Rynling R&D

Forest of Fallen Knights

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:59:55 GMT

Forest of Fallen Knights (on Itch.io here) is a free-to-play Game Boy narrative adventure game that takes about 30-40 minutes to finish. Though the game is visually modeled after Link’s Awakening, its setting and story are a homage to Dark Souls.

You play as a nameless adventurer who’s found himself alone and unarmed at the bottom of a cave. After the ghost of a knight gives him a sword, the adventurer emerges into a dense forest dotted with ruined houses that were once inhabited by the knights who survived a devastating war. Though no longer alive, neither can the knights die. Your job, as the still-living adventurer, is to help them make peace with their regrets.

Admittedly, it’s unclear what purpose your good deeds will serve in the long run, given that the knights are eternally unable to pass on. Perhaps the adventurer should take care that their curse doesn’t pass to him as well...

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Two More Things Making Me Happy

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:32:47 GMT

Summer of Horror Exchange
https://summerofhorrorexchange.dreamwidth.org/

The minimum wordcount is 500 words ("this is because we think bite-sized horror is delicious"), and you only have to offer/request one fandom. I love horror-themed fanfic, and I also love low-pressure exchanges. Nominations open on May 15, and signups open on May 23.

Swords and Orbs and Anime Girls
https://90sfantasyanimestuff.tumblr.com/

A Tumblr that's pure 1990s fantasy anime and video games. This wasn't my childhood, but I dearly wish it were. I am such a big fan of this aesthetic.

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April 2026 Happiness

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 11:36:13 GMT

The theme of this month has been “I need to turn my brain off.” With that in mind, this is what’s been making me happy lately:

- We Used to Live Here (on Amazon here) is a contemporary gothic suspense novel that began as a viral post on the No Sleep reddit board. At first the story seems like it’s going to be “stranger danger” social horror, but it gradually transforms into something far weirder. I will admit that the writing is somewhat uneven (and I suspect that a ghostwriter might have been involved), but I flew through this book. As far as I’m concerned, this is creepypasta done right.

- If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You (on Amazon here) is a contemporary gothic mystery novel set in a TikTok hype house in Los Angeles. The main narrator, a 39yo woman hired to be the manager of the influencer kids, is a walking trashfire. She’s sympathetic enough not to be completely cringe, but it’s still fun to watch her make bad decisions. The author is admittedly no Shirley Jackson, but the Haunting of Hill House influences are very nicely observed.

- Maji Inu (on Amazon here) is a silly comedy manga about three dogs. They’re obsessed with eating and also very stupid. I’ve been following the artist (here) on Instagram since back when they were making Pokémon fancomics, and it’s very cool that they were able to publish an actual book with a major press. And it’s a good book!!

- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie wasn’t bad honestly. I can’t emphasize strongly enough that it’s written for a target audience of 6yo children, but the visual spectacle is impressive. The trailer, which functions as something of a stand-alone comedy short about Bowser, is (here) on YouTube, and that’s probably all that most people need to watch of this movie. I had a good time, though.

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Revolutionary Girl Zelda

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:50:07 GMT

Me: Revolutionary Girl Utena is a perfect piece of art. Because it's perfect, I've never felt compelled to create any sort of fanwork.

Me: Okay but what if Zelda though

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Listen I'm just saying. If there has to be a movie, it should look like this.

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2026 Writing Log, Part Sixteen

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:17:10 GMT

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I finished up the spring semester this week. So now I’m going to be more productive, right? Wrong!! Now I’m probably going to need a few weeks to recover. But that’s okay. Life is long. There’s no rush. 🍹

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Summer Writing

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:36:33 GMT

- I’d like to write a zine titled “Creativity at the Margins” about the dignity and value of making art outside of corporate channels in the age of social media enshittification.

- I need to write my “The Green Utopia of Breath of the Wild” essay that I promised a journal editor. This is going to be a substantial project, but I’m looking forward to it.

- I’ll keep working on The Archives of Hyrule. Act 1 of the story is finished, but I’m not sure where it goes from there. I should probably put together an outline!

- I want to make a set of text + image item cards that are contiguous to The Archives of Hyrule, but that I can also post as stand-alone artworks during Linktober this year.

That’s about as far ahead as I can think right now. Between one thing and another, I’ve been feeling uncomfortably stretched and thin. Maybe 2026 is not my year. And that’s okay, honestly.

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Be the change you want to see in the world

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:45:31 GMT

I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom a bit at a time every night and really enjoying myself. I think that's probably the best way to play this game - a bit at a time. There's a lot to do, and I imagine that it would be stressful to try to do it all at once. Definitely I was stressed out by the game when it first came out, but I have a feeling that I was attempting to take in too much all at once. Maybe it makes sense to say that Tears of the Kingdom is like Animal Crossing, but with Ganondorf.

Speaking of which, I dug out my old amiibo, and I was highly amused to be reminded that the Ganondorf amiibo drops massive chunks of beef. Bless.

This made me super nostalgic for the Rehydrated Ganondorf meme, and I was thinking of commissioning (this artist) to draw Ganondorf for me. Do you think he'd have fun with Ganondorf? Because I kind of think he'd have fun with Ganondorf. Right? Fingers crossed that he accepts the commission!

ETA: He accepted the commission!! Yesssss

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Places in Tokyo

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:13:36 GMT

Last week, a few of my students told me that my Japanese fiction class has inspired them to visit Tokyo this May, and they asked for recommendations. I’m the sort of boring nerd who loves bookstores and bases my travels on a foundation of finding nice cafés to sit down and chill out, but I did my best to make a list of places that might be fun for people in their early 20s. This was a labor of love, so I thought I’d share it here too.

So here are some of my favorite spots in Tokyo:

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And now for some daytrips:

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Re: Tears of the Kingdom

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 13:10:37 GMT

Anyway my trick is that writing fanfic helped me remember how much I enjoy playing these games.

Like check out (this) design draft of Zelda from The Archives of Hyrule by the amazingly stylish Conito. How can I not love this character?

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Tears of the Kingdom

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 11:44:26 GMT

I also started a new game of Tears of the Kingdom!

My deep dark fandom confession is that, while I understand and agree with the (many) criticisms of this game, I’ve actually really come to love it. A lot of the big-picture story ideas are poorly considered, but most of the smaller game design choices are brilliant.

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* My answer to any and all questions concerning Ganondorf is that he’s a dramatic little bitch, so it's best just to sit back and enjoy the show. He raised an entire castle into the sky for fun! Are you not entertained? Give the man his flowers.

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The Wind Waker

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:14:25 GMT

The Wind Waker is a marvelous game. A miraculous work of art. A blessing directly from heaven. A beautiful shining treasure on this earth.

I haven’t gotten to the relaxing part (the sailing) yet, but that’s okay. I always forget what an incredible charm offensive the opening hour of the game is, and I’m always delighted.

I love how, when Link is leaving Outset Island, the music crescendos into a heroic swell as he waves goodbye to everyone on the island from the stern of a pirate ship – but just when the song is about to reach its climax and transition into the classic Legend of Zelda theme, it crashes to a halt when Tetra is like, “Are you fucking done?” I love her so much, and also. That’s thematic foreshadowing babeyyyy.

I also somehow managed to forget how cool the first encounter with Ganondorf is. I love the way his face distorts into the most bitter and unhinged smile, and the way he ever-so-slightly twists his chin to signal the Helmaroc King (his giant pet murder bird) to release Link back into the ocean. Ganondorf covets that wind, and I covet... his magnificent bone structure...

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2026 Writing Log, Part Fifteen

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:14:46 GMT

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It’s the end of the semester, and I’m running on fumes. The absurdity of the current worldstate isn’t helping. Still, I’m going to make a serious effort to vent less and be more chill and normal going forward. I set up my Wii U to play Wind Waker, and hopefully spending some relaxing time on the Great Sea will help. But I won’t lie, a productive eight-hour workday with a Death Note would help more.

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How to tell if a student has used ChatGPT

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:33:42 GMT

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You get why I suspect that this answer was created by Gen-AI, right?

It’s not so much the writing itself, but rather the tone and context. The student’s answer is completely wrong, but it’s written with complete confidence. His answer is something that could conceivably be possible... but again, it’s totally unsupported, not to mention totally irrelevant. So where does the student’s confidence come from? And also, given that he’s apparently unable to read the specified paragraph, where does that smoothness of writing come from? Why does he feel the need to write a perfectly balanced three-sentence paragraph when a simple four-word answer would suffice?

I am so fucking ready for this semester to be over, you have no idea.

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I am a Blogger™

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:50:16 GMT

I'm currently reading two books about bloggers and influencers (Hooked and If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You), and I was thinking about what I would even talk about if I shared aspects of my real life online. Is academia interesting? I don't think it's interesting! Also generally only bad things happen. For example:

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Fun times, fun times.

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Yay ❤️

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:26:34 GMT

Bloodborne Video Game Getting R-Rated Animated Movie Adaptation From Sony
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/bloodborne-video-game-r-rated-animated-movie-adaptation-sony-cinemacon-1236720936/

PlayStation’s Bloodborne is being developed into an R-rated animated feature for Sony Pictures that the studio says will embrace the carnage that made the game so popular. Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, promised during the studio’s CinemaCon presentation that the long-rumored film will be “very true” to the gory spirit of Bloodborne, which follows a traveler who journeys into a gothic city full of nightmarish creatures.

Not gonna lie, they had me at "animated."

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I am an Educator™

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 11:50:46 GMT

If you're wondering how I've been handling the near-total use of Gen-AI among my students this semester, pretty early on I just threw my hands up and said: Okay you win, no more papers. Class is now more or less an in-person interactive podcast with pictures (PowerPoint standup with crowdwork?) and that's fine. Less work for me.

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Anyway my actual job is to be a researcher. I'm not getting paid to reform higher education.

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2026 Writing Log, Part Fourteen

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:33:29 GMT

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I don’t know how this works for other people, but one of the weird things about writing fiction for me is that I really have to sit down, shut out the rest of the world, and put myself in a certain headspace. I’ve been neglecting this practice, and I’m getting kind of rusty. It feels very selfish to carve out that sort of “room of one’s own,” but I need to get my fiction writing stamina back!

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What I want to achieve as a "published" novelist

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:30:26 GMT

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I think I can achieve the first four on my own; but, for the fifth, self-publishing really isn't going to cut it. Unfortunately, that’s not up to me, so it’s definitely worth focusing on what I can do without the approval of gatekeepers.

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Re: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:27:09 GMT

Okay I thought about it on the bus to work this morning.

So like. I was highly amused that Bowser and Luigi canonically started a book club between the two movies. I wonder how that went. I bet they had fun.

Maybe this is a decent premise for a story:

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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:30:14 GMT

The art and animation are extremely impressive!!

Unfortunately, all of the movie’s jokes are in the trailer...

...or in the sections with Star Fox, which are surprisingly well-written.

Mostly it’s just a movie for kids, though. It has all the charm and creativity of the first movie, but it leans into speaking to a target demographic of 5-8yo children. The theater in West Philly where we went to see it was filled with little kids, and they really seemed to love it.

I liked it okay, I guess. There’s definitely enough Bowser/Luigi material to work with!

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Dr. Signal’s Strange Machine

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 11:56:30 GMT

Dr. Signal’s Strange Machine
https://caramel.itch.io/strangemachine

Dr. Signal’s Strange Machine is a sci-fi narrative adventure game with a runtime of about 12 minutes. You play as Dr. Signal, who has just perfected a machine that allows her to talk with dinosaur fossils. She’s chosen a t-rex as a conversation partner, and she’s interested in how it managed to survive the end of the world.

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This is what makes people go hollow in Dark Souls

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:32:15 GMT

A Publisher Pulled a Book for Suspected A.I. Use. I Got My Hands on a Copy. What I Found Was Revealing.
https://slate.com/culture/2026/03/shy-girl-mia-ballard-novel-a-i-book-horror-reddit-hachette-canceled.html

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2026 Writing Log, Part Thirteen

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:05:25 GMT

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The weather is warm, and the sakura are in bloom. It’s going to take time to recover from this year’s horrible winter, but I’m getting there. 🌸

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Return to Grace

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:57:05 GMT

Return to Grace (on Steam here) is an atmospheric sci-fi walking sim that takes about an hour and a half to finish.

You play as Adie, a space archaeologist who’s searching for a legendary AI named Grace on the Ganymede moon of Jupiter. Inside the immaculately preserved ruins of a structure built to worship Grace, Adie encounters various aspects of Grace’s personality, who communicate with her through her digital wristband. As she explores the beautifully appointed space station, Adie searches for the answer to a mystery that’s gone unsolved for more than a hundred years: why did Grace suddenly disappear?

The game’s story is well-paced and engaging, and the voice acting is excellent. Return to Grace also showcases one of the most visually striking examples of retro futurism I’ve encountered. The references to everyday 1960s architecture and interior design fit the world and its themes perfectly, as do the more elevated hints of Art Deco.

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In the end, Return to Grace is a short but thought-provoking narrative adventure filled with uniquely stylized artistic flourishes, and I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of What Remains of Edith Finch and Outer Wilds.

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March Happiness

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 19:32:29 GMT

I have been so grumpy this month!! I have legitimate reasons for my bad attitude, but wow. I really need to lighten up a little. Here are a few things that made me happy:

She and Her Cat (on Crunchyroll here) is an update on Makoto Shinkai’s debut indie animation. There are four episodes, each of which is about seven minutes long, and they’re filled with soft and relaxing slice-of-life energy.

Brick (on Amazon here) is difficult to describe, but it’s safe to say it’s the opposite of Makoto Shinkai. This movie is from 2005, and it’s a classic noir murder mystery set in and around a Los Angeles high school. The focus is way more on “murder” than it is on “high school,” though. This is Rian Johnson’s debut film, so it’s fair to compare it to Knives Out, but it’s much grittier (in a good way). Also, I’m not super into Kylo Ren, but if you are: he’s there.

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape (on Amazon here) is a 2021 collection of gorgeously written nonfiction essays about rewilding. Cal Flynn visited some interesting places to do the reporting for this book, and her descriptions of overgrown ruins are really something special.

Outset Emporium (on Etsy here) sells beautiful hand-painted sculptures of Koroks, pokémon, and other fantasy-themed creatures. He ships from the UK with no trouble at all, and believe me when I say that the quality of the craftsmanship is worth the price. I was going to get myself something from this shop as a present to mark a special occasion, but every day is special goddamn it. I posted a photo of my new Korok friend on Bluesky (here) if you’re interested.

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