#[ and just dump the random thoughts there if they're still there when i'm done typing or as i'm typing. ]

[araneitela]

My apologies for being absent!

/cracks knuckles, but I'm in the midst of typing about fear and with it, hope to make it up to you guys a little. I don't remember the last time that I've been so motivated to write meta of any kind, but Kafka makes me never want to shut up, and honestly— I feel bad when I'm sitting in Discord, with someone's DMs open and I'm sitting on my hands to prevent myself from hypothesizing, because when I don't, it's twelve paragraphs at least. So here we go, let's take my hypothesizing to the dashboard.

Can I also just... say how much two instrumental tracks scream Kafka to me and I lose my mind? I need to stop losing my mind. But this character is just everything I've craved to write for much too long, her premise, dynamics, her goal, the references and symbolism, it's so delightful and thrilling and absolute chef's kiss. Any way, in case anyone may want to know what's playing over and over and over again without stop. The romanticism of Kafka: — Table for Two — The Field

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers West Coast #48: THIS ANCIENT EVIL

September, 1989

Captain America and She-Hulk have found the Scarlet Witch... Maybe not the smartest thing they ever did...

Still love cover text.

So Wanda just wears ooze now.

Interesting fashion choice.

Wasp will probably have something to say about it, though, if the West Coast Avengers ever rejoin the A-plot in their own book.

I know the allure of having two linked books so characters can cross over as needed but this is still Avengers West Coast, the Avengers book occurring on the West Coast. Since I guess there aren't separate teams anymore.

Last times on Avengers West Coast: all the governments disassembled Vision for trying to take over the world that one time. Hank Pym put him back together but now Vision's brain isn't the same. No emotions. None of the other Avengers seem to care so Scarlet Witch takes Vision to Absolom College which offered to help. 'TWAS A RUSE and Dean Random dumps a bunch of evil ooze on Wanda!

This time: a lot of worldbuilding exposition.

Yup, that's right. The backstory is so extensive it goes back to the formation of Earth.

But the take-away is, like I said, Byrne is doing Sublime before Sublime.

The longer of it is that the Earth cooled, there was big rain, cellular life started to form, and the very first cell undergoes mitosis EXCEPT ONE OF THE COPIES IS EEEEEEEVIL AND EATS THE OTHER.

AND FROM THEN ON EVERY LIFEFORM ON EARTH HAS HAD THE MARK OF EEEEEEVIL IN IT.

Except mutants. Remember how that's the whole thing? The evil ancient gene or whatever wants to assimilate mutants and needed one that was easy prey? And since Wanda is having an emotional crisis currently...

Hey. You can see her toes. And she noted last issue that the ooze was dissolving her cape. Is she only wearing ooze now?

Byrne, why?

Also, what the fuck is a classic mutant type? What does that mean? And the later retcon that Wanda isn't even a mutant just makes this funny. These guys aren't good at their job.

Apparently, aside from just zonking her mind, the ooze and the tube are trying to understand the mutant gene and also reconstructing Wanda's memory and dumping the big exposition dump right into her brain. She needs to know this stuff, I guess.

Lady bad guy estimates that the process will be done in 72 hours.

Meanwhile, Captain America and She-Hulk and only Captain America and She-Hulk fly a Quinjet to Absolom, Texas to check on that Quinjet distress signal they got.

I wonder where this crossover fits with what's happening in Avengers. Cap went right from his announcement that he now ruled all Avengers to that whole Lava Man thing. And they're going to go right from that Lava Man thing into another story arc, to try to get help for Gilgamesh. And that's going to be a number of issues.

Avengers West Coast has to be way ahead of the Avengers East Coast timeline right now.

But I'm wondering because why is it just Cap and She-Hulk? Was everyone else on vacation?

She-Hulk calls to advise the traffic controller that they're going to be landing at Absolom College. In a nice touch, the traffic controller hears that the Avengers are emergency landing at a university and asks if the police or military need to be contacted too. Because Avengers deal with all kinds of shit!

But Cap tells the traffic controller that it's Avengers' business.

A bad guy informs Dean Random that another Quinjet is approaching, to Random's consternation. He thought that Wanda had severed ties with the Avengers before coming.

(Really, all she did was steal a Quinjet and hide her destination. That's not quite severing ties.)

While the assimilation process on Wanda continues, Mr. Random goes to meet with the Avengers and see what the hell they want on his college.

When Cap tells Mr. Random that they're investigating a possibly crashed Quinjet, Random spins a story that is partially true and also bullshit.

He tells Cap that Scarlet Witch and Vision visited, that Wanda left Vision with the college, and then took off. And he hopes that nothing happened to her after she left! He then offers Cap and She-Hulk a visit with Vision who will surely corroborate the story.

Meanwhile, SPAAAAAACE.

Starfox is searching an ancient planet for Nebula. Even though the Avengers told him that Nebula fell into a time warp and was lost in time. Because a mercenary told Starfox he'd seen Nebula.

Yeah, so I was wondering at what point the Nebula Kang thing got retconned to not be Nebula and apparently the time is now.

Guess Byrne decided he had a better idea for her than where Simonson left her. AND TO BE FAIR.

Nebula Kang wasn't interesting enough that I can muster up annoyance that the story is being retconned.

Anyway, Starfox does find Nebula and Gunthar of her space mercenary crew.

Gunthar found some stone tablets for her which have formula on them that will help her become more powerful than Thanos ever was!

Is it the Anti-Life Equation?

Don't call attention to Thanos' pretty direct inspiration!

Over in another subplot, there's a lady named Ann Raymond at a homeless shelter in Denver who is delirious and keeps telling staff that she needs to get to Los Angeles. She's carrying a newspaper clipping with the headline "Avengers Confirm Vision is Not Torch" which seems to be making her distraught.

Um. Whyy did the Avengers announce that to the news media? For one thing, that's personal biz and I'm sure Wanda did not approve having it blasted to the press since she still thinks Professor Horton is a lying sack of shit.

The way the Avengers are handling the Vision situation makes them feel more inhuman than the emotionless robot man.

Anyway.

Meanwhile, Captain America and She-Hulk meet with Vision. They ask him where Wanda is but he has no idea. He can only report that according to Mr. Random, Wanda took off.

The evil bad guys who are full of evil ancient bacteria or whatever decide they need to accelerate shoving exposition into Wanda's brain, in case the heroes cause problems. Sure, it might break Wanda's brain but surely they have no other choice.

So more past times exposition flashbacks. Life continued to develop on Earth. There were forests. Also lizards. And then dinosaurs. Should stopped there, dinosaurs were great. But while there were dinosaurs, there was also mammals.

This will be important later.

Cap and She-Hulk finish their tour with Mr. Random and Cap has some questions.

Sure, the Absolom College of Robotics looks pretty impressive but it's nothing compared to the tech that the Avengers have. So why did Absolom think they'd be better at fixing Vision's noodle than the Avengers were?

Mr. Random handwaves it that Absolom's robotics experts are providing a different perspective on the problem but Cap is skeptical.

Captain America: "Still, you would agree it is a great shame that Wanda should feel the need to turn to strangers after we did all we could do."

Diiiiiiid you though?

The Wonder Man elephant is still in the room. An additional thing that they could try but nobody seems interested in it except Wanda and everyone else has seemingly washed their hands of the situation and decided Vision is Good Enough.

Mr. Random gets called off to attend to something (probably something Wanda related) and tells Cap and She-Hulk they can finish the tour.

Both of the heroes are actually pretty skeptical of the situation, this facility, and all these people.

The Absolom robotics facilities looks more like a set designer's idea of what an impressive robot factory would look like and less like the real thing.

But rather than confront the peeps now, Cap decides they'll finish the tour like they're not massively suspicious and then sneak back later at night to poke around.

Meanwhile, back at Seattle, the Avengers West Coast (minus US Agent who has never done any Avengers business with the Avengers at all so far despite ostensibly being in charge and Tigra who nobody has noticed hasn't shown up, sigh) interview Professor Horton.

Horton reiterates that Vision could not possibly be the (robot) Human Torch.

CLEARLY ANY NON IDIOT AND ALSO ROBOTICS EXPERT WOULD NOTICE THAT, HANK PYM.

For you see, the Human Torch was an artificial human and definitely not mechanical at all in any way shape or form. Just a human ass human except 100% synthetic parts. Meanwhile, Vision has robot bits.

I don't know whether this is true of the Human Torch or not. I don't know whether this is closing a plot hole since Vision has been shown having mechanical parts. But I do remember that several times people have said that Vision is a synthezoid, meaning an artificial man with synthetic parts. But Horton seems to be redefining synthezoid to mean a mix of artificial organs and machine parts.

We're pretty far into this subplot by now. Why are we still rehashing this part of it?

Is it because I keep yelling at the comic how much I hate this subplot?

Anyway, Hank Pym tells Horton that he went on a Fantastic Voyage through Vision and sees his point. Probably should have seen it sooner.

I think that Fantastic Voyage is the story that did the art fail of showing Vision as more roboticy than he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be basically a man but artificial.

Anyway, Hank also reflects that they believed all of Vision's backstory Human Torch stuff because of Immortus.

Hank Pym: "Obviously, the 'master of time' lied. Why?" Immortus, watching this conversation on the time-a-vision: "Oh, never without good reason, my dear Doctor Pym. Never without good reason."

Oh, boy, I sure hope that good reason is really good.

Immortus suggests that it's a really good reason, such a good reason that it's beyond the comprehension of people with dumb minds. Also, he has Plans involving Scarlet Witch.

Big ones.

So he's also watching her subplot on a different time-a-vision.

On a completely different floor.

Why did you organize like this?

I do like the room that is just sideways to the stairs. Immortus lives in an MC Esher painting.

Anyway, back at the Scarlet Witch ooze side of the plot, all the memories have been jammed into her brain and the bad guys breached the genetic barrier that kept them from possessing mutants.

Mr. Random: "The genetic barrier has been breached. Soon we shall be able to abandon the dead end street of humanity... And then homo sapiens will go the same way as did the dinosaurs before them!"

So we'd better dial E for Extinction.

This is just the Sublime stuff! Did Morrison just rip off Byrne? Why??

The evil bad guys put Ooze Wanda in a room so she can rest and contemplate.

Ooze Wanda: "Suddenly I feel very sure about everything. It's as if every doubt I've ever had in my life has been scrubbed away. I begin to understand now some of the things my father has said. Things he said in the days my brother, Pietro, and I were part of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In those days long before we even knew he was our father... When he was, to us, only Magneto, Master of Magnetism." "Then he spoke often of the superiority of mutants such as us. Homo superior, he called us. He said we were the future. Said that some day soon all the humans would bow down to us... Acknowledge us as their rightful masters! Now i see that he was right! More right than even he dared guess. Humankind has reached the end of its era of domination. They must be left behind, like the dinosaurs, like the lesser mammals. Left to die out. And only That Which Endures shall remain!"

Aw, dammit. Getting ooze radicalized her into mutant supremacy.

Don't do ooze, kids, not even once.

Later that evening, Captain America and She-Hulk sneak back onto the Absolom College grounds to get to the bottom of things.

While She-Hulk points out that she's not built for a stealth mission "being six foot seven and bright green", Cap impresses by acrobating all over the place and pointing out where the security sensors are so She-Hulk can avoid them.

The two break into Mr. Random's office and Mr. Random's unsecured passwordless computer and find that Scarlet Witch is being held in a sub-basement. In fact, in the building right across from Mr. Random's office window.

So She-Hulk has an idea how to expedite the journey.

Instead of slowly making their way through the building, dodging security, and trying to find their way into the sub-basement, She-Hulk just uses herself as a kinetic bomb to plow a straight line from the roof to the basement.

And Captain America follows the path she left by riding his shield. Since its unique properties absorb the impact of falling twenty stories.

In the sub-basement, Cap and She-Hulk find a fortified structure, which Cap likens to a blockhouse. Looking like it was built to contain something.

But She-Hulk is Hulk strong and Cap asks her to knock. The door down.

Except. She plows through a lot easier than she should have if it was fortified as it looks. It's a trap!

Ooze Wanda is waiting for them and with a gesture, she buries Cap and She-Hulk in rocks.

Well, buries is a strong word. She lightly flings the rubble at them and then they fall over unconscious despite it seeming like it should take more than that to knock out a (she-)hulk.

Ooze Wanda: "I have not been turned. I have, rather, been shown the truth. The great and ancient truth which has dwelled within all living things since the dawn of time! The truth you will come to share... once you, too, are properly assimilated!"

... I thought humans were already assimilated?

How does this thing work, anyway?

And where did Wanda's pupils go? She had them a few pages ago. Did she catch Youngblood's Disease between then and now?

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, Hawkeye is training the Great Lakes Avengers and yelling at them for not being up to his standards. Despite him only being in charge for one day.

Maybe its tough love but saying "I have never seen a more useless bunch of misfits!" is a bit harsh considering he just barged into their lives and unilaterally decided he was in charge.

Mockingbird interrupts his yelling at them to tell Hawkeye she caught a Quinjet emergency signal on the Avengers waveband.

Hawkeye: "All riigghht!! This is the moment I've been waiting for! AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! My former teammteas are in some kinda jam... an' we're gonna bail 'em out!"

Sooo. You go from yelling at them for not being up to Avengers standards to throwing them into the field for an unknown situation that may have endangered a professional Avengers team, all for a chance to show up his colleagues?

I'm starting to think Hawkeye is some kind of petty asshole sometimes.

Follow @essential-avengers for more deep insights like that. Like, reblog, and comment maybe.

[theressomanyfandomsineedtojoin]

Thought I'd do another doodle dump. These are some ocs (kinda. Two are characters from books that I've warped beyond recognition_ but kept the names and world soooo idk) and some random characters I've doodled in my sketchbook. Here's the individual pictures.

This is that apocalyptic future Sophie from kotlc I mentioned here

She's actually kinda happy here so good for her.

This is a random oc I thought of randomly. I kind of pictured it in the rangers apprentice world (just to give me an idea, there's literally nothing linking it to those series I just needed a world).

Anyway, the thing here is that he was part of a group of people (hired by the ruler of the area) to clear a forest of these (haven't nailed down a name for them yet) magical creatures. The ruler doesn't like them despite them only fighting back when attacked, and they've been trying for years to clear the forest of them, so the whole population of them is pissed. They're also very earth connected, as is kind of shown eight the crystal-like horns they have, and that relates to their powers in a way I have not figured out yet. Anyway, kid gets bitten or whatever but the point is, he slowly starts transforming into one of them. This isn't expected bc as far as most people know, those who enter and are caught just disappear. He can still look human, and can switch between his forms, but the conflict is with him and his team.and you get the point. Trying not to hurt either side, panic that he's a monster, the whole shebang.

Fun fact the creatures were originally evil, but making him struggle with knowing they're not is more fun 😈

This lady is the least developed, mainly bc I've done one drawing of her before this and then never touched it again.

This was the old drawing and I almost like it a bit more. Anyway, I'm picturing her to be an oracle/telekinesis type magic user in a world I have no information about.

The other two I wasn't really thrilled with, and their both from that one weird rangers apprentice au I mentioned here.

The first one, I hadn't figured out how to do highlights with my markers, and the second, the white pen I was using for.said highlights kept turning pink, which bugged me, and I kept going over it until it just looked bad. :( quit while you're ahead ig.

If someone's randomly curious about them I'm happy to randomly come up with more info/head cannons on them

[pokemontrainerevan]

Hi, hello, I'm Evan! (Introduction)

(This is a Pokemon RP blog, RP rules are in a Caard linked in my bio)

Hello! I'm Evan (he/him), a Pokémon Trainer from the Galar region! I'm currently travelling Paldea, taking on the Pokémon League, but I've been to a bunch of different places in the past too. My dream is to become a member of the Galar Elite Four!

Despite my being from Galar, my first gym challenge was actually in Alola, on a school exchange trip. That's where I met my starter and eventually ace Pokémon, Rowlet, who is now a Decidueye. I've done gym challenges in Kalos, Galar and Alola but I've never beaten the elite four...

I don't really have a favourite Pokémon type! I like all different kinds of Pokémon, but if I HAD to pick... I think I like the most Fire types?

I'm very passionate about making sure my Pokémon are all comfortable and doing what THEY want to be doing rather than what I want. I use Pokeballs for registration and Pokémon Centre reasons, but I find that travelling with my Pokémon outside of their balls helps to form a greater bond! I've been obsessed with Pokemon since I was little, and I can't imagine doing anything else! I also like cooking and travelling though - the latter of which is why I tend to move on from regions rather quickly. Galar will always be home, though!

I'll mainly post random thoughts about my experiences and my Pokemon, and what we get up to!

I've had many teams throughout the years, who I all adore dearly, but there's a few who have stuck with me on many of my journeys.

Archer, my beloved Decidueye, who was handed to me as a Rowlet by Professor Kukui almost 6 years ago now. As a novice trainer working my way through a foreign region, he was my emotional (and sometimes physical) crutch, and I consider him my very best friend to this day. Archer is a very kind-hearted and gentle Pokemon and will take other Pokemon under his wing in times of need, but he can be rather arrogant sometimes! As an experienced, fully-evolved Pokemon, Archer gets a lot of attention and he basks in it. Little do they know, despite his appearance and noble pride, Archer is a big softy, and will often fall asleep nestled into my side. He wakes me up early on Saturday mornings demanding to watch cartoons. He likes to think he's some mystical serene being of mystery - he is not, he still gets chow on his beak when he eats.

Scorch, my Scorbunny, is by all accounts, my real first Pokemon. My dad gave him to me after the bullying at school got particularly bad. Scorch has never evolved - he doesn't seem to want to, and that's totally fine! He's got, unsurprisingly, a very fiery and passionate personality. He'll cheer anyone on when they're feeling down in the dumps, and is great with kids - but behind closed doors, Scorch is an absolute menace. He'll chew on the corners of tables, empty Pokeballs (how, I don't know), and never leave any vegetable lying around because he WILL immediately eat it. This includes vegetables that get him sick - that was an embarrassing trip to the Pokemon Center. "Hi yes my Scorbunny ate an entire onion while I was in the shower, please heal this little idiot". He's great company and a fantastic friend but he has the IQ of a rock (affectionate).

My Vaporeon is called Link, and I won't get into how he evolved for personal reasons, but he's what my mum would describe as an "old soul". I feel like, if he could talk, he'd be incredibly wise. He's very graceful and polite - he chews his food carefully and slowly (unlike somebody, Archer), and walks with a tremendous sense of purpose. When he was an Eevee, he always had my back on my Alolan journey, and he still does to this day! If I forget my wallet, he'll nudge my bag, and he seems to always know where the house keys are when I don't. I always joke that he might be part Espeon, with how much he seems to just know! In battle, Link is not to be messed with. Despite his appearance, he ended up being the tank of the team, taking hits like an absolute champ while I healed up other Pokemon, and his Water Gun wiped Olivia's entire team. An old lady on the train in Galar once commented "Ah, you've got yourself a wee protector there, haven't ye?" and I think that describes him perfectly.

I never understood the "bratty Pikachu line" stereotypes until I actually got one myself. My Raichu, Nariku, would demand I wait him on hand and foot if I could. I caught him as a Pichu during sunset in Alola, and he's been a right thorn in my side ever since. He seems to change what type of chow he likes on the daily, and will refuse to eat from anything except his own special bowl at home - which is inconvenient when we're travelling. He HATES baths and will shock you if you try to clean near his ears, and he spends at least 3 hours straight cleaning himself after a fight. He's a right brat, but dammit, he's MY brat! He likes to be close to me, and will demand cuddles and carries at any given opportunity. Given that he evolved into a Kanto Raichu and not an Alolan Raichu, I think it's unfortunately safe to say that he was either smuggled or abandoned, and I'm leaning towards the latter, given his response to certain stimuli. I'll pamper him all he wants to make up for what is probably a terrible past. He's very agile and hard-hitting in fights, and prefers to end things as quickly as possible - he isn't a fan of stat boosting moves.

I met my Lucario, Jackal, on a rainy day in Galar's wild area. He was on his own, so I asked him if he'd at least accompany me to a Pokemon Center so I could get him some help. Lucario are smart Pokemon, so he understood me. I have a soft spot for Lucario - my mum had one when I was little. He joined my team shortly after that, and he's been fiercely loyal to me ever since. He can border on overprotective sometimes - if Link is a gentle and calm protector, Jackal can border on overreaction sometimes. He takes battling and protecting me and his team VERY seriously, and will stay up late into the night training by himself. I often have to threaten him with time out in the Pokeball just to get him to go to sleep. He likes to carry the littler Pokemon around if they get tired walking. He sleeps at the foot of my bed with his head on my feet.

I have a very goofy Lycanroc named Fenris. Similarly to Archer, he comes off as this very proud and noble beast but throw a ball for him and he turns into your average Lillipup! He goes absolutely nuts for belly rubs and neck scratches. He's also responsible for 90% of my email spam. Because he's a rare Dusk Lycanroc, I keep getting offers from Pokemon modeling agencies for him to fly out to Unova or Kalos or wherever for a photoshoot. Problem is, travelling that far would require him to be in a Pokeball for at least some of the trip - and he HATES his Pokeball. Nowdays, the Great Ball I caught him in is covered in bite marks and scuffs from when we've used it as a normal ball. Fenris has lots of love to give, and is great at calming both people and Pokemon down.

[anyawritesthings]

How I Structure My Outline

Intro

Welcome to a deep dive into the mind of Anya. I am a religious plotter, as we all know, and I cannot start writing without a detailed outline. I have multiple sections, which include characters, plot, timelines, worldbuilding, and more, all on one google doc. I thought I'd share them with y'all today, and I hope you find this helpful!

Basic Plot

This is the first chunk of pages on my outline, and it's where I put the basics of my story. This includes:

A short plot blurb, the one that would go on the back of the book.

All the tropes I'm going to use

Subplots

Extra notes (This is my brain dump section where I put all the random notes or details that don't really fit into any of the other sections)

Theme

This one is organized into two parts:

Overall Theme (This is the overall message of the book, and it's what I want my readers to take away when they're done reading, shown through my main character)

Specific Themes (This section is for specific sub themes in the book, and they're shown through my side characters)

Characters

This is the section that takes up the biggest chunk of the outline, although not everything goes here. Since including everything about my characters would flood the google doc, I fill out all of my character files and questionares in a journal that I've dedicated specifically to my wip. On the outline doc, I just put the basics of my characters:

Overview: Who they are, their age, and their role in the story (main character, side character, love interest, antagonist, etc)

Internal Conflict: Desire, fear, misbelief

Arc, and Arc Related to Theme

Appearance

Personality (I also include their enneagram type, love language, and character voice)

Backstory

Worldbuilding

Here I include:

My map

Magic System

Law Enforcement

Kingdoms (includes the name of the kingdom, name of the monarchs, name of the capitol, overall climate, imports and exports, and general notes)

Rough Timeline

This is what I use when I'm still in the process of coming up with my plot and I'm not ready to use a plot structure yet. This section is just a bullet point list of all the major plot points in chronological order. All of the plot points that I come up with usually come to me randomly and out of order, so whenever I get a new idea, I just add it to a bullet point list and plug it into the timeline wherever it fits until I have everything I need from beginning to end.

Plot Structure

This is the last step before I start drafting! Once I have everything else I discussed in this outline filled out (characters, worldbuilding, timeline, etc), I can start filling out my plot structure. I usually use the Three Act Story Structure, but lately I've been exploring more options, like Save the Cat and The Hero's Journey. Usually I'll stick to one, but sometimes I'll do two or three just to get a bird's eye view of my story and see it from every angle, which might be overkill, but it works for me. Then, once I'm done with my plot structure(s), I'm ready to start writing my first draft!

Conclusion

I know it's a lot. Like I said, I'm a religious plotter, so what works for me might not work for you. Maybe you want to try out this process, or maybe you can take little bits and pieces of it and make your own, less rigid outline. Whatever the takeaway, I hope this was helpful, and happy writing!

[dogtoling]

What is a Special Weapon? (a speculation)

So let's get straight into the post. (LONG post under the cut)

A Special Weapon is: - the weapon itself: a powerful ink battling weapon manufactured and regulated specifically for this purpose (Bubble Blower, Sting Ray, Inkstrike, Inkzooka etc.) OR - a specialized attack or response treated as a special weapon (Kraken, Splashdown, Booyah Bomb etc.) - Supposedly uses the Inkling's own ink - debatable, but highly likely based on evidence

Before we can get deeper into the special weapon lore, we must look into what comes BEFORE a special weapon. That's the special gauge.

There are multiple ways to fill up a special gauge: - Inking turf - Having control over an objective in Ranked Battle - Being in an underdog situation in a match (Tenacity) - Equipping a Canned Special What happens when the special is then activated? The meter slowly depletes, and once it is fully drained, the special ends. In practice, what IS the special meter? Now, when looking at the meter objectively, it looks as if it's filled with ink. That alongside its function in powering Special Weapons, as well as draining like an actual Ink Tank, can give the impression that it is LITERALLY a secondary ink reserve the player is filling up. This is in order to then use all of that ink as ammo for the special. And this actually makes a lot of sense. well now it's time to open a whole new can of worms (or weapons i guess)

CANNED SPECIALS Canned specials are literally, well, canned specials that make an appearance in Splatoon's single player modes as well as the Battle Dojo from the first game.

(From the splash screen of the first game, we can see that they are approximately the size of an actual tuna can.) Upon obtaining a canned special, your special gauge immediately fills up and you gain the ability to use said special weapon, which heavily suggests that the special weapon itself is stored inside.... the tiny can. You know, stuff like a force field, or a 7ft ink cannon. Or a pressure washer that includes more ink than the volume of an Inkling. Yeah. Right. So this implies insane hammerspace technology if it IS to be taken at face value - although i find it odd that there's not a single official art or tidbit of lore that acknowledges that inklings in fact obtain their specials from tiny hammerspace tins. (Even sub weapons and their inner workings make a tiny appearance in official art. Specials are never elaborated on too much, unfortunately...)

As an alternative, there is the concept of the cans holding a specific amount of condensed ink enough to power any of the included specials that you could then pop inside the weapon. That is not at all how it's implied to work, but it's a cool alternate explanation that makes slightly more sense - and if we take some liberties and assume that the cans are a LIIITTLE bit bigger, we could even argue that the cans could be THE special gauge itself. Looking at the special gauge, it IS designed to be round, just like a tin. I don't recall what it was modeled after if anything, or if it's just a coincidence, but food for thought.

Oh yeah also here's a picture of a NORMAL main weapon can that you can get at Kamabo Co. They have one for like every weapon type as well as some bombs which implies that weapons are oftentimes stored inside cans (although these might be bigger cans). Either way, the ink tank idea might be down the drain considering the implications of this one.

Anyway, moving on. Hi guys! I brought you guys all the way through that wall of text... just to dunk on that literal ink tank theory and dump it in the trash because there is another theory that makes more sense on like every scale possible. I'm so sorry. (But I also really like the idea of the special gauge being a literal ink tank that you fill up, so I had to include it, because it's not like it doesn't hold a lot of ground.) I'll get straight to the point. The other theory is that the special gauge is only a hypothetical concept created for the sake of gameplay and balancing, and in reality, it is simply the buildup to what I'll refer to as the "special rush" state of an Inkling. It has no physical value, varies between Inklings, and has no ties to actual points at all. Observe these bits from the art books 1 and 2:

1. Some Inkzooka trivia. Although the entry refers to SPECIFICALLY this weapon, it is very likely that the same is true for all special weapons - or at least the ones that primarily use ink (so not necessarily things such as the Bubbler and Echolocator).

(Ignore the random lines. Those are my notes lol) This Baller entry tells us a LOT and i mean a LOT of what we needed to know. First of all, the Inklings' ink output breaks the laws of physics there is no way a single inkling has enough ink inside it to even fill THAT ball at least 4 times the volume of its body NOT TO MENTION producing enough ink to fill one SEVEN TIMES THAT SIZE anyway the important part is the one where it confirms that Inklings produce an abnormal amount of ink while they are using a special weapon. Because the Baller was specifically developed for the purpose of containing all the excess ink, there is a big implication that the ink is originating from the user itself, specifically in the moment of using a Special. Then why is this? Well now we get to the concept of the "special rush" that I mentioned before. It refers to this state that we see Inklings enter when their special gauge fills up:

Their tentacles will glow, bubble up as if boiling, and they will look as if caught in an epic dramatic action movie wind at all times. This is when they're able to use their Special.

I think it's safe to say that this is "a heightened emotional state". As opposed to for example the Kraken which could be a repurposed panic response (if you haven't seen my post about that, that exists too) the special rush is likely a similar all-out response, although caused by getting really in the zone of battle. So to put it simply, a POSITIVE chemical response, in which the Inkling's body starts pumping more ink through channeling one's fighting spirit and yadda yadda yadda.

To put it shortly here; this "rush" likely evolved as a response to intense territory disputes or even hunting. More ink means more defense AND more offensive power. In Turf Wars, reaching this rush means that Inklings can - and probably have to - channel this excess ink elsewhere, which in this case is into special weapons that quickly gobble up all of the excess ink (with part of it going in the ink tank).

A lot of the weapons second this excess ink theory by including a heightened coating of ink across the user's whole body (Ink Armor, Booyah Bomb, Splashdown) or even rounding up the excess ink that's built up into an offensive endeavor (Splashdown, Booyah Bomb, other specials utilize it as ammo). Once all the ink is used up, the Inkling's emotional state stabilizes and the cycle soon starts over again until they hit the high mark again. (For a second ignoring the fact that it is physically impossible for them to produce this much ink. I guess I'm not ignoring it since I'm drawing attention to it here but it bothers me so much. My work is never done lol) So I guess this theory makes sense, but why is it inherently BETTER than the "special gauge is an ink reserve" one? Let's see the arguments for the ink tank version: 1. The Special Gauge is literally filled up with ink as the game is played. This is potentially something that happens as the weapon is shot, and some of the ink is channeled into the special gauge instead.

> It doesn't make much sense for this to be the case. The ink is being SHOT OUT, not stored; at least not stored anywhere visible and although you really have to have room for imagination when trying to draw logic for this game, i would really assume the developers would include a physical indicator of the gauge if it was meant to be literal.

2. There is potential for the Canned Specials to BE the gauge itself, as something that attaches or "fuels" the special. The gauge could be designed the way it is to reflect this.

> The canned specials are a weirdly inconsistent thing in the world of Splatoon, appearing ONLY as insta-fills in single player campaigns and the Splatoon 1 battle dojo. True, there are some on the player's desk in the splash screen of the first game, but we also don't know if those are for Turf War, or the dojo, or from Hero Mode. There's not even any for sale at Ammo Knights, whereas entire special weapons outside of cans very much are. Even if the special gauge isn't a can, it also doesn't mean that a can as an ink tank can't essentially serve the same purpose of providing the ink needed for a special. 3. The gauge fills up with a very distinct ink graphic, so it could literally mean it's ink!

> This one is true! But taking into consideration one thing; as a hypothetical gauge, the connection with ink is STILL there, as by the time the gauge is finished, the Inkling is basically overflowing with excess Ink. So rather than an external tank being filled with ink, the player itself is. 4. The gauge fills, then it's full, and it slowly depletes as a special is used. Basically the perfect flow; and a perfect reasoning for where all the ink comes from, and WHY you need to fill up the gauge to be able to use a special.

> This same reasoning still makes complete sense for the hypothetical gauge. The graphic goes up to indicate how close the Inkling is getting to the rush state, clearly shows when they are IN the rush state, and then the state slowly wears off as the ink is used. Where the ink comes from is directly explained in canon at this point; an Inkling in its special weapon state emits a crazy amount of ink - according to what the art book shows, more than like 10 times the volume of the inkling itself. Which makes zero sense whatsoever but, well, it does explain where the ink comes from. 5. The special meter being hypothetical wouldn't be good because it wouldn't be consistent at all. Some people surely get way more pumped WAY faster and use way more specials than others! No balance!

> The special meters aren't consistent to begin with, even in the game. People who stack Special Charge Up will sometimes use a special upwards of five times per 3-minute-game. People who get splatted a lot may literally never get to use a special once. Just like people's personalities in real life, the rates at which different Inklings would "charge up" can vary by a mile. And furthermore...

We see examples of the "special rush" outside of the gameplay!

Pearl, in the ending of Octo Expansion, enters a special rush mode seemingly out of nowhere (though you could also maybe say she might have used a canned special) after getting pumped to literally save the world. So does Agent 3; DOZENS OF TIMES, in both iterations of battles against them. They use a bunch of special weapons completely out of left field, take way more hits than the player and continuously use Splashdowns. This is because they're continuously triggering their Rush in the midst of intense combat, and especially under mind control, during which most of what they probably have is survival instinct, which means drastically raised ink production upping both offensive and defensive capabilities. But wait, there's actually even more that supports the theory of the special gauge referring to a buildup to a rush state: - Tenacity as an ability. This ability makes it so that your special gauge will automatically fill itself up if your team has fewer players on the field than the enemy team. This ability makes very little sense in the situation that the special gauge is literally an ink tank, as you're not actually shooting ink at all for it to fill up. However, as an emotional thing, a player that is also an underdog is SURE to be really giving their all in the competition and thus building up their rush faster. - Your special gauge supposedly fills up passively while your team has control of the objective in Ranked (I literally didn't know this because I barely play ranked ever). Again, this has nothing to do with actual inking. But what it DOES have to do with is potentially winning the game, and that totally gets you pumped. - Again, the inconsistencies in a special gauge. If it was an ink tank, you would assume the amount of ink needed for each special weapon was a very specific amount. Instead, players fill their special gauge at different rates, and getting splatted cuts down the gauge... again, depending on your abilities. Losing ink from a pre-filled ink tank that is being specifically saved up for a weapon doesn't really make sense as one gets splatted, but getting demoralized and frustrated when getting splatted makes a whole lot of sense, which would also set you back in reaching your special rush.

In conclusion: The Special Gauge is a hypothetical meter that exists for gameplay purposes; in practice, it only conveys how close or far a player is to their "special rush" state, in which their senses and emotions are heightened and their ink production is greatly increased due to a surge in fighting spirit.

1. When a battle starts, no one has their rush going on because everyone is only just warming up. Different people with different objectives and personalities may get their rush very quickly, very slowly, very frequently or only once. You get the picture.

2. As players find themselves doing intense physical activities, participating in tense combat and so on, they build up towards their rush state (likely building up endorphins, dopamine and adrenaline or the like), which increases the body's ink production. It is likely that contact with ink also naturally increases one's ink production.

3. When players hit this rush state and the "special meter" is filled, they can channel all the excess ink into a special weapon. Once the ink is used up, the rush subsides into a less intense emotional state, until the cycle may start again soon after.

Well, there's my thoughts on specials and mostly the special gauge and what it means. Thanks for reading yet another one of these essays.

[solarsa]

Just you watch

Sehun scenario

Genre: Random, little bit of fluff

Words: 951 words

About: Sehun attends barista 'masterclass' with his other members to get back at his ex girlfriend. But he forgot to check who was teaching the classes.

Don't copy this or use it in any way without my permission. This is my work. Thank you~

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Minseok asked him.

"Yes, hyung. I have to show her that I'm a better barista than she is." Sehun replied.

You see... Sehun signed himself and his hyungs up for barista classes. Why you ask? Because his ex-girlfriend was a great barista. And as he didn't want to lose to her, he decided that he will be even better than she is.

"We can still turn around and go, you know?" Jongdae said with a smirk.

"I'm not giving up yet, hyung."

To that Jongdae laughed and decided to go with it. He was never the type to miss the opportunity to learn something new.

All members walked into the room full of tables and equipment to make coffee. And waited for their instructor to come. However when it seemed that the said instructor is 10 minutes late, you could see the disappointment on other people's faces.

"Maybe there won't be any class today. And I was so excited for it too." Jongin whined.

But at that moment a woman ran inside the room. At first members didn't see her face very clearly, but when they did they almost burst out laughing. Everyone but Sehun.

'Nooooooooooooooooooooo!' Sehun internally screamed in his head. And as if his members could read his thoughts they started laughing.

"Everyone! I'm sorry that I'm late but now we can start our lesson." Sehun's ex-girlfriend said.

"Today we have new people joining us so I decided to do something a little bit different. And that's manual brewing." His ex looked at everyone and smiled. Her gaze stopping for a moment on Sehun and his members. "Now I could teach you how to brew Latte, Ristretto or a normal Espresso but I think that we all should give manual brewing a try."

Exo members looked at each other as if asking if they're able to do that. But after a few exchanged words they decided that it's worth a try. But Sehun is still too shocked to communicate with his hyungs.

"Now before you start to ask me why should we try it and give me excuses why you don't want to do that for example that you can't afford the equipment for it, listen to me." She smiled at everyone reassuringly.

"The truth is, the equipment needed for manual brewing is so minimal at the entry level that you probably have almost everything you need at home already." She said.

"That's nice but how do we do it?" Baekhyun asked.

She looked at him and giggled. "Don't worry Mr. Byun. I will get to it very soon."

"As you see on the tables before you there is all the equipment you need for manual brewing. Like a tea kettle, ground coffee, mug, filter cone and manual brewer." She paused for a while and took a breath. "Let's start!"

She started walking around the room and saying the instructions while helping anybody who needed help or didn't do something right.

"First! Boil water in your kettle and let it cool for 30 seconds or so. You want the water to be just under boiling temperatures when you start brewing."

Well... Sehun of all of them had some difficulty with the first instruction. And he hoped that she wouldn't notice. After all he wanted to be a good barista.

But like always fate had different plans. When she walked to his table and noticed that his water was not under boiling temperature but indeed boiling.

"Do you know how boiling water looks, Mr. Oh?"

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I know?"

"Well... This is how boiling water looks."

"Oh, no." Sehun said with a shocked expression.

"Oh, yes. Start again." She smiled sweetly at him and went to help other people.

"Now that everyone has it right. Place the filter cone on top of the mug with a paper filter in it. But don’t put the coffee in the filter just yet."

This instruction was easy for every Exo member as this was the easiest one to do. So far members liked it and Sehun started to like it too. Even though his ex was the instructor.

"Pour a little bit of water through the filter to rinse it and preheat the mug. Seems easy, right?" After she walked around for a while, she sat down in front of the room and prepared herself to say the next instruction. "Dump the water out of the mug and place the coffee grounds into the filter. If this is your first attempt, I recommend using 2 Tablespoons of ground coffee for 6 fluid ounces of coffee."

She walked around to look if anyone messed up. And when nobody did she smiled proudly.

"Next! Slowly pour water over the grounds until they are wet. Pause for about thirty seconds before continuing. This is called the bloom."

"And last one, pour the rest of your water slowly - about the same speed coffee is exiting the bottom of the filter cone- over the grounds until you reach the desired coffee volume."

When Exo members were done they immediately tasted their coffees only to taste a very good coffees that they have made.

"Congratulations on finishing this lesson. Enjoy your handmade coffee and we will see each other next time."

Everyone slowly went home as they finished drinking their coffee. Only Sehun was between the last ones to finish their coffee.

She confidently approached him and stopped before him. To say the least he was surprised. She put a small paper on his table and walked out of the room. Sehun took the paper in his hand and read it.

'Meet me later at XX.'

What Can You Request? / Request! /Masterlist