Knuckles the Echidna

"I am the last guardian of Angel Island. I will protect the Master Emerald. And I will do it alone if I have to."

To make a very long, complicated, and confusing story short, Knuckles the Echidna is the Guardian of the mythical Master Emerald and protector of the floating Angel Island (interchangeably called the Floating Island). He comes from a long line of Guardians, each serving as Guardian before him. Before his birth, his father, Locke, saw a dream he thought of as prophetic, and prepared his unborn baby with the power to handle his future responsibility...by blasting his egg with Chaos radiation, granting Knuckles his spiked fists and an aptitude for Chaos Energy manipulation.
Knuckles would go through many hardships throughout his life: His father's death, discovering his home then watching its destruction, and his endless fight against Dr. Eggman and the forces of the Dark Legion. Knuckles would even die and be brought back to life. However hard the going gets, though, Knuckles always manages to recover and hit harder. He's not just rougher than the rest of them; he's the best of them.

Section Key: I. Strength II. Speed/Agility III. Durability IV. Chaos Power V. Other VI. Hyper Knuckles VII. Chaos Knuckles Source Key: Knuckles' Chaotix - Chaotix Knuckles the Echidna - KtE# Sonic and Knuckles - S&K Sonic's Friendly Nemesis, Knuckles Miniseries - Nem# Sonic Quest - Quest# Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) - StH# Sonic the Hedgehog Free Comic Book Day - FCD# Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble - Triple Sonic Super Special - Spe# Sonic Universe - SU# Sonic vs. Knuckles - SvK Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles - SSvHK 

Feats are posted in chronological order. Hover over a feat to see its source.

For additional context on some feats, see a map of Angel Island here.

To see his feats during his time as the Enerjak, see here (Respect Thread by theusjshjdhdne)

I. Strength

Striking

• Breaks a fake Chaos Emerald.
• Breaks down a brick wall in one punch.
• Knocks out Fang with one punch.
• Destroys Metal Sonic in one blow when they’re both at a giant size.
• Brawls with Enerjak.
• Punches a hole in a giant machine.
• Brawls with Sonic until they’re both exhausted.
• Rams through a large metal robot.
• Breaks through an indeterminate amount of stone.
• Punches Sonic so hard Sally worries that Knuckles could have knocked Sonic’s head off.
• Shatters a few Egg Grapes.
• Punches Finivetus hard enough for him to bounce.
• Punches a sturdy trap wall hard enough to climb up it.
• Clashes fists against Finitevus hard enough to cause a shockwave.
• Punches the ground enough to crack it and create smoke.

Lifting/Grabbing

• While Perfect Chaos is flooding a city and Knuckles is in this water, he lifts a heavy generator that powers the entire city.
• Restrains an out-of-control Bunnie alongside Mighty and Vector.
• Catches a giant drill and prevents its rotation.
• Holds up rubble alongside Amy to prevent a cave-in.
• Snaps off an arm of the Egg Beater with Vector’s help.
• Grabs Finivetus by his cape and slams him into a wall hard enough to crack it.

Throwing

• Throws a dingo from one room to another to hit another dingo.
• Tosses Sonic above cloud level.
• Throws Thrash through a stone wall.

Other

• Anchors himself with his spikes during a tornado.
• Easily cuts a tree with ease.
• Powers through Thrash’s screams.

II. Speed/Agility

Combat/Evasion

• Evades falling boulders.
• Dodges a lot of traps completely unscathed including machine guns.
• Spins in a cyclone fast enough to throw a biker gang into the distance.
• Dodges a laser.
• Dodges a robot’s mace.
• Keeps up with Sonic going all-out pretty handily, at one point holding him down.
• Dodges multiple close-proximity lasers.
• Dodges Espio’s kunai in very close range.

Movement

• Speeds from near the outside of Angel Island to a distant mountain.
• Swims from the deepest point of the ocean floor to the surface before he loses oxygen, only not succeeding due to outside interference.
• Outruns a blast that quickly engulfs the Floating Island, only being hit when he reaches the end of the island. Out of everyone on the island, Knuckles is the only one able to outrun the blast and even reacts fast enough to throw a Dark Legion member into the blast before he starts actually running.
• Hops over a fence.
• Hops from one floating vehicle to another.

Gliding

• Can glide above the trees even in turbulent winds.
• For some reason his gliding works by using his dreadlocks???
• Okay, that isn't gliding, that's just flying, Knuckles.
• Can glide (fly) high enough to be significantly above Angel Island.

Other

• Swapped emeralds without Sonic and Eggman noticing.
• Able to keep balance on an Extreme Gear while grappling with Storm.

III. Durability

Blunt

• Struck by Sonic going at full speed.
• Bonked by Sonic hitting him with an entire tree.
• Hurt but able to handle being surprise attacked by Espio, Vector, and Mighty in succession.
• Tanks blows from Enerjak whose raw strength is stated to dwarf Knuckles’.
• Shot down by a giant laser.
• Takes a few blows from an alternate (Irish) version of himself.
• Hit by Sonic hard enough to create a hole in Castle Acorn.
• Launched into a wall by Thrash’s scream.
• Blasted repeatedly by Thrash’s screams, visibly no worse for wear.

Energy/Fire/Electricity

• Blasted by Enerjak.
• Gets the inside of his mouth burnt by Archimedes.
• Zapped by Enerjak.
• Hurt but generally fine after being splashed by lava.
• Tanks the edge of a blast that engulfed a large chunk of the Floating Island, still has enough energy to drag himself out of the ocean onto a piece of debris though he falls unconscious for twelve hours.
• Takes some hits from dingo goons armed with electric weapons.

Other

• Harmed but unfazed by getting drained by the energy siphon used on the Master Emerald that allows the Floating Island to stay, well, afloat.
• Seemingly unaffected by the pressure caused from being inside the very bottom of an ocean aside, more so worried about having no oxygen.
• Only worried about the cold while 30,000 meters above the already cloud level floating island.
• Is the first to regain consciousness after a crash.
• Crushed by a mechanical lobster.
• Gets caught in an avalanche, recovers quickly.

IV. Chaos Power

For a period during his conflicts with the Dark Legion, his latent Chaos power increased with time until an explosion would turn his skin green and properly transform him into Chaos Knuckles, losing his powers when he later died and revived. He didn't rekindle his powers until a conflict with Dr. Finivetus reawakened his latent abilities.
Knuckles usually doesn't use these abilities, but can break them out again when necessary.

Offensive

• Dismantles a machine on his neck then blasts Hunter into unconsciousness.
• Clashes with Finivetus hard enough to create a huge sphere of energy on Angel Island.

Non-Offensive

• Passively regenerates from a splash of lava.
• Creates a portal from Mobius’ surface to Angel Island.
• Flies with his eyes closed and “sees” his surroundings with help from the Guiding Star Gem.
• Either doesn’t register on an infrared sensor or genuinely has no body heat.
• Throws a few Chaos Spears.

Energy Generation

• Called a living Chaos Emerald as he projects a message to a fellow Guardian in an entirely different Zone; later corroborated by an examination performed by the Dark Legion.
• Generates enough natural power to overload a power system that winds up blowing up a complex and is implied to radiate enough energy after 15 minutes to be akin to nuclear fallout.

V. Other

• Can tell where Espio is even when he’s invisible.
• Carries a laser gun that destroys a door he cannot with brawn.
• Has the worst family tree.
• Called in by Sally to fight Sonic all-out on his level while Sonic is mind-controlled, Knuckles appearing right after Sonic wipes the floor with both the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix.
• Holds the Guiding Star, an artifact that creates a magical transport back to Angel Island from any place.
• Holds a Warp Ring which allows him to teleport to any location he sets his mind to.
• Resists Finivetus’ hypnotization.

VI. Hyper Knuckles

Also referred to as Super Knuckles, this form occurs when Knuckles absorbs sufficient Chaos Energy from the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, or a similarly potent source. With the power, he has the ability to take on powerful foes like Super Sonic and Master Mogul.

Strength

• Described as “a thousand times stronger” than usual.
• Tears apart reality fighting Super Sonic, destroying the Zone they fight in.
• Alongside Super Sonic, punches Master Mogul through buildings.
• Breaks the top of a mountain then throws Hunter across Angel Island.

Speed

• Keeps up with Super Sonic.
• Described as moving at “incalculable speeds”.

Durability

• Takes hits from Super Sonic.
• Tanks the Zone-busting clash between himself and Super Sonic but reverts back to normal.
• Completely ignores Chaos energy that was hurting him at base form.

Chaos Power

• Unleashes a surge of power that ends the war between the echidnas and dingoes.

VII. Chaos Knuckles

Due to Knuckles' father microwaving the baby imbuing Knuckles' egg with Chaos radiation, Knuckles' own Chaos energy grew until achieving the god-like Chaos Knuckles form, becoming closer to a living Chaos Emerald than an echidna. During his time as Chaos Knuckles, he was one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse if not the strongest outright, or at least stronger than Turbo Tails and Dimitri as the Enerjak. However, his grasp of his powers was questionable at best and uncontrollable at worst, which would eventually lead to his demise.

Strength

• Bops Tails on the head.
• Beats Turbo Tails unconscious in a short fight.

Speed

• Unleashes a blast of energy before Tails can react, though he wasn’t in control of his actions.
• Keeps up with Turbo Tails.

Durability

• Stands undamaged in an epicenter of an explosion that knocked out multiple people including a Roboticized Mobian.
• Endures being siphoned of his energy until Charmy and Saffron free him.
• Surprise attacked by Turbo Tails.
• Tanks blows from Turbo Tails.
• Makes the scenario of Angel Island crashing and/or blowing up from Chaos energy nonlethal by taking the brunt of it himself; also a Chaos Power feat.
• Undamaged from a shot to the head that would have killed base Knuckles.

Chaos Power

Offensive

• Paralyzes a Roboticized Mobian.
• A shout throws around everybody surrounding him and teleports them to various places across the world.
• Unleashes a “tidal wave” of energy.
• An energy blast goes straight through Angel Island with the debris knocking out Tails.
• An optic laser harms Turbo Tails.
• Shoots down a meteor that would have destroyed the city of Echidnaopolis.
• [Limit] Blows himself up and dies saving Dimitri and destroying Mogul’s Chaos Siphon, ascending to a higher plane of existence in the Chaos Force (temporarily).

Non-Offensive

• Warps through time and space on accident; later does so on purpose.
• Teleports through time and space to Dimitri’s ship which moves at Mach 5.
• Detects the death of two echidna who crashed into the ship he is on.
• Read someone’s mind, though at the time he wasn’t sure how to do so consciously.
• Sends a telepathic message and projection of himself to his father across the Floating Island.
• Stops his heart to play dead.
• Heals somebody from critical condition.

Reality Warping

• Unconsciously warps reality on a fundamental scale, changing reality to different versions of itself: First to one resembling the OVA, then a reality without the Dark Legion, then a reality resembling SatAM, then to a reality where Sally is dead, finally to reality as it once was. Notably, both Sonic and Sally had full awareness of the changes during the changes, and everyone else had full awareness only after the fact.
• [Limit] Can’t stop events that would be inevitable through multiple methods such as Echidnaopolis’ destruction or the failure of Dimitri’s plan in the past.
• Manipulates time on an island-wide level to restore Angel Island to its original state before its inhabitants were teleported to another Zone.
• Creates flowers.
• Ejects himself from the Chaos Force and revives himself, but loses access to his powers.
• In one version of the future, warps the entirety of Mobius to his whim.

Characters Used for Scaling (all pre-Super Genesis Wave):

• Dimitri the Echidna.
• Dr. Finitevus.
• Egg Beater, Respect Thread by Proletlariet.
• Enerjak (as Dimitri), Respect Thread by theusjshjdhdne.
• Espio the Chameleon.
• Metal Sonic.
• Mighty the Armadillo, Respect Thread by theusjshjdhdne.
• Sonic the Hedgehog, Respect Thread by 76SUP and Joshless.
• Thrash the Tasmanian Devil.
• Vector the Crocodile.
• Tails the Fox.

We just finished a drive from Atlanta to Disney World for both May 4th Star Wars festivities and to go to the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. Overall the trip went fairly well, but we had a few issues with Ford's on-board navigation that seemed new and altogether unwelcome.
TLDR: At several points during the trip, Ford Navigation advised us to charge to 95% or higher (spending anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 1/2 hours to do so) as part of the trip plan. The logic for this wasn't clear -- it could have been an attempt to ensure that we charged only at Electrify America, or there could be a routing and trip time calculation bug in Ford Navigation. In particular, inputting a waypoint near a known non-EA charger caused Ford Navigation to suddenly "remember" that non-EA chargers existed, and route us to it.
Our usual approach is to do the trip down in two legs, driving partway down after work, spending the night at a hotel with an EV charger, and then driving directly to one of the parks first thing in the morning. In contrast, the trip home is a single long drive.
The first leg of the trip down went well: left home at 100% charge, left work at about 90%. The usual traffic delays getting out of Atlanta added about an hour to the drive time, but we were able to charge to 80% at Cordele, and pulled into our hotel in Lake City before 11pm. The hotel had AC chargers available, so we plugged in and charged up. So far so good.
Things went sour the next day. The original plan had been to leave the hotel at 75% to 80%, and then stop at Duke Energy Turkey Lake. Charging to 45% there would be enough power to run around Disney World for the better part of a week and still have enough to get back to Turkey Lake on the return trip. It should also get us into the park around 11am. However, PlugShare was reporting that all of the DC fast chargers that I'd used on previous trips (EA Gainesville, Duke Energy Turkey Lake, and EA Orlando Vineland) were either highly unreliable or completely down. In particular, both PlugShare and Ford navigation believed that the Turkey Lake chargers were providing 0.18kW. Since I don't yet have Ford's Tesla adapter (originally promised for May, but now pushed to June), the Tesla SuperCharger locations around Orlando were not available.
Ford Navigation decided that I really, really had to charge at EA Gainesville, despite getting to the exit with about 60% state of charge, and despite PlugShare reporting long lines and multiple chargers out of service. So I skipped Gainesville, hoping that we'd be able to charge farther down the road. Despite its best attempts to get me to turn back to Gainesville, it eventually decided on EA Clermont. We got there, but one of the chargers was ICE'd, and there was a long line for the others. As I saw a spot open, a Porsche EV swooped in and took it before I could get down the row and pull in. That was the last straw for us, and in what was likely a bad decision, I decided to go down the road to Sun Plaza, since PlugShare reported 2 open stalls.
There were 2 open stalls because the 2 350kW chargers were both out of service. A couple in a VW pulled up right after we did, and were unable to charge either -- so it is definitely an issue with the chargers, not the vehicle. The two 100kW chargers were in use, both by people who were charging to 100% "because we don't get to the chargers often". One of them finished about 15 minutes later, and we were able to use their position. We had to jockey the Lightning at a strange angle to get the charge cord to reach, but we eventually did get charged up to 45%, and finally headed off to the park much later than expected. However, the charger drama had eaten up almost 3 hours of our day, so we were late and disgruntled when we arrived at Epcot (however, an afternoon at Epcot -- and multiple "Scottish Thistle" drinks -- did improve our mood).
We stayed at Coronado Springs, where there are 6 Level 2 EV charging handles on 3 ChargePoint chargers. On our previous trip, all were broken, so I didn't want to count on getting a charge at the hotel. On this trip, it is clear that an attempt had been made to repair them. However, charger #1 didn't work at all (would not initiate a charge) on either handle despite having been repaired. Charger #2 was occupied by a succession of Mach-Es the entire time we were there. Charger #3 was open for a couple of nights. It had one broken and one repaired charge handle. The repaired one didn't work, but the "ChargePoint Hack" worked on the broken one. We were able to charge for 2 nights, and left the hotel at a 95% state of charge on our last day.
We spend the morning at Magic Kingdom (because that is our last-Disney-day tradition). My wife and I had a discussion about when to leave, because we didn't want to be on the road super-late (we had work at 8am the next day). I'd said that leaving (as in, actually pulling out of the parking space) at 1:30pm would get us home between 10pm and 11pm. She suggested that we try for 12:30 and arrival at home before 10pm instead. In the end, we got hungry and had some lunch in the park (the ham sandwiches at Gaston's Tavern were just what we needed) ... and pulled out of our parking space at 1:35pm exactly.
I punched "Home" into Ford Navigation, and it estimated a 12:30am arrival time. I figured it needed some time to settle down and figure out the route -- and it did change, flipping between 11:50pm, 12:15am, and 12:30am as I drove. About an hour down the road, my wife noticed Ford Navigation's ETA, and brought it up. Overall she loves riding in the Lightning (and even bough herself a Mach-E), but the EV road-trip experience is a sore point for her: in general, we've never had one that was free of unexpected delays due to charging and infrastructure. On previous trips, the arrival ETAs have always seemed to creep higher as the drive extended, so an initial estimate of 12:30am wasn't good -- past experience suggested that we'd actually be getting in between 1am and 2am.
Once we were well on the road and had BlueCruise going, I pulled up the route plan, and found that it wanted us to stop at EA Gainesville and charge for 2 1/2 hours to get to 100%. Ford Navigation's routing was to leave Magic Kingdom at 94% state of charge, charge to 100% at EA Gainesville, charge again for over an hour at EA Valdosta to get to 95%, and charge a third time at EA Forsythe (where I've had problems in the past) to get home.
Luckily the night before, I'd run the route home through ABRP. ABRP suggested that leaving the hotel at 95%, I could reach the FPL Lake City chargers with a 15% to 20% reserve, charge to 75% and charge again at Cordele. I decided to trust ABRP, and just so that I had a reference point for the Lake City exit, I put our hotel into the route as a waypoint. Ford Navigation immediately "remembered" that there were chargers in Lake City, changed the route from stopping at Gainesville to charge to 100% to stopping at Lake City to charge to 60% (to reach Valdosta -- it really, really wanted us to stop at EA Valdosta). This "new" route home cut more than an hour from Ford Navigation's estimated time of arrival, which now flipped between 10:30pm and 11:30pm.
It was however very doubtful about the range, suggesting that we would make the chargers in Lake City with less than 10 miles to spare. I normally drive 5 miles over the speed limit, so I drove this leg at the speed limit ... and we reached the Lake City chargers at 20% state of charge and some 40 miles in guess-o-meter range. Chalk one up for ABRP.
We charged to 75% at Lake City, and set out for Cordele, ignoring Ford Navigation's attempts to get us to stop and charge from 50% to 90% in Valdosta. Again, the guess-o-meter thought the range was iffy, starting at about 15 miles of expected range at arrival. By the time we got there, it was again about 20% state of charge and 40 miles of guessed range. We charged to 80%, got some dinner and groceries at the Walmart, and left for home.
Following the ABRP plan, we pulled into the driveway at 9:50pm, 10 minutes ahead of my most-optimistic estimate to my wife (always a good thing, since she hates long drives).
Overall for the trip, we clocked 1023 miles, 21:32 hours of power-on time (which includes power-on to run the air conditioning at several of the charging stops), and overall 2.0 mi/kWh.

It’s been a while since I wrote a long post so I’m going to enjoy this one 😌. Hope you do too. Today, we will cover the concept of hypnosis and how it applies to every single of us.
Let’s imagine that you exist as formless awareness. You have no boundaries and you are as infinite as infinitely possible. In fact, you are so vast that infinity times infinity times infinity to the power of infinity-cubed is just a small drop in the enormous expanse that you are. Some have given a name to this formless awareness, those from a Christian background call it Spirit, Buddhists call it No-Self, Zen folks call it Original Face, Vedantaists call it the Self. For today’s post, let’s refer to it as the Self because this formless awareness is the very substance that powers all of us.
Now let’s imagine that you as the Self decide that you’d like to play the game of form. To play a game of becoming something. To do this, you are going to go through a series of hypnoses essentially casting a sort of magic spell on yourself to be able to appear as form. So you decide that you’d undergo the followiing hypnoses:

1. Hypnosis 1: Environment: If you are to be form, you need to create a sort of environment, a universe, a world that you can dwell in. As vast formless awareness, you are boundary-less. You need to understand what it means to be a part of a specific enclave so you cast a spell on yourself and voila! A universe is born.
2. Hypnosis 2: Body: Now that an environment has been created, you need a way to be able to interact with said environment. A vehicle of sorts, a suit to muck about in the environment you created. So you create this electrical/meaty machine called a body.
3. Hypnosis 3: Other Bodies/Animals/Plants: After you’ve created a body, you want a really immersive experience. One where you can interact with your creation from a variety of angles. You are very curious as to what you could do with creation so you decide that you will populate the universe that you have formed with animals, plants, other bodies with different features etc.
4. Hypnosis 4: Space & Time: Ok you now have a sandbox, an environment to explore. However, there isn’t quite any logic built into the environment yet. You know that as formless awareness, you are always aware of everything going on at once. Having that quality defeats the purpose of creating the game. You would like to hide parts of yourself from yourself and play a game of creating from scratch; for this to happen, you invent space and time. A sort of framework to give the creation a logical sequence. And Voila 🪄, you cast the magic spell and you are hypnotized further.
5. Hypnosis 5: Human Being: As form, you need a mode of operation. Something to define you. You’ve never really been defined before and this is all new to you. Anyway to solve this, you create this idea called a human being.
6. Hypnosis 6: Mind: (We will cover this one in the section below called The Machine).
7. Hypnosis 7: Language: To interact with all your creations, you need a communication tool. Like the Tower of Babel in the Bible, a series and variety of languages and communication patterns are formed leading to a deeper level of hypnosis.
8. Hypnosis 8: Identity: In this part, you create a thing called an ego. A bundle of personality traits coupled with Hypnosis #5 (human being), add a trace of gender (man, woman etc), and presto! You have a created avatar. This created Avatar is a sense of self but it's obviously not you. Just a username for your creation.
9. Hypnosis 9: Role for Identity: You need to give a role to your avatar. So now you can say I am a Doctor, I am a Thug, I am a Chef, etc. A specific role for the actor to play.
10. Hypnosis 10: Death: As formlessness you don’t understand the concept of beginning and ending. You need a final hypnosis to predicate everything on. This hypnosis will force you to take your creation seriously and strive to be as impactful as you can be within it. So you create the boogeyman, you create death.

The Machine (Six Senses)⚙️
Now that you have sufficiently hypnotized yourself away from form, you need something to power the entire system. You need a way to plug into the environment that you created and interact with it. Kinda like an Oculus VR headset, you develop this unique framework called the senses. You craft 6 primary senses to be able to live within your creation - touch or feel (both “inner” feelings or “external” touch), sight (inner seeing, and external sight), hearing, smell, taste, and thinking. This Six Senses come together to form something that you will call the Mind. This powers the game that you intend on playing within your creation of form.
I know I missed a ton of other hypnoses but this is a Reddit post and I can only fit so much in. As you can see the hypnoses runs deep. That’s why sometimes when people say, I had an awakening experience but I still struggle with such and such. Yeah you probably awakened to like 4 levels of hypnoses but there’s still more to unravel. Endeavor, we got this 😌.**
Who Are You?
Now if you go ask the average person, “who are you?” He’ll instinctively answer, “I’m a man” - That’s Hypnosis #8…or he’ll say, “I’m a doctor” - That’s Hypnosis #9. Most people will give you an answer based off of a hypnosis. That is why Ramana Maharshi’s Self-Inquiry or "Who Am I?" is so poignant. By asking “Who Am I?”, one unravels the hypnotic thread one by one. Anyway, sticking to our original premise before the imaginative exercise, remember you are formless awareness not any of the hypnoses or spells cast upon you.
You’ve Never Had a Problem:
All problems exist in the world of hypnosis. You, as formless awareness, have never had any problems, addictions, fears etc. The mind or hypnosis #6 might have had some problems, fears, and addictions. Please keep contemplating this fact, a problem only exists when a hypnosis is threatened.
Litmus Test:
Here is the final litmus test to spot a hypnosis posing as you. Does it change? Yes, then It is a hypnosis. Formless awareness is always unperturbed. The Self or formless awareness is the substratum powering this entire thing. It is not directly affected by anything going on in the land of hypnosis. That is why as you awaken more and more, you gain more peace. You are returning to the changeless state.
Why didn’t past spiritual teachings just spell this out clearly?
This isn’t an easy thing for awakened beings to teach their contemporaries. How do you tell someone that everything that they cherish, the things that they perceive with their 5 senses is papier mache, unreal appearances? We are in the 2020s and we have a much higher public consciousness yet it isn’t too far-fetched to see people shoot each other over chicken sandwiches, stepping on Jordans, wearing red or blue in the wrong neighborhood etc. Now imagine how much worse it was for say, a certain teacher in the Middle East in 2BC.
Make no mistake about it all teachers of truth have one teaching. But they hide it in allegories, parables, and koans not because they are afraid of crucifiction, nah...They just thought the people they were around weren’t at the level to directly understand...So Christ gave parables and even gave the physical teaching of dropping the body (hypnosis #5)…Zen teachers started to use koans to exhaust the mind so that you can finally sit still and see the hypnosis…Ramana Maharshi said continue whatever practice that you are doing but while you’re at it, find out who or what is practicing. There are varieties of vehicles and all with one goal to help us all transcend the cage of form to return home to formless awareness. Namaste 🙏🏾.

So I'm pretty new to perfume. I own a few things, my favorite being Hermes Un Jardin Sur le Nil. I also own Bvlgari Au the Rouge, Eau de gaga, and Miss Dior which was a gift back in like 2011. I was at Ulta and Sephora determined to try some new scents. After dodging the sales associates attempts at conversation and sniffing around, here was what I settled on trying on my skin. I just based what I sprayed on if I liked the opening or not.
Marc Jacob Daisy Wild: At first sniff, it was kind of boring but inoffensive. Now it just smells like this awful synthetic vanilla that gives me a headache. But the bottle is really cute. It sucks because the paper retains the freshness and on my skin none of that freshness remains.
YSL Libre: Again, I thought the opening was fine and now on my skin it again takes on this cloying vanilla powder scent. It's just as headache inducing as the Marc Jacob but in a different direction. Same family, different sharpness. The testing paper now smells like laundry detergent and my hand smells like baby powder.
Replica Matcha Meditation: It really smells like a sweet matcha latte at first spray and then... the white chocolate comes to play. It gets more and more cloying over time and just smells like a creamy nut butter. I get it, some people like the nut butters. It is giving me a headache still. Less offensive than Libre and Daisy Wild, but I think that's just because it fades much faster
Replica When the Rain Stops: There's something mossy and earthy in the dry down. It's fine, but I'm not in love with it. I might continue testing this one though. It smells fine. Good even, but doesn't make me feel like I smell good if that makes sense? This and From the Garden were my favorites of the bunch.
Replica From the Garden: A close second to When the Rain Stops. If I got it for free, I would use it, but I'd rather get Un Jardin en Mediterranae to rotate with Sur le Nil. than get From the Garden. I was just trying to get a perfume that wasn't from the same Jardin line next.
Not from this trip but multiple previous trips Ellis Brooklyn Myth: I LOVED the opening. Tested it for a while but each time after a while, it would just turn so creamy/powdery and I couldn't stand it.
I also smelled and was okay with Jo Malone Sakura Cherry Blossom, Nest Indigo, Nest Lychee Rose, but I didn't try them on skin because I was pretty meh about them. Jo Malone just felt like.. so basic and didn't seem worth the price they charge for it. I found Valentino Donna born in Roma Green Stravaganza just... far too sugary and boring. With a name like Green Stravaganza... where is the green? it just smells like candy. I was excited because the top note was listed as Lapsang Souchong. As someone who drinks this tea regularly, it had none of that rich smokiness.
It seems like so many of what I tried have this powdevanilla dry down that I personally cannot stand. I don't know what it is about it that makes me feel so sick. I don't burn vanilla candles in the house the same reason: headaches.
I was trying to branch out from Sur le Nil and get some variety in my collection but not sure where to move forward to. I really want to get I was thinking of getting some Diptyque samples for L'ombre dans l'eau, L'eau papier, and Philosykos purely because I smelled a bunch at an airport once and I have zero recollection of what they were called, but reading the description it seems like these would be things up my alley. I was also considering Arielle Shoshana Monday for the earl gray vibes, but now I see the milk and amber and I'm unsure. Perhaps Zoologist Penguin?
I know I don't like things that are tropical or coconut-y or beachy like Sol de Janeiro. I see a pattern that I'm drawn to tea scents, but most of the ones I try are just either floor-cleaner citrus or are tea at first and then turn into my arch nemesis creamy vanilla (I sold Bvlgari Au The Vert, which I thought I would love, due to the floor cleaner vibes)
I would love to find something that is wet-forest scented. I also wanted something fruity but every fruity one I smelled leaned sugary/sweet or tropical. Or like fresh flowers, but you can still smell the cut leaves if that makes sense?
I also wanted something this past winter to add to the rotation. I was looking for something smoky, but a lot of the ones I tried (can't remember) went very oud heavy. Something that actually smelled like a lapsang souchong tea (aromatic, smoky, but transparent? I don't know)
But also, any recommendations would be much appreciated in general because I don't know how to avoid the powdery/vanilla. I feel like those first top notes are baiting me into spraying :(

About the brand: Korean brand with pretty packaging. Retails ~30-40k KRW, or $20-$30 USD. Some scents are available at Olive Young, a local beauty/pharmacy chain, but the bulk seem to only be available on their website.
About me: Mid-30’s, lover of vanilla and marshmallowy, caramelly, milky gourmands. Forever looking for my perfect Douglas Fir, Pacific Northwest seabreeze, damp earth scent. Not into citrusy clean, incensy, or super punchy, fruity scents generally.
My most-worn fragrances right now are:

• Montblanc Signature (creamsicle of your dreams)
• Narciso Rodriguez Musc Noir Rose (rosewater macaron)
• Maison Margiela Replica Coffee Break (London Fog)
• Lush Super Milk (hair mist, not perfume) (horchata)
• Diptyque L’eau Papier (fancy paper)

I picked up 5 samples from Atelier Faye, and I chose some scents that would play well in the summer.
Fig Tea
Listed Notes: fig, bay leaf, vetiver, musk, marshmallow, tonka bean, vanilla
I know I just said I was specifically looking for hot weather perfumes, but I am physically unable to stop myself from purchasing anything described as “milk tea,” which is what this perfume is described as. That being said, this is absolutely vile. I am generally not sensitive about scents and can only recall one perfume I’ve ever scrubbed off my wrists (Lush’s American Cream, full on scorched Barbie Head) but good god, I could only tolerate this for 15 minutes. Just straight white soap. The kind that makes your hands itchy and your cuticles peel. Where are the marshmallow, tonka, and vanilla? Are they in the room with us? This was the screechiest, hospital bathroomiest, most sterile thing I have ever paid money for. I can’t believe I hate this as much as I do. This was supposed to be my safe bet. I love 5 of the 7 notes listed. I feel so betrayed. I can’t believe they’ve done this.
Full Size: Absolutely not
A Bite of Watermelon
Listed Notes: watermelon, peach, cypress, wild sage, cantaloupe, muskmelon, cedar wood, musk.
First spray is watermelon Jolly Rancher, then mellows into something closer to a watermelon daiquiri. Like the mixers you buy in the beer aisle of the supermarket. A synthetic watermelon flavor that evil food scientists have fiddled with and dialed the sugars up to 11 for a fickle child's palate. I don’t hate it. Is it the most sophisticated scent of all time? Of course not. But it is a bit whimsical. It’s kind of fun and surreptitiously slutty. I think I would wear this on a first date with a guy I don’t really care about seeing again.
Full Size: Maybe
Wisteria Wish
Listed Notes: honeysuckle, ivy, geranium, wisteria, cyclamen, jasmine, green notes, musk, rose wood.
There is wisteria growing on a pergola at my workplace, and I love to walk under it and pretend I am the corseted main character in some period romance, even though I am just a first grade teacher who regularly gets open-mouth coughed on by small, oblivious humans. This perfume goes on screechy, soapy, loud, and unpleasant. It spits in the face of my period-piece fantasies. It smells like the cheapest detergent in the laundromat vending machine. After a bit, it does mellow out into something with rounder edges. It actually does smell close to real wisteria, but it lacks the soft, powderiness of the flower petals. I wish there was something softer and muskier at the base. It might work better layered under something velvety, like Replica Coffee Break.
Full Size: Nah
Very Grapefruit
Listed Notes: grapefruit, orange, litchi, lily, violet, jasmine, musk, amber
It actually does smell exactly like real grapefruit on first spray. Eventually turns into something less bright and bubbly. I don’t really have strong feelings about this, but it has reignited My Dream. My Dream is to find a grapefruit ade perfume - in Korea, you can get grapefruit ade (자몽에이드) at pretty much any coffee shop, it’s like a grapefruit/honey jam mixed with seltzer water. It's my go-to drink in the summer, to the point where the poor man who works at the Mega Coffee on the walk to work starts making it autonomously when he sees me round the corner. I would die for a bubbly, effervescent, jammy grapefruit scent. Someone please make it. That’s not this, but I don’t hate it. I think my jammy grapefruit headcanon prevents me from fully enjoying this perfume. Oh, what could have been.
Full size: Maybe
Vanilla & Musk
Listed Notes: vanilla, coconut, sugar cane, black orchid, musk, vanilla flower, amber
First spray, I can smell vanilla, the faintest musk, and just enough of the florals to keep this from leaning too gourmand. As a vanilla lover, I feel pretty ok about this. It doesn’t do anything exceptionally well, but it is a decent non-gourmand vanilla. After a bit, the coconut comes through. The sillage is very low and it’s basically a skin scent after 15 minutes. This is one of the most middle of the road scents I personally own. It’s like an olfactory shrug.
Full size: No. I have too many vanillas. I can only make more room for The One True and Perfect Vanilla.
Asleep Baby at Midday
Listed Notes: apricot, raspberry, lily of the valley, rose, jasmine, orris, musk, vanilla, coconut
I received this as a free sample. Can’t say I am terribly interested in smelling like a sleeping baby at midday, but actually it’s not bad. It smells like a clean baby, like baby lotion. Powdery and clean. I personally wouldn’t want to wear this scent.
Full size: No

Shipping: USA - $4.50, Canada - starts at $15
Payment: Venmo Friends, Zelle, or Cash App
Decants: 3ml, 6ml, 10ml, or 30ml. see photo of bottles and respective levels measured with a syringe for reference. PTFE tape between bottle and nozzle thread, and parafilm around where nozzle and bottle meet. Decants are individually bubble wrapped before going inside zip bags and then inside bubble mailers.
Thanks for looking! Please chat/PM if interested or if you have any questions.

Armani (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Cuir Zerzura	12.5	23	37.5
Cypres Pantelleria	8	15	23.5
Musc Shamal	12.5	23	37.5
Rouge Malachite	13.5	26.5	39.5
Rose d'Arabie	12.5	23	37.5
Sable Nuit	12.5	23	37.5
The Yulong	8	15	23.5
The Yulong Soie de Nacre	8	15	23.5
Vert Malachite	13.5	26.5	39.5
Vetiver d'Hiver	8	15	23.5

Celine (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Black Tie	9	16	25.5
Bois Dormant	9	16	25.5
Dans Paris	9	16	25.5
Eau de Californie	9	16	25.5
Nightclubbing	9	16	25.5
Reptile	9	16	25.5
Rimbaud	9	16	25.5
Saint-Germain-des-Prés	9	16	25.5

Chanel (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml	30ml
1932	9	16	25.5
1957	9	16	25.5
31 rue Cambon	9	16	25.5
Allure Sensuelle EDT	6	11.5	17.5
Allure Sensuelle EDP	7	13	20
Antaeus	6	11	17
Beige	9	16	25.5	72.5
Bois des Iles	9	16	25.5
Coco EDT	6	11.5	17.5
Coco EDP	7	13	20
Coco Mademoiselle EDT	6	11.5	17.5
Coco Mademoiselle EDP	7	13	20
Comete	10	18	28.5
Coromandel	9	16	25.5	72.5
Cristalle EDT	6	11.5	17.5
Cristalle Eau Verte	7	13	20
Cristalle EDP	7	13	20
Cuir de Russie	9	16	25.5
Gardenia	9	16	25.5
La Pausa	9	16	25.5
Le Lion	9	16	25.5
Misia	9	16	25.5
No 19 EDT	6	11.5	17.5
No 19 EDP	7	13	20
No 19 Poudre	7	13	20
No 22	9	16	25.5
No 5 Eau Premiere	7	13	20
No 5 EDT	6	11.5	17.5
No 5 EDP	7	13	20
No 5 L'Eau	7	13	20
Paris-Edimbourg	5.5	10.5	16
Paris-Venise	5.5	10.5	16
Sycomore	9	16	25.5	72.5

Chantecaille (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Kalimantan	9	16	25.5
Vetyver	9	16	25.5

Dior (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml	30ml
Ambre Nuit	8	14.5	22.5	64
Bois d'Argent (2022)	8	14.5	22.5	64
Belle De Jour	7	12.5	19.5	55
Cuir Cannage	7	12.5	19.5	55
Dior Homme Original	5.5	10.5	16
Dior Homme Intense	5.5	10.5	16
Dior Homme Parfum	8	15	23.5
Dioramour	7	12.5	19.5	55
Eau Noire (2022)	8	14.5	22.5
Feve Delicieuse	9	16.5	26.5
Grand Bal	9	16.5	26.5
Gris Dior	8	14.5	22.5
Holy Peony	7	12.5	19.5	55
Jasmin Des Anges	7	12.5	19.5	55
La Colle Noire	9	16.5	26.5
Milly-la-Foret	7	12.5	19.5	55
Mitzah	9	16.5	26.5
New Look 1947	9	16.5	26.5
Oud Ispahan	8	14.5	22.5
Purple Oud	7	12.5	19.5	55
Vanilla Diorama	8	14.5	22.5

Diptyque (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Benjoin Boheme	10	19	29.5
L'Eau Papier	8.5	15.5	24
Opsis	13	23.5	38

Dolce & Gabbana (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Velvet Amber Sun	10	18	28
Velvet Amber Skin	10	18	28
Velvet Cypress	10	18	28
Velvet Desert Oud	10	18	28
Velvet Exotic Leather	10	18	28
Velvet Incenso	10	18	28
Velvet Mimosa Bloom	10	18	28
Velvet Tender Oud	10	18	28

Frederic Malle (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Carnal Flower	15.5	28	45.5
Dans Tes Bras	10	18	28
Eau de Magnolia	12	22	35
Heaven Can Wait	12	22	35
L'Eau d'Hiver	12	22	35
Lys Mediterranee	13	25.5	38.5
Monsieur	12	22	35
The Moon	24	44	71.5
Musc Ravageur	10	18	28
Rose Tonneree	12	22	35

Gucci (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
A Chant for the Nymph	11	20	36.5
A Song for the Rose	11	20	36.5
The Eyes of the Tiger	11	20	36.5
The Voice of the Snake	11	20	36.5

Guerlain (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Angelique Noire	12	22	35.5
Apres l'Ondee	7	13	20
Bois d'Armenie	12	22	35.5
Chamade EDT	7	13	20
Cuir Beluga	12	22	35.5
Encens Mythique	7.5	14	21.5
Feve Gourmande	12	22	35.5
Gourmand Coquin	13	25.5	38.5
Habit Rouge Parfum	7.5	14	21.5
Iris Torrefie	12	22	35.5
Jicky	8	15	24
Joyeuse Tubereuse	12	22	35.5
L'Heure Bleue EDP	8	15	24
L'Heure Bleue EDT	7	13	20
L'Heure de Nuit	12	22	35.5
L'Homme Ideal EDP	6	11.5	17.5
L'Homme Ideal Parfum	7.5	14	21.5
Mandarine Basilic	6	11	17
Mandarine Basilic Forte	7	12.5	19
Mandarine Basilic Harvest	6.5	12	18
Mitsouko EDP	8	15	24
Mitsouko EDT	7	13	20
Mon Precieux Nectar	12	22	35.5
Nahema	8	15	24
Neroli Outrenoir	12	22	35.5
Nerolia Vetiver	6	11	17
Nerolia Vetiver Forte	7	12.5	19
Nerolia Vetiver Harvest	6.5	12	18
Samsara EDT	6	11	17
Samsara EDP	7	13	20
Shalimar EDT	6	11	17
Shalimar EDP	7	13	20
Shalimar Millesime Iris	12	22	35.5
Shalimar Philtre	7	13	20
Spiritueuse Double Vanille	12	22	35.5
Tobacco Honey	12	22	35.5
Tonka Imperiale	12	22	35.5
Vetiver Parfum	7.5	14	21.5
Vol de Nuit	7	13	20

Histoires de Parfums (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
1725	6.5	12	18.5
Ambre 114	6.5	12	18.5
Encens Roi	6.5	12	18.5
Tubereuse 1 La Capricieuse	6.5	12	18.5

Hermes (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Ambre Narguile	9	16.5	26.5
Cuir d'Ange	10	19	29.5
Hiris	6.5	12	19
Vetiver Tonka	9	16.5	26.5
Voyage d'Hermes Parfum	6.5	12	19
Santal Massoia	9	16.5	26.5

Le Labo (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Baie Rose 26	22	44.5	72.5
Labdanum 18	11	20	32
The Noir 29	11	20	32

MFK (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Grand Soir	8	15	23.5

Mugler (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Ambre Redoutable	10	19	29.5
Naughty Fruity	10	19	29.5
Over The Musk	10	19	29.5
Woodissime	10	19	29.5

Oriza L. Legrand (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Empire des Indes	8	14	22
Le Regent	8	14	22
Horizon	8	14	22

Prada (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Babylon	12	22	35.5
Dark Light	12	22	35.5
Day For Night	12	22	35.5
Desert Serenade	12	22	35.5
Marienbad	12	22	35.5

Serge Lutens (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Ambre Sultan	7	13	20
Bas de Soie	16.5	30	49
Borneo 1834	13	23.5	38
Chergui	7	13	20
Cuir Mauresque	13	23.5	38
De Profundis	13	23.5	38
Ecrin de Fumme	10.5	18.5	29.5
Fille en Aiguilles	13	23.5	38
Fumerie Turque	13	23.5	38
Iris Silver Mist	16.5	30	49
La Couche du Diable	7	13	20
L'orpheline	7	13	20
Tubereuse Criminelle	13	23.5	38
Vetiver Oriental	7	13	20

Tom Ford (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Black Orchid EDP	7	13	20
Ebene Fume	9	17	26.5
Grey Vetiver EDP	7	13	20
Myrrhe Mystère	9	17	26.5
Noir Extreme EDP	7	13	20
Tobacco Vanille 2017 (A87)	10	18.5	29.5
Tuscan Leather	9	17	26.5

YSL (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
24 rue de l'Universite	10	18.5	29
37 rue de Bellechasse	9	16.5	26.5
Atlas Garden	10.5	19	30.5
Babycat	10	18.5	29
Exquisite Embroidery	10.5	19	30.5
Magnificent Gold	10.5	19	30.5
Saharienne	8	14.5	22.5
Splendid Wood	10.5	19	30.5
Trench	9	16.5	26.5
Tuxedo	8	14.5	22.5

Van Cleef & Arpels (link for a photo of bottles)	3ml	6ml	10ml
Bois d'Amande	8	14	22
Bois Dore	8	14	22
Neroli Amara	8	14	22
Reve de Cashmere	9	16.5	26.5
Reve d'Encens	9	16.5	26.5

Hello Everyone!
I'm Santo and this year I'll go to Lübeck with two Hand Embroidery workshops. They’ll take place in Die MachBar (Einsiedelstraße 6/Halle 48, 23554 Lübeck) the 25/05/24... Do you wanna join? They are both suitable for beginners and come with everything included.
Embroider Tiny Flowers & Turn one into a Pendant
https://www.eventbrite.de/e/850738089527?aff=oddtdtcreator
Under the Sea: Introduction to Raised Embroidery
https://www.eventbrite.de/e/850740185797?aff=oddtdtcreator
See You there!
PS: Feel free to share with anyone you feel could be interested.
https://preview.redd.it/9muy99ydpzyc1.jpg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91d6ac93d4b1deae5789b66b9f378adff968626e
https://preview.redd.it/f7brt8ydpzyc1.jpg?width=3552&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70e684c31c783fdfa0298df024efdaf7b8c87549
https://preview.redd.it/o06gf8ydpzyc1.jpg?width=5328&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef692d3d9c8c22e3e9e4f0387bfb362a5abb3f76
https://preview.redd.it/aj71opphpzyc1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=280545a1663b56af93ace2642d20319c91f85a4d
https://preview.redd.it/whz9llohpzyc1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f61df1f3fb5d38f9eb94ea6c499c39ca07169583

Sorry this is so long. I'm trying to cover a bunch of details and got really autistic about it. This is my take on what seems to be going on in the Alone In The Dark remake, both overtly and behind the scenes. Mikael Hedberg really went all out and threw in a bunch of esoteric stuff that is hard to follow, even if you've read all the literature (and there's a lot).
A few bits and pieces here and there, like the Perosi/Pregzt connection, are just conjecture on my part, so if you have an alternate take let me know. Please also let me know if you can tell me what the hell is going on with Grace in Emily's playthrough. Why does she slap Emily and order her to "learn her place, little girl"? Why did Emily even think the Carnby mask looked like her father? Why did Grace jab Emily with a syringe? What is up with that ENTIRE 'Jeremy is a boat now' section?
Anyway, the overarching story - TL;DR Essentially, several of the inmates at Derceto say they aren't there to be cured, but simply to be forgotten. This works on two levels. They don't just mean forgotten by their families and by a society they don't fit into, but also from an author's perspective. The NPCs are fighting the story itself and it's meta shit all the way down.
Quick recap: the original game (AITD1 1992, written and directed by Frederick Rayner) the cursed manor Derceto and its owner, Jeremy Hartwood, are haunted by the Dark Man (Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep). Jeremy kills himself to escape it, and his death prompts either Emily Hartwood or Edward Carnby to enter the Derceto with instructions to investigate the piano in the attic. They find that they cannot leave, and the mansion is overrun with undead horrors and monsters (and a killer ashtray which I'm very sad did not make it into the remake).
The boss is the immortal pirate Ezechial Pregzt a.k.a. former slave-owner Elias Pickford, who does the Dark Man's bidding and has bound his soul to the giant tree inside Derceto mansion. Emily/Carnby burn the tree, dispelling the curse, and flee the mansion with their skeletal chauffeur (also sad he didn't make it into the remake). AITD1 takes place in the same universe as the Call Of Cthulhu games, and the plot is full of stuff from Lovecraft and other authors.
In this new re-imagining, Jeremy chooses to live (with an apology to Frederick Rayner), hoping that the story might be re-written to allow for him. And it is, changing not just the present but the past. Pregzt no longer has a connection to Derceto and seems to have merely founded a shipping company during his pirate days. The slave-era Derceto plantation was owned by someone named Harriet Pickford, before becoming an artists' colony in which all the artists disappeared mysteriously. Derceto is now an asylum for the rich owned by Dr. Grey, and Jeremy allows himself to be committed in hopes of keeping the Dark Man contained.
At some point Elisabetta Perosi, member of the missing artists' colony, arrives from the past. I believe it's no coincidence that she has the same initials as Ezechial Pregzt, and is associated with pirates. She seems to be Pregzt's replacement in the story, but while the malevolent Pregzt happily allowed evil to control him, Perosi fights it just as Jeremy does.
As a writer, Perosi has the power to influence the story, and vows that she will see the Black Goat of the Woods (Lovecraft's Shub-Niggurath) burn along with Derceto. If she is indeed associated with Pregzt then it makes sense that she would wish the tree burned just as it was in AITD1. She and Jeremy were very close, and he mourns her deeply after she is (presumably) killed by the Dark Man.
(more on Perosi at the end of the post)
Unfortunately, the other characters at Derceto also had their own stories rewritten to accommodate Jeremy, and are not happy about it. A few were mentioned in AITD1 in very different roles, but their new role in Jeremy's story is to rot there along with him, forgotten by an uncaring author-god and caught up in Derceto's evil. They are unhappy, and they want a re-write.
Cassandra is also an author with the power to re-write the story - in fact she has written the entire story "leaving no room to breathe" and it's her version that is narrated to you over the course of the game. It ends with Carnby, Emily, and Jeremy all quietly leaving Derceto. The other NPCs are left behind, unhappy and forgotten... but alive. Juan suggests in Cassandra's lagniappe: "Perhaps you tried to save them from themselves and that is why you had to die". Perosi seems to be the stronger writer though, as it's her ending and not Cassandra's which comes to pass in the default ending.
Each year the asylum NPCs have a ritual where they "pray for better times to come". They wear papier-mache masks resembling AITD1 Carnby, made from a novelisation of AITD1 (seen in Grace's prologue), and pray to the tree which served as the seat of Derceto's power in AITD1. This tree also has the same VA as Cassandra the author, suggesting that it too has the power to shape stories. But the NPCs lack the power to influence it. Affected by the Derceto curse (which makes inhabitants worship an outer god disguised as a fertility god), they kill Cassandra and resolve to contact a greater power.
To thwart them, Jeremy makes the pact with the Dark Man which ensures that the story will never continue so long as he never becomes sane. This seems to give the Dark Man greater control, as he uses his Nyarthalotep powers to warp time and space inside Derceto. The other NPCs have had enough of Jeremy's shit. Led by Lottie and her brother, they force new words of power out of him to summon the Black Goat of the Woods.
When Jeremy is lobotomised in a heavy-handed metaphor that makes him sane (kinda) by stabbing his madness in the face, it ends the terms of the contract and severs his connection to the Dark Man. The overjoyed NPCs prepare for the ritual. Dr. Grey is fine with the status quo and hesitates to change it, possibly because his profession allows him to see the madness for what it is more clearly than the others. But the others are adamant that "We need to move forward" and "we've been waiting for so long".
Carnby remarks that Grace is not supposed to be here, and she agrees that he is correct: she is from AITD2, not AITD1. But Jeremy's story has dragged out over several years now, so the events of AITD2 (which began with her being kidnapped and Carnby sent to find her) never actually happened. This may be why she is chosen as a sacrifice, and why she is able to choose a new ending for herself by smashing the AITD1 talisman. But the sacrifice fails and the ritual is cursed. The Derceto NPCs get their new endings... but they're all bad endings. Derceto and the Black Goat burn just as Perosi wanted.
In the Carnby ending where the ritual succeeds, Ruth actually *does* get a good ending. Maybe the other NPCs do too! Maybe it all really would have worked out if the story-hogging protagonists hadn't ruined things by insisting on being heroes and having a heroic boss fight. Aside from, y'know, Grace dying and the elder god returning and such.
Some additional observations:

• MacCarfey was mentioned in AITD1 as the Hartwood family lawyer who urged Emily to sell Derceto after Jeremy's death. In the new story he is a dysfunctional alcoholic with "a deep-seated inability to trust people". Jeremy's betrayal of them all must have hit him pretty hard. His alcholism has him blurting out indiscretions now and then, but as Dr. Grey notes, MacCarfey's trust issues have him only telling half-truths. Like an oracle he speaks in riddles and the meaning of his words probably won't mean anything until later.
• Juan Luis Jorge (referencing author and essayist Jorge Luis Borges) wrote the AITD1 book Reflexions On The Power of the Verb, which Jeremy can be seen holding in his portrait. Juan's voice actor also voices Emily's fiance John Marcus. Fratre Johan Markus was the author of the AITD1 book Creatures of the Night and apparently "died in the library at the convent of Taroella", the idealised place of calm envisioned by Jeremy and inhabited by Juan.
• The 1600s opera Dido and Aeneas appears twice in lagniappes. The first is The Pirates of Ponchartrain, possibly just because of the opera's song Come Away, Fellow Sailors. The second is in Dying With Dignity, which is all about Emily's fiance and unlocks her extra ending. Here it specifically references Dido's Lament, sung by Dido as she dies alone and abandoned by her lover Aeneas. Dido implores the audience to remember her, but not to remember her fate.
• As mentioned earlier, AITD1 takes place in the same universe as the Call of Cthulhu games Shadow of the Comet and Prisoner of Ice, and makes direct reference to them in various text documents. One of these documents is Terra Incognita by Jacob Van Ostadte, the same Jacob that you stab in the face in the nightmare world to lobotomise Jeremy Hartwood.
• Ruth is Dr. Grey's favourite patient. He says she is "refreshingly open" about her lifestyle, and agrees that her "sexual perversions" (contemporary term for homosexuality) are not an illness and do not need to be treated, only urging her to be more discreet. This is an unorthodox stance for a 1920s psychiatrist to take, and may suggest that Dr. Grey is himself homosexual (and maybe wishes he could be so refreshingly open). He is much more civil to Carnby than Emily, to whom he is inexplicably a huge bitch, and the scene where he gives Carnby a brandy - "Having low standards is not a virtue, detective. Allow me to broaden your perspective" - may be his discreet attempt at flirtation... perhaps a little too discreet, since Carnby entirely fails to notice. (Ruth did not take Grey's advice and was not discreet, but her flirtations with Emily were more successful).
• Perosi's completed lagniappe, The Pirates of Ponchartrain, suggests that she and Norah Keith the poet conspired to lure the other artists into some sinister ritual involving masked dancers right before their disappearance. Keith was also the name given to Pregzt's demonic offsider in the AITD1 document The Trial of Captain Pregzt.

The presence of the Pallid Mask in the lagniappe also ties Perosi to The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. The lagniappe lore references an excerpt at the beginning of chapter 2: The Mask (which in turn references Poe's Masque of the Red Death). In The Mask itself, several living beings are turned into stone statues by an artist, which might suggest that the missing artists are in fact the humanoid stone figures on the landing at Derceto. Perosi writes: "no more Derceto, which means no more pirates. May you sail forever until you reach the shores of Hali", perhaps choosing to sacrifice them as Jeremy has chosen to sacrifice the Derceto asylum inmates. Hali is the lake by the city of Hastur in the alien other-world of The King In Yellow.