Reflections in Raindrops

Level Up!

2016-12-14T17:44:12Z

Becaus that's about all I use LJ for these days. Announcing the completion of another trip around the sun.

So there we go basicallly.

What a hell is a Livejournal?

2016-10-21T09:22:34Z

I basically forgot this thing existed all over again. *shrugs* Then again, so did everyone else, so it evens out nicely.

What a hell is a Livejournal?

2015-07-15T11:37:12Z

I love how the amount of posts I produce on this website appears to decrease on a yearly basis. It's not that I forget this LJ exists as much as everyone I know migrated the -eff- away from it (with one exception) and I honestly haven't much to say. Life continues as it does, very little to report.

I feel that I've become much more of a private person as the years rolled by - I've gone from rambling about the most trivial shit absolutely no one cares about on LJ to only leaving an occasional report about a major event and fizzling off into the mist, if at all. I'm far more active in other venues, but even there I do not go on about my existence much, aside from the occasional grumble of frustration with current events. I guess it's this 'growing up' thing?

Derp. Might as well just post something here to state that I am indeed still alive, and will most likely notify you if that changes. XP

stellarwind @ 2015-01-01T00:04:00

2014-12-31T22:05:17Z

Happy arbitrary point in the planet's orbit and all that jazz. May 2015 be better than 2014!

Level Up the 29th: Armblades Ascendant.

2014-12-13T22:03:22Z

Welp. It's been 29 years since current bioshell emerged into this particular second-hand set of dimensions. It's been a good couple of days involving quite a bit of good food and some fresh air and the only thing that could make it even better is if this tremendous art block i've been stuck with for weeks now would kindly fuck off. That'd make a lovely gift from the universe.

Please?

*glares at aforementioned universe*.

Song of the Now.

2014-12-04T04:13:47Z

Well, two songs, actually - "Broken Bicycles" (originally by Tom Waits) and "Junk" (originally by Paul McCartney) - woven into one song by Elvis Costello and Anne Sofie von Otter. This particular version has been on my mind for over a week in which I've been trying to identify what the song even was. Today I finally found it and... yeah. It just hits me in a variety of ways.

Broken bicycles, old busted chains
Rusted handlebars out in the rain...
Somebody must have an orphanage for
These things that nobody wants anymore...

September's reminding July
It's time to be saying goodbye
Summer is gone but our love will remain
Like old broken bicycles, out in the rain...

Motorcars, handlebars, bicycles for two
Broken-hearted jubilee
Parachutes, army boots, sleeping-bags for two
Sentimental jamboree
"Buy, buy," says the sign in the shop window
"Why, why?" says the junk in the yard...

Broken bicycles, don't tell my folks
'Cause all those playing cards pinned to the spokes
Laid out like skeletons out on the lawn
The wheels won't turn when the other half's gone
Seasons can turn on a dime
Somehow I forget every time
For the things that you've given me will always stay
They're broken, but I'll never throw them away...

Armblades on Wheels, or: Adventures in Terios-ing.

2014-07-30T21:57:41Z

So, it's been over a month since the day where a biomechanical abomination has been unleashed upon the roads of Israel. And I've done a lot less driving than I expected I'd do, largely because of this ridiculous war going on around here lately (so the increased death toll isn't related to me, guys, sorry to disappoint). Along the way I found out my glasses needed a solid kick in the teeth because my eyes would lose focus at night - and so I got a new set, which fixed THAT problem.

So aside from a few long multi-hour drives to the middle of no where and back with the 'rents, I haven't had much time to stretch my flight muscles so to speak. And so - when today, ze mother and ze grandmother had an appointment to get Needled Chinesely and (as it happens every rare once in a while) the acupuncturist saw them at her house (which has another one of her practices - the primary one is in Tel Aviv), which is pretty much p. much in the middle of no where near Jerusalem - we figured it might be a great opportunity. And so, around 11-something, we set out, picked ze grandmother up and launched off into a rather awesome drive which combined long stretches of open road and a few slower winding roads with some utterly gorgeous view - made it there, they got their stabs, I sat around listening to music on my phone, then we headed back, stopping along the way for some food and later for some food shopping. When we got back here, I had an hour or so to rest before having to head out for one of my art classes - and instead of taking the bus as I usually do I figured it was about time to attempt to grab the car and make my very first actual solo flight, so to speak.

This is where things started getting phenomenally fucking silly.

... I'm a new driver, right? I have no sense of direction, right?... So, my phone's internal GPS decided to have a catastrophic meltdown. I basically realized that I'm not going in the right direction, found the first place to stop without being in anyone's way, phoned home - apparently my mother's been having a similar issue with her phone. Of course, by that time I was already going to be hopelessly late - But I figured, y'know, screw it - I'm not missing this one. Today was my last art class for the month, my instructor's flying off to Belgium for all of August, and I wanted to finish this damn portrait I was working on beforehand, delay or no delay.

Now. We actually have an Actual GPS Unit that ISN'T phone-based, but it wasn't in the car at that particular moment - so I figured I'd head back home, grab it and try again. So I doubled back home (after some navigation shenanigans because where I parked didn't have anywhere to actually do a U-turn so I had to basically do a labyrinth-exploration-sequence to find my way back home to begin with), parked the damn car, headed back up, picked up the NOT phone GPS...

And as you can probably guess, things got even sillier after that.

Whoever built this device had NO IDEA HOW TOUCHSCREENS WORK. The calibration is WAY off - which makes it a Pain in the Arceus to actually bloody input a destination - and there's no calibration options to speak of that I could find either. So yeah. Spent ten minutes or more just fucking typing in a god damn address and waiting for the thing to PICK UP THE SIGNAL... and I am not sure HOW long it took me to actually back out of the fucking parking (because I suck at reverses omg. new driver. can't help it. i will get the hang of it eventually >>;) - but eventually these minor setbacks were set aside and I hit the road.

Once this GPS decided to play nice and pick up a signal, it was FAR more cooperative - I had a quiet drive over to the art class until I tried to find a damn parking space. My first attempt kind of got botched, so I pulled out back onto the road and drove further, when the thing suddenly started trying to direct me into right turns that don't quite exist. From here to there I got back to the street exit and had to do a pretty fucking silly loop to get back to it which included the GPS telling me to take a U-turn where U-Turns are Not Allowed and probably giving me an indignant look when I ignored its recommendation to break the law. You can't trust electronics these days, can you?

Eventually I found what I thought was a parking spot - there was a sign that seemed to indicate that is what it was - and so I proceeded to park. Something felt off, though, especially considering I was the only car parking there and the sidewalk seemed to be marked with what could have either been a no-parking zone or a bus-stop zone - it was kind of difficult to tell in the rather low light. And so I check the sign and as it turns out, it's a parking zone in weekends and holidays, but not otherwise. Welp.

So I got back in the car and in the process of pulling myself out of the spot I managed to PUT MYSELF ON THE OTHER FUCKING SIDE OF THE ROAD ENTIRELY somehow (at least I was in the right orientation for that side of the road at the end of that ill-fated extraction attempt and there was no one anywhere in range that could have been exposed to THAT glorious fail maneuver)... and then I found a reasonably perfect parking spot, managed to handle THIS one okay, finally parked the damn car and headed off to the freaking class, even though I missed an hour and a half of it due to my magical ability to turn what should have been a simple half-hour trip into two hours of complete bullshit - but hey, I managed to finish the picture, and the way back was much bloody saner. So, all's well that ends well. Hopefully next time will be much less ridic.

So yeah. Long day, most of it spent behind the wheel. Still fun.

Welp!

2014-06-26T20:30:24Z

Here’s a suggestion. Never let my mind run COMPLETELY rampant around parodizing YA novels. Because this sort of shit happens:

Meet [Generic But Obscurely Meaningful Name] - just a plain, average teenage girl with nothing particularly special about her (JUST LIKE I WAS IN HIGHSCHOOLahem sorry where was I? Oh right) whose life is turned upside down when she is forced to move to [Unassuming Quaint Town Name], Alaska - literally the frozen ass-end of the world. After whining and bitching about how sad and pathetic her life is for a few chapters, she is suddenly struck dumb by the appearance of a mysterious male which doesn’t seem to give a single fuck about her and yet she seems to think is the pinnacle of perfection. However, his cold aloofness conceals a terrible secret - when the moon is full and the stars are right he is afflicted by an ancient curse and he transforms into a Lichenthrope.

No, that was not a typo. A Lichenthrope - A literal Half-Man-Half-Lichen, which is somehow still attractive in spite of being some kind of symbiotic terror. She accepts this without question while he is torn and tormented between his algal side (that just wants to, understandably, veg out), his fungal side (which just wants to spread its fruiting bodies everywhere) and his human side (who hates both of the other sides and is really getting tired of being the brain of the outfit).

Generic McMeaningfulname thinks she can help him and shine a light on his dark embittered soul. He seems to warm up. It’s actually the fungi. A haphazard kiss later, she is infected with fungal spores and functions as a gigantic disease vector for a fungal zombie apocalypse, corrupting the town and all it holds dear. She, for some reason, remains mostly unaffected. She ends up being horrified at what she’s done. Lichenthrope emos out in the corner. End book one.

Book two! Three years later the entire Alaska area is a post-apocalyptic nation of survivors and mushroom zombies, kinda like The Last of Us but not as attractive. Our intrepid female protagonist is fighting a losing battle with her own fungal infection, the sparkle-lichen isn’t anywhere to be found because he’s gone off to attempt to fix the mess he created and hasn’t returned yet. And this is where we get the secondary love interest because those series ALWAYS have one of those. ALWAYS.

And guess what? It’s a fucking were-reindeer who is torn between his obsession with the female protagonist and the fact that reindeer eat trip-out mushrooms and SHE SMELLS DELICIOUS (and trippy).

Somehow the (marginal) plot manages to shuffle between survival horror and romantic tension until the lichenthrope returns with his entire fucking clan (of which we knew nothing until now - after all weren’t we led to believe his curse was a unique one?) who apparently can cure the entire region by some kind of hyper-vaccine derived from their algal side - except that this leads to a bitter war between them and the were-reindeer because NATURAL ENEMIES HURRRRR.

Book 2 ends when the male protagonists bite each other simultaneously, the female protag jumps in between them and gets impaled on the were-reindeer’s antlers. DRAMA!

Book 3 starts off with a fucking dream sequence (clearly) as the three protagonists are recovering from their near-lethal injuries at the end of Book 2 - where they are still blaming each other for all this mess and [Generic McMeaningful] tries to get them to calm their tits, even if she is the only one in the entire dream sequence which has any to speak of (coincidentally, they’re probably mushroom caps under those torn fuckedup-chic clothes). A continuity nod to the female protagonist smelling delicious and trippy as balls is noted. Their argument is interrupted by a vision which tells it like it is and sends them back into the real world to get their respective factions to settle their differences and fight the true enemy that would destroy them all - a dystopian government force run by an obvious Sarah Palin analogue who probably hunts werewolves from helicopters. In the final battle the were-reindeer clan invokes an ancient ritual to summon the spirit of Santa Claus while the Lichenthropes attempt to stop the fungal zombie waves - or at least to convert them into an army to fight the helicopter-flying bible-thumping shotgun queen. It appears that the clash of the century is about to happen when the whole thing is brought to a screeching halt by a whole fleet of lawyers which proceeds to vroom into the scene in exceedingly expensive looking cars and serving the entire fucking battlefield a cease-and-desist, scattering them.

Left to her own devices, the now nearly-completely-shroomified female protagonist unleashes a psychic scream that reaches out to anything that has ever come in contact with the fungal parasites, detaching them from anything and anyone that carried them, linking them together into some kind of ginormous world-tree shroom and provides eternal shelter to Lichenthrope and Were-reindeer alike. The male protagonists end up, inevitably, together - because clearly they hate each other’s guts but they were brought together by their love for the female protagonist and respect to her sacrifice and that TOTALLY means they’re going to be completely gay for each other. That’s 100% true. Fangirls on deviantArt who think they’d be ttly cute together said so liek omg!

As peace returns to Alaska, we are treated to the final shot, where a vague news story about the events of the last three books is shown in a completely different country that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot otherwise.
"Thank fuck all this dystopian future bullshit only happens in America while the rest of the world is safe." says a man to his wife of many years.
"Yes, dear." she says, turning to the camera to reveal a conspiratory grin and her face promptly falls the fuck apart to reveal the head of a fanged moose,

ROLL CREDITS (Because there’d inevitably be movies with a shitty sequel hook and they’d probably split the third book into two movies because merchandising)!

Also note that while romantic tension is rampant between just about everyone and their goat (and if there isn’t, the fangirls willl indubitably find some) no one ever actually gets laid. That is because most fungi either reproduce asexually or have a million different sexes and the YA novel world is not entirely ready to explain THAT much diversity to its readers.

There may, however, be some pretty explicit descriptions of meiosis - because, after all, sex cells.)

Welp!

2014-06-25T13:44:03Z

It's been long overdue but I FINALLY managed to pass a driver's test.

That's right.

Biomechanical abominations on the roads.

Weep for the end times have come. ^_^

Lyricspam of the now.

2014-06-23T11:03:37Z

Seems that lately I've been listening to dumb amounts of piano-toting British comediennes. Mostly Fascinating Aïda who are utterly amazing - but through related videos I found Victoria Wood and this lovely little song:

I'm terribly torn
About being born
I mean, what is the whole thing about?
"Plop", out you come
(Very near someone's bum)
It can't have been properly thought out!

It depends on one sperm
Knowing which way to squirm
In its version of swimming the channel
I'd have preferred
To hatch out like a bird...
Or been grown on a piece of damp flannel.

But just to arrive
And be told you're alive
Wait ten years for a nice cup of tea
To be suddenly hurled
right into the world
It all seems quite barmy to me!

Isn't it a pity
Life was planned by a committee
While the clever ones have popped out to the lav?
This is my theory
(Though it isn't very cheery)

Our existence is a harsh one,
Try explaining to a Martian,
What a tricky conversation you would have -
And I'm not dense
It makes no sense!

We're only here 'cause an egg meets a sperm and then grows blobs on
Tell me there's more to it than that, I'll just go (pff) with knobs on.

One thing that gets me seething
Is all this bloody "breathing"
No sooner breathing out than breathing in.
It's very tiring
(and there's burping and perspiring!)

Another source of loathing
Is the need for wearing clothing
When some of us look better in our skin
And no matter how well-bought
We all look stupid in a coat!

If we didn't have hair
We could be brushless and be combless
If we were bald
Our dandruff would be permanently homeless!

Bum to the world, the whole thing stinks
I never asked to come
My reasoned, sane, thought-out response
Is 'bum, bum, bum'.

Another large misgiving
Is this urge to keep on living
And the way we were designed to run on food
And this doesn't justify
The individual fruit pie.

And there's never any question
of actual digestion
'til it's been divvied-out and shuffled-in and chewed -
I'd be happy to invest in
A little portable intestine!

I hate meals out,
All that "please wait here to be seated...
... your food is being sprayed with germs,
spat on and reheated!"

And the pinnacle, the steeple,
Is the hell of other people
And the stupid things they have and say and do
like smoking cigarettes
or videoing their pets.

People with a pager
Prats who voted for John Major
People with a gas-fired barbeque
Women using Hermesetas
Or showing you photos of their fetus!

And worst of all
(And I'll only ever say this once)
Is any Brit
With a house in bloody Provence!

Bum to the world, I won't give in
I raise a cheery thumb
And on mature reflection,
I say 'bum, bum, bum'.

Then, of course, there's dying -
Well, they couldn't have been trying,
Why not find a way to keep us all alive?
There's Heaven, I suppose
But no one really knows!

No doubt, Heaven would be raining
"Sorry, closed for staff retraining
Please come back in 1995
Please use the stairs
Pearly lift closed for repairs!"

When we get there, we'll be a mite depressed
To find a Benetton, A Little Chef and, no doubt, a bloody NatWest!

Bum to the world, let's not be glum
Each bum can shine a light
And all that's left for me to say
Is thank you very much, good night!

Other Places you can Find Me.

2014-06-06T11:56:06Z

Okay so there's about three of you who actively read this but hey, who knows who might stumble upon this lj, so.

Basically I've finally decided that it's about time I started doing something with my art - and so I started reaching out across social networks. Because why not really. So... here's a bunch of places where you can find me and my art.

http://stellarwind.deviantart.com/ - My deviantART gallery

http://wisteriark.tumblr.com/ - My art blog on tumblr.

http://www.facebook.com/StellarWindArt - My artist page on Facebook.

http://www.twitter.com/StellarWindArt - My Twitter. Note I loathe Twitter with a burning passion so expect most posts to be cross-posts from tumblr.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/stellarwind - My Redbubble Store, where you can purchase t-shirts with designs by me.

stellarwind @ 2014-05-16T13:20:00

2014-05-16T10:22:24Z

Oh my fucking god, what have they done to LJ.

Not that I even use it these days but still. Jesus effing christbuckets.

Happy arbitrary point in the planet's orbit to you, folks.

2013-12-31T22:02:17Z

Here's to a potentially (and hopefully) awesome 2014.

Level Up!

2013-12-13T22:14:26Z

Year 28 on this gogforsaken rock. The natives suspect nothing.

Soon.

Nature has decided to give me one hell of an early birthday present in the form of some epic frelling storms that have been raging around here in the last few days - which makes an excellent change from the typically Schizophrainy (that is, the type of weather where it isn't sure if it is or isn't raining, fluctuating in a matter of minutes) weather common around our Decembers. Since the storms were crazy enough to rather shut down the roads for now (and my dad caught some kind of flu) we aren't actually doing one of our typical trips (that will have to wait for next week perhaps?) this birthday weekend. We spent today (yesterday, I should say!) in, had some great lasagna and rewatched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Tomorrow (that is to say today, the date of the actual hatchday) we go, consume steaks and then watch the sequel.

I have some good feelings about this year.

We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin.

2013-10-29T23:15:26Z

Meow.

That is all.

Glub.

2013-10-01T01:22:14Z

Remind me to write a book about a Mary Sue Hipster with no personality and her obsession with shitty Instagram filters, who falls in love with a mysterious man who’s secretly actually an irresistibly attractive color-changing were-squid. Light tentacle bondage ensues but it’s mostly romantic fluff because the were-squid in question really only wants a cuttle.

I’ll call it Fifty Shades of Sepia. »;

(The sequel would be called Fifty Shades of Metasepia and will be all about the were-squid’s very flamboyant german cousin, Pfeffer.)

Lyricspam of the now

2013-06-18T23:13:19Z

Sleepwalking by Avantasia

Wandering barefoot into no where,
Just another winter's night
And I don't feel gravity anymore...

You never lie, never cry
Never talk me out of dreams
And a dream is what remains.

Tell me, don't you see what ain't there
When you look in the mirror
You're starving away, like a candle burning down
Miles away, miles away
You've been cutting off the rope
Letting go and losing ground.

And I... Wonder who's to blame...
As I... Sleepwalk in the rain...
It's my, my silent victory over gravity...
And I... Sleepwalk in the rain...

Winter sky, far and wide, caving in on you and me
Like a brittle wall of the emerald room,
The hall of fame and dying dreams
The love we'd die for, petrified, I want to know
Does a frozen river flow?

And I... Wonder who's to blame...
As I... Sleepwalk in the rain...
It's my, my silent victory over gravity...
And I... Sleepwalk in the rain...

And I... Wonder who's to blame...
As I... Sleepwalk in the rain...
It's my, my silent victory over gravity...
And I... Sleepwalk in the rain...

stellarwind @ 2013-05-24T08:39:00

2013-05-24T05:40:03Z

Cheese for everybody!

2013-04-28T04:17:16Z

The Thirteen Blessings of Sheogorath

For Our Lord Sheogorath, without Whom all Thought would be linear and all Feeling would be fleeting.

Blessed are the Madmen, for they hold the keys to secret knowledge.

Blessed are the Phobic, always wary of that which would do them harm.

Blessed are the Obsessed, for their courses are clear.

Blessed are the Addicts, may they quench the thirst that never ebbs.

Blessed are the Murderous, for they have found beauty in the grotesque.

Blessed are the Firelovers, for their hearts are always warm.

Blessed are the Artists, for in their hands the impossible is made real.

Blessed are the Musicians, for in their ears they hear the music of the soul.

Blessed are the Sleepless, as they bask in wakeful dreaming.

Blessed are the Paranoid, ever-watchful for our enemies.

Blessed are the Visionaries, for their eyes see what might be.

Blessed are the Painlovers, for in their suffering, we grow stronger.

Blessed is the Madgod, who tricks us when we are foolish, punishes us when we are wrong, tortures us when we are unmindful, and loves us in our imperfection.

Life.

2013-04-15T18:38:30Z

Note: this post was written after I read way too much H.P. Lovecraft in a row and I fear that it might affect my writing. Watch out for writhing, undulating globs of nameless eldritch words. Or something.

Life has been relatively quiet as of late... as it tends to be for me. My job-hunting quest still yields no results (and not for lack of trying). Driving lessons (yes, I got back into those in case I haven't mentioned) are progressing well. Inspiration comes and goes though that final piece of my tumblr layout still eludes me. I seem to be dealing with some strange issues of emotion yet again, but none that I wish to go into in depth in this public forum. Those who know about them know about them and I've already talked their ears off about it. No sense in painting that lily in colors out of space.

(god damnit, Lovecraft.)

LJ appears to have gone completely mental lately, as though the touch of the Outer Gods came to rest upon its mind and molded its gelatinous tissues - or cybernetic equivalent thereof - into something of unfathomable and alien geometry... Or at least my friends page. There's some weird time warp shit going on in there. Seriously.

Apparently my last post was the 666th in number. Which is kind of amusing considering it's a recounting of an imagined episode of a diabolical anime series centered around a creature based on a plant that earned mythological reputation as the Devil's Own. Somewhere out there, in the depths of a forest in a world that may or may not exist anywhere in the multiverse beyond the scope of my mind, a Belladonyx is grinning - as these graceful enchantress-spectres of the vegetative persuasion are wont to do.

I don't even.

Before I seal this entry though, a random quiz/surveymajig.

1. State your name.

Gad Deutsch.

2. Which of your relatives do you get along with the most?

My parents, I suppose.

3. Did anything embarrassing happen this week?

This week just started and so far nothing embarrassing happened. Hopefully it stays that way.

4. Do you miss your ex?

No, but then I have yet to actually fire the missiles aimed directly towards her. When I DO fire them I will most certainly not miss.

5. White chocolate or dark chocolate?

I'm fond of both, actually.

6. Do people praise you for your looks?

I have received a compliment or two before. (shrugs)

7. What is your favorite color of clothing to wear?

Colors that work together nicely enough - I don't think I have one favorite.

8. How do you wear your makeup?

I don't wear makeup.

9. What are some of your nicknames?

Most of the internet calls me Stel or Stell. Some people IRL call me by my last name. That's about it for nicknames.

10. How many bedrooms are in your house?

Two. My parents' and mine.

11. How many bathrooms?

MY HOUSE HAS A HUNDRED BAFROOMS.

12. Do you have a job?

No. I'm currently hunting one and in the meantime attempting to unleash commissions upon the world.

13. Do you have a car?

No, but I am presently re-learning how to operate one. THIS time I intend to finally get a damn license. >>;

14. Do you work out every week?

Nope. Although I probably really should.

15. Have you ever kissed someone you never saw again?

No.

16. Have you ever sung in front of a crowd?

Yes.

17. What kind of bathing suit do you wear?

A full body biomechanical one with atmospheric processors, pressure negators, a built-in sonar system and fin-blades that could cleave through solid metal. That is all I am at liberty to say.

18. Do you like your eyes?

They're okay. Typical human brown eyes. Although I do like the fact they seem to have this odd amberish refraction to them from certain angles.

19. Do you think you are pretty?

I feel pretty. Oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and briiiiiiiiiiiiiii- *AHEM*.
WTF musicals aside. My current bioshell is fine though it could be better. I'm don't feel strongly about it one way or another.

20. Who was the last person you talked to in person?

My mother.

21. Are you single?

Yup. Most likely for the rest of my biological existence.

22. Do you want kids?

Hell no.

23. Tell me what your backpack looks like.

It is blue. There's not much else to say about it.

24. What celebrity do you think is hot?

Can't really think of any.

25. Last movie you saw in theaters?

Probably The Hobbit.

26. Are you dating the same person you dated last year?

Actually, yes. I've been single last year, and I'm single THIS year too! Hooray for consistency! <<;

27. Has someone you were dating ever cheated on you?

Not that I am aware, at least.

28. Have you ever cheated?

Never.

29. What do you like to do in your free time?

Mostly engaging in creative pursuits. Drawing, writing, abusing musical instruments, singing, what have you. Otherwise, hanging out online, occasionally reading or watching stuff or playing video games or listening to music. Sometimes multiple of the above at the same time. I don't even.

30. What is your favorite animal?

Oh my zarking fuck, I don't think I can really choose one. There are just way too many, both extant and extinct. It's safe to say that I am fond of most creatures on the planet - and even the ones I don't, I usually have awesome things to say about. Life, as a whole, is one of the most badass things on the planet. And that is all there is to say on the matter.

And then my brain wrote a Miato episode.

2013-04-02T07:45:57Z

Even though the thought of Ash and his Tagalongs (invariably a fanservice girl and a creepy walking exposition character/cook) polluting Miato with their presence is generally a shuddersome thought to me, my mind spontaneously wrote an episode centered around the Alraunum line.

And this is about how it goes.

The episode takes place in... a forest. I want to say Quartz Forest, but I'm not really sure. There are rumors and horror stories about some kind of Witch of the Wood who lives deep in the forest and how she may look all kind but she's really a Belladonyx out for prey and how people going deep into the forest at night never come back. You know, the typical horror stories. And Ash, being the complete idiot he is, totally thinks it's a good idea to go in there anyway.

Predictably, Ash and his Tagalongs get hopelessly lost and run afoul of a swarm of angry things. Aforementioned angry things are driven away by a large Mandrebus who emerges from the depths of a forest with a loud screech. It seems that it's about to charge at Ash, when an older-ish lady shows up and calms it down.

She explains that Mandrebus are very much in tune with the forest and do not take kindly to disturbances in their territory - and that this one identified Ash as the source and that is why it almost attacked. She admits to being the so called Witch of the Wood (although her real name is Fate) and that she is aware of all those horror stories about her - and mostly being amused by them. She doesn't really mind them as they guarantee that she has the solitude and peace and quiet that she enjoys - and in case someone DOES attempt to venture in... Well, it's nice to have the occasional visitor.

She invites Ash and Co. in for a cup of tea in her little nice wood cabin. Ash and Co. accept and they generally talk and have a nice time (She'll probably dispense some survival advice and some interesting information about Grass-type stuff). And then another disturbance happens and the Mandrebus charges along. Fate (as well as Ash and Co.) follow it. It turns out that it's Team Rocket (or possibly more competent villains? Not likely considering it's the Pokémon anime, lol), up to their usual shenanigans - and not even the Mandrebus seems to be particularly effective against them. Ash is also rather useless - which forces Fate to get involved in the battle personally...

By turning out to actually be a Belladonyx.

She proceeds to kick righteous ass while Ash and co are all O___O about it.

After sending Team Rocket (or whoever) blasting off again, she sees to the Mandrebus (cue a rather adorable Beauty and the Beast moment for this line XD) and then reverts to her human form. She explains to Ash and Co. that everything she told them -was- true. Fate was indeed the Witch of the Wood and she has indeed lived in this forest for many years. The two were close friends - and when Fate passed on, she took it upon herself to keep the legend of the Witch of the Wood alive, in memory of of her friend.

She and her Mandrebus companion proceed to guide Ash and his Tagalongs to the outskirts of the forest, staying just within the treeline. They say their goodbyes there - and in typical cheesy anime ending fashion, the actual ghost of Fate appears by the Mandrebus and Belladonyx as they walk back into the depths of the forest and waves at the protagonists - who wonder whether they saw what they just saw or not as they walk off on the path to the next city.

Of course the only problem with this entire plotline is the fact that this is Miato and the people of Miato are not known for being a bunch of superstitious fucks. But hey, it's the anime.

This is what happens when I'm half asleep.

2013-03-26T12:13:50Z

First of all, never release me near MSPaint when I'm half asleep, or this sort of stupid shit may happen:

(Protip: to defeat the Machine Nun, shoot at it until it dies. Although you may have to kill John Romero first, somehow).

Incidentally, today a person walks into chat after not having been on 'chat for a while and makes his typical entrance line ("I have arrived!") in English for a change rather than really godawful weeaboo Japanese directly yoinked from an anime without realizing that it uses the most arrogant possible way of saying it. Something to the line of "Ore Sanjo". Which instantly jumped into my brain and mutated into "Ore Banjo!"

Because Weeaboo Rednecks is the BEST mental image EVER when I'm half asleep.

"Gosh darn, that there lil' fella is just so kawaii!"

"Well bust mah britches an' call me streaker, that there seems more sugoi than kawaii!"

"... Well, shucks, you're right, Bubba-chan!"

... And then they're all gunned down by the machine nun from earlier. High caliber rounds, designed to make its targets holey.

Jim-Bob-Sama approves.

Random Dream of the Now

2013-03-01T06:58:15Z

So I just had a long-ass and WTF dream.

Most of it was just random weirdness that didn't really tie into much, but involved segments of trying to flag down cabs in this bizarre combination cab/bus station and not really succeeding (and all the busses that DID arrive weren't the one I needed) and a few segments that were kind of DreamWorks CGI and I suspect were rather boss battle-y (I blame watching Rise of the Guardians shortly before bed). Following those was one relatively constant bit that played out sort of like a strange side-scrolling platform game.

The game in question had an auto-scroll going up. The bottom of the level was all water (with a level that gradually rose) and there were islands and floating rocks and mini-islands that you basically had to grab onto and climb up the level as the water level rises - latching onto things eroded them though, so you had to be careful (especially since some of the changes stuck from one level attempt to another - so there were a few levels you had to sort of plan ahead on and think quickly). You could be in the water for a bit, but if you got caught in the autoscroll, game over. I played through a few levels of this (they took me a few attempts) - and at the end of every level was a cut-scene in which a large guy who was sort of based on Raven from Snow Crash showed up and did stuff. And you essentially had to stay the fuck out of his view or you KNOW he'd pulverize you in seconds. The one particular cut-scene I remember was at the end of the final level I played - in which you had to climb to the highest point of the level and then zip-line around to another cliff. Once I zip-lined across I heard something and hid behind a rock. A jeep comes across a road on this cliff, stops just by the rock, picks up Ash and Dawn (both of which have their Best Wishes appearance for some reason and are in the car, terrified) and just throws them off the cliff (they looked bizarrely like Sonic's drowning sprite for a moment). There are a few other things in the truck - possibly replacements? or mannequins? they looked similar to Ash and Dawn). He gets back in the car and drives around the corner, only to appear shortly after at the bottom of the cliff, using a vacuum cleaner like device to pick up Pokeballs and shit from the ground and a truck that seems to was crashed there.

but that wasn't the weird shit. The really weird shit happened after that.

It was a tie-in to a dream from a few days ago (or was it just an earlier segment of tonight? I'm not sure).

I was sort of doing a purifying thing on various supernaturally corrupted things (Not with a baseball bat, although the thought occurred to me later XD). My guide/mentor/boss type character there looked and sounded suspiciously like Tim Curry. The early bits weren't as complicated - I had some kind of purifying touch/bolt power that I could invoke and the threats weren't too major. Eventually I was sent out to deal with a phenomenon occurring in a certain forest (which runs to the left side of a long path, the right side being more typical countrysides). Segments of the forest were becoming corrupted by some kind of force - and the corrupted segments were sparser, dark teal, misty, and the trees were all gnarled, twisted and leafless. Think of the Swamps of Dementia in the Shivering Isles expansion of Oblivion, or the Swamp area of Simon the Sorcerer, but more ominous.

The forest in question was home to these little floating mini-pixies - they were sentient creatures capable of human speech, though you never really got to see them as any more than flitting winged blurs - like large insects or hummingbirds that never land. In the ordinary areas of the forest and outside it they maintained a normal form - though if they crossed the threshold into a 'corrupted' zone they would turn into ominous black, smoky wisps - and while they reverted to normal after leaving the corrupted zone's border, apparently passing through these areas was bad for them - had a certain corrupting effect that could -stick- (and if it did, they stayed these black wisps).

Another thing the forest had - and these were rare, thank fuck - were these tall, shambling, orange-glowing faceless humanoid covered in tree roots and branches and vines and whatever in swirly patterns. Sort of zombie-like in a way. They were created by the corrupted segments but could enter the uncorrupted ones. Most of them were easily avoidable - but I have yet to figure out how to purify them or the forest itself.

Anyhow. So much for the background - this is where I was cut off last time I had that dream. In THIS dream, the mentor-type character sends me out to hunt this one pixie that was apparently corrupted and gives me a time gap of five (hours? minutes? some time units anyway) to capture it. I meet other pixies along the way (one of which follows me around and serves as an advisor for the level?) in pursuit of this one, which keeps trying to tell me something as I chase it (but it's too fast for me and it flits in and out of corrupted areas, which I cannot personally enter because I lack the right sort of protection apparently?). Eventually the rogue pixie cuts across the path and heads towards an abandoned building - I follow it, and what it's saying becomes clearer: it claims to be NOT corrupted, and that something else is going on - something very unusual - and that it was trying to get to the bottom of it. Its sibling (the advisor pixie) confirms this and I have to make a choice - whether or not I believe it.

I choose to believe it because something about what it says rings true. I walk out of the building with both the pixies in tow,look across the pathway... And yes, something has gone wrong.

The corruption has dramatically spread. Little, if at all, remains of the original forest - the swampy corrupted forest spread everywhere - and... looking ahead, there's a VERITABLE FUCKING ARMY OF THOSE SWIRLY TREE ZOMBIES COMING OVER THE HORIZON. Not all are orange. Some are greenish, some are brownish, that whole array of autumn colors. But the swirly roots are all there. They are approaching, slowly shambling forward, and on the path... well. The mentor boss character I mentioned, blocking the path. He's all covered in roots and glow too - only his face is visible, with that smug evil Tim Curry grin. He tells me the amount of time I had to capture the rogue pixie is up. We talk for a bit more, as I try to explain what I found out, but it's too late - he's already infested to the core, his face is replaced by one of those things. The zombie army is still on the horizon, looming dangerously nearer... and the starts attacking me.

... And I panicked. Started running, telling the pixies (I referred to them as Tatl and Tale for some reason, wtf Majora's Mask ref?) to take cover as I hold him off. Except, in my exact words in the dream, "How the fuck do I purify this thing?" I tried using my purifying touch ability but it didn't work - it didn't even ACTIVATE. The orange glowy stuff that made up the thing's skin was squishy and damp, sort of had the texture of moist soil and leaf litter. Some of it got on me, but just sort of seemed to be inert when not connected to the rest of the mass (or was it? maybe just not enough of it stuck?). And this thing keeps trying to generally stomp me and attack me, forcing me into a series of rolls and derp - and the situation seemed rather hopeless - and then I woke up... with the instant realization (as if I read it in a walkthrough somewhere) that I had to let the thing corrupt me briefly so I can understand how the process works and reverse it and the pixies were needed to spread the knowledge to cure the forest (and I believe they were supposed to be instrumental in helping me keep my mind/awareness intact while understanding the corruption?) I tried forcing myself back to sleep to use that knowledge but yeah. couldn't.

Tl;dr, dick move, dream. Only telling me how to solve a problem when it's irrelevant. >>;

stellarwind @ 2013-02-06T02:05:00

2013-02-06T00:05:55Z

ME4 should totally be about a slightly deranged space berserker, his pet miniature giant space hamster and possibly a sentient, snarky and homicidal sword - and together THEY FIGHT EVIL! GO FOR THE EYES, BOO, GO FOR THE EYES! YAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

... Minsc Effect. I'd play the -EFF!- out of that.

A Native American Legend.

2013-01-31T00:08:59Z

An old grandfather is teaching his grandson about life.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

"Which wolf will win?" asks the grandson.

The old grandfather simply replied, "The one you feed."