Skahlly's Shouts
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I'm sorry is that Willie Loomis from Dark Shadows in your icon?
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Yes. Yes it is. XD
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I KNEW IT. Poor ol' Willie. I loved Dark Shadows when I was in high school. XD
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I love it! I haven't seen all of it yet (there are so many episodes!) but I've seen what appear to be the major arcs--Barnabas past and present, the Quentin Collins timeline (I am a big Quentin fan!)... Currently on the Leviathan plotline, which isn't quite as interesting to me, but will end up watching all of that as well ^^ Loomis is one of my favorite characters (I think John Karlen performed his character brilliantly), though I'm not as familiar with his character pre-Barnabas. Eep, now I'm gushing like the fangirl that I am, but, haha, psyched that you recognized him! X3
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The Leviathan arc was never one of my favorites. I enjoyed Count Petofi, hahaha. Also nobody cares about much that happened in the series before Barnabas, haha. It kind of BEGINS once Willie opens that coffin.
And by all means, gush on! I'm always pleased whenever anybody knows what I'm talking about regarding Dark Shadows (aside from certain...recent movies I could mention).
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Oh gosh. It's better to just never, ever, ever mention a certain recent movie. v_v I was so psyched when I heard about it for the first time, and so... less than psyched when I heard how it was going to play out.
Petofi wasn't my favorite (my love for Quentin made me loathe him, haha), but the actor that played him was also superb at all of the characters he portrayed! My favorite character of his being Ben Stokes, though I inevitably just felt bad for him most of the time. I enjoyed the excursions into the past, even though sometimes they got lengthy and I wanted to know how events would resume in the "present." The Barnabas-past arc was probably my favorite. As you said, the show really began with Barnabas (to the extent that I think if you buy the new DVD set and so on, I think the episodes start there--pre-Barnabas is separated into Dark Shadows: The Beginning, if I'm not mistaken, as though it was something different entirely--which I guess it kind of is).
Y'know, this convo started because of my icon, and maybe you'll know the answer to this question I have about it! When did Loomis ever get bitten in the neck? Barnabas never did that as far as I am aware; he always bit from the wrist. Did Angelique bite him in her brief stay as a vampire? (I missed some of those episodes, as my copies were missing the audio!) Or is it from one of the older movies? I'm just wondering if some crazy Loomis fan like me decided to photoshop the bites or something XD It's okay if you have no idea, but you seem like you probably have as good a chance of knowing and remembering as anyone I've encountered!
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I actually saw the movie. I tried so hard to hold out hope that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay. I was horrified by what they did with it. Allegedly Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were both huge fans of the show growing up, and did a lot of research before making the show, so why it wound up being...what it was is completely beyond me. Even a parody of the show itself would have been better, but the movie has so little to do with Dark Shadows...I just don't know what they were thinking.
Yeah, they did separate out the pre-Barnabas stuff. It really was kind of a different show! I mean they had the ghost of Josette and they had the Phoenix, but other than that there were no supernatural elements. It wasn't until Barnabas that all hell broke loose in Collinwood, haha.
And gosh, I'm really not sure! There are HUGE chunks of the show I haven't seen, and many others for which it's been, like, ten years or more. Angelique seems the likeliest suspect, though. Unless it was Roxanne...
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Yeah, initially I was just going to spare myself the movie, but one night I saw that it was on one of the movie channels that I get, so I decided I'd give it a chance. I really, really did try to give it a legitimate chance, but... It just wasn't even FUNNY. It would have been one thing if it was actually humorous, but I really just found it degrading to the characters. I mean, many of the original characters made cameos, and Lara Parker even claims to have liked the movie, but, to me... It was just disrespectful. I don't know how J.Depp and Burton can claim to love something that they treated so terribly. I don't pretend DS was a perfect work of art--it had more than its share of hokey moments and flubbed lines. But I definitely don't think that it merited the Seth Grahame-Smith treatment. I honestly wish they would've just... Done their movie but named it something else, and named all of the characters differently--they may as well have, as nothing was true-to-story anyway.
I have "The Beginning" series of DS on a flash drive with all the rest, so at some point I will be checking that out too! I have heard it's a lot less supernatural though, so that'll be interesting to experience.
! I haven't met Roxanne yet. Something to look forward to! : D
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It WASN'T funny, you're right. It was just a painful, awkward homage to an era about which Tim Burton is nostalgic. The TV series had a certain timeless quality to it, a sense that it didn't necessarily take place in the 60s specifically, because they were going for a classic gothic feel. You'd never see hippies in Collinwood (much less see Barnabas heartlessly murdering them...and just how disturbing is it that we're supposed to both find that scene funny AND sympathize with him after it??) And then that painful, forced "old timey" speech...the way every character is nothing but a two-dimensional caricature...the way they degraded every female character...oh god, and what they did to JULIA had me raging. Just...GAH!
If they'd made it a comedy about the flubs, the wobbly sets, the occasional mic in the shot, the redundant dialogue, you know, all the little flaws of the actual series which make it so endearing, then I'd have given it a pass. But if I didn't know better, I'd think they'd never seen a single episode.
I hope you enjoy Roxanne when you meet her! I feel they kind of squandered her potential, but the actress who plays her is damn endearing if nothing else. I think, since you're on the Leviathan plotline now, she might be showing up in the next one. If I remember right, that is! It HAS been a while.
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Yeah, it was just... Off on a lot of different levels. I have to admit I couldn't sit through all of it. I just really felt like I was wasting my time, I had given it something like an hour and twenty minutes and it was still just leaving a bad taste in my mouth... -sigh-
Ah, awesome! That's gonna help me get through this Leviathan arc XD I haven't had a whole lot of time lately and this arc has me going through episodes at a snail's pace. More DS vampires will be refreshing < 3
(Thanks for indulging me in my raving btw. Not many people know what I'm talking about if I start spouting Dark Shadows XD So cool to finally encounter somebody who gets it! )
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I saw the entire thing, start to finish. Granted, I worked for a movie theater at the time, and so I got in for free. And yet I still felt ripped off. The ending was so utterly, unabashedly wish-fulfilley that it made me want to gag. Barnabas gets exactly what he wants because he's the protagonist, despite the fact that, frankly, I found him more despicable than Angelique ever was in this version. But Tim Burton often has this problem of being blind to his main character's flaws.
Just be aware that when you finally see Roxanne, it's going to be a WHILE before she gets around to putting a bite on anyone. I don't want to go into spoiler territory (well, any more than telling you that she's going to be a vampire AT ALL is), but...yeah, just don't expect her to vamp out right away. But hey, it's always nice to see the ensemble cast get a new face, right? XD
Pssh, not at all! It's a pleasure to talk Dark Shadows with anyone myself. I'm pretty much the only person I know who's ever watched it, haha. >.>
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Yeah, they really made him unlikable in that movie. ...As well as pretty much every other character... Well, it sounds like I didn't miss out on anything by skipping on the ending, at least XD
It's exactly that, I'll be excited to see a new character (and a new face! When I Googled her I was wondering which well-known cast member I was supposed to expect! Not so!) I can wait for the actual vampire-stuff--if Dark Shadows teaches any virtue, it is patience, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. Haha.
Hey, have you heard anything about the Dark Shadows audio dramas? They're newer, but feature the original cast and new adventures taking place in the old DS world we know and love. I haven't checked them out yet personally but I'm thinking about giving this one a shot: http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Insanity-Dark-Shadows-Smith/dp/1844353834/
And there are a few others, as well.-
Yeah, that ending...SPOILER ALERT: Angelique tries to get Vicky to jump off the cliff again, Barnabas vampires her as she falls so that she'll survive, they hit the bottom, she recognizes him because hey, what do you know, SHE REALLY WAS JOSETTE ALL ALONG, they kiss, music plays, and oh yeah there's a little sting about Julia still being alive for possible vampirey vengeance down at the bottom of the sea. PASS.
Ahaha yeah that...actually has proven problematic for me in trying to re-watch the series, recently. I had forgotten JUST how slow-moving it could be. And I'm still in the early episodes where Barnabas is kind of a dick. I'm kind of impatient for him to join up with the good guys already!
I've heard of the audio dramas, but I haven't checked them out. I DO know that they definitively gave Barnabas's story an ending, at least, which is more than the series did (of course there are some allegedly canonical comics which came out around about the same time as the movie, as well as Lara Parker's novel about Angelique, which purport to reopen Ye Olde Can of Wormes again, but I don't know about their quality, even though I've always wanted to read Angelique's Descent).
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Oh jeez. So yeah. I missed nothing that would've made it any better. I apparently made a good call XD
Yeah, they really dragged as much out of some plot areas as they could! You can really tell which episodes were 'Friday episodes' sometimes, too--where you think OH FINALLY YES THE REVEAL WILL HAPPEN and then nope, SEE YOU ON THE NEXT EPISODE. #_# I think that's part of why the Leviathan arc is slowing me up so much, because I'm not even too into this arc and so its slow pace is extra-killer!
Okay, so I caved and ordered Echoes of Insanity. So if you are interested, I can let you know how at least that one is, after I give it a listen! 'Angelique's Descent' has actually been on my Amazon wishlist for a while; I really need to give it a shot, actually, because Lara Parker has written a lot of Dark Shadows tie-ins. She has a Quentin one called 'Wolf Moon Rising' that looks pretty interesting as well. I guess K. Leigh Scott wrote some books, too? The comics I haven't looked into at all. So much Dark Shadows media out there! Some of it I don't mind waiting for, because it might make more sense after I finish the TV series. The CD drama I ordered was actually supposed to have taken place while Loomis was at Windcliffe (I may have spelled that wrong; the mental institution), somewhere in an earlier Barnabas arc. I'm excited to check some of this extra-to-the-show stuff out!
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Yes you did! And you know what else bugged me? Danny Elfman did this great soundtrack which included a lot of homages to the music of the original series...and yet the theme music was NOWHERE in the score. >:I Maybe a minor grump, but rargh!
Ahahaha yeah I think I remember the Leviathans arc driving me nuts. Is Barnabas still under their evil mind control or has he broken free yet? It gets a bit better once he's back to normal, and then when another old face shows up (spoiiiiiiiiiiiiilers).
I didn't realize she'd written a Quentin tie-in too! I knew that she had some others, though. Ah me, you're really making me want to get back into this stuff now. XD Dark Shadows, why can I never quit you??
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You're right, I never noticed any original theme music in the movie. Elfman usually does a good job, I guess I just totally didn't even notice his work in that movie. All I remember are the awkwardly-placed 70s tracks. (Though, to be honest, any 70s track is out of place to me in DS. I think you mentioned it previously, but even though DS really is supposed to take place in the late 60s/early 70s (when we're not going back in time, that is) it doesn't really have that feel--it's like it's in its own little cosmos, unaffected by the trends of decades; THE BRANDY IN THE PARLOR AND THE TUNE THAT PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND AT THE BLUE WHALE, THEY WILL NEVER CHANGE! XP )
Still under Leviathan control where I'm at. Glad it will get better. AHHHG I WONDER WHO IT SHALL BEEEEEE... At this point I have two guesses based on the plot: Quentin or Charles Tate. Or heck I could be way off. Angelique could show up out of nowhere, she loves to do that. NO SPOILER THIS ONE, I AM EXCITE! X3 Dang, now I need more DS-watching time! Gah!
The Quentin one sounds really interesting to me! I mean, I thought Angelique's Descent sounded like it could be interesting, especially because it would provide some more in-depth and background info for, well, pretty much the events that sparked the majority of the DS trouble (or at least for Barnabas). But apparently the Quentin one takes place when David is like 16, but, y'know how stuff happens in Collinwood, there's yet another time warp and he and a reincarnation of Angelique end up in the Prohibition era (which is an era that captures my fancy quite a bit). So Quentin + prohibition era story intrigues me. And confuses me. I clearly need to watch more DS before all of these characters being in the same time makes sense to me. AND NO, YOU! Seriously starting this convo with you has gotten me back in DS mode, hence me finally breaking down and even ordering a drama audio XD The Leviathan arc had cooled me off for a bit, but, all it takes is talking about what I love about this show to get me right back in. YOU CAN NEVER QUIT DARK SHADOWS. THAT'D BE LIKE. ANGELIQUE DYING FOR PERMANENTS. It's just something that never happens.
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PRECISELY. Using "Nights in White Satin" as the intro instead of that theme...gjsjgs;aj;g.
(THE BLUE WHALE HAS EXACTLY ONE RECORD AND IF IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOUR GRANDPA IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU)
You know what was especially telling to me? The fact that Burton set the movie in 1972, exactly one year AFTER the original series had been cancelled. He even acknowledge this, but said in interviews that he did it because he just "associated" the show with that time, which he was nostalgic for. That basically sums up his whole approach to it: Don't bother respecting the source material or its themes/atmosphere, just dive straight into self-indulgence. Of course it's not like he doesn't do that with virtually every movie he makes anymore (I seriously rolled my eyes when he shoehorned his father issues into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Just...I wish he would remember what "restraint" is, because he's capable of making some SERIOUSLY good movies, and I will always love his aesthetic sense. But this just...wasn't...his finest moment.
BITES TONGUE I will NOT tell you who the returning face is, I will not I will not!! But god, I was going CRAZY waiting for Barnabas to get back to normal. Really sympathized with Julia during that part of the arc let me tell you. @_@ I forget, is he a vampire at this point or a human? I think he's human. I kind of lost track of how many times Barnabas was de-vampired and re-vampired, hahaha. XD
Ahaha I love all the time travel in DS! You wouldn't THINK a gothic horror soap opera would involve time travel, and yet, here we are, ladies and gentlemen. Here we are. Prohibition era Quentin DOES sound pretty cool though. >.> Maybe I should give this one a look-see too.
Ahahaha I'm glad I'm helping give you the bug again! XD Maybe I should play some DS while I'm trying to get more drawing practice in. Seems like it would be good, since you don't have to pay FULL attention to it...hmmm...
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Huh, I never realized that he set the movie in that year, but I think you've probably pinpointed his reasons. It really IS too bad, because, as you said, he is capable of some pretty great stuff--I loved Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and, on the newer side, his version of Sweeney Todd, too. It just seems like lately he's been in a weird funk. And I just really wish he wouldn't have gotten DS involved in that funk. But, what's done is done. As much as I (highly) doubt that the new movie brought in new fans to the original series (I feel like anybody who actually enjoyed the new movie would not be able to appreciate the original), I guess I can hope that maybe it was successful in bringing in a few. I'M TRYING TO BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THINGS. TRYING HARD. #_#
AHHHGH so I've been watching DS as much as I can lately (which isn't much, I've been a busyface) but QUENTINNNNNNN! I'm so happy! Also, I'm all back in. I got past the part that really didn't interest me, or rather, enough different elements have been added that catch my attention, including Paul Stoddard getting the threat about Caroline, Quentin, etc. Yeah Julia is extra-awesome right now, since she's basically head good-guy in lieu of Barnabas (he's still on the Leviathan side as of the point I'm at). I think he's a human right now, haven't seen any vamp-ness lately. I have to be honest though, before I started re-watching again I couldn't have told you, it can get hard to keep track when I don't watch for a while XD But oh gosh, now I'm just ready to curl up under a blanket and have a Dark Shadows day! (I can go a long time without watching, but once I restart, I become a hopeless addict all over again!)
Yeah, I never would have guessed! I especially didn't expect the time travel to happen more than once! XD But hey, it works!
Be careful if you watch DS while you sketch. Sexy Quentin muttonchops could show up spontaneously, without memory of ever having drawn them. -spooky theme music- -or should it be the Quentin theme?- lol but at the point I'm at it's RIP Quentin muttonchops, apparently they decided they had to tone those suckers down for the 1960s XD TOO MUCH FOR YOU TO HANDLE, 60'S. TOO MUCH FOR YOU TO HANDLE.
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I LOVED his version of Sweeney Todd, though not all fans of the stage show agree with me. It is, in many ways, a very different beast from the original musical. I'm okay with that primarily because I felt like he didn't stray so far afield that he changed the central meaning of the story...again, much unlike the case with Dark Shadows...or some of the other excessive indulgences he's let himself have in other recent movies, like Alice in Wonderland...
(I suspect my favorite Tim Burton movie will always be Beetlejuice. Lot of nostalgia wrapped up in that one, and the cartoon based on it. Or perhaps the '89 Batman, for similar reasons.)
RIP Quentin's fantastic mutton chops. T_T I remember missing them myself. There are few men who can rock that look so well!
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Yeah, I've seen a musical production of Sweeney Todd, and though there were differences, I don't think they were too off. I actually like Burton's vision of it better.
I also read the book upon which both are based, A String of Pearls, and uh, it's an entirely different creature as well, which I'd recommend if you are ever in a Sweeney Todd sort of mood but want to know how the original story went.I heard there is going to be a Beetlejuice 2? Hopefully Burton manages this better than his latest, I could see a whole lotta fan-rage if it doesn't pan out well. To the extent that, even if I was a mega-Beetlejuice fan, I think I may just want him to leave it alone XD (I do like Beetlejuice, but I think my favorite movie he directed was actually Ed Wood for some reason.)
...I actually went to a costume shop just to buy fake muttonchops when I was in a Quentin mood. Alas, I cannot rock them like David Selby. -sigh-
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I actually have a copy of the String of Pearls, as it happens! I read it a few years back. A very different beast indeed. >.> They certainly fleshed out Sweeney's character considerably in Sondheim's version, though I don't think anything will quite match the sheer creepiness of that discover under St. Dunstan's in the original novel. That's one of the more grotesque ideas I've run across in Victorian lit.
Beetlejuice 2 has been floating around Hollywood at LEAST since the original came out. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder seem to think it's really happening this time, so I guess we'll see. At this point I'm pretty indifferent about whether it's good or bad. There have been so MANY bad sequels to good movies over the years that I no longer let them tarnish the originals for me. XD Besides, maybe we'll luck out and it won't actually be terrible. Wouldn't THAT be nice?
Few there be that can rock those chops. Few there be indeed. :I
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I need to re-read it. I remember I liked it a lot, minus the Johanna parts which were so tedious and boring that someone I lent the book to literally could not get past the one really long Johanna chapter near the middle-ish section XD I remember Toby was a lot more prominent (and disturbed).
Yeah, I've just been hearing a lot about it lately it seems. You do have a good point there--sequels rarely seem to do their originators justice, with the prominent exception in my mind of some more-recent superhero movies (Dark Knight, Iron Man 2, and, HOPEFULLY, The Winter Soldier. Hot damn I am excited about The Winter Soldier. -spazzes-) So there's hope. I just wonder where they'd even go with a second Beetlejuice movie? I guess I am not familiar enough with the franchise to extrapolate on it.
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I don't even REMEMBER the Johanna parts, so that really says something about them to me. XD I mostly remember Toby in the asylum and Not-Anthony in Mrs. Lovett's kitchen...oh, and Sweeney fighting off all those guys with, what was it, a broom? A shovel? Man, Penny Dreadfuls were full of all sorts of lunacy back in the day. o_o
Apparently, back in the day the original idea was to have all the characters go to Hawaii, where Betelgeuse would save the day by winning a surfing contest. Not even kidding. :I
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Thank you so much for following me! ^^
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I'm not a fursuiter or anything, but the tails you make are just lovely!! :) I can't wait to see more.
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Thank you so much! < 3 I've neglected this account for a bit and am trying to fix that, so expect a few more today yet too! : D
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Thank you so much!
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I has questions about getting a tail!!
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wow, thanks so much for following me! ;v; I appreciate it so much! <3
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Wow, at some point and time, I must get a tail from you! <3
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Your avatar is John Karlen as Willie Loomis from the Dark Shadows. I CAN HAS SPECIAL PRIZE NAU.
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One day, I'll get a tail from you. I SWEAR.
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: P One day, we will probably still be here, ready for when ya do, haha!
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You have really good quality tails for a nice price. I'd get one if my character didnt have a tiny doe tail.
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Thank you.
PS If you ever do want a tiny doe tail they look ridiculously adorable and are some of my favorites to make even though they are small XP
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Love your tails! Seeing your prices now makes me extremely interested in getting my own now.
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Thanks : ) Well if you decide to get a tail I'll be here XD Even if our current slots fill up we'll be opening slots for later in 2013 probably sometime in spring.
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If you don't mind me asking, what brand of yarn do you use? Or is it hand spun? I've never had any luck with finding decent quality store-bought yarn that doesn't just clump off in pieces after the initial brush-through.
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To be honest I use a lot of different kinds... And am still finding ones I like better than others XD A good starter yarn is Simply Soft, give it a shot!
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I love the quality of your tails. :)
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Thank you : )
Expect to see many more, I have a deluge of tails to upload yet XD
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That's exactly how I was :'D Glad you`re enjoying it!
Link
VesperusViator
https://www.weasyl.com/submission/505741