AmarisNsane

@Widdershins: Oh! Hey, I had no idea that you were into H.P. Lovecraft.  He's actually among, if not sitting right at the top of my favorite authors list.  What might your favorite (short) story of his be? If you have a favorite.  I've already respected you well enough, but somehow, you manage to bring along newfound respect from me.  And hey, hey! I like R.R. Martin! Though to be fair, I really only have ever read his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.  I do plan on getting around to reading some of his stories.  If I recall, he's starting or had been working on a new book as well? A full novel.  I haven't researched up on anything related to him in quite some time, sadly.  I should.

As for these other authors: Bruce Coville sounds like quite the gem! After doing some research, I'm liking what I'm seeing! The art itself puts a smile on my face, I can only imagine the writing.  E Nesbitt specializes in DRAGON literature then? Oh, of course you would like her, haha! It sounds incredibly interesting.  I don't believe I've ever read someone like that.  

And Pratchett.  Please don't hate me, but I don't believe I've heard of nor read.  It sounded familiar enough, so I've searched up on his work but don't recognize any.  For you to like him so much though, he must have been a great author.  I do trust your judgement! It is saddening that such a big figure for you had passed.  Might I ask when? How? Or I could just do research, whatever works.

Also, any specific suggestions of which book to start with? From the works of Coville, Nesbitt and Pratchett? Very appreciated, thank you so much!  

 *Look of Befuddlement*

 ...You askin' the wrong being for timestamps or Beginnings or Endings!

 Hmm... Well, Coville, and to a lesser degree, Nesbitt, are known for their anthologies. Pretty much anywhere from any book you can find will do; though Nesbitt's stuff is more of her own collected short stories. Seem to recall one about a dragon that was a literal, living scrap heap. One part got pulled out and the dragon fell apart! And a Sealskin Coat dragon! Real classical childrens' stories, I should say! Coville is a mainstay in childrens' literature, so he hopefully oughten't be hard to find; I picked him up in Goodwills to gather my own hoard of his works. I should say though, his series on My Teacher is an Alien/ melted my brain, etc. Sounds silly, of course, but it goes WAY deep! Remember at some point, he unravels  that alien kind & the whole universe has been keeping tabs on Mankind, since we're a rather... emotional & unpredictable species, that we had at one point in our evolution a psychic link that we grew out of, and ever since we've been disjointed & disgruntled for lack of that same emotional link.

... and I'm like: "Ow! Brain too open now!!"

 Coville's good on his monster mash-ups though!

 ...Pratchett though...?...

...

 ...Widdershins?

ON IT!

  HEY @Duality!!! WE TALKIN' PRATCHETT OVAH HERE!! ...There!

...Little calling-in of another bibliophile, If I might. Feet of Clay, I say, is a good starting point. Thing is with Sir Terry Pratchett, is all of his stuff is set in his Discworld, a flat world on the back of four elephants, on the back of a giant, cosmic turtle swimming through the eternal starlights. He doesn't alienate you, wherever you start. If there's any backstories to be had (Like, four or five of that girl that became a witch & helped the fairyfolk or the starting & continuing adventures of the motley crew of the police force in lawless Ankh'morpork) he'll guide you through it without you being aware of it. Each book is self-contained, I'd say. Feet of Clay though... if a writer can make you feel emotionally attached to a literal Golem... like, traditional Jewish Mythology, blank slate of emotions ovah' here!

 Hogfather was good though... fared better in the movie adaptation though. And that's with an assassin that's literally-theoretically killing actual belief. Weird though. All the stuff with Death somehow fares better when they can show you that you literally cannot comprehend the metaphysical shenanigans.

 ...yes. Death itself is a character of Sir Pratchett's. No, not an embodiment-of-the-concept like you see in movies, literally the concept of Death has a personality when Pratchett writes!

 I cannot recommend Pratchett enough! Just pick up whatever of his books you can find! I've had to hunt down each installment by luck alone, and I've still yet to come across a duplicate!

 ...still remember reading that off the blurb of the last part of his last book... that Sir Terry Pratchett went down, only lamenting of the stories he couldn't finish, that he still had plans for... if he only had time. But he was a happy, adventurous soul! Think it was heart complications... do think he was pretty heavy on the pipe...Feels like I was only just starting to get inspired by his cheerful attitude to live life for what you can do with it.

 ... still. I've got no doubt he still died happy! I oughta... go research him some more...

...

 ...Oh! Well, to counter melancholy with vitriol! R.R. Martin!

  To be fair to your fairness! I've only ever gotten a taste for him through his thick...thick, book of his short stories! Couldn't even finish! Hey, I like quirky, fable-like, monster/horror & dark humor stories but... Whuh... there was one about a sorta Devil's Pawnshop deal, where the guy got a literal monkey on his back... that only he could see... that was slowly sucking the very life out of him... and how he was trying to evade it before the naked, swollen ape ate him into a husk... and another story about a fancy Gourmand turning to a life of cannibalism... then eating himself alive, I think...

 Eh... I hesitate to say that ol' R.R. does Nightmare-Written-Into-Story better than Lovecraft...

 Good Ol' Lovecraft and his totally rotten life that led to his own special way of writing! He's the author you go to to feel better about your own Introvertedness! I still adore his own term for the everyday "Normies!" Those who don't dabble in the overdramatic darkness: the "Sundwellers." "Eh! You and you're "doing things while it's still light out!" Bleh!"

 Carrying around a collection of his with me right now! So hard to find Lovecraft! Just got done with Cats of Ulthar which is amazingly restrained for H.P. Into the Mountains of Madness was likely his most well done & beautiful works, closest to being a full on book rather than a short, jotted down story. Never did get why he's known for Cthulu. Whichever one that was was pretty much just thirty pages of "Oh Noes! Spooky stuff! Watch out!" then Cthulu waking up early from his millennial nap early, getting bopped in the head with a boat, shaking a grumpy tentacle at the sailors and going "Aw, to heck with all you humans! I'm goin' back to bed!"

 My favorites probably The Dunwich Horror (if I remember that right) that brought us the closest thing to fangirl/fanboy over in his books. The poor, potentially misunderstood "brother" that only wanted that dang book from the library! Nobeing has quite as much angst as the half-blood Cosmic Horror! ...If... if cosmic horrors HAD blood... or form... uh, wait...

 Though... do fondly remember one short story that basically surmises as such: "Oh no! My ancestors might be albino apes! I can't handle this fact! I'm gonna go wave my arms around in babbling panic into that there marsh! WAUGHBLBL!!!"

 Innsmouth, his second most famous story is a bit over-rated, I'd say. The fish demons don't strike me as quite as repulsive as H.P might've wanted us to feel... the implications... maybe...

... Ooh! The Colour From Space! Where a whole family farm wastes away from having just TOO much color added to it! From Space! Never knew Hopelessness could be so entertaining! Can still picture dumbfounded local farmers watching it all come to a head and going "Welp!... couldn'ta done nothing to make THAT any less traumatic!"

Discworld is an absolutely amazing series and the definitive satire of quasi-Lovecraftian high fantasy. Sir Pratchett got twelve honorary doctorates plus a knighthood just for writing it. I second Widds on recommending it unreservedly.

There are about fifty books to it, not counting companion material, but you can legitimately start anywhere without losing out on anything but a bit of the compounded humorousness of long-term in-jokes (and this is undertaken even without bulky and repetitive exposition across books; I have yet to figure out how Pratchett did it). However, here's a timeline of the series if you're the sort who wants to start at the beginning of things regardless of technical comprehensibility:

The Watch novels I find the most addictively readable out of all the subseries, and Widds knows what he's talking about when he says Feet of Clay is top-tier. First one I ever read and still my running favourite.

I don't know much about any of the other authors mentioned, but that's my name-invoked two cents' worth of bibliophilic corroboration. 

@AmarisNsane

YAY! Welcome Back! 

*HUGS*

@Sparklefan1234     ....PoohBat?

@Widdershins

They fight for truth, justice & honey! 

It is an amazing pic! I have a bit of a love for frogs too! I am kinda glad i didn't have my silly photoshop profile pic on XD

It is! He's such a cute little guy! <3 You should totally PM me the full picture if it's not too much trouble. Then, if you'd like, we can totally bond over frogs! xD

*heh* Thanks~

Something up?

Just the usual feeling of disconnection. It doesn't often get to me but, well... would you mind my sending you a PM? Steam is sadly out of the question at the moment.

Sorry for missing your reply; kinda fell asleep in my chair. >_< Of course; you can send me a PM anytime.

Apologies, I hate my computer sometimes. Anyway...

@SolarFlare: Yes! You must venture into... THRIFTY MEGAMART to get one! As far as I recall, the encounters will mostly be of Haunters, Golbats and Klefkis, but there's a 5% rate for precious Mimikyu. If you plan on catching one, good luck!

@Widdershins: Ah, thanks so much! Miniors, here I come!

Just caught my own Mimikyu. Can't say it seems all that impressive. It's "forms" consist primarily of breaking its own neck.

Congrats!

Oh, nice! Rock/Ground is often my least favorite typings as well, admittedly. You should tell me some of your other favorites sometime. Or now. Here or PM, it doesn't matter!

Hmm, I oughta create a blog or a thread about that sometime. Has enough meat on the topic to warrent others chirping in, I suppose.

Yes! Pick your favorite pokemon for each type, and perhaps why. Something like that. That'd be a pretty interesting read as far as I'm concerned.

Did you get to sleep finally?

Yeah! Honestly, I have no idea. I turned off the game for something, turned it back on, then when I went into a Pokemon center, it suddenly alerted me that three of my pokemon had it. I have no idea how I managed it. Well, just going to put some of the infected pokemon in the PC for later infected uses, haha.

Well, spread it about I suppose, trade a few off to spread the contagion! Which reminds me, does this generation have a Wonder Trade function?

Yes. I'll start by spreading it within my game, then the games of others and then one day, my friend, I WILL INFECT THE WORLD. But really, after checking the Festival Plaza, "Wonder trade" is actually an option, so it would seem so!

And to you!

merry holidays

Bawk bawk.

lol thanks. XD I thought it was adorable too. <3

I have to agree with You both xD

Things have been fine! Can't complain too much! And how about you? :3

Whoops... xD Made my response an actual status! ANYYYWAY!! Yeah, I've doing well... not too good, not too bad. Just alive, I guess! I've missed you thouugh!! ;o; and I'm so happy to hear that you're doing well also!

Missed you too; it's been too long! ;_; Just glad to see you back. ^^

Why no problem. Thank you so much for saying such a nice thing. Your avatar is awesome!

Well, Dear A.N. can't say I really know Steam all too well. I can really only tell if its working when it does what I want it to, but then you could say that about anything really. Bloody thing seems a tad smidge slow on the draw, I daresay.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to dramatically sip my fresh brewed Earl Grey Tea!

Nyeeh! That's hot!

Well, you've only been gone for... uh, a month-ish? Though considering how I've gotten 56 in under one day, I can't even imagine how many notifications you have to go through. Might want to start skipping whatever ones don't outright mention you directly.

...wait, Augh! I'm adding to it!!!

Perfect! Who needs to kiss and cuddle when you have D&D?

Of course D&D plus the aforementioned kissing and cuddling works too though I'm fairly sure it'd give a penalty to Spot checks

Oh gosh, I'm dying. xD Yes, that is actually very likely!

...

But will it be worth it, huh? WILL IT?

Have to try it to find out

Well done!

I don't get on with the combat mechanics, but I've read lots of stuff about Undertale so I have a decent grasp of the story.

Way to go! /)

Oh, alright! Of course! You take care of that, and just let me know when you return, yeah?

I shall be waiting ever so patiently for your return!

And return I have done so.

*Insta-PM*

Oh, I shall! Are you on now? I've been a little busy today...^^

I am but I do have to go in like... 2-3 hours xD and it's cool! Might I ask with what?

I was helping hand a big picture in the living room, and that took some time. XD And I'm on now. :3

Indeed. <3

GASP!! The power of the frog has summoned you! How's everything? I've missed you! Actually, you know... I just realize you have Skype. Excuse me while I hop off to add you real quick!

AHHHH, I see you on Skype! I ACCEPTED YOUR FRIEND REQUEST!!! <3

Sans is awesome.

@Intenzifier: I'm actually pretty decent, thank you! What're you up to?

@AmarisNsane nothing to much listening to music and playing the MLP mobile game, also filling out a passport renewal form I need to get my passport renewed for BronyCAN in August.

@AmrisNsane I know the pain. ;_;