the fact that lights don’t start flickering ominously and short-circuiting whenever i’m upset is maximally unsexy and not at all excellent if you ask me
HOO LORDY DO I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU
When she was a kid, my grandma would play in the White Sands desert in New Mexico, relatively close to the Trinity nuclear test site and a few other sites. The government didn’t really want anyone to know exactly what they were doing at the time (or how dangerous it was), so there weren’t any warning signs not to let your kid play in the forking radioactive sand. My grandmother spent a lot of time there, and as she grew up, her parents started to notice that some electronics didn’t quite work right around her, and when she was upset, watches near her would stop working entirely (this was obviously back when analog was the only option).
As digital technology became more and more of a thing, she had the same problem with electronics not working right around her, especially when she was upset. I distinctly remember her telling me one story about how she went to a department store and, upon learning she’d misread the opening times and was there an hour early, got a little frustrated but decided to wait without a fuss. The electronic door unlocked itself and the gate went up within five minutes, and when she went inside, none of the employees could figure out how she got in, and none of them had been near the control panel for the door or gate yet.
Once she finally got tested with an EMF metee, she came up at 2.5 milligauss (for reference, the upper level of “safe” ambient readings is 1, and some scientists say even that’s too high).
My mom and I have the same problem, which is honestly kind of unfortunate when a computer has a problem or something, cause we’ll get frustrated and then of course the problem mysteriously gets worse despite us doing everything right to fix it. My mom and I also got tested with an EMF reader; she’s a 2 and I’m a 1.75. So lights flickering and devices short circuiting around us is a common thing if one of us is upset.
i’m re-listening to the suffering game, as you do, and in the first episode lucretia goes “oh yeah i have no fucking idea what the animus bell does” which just seems WILD to me
like logically i get that griffin was trying to build suspense for what would eventually lead to magnus losing his body,
but in-game i don’t really think there’s a good reason why she’d have lied to them about that part specifically? why wouldn’t she tell them, if she knew? so she must have been telling the truth, right? she just… genuinely didn’t know what it did???
did barry just roll up to the starblaster one day after creating his relic like “hey guys. what’s up. check this out. it’s a bell. sick, right,” and when someone asked him what it did he was just like
I have Theories about this. Because everything about the animus bell is freaking weird. It even has Barry’s voice. (I’ll never get over that! it’s so unsettling, it really jarred me on relisten)
I think that Barry made the bell to preserve the lives of the mortal crew and straight up told no one. Like, when the crew lands in their forever home this is the future he and Lup have to look forward: outliving their family, turning into monsters as their bonds decay and/or eternal punishment in the stockade. That’s HORRIBLE.
So what does Barry do? He makes a thing that can fix that problem for good. Can’t go insane because all your anchors are dead if your anchors can’t die.
You know what the OTHER weird thing about the Bell is? The fact that Edward and Lydia have it in the first place. They’re reclusive and in hiding from the Reapers. They aren’t going out for much except to advertise. (And it’s questionable whether they could reliably do that before they had the bell in the first place)
So…yeah. I think Barry ultimately gave them the bell willingly, to keep it’s damage relatively contained and keep it in a place where he could come back for it later. Once he’s explained the situation to everyone and has convinced them to stick around. Everything will be fine!
….I think Lucretia probably tried to ask him about the bell when she was redacting everything, getting ready for the big wipe. And Barry was just. Vague. Necromancy things. You know, necromancy, Luce. The thing I do? Yeah.
The whole situation must have been weird too. Everyone is seeing the damage their relics are doing and meanwhile it’s total radio silence on whatever Barry’s thing is and he won’t talk about it. Fucked up.
yeah! big agree, especially re: the idea that barry gave the relic to lydia and edward directly. a pair of ostentatious, magically-gifted twins? of course they gave barry the right vibes.
i severely underestimated the amount of time it would take to add ed edd n eddy sound effects to things. everything just moves so quickly and when you start adding sound effects you REALLY start to notice the silence inbetween actions.
you ever think about how absolutely bonkers bananas the entire crystal kingdom arc was. i mean i didnt even know what was going on for 60% of my first listen of that thing
here there be gerblins: classic dnd adventure but there’s a character named barry bluejeans, and the boss gets charmed.
murder on the rockport limited: classic train murder mystery feat. necromancy. introduces a widely beloved character. the setting is just the train for 90% of the arc
petals to the metal: preparing to race. and then racing. feat. tragic love story, reintroduction of an old character, and funky racing shenanigans wherein the DM gives up on not saying the word ‘car.’
crystal kingdom: the setting is a lab that’s turning to crystal. lots of mini-activities, such as Mean Quiz Robot, Tardigrades, and Tiny Elevator Adventure. the players are being chased by Death Himself AND a ball of ghosts that climbed out from under death’s nose. the robots are actually possessed. beloved character returns. other beloved character’s family is met. the red robe yells something mysterious and plot-important. a scientist is desperately trying to give exposition about crucial interplanar lore as a competent woman is prevented from killing him. the Real World is canon. the boys literally cheat death with rigged playing cards. one of the most powerful artifacts in the known universe gets eaten and they have to use Remote Shapeshifting to get it out.
eleventh hour: the setting is a single town in a time loop where they have to gradually learn more about the events & inhabitants to create a perfect loop. it’s groundhog day but one hour.
suffering game: sacrifice-and-fight loop all day. the apocalypse is starting. the red robe is a friend. cool lich fight. speedrun strats clip through kravitz’s sidequest.
stolen century: a series of mini boat adventures. we stan a whole crew.
story and song: it’s the finale. big fight. very good epilogue. good job
