both fantastic but they are MUCH less integrated into the core plot as romances. It feels like Alistair and Morrigan were the writer's favourites. Anyway to get maximum payoff the game sort of wants you to be a Cousland, which I resent since I either wish to be the horniest Aeducan sibling OR a dutiful Tabris. Also whilst all the origin stories in DAO are fascinating and great for building your characters' motivations and personality, the Cousland story probably goes the hardest in terms of giving you continued plot motivation throughout the rest of the game.
DAI's most plot-relevant interesting romance is arguably Solavellan which I find annoying because i did NOT play Dragon Age to be straight. And i knooooow i can still romance women but none of them have the impact of solavellan. Falling in love with a GOD? and giving HIM a crisis??? Incredible. I need this but lesbian immediately. Definitely feels like the writers' favourite plotline. Sucks that you can only get it by being a female elf - as the first game in the series that lets you be a qunari i can obviously only play a qunari (huge buff lady?????), and therefore i am sort of locked out of solas forever.
Dragon Age II: no matter what gender you are every romance is queer. Hawke is a bisexual hell creature and this comes across in everything they ever do. The romances arent quite as plot critical but since everything gets an equal treatment here i think that's fine. Hawke has to be human (ew) but at least there is no *boring* heterosexual romance.
btw dorian and cullen being chess buddies is so funny like do you think cullen even notices dorian is flamboyantly gay or does he go "i think it's a bit rude to assume he's a homosexual, don't you think? maybe all vints just act like that"
this post is fearmongering. the results of this study are concerning and should definitely be a matter of public discussion, but this is certainly not the conclusion the researchers came to.
the point of the study was to assess the risks of exposure to toxic metals- something one of the co-authors notes are âubiquitousâ fwiw- via menstrual products. Their research confirmed that these metals are indeed present in tampons, but no further conclusions are drawn. it is possible the metal entered into the cotton from the soil, which is a well-known phenomenon; cotton is so good at lifting heavy metals that it has actually been suggested as a part of the solution for revitalizing polluted ground.
the authors conclude with an acknowledgement that the study should be repeated- their sample size was 60 tampons- and a suggestion that further testing ought to be done to indicate whether or not these metals can even leech out of the tampon in the first place, let alone whether or not such leeching could occur at levels deleterious to human health.
there is, in fact, a body of research- too small, for sure, but much larger than this single study- indicating that long-term proper tampon use has no observable negative impact on health. i am grateful and thrilled that more research is being done and i hope that this study is the first of many on this line of questioning, but i am really frustrated at this post and the response it got.
obviously, if this study alters your approach to menstrual health, more power to you. consumers should be informed-risk-takers, and menstrual health is double-obviously a very personal choice. but it definitely wasn't the researchers concluding that you ought to âavoid using tampons at all cost," only this tumblr user did. the lead author of the paper, in fact, specifically says that she hopes people do NOT panic about the results.
(the notes of the post were disappointing. people affirming that they knew they were right to be suspicious of tampons all along, or even recommending alternatives that actually have very little to no research regarding the safety of long-term use, etc. itâs a different conversation, but categorical distrust of tampons is old-school misogyny. you certainly shouldn't wear them if you donât want to, but there is nothing inherently scary or wrong about them, and people who prefer them are not being reckless or crass.)
((if you're really worried about exposure to heavy metals, you may want to turn a critical eye to fast fashion, as an aside))
thinking about how leliana in origins is talking about how she never wants to be someone who enjoys manipulating people with ease and ruining their lives or taking others lives for no reason. she doesnt want to be someone who lives off grudges and doesnt care about individual's lives. how she never really wanted to leave the cloister, she just wanted to serve her god as best she saw fit. and then in inquisition you meet her again and regardless of what happened to her in the past she has become everything she never wanted to be all in the name of a god that never speaks back
I mean, I don't dislike them, they're fine. I've had a great time at dinosaur museums. But I only like them a normal amount.
This blog started completely by accident because in 2015 I was very frustrated with adobe illustrator (had to use it for a class in college) and I drew a horribly bad dinosaur and sent it to my friend who thought it was hilarious, and then I kept doing that and now everyone associates me with dinosaurs even though I only like them a normal amount.
Yeah, that happens. One time when I was in high school or undergrad or something my grandmother was pestering us about writing Christmas lists--she always did that, and then got us things that were similar, but not identical, to what we'd asked for--and I was annoyed about it, so I put that I wanted $100, a bunch of candy, and a giraffe.
#at some point in adulthood #you will be assigned an animal motif #this makes gift-buying easy #you can embrace it or fight it #but it will be happening #other variants include a sports team or media franchise instead of an animal (via @alex51324)
there is an snl sketch that lives in my brain rent free because it describes this exact phenomenon:
2. when i moved into my first apartment by myself at 25, I got a couple of owl-themed kitchen things like an oven mitt and dish towels, not because i'm hugely into owls but because they were cute and I liked them better than the other options at walmart.
David Sedaris has a piece like that... It's in the New Yorker.
Understanding Owls - By David Sedaris (looking at you @bemusedlybespectacled)
Does there come a day in every manâs life when he looks around and says to himself, âIâve got to weed out some of these owlsâ? I canât be alone in this, can I? And, of course, you donât want to hurt anyoneâs feelings. Therefore you keep the crocheted owl given to you by your second-youngest sister and accidentally on purpose drop the mug that reads âOwl Love You Alwaysâ and was sent by someone who clearly never knew you to begin with. I mean, mugs with words on them! Owl cocktail napkins stay, because everyone needs napkins. Ditto the owl candle. Owl trivet: take to the charity shop along with the spool-size Japanese owl that blinks his eyes and softly hoots when you plug him into your computer.
Just when you think youâre making progress, you remember the owl tobacco tin, and the owl tea cozy. Then there are the plates, the coasters, the Christmas ornaments. This is what happens when you tell people you like something. For my sister Amy, that thing was rabbits. When she was in her late thirties, she got one as a pet, and before it had chewed through its first phone cord sheâd been given rabbit slippers, rabbit cushions, bowls, refrigerator magnets, you name it. âReally,â she kept insisting, âthe live one is enough.â But nothing could stem the tide of crap.
Amyâs invasion started with a live rabbit, while Hughâs and mine began, in the late nineteen-nineties, with decorative art. We were living in New York then, and he had his own painting business. One of his clients had bought a new apartment, and on the high, domed ceiling of her entryway she wanted a skyful of birds. Hugh began with warblers and meadowlarks. He sketched some cardinals and blue tits for color and was just wondering if it wasnât too busy when she asked if he could add some owls. It made no sense nature-wiseâowls and songbirds work different shifts, and even if they didnât they would still never be friends. No matter, though. This was her ceiling, and if she wanted turkey vulturesâor, as was later decided, batsâthatâs what she would get. All Hugh needed was a reference, so he went to the Museum of Natural History and returned with âUnderstanding Owls.â The book came into our lives almost fifteen years ago and Iâve yet to go more than a month without mentioning it. âYou know,â Iâll say, âthereâs something about nocturnal birds of prey that I just donât get. If only there was somewhere I could turn for answers.â
âI wish I could help you,â Hugh will say, adding, a second or two later, âHold on a minute . . . what about . . . âUnderstanding Owlsâ?â
Weâve performed this little routine more times than I can count, but back then, when the book was still fresh-smelling and its pages had not yet yellowed, I decided that because Hugh actually did get a kick out of owls, I would try to find him a stuffed one.
The rest can be read here it was a piece in The New Yorker back in 2012 and is in the book called Understanding Understanding Owls.
(Just put it in reader view and you can read it without signing up)
My uncle once got my mother a little frog themed gift before I was born, and then disappeared from our family for a while. When he returned years later he saw that my mum had kept her little frog, and it changed something in his brain. He decided that my mother was now The Frog Lady. Every birthday and Christmas my mother receives a frog item from him, and she despises every single one (not because of the frogs, but because of the mortifying ordeal of being known incorrectly). Once my sister and I got old enough we decided to join in and get her the most horrible frogs we can find.
Thing is, *we* get her the frog-in-a-bikini Christmas baubles because we're playing a practical joke on her and we know she hates them. *He* gets her the sterling silver frog pendant because she thinks she adores it.
In my current playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition, this one early war table quest caught my eye that I think offers a good bit of insight into Cullenâs character.
In âTruth or Dare: The Imperial Court,â Vivienne alerts Josephine to a letter sheâs received from an acquaintance, purporting to âwarnâ Vivienne of the suspect company she has taken up in joining the Inquisition. The letter reads thus:
My dearest Vivienne,
You cannot have heard the shocking allegations against the Inquisition, or surely you would never have been seen with them. Allow me, as a friend, to open your eyes. People are saying that Divine Justinia is, indeed, alive, but that the Inquisitionâher closest advisors and most trusted servantsâhave orchestrated all this chaos on her orders. That it was Seeker Pentaghast and Sister Nightingale who sabotaged the Conclave in order to eliminate the opposition within the Chantry, and cut off the heads of the mage rebellion and templars in a single stroke. To save your own reputation, you must escape this acquaintance immediately.
With deepest concern,
Vicomtesse Elodie de Morreau
In the context of the Game, we may understand that this Vicomtesse, while she may call Vivienne a friend, likely has no great concern for her reputation.
The Inquisition is the horse on which Vivienne is betting in order to better her own position (which is considerably shakier than she lets on, but thatâs another post); Vicomtesse Elodie is simply making a different bet. If Vivienne heeds her warnings, and the Inquisition never achieves public favor, then Elodieâs advice was correct and Vivienne is indebted to her. If Vivienne heeds her warnings and the Inquisition does gain public acclaim, then Elodie has disrupted Vivienneâs opportunity for advancement, and she also wins. And if Vivienne does not heed her advice and the Inquisition remains a pariah, Elodie gets to watch Vivienne go down with it, smugly saying âI told you so.â Only if the Inquisition thrives and Vivienne with it does Elodie lose this betâand Vivienne is clearly interested in seeing that outcome, and helping it come about.
The important thing is that the specifics of the accusations against the Inquisition are absolutely irrelevant here. This conspiracy theory about Justinia being secretly alive and the Left and Right Hand doing a sabotage to secure Chantry powerâitâs all nonsense, and I doubt the Vicomtesse truly believes it. More critically, she likely does not care whether it is true. Repeating this rumor is just a means to a desired outcome.
If youâve ever argued with a conspiracy theorist who seemed to simply change their position every time you backed them into a rhetorical corner, you may have realized that facts are largely ineffective at combating this sort of thing.
And of the three advisors, Cullen is the only one to get hung up on the content of the rumor, rather than its source and its purpose.
Josephine and Leliana, seasoned players of the Game, both recognize this stupid rumor for what it is. Both of them ignore the substance of it and instead focus on its purpose: turning public opinion against the Inquisition. Josephine proposes to combat it by seeking noble favor elsewhere and leaving it to those allies to do the work of actually arguing against the rumors. Leliana is more interested in finding out with whom the rumor originated.
Leliana also makes the particularly savvy observation that if they were to combat the rumor by attempting to prove Justiniaâs death, they would simply be providing their opponents more ammunition to use against them later. Leliana recognizes that âThe Divine is alive, and youâre hiding her!â isnât an earnest accusation, itâs bait. And if you take the bait, if you say, âActually the Divine did die; hereâs her remains to prove it,â then your enemies can say, âAha! And how do you know sheâs dead? Itâs because you people killed her!â Or, best case scenario is they just bait you into wasting a lot of your time proving the accusation false, which is exactly what happens if you let Cullen take the bait.
Again, you might have had a similar experience if youâve ever tried to âdebateâ a person whose strategy is making outrageous claims, letting you waste a lot of time earnestly debunking them, and then ignoring all your arguments and simply making another, equally outrageous claim.
In Cullenâs case, what happens is poor Knight-Captain Rylen is tasked with leading a field trip of Orlesian nobles through the grisly ruins of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, while asking them to please not touch the red lyrium, and no, you cannot take a charred corpse home as a souvenir, please milord I must ask you not to touch the red lyrium. Iâm sure that was an excellent use of everyoneâs time and resources.
But itâs easy to understand why Cullen responds this way! Itâs a very instinctual and human response! âWell, youâve just said a thing that is very obviously untrue. Iâll prove to you that itâs untrue! And this will solve the problem of you being wrong, and then we can all move forward together. Right?â
Itâs an eminently reasonable response, so long as you assume that the other party is being reasonable and engaging with you in good faith.
Cullen assumes they are. Josephine and Leliana know theyâre not. (Vivienne also knew this; hence her handing the letter over to Josephine to deal with instead of bothering to reply herself.)
And you can probably see how Cullenâs earnestness, his desire to believe that other people are also operating earnestly and in good faith, could lead him down some dangerous paths.
Knight-Commander Meredith was also a conspiracy theorist. The difference is that her conspiracy theories were about people she had near-absolute power over, with terrible consequences. And working under the authority of someone he wanted to believe in, someone he absolutely would have taken as entirely earnest (because in many ways she was earnest, at least in her belief that magic was dangerous and must be controlled), it would have been easy for Cullen to assume she must be acting in good faith, even when his misgivings arose. âShe needs a spine of iron to survive her position,â he says to Hawke. And like anyone arguing in bad faith, Meredith could move the goalposts when it suited her. No signs of blood magic discovered? That only proves how well theyâre hiding it. The tower must be searched top to bottom. The First Enchanter objects? He must be one of them. Dissent among her own templar ranks? Must be the blood magic controlling their minds. As Dan Olson puts it in his video In Search of a Flat Earth, conspiracy theories make facts subservient to outcomes, which is why the "facts" can easily be rearranged and discarded at willâall that matters is the actions those facts justify.
Of course Meredithâs beliefs were, again, quite differentâmore dangerous, and far more earnestly held than this silly Orlesian rumor about the Inquisition. She was also under the influence of red lyrium at the height of her paranoia. But conspiracy theories often feed on paranoia, and Meredithâs beliefs were still ultimately beliefs that could be bent to justify the outcome she (and her superior, Grand Cleric Elthina) desired: mages must be controlled, whatever the cost.
Cullen has managed to extricate himself from Meredithâs mindset. But he hasnât yet learned, I think, that conspiracy theories and irrational beliefs canât be overcome simply by reason. Thatâs also very understandable for someone in his position. When youâre in the process of overcoming some very wrong beliefs yourself, things you earnestly believed, itâs very natural to want to believe that everyone else is just as earnest and can be persuaded; in fact, you have a personal stake in believing that, because if other people can be redeemed, that means thereâs hope for you.
Do I think this justifies the things Cullen was complicit in during his time as a templar, or any misguided opinions he may voice during his time with the Inquisition? No, thatâs not why Iâm saying all this. But I think itâs an interesting aspect of his character and one worth exploring. Cullen is often characterized as the blunt instrument advisor, his answer to most war table questions being âsend troopsâ; in Josieâs words âthe hammer for whom every problem looks like a nail.â But I think some of his offered solutions do offer compelling insights into his character, and this one certainly doesâas well as an interesting example of how this approach to the world and other people can go wrong.
