to-do list 2026: tag & clear my queue

Or whatever "ohactuallytheywerentalwaysthatbad* reason that people on here like to ise

Redemption is about choices. You have chosen the wrong things, the bad things, the evil things, but you can choose something else

- Rocky's clock ticks at the slower almost 2-Earth-second interval that is an Eridian second (yes I counted one Mississippi two Mississippi in the theater, why?).

- Yao and Grace discussing how the unit conversion error was the cause of the explosion, which feels to me like a callback to that one time we crashed a Mars lander because the US part of the team worked in imperial units and the EU part of the team worked in metric and I guess they forgot to cross-check?

- The cut from the aircraft carrier karaoke bar scene to The Moment at Adrian mediated by the lil red-suited scuba guy in the fish tank.

- As Grace is starting to say "She said I had my head in the clouds", the background scenery of the mental health bay turns to a scene of a blue sky with fluffy clouds, camera angle slightly below his head and looking up to that background.

- The bright projector bulb with dust in its beam shown quite deliberately, twice, during the "What is Project Hail Mary" presentation, evoking a star and its Petrova line cloud of astrophage.

- The way the clock-like rhythm to the music and the night-day-night-day changes to the light show the passage of time while Grace is patiently waiting for Rocky to wake up during Taumoeba.

- When Rocky joyfully shakes the filaments in his ship to show Grace how it works, reminiscent of how some spiders shake their webs.

- How both the images and the sounds of Grace's very first memories were visually and auditorially hazy and blurry and fuzzy.

- Grace has his Rocky figurine on his ship's dashboard, and Stratt has her Grace figurine on hers.

- The art behind Stratt in The Betrayal is the two ships. I have seen someone else say this, but I had trouble seeing it at first. But now I do. I'd even say it's clear the Blip-A is the one on viewer's right and the Hail Mary on viewer's left.

- Curiosity killed the cat (Cats t-shirt, cat on San Fran bridge tshirt). (Dunno if this is a thing for real, but it occurred to me so I figured I'd throw it in, because Grace canNOT resist a mysterious person or situation).

This song is simply immaculate in terms of storytelling. It covers the whole story of the Undertaker with such gravitas & heart, that I can't help but be moved by it every time I hear it.

At first, it starts off simple, dour, quiet & unfulfilled. The life of the Undertaker before she came to the Roundtable Hold. An outcast to everyone she has ever known. A person defined by strange ways & an unending hunger. Always alone, desperate to find a place in her faith, but treated ever more as a monster due to her very being.

The Loathesome Hex is part of the Undertaker. It has always been in her very bones. The purpose it serves, the power it offers... it doesn't matter to her. It has never brought her joy, nor purpose, only hunger & the fear of her peers. The Undertaker has lived many lives, but never has she found a place to live, kicked about by the winds, sent away to another church only to be sent further out. She does not even know the god she worships, possibly because she was denied access to service or mass due to her situation. And yet, all she does is serve. She must repent for the sin of existing as she is. Perhaps she could be forgiven, if she would just die... but the Loathesome Hex denies her this through it's strength & the Trance it puts her into. The Undertaker can only pray she finds a way out. To be cured of this hex. She never finds it. And so, she is sent away to the Roundtable Hold, in hopes that she never returns. She hopes so, as well.

...but with the violin, what she finds is new. Different. She is welcomed. Trusted. Heard. Though she still stands as an outsider, the Nightfarers try their hardest to bring the Undertaker into their fold as though she belongs there. Even against her nightmarish visions, she is reassured that there is nothing to fear, that they do not want to hurt her, that they want her to be happy. Most of all, the Scholar is there for her. Though his ways are odd, his sentiment for her is genuine. But she cannot accept her purpose is to end the Night wholeheartedly, for the Loathesome Hex drives her to hunger for it. It *sates* her. She does not need to hunt so desperately as she did before so long as it exists. So, the Undertaker remains an outsider. She remains hopeful, however. That she might have a place here. Until her addiction is found out.

Her closest companion, the Scholar, learned of her hunger for the Night. And so, the pact is struck. Her secret remains unknown, so long as she does one little thing. Cover up his disappearance. He will return, surely. Surely this is the price to pay for her sin. She would rather pay this moment & this lie to ensure she remains with the Roundtable Hold, the only place she has not been forced away from, the only place where her talents are not scorned as unholy. So, the Scholar leaves.

He does not return. The happy memories fade with the music, until only echoes remain. She must uphold her end of the deal. She must. She must.

The piano makes her thoughts clear. She questions where the Scholar went. She goes off on her own. The Undertaker searches for the Scholar. Not because she is told to do so, but because she wants him back. She has no way of knowing what happened to him, nor does she inherently gain by having him returned safely. If anything, his disappearance means her secret remains safe. But the Undertaker searches out of her own will, her own want, the first time she has been allowed to do so without being driven by the Loathesome Hex. And the Loathesome Hex enables her, it assists her in this endeavor. She finds the Scholar... and she is hopeful. Her friend is back, and he thanks her for what she has chosen to do.

The two are reunited, the music is flooded with relief & with joy. Now, the Scholar offers her something greater than she has ever been given: a purpose. To deliver his life's work for him, many years from now, when the Night finally falls silent. She is the only person he dares to trust with this task. Her. The Undertaker. Despite the Hex -- no, /because/ of the Hex, she has been given this duty. And with it, a gift -- a crystal stained by the Night that can stave off her hunger. An answer to her conundrum. The way she can end the Night & sate the Hex together. She sets out, one last time, to complete the task her new family has gathered for. To end the Night, once and for all.

The Undertaker stands at the end of the world, a mirror to her new home. Cold, devoid of life. In her hands lie the flesh of the Nightlord. She casts it aside. It is a moot gesture, but she hopes that it will suffice. She presents the Primordial Rune to the Ancient, and the Night cascades into nothingness, as she fades with it.

Her life had been a loathesome affair. She had never found anywhere to call her own until now. But in the end, wherever it lead to... she took control of her life. She went after her dearest friend, despite all reason otherwise. She accepted his final request, knowing he believed with all his heart that she was the one who could see it through. She refused the call of the Night, even if it meant having the Loathesome Hex upon her for all time.

So, the Undertaker thinks of all she has done, all she has endured, all the times she was cast aside & treated as a monster, all of the corpses left in her wake, all of the nightmares & visions that tormented her, all of the times the hunger drove her to delusion... and she is at peace.

Returned to Nightreign!

My biggest issue with Nightreign was the grouping was terrible for me. I always got groups with people who just died and then I'd be left alone to struggle. So instead I've decided to play offline by myself. I picked up Scholar and Undertaker to test out.

tags from @actual-changeling