#To make the decisions about what makes sense for the stuff you're posting/making/doing rather than fitting it to One (1) template?

[amplexadversary]

I'm starting to get annoyed enough at all the *aesthetic* posts that post two of the same picture twice (to get "four" for, what, engagement reasons or some pseudostatistic?) that I'm very close to just reposting them correctly instead of reblogging them when I find one I'd otherwise like.

I'm going to tag this "fixed that for you"

Seriously though, you really couldn't get two more pictures? Post one on top of the other? Do anything other than something blatantly stupid-looking and lazy click-courting?

[trashfangirlsworld]

Hello! I've been inactive due to the current events in the mcyt community, but I've been keeping up with the qsmp admin situation and I thought I'd share some opinions because the amount of doomposting I've seen the last few weeks has been more than I've seen in any fandom in a while and I feel like it's reached the point where people really need to chill the fuck out because they're not thinking straight and actively not helping. Everything I'm gonna say is based on stuff I've seen on both tumblr and twitter.

they should not promote/release merch! : one of the things that baffles me the most tbh; how do you expect any employee to be payed then? Merch is so far the only big source of income for the server besides q's own cc salary or whatever income they get through the official qsmp channel on twitch and youtube (which I don't think is a lot). "I get that they said they have no funds, but still it doesn't feel right"... sorry but at this point I don't know what to tell you, do you expect them to pull money out of their asses? You can't demand that they stop making merch and then complain that they can't afford the twitter admins at the same time. If you don't feel comfortable buying anything from them it's fine obviously, but if your reason for it is that you're helping the admins then I have bad news for you. I have seen people propose that quackity sets up a patreon, and while I think it would be a good idea, I understand why he's not doing it, since with the merch he can at least give something back to the people that choose to support his project instead of people just giving him money for free, especially with what's happening now. Also with how much hate he's been receiving simply for the merch I can't imagine that a patreon would be recieved well.

we don't know if the money is going to the admins/ they should not use pomme's likeness! : the money is definitely going to go to the employees and admins because otherwise the server would not last. And as much as I understand people feeling protective over pomme's admin, quackity studios is very much allowed to sell merch of the character because it is not the likeness of the admin, it's a minecraft model made by the people that work there. Would you have rathered they skip her character entirely? Do you really think that would have been okay?. Also correct me if I'm wrong, but I've seen posts and tweets saying that pomme's admin has been confirmed to come back with the other eggs whenever it happens by pierre, who talked with her admin.

the admins of the update accounts got fired, it means they want to fire everyone, they aren't making things better! : it sucks that the updates accounts had to end and I feel bad for every twitter admin that clearly cared a lot about the project, but unfortunately it had to happen if there simply isn't enough money to pay them adequately like they deserved and ultimately the update accounts were not essential to keep the project going, so it makes sense that they were let go unfortunately. This is not gonna be the case for the egg admins because if they got fired (which they didn't), the server would basically end. Just because a cc does not know when they will be back does not mean it's not gonna happen. Just because tubbo randomly said that he's not sure if they will be back does not mean they were fired; tubbo is normally not a reliable source of information, even less so when he's been live nonstop for the past 20 days, which is prior to everything happening. If you genuinely didn't expect a reduction in non essential staff considering everything, then you have unreasonable expectations on how this stuff goes. As I write this, I'm seeing people saying that "they would understand this decision if q had set up a patreon to pay the admins", and once again I don't understand how people don't realize why quackity might not be keen on the idea of having his fans pay his own employees for his own project instead of, you know, doing it himself; and, again, do not fool yourself into thinking it would be recieved well. That being said, it's fair to criticize how everything was communicated to the admins, but I'll get to this in more detail later.

quackity should not have uninstalled social media, he's trying to avoid everything! : he's not avoiding anything, he's been off social media for a while now, which is why it took him that long to remove wilbur from the server. He has every right to not want to look at social media, as his focus should be on restructuring his server instead of doomscrolling on twitter because people think he needs to see how much people dislike him. The only people that he should talk to are those that have important information to tell him, like josè with the document. He explicitly said on stream where to contact him if you have helpful information and I'm sure that despite multiple well liked posts saying not to spam his email, people are definitely doing it anyway, which is probably gonna slow the whole thing down even more. I hope josè's document is able to be seen with pierre's help as well.

quackity studios is not communicating with their employees and leaving them in the dark and that's not okay : I agree with this. i think a huge chunk of doomposting lately has been due the lack of communication not with the audience, but with the admins, and they deserve to know what is happening behind the scenes more then us since this is about their current or future job.... that being said, I do kind of understand why they're being so secretive and shutting everyone out, and that's due to all the "leaks" that have been spread online. I understand the anger but I really wish some people would realize that discussing leaked bts lore stuff in ccs discord servers does not help the situation at all and instead makes it seem like they're only doing this to rile up the fandom against quackity studios by using the lore of people's fav characters.

At the end of the day, I think people just aren't used to dealing with a situation that does not have a clear cut solution and someone to clearly hate, so the result is this doomposting and the over aggressiveness toward anything related to the project. Personally, I haven't witnessed anything that made me lose faith in the qsmp like some people have been saying, as every change that we've seen so far coincides with what quackity said on stream a while ago. I only wish things were communicated properly to the admins clearly, as they're the ones most affected, so I hope that's resolved soon. Ultimately quackity is singlehandedly restructuring the server from basically zero, has had to fire people that were misusing money and power and, depending on what josè's document said, is probably gonna have to fire some more. This is not an easy process, nor a quick one, you're not gonna hear about sunshine and rainbows for a while and doomposting about everything you hear because you expected quick change is useless. Think before you speak, have a clear head and most importantly have empathy.

[autumnhortsnort]

Hello coauthor! A Residuum reader here. One thing I really like about your comic is how the consequences of the characters' actions feel so plausible, but what stands out to me the most is the pacing in how they're presented throughout the story. Do you have any tips for structuring a plot? Every time I try to outline mine, it feels a bit incoherent, and the scenes don’t seem to flow well together. I’d appreciate any advice 🐢

best advice? Write the whole outline down as much and as far as you can, doesn't matter if it makes sense, that's for editing you to figure out. Then edit the ever-loving daylights out of it, add in connecting actions, and take out things that don't work. Residuum has had Five different drafts, with major tweaking as we go. The outline is not set in stone.

Also don’t share it outside of friends, that can make you feel pressured to stick to (the previous plot) even when it doesn’t work for how your story has progressed. There’s a reason we didn’t share any of the potential endings when we were still trying to figure out where the story was going. When the first arc was being posted we had an idea of the plot til about halfway through arc 4, but we didn’t actually have a concrete ending.

how we structure a plot (and do pacing)

Write out your main plot points and then write what the characters need to do to make that event happen. We basically do the plot mountain structure, but for each arc (there are 4 of them) we tend to make the climax of each arc into turning points or decisions that the main characters have to make that they cannot undo. here's a good article to read about structuring plots. (Note! This is for the broad spanning major plot beats, each update actually gets written as needed, they aren't written into the outline.)

When it comes to character decisions it’s more about, “what would make the character do this?” rather than, “would the character do this?” You can make characters do things they normally wouldn’t if you give them the right incentive.

For the pacing with residuum, because it’s serialized, we try to have something progress with each update. Either you learn something new, the plot has progressed (aka the status quo has changed), or there's set up/foreshadowing for later, most updates actually have all three. When writing in a serialized format (each chapter getting its own release) it’s a good idea to treat each update as a complete chunk. Try asking yourself: what is the goal for this part? are you using this update for anything actually important? are you conveying anything new and/or important to the plot? Is this something you want to focus on? Are you writing this to meet audience expectations or because you want to? There are parts where residuum gets almost no interaction but, importantly, those parts still meet our individual update rules. If you're writing for audience engagement you are going to get discouraged from writing long spanning plots very quickly. The audience doesn’t know whats coming, so they won’t interact with anything that doesn’t have their current blorbo™, even if it’s plot important.

for how we make the consequences make sense

Make things make logical sense? honestly i don't what to tell you.

We read. a. lot. I used to read 400 books over a school year, beaze has read about 13.6K fanfics on Ao3 over the course of 4 years. plus a ton of manhwa and manga, and that doesn’t include nonfiction, stuff from sites outside of Ao3, course assigned books, reddit fiction, royal road. Most of how we understand and structure plots is instinctual because we fire hosed our brains with them for years.

I'd recommend watching watching Overly Sarcastic Production’s Trope Talks, and reading stuff that's not rise related, as well as researching nonfiction stuff that's relevant to what you want to write we are at a place where we aren’t writing the outline anymore, just editing it if needed. We use the outline structure to make each update because it gives us a objective for the update, and gives us a road map for when to place the set up for future updates. But if you struggle to use outlines you can just… not use them. Garden writing is a valid writing strategy, I use it for one shot AU’s of residuum.

For long spanning stories written garden style the first draft can be your outline. Just edit and flesh it out once you’ve written it.

[kaceythecrunch]

RANT. (sturntok.)

Yall. Im so mad. Sturntok pisses me the fuck off to the point it isn't even funny anymore. This might be messy, so bare with me.

Tara. Why the fuck is everyone pressed about Tara hanging out with the triplet, specifically matt and Chris. Yall are acting as if it was only two of them, like they're on a date. They were with fucking I don't know, 8 other people? Like why does Sturntok care who they hangout with? Did you not learn from elementary school to mind your bees wax, or business? You're probably 15. They're literally 5 years older than you. There is no way, in any universe they're gonna date you girl. ALSO TO SHIT ON TARA?? LIKE GIRL. FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO SHIT ON CUZ HOMEGIRL DONT CARE. SHE DONT CARE. SHE IS STRIVING AND LIVING LIFE LIKE YOU SHOULD GIRL. Live life and don't care. You'll probably have a positive outcome. No cuz y'all know how Chris owns the Saturn necklace thing? Its vivienne underwood. It's less than 20 bucks on Amazon. Also when was the last time y'all saw Chris wearing that necklace girl. Also there's a post from like months, or I think a year ago of Tara wearing the same necklace. These fucking tiktok girls are so annoying. Like we get it, everyone wants to be Tara. (she's my gf.)

Podcast. I saw a bunch of btiches shit on the podcast. Like cmon. THEY ARE PRODUCING AN HOUR LONG VIDEO FOR YALL EVERY WEEK. Mfs are burnt out, you're lucky that they even produce content for you ungreatful hoes. Like lwk, I'd rather have them remove Wednesday videos. I remember when they first started their podcast that they were really excited to start and stuff. I also remember, I believe it was their earlier vlogs. When they were still living in Boston and they haven't like went to LA yet, they were talking about turning their basement into a podcast room. Like cmon. This is something they've been wanting to do and you hoes just don't appreciate anything. Like have y'all's mama's not been pissed at y'all for not appreciating her food. Live life positive and not negative tf. But ofc, I respect their decision.

Intro. Yall just love to shit on everyone. Ruining the party. Sturntok reminds me of the kids-the class "clowns" who would be so shitty to the teacher for no reason and would ruin fun things for everyone. Like guys, I think we should all as a community bully Sturntok. It requires a bit more bullying, just to knock some sense into their heads. Anyways, back to what I was ranting about. I loved their new intro. its a new era. A new them. Change. Is. Fucking. hard. I understand that you love the teens from Boston running around making fools of themselves. Me too, I shall admit it. But in order to get sponsorships, to get the little paring things. (For example, them sponsoring Celsius, even becoming the youtooz thing.) Like they gotta act more professional.

Change. This tied in with the last few things. CHANGE IS HARD. CHANGE IS A DIFFICULT THING. But how the fuck are you gonna live life, and enjoy life when your stuck on one thing forever. Change is needed for growth, and for learning. Like guys, THEYRE 20. I think that's something y'all forget. They aren't teenagers anymore. Its kinda like how when everyone went into middle school and started to not like kiddy things when you still liked kiddy things. When I was in middle school I still like to play with Legos, draw, watch anime. Until I hit 7th grade, aka everyone's downfall. I still enjoy some of those things today but I changed because people in middle school stopped like those things and its embarrassing (well for me at least) to show up in school with anime shirts cuz I'm getting older. Thats what they're feeling I guess. Again, theyre 20 now.

Crazy ass mfs. Crazy, as in them soft mf's on sturntok. Also what pisses me off more is that they're coming here on tumblr. Like no, I know your soft ass belongs on Wattpad bffr. I have a long rant about this one, so bare with me again. They are so so so so so SOOOOO sensitive about the "spicy edits." Sometimes the fucking video frame isn't even about something "spicy" aka- them being shirtless, video frame near their crotch. It was when there was a song about sex. How soft can you be. Most songs these days are about sex. Some songs y'all probably didn't know about was about sex. (cake by the ocean for example.) LIKE LETS ME FOR REAL. MOST SONGS ARE ABOUT SEX. Also with the tiktok audios being removed like cmon. Not everything is about sunshine and rainbows. I remember I commented on a Chris edit and I was like.

"I need this man in my life. He's so hot."

"you're fucking gross. He's a human being and do you know how grossed out he would be if he saw that you said this? (bullshitbullshit,morebullshitandstupidness.)"

Yeah, keeping fucking running your mouth. THIS TIKTOK HAS LIKE 4K VIEWS. DO YOU WANNA KNOW HOW MUCH FUCKING FOLLOWERS THE TRIPLETS HAVE? YEAH. THAT'S NOT EVEN A QUARTER OF WHAT THEY HAVE. THIS VIDEO HAS 1K COMMENTS. ARE THEY FUCKING HUNTING ME DOWN?? MY COMMENT HAS 3 LIKES. WHY WOULD THEY CARE TO FUCKING CHECK GIRL. ITS ALSO TELLING THE FUCKING PERSON WHO EDITED THIS THAT THIS EDIT WAS FIRE AND THAT THEY MADE THE EDIT HELLA GOOD. UR FUCKING LUCKY I KEPT MY ANGER TO MYSELF CUZ OH GIRL. I WOULD SUCKER PUNCH YOU. You know whats also funny? They're the same people who will be pissed with when they see matt or Chris with a female. Like girl. You're calling me fucking gross? Do you think how much more worse that is than my comment? You ruin friendships. OG sturniolo fans know that they've been friends with girls. If you genuinely care, yall would know that nick made most of matt and chris' friends. Meaning most of them were females. SO OBVIOUSLY THEYRE GONNA HAVE GIRL FRIENDS. I remember watching the Zach sang pod when nick was on and he explained that matt usually doesn't make the friends. Theres a joke where matt says "I'm gonna make a friend that wasn't originally nick's friends." smth like that. Anyways, off topic. Just because they are seen with a girl, doesn't mean they are fucking dating them. Like shut the fuck up. please. Respectfully shut the fuck because I'm a nice person. Also Chris gives off major virgin vibes lets bffr.

Madi. Yall hate so bad on Madi and its fucking grossing me out. Why do you have to ship her with matt and chris??? Literally to the point they can't even put her in photo dumps or videos. You just gotta ruin it for everyone, huh? shes fucking gorgeous, and she's so funny in videos. Plus, when she does talk shes hillarious. She literally reminds me of Matt. She doesn't fucking talk much because she is more of a listener.. Like guys bffr. How can you hate her when she barley spoke in videos. Like respectfully, shut the fuck up. Yall just jealous shes pretty.

Calling Nick fine. I also hate them mfs who are always running their mouth about girls calling Nick fine. Lets bffr. Y'all didn't think a gay guy is fine? I'm sure you've had a crush on one gay person before. And if you haven't trust me. You will. I had a crush on my gay friend in 8th grade. I feel like its a canon even in every girl's life. anyways, I hate when girls will be scared to call nick hot.

"Nick is so fine. But like as a cool guy friend way. Please don't attack me."

POOR GIRL BELIEVES SHE IS GONNA BE ATTACKED IF SHE CALLS A GAY MAN FINE. Sturntok leave her the fuck alone. He's hot as fucking and I will kill civilians if I'm not given more nick edits. He's so fine. Literally the hottest triplet.

If u made it here thanks. There was shit on my chest that I really needed to let out. What have we learned today?

Sturntok can suck my fucking dick.

Thanks goodbye.

Me to Sturntok :

[diagonal-queen]

hello!! how are you doing??<3 may i have hunting dogs with silent s/o??? teruko platonic ofc:3 thanks if you do

Hunting Dogs with a Silent S/O

♡ pairing: Fukuchi Ouchi, Jouno Saigiku, Tecchou Suehiro, Teruko Okura, Tachihara Michizou x gn!Reader

♡ synopsis: How are they with an S/O who doesn't speak?

♡ cw: Swearing, I'm under the assumption that reader is completely silent either because they can't or won't speak, so...yeah!

note: I'm finally fucking posting something, so I'm honestly doing pretty fantastic! I know it's kinda short though I'm sorry T-T It's getting increasingly harder to find new panels of the Hunting Dogs to make banners out of. Like I spend a DISGUSTING amount of time on them and they don't even look good help </3 anyway Teruko solos, I apologise for errors and I hope you enjoy x

Fukuchi:

Fukuchi 'look upon and admire my adorable silent partner or face my wrath' Ouchi

I know I keep saying this but I physically can't see him being anything but extremely proud of his partner and wanting to show you off at any chance he can, no matter how silent you are

If you're up to it, sit with him at meetings and follow him around when he runs errands this man LOVES your company!

As such, he doesn't mind your silence. In fact, he thinks it's endearing, and will find alternative ways for you to communicate that make you the most comfortable

(I mean all of this in the most manly macho war hero way possible btw)

To be honest he's not the best at reading you at first, but just give it a little more time and you're like an open book to him. He is that meme where you're sad and then he wakes up in a cold sweat like 'something is deeply wrong'

Of course this is assuming that you've opted not to sleep in the same bed, which he's also fine with, but like, Fukuchi despite being a literal global hero is also a pathetic man who will turn up at your house in the wee hours of the morning because he couldn't sleep because he could sense that YOU couldn't sleep

He is both parts cool and just downright pitiful. Maybe you'll actually be the one taking care of him (behind closed doors of course)

Jouno:

"Excuse me they asked for no pickles" ahh boyfriend

He loves that you're silent. Not only can he already tell how you're feeling regardless because of your body language and other factors, but he also doesn't need to worry about any potential scares or distractions from your voice. Win-win

He's actually a little curious as to why you don't talk but he waits for you to tell him of your own accord rather than asking outright (and if you ask him to keep it a secret he does)

He's more than happy to speak for you at any point. Like if someone asks you a question, he answers for you if you want him to, or if the question is rude he's like 'hey leave my partner alone you pathetic fuck'

Jouno's just a little bit possessive. He just really, really strikes me as the type

Since you don't talk to him, your love language manifests in other ways. He loves when you cling to him, buy him little presents or help him with stuff, he genuinely really appreciates it.

And, honestly, he gives you more than enough compliments to make up for it <3

When you guys are out in public (not when he's at work) you're almost always holding hands. It's like you're glued to each other

Jouno doesn't need to hear you speak at all. The sound of your heartbeat is more than enough for him <3

Tecchou:

I mean...talk about a quiet couple

I feel like the only times Tecchou really even talks are when he's spoken to first, or when he's like talking to a suspect or a witness or whatever his job needs. He's certainly not a man of many words at the very least

Your time is spent together just in each others' presence and that's more than enough for him. Regardless of whether or not you have any conversation he loves your company

If he's given any options for something or any decisions to make ever without fail he'll always turn to you with a blank face and ask what you think, and wait for you to either nod and shake your head

He honestly might find it a little easier to communicate nonverbally with you and that's why he enjoys it so much. (if it isn't already established I am a firm believer in autistic Tecchou)

You two establish little ways of communicating with one another, like a squeeze of the hand means 'I love you' for example. It's honestly really adorable

At this point you could have whole conversations without saying anything. You two are the telepathic communication meme. Everyone else is confused, even Jouno is confused, he has NO idea what's happening

Man, he just loves everything about the way you are. And he'll squeeze your hand many times so that you know it

Teruko (platonic):

Let's be real she does enough talking for the both of you

Teruko is SO FUCKING LOUD, man. Even if you did talk, you're not quite sure you'd be able to hear your own voice. You sure as hell can't hear your own thoughts already

Teruko might have prodded at you for a while when you first met, trying to provoke you into talking. But you didn't let up with your silence and she decided that she liked you as you were anyway.

She really doesn't seem like someone who you should try talking over or interrupting tbh

If anyone else did that to you though, they'd be getting decked (I know I say this in EVERY Teruko post but I adore the idea of her being the 'only I'm allowed to be mean to you' friend)

Unlike the others she probably doesn't always wait to get your opinion. She'll be like 'do you wanna hang' and then before you indicate any answer she's got you by the wrist and has started dragging you around

But she loves you so much for real. Will stick up for you, will include you in things, and will make you feel VALUED.

Like Jouno, is also an 'Excuse me they asked for no pickles' person

Except she'd probably just take the pickles off and launch them at the poor cashier let's be real. And you just have to give them an apologetic look T-T

Tachihara:

He's friends with Gin. If you think he has an issue with your quietness you're a little stupid sorry <3

He thinks it's endearing and will still engage with you just as much as anyone else, like even if you're arguing or something he'll still like pause and wait for you to argue back before continuing T-T

Not that I imagine you'd argue very much but he's a stubborn guy fr (goodluck if you're also stubborn (I'm NOT projecting))

If you primarily communicate in sign language, he'll learn it for you. He might not be perfect but goddamnit he'll TRY.

He's already pretty good at reading your facial expressions and minute body language, so like a lot of the time if he sees your eyebrow twitch a certain way or some shit he'll just be like 'you look happy babe :)' or like 'you look sad what's wrong :('

Sometimes it feels a little random but it's just because he cares about you <3

The two of you text each other ALL the time. Like even from across the room and stuff. He probably did it one day to be a goof but the habit stuck and now its your guys' thing

And everyone else can always tell when you're doing it because the pair of you are just smiling down at your phones and occasionally glancing at each other (Teruko probably bullies you guys rip

You guys might have your little quirks or whatever but who cares? You're still fucking adorable anyway

taglist~ ♡ @gettinshiggywithit, @fyodorhatr, @flower-of-darkness, @bejeweledgirl, @kokoenjiandco, @pinkiipeachiikeen

and of course thank you to @flocaelors for this req!

[demonlordclayman]

LN spoilers :

I think part of why Rimuru didnt revive Clayman is because he can not. I think the way he killed Clayman and Claymans forced awakening is the reason why. From what I got from reading the part of LN where he was treating Tear with Clayman's remains the remains themselves weren't enough to revive him.

I mean you can say Rimuru pulled miracles harder than this before and you'd be right but I think this is the reasoning I think behind Clayman not returning.

Ah well my last remark on that was rather flippant I'll admit XD and lacked my usual nuance. That said, I don't think that's the primary reasoning.

LN 19 spoilers under the cut (and light 20/21 spoilers)

also because I couldn't quite remember how much of Tear's condition was explained

Okay so onwards to my thoughts. While Rimuru isn't sure that Clayman can be revived, he thinks it's pretty likely. However his main reasoning seems to be more along the lines that Clayman has been dead for several years now, and Tear is here now, in need, and so...gestures. It makes sense to him to use Clayman to heal her. The ease with which he's like "yeah I could probably do it" without even asking Ciel makes me feel like it's pretty likely, but ultimately, I don't think it factored into his decision. I realize in my last meta post I said something like, "Rimuru chose not to revive Clayman" and this is still absolutely true, but it lacks the nuance.

And the truth is, I think Rimuru makes a reasonable decision. It's more the choices made by the author that I take issue with from a narrative sense. It's VERY weird to create this set up where we go wow, Clayman actually didn't deserve this and even RIMURU can see it, but it's situated such that Rimuru chooses not to bring him back. It's like...well it just increases the tragedy with no further outlet I guess. Idk. ALL of the choices surrounding Clayman in main timeline are so weird, and only begin to make sense with Revenge, a little bit. In the main timeline he is mind controlled the entire time we know him, so we have Fuse saying in the narrative that he's a very smart scheming demon lord but what we're shown is him falling on his face and getting absolutely owned in a way that makes the statement that he's smart and scheming feel inaccurate. (Like, imagine if he came back and was able to help do planning for the new issues cropping up, as an example that would help us see in main timeline that he was those things)

Then with Revenge we get to see that yes, he is as Kagali described. But without that context this entire section is weird. As Rimuru says, it's like, "yeah, I'm sure." But then with context it's like yeah, so you're gonna bring him back, right- no? what a cocktease. Of course I'm predisposed to feel more strongly XD I imagine for most people it was like "oh neat" and you moved on.

It feels to me like Fuse had a lot of ideas for Clayman and got to showcase almost none of them in the main timeline, which makes him a weird flat character without Revenge. I don't know that having him return would have been the right choice anyway, but the whole thing just feels weird to me (and I have a fix it fic I need to get to where he does :p ).

That said I also want to point Rimuru saying that the Jesters are allies but not friends and I think this gets at why things continue to crumble and fall apart for them as a group, despite fighting on the correct side. They still aren't friends, and thus aren't subject to Rimuru's sphere of influence quite as fully, or within his sphere of concern. I think narratively this is why they aren't immune to continued loss and tragedy.

ALSO I think it's mentioned in LN 21? or 20? That Tear gets some help from Clayman being part of her and it makes her stronger but it's kind of a bummer that's all we got about it. I'll come back to this if that's in 20 since I'm reading the official release. It's a lot of stuff set up and then kind of not executed on with regards to the jesters, I guess.

[beifong-brainrot]

Siblings in turmoil; the Katara+Sokka /Bolin+Mako comparison

So after making this post about the interesting parralels between our two favourite pairs of siblings, I wanna play around more with the parallels and similarities between them. Mind you, this will not be a one to one comparison, since both pairs of characters are simply much too different from one another to perfectly fit into one archetype.

This post serves more to compare these characters, their respective dynamics. You know. For fun. Because overanalysing traumatised children is fun now.

I think the set of similarities that jumps out at us first is the one connecting to Katara, Mako and their respective losses.

I mean, it is very obvious. Kid witnesses horrific, violent death of parent(s), keeps a dead parent's belonging around their neck, acts as their other sibling's parent to some degree.

If we look to the other corner, Sokka and Bolin have some surface level similarities. They act more as comic relief, and seem less affected by their circumstances than their siblings. They also somehow are incredibly popular with the ladies (and guys). It's that ole autistic rizz.

Mako and Katara's losses are the, let's say, centrepieces of their characters. To some extent, the pain and horror they went through as children, guide them through life and influence how they see the world and how they make decisions. You know, as trauma does.

Both of these characters had to step up and fill a void left in their and their siblings' lives.

Katara is on multiple occasions described as "motherly", which does make sense. Katara's loss of her mother impacted her tremendously, and it most likely shook her family dynamic to the core. Therfore, Katara takes on certain maternal characteristics. She also fulfills the chores that a mother would in a traditional household.

It is important to note that Sokka also takes on a typically parental role with Katara. However, rather than filling a void left by a mother, he fills the void left by a father. Hakoda and the men of the village leaving was not only very traumatic for Sokka, but also a very heavy shift for the rest if the village. Sokka being the only man, even only teenage boy leads to him not only taking on this role in his family but also the 'leader, chief, provider' role that men traditionally took on in their environments. This is still emblematic in how protective Sokka is of his companions, often even shielding them with his body, putting himself in harms way.

In Bolin and Mako's dynamic, however, Mako takes on both parental roles. To some extent. Where Sokka and Katara still had a certain amount of adults who could take care of them, Bolin and Mako were completely alone. This leads to Mako's care of Bolin being more focused on literal survival than emotional wellbeing.

Korra: [Side shot; unsure.] So, why is Bolin running around with the Triple Threat Triad, anyway? Mako : [Uncomfortable; evasively.] Well, we ... we used to do some work for them back in the day. Korra: [Dismayed look on her face.] What? Wha- Are you some kind of criminal? Mako : [Defensive and angrily.] No! You don't know what you're talking about. I just ran numbers for them and stuff. We were orphans out on the street; I did what I had to do to survive and protect my little brother.

Now, Bolin is the outlier in this group. Rather than stepping up into a caretaker role, Bolin seems almost intentionally like a child. This may seem counterproductive to Mako and Bolin's survival, but I'd argue that Bolin acting in this hapless, childike role is very important to the brothers' codependent dynamic. While it would seem like the better option for the brother's to both be able to be independent, the leader/follower dichotomy they have may actually have felt safer and more direct for them. Also, by being more easygoing and cheerful, Bolin is able to support Mako emotionally.

I can even make an argument of Mako infantilising Bolin, and stifling Bolin's growth (not deliberately or consciously, of course) because of the comfort this type of relationship brings.

It's also important to note that Bolin's behaviour also had the added benefit of endearing the brother's to people. The whole reason they became pro benders is because Toza took a shine to Bolin and whem the brothers were kidnapped by the Red Lotus, Bolin immediately pivots to trying to befriend them. When you combine this with the fact that the brothers probably lived off of the kindness of strangers as children, his demeanour starts to look like a behaviour learnt in order to survive.

Katara and Sokka aren't nearly as codependent as Mako and Bolin. They do both parent one another to some extent, Sokka has unconsciously replaced images of his mother with Katara. While on the flipside, Sokka often tends to try and steer Katara's actions, not unlike an overbearing father would. Katara, unlike Bolin, however, doesn't take direction well and will often outright disagree with or even mock Sokka.

Sokka: [Camera closes in on Sokka and Katara next to each other.] I know you all wanna fly, but my instincts tell me we should play it safe this time and walk Katara: [Leans forward at her brother and smiles.] Who made you the boss? Sokka: [Points his finger at his chest; to Katara.] I'm not the boss, I'm the leader. Katara: [Amused.] You're the leader? But your voice still cracks!

Both Mako and Katara have strong caretaker instincts. This is mainly how they express affection. You can see this not only in their relationships with their siblings. Another their romantic relationships with Korra and Aang respectively. The difference here being that Aang is quite receptive and willing to reciprocate Katara's caretaker type love, whereas Korra has different needs in her relationship. It's honestly quite fun that Korra's first love interest has a very similar love language to Aang's wife, and Korra and Mako braking up is a very good way to differentiate these two Avatars even further.

So that's it, Mako and Katara have a lot of similarities and Sokka and Bolin have some as well. That's it case closed. Except not so because we I'm here to disagree with myself.

Where Katara and Mako differ, is how well in tune they are with emotions, both their own and those of others. Katara is very, very open about her anger. She's very quick to escalate conflict and she feels emotions very strongly. A stark comparison to this is Mako's very avoidant approach to conflict.

This, once again makes sense with their environments. Aside from the loss of family, Katara has had a huge amount of her culture stripped away from her, a wound made even more painful by Katara being the only waterbender in her tribe. She's also just a naturaly passionate and determined person, I think. While, for Mako, anger and conflict usually could mean that either he or Bolin are going to get hurt, especially at the time when they were running with the triads.

Now, the main thing setting Bolin and Sokka apart, is also the thing that ties Sokka and Mako together.

Mako is... cynical, very jaded by the world. His pessimism and distrust of others shows how broken down he was by his difficult childhood, growing up around dangerous people.

Sokka is similarly jaded, as we see at even the beginning of the show, with his stark oppositon to fun and potty breaks.

Where Mako and Sokka come together, is that they were both tasked with protecting their family members, with Sokka also having to step into that role for the whole village. For them their rolee of protectors force them to always consider the worst possible outcome and any potential danger.

Sokka: I'm coming with you.

Hakoda: You're not old enough to go to war, Sokka, you know that.

Sokka: [Desperately.] I'm strong, I'm brave, I can fight! Please, Dad!

Hakoda: [Lays a hand on his son's shoulder; grimly and sadly.] Being a man is knowing where you're needed the most. And for you right now, that's here, protecting your sister.

Contrasting Mako and Sokka's pessimism is Bolin and Katara's powerful optimism. Hope is what drives these two forward, as well as their huge compassion for others, both human and animal.

Mako: What are you doing? Are you trying to get us in trouble with Shady Shin? Bolin: No! I just ... Maybe I'm not as mean as you! Maybe I just can't turn my back on people when they're down!

This often causes arguments between the respective pairs of siblings. Mako and Sokka wanting to protect their siblings from danger, while Bolin and Katara's need to help others draws them into risky situations.

Katara : Well, what was I supposed to do? Sokka: Leave! Do nothing! Katara: [Angrily.] No, I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!

The difference between Katara and Bolin, of course is that Katara is able to stand her ground for her strong morals, while Bolin, due to his upbringing, is much more "go with the flow".

But it is still a very interesting and compelling comparison, the younger sibling, full of hope and kindness, and the older sibling who shields them from danger.

I really enjoy these two pairs of siblings, and they easily make for some of my favourite dynamics in the show. I like that while they have certain overt similarities, there's much more to this comparison than meets the eye on surface level.

I think Sokka and Katara's relationship is incredibly wholesome, yet rather deep, watching them both mature side by side is very satisfying, if not a little sad. Bolin and Mako's relationship can be frustrating, but also fascinating. You can tell that they mean everything to one another, despite how dysfunctional their relationship can be.

Avatar has a knack for writing wonderfully complex siblings and the main two pairs of siblings are no exception. This is one of my favourite aspects of the show.

Anyway, that's been me telling you that these two pairs of siblings have both similarities and differences. Glad you sat through the stupid rant. Tune in next time for when my dumbass tells you that the sky is blue and the grass is green.

Bye bye

[dano-or-not]

you said you were running out of things to say about mob psycho, so i wanted to ask your opinion on the parallels between toichiro and mob (but not the ones everyone talks about, like how mob could've turn like toichiro if his life was different and stuff like that), specifically the parallel of how their two battles ended.

in s2, their battle ended with mob saying that leaving toichiro to suffer alone would be too sad, not matter how much he dislikes him, so he decided he is going to help him. and he does that by absorbing a lot of toichiros energy before it explodes, which ultimately saves his life.

now, in s3, ???% was about to deal a final blow to shou and toichiro, only to stop because of how hard mob was trying to contain himself, so toichiro announces he is going to stop ???% by absorbing his energy, the exactly same thing he did for him, the only thing only the two of them could do. shou objects, and before toichiro could go through, he realizes that in the end, what he's doing now is no different from what he always did, run away from his family, so he ultimately decides to run away with shou, leaving mob there desperately trying to stop himself.

i barely see anyone talking about those two scenes, but they've been on my mind forever for so many reasons.

how both of them made their decisions and they aren't right or wrong, they're choices, choices made by them because they are the ones in charge of their own lifes, it was mob's choice to stay there and help him, just like toichiro deciding to run away was his

there's also the fact toichiro says to mob that he's not as strong as him before leaving, which on a surface level seems to be about his strength, but i see that dialogue as him saying hes not strong enough to be willing to sacrifice himself despite all that he might lose, and that makes me crazy!

there's a lot more, like how desperate mob must have felt, we see in s2 mob in his room pondering if someone would stop him if he went out of control. and at that moment, with toichiro walking away, it must have felt like it was over, he had already told teru before to hit him with all he had, to stop mob, but he couldnt, and with suzuki leaving, i imagine how he felt

im soso sorry for the long ask, i don't even know if anything i said made any sense, i have a lot of difficulty putting my thoughts into words, and that gets 10 times worse because of my terrible english lol, i just saw your post about not having any new ideas and it gave me courage to try and send something, im usually very embarrassed bc i always feel like im saying sum wrong LOL, but your blog is my favourite on tumblr and your works are absolutely amazing so im glad to be sending you something, much love

Hello fifth anon!!

And thank you for helping me with post ideas, it's nice and appreciated!

You're so right about the mix of similarities between Toichiro and Mob's face offs in season 2 and season 3! I totally agree; neither of the decisions they made were perfect. Was it good that Mob was going to sacrifice himself? No. Was it good that Toichiro ran away from Mob at ???%? No. But was it good that Mob refused to abandon his morals and continued to show unyielding compassion? Yes. Was it good that Toichiro finally made a choice for his family rather than himself? Yes. Just like you said, their choices were just choices, and luckily happened to be ones that worked out.

As for Mob's point of view in season 3, yeah that must have been rough. At that point Toichiro seemed to be the only person who could stop Mob, and he walked away (for good reason). Even though Mob wanted him to run, it still had to have felt like defeat.

Toichiro did the exact opposite of what Mob did in season 2 when placed in an identical situation, and I think that did an excellent job of wrapping up Toichiro's character arc. He's finally taking care of what's most important to him and acknowledging that he isn't the best by saying how Mob is stronger in terms of both power, empathy, and preparedness to self-sacrifice for others.

There were two choices for Toichiro to make and they were equally bad. As the viewer of course we want Mob to be saved as fast as possible, but can you really blame Toichiro? Sometimes you help people who won't be able to repay you, but that doesn't mean they didn't deserve it.

But Mob Psycho 100 is also a story meant to convey a message, so certain things have to happen in a certain way. In season 2 Toichiro had to learn the importance of being there for people no matter what, and in season 3 Mob had to learn to be there for himself. They taught each other those lessons.

So all in all, I agree with your points and think you were really spot on! I'm glad you had the courage, the longer the ask the more interesting things I get to delve into! And don't worry about ever being wrong, I don't think you can ever really be wrong about story interpretation; if an idea resonates with you then it's right, that's all there is to it :)

And your favorite blog!? That's so cool, thank you so much!!!! :) I definitely had a mini-freak out of joy hearing that lol. I'm glad you enjoy my posts and fics! I'm very honored.

[blackjackkent]

@trellanyx replied to this post:

Personally I like squid!Karlach while Rakha and Wyll go their separate ways. I think the most satisfying ending to Rakha’s arc IS her having to learn to find the peace and identity she seeks as herself, whereas her becoming an illitihid feels like… idk, the game giving her an out? It’d def change her personality, unless you wanna hc otherwise, and I like to think she takes Jaheira’s words of “no you gotta walk the same path as the rest of us and figure it out on your own” to heart. (1/2)

But by that same token, I don’t think going to Avernus would be good for her long term. I guess you could make a case for her continuing to follow both “kill with purpose” and the future she sees through Minsc of being able to turn madness and violence toward just ends. But idk, Rakha’s greatest desire, the core Need of her character, has been “peace”, and I feel like going to Avernus to further embrace violence and killing, even if it’s to nobler ends, wouldn’t make her happy. Maybe after she travels alone for a while and figures out who she is independent of Wyll or the beast, can she make the decision to go with a clearer and surer mind. But similar to the squid ending, I feel like her jumping into Avernus immediately post-game is kinda like a circumvention of what she actually needs. Like how one keeps themself busy with job after job because they don’t know how to handle themselves when they’re idle.

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Honestly, I've been starting to lean towards this take for a while but was having a terrible time articulating to myself WHY it seemed like the correct choice. And I love this writeup so much. (I know intellectually that people are reading the stuff I write, but when y'all toss it back to me over the net and draw in all the specific details I've put effort into, it makes me rather emotional. So thank you. <3 )

I think you're right that the way Rakha has evolved, particularly in Act 3, makes both the mind flayer and Avernus endings feel less satisfying than they might otherwise be. There are satisfying ELEMENTS - her self-sacrificing for a greater good, or being with the man she loves, etc. But it's not really a culmination of her overall arc which, yeah, is about her trying to find peace.

And the super-sappy romantic in me wants her and Wyll to have a happily ever after forever but the truth is I think ultimately her relationship with him falls into the same category as Jenna and Thane did way back in my Mass Effect days - I don't think it's a relationship that can last forever. They have been good for each other in this crisis period, supported each other, had each other's back, made each other better. Rakha absolutely would not have made it through the whole ordeal without him, and perhaps even vice-versa.

But she needs to learn to stand on her own feet and figure out who she is. And Wyll, frankly, deserves someone he doesn't have to be carrying all the time. One thing that has frustrated me in writing Rakha's story is that Wyll's particular character flaws (self-sacrificing levels of kindness, etc.) mean that he keeps getting subsumed in Rakha's issues.

Wyll is a good, complex dude in his own right and deserves more exploration than Rakha's story has always been able to focus on; I'll definitely have to find avenues to write more about him separately. (I definitely hope to have some story lines more dedicated to him in "Hellraisers.")

It's not exactly the romance that I wanted to write when I initially decided to do Wyllmance Durge - but Durge is a messy, grown-up story and I guess in some sense it makes sense that it would end up with a messy, grown-up ending as well.

Anyway, this got terribly rambly, but TLDR - I think I might be leaning towards this approach. As usual, nothing's set in stone until I actually walk Rakha through it, and she's been known to surprise me in the past. But yeah... very interesting thoughts here. :)

[hollow-keys]

I am thinking about this interview with Judd Winick (the guy who made Jason Red Hood and laid the foundation for his entire modern characterization) because it's very telling with regards to the motivations for why Jason was made into a villain.

"I've said this before, but think anyone would agree that Batman is a hard character to write because we've done so much with him already. He's the most psychologically analyzed character in the entire superhero genre. Even when he makes the jump to second media stuff, it's equally about what goes on in his head as it is about his fists. So he's been explored inside and out. For me, Jason represents a whole new avenue of story in the Bat-universe, both as Batman's greatest failure who has come back to haunt him, as well as a character that is interesting to explore as an individual."

To me, this is him saying that the decision to bring Jason back as a villain was primarily to serve as a good antagonist for Bruce and keep Bruce's story fresh rather than being for Jason. Exploring this new Jason as a character in his own right was a secondary motivation. Winick's character decisions are not rooted in what best serves Jason and what makes sense for him, it's to serve Bruce.

"Yes, Jason sees what he's doing as making himself into a better Batman, the Batman that the world actually needs today.

But some of that is just Jason fooling himself. The truth is, all of it is based in the fact that Jason is just damaged and tortured and angry with Bruce. And this is a constant revenge upon him."

So, the justification for Jason being a villain is that he's traumatised. It should go without saying, but saying "this guy is evil and broken because trauma, you should write him off because trauma" is not a good way to write survivors.

"So do I understand him? I don't know. It's a scary thought that someone would have an affinity with someone who is as messed up as Jason. I do think he's wrong. I don't think he's going about justice the right way. Maybe I'm able to get inside his head a little, but thankfully he hasn't started rooting around in mine."

Winick not only views Jason as a villain but as one no one should have affinity with. He's not meant to be relatable, as above you're meant to write him off. There's no room for the idea he might have a point.

It reminds me of the leftist villain trope where they don't actually care about equality, they're just jealous or they do care but they go too far so you shouldn't listen to them.

"I also like the fact that Jason's actions aren't black and white. Sometimes he functions in that gray area, and it gives you the license to be somewhat hypocritical, because he is. I used to do that with Oliver Queen in Green Arrow, and people would go crazy, because I thought it was interesting to explore that sometimes he's a bit of a hypocrite. I find that likable about the character. And in Jason's case, he professes that he's trying to be a better Batman and he's trying to rid the world of evil, but then he's also just trying to stick it to Batman. It's very much a man-child thing going on."

If by "go crazy" you mean "hated it" then yeah, you're right. A lot of Green Arrow fans do not like Winick's run precisely because he does not understand the character and misrepresents him to make him look worse, like a hypocrite. There's a parallel between how Winick treats Ollie and how he treats Jason because in both cases he's taking pre-established characters and making them look worse because he does not respect them. He writes Jason as having very legitimate grievances with Bruce's ethics and then writes him off as a man-child. He is not approaching him in good faith.

I see Jason being a villain as a choice the writers made not because they thought it was good for the character, but for secondary reasons and then justified by villainising trauma survivors.

This is exactly why I don't take Winick's word as gospel with regards to Red Hood.

And post Winick, DC only seems to create stories where Jason is nothing but an edgy anti-hero divorced from righteous anger or strong ideology and stories where Jason has to change and throw his ideology away so he can be reincorporated back into the Batfamily. It's not great.

But that being said, I do think there's potential for Jason as Red Hood. I don't want it scrapped altogether because I would love to see a Jason who is actually trying to serve victims and help people in bad situations by both destroying what causes harm and constructing alternatives. Jason is a character with a lot of potential that I would like to see realised.

[bluerosesburnblue]

@oveliagirlhaditright I'm putting my Missing Link thoughts in another post because it would be too long, and honestly I have SO MANY thoughts about why the basic premise of KHML was a bad idea (completely separate from my own distaste for the "Ephemer is Xehanort's ancestor" stuff that might be in it)

Because you're right to mention Pokemon Go and it really, REALLY feels to me like it's just trying to ride the hype from the mobile ARG boom that started with Pokemon Go a whole eight years ago. Because KHML as a concept doesn't even seem to be utilizing any of the unique features of an ARG that make them appealing

There's two real franchise-based mobile ARGs that I ever remember hearing about: Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite*. These two projects do make sense to me, as opposed to KHML because of the way that both franchises make use of the central concept of the augmented reality feature. They're additions to reality, which both series already played around with. HP takes place in our reality, but with a "what if magic was real and just hidden" premise, so it's insanely easy to make an ARG that's just "yeah, you're one of the people in on the secret magical society that always existed in the real world." Pokemon takes place in an alternate version of our world; every location in Pokemon is based on a real-world location. So that's also a natural progression for it, and it's easy to pretend that the "reality" you see in the ARG is just the Pokemon world. Other than location names and the presence of Pokemon, the Pokemon world is practically identical to reality

That is literally the central concept of an ARG. To make the game part of reality. And that just doesn't work with KH, a game about flying through space to reach Disney worlds. Sure, some of us might have wanted to pretend to be Keyblade wielders as kids, but did we want to be wielders in our small backyards? Not even imagining that they were another location, but the yards as they were? No! We wanted to be in the Disney worlds! Or Traverse Town! The central facet of ARG gameplay doesn't mesh with the functionality of a story-based canonical title. And so what do they do to force it to work? Complicate the lore with the Astral Planes, which completely take the "reality" out of Augmented Reality aside from... a map? Like, it might have worked with Quadratum depending on how much of "our reality" that ends up being, but that's not at all what they're doing

Additionally, ARGs are not conducive to story-heavy games! You're supposed to play them while walking around town, maybe stopping for a few minutes to take a break. Or you play them on work/school breaks. You need to be able to pick them up, play a bit for 10 minutes, and put them down. The typical gameplay cycle for most ARG players does not include 20 minutes just to watch cutscenes to get the Exclusive Lore before being able to do anything, and the people who like KH for the story aren't going to want to wait all the time for their mobile game energy to recharge before they can get their cutscenes (a thing that even KHUx did away with for story chapters after some time!)

The entire decision to make KHML an ARG, to me, feels like corporate checking off a box of "style of game that got popular in recent memory" and trying to copy it rather than thinking of the gameplay as a medium in and of itself to tell a story. Nothing about the ARG concept works with what KH is at its core, and I honestly feel like they unintentionally admitted that when it was announced that you'd be able to play it without leaving home. What is the point of making it an ARG at all if you're going to remove literally the only benefit that it has as a medium, as opposed to something that could benefit the story you're trying to tell? We are a long way from the days of TWEWY making revolutionary use of the DS technology to have its gameplay tell a significant part of its story

In an ideal world, I think that KHML should have been an MMO like we thought KHx was going to be back when it was announced. They wouldn't have to mess with the lore to make it work, other players running around would help to "populate" Scala ad Caelum in a natural way, people could form "families" with their friends to further the bloodlines narrative, and MMOs can function on the drip-fed narrative style that they wanted. It doesn't even have to be a big-budget MMO like FF14, because I actually do like KH3's artstyle and KHML's simpler usage of it (it manages to be distinctive and colorful, working in hallmarks of Nomura's hand-drawn style while still being more detailed than the PS2-era). It could just be... basically what it is now, but they add in new Disney worlds every couple of months to keep the story going

And now here we are, with a game that was supposed to be out by the end of 2023 still missing (lol) and only having had two betas by the near-midpoint of 2024 because they're having developmental issues that I would personally guess have to do with the game's self-defeating nature. I find it very frustrating

*Adding in, Wizards Unite literally ran for less than three years (June 2019 - Jan 2022) before shutting down so even being tied to a big-name franchise couldn't save it. I have a strong hunch that the Covid-19 lockdowns played a huge part in killing the ARG boom so it's doubly insane to me why Square Enix thought trying to bring it back was a good idea

[silvcrocean]

HELLO!

This is my very first post here on tumblr and I finally wanted to give it a go, as a ocxcc creator/overall writer. I can guarantee that most of the things I write will be about Mr Reca and my own Oc, Cixia Ming! Some things are already posted throughout other apps about her! As a side info, I suck at drawing and would always rely on character creators etc. for her, so if I might end up posting about her and Reca is unsure... but I definitely wish to post possibly concepts of these two in the future too 🥰🫶

English isn't my first language and I deeply apologise if I made any spelling mistakes!! ... Same goes for possible formatting issues whatsoever here, as I haven't ever posted stuff on tumblr and I try to get used on a lot of things 😅🫶 So I hope that future stories might look better from the formatting.... 😬

CW WARNING; mentions of loss, subtile hinted. MR RECA CONTENT beware a bit of possibly spoilers if you haven't played the 2.6 Story Quest of Penacony yet, bana~

EXTRA NOTE; this is just a story concept of a possible ending for the story I plan for these two! I am planning to write a bigger fanfiction for them, but wish to also wait for Reca to be playable first to make the future fanfic also more accurate for his past, etc. depending on what we know from his character stories then! Most ARCs for the fanfic are planned roughly plus overall concepts!!

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»Oh, dear Audience. Today, I am presenting to you one of my most thrilling movies of all kinds. May I introduce you to the Tale of a Lost Star?~«

The words of Mr Reca echo through the Dreamscape, his voice is showing the usual hint of joy and amusement. However, his deep red eyes show a sense of something else; a hint of emotions, deeply locked away into his very core. No one is clapping for the dark brunette man, with the ashen undercut. No one is cheering for the famous movie director in the whole Cosmos. There is no one, but the Assistant Director, as he bows to his non-existent audience. His smile does not falter, playing off his playfulness as if he is in fact not the director, but the actor on the grand stage called Life. People would for sure clap for his great entrance; his loyal fans would cheer on him, as some would try to get his face on their recording devices. Not that he'd ever allow it – on his stage, no one but him has the power over these things. And every place in the vast universe is his stage – he will always be the Director of everything, of everyone.

But oh, he didn't see that coming. Or well, he rather tried to deny the twisted fate of a tragedy lying ahead. Again. Over and over again. How many times had he watched it with his own eyes — alongside with others from the Garden of Recollection? At some point he didn't try to think much about it… he felt the pain within his own being. Which is… a bit ironic, given the fact of his true being. A being without a physical body, of someone who shouldn't even feel some sort of pain.

It didn't change anything though and this time… it hurt more than anything else, even if he tries to brush it off. As one of the Memokeepers, he must function. He once gave his body away for the purpose to capture all the sweet memories in the arts of film history. Mr Reca swore everything on it and he lost enough in his original days to have made this kind of decision. It was everything he could do… and maybe, just maybe, it has been his own fault for even having fallen in love in the first place with someone, right?

»You're like a bright star in the universe, Mr Reca. At least for me, you sure shine the most brightest… and I am not saying it because you know how to charm the people around you~«

The Assistant Director sees how the eyes of the Director widen a little bit as he reminds the teasing words of his beloved Muse. His eyes blink slowly, some of his dark brown hair strands fall more into his face, while Reca stops to breathe for just a second. Even now her voice haunts him in the deepest edge of Penacony's Dreamscape. But in the end, was it really so surprising for the Memokeeper? No, he was aware from the beginning, that he would not escape that voice and memories that he kept inside his own mind. There are just a few memories worthy of him to be saved and everything that connects him to her will always be close to him.

Croaking, the Assistant Director hops to the one that created her. Her voice sounds worried for the movie director, but he only smiles softly at his little frog companion as if he wants to silently tell her that he will be alright… just like always. But of course, she won't buy it. Reca tends to never stop his ever-thinking mind. May it be due to all the countless scripts he has or because of the events that haunt his very being down. Mr Reca can't stop thinking of certain kinds of things and the loss of someone so dear to him, won't be easily forgotten. Nor does he wish for it either. If he wishes for one thing, then it'll be for the return of his own beloved one.

Sighing softly, Mr Reca holds the Assistant Director up in his hands. His scarlet red eyes are combined with warmth for her but sadness for the fate of his Muse, that he is wishing back to have by his side.

»I miss her. And her rambles of goats. Oh, I can see that you're missing her as well…« Reca whispers, sounding much more softer as he speaks directly to the Assistant Director, as if she's his own little daughter. And she kinda is in a way – for him at least. The Memosprite only looks with her big metallic eyes to the men, just before another croak escapes her. No one truly understands what the Assistant Director might say, but Mr Reca knows it more than anyone else. And he knows she also misses her, Cixia Ming, as she defied her own fate against the Chaos flickering through the universe. She stopped her cycle of endless suffering from the days as she was cursed by the ancient stars — but at what cost?

Mr Reca still can't believe it, even if he had known that fate was always heading in that direction. Maybe it was his own fault for just having fallen in love with the very soul of an ancient star (who got cursed, declared as a sinner by the mighty stars above) that wanted to show him the true beauty of the Cosmos. Perhaps it was his fault for having intertwined in her fate — not only as her being as Cixia Ming but every single vessel of hers before, too. If only he listened to a few warnings from the others, even Black Swan included, it would be different for him now, but…

»Hah…«

The Assistant Director looks confused for a moment to the movie director as he carefully puts her back onto his shoulders, all while beautiful frames come from him.

Bit by bit it is seen – the beautiful sight of him, together with the raven haired woman he spent the past years, months and weeks with. Their laughter as they talked about the most random things, their little kisses shared in calmer moments; the way they talked about everything and shared some sort of passion for the truth of the universe, and oh, so much more…

Everything is shown and Mr Reca only smiles softly, feeling a tear slip away from his very eyes, before he holds the memories close to his chest. There, where his heart is meant to be.

»… No, this movie is nothing that I want to share with the audience, Assistant Director. I think… this movie is something we should keep for ourselves, don't you agree?«, he whispers in a tone of clear determination for moment. The Assistant Director doesn't hesitate to agree with him just before the memories are kept inside of Mr Reca. Like as if it became his very own, new beating heart in this moment.

»My beloved Muse… One day, we will find each other again amid the sea of light. We will… never be fully separated, right? So, wait for me. Just a little while longer.«

A promise for a lifetime – one that might take ages til it will be fulfilled. But Mr Reca always was one of the determined kind, so who is he to back off from such a sweet Oath as this one? And oh, just for a moment, the movie director could have sworn to have caught a little star in the Dreamscape… as if it is her sign to tell him, she would truly wait for him. For her most beloved movie director.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello!

This might have already been answered in a previous post. However, tumblr on mobile hates me and doesn’t want to work half of the time so I’m having trouble locating stuff.

I’m working on a second draft of my manuscript and am trying multiple POVs along with having each chapter either be a different day or different character. For example: chapter one is date ‘xx’ with ‘character A’, while chapter two is date ‘xy’ with ‘character B’. (My story takes place over eight months with four distinct POVs). One of the very early chapters doesn’t have many plot points, but has a major one in it, as the major plot point leads to the kick off the inciting incident. (I usually do 5-6 basic points/events I want to hit in a chapter). But I’m only coming up with 1-2 for this specific chapter.

Would it be a better idea to combine this chapter with the next chapter? Or should I rework this chapter to have more substance? I could leave it as is however, I feel as if the chapter wouldn’t hit the mini word count I set for myself or highlight what I’m trying to show. Would it be a good idea to flesh out the world and this specific character more— or would it seem to info-dump-y?

Thanks so much! Also sorry if my question makes barely any sense.

Hitting 5-6 Plot Points/Events Per Chapter

First: tumblr on mobile hates everyone, so no worries there.

I'm curious about this idea of hitting 5 to 6 plot points or events per chapter... this isn't structural method I've ever encountered before, and honestly, it sound like a lot to cram into a single chapter. Most chapters would revolve around a single plot point or event, with maybe a few minor ones where necessary.

I mean, the bottom line is if it's working for your story, don't change it. If you feel like the chapters are solid and not too busy, keep doing what you're doing. But I definitely wouldn't worry about chapters that aren't overflowing with plot points and events. Just the 1 to 2 plot points/events should be enough for that chapter. If you're worried that not enough is happening, it might be a good place to illustrate something important about the world or characters, but you don't want to do it as an info dump. For example... let's say you realize this chapter could be a good place to explore the POV character's internal conflict. Rather than doing an info dump, you can find another event that would illustrate that conflict. Like, perhaps this character is dealing with a confidence issue related to a past event, so you can find a way to showcase that issue by showing how their confidence is impacted.

Ultimately, as nice as symmetry is, you generally don't want to make story decisions based on symmetry rather than what is best for the story. :)

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[on-the-shoulders-of-rootstock]

What The Fuck Is On The Shoulders Of Rootstock?

If you're anything like me, you have a love/hate relationship with the Human Domestication Guide writing project - which is not to say that I hate it. There's a lot to love!

I love the indulgent depictions of post-scarcity, I love xenobiology and xenoculture, I love the ten-foot plant-monster mommy-dommies, I love seeing capitalism and imperialism smashed into teeny-tiny pieces over and over. I can't get enough, and it's what sucked me in.

However, I also personally disagree with the way certain aspects are handled, and believe they impede HDG in general:

My kinks are not your kinks.

The Affini are too perfect.

Over-focusing on kink.

No sense of scale.

I've started this blog to set up an organised central worldbuilding reference for anyone else interested in taking the same tack with HDG. You should absolutely send in asks if any of this interests you.

Why don't I just go start my own post-scarcity worldbuilding project specifically tuned to my own tastes? One, I've already done that (like, twice). Two, HDG still has the aforementioned elements I love and want to work with, and I want to riff on them alongside others I know who also play within HDG's space.

More detail below:

1. My kinks are not your kinks. This is the big one for me. I acknowledge that HDG was originally started explicitly as noncon intox hypno brainwashing petplay erotica, but that's not my speed. My relationship to submission is about maintaining self-control and making the decision to obey, rather than having my decision-making forcibly taken away from me. Intox, hypno, brainwashing, etc. all run against my ability to enjoy the HDG themes I do like, and I am picking and choosing what's on my plate while still leaving room for others to add the usual stuff in.

2. The Affini are too perfect. This is with regards to the way the Affini are written in "canonical" HDG media as being perfectly-competent supreme overlords who can do no wrong and have negligible rates of failure at anything they do. For me, this is boring. Characters in media are fun because they are imperfect, because they fuck up every once in a while, because things don't always go their way. Mistakes are how people learn, and a character that doesn't learn is very dull. I want to introduce fallibility and limits to the character that is The Affini Compact as a whole, making them a more compelling and interesting force within HDG stories. Conversely, I also want to depict the Affini as having earned their seat on the galactic stage. I want to see them engage in the sort of logistical and political exercises needed to remain such a powerful civilisation. I want to see the kind of underhanded and manipulative tactics you need in order to invade and pacify other cultures without harming them. It makes them feel more powerful and alive.

3. Over-focusing on kink. Just like #1, I feel that most depictions of Affini in canonical HDG stories flatten their biology and psychology to the bare minimum required to be titillating objects. Every single Affini is reduced to a slavering predator eager to abduct and mindbreak her next victim. Yes, HDG is erotica, but where's the nuance? Where's the rest of the iceberg? What do the Affini do when they aren't fucking aliens? How do the Affini maintain such a dominant political position in the galaxy? These things are missing, and so too is any sense of the Affini being real people.

4. No sense of scale. Canonical population estimates sit at some silly number like 10^30 individuals, with a territory covering at least a dozen galaxies. This is comically large, and makes the Affini a dominant supermajority crowding out just about every other species. Also, where are the Affini going to find a floret for everyone? It's just silly.

Q: What does all this mean in practice?

A: It means I'm currently worldbuilding a bigass lore document for Affini, My Way and it's growing every day. It's still in a very rough, draft-y state but I'd love to hear what others have to say about it if this project catches their interest. My personal favourite highlights are "Affini are omnivorous heterotrophs" and the name for Matter Trainers. See below!

Further up on this canvas are my notes for outlining a planned HDG story set in this style, but they're not ready to be shown to anyone just yet (would love to chat about my ideas, though).

[magickfromscratch]

Hey! I just read your post “Prayer For Pagan Unity” and I have a similar situation that I would like to take your advice on.

A city in my country (previously known as Teos) has started to organize Dionysia Festivals again to preserve cultural heritage etc (amazing, right??) and I am planning to attend.

I have this friend, -ex best friend- whose patron god is Dionysus. We had a fallout last year because she broke an oath we had, causing a devastating year, still influencing my life. (I don’t want to bother you with details unless you ask) Then she just vanished and didn’t apologize, (it was out of cowardice and indecisiveness, rather than malice) we recently started to talk again, sending memes and stuff. We still didn’t touch the subject, since it will be a heavy talk.

So my question is… I don’t think she knows about the festival nor will learn unless I invite her. Part of me wants to invite her, in behalf of Dionysus and the hope of having catharsis/closure/conciliation. And part of me doesn’t want to invite her because I am still very hurt, and doesn’t want to stain the event/experience with a possible fight.

I have to make a decision on that in 10 days and I very much would appreciate your help. And if you bump into Dionysus in the mean time and feel like asking this for me since I don’t have that kind of relationship with him yet… I would be immensely grateful. Or if you could suggest a ritual to “ask yourself”

Thank you so much in advance. I am sorry if there are any grammatical/semantical/logical mistakes, (probably there are) English is not my first language and I am very drunk.

Loves 💕

Wow, it sounds like you've been through a lot. It sounds very painful, and I'm sorry that you have to go through that. No worries about grammatical/semantic/logical mistakes, I make plenty of my own, even in my native language.

Very often, we are separated by petty grievances, but this is not that.

First of all, I want to say that you don't have to forgive her, or anyone, until you're ready, if ever, and that if someone did something to hurt you, and they know it, it's really best to tackle the emotions you're feeling internally at your own pace before moving forward.

I'm writing my reply with the assumption that it's a rather large event. If it's not, you might wait until you have a sense of where you are both at before you decide whether to tell her about it. If it is, then I also want to point out that even if she goes, you don't have to go together. She can also go by herself, or with her own friends, provided that she knows it is happening. You can and should set boundaries for your interactions at the event. This can include avoiding certain topics, limiting your interactions, and asking her not to discuss your collective situation with other attendees.

Before you see her in person, in whatever context, I think a conversation needs to happen. You can tell her that she hurt you, that it's still impacting you, and that you're still dealing with the consequences of her choices.

And before you have that conversation, on a spiritual level, it might be good to consider what it might be like to have wrestled with your own Shadow and lost in such a big way that it cost you a friend, and to feel like you'll never truly be forgiven. I've been there. I have made mistakes that have cost me relationships with people who were important to me, and I know what it's like to understand, in an emotional place of cold, dull horror, that I lost someone because I just couldn't make myself do what I intended, what I needed, to do. I'm not certain about you, but in my culture, breaking an oath is something very damaging to the person who does it. It costs you not just your honor, but a little piece of your soul. It feels like shit. That's probably where she's at right now.

I don't know what the situation is fully, but it sounds to me as if none of this is your responsibility to fix. It's hers. She has work to do that no one can do for her.

In every relationship, people have needs. Your job in that conversation isn't to make her feel better, it's to articulate your boundaries and to get an accurate sense as to whether or not she can respect those boundaries. It's really only after that conversation that you can decide whether or not you want her to be at that event with you. You need to tell her what you need from her. That kind of conversation, no matter how it turns out, may give you the closure you seek.

It can be tempting to focus your conversation on why she did what she did, but a more important angle might be, "I need my friends to be true to their word, and you weren't. That breach of trust is a problem for me. How can we work together so that we can continue to be in this community together without incident?"

The gods, I think, do want the people that honor them to be a community, to sacrifice a little bit of ego, where we can, when it's emotionally healthy for us to do so, so that their community can be a harmonious and peaceful. I think that they want us to work out our differences, when we can.

If you can make it work without sacrificing your personal, emotional, social, and physical safety (in which I would include the security of your home, job, and mundane social life/support network), then you should try. If you're not ready (and again, it's ok if you never are), then it may very well diminish the festival for you. Another important aspect to judge is as to whether conversations had between you, or her, and the other attendees might stir drama beyond just the two of you. You obviously know her better than I do, and how likely that is to become a problem.

It is also possible for you to tell her that you're not ready to spend any significant amount of time with her in person until you've had that conversation. The best context for this conversation will depend upon the nature of the situation for both of you. The prevailing wisdom is that such conversations should be by phone or in person, but sometimes, asynchronous conversations can give both parties time to think before replying. A good way to decide might be saying, "hey, I want to talk to you about the thing," and then discussing where and how to have that conversation.

Having a path forward to redemption, even if the two of you are not where either of you wants to be right now, might be of some comfort to her. Again, it's not your responsibility to do this, you don't have to, but it might give both of your some peace. Hope is a powerful motivator for people to engage in good behavior, and hopelessness is equally likely to drive a person toward less than stellar choices.

As far as asking Dionysos goes, I could. But if I did, the reply I got would only be my own gnosis. At the end of the day, I'm just a random person on the internet.

As for asking Dionysos yourself? The Theoi, in my experience, are very good with omens. My advice would be to make offerings to Dionysos, and to Hermes in his capacity as messenger, to send you counsel in a way that you can understand. The language, "a clear omen, presented in a way that I can understand" or something to that effect is important to include when asking for a reply.

If you receive nothing in reply, that's still an answer and means, "it's up to you and how you're feeling about it." If Dionysos has a strong opinion on the matter, and you ask, believe me, you'll get an something unequivocal. I suggest looking into bird omens, as that's easiest for them, but it's also possible for other kinds of omens to appear, if you're not ready to do that research. I haven't been able to find a good and concise resource for that as yet.

As you wrote this in a somewhat drunken state, and I have anonymous asks turned off, please let me know if you see this and want my reply taken down for your privacy or hers. A comment on the post will suffice.

I wish you the best. The festival sounds awesome. I hope this time is spiritually fruitful, and that you gain what you seek from it. I hope my thoughts on the subject have been helpful. Thank you for reaching out.

[literaticat]

Would agents be interested in knowing about a querying author or illustrator's Substack? Like if you're writing on the platform regularly and you think it's a good example of your writing style/ability, do you think it's worth mentioning somewhere in the query? Or is it best left as a link in your email signature?

The short answer is probably not; link in email sig is fine.

The long answer can be applied to any blog/ podcast/ substack/ tiktok/ social media etc:

These things can be considered part of your "Platform."

But Platform alone won't do much without a book to support it, unless the platform is SO substantial that it can stand on its own.

Writing for your substack or writing hilarious tweets or whatever just isn't the same skill set as writing a book. I do think an agent would check it out (just like an agent would of course check out an illustrators instagram, etc) -- but it's more like "ok, let's see what this person is all about" rather than "let's draw conclusions about their ability to write books and offer rep based just on their posts."

Therefore, for the VAST majority of "normal" social media users / substack writers / etc, links in your email signature are perfectly sufficient, yes an agent will look, no they aren't going to base their decision to rep you or not off of that.

HOWEVER:

IF the Platform is a huge, significant part of your life, in addition to the links where the links go, by all means also put it as a line in your bio just as you might a job or major award or something like that. But no, unfortch, "huge part of your life" doesn't mean "you fall asleep watching tiktok for hours". (Guilty!) ;-)

It means at least some of these things are true: you spend a good amount of your life making content, you make actual $$ income doing it, you have many thousands / millions of followers, companies send you free stuff, you could unironically be called an "influencer", people outside your friends/family "bubble" would recognize you or your work, traditional media has quoted you as an expert or authority, you have had opportunities to do things with media, companies or institutions because of it. (e.g., you review books on instagram, and because of that you've been able to review books for the NYT. Or you have a popular substack about penguins, and because of that, Random House is paying you to write a book about penguins.)

Again, I don't think many agents would OFFER REP just because you have a big platform (unless it's like, CELEBRITY BIG, which is a different story) -- you still have to have a book they think they can sell! -- but IMO, if some of the above are true, it does make sense to consider this as an integral part of your job at that point and is for sure worth mentioning in your bio.

FWIW, I have 50k+ followers on a social media platform, as well as a fairly popular podcast, this tumblr, etc etc -- and I would personally still consider myself a "normal" user and just put the links in my email sig.