Latest Posts by shoccoe - Page 5

Shallan’s gang is so interesting. She girlbosses so hard she factory reset like 20 guy’s morality.

EEESSSHHOOONNNAAAIIIIIIIIIIII

I love her so much

It aches my heart to see people get injured… it’s almost more painful to me than seeing people die in books. She’s paralyzed. It’s… I- it’s so heartbreaking to witness. I feel so much desire to help Rysn, but she’s not even real. Aaghck. Empathy suuucccckkkssss sometimes.

WHAT THE FUCK

oh my gosh I love this random cobbler so much and I’ve known him for- maybe five minutes. I love him so much.

oh my gosh I love this random cobbler so much and I’ve known him for- maybe five minutes. I love him so much.

TRUE!! I’m like. I’m like “oh my God no way I actually know what’s happening this time.”

Average Cosmere aware rereading of The Stormlight Archive

I adore the way Stormlight handles war. Everyone believes earnestly that what they do is right. Fervently correct. They would and do die for their beliefs. The Listeners were correct to kill Gavilar, but the Alethi were correct to seek retaliation as well. It captures the experience of conflict better than most media I’ve ever seen.

AAAAA!!!! I love the way Bridge Four sticks up for Shen while getting their tattoos!!!!! They’re so awesome and I love them!!!

Ah.. so I’ve finally gotten to my single favorite theme of the Stormlight Archives: How the world is mostly just a matter of perception. A king, a princess, a light eyes, a leader… is only that because others perceive them to be so. They aren’t inherently different than others, just possessing the arbitrary lineage, presence, and background for others to deign them as such.

It’s the entire power system of Roshar. You change things self-perception to soul-cast, you change the way your soul perceives gravity to lash, and so on and so forth for each and every power. It’s ALL perception.

Kaladin is just a bridge man. A slave. And all the men he comes in contact with laude him because of his presence. How many times have people said he MUST have been a light-eyes or what have you. It’s how they perceive him, because of how he carries himself, that causes this. Shallan is in the same situation, though I don’t feel the need to explain hers, as she quite literally created a personality based on this concept. It’s fascinating, real, and freeing. You are not bound by where you’re from who what you’ve done. At any moment - if you’ve the will to try - you can become anyone.

And this is why, because I believe in myself, I know I could get Jasnah to step on me

Yes Dalinar. YES. Beat the shit out of your nephew!!!! Yes yes yes and then tell him you’re fucking his mom!!!! I love him so much you guys.

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA I FORGOT HE TOTALLY ATE SHIT THE FIRST TIME HE TRIED TO USE HIS RADIANT POWERS AHAHAHAHAH

Aahhhhh!!! So good!! Yes, fantastic.

I decided to fantasize about what the amulets from Hollow Knight would look like in the world of Over the garden wall. According to their properties, these amulets simply copy those that already exist in the game.

1. The amulet is only needed for the finale. (Void Heart)

2. Summons blue birds. (Glowing Womb)

3. Protects the wearer with a strong shell. (Baldur Shell)

4. Improves the skills of the wearer in the field of spells. (Spell Twister)

5. Attacks enemies nearby with Edelwood branches every time you take damage. (Thorns of Agony)

6. The wearer's power increases when he is close to death. (Fury of the Fallen)

“Why don’t you use my bridges?” Says Sadius. “Why don’t you strand yourself on a plateau with my men serving as the only means of escape?” Says Sadius. “Why don’t you hand me the knife while removing the armor from your back?” Says Sadius

This upcoming betrayal weighs on me. But it does highlight something interesting. Brandon Sanderson does an excellent job of introducing concepts, then having them pay off in the other narratives. (See: Shallan’s “lesson” on human morality followed immediately by the Kaladin flashback where he realizes bravery does not always mean fighting) This chunk of narrative - the betrayal of Dalinar - brings to mind the words of Kaladin earlier in the book when someone mentions how a betrayer amongst the Bridgemen could utterly ruin them all. He says they simply cannot worry about it, for if they did, nothing would get done… and he’s right. Dalinar’s trust is his downfall, but it causes change. Dalinar, in making the choice to trust Sadius, has allowed the world and the war to shift in a way that would not be possible otherwise.

It’s a bit fascinating

MY GLORIOUS KING HOID WITH THE DEUS EX CHARACTER REVELATION STORY!!!!!! LET’S GOOOOOOOO

Been re-reading the Way of Kings recently and… it’s a truly fascinating series of “almost”s. Shallan almost gets away with her theft. Kaladin almost saves the people be chooses to protect. On a re-read these grow even more obvious. It’s almost like reading the Odyssey with just how damn close they get to their goals over and over again.

Also I think I’m gonna start live-blogging my Stormlight re-read

It ABSOLUTELY KILLS ME that Athena has NO ANSWER to Ares and Aphrodite's arguments, and just opts to tell Aphrodite to suck it up and bribe Ares

Like-

Aphrodite: "He left his elderly mother to die alone to fight a war."

Ares: "He has shown cowardice on numerous instances, categorically refusing to face problems with honor and all but sacrificing his comrads."

Athena, mentally: 'Shit. Fuck. They're objectively correct. Uhhhhh'

Athena: "Aphrodite stop being a bitch and Ares oooooooo look at the Murder you like the murder oooooo"

—

And this just- works??? Honestly so proud of her for pulling this off.

Also something funny(?) I noticed when re-listening is that Antinous like… always included his buddies when talking about… ya’know… Penelope. So like- I guess he just really liked bro time.

Antinous is for the boys. He really should have stuck to just having hot gay mercenary sex with his bros. Trying to usurp the throne was a total misplay.

does anyone wanna hold hands until we feel a little braver

Another character design for @shoccoe !

(I do a lot of these for her)

Character art I did for @shoccoe for her Cradle oc!

So we have multiple statements by Jorge Rivera-Herrans that he was inspired by video games in the creation of Epic the Musical. This is pretty plainly seen in the multiple “boss battles” that cap off most albums in the musical.

Two of the most important examples of “boss battles” come from the characters recognized as “monsters” in the canon of the story: Polyphemus and Scylla. These two are important, because they are the only two characters with songs named after them. This sets them apart as unique and special, which is substantiated even further by the impact they have on the wider story of Epic.

“…but wait” you may be asking. “Odysseus has a song named after him as well, no?” That is correct! This is because, like Polyphemus and Scylla, Odysseus is a monster. So much so that there’s an entire song in the Underworld Sage.

Okay so- what does this mean effectively? Well… the final boss of the musical isn’t the suitors. It’s Ody. The song Odysseus has a lot of parallels to Polyphemus and Scylla (the line “keep your head down he’s aiming for the torches!” Being a direct callback to Scylla), but the one I’d like to focus on is the narrative framework of the song.

He’s the antagonist. The song’s narrative is carried by the disparate Suitors as they are hunted by our old king and try to survive. (heh. See what I did there?) The background chanting of Odysseus’s name is even in the same style of how Polyphemus is sung in Survive!!! He’s the FINAL BOSS. (and tbh. He’s a LOT better at murdering everyone who wronged him than anyone else in the story. Polyphemus should take notes.)

So… what does this mean? He kills every suitor. And like- as he should. They sucked. So what? The final boss isn’t defeated in Epic?

…well no. He is firmly defeated in the end. By Penelope. Something very important in the story from No Longer You onward is this division between the “Old Odysseus” and the “New Odysseus”. It’s this Old Odysseus who is a monster, and it’s THIS man who Penelope defeats.

Her defeat of Odysseus is shown in two parts: Lyrically and Musically. The first is very clear. Odysseus argues that he is no longer the man who married Penelope, and she disagrees. She is the only one to effectively trick Penelope, responding to his rhetorical statement of “I am no longer the man you fell in love with” with a trap that ends with Odysseus confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is, in fact, her husband. Furthermore If you payed any attention at all while listening to Epic, Jorge’s love for motif is very clear, and this is relevant in understanding the emotional “defeat” of the Monster Odysseus.

Ody has two key instruments: a soft guitar and a harsh, electric one. These correlate to the two unique Odysseus’s we’ve established. We hear inklings of the soft guitar when Odysseus and Penelope first reunite, but it quickly fades to that harsh electric guitar as they begin to “fight.”

But. Here’s. Where. It. Gets. Fun. Because after he’s deceived and defeated, the soft guitar returns. He is finally, after twenty years, being allowed to return to the kind man he once was. He’s finally, *finally* home.

And that, my friends, is why I conclude, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Penelope tops Odysseus after Epic.

The Engineer, chapter 38. Varic slinks into his chair. I imagined that he also scrunched up his hood like a sweatshirt/hoodie so that it hid most of his face.

[Image ID: A shoddy, pixel-y rendition of Varic from the book series The Last Horizon. He is slinking into a chair, with his hood covering almost all of his face. He’s holding a little coffee cup, and the cape of his hood is pulled around like a blanket.

/End ID]

I slumped in my chair, guzzling coffee and staring into the holograms. I was looking forward to the next part.

This was where Shyrax would tell me how I’d failed.

“Next is myself,” Shyrax continued, and I slid down even further. I preferred to get bad news over with quickly.

The Engineer (The Last Horizon Book 2), Will Wight

We love how Calder dies so Shera gets to say she killed the emperor twice, then he just… gets over it.

im aware this is an insane thing to say but i fucking. love characters that are just cockroaches. and i dont mean like. gross i mean they just do not fucking die. they can survive anything. they will outlive EVERYONE because they just will not die no matter what be it because they have a reason or because they literally cannot stop surviving the odds i love it i love it

we love Luce

Oh! Suggestions, can’t say I really expected those, but this is super fun!!

Here’s my thoughts

1 - good idea all around. I think the block the character would represent could be altered to be one more relevant to the series, though! I tried to keep the language consisting of references almost entirely, so good idea with the crystals!

Something like:

X = Crystal = Quotation mark

(?# = Single Quotes)

(^# = Apostrophe)

(v# = Asterisk)

Yeah!! I like that!! Ty <3

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2 - Useful shorthand! No notes, but I wanna push that whenever you’re doing something for display purposes, the script was written the way it was for the aesthetics! One of its primary design principles is the language being *actual parkour you can do.* This gets muddled when ya use verticals, but for most sentences?? You can literally build a sentence. I’ve put some thought into how to delineate flourishes without muddying or making the language too complex, but if I come up with something I’ll probably release a guide with examples of how to build sentences! (Currently you can just put signs with what flourishes it has and the language is totally buildable… but that’s kinda lame)

——————

3 - Oh! I actually prepped something for this exact thing! “-“ for chain blocks! This is preferred to barriers (despite the lesser series-significance) because I honestly just value the buildability of the language more!

——————

4 - tbh! I don’t think this is a necessary addition to the system. It only applies if you want to make an entire system of [] capital, as numbers would take the negativity of their first digit. I suppose if you wanted, you could perhaps do:

?vu8[]____C[]__OC[]vu

I believe it’s best to try and use existing things to address a problem as opposed to introducing new things to keep track of.

(As it’s impossible to place more than one of the (?,^,v) set of Flourishes on any given block, the ? becomes a floating Flourish. This, paired with the vu pair makes the ? distribute the every block inside)

——————

Thanks for the feedback~!

So… I may or may not have written an entire Conlang based on a single joke in Minecraft Parkour Civilization 2. That would be ridiculous. Aha. Hahahaha. Ha.

*cough*

A Quick Guide to Writing in Parkour

Flourish List.

You add these in front of blocks to change their meaning. There’s a key at the bottom containing the Parkour alphabet which demonstrates how the space, 180°, 360°, and 720° Flourishes are used to refer to specific English-Letter analogs.

_ = Space

C = 180° Flourish = 5 spaces

O = 360° Flourish = 10 spaces

8 = 720° Flourish = 20 spaces

? = Reverse = Reverses input

^ = Vertical Jump = Raises Intensity

v = Drop = Lowers Intensity

Block List.

These are the building blocks (lmfao) of the language and are what would be counted as an “input” or “letter”. Also included are short legends under each block describing what each flourish does to each block!

(Note! _,C,O, and 8 cannot be applied to any block other than [ ] and H)

[ ] = Block = Grammatical Value

(?[ ] = Capitalized)

(^[ ] = Impassioned)

(v[ ] = Depressed)

H = Fence = Numerical Value

(?H = Negative)

(^H = Exponential)

(vH = Square Root)

u = Pot = Period

(?u = Comma)

(^u = Hyphen/Equality)

(vu = Parentheses)

I = Pane = Question

(?I = Exclamation)

(^I = Command)

(vI = Sarcasm)

% = Brewing Stand = Addition

(?% = Subtraction)

(^% = Multiplication)

(v% = Division)

Alphabet

a = [ ]

b = _[ ]

c = __[ ]

ch = ___[ ]

d = ____[ ]

e = C[ ]

f = _C[ ]

g = __C[ ]

h = ___C[ ]

i = ____C[ ]

j = O[ ]

l = _O[ ]

m = __O[ ]

n = ___O[ ]

o = ____O[ ]

p = OC[ ]

r = _OC[ ]

s = __OC[ ]

sh = ___OC[ ]

t = ____OC[ ]

th = 8[ ]

u = _8[ ]

v = __8[ ]

w = ___8[ ]

y = ____8[ ]

Numbers

0 = H

1 = _H

2 = __H

3 = ___H

4 = ____H

5 = CH

6 = _CH

7 = __CH

8 = ___CH

9 = ____CH

Now that you have all the tools, let’s put it all together~!

————————————

?8[ ]____C[ ]__OC[ ] ____C[ ]__OC[ ] OC[ ][ ]_OC[ ]__[ ]____O[ ]_8[ ]_OC[ ]?I

____CHH% _HH ^u _HHH

?C[ ][ ]____OC[ ] 8[ ]C[ ] _OC[ ]____C[ ]___[ ]^I

————————————

Big thanks to my friend PrismaticKoi for giving me the idea and helping me figure this all out! Working with her made this process super fun!!!

Enjoy Parkour-!!! I’ll be coding an English<—>Parkour translator at some point, so stick around to find that!!

All of you need to go watch Minecraft Parkour Civilization though. It’s seriously fantastic.

I drew my Cyberpunk 2020 OC, Hawke! They're a sniper and their only cybernetics in the game so far would be their eyes! They're a shut in dweeb and their only companion is a pet Roomba they've lovingly named Cherie. I think they cried over spilling a cup of instant ramen once?

I also went ahead and drew my 5e character, Solace! I gave them a whole new haircut and re-placed their scars and such! I think they look pretty great!

A Single Breath of Godhood

The mist filled my nose and suddenly I was God. I was no longer merely *human.* I knew too much to be a man anymore. I saw too much. I controlled too much. I was too much... and I could feel it fading away quickly. All of the world - no, the universe - was clay in my hands. I knew intrinsically that if I willed it, I could change anything. The sun would grow to consume the earth if I wanted. I could make every murderer suffer the same fate as their victims.

But I also knew that if I let go of this breath, all of that would leave me. I'd return to what I was. Only moments had passed since I'd been God, but the feeling of being more was so profound that they felt more real than the 20 years of life I'd lived before that moment. Why had I come here? Why had I become God? My life was so small in comparison to all that I observed now... I had wanted something though.

The memory struck me - struck divinity - like a gong, the pain of my memory flooded throughout creation in ripples of destruction. They were undone a moment later at my will. I'd taken the power of all things so save her. A single life. The way I saw her now was seemingly detached from my pain. I was God. I knew everything, and as I looked at her corpse... Bones, simple carbon and calcium... blood, iron and water. I was God and she was dead, and even if I made a new her. One that knew all she did and was exactly like her in every way. Something I knew I could do. I knew she wouldn't be *her.*

I almost let go. Then I almost took out my rage on everything that existed. Then I understood all was for nothing. I couldn't save her, so nothing really mattered at all. I was all there was, and I had nothing at all.

Before my breath released, I made a single change. The form of her face in stone which would never fade. She would be the last of all things to exist, yet she'd never truly be back... Then I let go. The power flushed from me and the last of my Godhood was channeled into a thousand tiny miracles across the world. A girl's foot healed. A scholar was chosen for a school he loved, despite wealth and circumstance. A child breathing again when their mother thought all was lost... then I was human. And I was empty. Not for my lack of divinity, but for the lack of my love.