#I'm rewriting a lot of things for migration

[autogeneity]

it is pretty sweet when I can feel reasonably confident that if my tests pass then my code will also work correctly when run

[shepherds-of-haven]

The End of an Era, and the Road Ahead

Hi everybody, the recent news about Dashingdon shutting down feels like it's a bittersweet turning point for many in the ChoiceScript community. Before Don stepped up and took things into his own hands, volunteering his own money, manpower, and time to create and maintain the site, there was no good way for people to host ChoiceScript demos and games in one place: I think the previous solution had been different Dropbox links (which was eventually nuked by security changes in how they hosted files) and possibly separate Neocities sites? Without the Dashingdon site, none of us would have had such an incredible space to gather, share and explore and experience games together, or--for some--even feel motivated to write a ChoiceScript game in the first place, not without an easy and intuitive way of sharing it with others in a playable format. The Dashingdon site significantly lowered the barrier of entry for anyone wanting to make or play or share games; more than that, it was a place of memories, creativity, and connection, and I fully believe that it served as a vital backbone of the ChoiceScript community for many years. A lot of that community relies on the efforts of volunteers--including the creator of CSIDE and the moderators on the forums--and, as with them, I can only thank Don wholeheartedly for his generosity and his 10 years of tireless, selfless, and often thankless work. The fact that a lot of people didn't even know he was a volunteer shows his altruism!

However, all of that work could have only fallen on the shoulders of one person for so long. It's a sad loss to see, though, and I'm very sorry to everyone mourning the loss of the community space, old or inactive WIPs, and save files that will be lost when Dashingdon goes dark at the end of the month. I do wish that there could be an official, stable, company-supported place for authors to host their games in one place, but at least there are alternatives for people to migrate to! (Thank you too to @hpowellsmith and everyone in the community who's taken it upon themselves to spread the news and try to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone surprised by this announcement. And thank you to the volunteer who's taken up the banner at cogdemos.ink!) I don't know if cogdemos.ink has a page set up to help defray costs, but Dashingdon himself has a ko-fi if you want to leave a tip or thanks for his years of service to the community!

To that end, I want to reassure you all that Shepherds of Haven is safe and isn't going anywhere, and that this change won't affect the game's future. The news has, however, sped up my announcement of something I've been working on for a long time: transitioning away from ChoiceScript and moving Shepherds of Haven to Twine.

Granted, this wasn't how I originally planned on sharing this news. Patrons have known about this move since I decided on it, but I'm a dogged perfectionist, possibly to a fault. I wanted everything to be absolutely polished before unveiling the Twine build, but this unexpected news has been the nudge I needed to take the leap sooner. It's always been my habit to polish my work to an extreme degree: I will rewrite entire novels five, seven, however many times it takes before I send it to my agent or editor... or even before I show it to my own fiance! I still haven't let him read Shepherds, or the novel that I've been talking to him about since 2019, because it "isn't ready" yet, not in my own mind. A common refrain I've always heard from career associates is that my work is "unusually impeccable" by the time it hits their desk. When I do share something, it's usually done. But if I'm learning anything as I grow as a writer, it's that progress matters over perfection. The sudden closure of Dashingdon has made me realize that no one moment will ever feel perfect--and that’s okay. I have to accept that things will never be as perfect as I want to make them before I let them out into the world. Instead of holding myself to an impossible standard, I’m embracing this opportunity to push forward and bring you something I'm truly proud of. (However nerve-wracking that may be!) So, instead of reuploading the ChoiceScript demo somewhere else, only to take it down again later, my efforts are going to shift entirely to getting the Twine version ready for release. It’s a huge task, but it ensures I’ll have complete control over Shepherds of Haven and its future. If I drop everything and focus entirely on this for the next several weeks, my best estimate is that it will take 3-5 weeks of full-time work to make that final push and finally get everything caught up and ready.

Why Twine? There were a lot of reasons behind my decision to move. The biggest of all was that, as the game's wordcount grew, so too did my creative vision for it, and I found myself longing for a version of ShoH that could be just as visually rich and mechanically engaging as I was imagining. Codex entries, interactive maps, infinite saves that can be downloaded directly to your device! Moving to Twine removes the limitations of ChoiceScript's simpler engine, and allows me to honor the game's creative potential and deliver on it in a way that feels true to the journey we've shared so far. It's also a platform that offers greater flexibility and independence for both me and the game: I've put so much work into this project that I'd prefer for its success to rest more in my hands, even if that means taking on the monumental task of publishing it myself, rather than anyone else's.

So. Both the public demo and the alpha build will be released in Twine as soon as I can make that happen. The majority of the work's already done--I just need to get the alpha build caught up with some lingering day off interludes and Chapters 8.5 and 9, and I need to address a queue of lingering quality-of-life questions and tweaks. I want to also note that, while there are very exciting additions to unveil, everything foundational to ShoH remains exactly the same. The story, text, and original functions have been ported in their entirety to Twine, outside of basic edits and refinements that would have happened in the normal course of revision, anyway. I have even taken pains to implement a visual "classic" setting that will replicate the font, colors, and general simplified look of the original version, if players want to use that instead. :) But otherwise, this thing is stuffed to the gills with awesome new features. Custom music soundtrack! Clickable maps! Actual trading card collectibles! Stunning new art! Revamped codex and store and inventory systems! Helpful tutorials and autosave points! Important quality of life improvements, like being able to select pronouns separately from gender and change them any time! This doesn't even touch the surface of it, but needless to say, I think we're going to have a lot of fun. Thank you all for your patience, encouragement, and support so far, and please give me some time to get my ducks in a row. A new version of Shepherds of Haven will be ready for you to play soon!

[tackytigerfic]

Writer interview game

Thank you to my pals @arminaa8, @citrusses, @garagepaperback, @houndsinhades, @sorrybutblog, @sweet-s0rr0w, @wholahoop for tagging me - as always i'm deeply late to the party, due to an anxious few weeks/horridly busy work month! so love being tagged in these things though, i appreciate you all and loved reading yours.

how many works do you have on ao3? 69 😏 under tacky and 2 under BrassTacks (the account I set up when I was going to migrate all my fics over to a new name for some reason)

what's your total ao3 word count? 679,422 (nervous laughter) (also this is just the tacky account)

your top 5 stories by kudos? (a clear indication that kudos count means fuck all imo, three of the five of these are very much not my best imo - but which three?!)

If It Takes All Night (E, 11k)

A Lick and a Promise (E, 55k)

Modern Love (E, 62k)

And One To Play (E, 22k)

Through the Window, Clear Skies (M, 1.4k)

do you respond to comments? I used to reply to all, then i fell hugely behind with Modern Love, and then life got exceptionally busy and for ages it was either reply to comments or write new fics. i am currently working my way through comments on my new long fic though - really trying to catch up, albeit slowly.

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? People might say my MCD fic Last Offices. I would say The Quiver of a Heartstring.

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending? First Watch, imo - i think they really had to work for their happy ending, and also it's a double Drarry happy ending

do you write crossovers? I have a rough idea for an F1 crossover based on the Grosjean fiery crash/coming back wrong trope

have you ever received hate on a fic? a few times, that stuff doesn't really bother me though. personal unpleasantnesses are much harder to deal with but luckily don't happen often.

do you write smut? yes i do! it's something i've been actively working on improving, in fact. my most recent fic Standing in the Way is probably my best (though the sex scene at the end of First Watch was the one I found most satisfying in terms of the resolution of the fic)

have you ever had a fic stolen? yes, had a few put on that AI voice-recorded site recently.

have you ever had a fic translated? yes, a few - always a great honour as i see translation as an art in itself

have you ever co-written a fic before? yes! and it was very fun. Body Electric with @shealwaysreads and the Dreaming Skies Dronarry fics with @sweet-s0rr0w

what's your all-time favorite ship? look i've been reading drarry since around 2002 so...

what's a wip that you want to finish but don't think you ever will? Dudley with a magical baby/forced marriage/drarry on the run after Muggles find out about magic. MoD Harry who keeps dying but not for good having to go retrieve Draco from death. Draco going through the Veil to get Sirius back. Vicar Harry that I started years ago and would probably need a full rewrite. Caravan park worker Draco in a holiday camp in France. Seer Ron. I have lots. Though I do hope to finish them at some point!

what are your writing strengths? probably immediacy of emotions/ a strong visual style?

what are your writing weaknesses? sloppiness, sameiness, trying to be concise but just making it dull. getting discouraged at never being as good as the writers i really admire.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? i... don't really have many? if someone in the story speaks a foreign language and doesn't speak english then I'd find a native speaker to help me translate their dialogue. I would never write an accent/dialect phonetically a la JKR though (RIP Fleur and Hagrid, you deserved better)

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to? F1!! I have two WIPs, a Maxiel non-racing AU where Daniel owns an organic farm shop and Max is a finance bro who makes friends with him and joins his 11-a-side amateur footie team and they hook up on a stag do while dressed as mariokart characters, and a Galex fic with Vicar!George.

what's your favorite fic you've ever written? First Watch! I think it's a really good fic (relative to my writing i mean), it does exactly what i hoped it would, and the people who like it seem to really genuinely love it, which is the best feeling. Also I do love the Voldemort-Wins trope and we don't have a huge amount in Drarry so I'm happy I wrote one.

Since I'm so late I'm not sure who's done this already (will try a few F1 pals too in case this hasn't reached you yet) @beloved-child-of-the-house @boxboxlewis @disarmd @elskanellis @epitomereally @faiell @kendra-vendetta @maesterchill @magicalrocketships @powerful-owl @saxamophone @skeptiquewrites

[windvexer]

Tired of Tumblr? Windvexer's witchcraft content is now available on Patreon

Yeah, Windvexer's witchcraft content is now being archived on Patreon.

I haven't been thrilled with the way the social media winds have been blowing. About a month ago I decided I didn't feel comfy using Tumblr as my primary "creator space" any more.

So I started a pretty sizeable project: downloading and sorting my blog to begin migrating over my witchcraft content (without the chatting and memes) to a platform that feels a heck of a lot more stable.

My goal is to edit, format, and link everything that might be the slightest bit useful that I've said on this blog. So far I have all the masterpost content migrated over (a total of 86 content posts).

I have several hundred posts left to edit and upload. I'm working with a new tagging and organizational system that I think is going to make things a lot easier to navigate.

My posts are currently in 2 categories:

Posts that I can upload with minimal or no editing

Posts that may require significant editing or rewrites before they can see the light of day

My current goal is to continue migrating around 5-10 "easy" posts per week until I run out of them, and then start working on the posts that are more difficult to transfer. I expect that the entire process is going to take months.

Anyway, if you like the Windvexer content but not the Windvexer witchblr goofing off, now there's a thing for you on Patreon.

I'm not going to stop using Tumblr.

All the content on Patreon will stay free to access on Tumblr.

The main difference is that on Patreon, you'll have access to my pure witchcraft content that's sorted, tagged, and ideally easy to navigate. Also you won't have to use Tumblr, which right now is feeling like a huge bonus.

My current plan is to continuously move over anything useful I happen to write to Patreon.

So, if you don't want to use Tumblr any more but you like witchcraft content, all of that is slowly rolling out onto my Patreon. (There is a lot of stuff left to upload).

Feel free to hit the Askbox with questions.

[faelune-home]

FFXIVWrite 2024 #19: Taken

(A/n: So i say I'm focusing a lot on the magic questline, and yet here's anoter entry into the magic questline rewrite. Again, I just really like writing Alisaie's perspective on this matter, and at this point I've realised that figuring out the magic plot could roughly let me figure out the whole timeline for the other quests as well as msq. Plus I did say I want to see one of these rewrite quests finished before the month ends, so at this rate it's gonna be the magic one.

Having this one be a friendly chat with Artoirel before Ali rejoins msq, and Fhara dips off for Elpis, so this is also the separation point where the quest ending will have to wait till after that msq point. The actual prompt inspiration being the discussion on Aymeric and how infatuated he is with Fhara its hard to miss, but in turn, Fhara's waning mutual feeling also stands out in how she clearly doesn't match him anymore.

Spoiler warning in play now as we appraoch the second half of EndW msq and the later magic role quests, the narration will mention the msq event a bit more now as these entries go on.

Word count: 1403)

Alisaie could only sigh as she packed up her things. There really wasn’t anything left to do, at least at that point. Aymeric had arranged for a council to be held to address the feelings of disconnect between the church and the populace, but that would require time and all sorts of bureaucratic red tape to get through, and there hadn’t been any other sightings of Profane Fafnir since.

And with the death of the bishop, despite even more unrest amongst the clergy, no-one else had reported any other turnings. It’s like his passing had cowed enough of the faithful into silence, hiding away to avoid the same fate.

She could just hang around Ishgard waiting for news, but as it was, Krile and Y’shtola had called everyone back to help with matters in Thavnair, especially as people were beginning the process of migrating to Sharlayan to prepare for the exodus.

And Fhara would be making moves to try and travel back to the ancients’ time…

Alisaie’s fist curled up to think of Fhara still at work, barely taking any time to rest. Mostly of her own volition, which frustrated her to no end, but it was just as much the fault of everyone else needing Fhara’s assistance, the world dying and the people suffering, and of course Fhara would never deny the call to help people.

Always equal parts inspiring and infuriating.

Alisaie sighed again to ease the tension, not even realising her shoulders were practically up to her ears, and releasing the poor clothing garment that had been victim to her clenched hand.

There was a knock at the door. She packed away the piece and called for the person to enter.

“Good evening, my lady,” Artoirel said, offering a small bow as he entered, leaving the door behind him slightly ajar, “I hope you don’t mind my intrusion.”

“Not at all ser, I’m just packing up,” Alisaie responded, gesturing to her pack. It was only a light one anyway, for easy travel, with a mix of clothes suited for both Thavnair and Garlemald given the Scions most recent activities. “Mostly finished by now.”

“I see,” he nodded in acknowledgement, “I must say, while this certainly isn’t the last we’ll see of each other once the council is ready to commence, it has been an honour to work alongside you so far. Your brother’s tales didn’t do you justice.” Alisaie folded her arms and tried not to look too smug at the praise.

Apparently her brother had sold her as a passionate and headstrong person that would almost certainly bite back against people she deemed too overconfident or self assured. At the time, Alisaie had been admittedly rather wary of that description - it wasn’t wrong per say, even if it was mostly about how she treated Alphinaud himself, and before they’d reunited properly - but Artoirel had acknowledged himself that he was relishing to chance to meet her. In his own words;

”You were going to be the better person to counter Ishgard’s own stubborn ranks.”

Returning to the moment, she nodded back.

“I’m glad I could be of assistance. And that I could live up to my reputation. I still have to thank Alphinaud for being so lenient in his description.”

She almost dared think he cracked a smile at that, but if he did, it was lost again in his ever professional demeanour.

“I’m especially glad to have you here as it took a lot of the pressure off of Lady Fhara. Although I suppose that means nothing when she simply stretched herself thin helping damn near every nation on Aldenard instead. When Aymeric and I sent our delegate to seek her aid, we weren’t expecting her to accept every offer sent her way.”

“Unfortunately I did,” Alisaie frowned, “But while she’ll never take a moment for herself until she’s about ready to sleep on her feet, I am glad she enlisted our help with these matters. If this is the closest we can get to taking some of the burden off of her, then I’ll put in 110% of the effort for her sake.”

This time, he was definitely smiling. It was only small, but it was there.

“You certainly have. The Scions are ever working tirelessly but I shall hope that you can keep up that same effort once we finally move to face Profane Fafnir with your return.” She nodded firmly.

“I can only hope Ser Aymeric manages with Fhara being away again,” she suddenly mused, the man’s ever attentive behaviour playing on her mind, “I know he’s quite…fond of her.”

“So I’ve noticed. Though I’m rather surprised to see Lady Fhara not quite matching his enthusiasm,” Artoirel said.

“Really? I simply took her for trying to remain professional. Or simply her exhaustion leaving her a touch disconnected,” she responded.

“I can assure you, even during her days here in Ishgard with Master Alphinaud and Lady Tataru, Lady Fhara was very obvious with her mutual affections, and it never hindered her capabilities.”

Alisaie wasn’t going to argue against that - after all, she didn’t have much of an idea of Fhara’s relations beyond the Scions, especially during the time she wasn’t with the group. All she knew of Aymeric and Fhara’s courting was Fhara ultimately deciding to put it to the side since the threat of the ascians was too great to ignore for such dalliances.

But Fhara’s behaviour had stood out during their time in Ishgard - never quite meeting Aymeric with the same energy, always keeping space between them, and the few times Aymeric had tried to approach her with talk of something other than their mission - light small talk about the state of the city beyond the church, her own wellbeing, even a quickly dashed attempt for a moment alone - Fhara had immediately put up the wall of civility, focusing on the duty at hand.

It left Alisaie wondering about her friend’s feelings for the other man…

“Well, no matter what it is, I hope she is well. Perhaps once the matter is finished, they can discuss it between them,” Artoirel nodded, catching her attention again.

“I didn’t take you to be the type to mind others' relations or rumours,” Alisaie asked, though with a more amused tone of voice. And for all his scoff in response, again he had that small smile.

“Please, that’s my brother’s occupation. Lurking about the Crozier minding the whispers. Though I can’t deny he’s able to keep above the news and the secrets of the other houses, as deplorable as an act it is, it has some use.”

“I’m unfortunately quite aware. Maybe you didn’t know, or perhaps he dressed it up in more palatable terms, but Alphinaud can be quite the same, always with his ear to the goings on of others and ready to stick his nose in where it might not be wanted.”

His response was a semi-stifled huff of laughter, which at this point Alisaie realised, might as well be Ser Artoirel’s equivalent of an outright bark of amusement.

“I was not aware, but in hindsight that would explain much. Always interfering indeed.” A chime sounded from the door, a clock going off somewhere else in the inn. Since when was that the time?

“Well, I wasn’t aware it’d been so long. I have other work to be getting on with,” he mumbled below his breath, coughing to recollect himself and pulling himself straight. That straightlaced expression once again on his face.

“Once again, it has been a pleasure to fight alongside you. My apologies for keeping you, and I await your return to finish matters,” he said, bowing to her.

“Until then,” Alisaie said, bowing in turn, picking up her travel bag. The borrowed coat lay untouched on the bed. She didn’t really need it if she was returning to Thavnair, but she picked it up all the same and handed it back to him.

“Thank you. I shall keep this waiting for you at the manor. Would you care for me to lead you out?”

Ever the professional, ever the dutiful lord, ever keeping up appearances. Even if she knew he had a bit more to him behind that stern front. In a way, maybe she was glad to have met him - straightforward but never quite feeling like she had to talk in circles like most diplomatic matters.

“Please, lead the way my lord.”

[marcydaydream]



I'm planning on setting up a new Adventure Time wiki, separate from the existing Fandom wiki, since Fandom sucks a lot. Why? A lot of other wikis have split from Fandom and set up elsewhere too. Also I just really want to have a place that feels more organised and is slightly more strict in terms of who can edit.

I dunno whether I'll try to rewrite the whole wiki (which is a HUGE project, I am aware), or just migrate everything as-is. The only thing is I want it to differ from the existing wiki and not have useless stuff uploaded by idiots that haven't been dealt with by mods. Idk.

If I do go for the rewrite option (which I am really leaning toward!), I will definitely need some help so if anybody is interested in helping, let me know!

Otherwise, I would love to hear your thoughts on this :)



oh, also I might name it Ooopedia.

[gorgugplushie]

(paceplace) / honestly ttcc writing is very messy i agree. i love the game to bits and dissecting it but the flaws in it are as enriching to pick apart as it is frustrating to discover. it really, truly does break my heart that toons aren't as appreciated as the cogs and i wish there were toon characters you could focus on in the same way the mgrs are. the NPCs you meet along the taskline are charming and i adore every single one of them but as much as i personally like them i don't think its enough to capture people's attention in the broad sense.

irt my qualms w/ how ttcc handles its game i think one of the many main issues boils down to the fact that they're disorganized. their issue w/ how lore has been distributed has been addressed twice by the team itself iirc (once in th same tweet where they confirmed fire\\setter as canon and once in their writers backstage post from around a yr ago). their writers backstage post helped give a little more perspective on why the lore was scattered around Like That.

as all over the place as the lore is, i do feel it's important to mention that they said in their backstage writers post they plan on eventually migrating all of their social media comics to the website so things like the rain\\diver comic is very likely to still be canon they just haven't added it in yet. idk why they don't add it around the same time its posted on social media my guess is maybe they're still trying to organize all the lore or redo some of it since its so all over the place (a couple of the comics we have rn on their website that are considered canon has info that was technically retconned) but yeah. i have hope that the way they handle their lore and (hopefully!) their taskline when they get around to rewriting it will improve in the later updates. i try very hard to stay on top w/ clash's lore esp since i have ppl come to me w/ questions regarding clash's story, characters, etc. but sometimes it is Very headache-inducing so i sympathize w/ how confusing/frustrating it is to a casual player. or just any lore-enjoyer tbf. i swear on my life i almost went crazy trying to make a timeline with btl

anyways you don't have to answer this if you don't want (i gen. apologize for the wall of text i really tried to get straight to the point w/ what i'm saying. and even then there's still a lot i wanted to say) but i'm really glad to see discussions on it. oftentimes criticism gets mistaken for hate and it shuts the entire convo which Peeves me. even if w/e's being criticized turns out to fall flat its better to address or talk about it than it is to not, imo.

Yes, exactly! I agree with all the points you've made here.

It's so strange to me that ttcc doesn't really lean into more how the cogs affect the toons, or toon society for all that matter, its a wonder people are so baised with cogs because we really dont get anything about toons. Their less part of the game and more set peices for this war, which sucks!

Theres obviously alot more room to write about toon lore and it would be easier to implement it in game, yet it gets brushed aside to further characterize the cogs and thats sad bc alot of the toons are cute and unique! Ttcc has great toon designs!

I also have to agree with the way the lore is handled, id even go as far to say big updates themsleves are handled in a frankly. Unprofessional manner. I mean, compare the update live streams done in jokey powerpoint slides to ttrs panles where they talk about progress on the updates. We really get little to no inside information until it's already ready to drop. Sure the game updates more regularly but all these updates are starting to feel like filler and padding. I at least can hope that hammerspace and mix and match at least come with some toon lore?

Its a shame that alot of what drew me into this game ends up weighing it down : (

Also yeah lol i didnt main tag this for a reason i do want to keep the discussion open! But all great points!

[fracturedgodhead]

I did some more programming #28

I also applied for a job, but that's neither here nor there.

I started moving from the ogl33 crate to the gl crate. It's mostly done, I can feel how much better made these libraries are, the gl one and the sdl one. Did I mention that I also moved over from beryllium or whatever I was using before to the actual sdl2 crate.

I understand somewhat why the tutorial used the other crates, they're a subset of the complete ones, so for a simple tutorial like that, the smaller one's are more convenient.

Regardless, the code is almost completely migrated, I'm just having issues with getting sdl to load the opengl functions, and I still need to rewrite event handling. The beryllium wrapper used a fundamentally different system than the actual sdl2 crate does. From what I've seen, the sdl2 way is better. Something about "eventPumps"?

Anywho, progress is progress. I get closer every day I guess. What with school starting up, progress might slow I think, but it is what it is.

Another thing I was thinking about was the 'one project a week' schedule. I think the different types of projects take different amounts of time. I have experience with writing, and I don't have experience with drawing, but for certain simple things like what I made last time, not as much time is needed. I have no idea how to make music, so that will take a lot of time, but making a module for programming will probably be pretty fast (this current project is primarily boilerplate. That type of work and refactoring are both intensive, and so take much longer). I think I will plan to have different amounts of time for each: writing projects get 3-4 days, drawing gets 5-6, music gets 12-13 and programming gets 6-7. On average, still a 28 day cycle, but the allocation is shifted to reflect my skill. It might shift again, but I think this is a lot more doable, specifically for music.

Although, I feel like the only problem I had was that I just couldn't start. Analysis paralysis kept me from doing anything. I couldn't put any kind of noise into the stupid program because I was to anxious about it being good. It feels like the solution is to just start and stop worrying about how good it will be, but at the same time I know that my lack of confidence comes from a lack of knowledge about audio, music, and music theory. I know that the solution to that root is to learn, and learning takes time. In this situation I need to trust what I know over what I feel and give that time to the problem.

Once I finish this boilerplate bs, I'm going to do 2 drawings in a row, then some writing, then audio, then programming. I think I'm going to ditch the whole "make a big multi-media every month" bit. I want to make those kinds of things, so if I do what I want, I will do that sometimes. Having structure is good, but too much is... restrictive, or maybe, exhausting? inorganic? over-rigid? I found that as much as having the structure helps, my ultimate goal is to make things. I am sometimes succeeding at that goal, but still feeling bad because I went over my personal deadline, or failing to achieve that goal in the name of my arbitrary deadlines. I need to balance limits for preventing never-ending projects, while still giving myself reasonable amounts of time and leniency so that I can actually finish things instead of forcing myself to move on from a project that is actually not long from being done. It's a hard balancing act, but I'm learning.

[littlealeta]

The Wild Robot Review

I am not posting this in the Wild Robot tag because I know I'm going to get hate for this.

I think the movie was mediocre. Sorry.

While it did tell an emotionally compelling story through these characters (one of the few positives I have to say about the story), the main plot unfortunately feels familiar and takes too many ideas from other stories. Ori and the Blind Forest, Migration, Fly Away Home, and Detroit Become Human.

I also think it's one of those movies that may have followed the book too closely. I haven't read the book, so I don't know how much it takes from the books, but usually, films that follow the book end up slow-paced and draggy, which is the case for this film. I believe it's meant to be a slice of life which makes sense for the pacing, but slice of life is not for me. So, ultimately, despite some fresh concepts (a robot trying to adapt to wildlife and a gosling being raised by a robot), it feels too familiar (especially in the middle portion).

I give The Wild Robot 6.2 bells out of 10.

In an Aleta Rewrites story, I think there should've been a lot more done with the concept of a robot trying to adapt to wildlife and Brightbill being influenced by Roz. So, the conflict should've been bigger with both of these things. Roz struggles with raising Brightbill right and Brightbill struggles with trying to act like a normal gosling.

[sweetcloverheart]

In OOP defense, the main issue lies (heh) with how the conflicts are portrayed - in "Truth", it's made very clear that Marinette is both struggling and hurting from the fact that she's hiding her secret identity from Luka and that it's the main cause of friction rather than the show's attempt to claim that she's still in love with Adrien. She wants to tell him about the Miraculous and Hawkmoth, but doing so would undoubtedly place him a lot of danger, so she does her evasive and awkward panicnette thing and it causes a bunch of misunderstandings she can't resolves without exposing herself. A lot of the problems could relatively be solved if she could safely tell him that she's Ladybug, but she can't, so they break up over it and then have all that struggle and angst immediately invalidated with "Wishmaker" and "Migration".

Meanwhile, "Lies" portrays the issues not coming from Adrien's secret identity, but the fact that Kagami can't accept the "real" him; The majority of the episode shows Adrien not really struggling all that much keeping his life as "Perfect Model" Adrien and "Jokester Hero" Chat Noir separate (hell part of the beginning has Adrichat bored out of his mind because there are no Akumas around and getting excited when it seems like Chloe might upset Sabrina into turning into one) and the main conflict happening simply because Kagami (was suddenly out of nowhere) insisting Adrien wasn't showing his "true self" to her, and then breaking up because she feels he doesn't trust/love her enough to be honest ("I lie because I want to be with you. You lie...because you don't want to be with me"). Add in the episode having him act flirty with LB as usual and well....it doesn't paint a good picture. It honestly kind of makes it comes off as Adrien as being perfectly able to tell Kagami the truth to solve the issue and choosing not to - in fact, I'm pretty sure if it weren't for his promise to let LB know who he is first, he'd have simply told her regardless the danger (actually, I'm pretty sure a majority of the episode rewrite fics have exactly this happen).

And as said, it's not either of their faults - the writers just choose to portray the conflicts this was for whatever reason because in the end, the main goal was to Adrien and Marinette single again by the end, irregardless of how it made everyone look. Marinette's simply got more thought/drama put into simply because of her main character status.

TLDR: The double standard is there, just not for the reasons everyone thinks

Lies had issues, sure, but I respect it for being one of the few episodes where Adrien had to experience the consequences of his actions, and he couldn’t push the blame on someone else or ignore it after the fact. Last time that happened was… oh, I can’t remember a time that happened before! Haha! Bad!

Also before anyone says anything I know it’s the writers pushing the blame onto other people, not Adrien himself, he’s just a character they’re writing

[bonefall]

I saw someone come up with the idea of shadowclan cats having a tradition where a warrior can choose to have their ears cut by the medicine cat as a cultural difference for their rewrite. I lnow you want to stick closer to canon but what clan cultural differences do you plan on including?

"Close to canon" in my mind is just expanding on the differences they display on the page, in addition to logical conclusions based on the geography of each territory. Of COURSE WindClan is going to be a little craftier than other Clans-- they had a whole alternative warrior path about tunneling. NATURALLY ShadowClan's sense of humor is dour, if the other Clans find them sadistic. Y'know?

WindClan

The death of tunneling has had a big impact on their culture, having quickly gone from a group that values diversity in their Clan to one that prioritizes speed and agility for hunting and combat. I write them as being a bit torn between those things; strength and independence vs art and connection.

They're also particularly religious, largely from being so close to the Moonstone in the Forest and close to the Moonpool in the Lake.

ShadowClan

I'm just gonna admit it; ShadowClan is my favorite Clan lmao I wonder if anyone has caught my barely concealed writer favoritism yet. I try to balance it out and be fair but I love them so much it's unreal.

I see them as actually being very collaborative and witty. They like songs and games, they do a lot of group projects. Other Clans have it totally wrong that ShadowClan is serious and dire; their sense of humor is just very, very dark and dry.

They're also quite resourceful, because of how badly their territory is wracked by winter. The birds, grubs, and frogs that make up their diet go dormant or migrate away, so they suddenly have to rely on a lot of squirrels and stored food.

RiverClan

I really love their vibe of being the Clan that worries the least about food, so they sink their time into crafts and combat. Especially after the death of tunneling, and during the time that Shadow and Wind are engaging in the Mothermouth Moorland conflict. They were able to corner the market on terracotta production.

Very relaxed, crafts a lot of decorations and tools. I rotate them in my head a lot because I really like water and fish.

ThunderClan

Unironically I consider these guys the loudest and most serious of all the Clans. All Clans are structured and share a battle culture based on somewhat arbitrary clan divisions, but these guys debate and argue amongst themselves, care immensely about organizing patrols, and value giving everyone a daily task to do.

That's not to say that they don't have recreation time-- one thing I want to make sure to include that's sorely missing in canon is that these cats CAN relax, nap, explore their own territory... they just emphasize getting something done before that.

You could say I sort of "play up" the basic culture they all share, like ThunderClan is DefaultClan Plus. Funny enough though, socially speaking, they inherit this a lot from cultural diffusion with the original SkyClan, which were once bitter rivals.

SkyClan

I feel like canon doesn't know what to do with them half the time, honestly, but I know what I WANT to see from them... So these guys are the most 'canon divergent' clan, in both my Bonefall Rewrite and my Clan Culture series.

And I say that SkyClan is super influenced by the fact that it was disbanded for several generations. ThunderClan is much closer to Clear Sky's Clan than modern SkyClan, culturally speaking. It's a big mix of Clan traditions, loner sensibilities, and a shameless lack of fear of human beings from kittypet influence. They're infamous for stealing twoleg things, or watching them and trying to figure out why they do what they do.

SkyClan is still trying to define themselves as a Clan, what they want to have in common with the other four, and what they don't. I feel like they lean more towards frustration with mainstream Clan Culture, though, especially after the Sister Debacle. The help of the main Clans can look almost as destructive as their warfare; and neither one is desirable.

[faithlesbian]

ive been holding off on posting this bc ive been formulating my thoughts (also i never post) but since it seems we're having a racism in the buffyverse/fandom moment (should be every moment!) I figured now would be a good time to vent my feelings on the first slayer.

I do a lot of hobbyist research into the stone age its a long running special interest of mine, and ive just finished writing my dissertation on a number of things including primitivism in contemporary culture. so drawing from that i wanted to expand on the tags I left on the previous post, with the clarification that i am white and european and therefore am speaking from that perspective on this subject.

as far as I can remember, the original Buffy movie had flashbacks to the medieval period, with a white medieval woman in these flashbacks implied to be the first slayer. if that's right and I'm not just misremembering, this would tie in to the pop culture associations of this era with catholicism, witch hunts, gothic castles; all of which further ties into popular vampire lore. however, the tv show leans away from this, with vampires being the only demons vulnerable to christian iconography and most of the worldbuilding drawing from multitheistic (not sure if this is the right word) traditions, preferring pantheons of minor gods, demons as folkloric monsters rather than fallen angels, and the existence of multiple hell dimensions.

the way the show does this is often very primitivist, primitivism here meaning the (often harmful) romanticisation of cultures and eras considered "less advanced", interpreting them as therefore more exotic, interesting, or just plain better than modern western society and in doing so flattening them into solely an appealing primitive fantasy.

examples of this can be seen in the foreign and/or dead languages used in magic and demon research, the appropriated eastern and African imagery used in weapons and costumes, the writing of characters like kendra (who's "people" seem to know a lot about the supernatural but are never actually named), jenny calendar (who carries plot-relevant cultural knowledge from her mysticised "people"), and nikki wood, through whose son buffy learns the ancient - primitive - origins of the first slayer.

the choice to relocate the origins of the slayer from medieval europe to (im assuming, since they never specify) paleolithic africa make a lot of sense in context of the shows de-emphasing of christianity in their vampire lore. this would change the slayer from a warrior chosen by the church to fight unholy creatures, to a defender of humanity at large from folkloric monsters. it also makes the slayer line a lot longer, extending far back into human history.

you'd think.

because the problem is im not honestly convinced anyone writing these episodes knows or cares about the accepted findings that show homo sapiens originated in africa, I can't honestly say it comes across that they were trying to imply that the slayer existed before the first waves of human migration by depicting her as they did. i dont actually know if these characters are intended to come from the stone age or just an ambiguous pre-colonial africa and im being very generous by writing this post the way i have. I think they made the very simple connection of "primitive = cool and mysterious" to "black = primitive". the depictions of the first slayer and first watchers are tangibly racist. their treatment by the narrative is tangibly racist.

the first slayer is depicted as animalistic, brutal, and vengeful, but rather than have buffy empathise with her over their shared experience of being used as a tool of violence, the episode has buffy mock and belittle her down to making a joke about her unprofessional hair. the first watchers are set up as the backward patriarchal villains for buffy and willow to overcome by rewriting the terms of the slayer lineage, in both cases black characters are vilified to make white women seem cooler, more self-possessed, more powerful.

it's not just the treatment of individual characters. its fundamental pillars of the lore. non-european (and some minority european) cultures are consistently used to be spooky, occult, and exotic set dressing, while two whole season finales hinge on abject primitivism and antiblackness.

to clarify, i think in another show with a different writing team, the depiction of scientifically accurate (i.e. dark-skinned) early homo sapiens could be achieved in a wholly inoffensive way if these characters were simply written as people. removing the layers of primitivism from the first slayer reveals a traumatised girl who was forced to fight, just like fandom-beloved characters buffy and faith, albeit from a very different time period. but the layers of primitivism are the reason why she was written in the first place. the "primal" is mysterious, spooky, powerful, and therefore makes for good writing without ever having to clarify what it is you mean when you say "primal".

stone age people were not animalistic manifestations of modern-day people's repressed subconscious. they were people. the refusal to see this is another branch from the same root - that the writers see cultures and people outside of the modern west as less-than. but if their language sounds cool for a summoning chant, then they get to be less-than in a ~cool and mysterious~ way, i guess.

[floralovebot]

Hi! Me again, so I took what you said and decided to make Musa's surname Yuen, the Cantonese version of the surname Ruan, for my rewrite. Is that okay? Secondly, I want to refer to what you said about not making Melody a 1:1 version of China, I'm already doing a lot of research but the issue is knowing what to mix so I don't come across as offensive. I'm not trying to be historically accurate 100% but I think you should include an element of a culture and it's history. Thoughts?

Hey!

Yeah that name sounds good :)

When it comes to what to mix and what not to mix, generally speaking just try to be natural with it. Like try to "mimic" how cultures actually mix in real life (but maybe without the colonization factor). For instance, things like proximity and trading are very important when considering what would realistically mix. Southeast Asian countries don't have as much influence from say South Korea but a lot more from China. Meanwhile, the countries that border the continent have more culture mixing with Japan because of water trade routes (and mostly Japan being a major colonizer country but again maybe don't add that for your story).

Typically you should try to avoid mixing things like religions! You do want to avoid mixing anything that is very important and has either a belief or power element to it. Usually, when things like religions or governments are mixed, it's due to forced assimilation and/or other bad things. Pretty much anything that's super important and not on the more mundane side of culture you shouldn't mix. (Obviously, this is a case-by-case kind of thing, but if you mix religions, you need to think about how that happened. Was it due to colonization? Was it due to migration? Was it due to trading? Did one society adopt a religion because they didn't have their own belief system? Why didn't they have one? Things like that!)

Things that are commonly "mixed" though are foods, especially when regions share the same ingredients, weapons, textiles, and information (usually trading). Really just mostly items and knowledge on how to use them/make them. There can also be fashion mixing if there's any fabric trading and some language mixing to account for language barriers (the occasional word or two but usually not entire grammar rules; if it's an entire language, something else was at play there).

Something I personally think you should avoid doing is just mixing it all together and calling it a different culture. Disney did that with Raya and while I know plenty of people felt like that was good representation, to me, it felt very weird. Mixing cultures for the specific purpose of trying to put in as much representation as possible is almost never going to have a good outcome.

Something you also need to keep in mind is the actual cultures you're adding to Melody. In canon, Melody is mostly East Asia but has plenty of Southeast Asian culture. You certainly can add all of Asia but that could feel really forced depending on how you do it. Nabu and Helia are both coded as Asian and neither of them are from Melody yknow? You can do it properly! But it also really depends on how much you're actually going to talk about Melody and its culture and history. (A good way to casually do this is by introducing other Asian characters from Melody [like have a character with a Malaysian or Indian name etcetc]).

Another thing you need to consider is, again, proximity. How big is Melody? This is an entire planet we're talking about, not just a continent. You know how indigenous people in america didn't affect indigenous people in asia much? Same thing here! I'd actually recommend trying to map out Melody and where you want real life cultures to be (do try to keep the grouping similar though). This way you can plan out which cultures would actually "mix" (hint: it would be very similar to real life).

There's also the thing, and I don't remember what it's called, where two or more cultures can have similar aspects without coming into contact with each other. For example, a lot of different cultures can have similar dishes if they have the same ingredients available, even if they weren't in communication at that point.

Listen... there's a lot that goes into making worldbuilding Not Offensive when you make things based off of real life. Rainbow didn't think this far yknow? They weren't going to cause that's too much work and it's much easier to just slap the "vaguely ancient china" aesthetic on and be done with it. That's why they ended up taking so much inspiration from literally everywhere else. They didn't want to think about what would realistically "mix" because in their eyes all asian cultures are the same. And honestly, no matter what you do, there's always going to be an air of "hmmm are you sure about that?" when you don't make things realistic because they very much made Melody the Asian Planet™ and it's hard to get rid of certain real life cultural things without people side-eyeing you because "why did you do that 👀". Yknow?

Just... try your best! There are a couple of accounts here and there that do help with these kinds of things. Like just look for those "i'm writing something and i don't know if it sounds racist please help" blogs. There's so many of them! And while I can't guarantee that they'll answer you cause most of them get hundreds of asks, it would be a great place to look for advice since they've often already answered asks just like this (yknow the "i'm making an Asian Society how to not make it racist" kind of thing).

I do wish you the best of luck! And if you want to shoot me another ask about something specific, I'll do my best to help :)

[caparrucia]

🎯🥰📈

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

Yes! A couple times! Notable ones were:

People 100% clocked in the fact Cor was going to propose to Nyx, in the sun is out, the day is new.

People were also immediately suspicious of the role Giratina was going to play, as soon as I introduced her in i've battled hard with the face in the mirror, though I do think the Spectrier red herring threw most of them off the scent until Cynthia showed up the second to last chapter.

Bonus round, though, for the pseudoanon (I guess? They signed their anon comments, but they didn't seem to have an AO3 account) person who reached the first half of the Crown Tundra shenanigans and was very happy to see that Leon had not done "anything reckless or stupid", and I had to sit on my hands and very politely word around that because... well. See the chapter that comes immediately AFTER that. I consider that a good guess!

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I love reader interactions! I love comments and questions and I make a point to try and answer comments in AO3. I don't mind chatting with people in good faith about stuff, though I'm very self-conscious about my older fic and have trouble talking about because I don't want to dismiss people who like it, but also I want to curl up into a little ball and die a little when I remember it exists.

That's 100% a me problem, btw, because my brain is a dick and there's a nebulous, can't quite pin down the logic for it, boundary past which all my old fic is profoundly embarrassing and bad and awful, and if I look at it too long I'll get the urge to delete it and rewrite it because it's so BAD, can't you see this is so old I didn't know how to punctuate shit properly? It's awful, bad, no good and it shouldn't exist!

I recognize this is 100% my problem and I try my best to not make it someone else's problem. I will not be rude if people want to talk about my older work, because I understand that I've been doing this for 24 whole years now, and a story can be meaningful to you, if it's the right words at the right time, the "quality" of the writing is irrelevant. And I'm forever humbled when people tell me they liked my stories and they found value in them. I would feel like a monster if I ever make someone feel bad for liking them, just because my brain is a dipshit about things.

So yeah, 100% hit me up if you like my work and want to talk about it or have questions or want me to go spelunking in depth about worldbuilding or the writing choices or the more technical aspect of writing. I'm here for it.

Just bear in mind if it's about something older than a toddler, I'm going to take a lot of breaks and flush and hide under my shirt because I'm flattered genuinely, but also dying because I've gotten so much better, I promise, I swear I learned how to punctuate quotation marks now!

📈 How many fics do you have?

A lot of them! I mean, I have to. I have an 8.3M word count as of December 2021. That's M as in Millions, yes. That's the number of words I've written since 1998. Fiction only, no one needs to word count every dipshit thought in my head I insist on writing a fucking essay about. But yeah, that's a lot of words! And that's a lot of stories.

I used to keep a scrupulous record of my writing, at least from 2003 onwards, in my different LJs, but then LJ did... y'know, that, and while I migrated everything into DW, I chose to keep it private. A personal record, if you will.

English is not my first language, and a lot of my early writing is genuinely an attempt to learn the language better. Most of the first ten years of my writing presence online revolved around me writing off prompts, where the prompts were worlds picked at random from a dictionary, and my attempts to use them in a story to make sense of them. That's how I learned to write English, honestly. Just, every day a random word and then a tiny ficbit of whatever my favorite piece of media was at the time. Favorites I remember to this day are "phalange" which I will always prefer to "phalanx" and I wrote a small Alien inspired ficlet about, and "concussive" that I wrote a Beyblade fic about.

I have a lot of fic. I've been writing a ficlet a day since 1998. Some of it is just a couple sentences, some of it is thousands of words long. Back in 2006, before the enormous depressive spiral, I used to write a solid 15K a day. Then I became a blob and went down to maybe 40 words a day. But I still kept writing. And then I got out of the depression hole enough to be a person again, back in 2018-ish, in great part to the cowriting I did with a friend and all the editing and socializing she bullied me into until I sort of became a person again. These days I do anywhere between 2000 and 5000 words a day, on a good day. I have a job and five pets to look after, so I can't just write.

Today you can find 121 fics I've written, in AO3. The rest of the archive is either in my backups or on DW, made private. Actual fics, that I'd cared to share with others, were about 500, on top of the AO3 ones. My daily writing exercises are far, far more numerous and distinct from the actual fic I write to post/share with people. I'm currently on entry 8134, on that. I was curious and went looking and while I've missed some days, I'm still pretty on track! (The earliest date of my writing journal/exercises is June 10th, 1998.)

[alondradina]

Getting to Know You Meme

I'm actually going to do this one. 🤣 Thanks @luthien-under-bough

Favorite time of year: Autumn! I love the cooling weather, the tasty food, and how beautiful the trees become.

Comfort food: I'm a sucker for sweet foods. 🤷 Kinda changes depending on my mood.

Do you collect anything?: Introverts? 🤣 I used to collect music boxes. Haven't gotten any new ones in a few years, been moving around a lot, but since I'm in an actual house now it should be ok to get more, right?

Favorite drinks: I primarily drink room temp water, 0 sugar purple Gatorade, and seasonal drinks at Starbucks. Currently I really like the eggnog one.

Favorite music artists: Uuugghhhh… Too many… At the moment I have been listening to a lot of Doja Cat, The Neighborhood, Now Now, Grimes, The Weeknd, and Emarosa.

Current favorite songs: Afraid and Sweater Weather by The Neighborhood, Cut My Fingers Off by Ethan Bortnick, Wolf by Now Now, Player of Games and Kill V. Maim by Grimes, too many songs by Emarosa (Cautious, Ready to Love, Attention, Helpless, Comfortable, Hell of It) and I could go on and on. 😩 I'm terrible at picking favorites.

Favorite fics: 😭 So many… Ummm… I'll just dump them here and you can feel free to ignore my enthusiasm.

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11554857/1/Slow-Arrow

This fic is what started me on Solavallen. An antisocial, semi feral Lavellan forced to be the Herald. Game rewrite done well. I reread what's written at least once a year.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11319069/chapters/25334535

I read this whole damn thing in a day, then immediately turned around to read it again and commented on each chapter. Also Solavallen. Modern day Daddy Long Legs college AU.

https://m.fanfiction.net/u/1035027/

Pretty much everything by Forthright. I read a lot of Inuyasha pairings I'm not normally into because of her. She mostly does drabble stories. I started reading because of her Sess/Kag ones, though.

https://raindrops-doujin.tumblr.com/

It's a Sess/Kag comic/manga, and super well done. I've been following this since she started up on DeviantArt. Slow progression of their friendship over a series of chance encounters.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4153884/chapters/9371985

This is FUCKING AMAZING. My all time favorite AVP fic. Humans have joined the intergalactic community. Nasira is the first major human ambassador, and takes her job very seriously. Enter the AVP part of the story. 🤣 Bad times ensue.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5201648/chapters/11988044

Best gen Star Wars fic I've read. It's a very long and involved series, but so good! I reread the damn thing constantly. The whole series. Obi-Wan is killed by Darth Vader and wakes up decades in the past, before Anakin was even born. Now two Obi-Wan's have to work together to figure out how to save the universe.

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7622024/1/House-at-Row-s-Edge

My favorite Snape/Hermione fic. Deliciously depressing. In his will, Snape leaves Hermione his house. No one knows why, but makes a lot of assumptions about their relationship. Hermione also doesn't know why he left her the place, but she's about to find out.

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11562871/1/Addendum-He-Is-Also-A-Liar

Really good Tom Riddle/Hermione time travel fic, where Tom travels forward. Starts pre Hogwarts and works its way up from there.

https://m.fanfiction.net/u/1580678/

Everything by Cocoartist. I mostly read the Tom Riddle/Hermione ones. They've migrated some stuff to AO3, but not all of it. Hence the ff.net shortcut.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24407335

Is one of my favorites and is on AO3, though. Tom Riddle/Hermione. Hermione goes back in time, and discovers that some things can't be changed no matter how hard you try.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/2045742

This is a very satisfying story. 🤷 Hermione as a Slytherin, being a boss. A prophecy distinguishes her from being a Muggleborn into being a New Blood. What's a New Blood? She's going to find out.

Favorite Video Games: Pretty much all series here. Dragon Age, Dragon Quest, Dragon Warriors, Dragon Warriors Monsters, Pokemon, and Mass Effect has recently joined the list. Individual games I like are Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2, Champions of Norrath 1, and I love watching people play The Last of Us and Alien Isolation. I'm too much of a wuss to play them myself.

I'm glad this thing doesn't ask for my favorite books. 😱

Tagging @somekndofnature @whimsicalmeerkat @voylitscope

[fillingthescrapbook]

Rewriting The CW's Kung Fu, Part 1: The Characters

Hello. I've written a few posts complaining about how The CW's Kung Fu was written and plotted. So instead of just complaining, I decided to do something productive: I'm going to rewrite the show.

This will be the first part in an eight-part series that would detail the things, I think, could've made the first season much stronger in terms of story-telling and character-building. Do take note that I will be writing this for The CW's target market: teens to young adults who are looking for both entertainment and representation.

Before we start with the story, let us first start with re-configuring the characters.

NICKY SHEN, mid to late 20s. The eldest daughter of first-generation immigrants, she feels pressured into following the path made for her by her parents. She carries a lot of guilt, having seen her parents struggle to raise her and her siblings in a land that's not always welcoming to foreigners--and then running away when she felt like she no longer had control over her life. She has spent the last three years in a monastery where her days are spent training in the martial arts, meditating, and farming. Upon her return home, she doesn't know what her place is in the world--and in her family--anymore.

HENRY YAN, mid to late 20s. A martial arts instructor at the Chinese community center, he becomes intrigued by Nicky's unique background and insight into their community. A working student, he has only recently continued his collegiate studies because of a checkered past he needed to deal with, as well as his family's financial struggles. He feels like he has a lot to prove because of people's preconceptions of who he is, based on what he had to do to survive.

EVAN HARTLEY, mid to late 20s. A San Francisco Assistant District Attorney, he is Nicky's best friend from childhood to law school. He is part of a hiring initiative that prioritizes people who can speak in multiple languages, and gets assigned many cases that come from Chinatown. He has recently proposed to his girlfriend, a fellow classmate of his and Nicky's from law school, thinking he has finally moved on from being left behind by the woman he loved three years ago...and then she, Nicky, comes back into his life.

RYAN SHEN, mid-20s. Nicky's younger brother who has just recently finished his internship at a local hospital; he is currently working as a resident physician at the same hospital he interned for--while volunteering his free time at the Chinese community center's free clinic. He is gay but has yet to tell his parents the truth, blaming Nicky for abandoning him when he was just about to confess. (Yes, I put him back in the closet for storytelling purposes.)

ALTHEA SHEN, mid-20s. Nicky's younger sister has put her career on hold to get married to her high school sweetheart. A sought-after computer engineer, Althea has surprised everyone--her parents included--when she suddenly gave up her high-ranking position at Cloudrush Capital to focus on her wedding. She is the most adjusted and mature out of the Shen siblings, seeing as her parents didn't have as much expectations from her as they did Nicky and Ryan.

SHEN MEI-LI, late 40s to early 50s. Nicky's mother comes from a very strict family and this has made her guarded with her emotions. She is very protective of her children and will do anything to keep them safe--including hide parts of her history she thinks will lead them astray. She works as the manager of Happy Dumplings, the restaurant she built with her husband Jin.

SHEN JIN, early to mid 50s. Nicky's father immigrated to San Francisco when he was a young man, inspired by the American Dream. He has a go-getter attitude which was further bolstered when he married Mei-Li, pushing him to move on from being a line cook at a faux-Chinese fast food chain to opening his own restaurant. Having been denied of better opportunities, he works hard to make sure that his children never has to face the same challenges he had in the past.

Okay, those are just broad strokes of who the characters are when the story begins. I've upgraded Evan to becoming an actual main character with a romantic subplot with Nicky since, if I'm not mistaken, that was the intention when they introduced him in the pilot. I've also downgraded Pei-Ling Zhang, Nicky's mentor to a recurring character--who we will get to now:

ZHANG PEI-LING, early 40s. A female monk at a Shaolin monastery, Pei-Ling helps Nicky escape from an arranged-marriage "love" tour by allowing her to hide in her truck. Pei-Ling is in charge of the martial arts training at the monastery, teaching her students that to keep a strong hand steady, one must also have a strong heart.

ZHANG ZHI-LAN, mid to late 30s. A businesswoman whose worldwide travels hide an international hunt for eight mystical weapons that would give the collector untold powers. She is Pei-Ling's sister who holds a lot of resentment because of the way their family broke apart. She keeps a cold and calculating facade to keep people away from her, afraid of being vulnerable enough to get emotionally hurt again.

DENNIS SOONG, mid 20s. Althea's fiancée who is the heir apparent of the Soong business empire. He has the practiced charm of a high school outcast who was slow to grow into his looks; although he became part of the popular crowd by the time he graduated, he never forgot the people who treated him as an equal back when he was a societal pariah. He is also a loving son, brother, and husband-to-be.

JOE HARPER, mid to late 20s. A freelance graphic artist who uses his talents, and his gift of gab, to fight for human rights. He is passionate, headstrong, and he never backs down from a challenge.

CHLOE SOONG, late teen. Dennis's younger sister who has fallen in with a bad crowd of bored rich teens. She feels out-of-place in her parents' perfect world, which draws her towards Nicky--who identifies with her plight to break out of the mold assigned to her.

SABINE SMITH, mid to late 20s. A classmate of Nicky's and Evan's from law school, Sabine is Evan's fiancée. She is nurturing and helpful, she is the one who pushes Evan to help Nicky settle back into her San Francisco life--not realizing she is also pushing Evan's feelings for Nicky back into the picture.

KERWIN TAN, late 20s to early 30s. A young socialite who becomes part of Nicky and Zhilan's race to find the eight mythical weapons of power. He is the youngest son of a business tycoon, Raymond Tan, who is also interested in collecting the weapons. He resents the competitive upbringing his father has given him and his siblings, which makes him decide to also join the hunt for the weapons.

MEI-XUE, late 40s. Mei-Li's younger sister, she ran away from home after discovering their family's warrior lineage--wanting to be the one to find the mythical weapons so she could keep them from falling into the wrong hands. In her journey to find the weapons, she discovers more about the power they can wield--which scares her into hiding in the mountains of Canada, with the help of a rich friend she made in her journeys.

STANLEY ANG, early 30s. He is an original character that I wanted to include for additional Chinese diversity. The only son of an old couple who were Mei-Li's friends before she migrated. He is intelligent, very savvy, but isn't very fluent in English. He works as a software developer for a programming company who had him (and his parents) move to their US office so he could oversee the projects he manages better.

Kung Fu has a few more important characters they introduce, but I'm staying with the ones who will make an impact to the story I'm rewriting.

If you've read my past gripes about the show, you would know that I don't like the fact that Zhi-lan (and Kerwin, later on) was shoved into our throats even when their storylines didn't need to be told. That opinion remains. But it doesn't change the fact that they do make an impact to the story--especially with the finale the show left us with. So they're retaining their recurring status in my rewrite.

And this is where we end for now. In the next post, I will be rejigging the pilot to better set-up who Nicky is and what her relationships are at the start of the series.