#random wittering

[sunlitroom]

Random shot of Ed from Pinterest.

I like it aesthetically because of the way Ed blends with his environment.  He’s taken time and care to craft his home: he’s repurposed items and been really clever with design.  He belongs there, and it’s a reflection of him.  I’m guessing the fractured image above his head is a nod to that.

Interestingly, when we see his home/bedroom in the Narrows, he’d also put some effort into making it his own.  Not only was it noticeably neat, but he’d made a clever little bookcase thing.  He likes to create a space for himself, and he has certain standards about how that should look.

What really struck me, though, was the hard flatness of his expression here.  Ed can be genuinely frightening at times.

[bloodlyshiva]

In a way I don’t know why I’m typing this.  I just have a thought that must come out.

The game and the game wiki play up that The Sleeper and the Heart of Darkness will eventually fight to rule the world of Darkest Dungeon.  In some timelines it wins(Which is why Darkest Dungeon enemies can rarely appear in the Farmstead).

The Sleeper has already won.  I’m not talking about it’s timeless, time-shifting, Lavos-like nature.

You die near the crystals, you become a Husk(Or possibly a Poor Soul, but that’s another matter).  But consider the Miasmal Orchard and Tainted Well districts.  You incorporate the crystals into the Holy Water, the Laudanum, the Anti-venoms, and the Medicinal Herb mixes for the added power.  You buy the new Crystalline trinkets forged from the things.  You possibly use the crystal powder.  People are showing up from miles around(The Mercenaries, who take Shards as payment) to get these things and they take them home.

You go in the Farmstead, you eat the super-growing food enhanced by the hellish crystal light.

The crystals are fucking everywhere.  Being carried everywhere.  Taking root everywhere.  A crystal blowing up itself is dangerous, but smashing one is good for what ails you(They heal you).  You can imagine starting a regime of smashing them for your health.

The crystals sell for Heirlooms.  The buyers are taking them home.

So everything and everyone is infested and it’s being spread.  Even if you refused to buy any of it and refused to use any of the new stuff, there’s still the Farmstead itself which can never be fully cleansing because of all the time shifting, and the Things from the Stars are constantly creating new patches of crystal and infesting whoever and whatever they can get at, even if you kill the things, you’ve taken wounds from it, which probably means more infestation.

More than that, consider the ‘The Harvest’ ability of the Miller.  He feeds on your stress to recover.  Even if that was a truly rare possibility, it would do wonders.  Such a person, even as a Husk, would be a godsend to many, even with the physical damage it would cause.  The various aches, strains and annoyances of life and hatreds, all sucked away.  Especially in times of war,, where that stuff’s all around.

Husks tend to have a thing about regeneration.  Pause from Labour from the Farmhands might be a normal thing, but the Scarecrow’s Shard of Growth(Using the crystals it’s made out of to boost healing) clearly is not.

It’s Tiberium but worse, because it pretends to help you while it infests and destroys.

[bloodlyshiva]

Can someone explain where the word ‘Dank’ came from, as an Internet thing?  I remember my early German, so Danke mean ‘thanks’ is a thing.  I also remember my English, so Dank as in ‘Dark and Dank’ as in musty, old, and rotting is a thing.

So where the hell did ‘Dank memes’ as ‘cool, weird and so on’ become a thing?

[bloodlyshiva]

Random thought that will never be read or go anywhere:  Somewhere along the line, probably because of that first initial sound, possibly because of the clones being cloned off a Mandalorian and bringing their culture into more sight, perhaps because of Mandarorian pig-headishness, 'Vode An' has become the 'I'm not listening' in general.

Later, it also became an ‘oh brother’ kind of thing.

[bloodlyshiva]

Writing this down so I don't forget.

At the urging of District nurses, go into Accident&Emergency at 10:30, 16/10/2023.

I arrive home 00:40, 17/10/2023.

It was not the X-ray, the 3 Electrocardiograms, nor two blood tests that caused this.. It was pure waiting for blood results to return.

[bloodlyshiva]

“So how exactly did you have those hyper bombs, anyway?”

Marina shuddered.

“This is usually where I’d say ‘it’s a long story’ but it really isn’t.  The problem is the story makes NO SENSE.”

“We just stopped a glob of Tartare Sauce from cracking the planet with a statue-cannon.  NOTHING is too unbelievable right now.  So try.”

Marina sighed.

“What would you say if I said....this isn’t the first time we’ve done this?”

A flash...a memory?  |Of slipping, and falling....|Of missing a shot, and watching the helicopter and city be overwhelmed|

8 shook her head.

“I...would say....it sounds familiar.”

---

Standing before the immense, living mound of flesh, mouths and eyes, a realisation occurred to the young Octoling.

“Oh...oh, I see.”

A short amount of focus, and all of a sudden she was now seeing out of her left shoulder as well as her ‘natural’ eyes.  A little more, and now another eye was in her right arm.  Pushing further,several mouths manifested.

“Ska-ba-do-li-dibbblly-da-ba-do”

“On why Octolings should be superior to Inklings, by Hachi-San...”

“Pretty interesting, all things considered...”

The eyes and mouths shifted back into her ink-flesh.

“...I might try more later.”

“We live in the present, we fight and splat freely and happily, we naturally shapeshift, we can survive massive damage and survive, even recover-just like you.  We, Inklings and Octolings, are a....chaotic....species physically and mentally.

....We’re your people, aren’t we?  That’s why you gave me the Book.”

The thing was silent, merely pulsing languidly, and yet a feeling of assent was in the air.

Pearl interjected.  “Fine, you saved our hide with paste-boy back then.  So many times, even.  Don’t think we’re not grateful.  You clearly called us up here for something beyond our sparkling conversation.  Nothing’s free, so what do you want?”

The creature said nothing, but the tramp of boots was soon heard.  Sanitised marched into the chamber, surrounding the main well where the creature lay.  One-an Octoling-spoke.

“I speak for IT.  I speak for Mantorok.”

With that, she removed her glasses to reveal eyes blazing with a pinkish-purple light.

Another spoke:  “We all can speak for Mantorok.  Still.”

The first continued: “Observe the stakes.”

She gestured.

“The powers behind them is gone.  The magic remains, weakened after so long, as do the stakes themselves.

Destroy the spells, remove the stakes.”

[bloodlyshiva]

Passcode:Yourmyhero?

Writing down thoughts before they disappear.

Baseline of Wreck-it Ralph is ‘Litwak doesn’t turn off the arcade’s power at nights’.  

What if he did?

Memory is precious.  Personality beyond your program is rare, and odd, and a sign of age in general.  Respect, weird, fear.  Things that allow memory to persist are important.

So things are similar, but the reason’s different.  Things don’t change because they reset every day.  It’s not impossible to survive nights outside of home,. but it’s dangerous.  Bleed through can happen from the new game.  The homeless get taken into games at ‘curfew’.  No one knows if it’s possible to survive in Game Central after power-off.

Ralph’s old, and discontent.  He remembers the mud.  He likes trees and things.  Not mud.  He’s not sure what he wants, but not this.

---

“What if I could get a medal?”

“Then...you’d be a good guy.”

Doubtful, confused as well as anger.

---

The adventure goes longer.  He ends up in Sugar Rush over....a week?  A month?  He gets caught in there at power-down and the game tries to find a place for him.  Result?  He’s a random hazard.  Sometimes in green ‘sludge monster’ sometimes not.  Van completes her kart, and also ends up as a hazard; a ‘phantom driver’ with full use of power ups.  The two’s friendship grows, as they deal with each other.  He might be constantly running on to the track, but the kids don’t hate him, and are pretty reasonable after the racing.  Acceptance.  He remembers what he came for.  He even has it.  He....doesn’t want to much.

The game of Wteck-it Ralph tries to compensate for the missing Ralph at start up, and that works, but the inhabitants notice the changes.  The baseline ‘clone’ Ralph colder, more standoffish, more ‘straight bad’.  Old Ralph, though worn down, was at least a guy you could talk to.  Maybe throw a pie at in annoyance(Also giving him food).

[bloodlyshiva]

Idle realisation at 3:15 AM, suddenly.

“Sand.  It’s coarse, it’s rough, it gets everywhere.”

Mocked line.

Problem.  Tatooine is Knock-Off Dune, even with Knock off Sandworm(Sarlacc).  I’ve read Dune.  Where it goes into strong detail on how much destruction sand causes to men and machines.  I imagine you can talk to anyone who’s had to work in a desert for any length of time and they might still laugh, but ruefully because they understand exactly.

Hell yes he hates sand.  So would anyone.  As a boy who loved machines and had to repair so much, it’s no wonder.

Vague realisation jump: Tatooine is knock-off Dune, Anakin and Luke alike are very much Fremen.  Anakin was a slave in a major settlement, Luke’s a subsistence farmer.  Thing is Tatooine is knock-off Dune, and even knock-off Dune is still Dune.  It’s still very much a Death World that produced some of the toughest guys in the Galaxy, equal to Super-Elites.  The general character of the Fremen, as we learn about them; strong, tough, emotional, Hidden Depths, fiercely loyal to their friends, their ‘tribe’, their cause should they take one up.  Also have the capability for shocking amounts of patience.

Hell yes the Jedi/Sith were interested; Of course they wanted the Kwisatz Hadrach on-side.

Luke follows the tradition.

You don’t survive a Death World without being capable, even in the cities.