aethernightmare

[aethernightmare]

[aethernightmare]

Waking up from a server crash always feels like your character is getting up from randomly passing out drunk or unwell the night prior.

I'm so used to waking up in inns that it's disorienting to find myself not only on the thaumaturgy guild floor, but also in the wrong outfit. And since you don't get the rested bonus, it really is like you just randomly slept wherever you fell unconscious.

It's especially funny if nobody else is back in the server yet the following day. Like we're all collectively coming out of it together, or most people are even still unconscious.

#bren plays final fantasy 14

[aethernightmare]

my man is just along for the ride huh?

#dungeon meshi

[aethernightmare]

So so funny to me how they were like "Here's the localized title, Delicious in Dungeon!" And literally everyone went "Yeabh. Thank you but we are not calling it that 👍"

#dungeon meshi

[aethernightmare]

Y'all can't just let him trip in here alone

#dungeon meshi

[aethernightmare]

made this while watching ep 1 of dunmeshi

#dungeon meshi #earthbound

[aethernightmare]

Dungeon meshi is a great show cause they will casually drop a big detail about lore and just move on

Like what do you mean the Dwarves are facing unjust racism at the hands of the Lord of The Island

WHAT DO YOU MEAN SEVERAL HALFLINGS WERE KIDNAPPED BY ELVES AND NEVER SEEN AGAIN???? COME BACK!!

#dungeon meshi

[aethernightmare]

#try pretty much always. not just since i was 8.

[aethernightmare]

[aethernightmare]

I'm so thankful that my therapist encourages me to write letters to my abusers, even if I'll never send them.

[aethernightmare]

Just so we’re all clear, it is okay to miss people you no longer want in your life.

[aethernightmare]

Since Honkai is giving death flags for its next upgrade ("a character won't be able to sign the guestbook after 2.2"), I'm gonna take a wild guess.

Most people are assuming it'll be Sunday, but he's not currently a playable character, and so wouldn't be in the guest book to begin with unless he's a secret upcoming character (that gets offed the same patch? nah.).

Other's assume it's Gallagher because of his possible connection to the Death Meme, but that seems kind of obvious.

Personally, I'm thinking it might be Misha. There's a chance that Misha and Gallagher could be the same person, one of the earlier trailers hints to Misha getting pounced by a dog (possibly his personality warping or getting overwritten with the passage of time or the Stellaron corruption), and his kit is just...suspiciously basic??

Misha feels more like a 1.0 character with how unmemorable his setup is. He's basically just the MC with Ice damage instead of physical. Which doesn't really suit any of the other 4-stars that have come out so far. So much so that most people don't even bother creating guides for him, and only new players seem to use him.

If Gallagher was his "true form" or something, that might do more to explain not only has battle setup, but him as a character.

Idk, this is just me fan-theorizing for fun in my own space, and not to be taken too seriously. If I'm right, cool. If I'm not, I don't care. I kind of just wanted to fling my thoughts out here in case it catches everyone off guard and people don't believe me later lol.

#bren plays honkai star rail #penacony spoilers #honkai star rail spoilers

[aethernightmare]

Here's the whole avatar design of my OC btw. Since I might one day be making a v-tuber model with similar features (albeit with redesigned clothes, and a few tweaks here and there).

A bit of history, yes, this was originally my Gaiaonline avatar. Since that's where I'd spend the majority of my teenage years. Especially as strict parental control around internet usage when I was growing up made traditional online messaging and hangouts with irl friends near impossible. And I was able to bypass a lot of parental monitoring with the site's (now-defunct) in-game chat features. Because just like other MMOs, when you log out, your chat log gets deleted.

To give Gaia some context, it was basically Fortnite for millennials back in the early 2000's. Complete with an entire free MMORPG (like a really basic FF14 in terms of combat), flash minigames, marketplaces for character customization, personal blog features (prior to Tumblr), hangout forums for all kinds of hobbies and discussions (prior to Reddit), and even a virtual town that would hold seasonal events (trick or treats, Easter egg hunts, etc.). Everyone also had their own in-game house with an actual virtual zip code that you could personalize and invite people over to.

It was simple compared to game hangout spaces we have today, in part because it was free, but at the time it felt like one of the only forms of personal freedom that was available to my teenage self. Especially when you were like me, and had parents monitoring every breath you took. In a household as strict as mine, where individuality and personal expression was a sin, it gave me an escape to be somewhere else. During a time where I was essentially locked to either my bedroom, school, or forced extracurriculars.

Because people with my kind of home life in that era, essentially had to be teenagers in secret. Having things like dates online, because relationships weren't allowed (usually on both sides), even if there was nothing odd about us. And every message you sent via either IM or SMS using traditional means could be read by parents or school staff. So the only way to hang out and just talk to people, including classmates, even if it was about the most mundane sfw things, was in a game space like this. It's actually really abusive and dystopian in hindsight, but it's a big part of how I even kept enough sanity to make it to adulthood. It was a loophole that give me the strength to hold out long enough to graduate and turn 18. To let me be something other than just...trapped and alone.

(Yes, Dot Hack as an anime franchise was extremely relatable during this time, especially the "offline" life portions. The kids in that series weren't just MMO addicts like most casual anime viewers think. If you read the books, they were literally micro-chipped and video monitored 24/7 by parents and the government until adulthood, so online spaces like "The World" were literally the only escapes they had).

Alas, now that Flash is discontinued, most of Gaia is defunct as well. The website remains, but most of the features I used to log in daily for either no longer exist or are obsolete. And the few that do are now rather different. So it unsurprisingly has a fraction of the user base it once started held. And since the email I used in the past to create my avatar is also long gone, alas so is my account and all the years I spent there.

However, I did still keep a couple of avatar screenshots as keepsakes. Since I originally used them for my old YouTube channel over 10 years ago. In part because I have zero methods of creating digital art (though I'd love to someday), and second because my avatar was actually kind of special? Not only it was incredibly rare due to the game having limited-time items with unlock conditions, but my OC also came to represent a lot of things about me personally. When you live your entire childhood as a fictional avatar, it's hard not to become attached, I suppose.

Case-in-point, immediately noticeable, but my character isn't exactly human. Unlike Final Fantasy 14, people only have access to starting out as humans in Gaia. But through either events or rare items, you can change yourself to something else. Vampires, Elves, Zombies, Fae, Centaurs, and a host of other things. The Padmavati Naga, which is what I am, was a rare form that was only released for a month. And even then, most people didn't take the anthropomorphic style with it that I did - opting instead for either half-snake or full garuda forms. (Eventually the item would get re-released years later as the website declined, but almost nobody played anymore).

Second major point is the "tattoos", which were also a rare weapon. Or rather, weapons. Notice how in some shots portions of the tattoo vanishes? That's because it morphs into the weapons themselves. I was disappointed to see that I only saved two screenshots of the item being activated, but in addition to the bow and lance pictured above, I distinctly also remember there being daggers, a sword, and a scythe. The weapon also allowed you to eventually take on a cloaked grim reaper form, or even fully transform into a Soulsborne-esque demon (eldritch gore included).

All of this is a major factor behind my au-ra design in Final Fantasy 14. I was surprised at how many parallels I could make right out of the gate. And while omni-classing is something I'm doing for LP purposes, it also draws similarities from my old Gaia avatar as well.

It's sad that I can't really get my account back, but I also know I wouldn't really use the website in the form it's in today. Especially not with full, unrestricted access to regular internet features. Nonetheless, it was a major part of my teenage years, and a much-needed sanctuary of sorts.

I still keep that OC close to my heart, and to this day enjoy bringing them to life in new spaces.

#bren plays final fantasy 14 #bren talks irl

[aethernightmare]

More writers should consider just not telling their readers all of shit. Just don’t tell them stuff. What’s that monster? Fuck if you’ll find out. How did that weird as hell landscape marker come to be? Wouldn’t you like to know. How does the magic work? Just believe it does, motherfucker.

Readers don’t need to know everything. In fact, I absolutely advocate for not telling them certain stuff. If the characters don’t know, neither do they. If the narrator is omniscient? Lol no they aren’t.

Is this necessary for every story? Probably not. There’s plenty of good stories you could write while explaining all of it. But leaving those gaps, leaving those holes, can bring a story to life. Sometimes things happen in life that just… happen. Fucked if anyone knows why. Sometimes information gets lost. Sometimes information is hidden. But even beyond that, it expands the narrative.

If you explain when and why and how the murder monster became a murder monster, well… that’s forever set in stone now. Now they know. But if you leave it blank, absent of explanation, any explanation… it becomes an unknown. It forces your audience to wonder. Makes them think. That, more than you might think, makes a story get into your audience’s head, and once you’re there, you can make some real impacts.

So yeah, tell a story. But sometimes? Don’t tell your readers something. Make them fill in the blanks themselves.

[aethernightmare]

Finally have a secondary pair of glasses that fit properly. Just like before, they don't have tinted lenses because I didn't want to spend double the price when I've been having so much trouble finding frames as of late. Meaning they'll mostly be for around the house. But at least I won't be blind in case something happens to my outdoor pair.

If something were to happen to my current outdoor pair however, I would absolutely order these new frames with tint.

#tldr; i need to wear tinted frames to see well in bright sunlight. otherwise it's like someone turned the bloom all the way up in a game. #lately i've also needed to hide my eye color more so than usual because because strangers have been getting weird about it. #i've also been heavily considering getting prescription colored contacts. i'm just not sure how well they'd work with my eyes.

[aethernightmare]

Combining my two biggest fixations atm <3

Edit: bonus comic!!

#dungeon meshi #undertale

[aethernightmare]

Ah. Great. So I got the tumblr url name back finally, but the old posts made by the dumbass who had the domain before me still exist on other people's blogs. Instead of being listed as "deactivated" like they're supposed to.

Cool. Super. Site's still randomly broken and wonky I see. Worst yet, they still link back to my blog page, despite the fact I created this one from scratch. Neat.

Anyways, same rule as Twitter I guess. Just because it has my name, doesn't mean it's by me. Check first. If you click the source and it leads back to a "not found" error, then please bury it back into the ground where it belongs. Thanks.