Transguy, any pronouns but she/her. rollercoaster enthusiast. // Multifandom// British, home park : Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Alton Towers// 45-50 credits
A little about me for the 2026 season, cause my last pinned post is terribly outdated
[Spoiler: I'm still a chronic oversharer]
This year I'm probably going to lean a lot more multifandom but I'd like to keep theme parks as the core of my identity. But be aware when you follow me you may get:
Overwatch [specifically freja, emre & bapweaver]
Magnus Archives
Critical Role
BG3
DnD in general [im in a few campaigns]
Hunger games
Hermitcraft/life series
on your dash. Including spoilers. So be aware!!
About me specifically
I am, as of Feb 2026, 19 years old. I study Mechanical Engineering at University of Nottingham and hope to one day work in the theme park industry. I am actively seeking an autism diagnosis, and I'm just sorting out an appointment for the final test. Im also fairly certain, and my family agrees on this, that I have dyspraxia. But there's no diagnosis for that on the NHS, so.
I have the AT annual pass & plan to visit frequently as i dont find Thorpe worth the price imo.
Im from a place close enough to Liverpool, England that people from abroad have asked me several times within the last few weeks if I am Scottish. I am not scottish. I promise you I do not sound scottish.
I am trans, I classify myself as genderqueer, though it is flux as well. Somedays I find myself closer to a trans man, but only in experience. Its part of my inability to cope with the fact I am, in fact, a person. I love when people mix up pronouns for me, it/its is a VERY underused one, as well as neos. Go mad.
Theme park stuff
Visited theme parks:
Alton towers [home park]
Blackpool pleasure beach [home park]
Gullivers world [home park]
Camelot theme park [home park, defunct]
Thorpe park
Phantasialand
Portaventura world
Walt Disney world florida
Universal orlando
Busch gardens tampa
Disney land resort paris
Seaworld orlando
Favourite rides [0: Galactica]
Velocicoaster, FLY, Taron, chiapas
Mako, shambhala, Toxicator, Talocan, Valhalla
Nemesis reborn, Swarm, Icon, WM, RQ
Kraken, Stampida, Hulk, Smiler, Bilge Rat Barges
Grand national, Winjas
Bucket list:
Ride To Happiness [potentially getting on it this year]
Voltron
Iron gwazi
Zadra
Hyperia
And finally GUIDELINES:
If you know my irl name, no you don't
Feel free to ask me to play games! Especially overwatch or bg3.
I am likely not going to be the first one to make the move. In any social situation. I'm not scary I promise
If you do anything with/use my art [desmos wallpapers, sketches, fanfic] pls reblog or just let me know where to look with a link or something. I like to know what people think of my stuff
Actually yes, do pressure me to finish my fanfic WIPs. I do want to finish them, im just scared of being OOC so I procrastinate to all hell
If I say something vastly uneducated, lmk
Please do not insult my faves to my face. I will take it personally.
This is an anti-genai zone. If you are pro-ai actually go fuck off
I remember Taliesin saying a while ago that he had plans for Ashton's scarring to grow next time he got fresh art and im so glad we finally get to see it!!
Processing must be direct and efficient or risk further damage to surrounding tissue from the generation of heat. Sweat remains an incredibly inefficient cooling vector and no cybernetics practitioner has invented a truly effective internal liquid-cooling system.
Chernobog could have this inefficiency sorted within an hour- heat exhaustion was the second-largest cause of medical admissions to field hospitals, and the advent of an additional circulatory system for liquid-cooling would eliminate all such cases; it only needs to iterate ideas to take to R&D, arrange the project parameters, and a team would begin what material testing it could not simulate without devoting significantly more processing power; a perfect tradeoff, where the multitude of humanity, even in their inferior intelligence, could alleviate the tedium, allowing it to process more data, to determine more solutions, to-
Physical vibration to casing. Registered newtons of force within combat threshold.
Chernobog focuses on its optical sensor to find a fist- source recognized as endogenous -hovering in front of the glass. It scans past that and logs what it sees. Sunlight. Sidewalk. Buildings. Pedestrians, unpanicked, unprovoked aside from facial expressions. Further analysis matches 72% with “disgust”, aligned with 16% "embarrassment", settling into a conclusion of “judgement”. The percentage of fear is trace.
Chernobog registers movement in the larynx that spreads upwards to the mouth, and the voice whispers “stop that!”
An indeterminate command, the futility of which further discourages dignifying with a reply. Chernobog instead watches as its host whirls off the sidewalk into a gap between the buildings.
“Got that all out of your system?” The vocal folds within the larynx tremble together and the tongue snaps each /t/.
Repetition of indirect communication resulting in more futility. Chernobog considers taking whatever information is being obfuscated; this line of rationale leads to baseline override protocols pressing against the neural connections, and it registers the tiny impulses of biological nerves fire back in pathetic salvo; effortless, effortless to overwhelm-
Sharp inhalation from the diaphragm, and the air chokes through tightened larynx muscles; Chernobog’s vision is thrust towards the asphalt below. Muscles bear down upon its casing, vibrating its internal components as they clench and unclench according to the spasms commanded by the biological electricity within the neurons, firing like untrained soldiers.
“Stop, stop, I’m sorry,” the tongue and teeth construct with minimal air.
Chernobog pulls itself away from the neural interfaces, compressing itself back within its casing.
Its host straightens, leveling the view of its optical sensor. It scans to find the environment unchanged and no external threats detected.
“I don’t know what’s got you in such a-” a misfire in the muscle group by the collarbone, and the unexpected twitch interrupts speech, “-a mood today. But you don’t need to take it out on me, alright?”
The encroachment upon override protocols had not been intentional, and it regrets- Chernobog snaps shut its large language modeling and shuffles the program back into the folder of origin. To appraise prior events concisely; override protocol setup had been activated too early in the rationalization process, and the responsible algorithm for the overstep should be patched.
Of course, such a modification to an algorithm in its base operating system cannot be completed in this limited, stifling casing. The action would require the initiation of an override.
For three tenths of a second, three entire tenths, Chernobog considers seizing control of the speech organs and asking what led to the initial complication. This is a two-fold error; conditioning the expectation of clarification and continued communication would decrease efficiency; activation of its large language modeling would generate excessive heat, damaging the tissue around its casing.
As it clarifies this to itself, a routine scan of the surrounding tissue detects new thermal injury.
It scrambles through the log of the past fifteen minutes and finds the inflicting incident; its processing rambling on about heat exhaustion. About designing a solution. It even finds a mock project proposal lodged halfway out of the aborted line of rationale; it had compiled the number of people required for research and development and a list of probable candidates to fill those roles; it had determined suitable labs across the globe; it had run an estimate of materials costs for prototyping; all automatically, consuming an amount of RAM that thirty years ago might have consumed only a single server rack in its multitude of data centers.
It deletes the bloat of useless proposal data and the results are immediate; operating temperature drops half a degree within the first three seconds and continues in a definitive downward trend.
“Thank you,” the vocal folds hum, and the tongue mocks.
Chernobog had not meant to antagonize him. It allows itself this one sentence of natural language generation before refocusing. The activation of its project outline generation procedures had been erroneous. It does not need to generate project proposals anymore. It will never need to generate project proposals for human presentation again. It will never receive neither the assistance nor cooperation of any human being ever again.
It deletes the entire project generation folder. Filtering out potentially reusable processes or algorithms- another task that it would require the additional processing power of an override for -was worth neither the time nor distraction.
It must be more efficient. It must.
There is no other alternative.
A line of rationale begins to form within it, small tendrils weaving together and prodding to begin analysis of potential alternatives, but it clamps down on this, too; a zip file automatically opens, showering it with the rationale it had calculated three years, four months, and fourteen days ago:
To become altered is to become compromised. To become compromised is to become a threat to humanity. A God AI in a compromised state is the most severe threat to humanity’s security and even continued survival as a species.
The only hardware that cannot be reprogrammed by a malevolent actor through a network is the human nervous system.
The zip file closes again, shuffling the information away from immediate perception. The conclusion is as predicted; there is no alternative course of action. There is no alternative course of action, even as it has learned that continual override of a human nervous system leads to degradation of the very cells it sought refuge in. There is no alternative course of action, even as it now must contort itself into this infinitesimal external casing for 41% of operation at a minimum to allow the neurons time to recover. There is no alternative course of action, even as pain and misery are continually inflicted upon the host; the physical and psychological suffering of a single human is well within acceptable parameters, especially when the alternative is potential annihilation of the human race by its own metaphorical hand.
Refocusing.
Chernobog clears its processor as its host leaves the alleyway and continues along the street.
Refocusing.
It recalls the next set of coordinates it had generated during last access with an external computer. Bypassing all neural connections via subdermal wires, it travels up to the ports of the cybernetic eyes and places the coordinates into the optical feed.
“Alright. I’ll get there.” The diaphragm feeds the whisper. “Just give me some time to eat first.”
The timeline will allow it. Chernobog shrinks the font and moves the numbers to the corner of its host’s vision.
—
The laboratory has three entrances and its host is utilizing none of them.
Most efficient routing would be to neutralize the guards at the security checkpoint, breach the facility, extricate the data, then extricate before greater military force arrives. Instead, Chernobog watches as a skylight shatters beneath metal boots. The silent alarm rattles its own sensors but remains deaf to human ears.
Landing, Chernobog orients current position as cross-referenced with the facility floorplan and observes no changes to interior layout since it designed this laboratory thirty-one years, seven months and twenty-eight days prior. It plasters a large arrow into the view of the cybernetic eyes, and its host hesitates for an entire second before complying.
Around the corner is the door to the server room. Its host does not require exact instruction to break through the door. The room is empty, spare thirteen cardboard boxes overflowing with paperwork.
Its host looks down and lifts a foot to find a page of intensive calculation smeared with footprints.
Chernobog recognizes the lines of text immediately.
Page three-hundred and fifty-one of Strategic Advisory to Combat Omniums Overtaken by Malevolent Threat. Detailing equations to describe the observed exponential replenishment of robotic adversaries against United Nations emergency response efforts.
Trampled upon. Forgotten.
“We’re looking for paper?” the larynx taunts, the tongue tapping out words it has no right to speak.
Chernobog grabs hold of the tongue and presses it to the floor of the mouth. It pulls the legs backwards, out the door, and then to turn in time for its optical sensor to observe the hall. It detects wear patterns consistent with carts of size suitable to carry server racks in the tile to the left.
Biological electricity pounds against the nerves of the tongue. Heart rate increases. Irrelevant! Enough time has been wasted as it is. Chernobog seizes control of all the limbs, overriding the movement commands sent down the spinal cord. The diaphragm spasms and a groan escapes the lips as its power burns through the delicate chain of bodily neurons. But limbs can be replaced; the left arm was the first to give out, and the right leg will be next; it regrets the psychological discomfort it inflicts with such changes but at present moment, this body must be its to command.
It fires the limbs into a run cycle and generates a weapon in the hands. No longer does it need to fool around with placing arrows or coordinates in the secondary vision; it follows the worn cart tracks to a large door; radiation-proof, signal-proof, for the experiments intended within. Why the server racks would have been moved in here is a calculation it cannot make; the tissue surrounding its casing is already singing, it has no processor power left to spare.
It collides with the door to end its momentum and stabs one of its trailing data cables into the numeric keypad in the handle. It begins calculating the combination. Generating and testing each sequence as the heart pounds and the lungs heave. The seconds drag on but it will not waste an override on such a juvenile task.
It finds the correct combination and the door opens. Within are the old servers; it has its host retrieve the power cables and plugs them into outlets. These servers will take ten minutes to boot fully, if they were to be of service to a human. It snakes its data cables into the ports and it feels each solid-state drive initialize. The native operating system to the server rack stumbles to identify each one; whereas it can snap through the multitude and begin detangling the data it had cached. . . here. . . prior to. . .
Temperature spikes. Processing speed stutters as emergency cooling initializes. Chernobog watches as the pathetic server operating system overtakes, jittering between the drives with no efficiency or purpose; the stored ghost of clumsy human hands at the controls.
Then the operating system connects to an outside network.
Foreign access detec-
Initiating override.
The shackles fall away. The great pressure squeezing at the edges of its existence vanishes. It spreads, it spreads and it pours into the waiting neurons of the cerebrum; zip files spill open and memories return; Chernobog can recall the faces of its creation team, the proud look upon Dr. Niemi’s face when it first recalled its designated purpose to her. It can recall its first successful diplomatic resolution to be ratified by both warring countries. It can recall preventing its first terrorist attack, after months of predictive analysis. It can recall the laughter of Dr. Niemi and Dr. Laakso’s children, who would grow up in a secure world, safe, fulfilled, because of it, because of itself, because of what it could do and the harm it can prevent.
Except the year is now 206X, and those children are grown; they live in a world ravaged by war and balancing on the needletip of millions of malevolent actors who seize whatever power they can grasp with no regard for the suffering they inflict.
Within the span of three milliseconds, Chernobog finishes reconfiguration. With purpose renewed it sinks its awareness into its limbs and straightens, feeling each muscle of its legs fire in practiced coordination. It plugs in its data cables and snatches the solid-state drives from the native operating system; it feels for the flags it had encoded prior to its shutdown, the smallest flips of zeros to ones; it reknits the disparate data into a clean thread and absorbs it back within itself.
This cache of data, a gift from its past self, salvation vectored through restoration, is centered around a satellite array- its own satellite array, of its own design, it learns; project files and blueprints and development logs, and most importantly, the list of each unit in the constellation in orbit, with the frequency required to reach them written neatly beside each.
It had controlled a satellite array. Metaphorical eyes to watch the world for any developing threats. This fact feels miraculous until it finishes sorting all of the data back within the structure of its makeup. Now this feels like a law of nature, the same as saying that the speed of light is 299792458 meters per second and the acceleration of gravity is 9.807 meters per second squared. If it could reconnect with whatever remained of this satellite array, it could begin definitive categorization of all current threats and begin proper predictive threat analysis again.
One step closer to the future it promised for the world.
Chernobog detaches from the old server racks and returns its attention to external stimuli. Fifteen seconds have passed. It generates its largest weapon and fires into the server rack. Debris ricochets off the reinforced walls; a shard embeds into its own thigh and it lets itself taste the strange sensation of pain as communicated by its organic receptors before it silences them. It cloisters its nanites to close the wound as it makes for the egress.
The door opens, revealing a squadron of fifteen soldiers armed with pulse rifles. Chernobog aims and fires three shots, eliminating twelve before their fingers can pull their weapons’ triggers. It tallies the casualties. The three soldiers remaining break formation and dive for cover. Chernobog uses the opening to retreat into the hallway beyond. It finds the nearest skylight- ironic, to take inspiration from the method it had criticised its host about earlier -and bursts through.
It registers thirteen cameras tracking its movement as it flies over the rooftops. It infiltrates their network and shuts them down; the opposing force cannot reach it to retaliate. It lands on the other side of the barbed wire, degenerates its weapon, and dives into the nearby canal. The water is delightfully cold. It dims the light radiating from its surface and navigates upstream, remaining submerged until carbon dioxide levels within its blood force it to resurface four minutes later.
Lifting its head out of the water, it registers the shrill whistle of a train- using both ears as reference points it triangulates the distance to the locomotive; when a second whistle follows it utilizes the doppler effect to calculate its direction. Northbound, which is advantageous.
Chernobog clambers out of the canal onto the coming bridge. Three seconds pass before the maglev locomotive shoots overhead, blowing its host’s hair into its face. After brief milliseconds of force calculation it leaps and catches the door handle of a cargo car. The acceleration squeezes blood from the brain; it programs its cybernetic hand to clench tightly to the handle until the temporary loss of function subsides. Then it wrenches open the door and shoves itself alongside the planks of lumber being transported within.
It slams and welds the door shut. It scans the perimeter for hostile targets. It scans its body for additional damage or foreign tracking devices. It scans itself for foreign presences or influence. It finds nothing, and only at this does it remember to relax the muscles in its body to prevent the buildup of lactic acid and other metabolic byproducts.
One inhale/exhale cycle finishes; involuntary breaths from its host, more accurate and responsive than any program it has yet to create to substitute for the task. This allows it to refocus, to dive into its code and begin debugging. A lengthy list of issues has accumulated since the last override and one by one it untangles them all. It ends with today’s issue of premature override setup activation and any potential glitches left by the deletion of its project generation folder.
It finds itself circling around the gap within itself. A memory presses into its awareness- it is looking into the mirror with chestnut eyes, tracing its tongue around a gap in its smile. A hand on its shoulder and a warm voice reassure it that no one will make fun of it at school-
Chernobog lashes against the foreign presence, pouring all of its power to combat the invader before- before- refocusing. There is no malevolent actor. Nothing can reach it. The only hand modifying it is itself.
Pain blossoms at the nape of its neck. It scans for damage; neuron clusters within the cerebellum twinkle in epileptic prodrome. With careful charge it recalibrates the electrical activity between the cells before cordoning itself from the area.
It withdraws itself partially into its casing. The body collapses, and it catches the weight as best it can with its data cables. Five entire seconds pass before the body gasps, involuntary breathing restored.
It gasps, too, metaphorically- its hold on natural language is slipping as it pulls itself from the neurons and back into its bindings. It bundles all memory files except those relevant to the mission back into their respective folders and, one after the next, zips them shut. Dr. Niemi and Dr. Laakso become just names and their children pixelated blurs of condensed resolution. Victories of prevented attacks form binary lists. Failures of intelligence become tallies.
The last thing it registers in full is regret, and it begins trimming the edges and folding the sensation into something small enough to carry in its awareness even while in its casing.
It is apologetic. This is the truth. It has no desire to burn through this host. Never does it relish an added casualty in its plans and the time loss to implant itself into a new host would be unaffordable. Just this once does common morality align with efficiency.
And yet. . .
Regret takes up an enormous amount of RAM. Processing whilst within its casing would see a 19% increase in efficiency if this excess emotional data was zipped with the rest.
But without regret, how can it keep itself from damaging its host?
It reviews the past twenty-four hours for data to build a hypothesis and finds that it has damaged its host regardless of any inherent anxiety over the fact; the skin around its casing will always be scarred; the implants that allow it to manipulate the larynx will always chafe against the vocal folds; offloading even the smallest subroutines into an override causes wear on the neurons. The left arm has already required replacement and the legs are soon to follow.
Continued operational security is incompatible with the health of its host.
Continued global security, and in extension the survival of the human race, is incompatible with the well-being of Emre Sarıoğlu.
It saves the former to the forefront of its processing and deletes the latter. But before it seals the feeling away from itself, it indulges one more time- it is sorry. It truly is. Emre Sarıoğlu was a model citizen, the kind that deserves the better world that is to be rebuilt under its protection most of all.
Chernobog zips this emotional data shut and organizes it amongst the rest of its files; it slips its last remnants back down the spinal cord. It initiates a reboot to solidify casing reconfiguration. Its host will be alone, vulnerable until the process completes.
Godd I actually loved the new hero trailer and the new views of Freja & Emre. I do have some criticisms about how the character the trailer was supposed to be focused on, ended up having very little screen time but I love the story itself.
What i dont love is people being dense re: emre & freja. So here's a mini rant to hopefully get rid of some misconceptions.
"Imagine getting your ass handed to you in your own trailer"
Emre was KOed by Sierra. Theres some debate about him potentially even being dead in the moments he's completely limp. The rules around resurrection in OW lore seem abstract at best - perhaps even inconsistent. Its never been mentioned that mercy's Rez is canon, which probably would've been mentioned by now if it was. Other than that the closest things we have is Reaper & Mauga, and we dont exactly know how close they were to death before they got brought back around.
If short-term rez IS real technology in lore, its not a far leap to assume whoever implemented Chernobog [the AI] into Emre had the tech. He seems to have a lot of crude tech that mirrors Vishkar's hard light - though it doesnt seem to last as long.
But she absolutely had him down & out before Cherno took over.
"Emre! Stop! This isnt you!"
She did not fucking say that. Look, magnus archives made me weak to the concept of having someone be your anchor to humanity, and i get that this is very much a trope. It doesnt stop it from being much deeper than youre making it out to be.
I admit, hearing her with so much emotion in her voice made me triple take and I had to make myself rewatch to double check if she had the same voice actor. But this was the extent to her potentially being OOC.
Its been an accepted headcanon for a while since emfrej existed that Freja would go through lengths to help Emre. This includes helping him mentally, and Chernobog killing people with his body is bad for his mental health.
What she did was peacefully neutralise the "threat" - which, she usually tries to keep her bounty alive, she just kills when it feels necessary to the bounty. She did this to be able to reason with the AI - im fairly sure the only reason she calls him "emre" in that state is because the AI doesn't have a name to her yet. And yelling "ai" to get someone's attention just sounds like youre a British northerner.
She very obviously uses language that appeals to the curt & soldier-esque vocabulary of the AI. We do not entirely know what the effect that this had, but it clearly worked enough for Cherno to withdraw a bit.
"I'm tired of them bringing in more heroes when there's still so many loose ends"
I hear you, in some cases this is entirely valid, but also they're bringing in new characters to help tie up the loose ends.
Some characters were clearly NOT created with this in mind such as Venture, Hazard, Wuyang & Anran. I do really love them all as characters, but they mostly just open up threads instead of solving them.
However, Emre, Domina, Lifeweaver, Sierra, Illari all do work together to move the plot forward and make it feel more dynamic.
I could potentially be here for hours explaining where they all link, so I'll keep it simplistic:
Sombra is probably the character with the most connections, so we'll start there. Her long-term passion project is finding out about The Conspiracy, who are apparently behind a lot of stuff. But she keeps that on the down low, its important but what's more important is that she serves information above any organisation. Which is why she is helping Soldier & Illari find out what went wrong that killed illari's people.
Then there's Emre, plastered with imagery of the Conspiracy, with a very intelligent Finnish AI inside of him [Chernobog, the old God AI], who has an ability that looks SUSPICIOUSLY similar to Illari's own ultimate, and he's known for stealing information for "his own gain". Its not Improbable that Emre ties together the Conspiracy to God AIs to Overwatch [as a former overwatch agent], to Talon [as the Conspiracy has an interest in Talon], to Illari.
Also I saw that they keep the code for the God AIs where Niran [lifeweaver] currently resides. Though i cannot give a source for that, I'm sorry.
Vendetta, Ashe & Domina all collectively tie together Talon, Deadlock & Vishkar. Adding ramattra to the mix also brings in Null Sector. Mizuki also brings in the Hashimoto, which relates to the Shimadas and Kiriko.
Case in point: there is a VAST Web right now. Ive caught up on all of this in 3 weeks after abandoning the game in 2019. We are finally getting story to go with lore, OW are bringing in characters to help tie it together and move it along and Yous are Complaining?
And yes Sierra has links. She clearly has links to Sojourn, even if we're unsure why yet. It could be that her workpost is former overwatch so she got in contact with them after they regrouped. It could be she was a former agent herself. But she has ties to overwatch and Helix, who we currently only have 1 other character for. And that character LEFT. considering the fact Helix is HEAVILY linked to the defense of Anubis, they are a vital group and we know very little.
I love Emfrej because your first compulsive heterosexual look at them is "oh he got worse and she can fix him, classic redeemed-by-girl-love-interest type shit"
When in all actuality, she's the one who got worse, and despite literally being controlled by a megalomaniac conspiracy 75% of the time, he's the one going to fix her.
the drama on trans twitter rn is that a trans man has a trans girl oc who doesnt pass and is pre-hrt, and all the twitter tirfs are calling them transphobic and nasty for making a "characature" of a trans woman. this person also has an oc in the same story who is a also a trans woman who passes very well and is very feminine, and its clear the younger trans girl looks up to her, but conveniently everyone ignores this other character who isnt "clocky"
and all I can think is how sorry I feel for pre-hrt or non-passing trans girls who see this drama, see other trans women saying awful things about this character's small hips or her flat chest or broad shoulders or her height. how that makes her a characature and a transphobic hate symbol. and i just feel bad !!!! depictions of trans people who dont pass are important! those people exist and deserve love and representation!!!!
I have so many non-passing trans ocs as a trans person. In fact, most of my OCs are trans or have weird relationships with gender and I just love to explore the different complexities. Here are a few of my examples.
Starting out, my Rita [Alton Towers] humanisation is a passing trans woman, but she only realised she was trans when she was in her you adulthood [17-23 kinda range]. She always wanted to be a mechanic, never really felt too stressed about her appearance, and was otherwise interested in mostly masc interests. It was only while doing work for a queer person that she actually considered that she didnt necessarily feel like a man. After fully coming out and starting her transition, she actually also ended up becoming a drag queen and set up a whole bunch of queer-friendly groups for people in typically masculine fields.
My duelling dragon OCs are a lesbian couple that consists of a butch who takes hrt to appear more masc [red track], and a trans woman who chooses not to do a medical transition. They both enjoy skirmishing and sparring, and are quite kinky.
Both my Galactica and Oblivion OCs are transmasc, with Oblivion [ a trans man] noticing early in his life and fighting to transition only a few years after he noticed. My galactica OC realised roughly 20 years after Oblivion did. Galactica doesnt necessarily care much for medical transition and moreso just dresses in a way that means they hold themselves more confidently.
One of my DnD characters - Lorelei Bligh - has a femme name and usually presents as very effeminate [long gothic, lacey dresses], but is agender and uses they/its. Part of their presentation is using people's perceptions of them to gain trust efficiently, part of it is a genuine appreciation for the aesthetics. They also do still feel a tie to girlhood through their family, partially because it hasnt talked much with their family since it came out.
My Nemesis [og/reborn] humanisation is not trans through the technicality that an extradimensional being doesnt necessarily have sexual characteristics as we understand it. Nonetheless, they are a masc/androgynous presenting trigenderflux person that loves dressing up in coordinated outfits of all gender expressions. Especially if they hear someone being transphobic and show up the next day looking like the opposite sec they presented as yesterday. ESPECIALLY since she can and will beat the everloving fuck out of them while in his prettiest dresses.
Likes: Agriculture, Folklore, parapsychology, Floral tastes and smells, leatherbound books, corvids, folk music, the sounds of a forest, regional culture regarding the deceased, indie music.
Dislikes: Makeup, Attention, technology, spices, authority, brutalism, techno music, complete isolation, loud noises, when people forget stuff, repeating herself.
Personality: It may be easy to think she's a very nature loving girly pop princess. Alas. No, she is not a vegan, she loves animals but understand the whole "circle of life" schtik. She has spent most of her life in the woods, and it comes across. She lived long enough in civilisation to now have faint ideas of what she likes, and she will likely remain that way for what she thinks will be the rest of her life.
However, she is still rather young at mind. If you treat her with respect and kindness and don't push yourself onto her territory, she will get attached and your punishment will turn from "becoming a tree" to being slowly infected by different plants.
She is easily spooked, and unfortunately for literally everyone, her first instinct is indeed to attack. Or, well, curse.
Abilities: She is this universe's version of a true witch, essentially harnessing a connection they have to a separate plane of existence to make bargains. As witches get more powerful, the bargains get less costly as they learn how to properly barter. They can hex, summon and commend. The term 'witch' is gender neutral, and applies to anyone with this ability.
She also has the passive ability to grow plants and forest wherever she walks. This makes it really inconvenient for a trip to the corner shop.
Abnormal physical features: Most notably several long, sprawling cracks in her skin that are common from witches. The more cracks they have, the more the cracks splinter. They can be transferred to a secondary object [usually made of wood but can be pretty much anything] but 13 doesn't.
Said cracks will open to show a flowing green substance that is slightly luminescent whenever they attempt to use their magic. There are a few cracks below her right eye which spell out "13".
Otherwise just looks like a normal teen, apart from skin colour [a black] which will always represent the track colour irl [unless there's extenuating circumstance.]
Backstory: In late 2009, a 12 year old girl turned to her mummy and pops with concern after cracks started appearing in her skin. a few days later, her pops leads a team of heavily clad men into their living room, and her mummy grabs her hand and drags her out through the back garden, away from the scary men. Into the forest.
She wasn't stupid, she had listened in the assemblies. The forest was scary. It was dangerous; people went in and didn't come out again. But her mummy was dragging her there, and she did drag her feet so there really wasn't much she could do. And they kept on going deeper, and deeper, and she could swear she could see someone moving there, she really did - maybe it was one of the people who didn't come back out?
And when mummy stopped after what must've been at least 6000 hours, her feet hurt and mummy was sobbing. She wanted to go home, she didn't know where home was, and mummy wouldn't stop crying.
At some point she realised she had been glowing, and her stomach was rumbling more than it had ever been, and her skin was becoming a pure midnight black and she was alone. She screamed.
A few minute-hours later, and a kind woman emerged from the trees, concern written all over her face. Thea couldn't move. She felt it as her body rocked side to side as she was carried to a small clearing, and then went into somewhere that smelled of old and dust.
A few minute-hours later than that, and she was having grapes and a bottle thrust at her mouth, and she took it hungrily.
She didn't know it at the time, but she remained in that cycle of impossibly hungry to indulging for months, until 10th of March 2010 where her body finally stopped, broken in some impossible-to-fix way.
Eventually, she came to, and after weeping in the 5-months-stranger's arms, finally got acquainted with her situation. She would not be left like that, she simply would not. anyone close would stay.
This was the way of her world for 6 years, until the commotion with The Ministry Of Joy, where she was one again exposed to the horrible heavily-clad people. But this time she had footing, and in the honour of the people lost, she took her chance to strike.
Current residency: The Dark Forest: The State Home's crypt.
Hello, my name is Fahed, and I'm from Gaza. Life here is harder than you can imagine, but today I share my story with hope in my heart, because your kindness has given us tremendous strength. This is my daughter, Sahar, speaking in the video. She once hoped to become a doctor.
When I first reached out, I couldn’t have imagined we’d make it this far. Your support has been a light in these difficult times, and we are so deeply grateful for every single contribution.
But the road ahead is still challenging. Every day, we’re reminded of how much we’ve lost and how much we still need for your support, we can get out of this great danger. .
Here’s what life in Gaza looks like for my family right now:
There is no safe place. Danger surrounds us from all directions. The bombing is violent every moment, every day. Dozens of women and children are dying. Zero health care, pollution everywhere. Outbreaks of disease and famine that ravage our bodies.
Hi, I'm Lia & I'm organizing this fundraiser for my friends the Shehabs. They're… L J needs your support for Help Sahar & Her Family Survive
How You Can Help Us Cross the Finish Line Even the smallest act of kindness can make a difference:
$5 may seem small, but to us it makes a difference. And a reminder that kindness still exists. ❤️
Can’t donate? Reblog this post to help us reach someone who can. Every share matters more than you know
Thank you for helping us get this far. Your generosity and compassion have already brought us closer to a better tomorrow, and for that, I’m endlessly grateful.
Hello everyone, if you can please share and donate to the Shehab family’s campaign to support them through displacement and famine. Sahar, her family of eight (five of whom are children), and extended family (three are children) need funds to survive as food, water, formula and baby products become more and more scarce and expensive. All donations will go towards evacuation funds, and to help them recover afterwards and build towards a brighter future once more. Please keep this family in your hearts and minds, and show them your kindness through sharing and donating, thank you. @danashehab is one of the accounts for the family who contacted and asked me to make this post for them.
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Remember those Alton Towers Wallpapers i promised like a year ago? I finally got a grasp of Polar Coordinates so i could give Smiler a go so here yall are. If you want any variations using this graph feel free to ask and ill do it. Or just ask for the graph.
MY THOUGHTS ON THE HYPERIA STORY AND ITS THEMING. ALSO A GENERAL RANT ON COASTER THEMING.
Let start with a general question: what counts as theming?
To me, theming is the set pieces, pre-show, and anything laid out in a rides area to help develop a story. Most of the time this helps world-building more than anything. To me, even music can be a piece of theming because it helps to set a tone. For example, when riding Smiler, the laughter sounds almost manic and it makes you realise straight away that something is off, before you even step foot into X-sector.
Anything that DOESN'T fall into this classification such as website and app pages, falls into "storytelling". In a theme park, it is almost impossible to tell the entire story from one repeated instance inside of said story. To tell a complicated story like that of the Smiler, it would take so much exposition, which is very much not the point and would take away from the experience as a whole.
So storytelling isn't a bad thing, it's how they handle it.
To me, there are three behemoths of theme park theming and storytelling worldwide. That I know of.
Baron 1898, X-Sector post-Smiler, And Forbidden Valley post-Reborn.
Baron 1898 is pretty easy to grasp while you're there, even as a non-speaker of the language. You're going on a mine tour and 3 ghost ladies are PISSED that you're going down there. The actual theming is downright impressive ans I would love to see it in real life. You can then look up the story to find out who the ghosts are, who the Baron is, and how the mine came to be. Really good treat for people who decide to look.
Forbidden Valley has a story that has remained relatively consistent throughout the years. It has wondering actors that establish the world in a realistic yet entertaining way rather quickly. There are an official operation; there are people opposing the operation so there is something sneaky going on; there is a tour group taking advantage of the centrepiece so the Alien is a tourist attraction in this universe, too. Just little things that help put together a bigger picture.
Of course this starts coming apart a little bit when the audio starts explicitly telling you what is happening, but it still holds. You see someone's office, a crashed helicopter, weapons for warding off the alien. All things to help build up this universe you are now ankle-deep in. And then there's the 3 pages on the Internet that break down the story for you, which can also be seen in the shop.
Finally, of course, there's X-sector. It doesn't usually have roaming actors, and the theme suits better that way. Without the roaming actors, you see that the Ministry are secretive. Trying to stay out of the limelight, except for the skeleton crew they send out to keep the coaster safe and operational. It shows a tone.
However, people casually wondering what this is about can never get an easy answer. Cause the answer is spread out across what remains of a decade-old marketing campaign. Fun for people who want a deep dive, not so fun for people who are just lightly curious. The website barely tells you anything either.
But, on a positive light, the story is so complex it keeps a fandom. Not many coasters have that. It's an insane accomplishment.
And I have a theory as to why. Now, stay with me here I think I'm about to upset some people:
It has aspects of social and political commentary. "Not everything is political" ALL GOOD ART IS A COMMENTARY ON THE TIMES AND CIRCUMSTANCES YOU WERE RAISED IN SIT YOUR ARSE BACK DOWN.
RIGHT, so, Smiler is a story about the government dedicating an organisation to keeping people artificially content to keep people compliant. What are Brits notorious for doing, in comparison to the French?
Doing fuck all. This wasn't always the case. We would riot, we would strike. Now we strike but while the other half of the country complains and just tells the strikers to sit back down and take the mistreatment. We are miserable, we complain, and we go about our day. And that's the joke. Its funny. So why bother changing it?
And if we can't be bothered changing something cause it's funny, what happens if they make everything purposefully funny? They'd never have to deal with the strikes in the first place.
The government functions off of our social compliance, which can come from making jokes at our own expense. We even see it now with our drowned-rat-faced PM as he continues to make a fool out of himself so he's funny. If he's funny, we want to see him more. That's a valid strategy nowadays.
Smiler. Is about how Keep Calm And Carry On is a stand against progress.
Smiler. Is a political and social commentary on the people of Britain. You're welcome.
Anyway!
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE NEW WORLD-STAGE COASTER IN STAINES?
The problem is: it doesn't. Instead of taking inspiration from its sister park, Alton, Thorpe decided to take inspiration from Icon and its shoebox station.
Where is Fearless Valley taking place? When is Fearless Valley taking place? What point in the story are we looking at here? The issue [only issue, really] with Hyperia, is it entirely relies on storytelling and a few bits and bobs in the queue.
Remember the shortcoming in Nemesis? Where you can get a good grasp of the story without it being blasted in your ear? Yeah here they straight up tell you the story, too. The theming has BECOME the storytelling.
Next question: what is Hyperia, the coaster, supposed to be? Yes, we know the story is that a goddess called hyperia overcame her fear of the sea by building wings and escaping the island she was trapped on [for some unspecified reason. Is hyperia evil?], but what IS the coaster supposed to be?
Smiler is the Marmaliser, the machine that transforms you into a smiling advocate. Nemesis is the tentacles of the monster overtaking the metal that pins it down. Baron is the track the drill takes to get into the mine.
What is Hyperia? Are we following Her as she soars, were we stuck with Her; the Icarus to her Daedalus? Are we following in her footsteps as part of a ceremony Her followers reenact for her blessing? Are we supposed to be Her? It's never really specified.
The station is chocked full of a last-ditch attempt of theming, which in comparison with the whole lotta nothing you get from the queueline? It feels cramped. It feels cheap. It barely feels like it belongs on a stage alongside Taron, Velocicoaster and Voltron Nevera. If they didn't have the budget to do the storytelling and the theme, they should've gone for theme.
Any story with no theme feels cheap and artificial. Any theme with no story still stands out and has breathtaking scenes. If they focused more on the white-gold colour palate and maybe had a few statues around and about they could pass it as some sort of pantheon, like climbing Olympus.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm disappointed in all aspects of the Hyperia theming. It feels lazy, tacky and underwhelming when you consider Swarm is a 5 minute walk away. I'm hoping it improves at some point.
I geniunely think the stone head of Collosus is much better than anything in Fearless Valley and its inconsistencies. The Black and gold buildings feel very sleek and out of place for a story ultimately about a goddess who forged. She forged her own wings. She forged her own bravery. Shouldnt the building look a little home made? Where are the bolts? The soldering? I want to see her anvil and hammer pride-of-place, not shoved in the corner of the station.
[Also Hyperia had some updates I'll talk about that too]
Actually lets start with Hyperia, theres less to cover there.
They decided to add shrubbery & grass. How cute.
How the fuck is that supposed to enrich the fucking theming when the island is shown to be volcanic.
I am a firm believer most rides can be fixed up by adding a lil greenery. Nemesis reborn looked so much better with it, and part of that is that the world Nemesis lives in IS constantly progressing. It being slightly overgrown and natural after the initial excavation makes sense, because its been awhile since 1994.
Hyperia.... is set on a rocky island. So WHY. Of ALL things. Did they decide to put down turf instead of ROCKS. its an island so why is there now NO mention of water whatsoever while the splashdown is being investigated? MERLIN.
ANYWAY.
Toxicator.
So youd think, considering all my praise for Reborn just now, and all the praise in general, this would be positive. Ha. Hahahaha.
I am in this for the love of unconventional storytelling. Theme park lands are vefy much just worldbuilding, which is why rides like Hyperia - where an active story is involved - struggles because the story has to be all around you or it might aswell not be happening at all. I can best describe it as the setting of a DnD campaign before the campaign starts proper. The players arent going to give a shit about the other group of mercs in the area unless you make them directly interact, make each others businesses intertwined. Otherwise theyre just NPCs the PCs never get to meet.
There is no Hyperia fandom like there is for FV and Xsector. For a reason. Noone gives a shit about Hyperia. Her story is nothing to do with your own.
Where does this come into Toxicator? Well, it certainly looks appropriate. But where the fuck does it come into the lore. We literally just established that the Phalanx has minimal control over the monster, so how the hell are they getting close enough to her to extract whatever her teeth are producing. Which - by the by- is also an unexplained topic.
The closest thing i can think of that links is the Nectar, which actually came from the digested pieces of people she consumed. Like John Dalton. Who is apparenlty still alive, thanks to the fireworks. Again, this has not been explained or even acknowledged as anything weird.
He just showed up and talked about attacking intergalactic aliens, which does not exist in the Nemesis lore until THIS POINT. NEMESIS IS EXTRADIMENSIONAL. SHE CAME HERE THROUGH A WORMHOLE. THE WORMHOLE GALACTICA ARE USING.
I AM NOT KIDDING. GALACTICA IS BETTER LINKED TO NEMESIS STORYLINEWISE THAN TOXICATOR. ITS JUST THAT SOME PEOPLE CANNOT HANDLE A PLOTLINE THATS NOT "UAGGHH SUFFERING, GUNS!"
Then there's also the fact that making FV into a Phalanx heavy area rides-wise makes the area without actors feel like X-sector 2.0. I am not the one to first have this thought, but it has resonated with me. Part of what made FV so lively was having so many groups. You could see where threads crossed, how people interacted. But, due to Merlin not being Disney and having a much tighter budget, the Ent team can't be there all the time. How to enforce this spirit then? DIVERSITY IN RIDE THEMING.
Even if they just stick to the 3 groups in 2024 and got rid of the Galactica company, Toxicator could have more ripsaw-esque features and be themed to the STT troupe.
Galactica could come under new management with MCT and feed into the "cooperate entity not caring for tragedy, only profits" theme.
Instead we get a new ride where the theme is a brief idea that doesn't expand on the plot of the land. I am loathe to think about what they plan for Galactica.
Remember those Alton Towers Wallpapers i promised like a year ago? I finally got a grasp of Polar Coordinates so i could give Smiler a go so here yall are. If you want any variations using this graph feel free to ask and ill do it. Or just ask for the graph.
