ravings of the dandelion bride

Here it is, my deep dive into Gerringothe Thorm, after realising her Grim Visages aren't actually her undead employees and are in fact parts of her psyche! Hovering over the "grim visage" race on their character sheets reveals this:

Grim Visage These skulls spawned from Gerringothe Thorm's twisted psyche. Manifestations of her worst flaws, they keep the coins of her protective armour intact.

They're also all voiced by Gerringothe's actor, Penelope Rawlins, and I love the various different tones she uses, she has the RANGE.

Anyway, we have the Visage of Obedience, the Visage of Regret, the Visage of Greed, the Visage of Heartlessness, the Visage of Cowardice and the Visage of Guilt.

The Visage of Greed is pretty simple. She wants gold. She's also got the most ambient dialogue--if you've spent much time in the tollhouse, she's the one yelling about how, "I want it back!!" (Gerringothe herself is silent until you get pulled into a cutscene--all ambient dialogue is the visages.)

Look at it. Look at it all. Mine, MINE. Give me. GIVE ME.

The Visage of Heartless, meanwhile, is the funniest bitch in the game, and I support women's wrongs.

You'll find much of sentimental value among the confiscated goods. That is to say - junk. People treasure the most insignificant things - pets, children, memories.

(Worth noting, there's a pile of bloodstained pet collars outside the tollhouse, while the Waning Moon has notices up about missing pets. This is fine, probably.)

The others are more interesting! The Visage of Obedience, I still have some questions about--given this one tells you to "report to the tollmaster," this was why I initially thought they were Gerringothe's employees.

Report to the tollmaster. Pay the toll. No payment, no passage.

But then, speaking to Gerringothe, she's definitely trapped in this mindset that The Toll is what's important--the gold isn't for her, it's for The Toll, she's just Doing Her Job. (She's very much not just doing her job--journal entries and the other visages make clear she went way overboard, and she was planning illegal trade in the tollhouse, but the Visage implies she used this justification for her cruelty.)

The Visage of Regret is my favourite. She also has some of the most to say in ambient dialogue (unless I just spent way too long hanging out near her) and she's so sad.

You should leave now. I should have left when I still could. So many ships came, so many ships left. And I remained. The horizon seemed so close. But that was long ago.

She wishes she'd left!! She could have left, she could have had a better life!! Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but I can't help connecting the Gerringothe dreaming of the horizon with the text in the Heavy Book:

On the wall hangs a seaside landscape, which often catches my eye during the course of my work-a-day life. I'm surprised Gerringothe chose such a decoration for her tollhouse; I've never known her as any appreciator of nature, beauty, art... naught but the cold clink of gold. One day, when my days are repaid, I'll travel to the coast, breathe in two deep draughts of air, and forget Reithwin forever.

I've tried to find more about the seaside landscape a few times--my first thought that it was a painting to hide a secret little safe or something--but haven't found anything. I could still be missing something, but honestly, it sounds like Gerringothe also dreamed of getting on a ship and travelling to the coast someday. She could have been more.

The Visage of Cowardice implies Gerringothe didn't support Ketheric in his war--which tracks, as unlike Malus and Thisobald, there's zero signs of her even pretending to care about Shar.

Please understand--I couldn't fight. Couldn't risk losing all this. Sorry--I had to lock the doors. Had to keep things safe.

I do wonder if the comment about locking the doors was about the Shadow Curse. Did she lock people looking for safety out? Of course she wouldn't have run from the Curse herself, that would mean abandoning the gold.

And finally, we come to the Visage of Guilt, the only Visage you can actually have a conversation with!

Visage of Guilt: Yes. Many died - all for trying to pass. I took too much from them. 1. [Persuasion] If you can tell right from wrong, maybe we can still fix this. 2. [Insight] Perhaps you'd feel less guilty if you paid for your crimes too. 3. People die all the time. Stop being dramatic, and get over it.

New Secret Knots comic, "The River". I hope you like it!

Remember when Lil Nas X beautifully explored his sexuality, seduced and killed the devil to the banger of all time, and instead of cheering on this openly gay and proud Black artist for his artistry and fighting back against respectability politics, suddenly said respectability politics was all the Queerest Place on the Internet cared about? Hm. Wonder what happened there.

Or… a video game actually, aimed at kids. In fact, I even have real actual proof for that last example. It’s what sparked me to write this post.

And I really need people who actually believe that these controlling systems of censorship and surveillance that are being put in place to “protect” children and teens to see this crash out and really truly read all of it! Please! Because you all seriously need to know how ridiculous this is getting and what these systems actually do! And if anyone wants to add more examples of this in a reblog chain then please do! The more evidence showcasing this bullshit the better!

So, last night on Bluesky I came across a screenshot of a game I play, a first party Nintendo game to be specific. The screenshot was marked as “explicit content” by the BlueSky moderation team, not the post’s author. If I was not using a VPN set to Ireland, I would not have been able to see the post at all! All because I live in Scotland, which is now eternally handcuffed to England via a fucking bear trap. And the day I hand over my passport to a social media company or let their dodgy “ai” phrenology bot scan my face, will be a freezing cold day in Thatcher’s personal circle of hell.

So, what’s wrong with the screenshot? Did someone mod the game? Did someone make like idk pixel art in it or something? No. It is a normal screenshot of vanilla gameplay that happened to include a depiction of a penis. Content that is actually in the game in fact. Knowing that now you might say “well okay, but that’s genitalia and nudity! So of course it got flagged.” But now you might be wondering what 1st party Nintendo game would have a depiction of a penis in it that is accurate enough to be flagged by an auto moderator? Well I’ll show you! It put it under the read more so I wouldn’t spoil you! I bet the suspense is killing you! Go take a look :)

(Mild edit, I decided to censor the pfp and name of the OP of the post to protect their identity, I completely forgot to do that)

"I know you look at me with my own dark eyes and bare your teeth in disgust. Father is within our blood and bone, Father's gift granted us life, Father is all that we desire.

"Do all that you must. Partner with Gortash and do not let Orin stray far from your side. Through frozen wastes and gore-wrought caverns, your unyielding drive will bring about a crisis that shall change the planes. There is a future that has other colors than crimson and bone, other scents than metal and putrescence. I trust you to bring us there. You already have.

Bc I wanted one and didn't find it so. Here

[Send ask aimed at a specific character]

1. What's your oc's gender identity? What's their relationship to their gender?

2. What's your oc's orientation? (Romantic/sexual/platonic alterous ect) Do they have opinions about it?

3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

4. Is your oc's environment supportive about their identity? How does this impact them?

5. How did you figure out your oc's identity?

6. How does your oc feel about labels? Theirs, or in general?

7. Is there something that could cause your oc to question their identity? What?

8. Have they had struggles with their identity, be it due to internal or external reasons?

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

10. Does your oc celebrate Pride? How?

11. Is your oc open about their identity? Are they more lowkey or more blunt about it? Why or why not?

12. Does/did your oc ever wish they could change the way they are? Why? If it's in the past, how did they get over the feeling? (this can be about internalized homo/transphobia)

13. Would your oc be open to a poly relationship? Why or why not?

[Not aimed at a specific character] / [Aimed at creator]

14. Do you have ocs on the aro or ace spectrum?

15. Do any of your ocs use neopronouns? Which ones?

16. Did you ever change an oc's identity when they were already established? Why?

17. Do you share identity with any of your ocs? Which ones?

18. Do you prefer to give your ocs specific labels, or keep it unspecified? Why? If applicable, do you change their labels depending on circumstance?

19. Do you have preferences about depicting homo/transphobia in your stories? What, and why? Does it vary by story?

20. Have your ocs helped you in self discovery? How?

hellspawn date night heeheee.....💎💞 reference from the famous(?) panel wwww (put below