#1.13: sentencing

[roseredfingers]

1.01: THE TARGET || 1.13: SENTENCING

[graveyard-party666]

BLOOD & WINE

Fears and thoughts

This chapter is pretty short, next one might be a bit bigger. I already have 3 other chapters ready but i thought I'll wait before posting.

I'm like one of those AO3 writers that disappear for some time and then come back with the craziest explanations. I have one too, but it's too much to explain. But I'm back. Working on a few other projects. A few demos are ready. Maybe even full cover will come out soon, who knows...

P. S. Yes, I'm still in my Schmalgauzen era, bless their souls.

Red is scared. Red is terrified even. Who wouldn't be in her place, when a big masked soldier follows you in a dimly lit military base? She knows she just needs to go see Captain Price, give him a few profiles she made, and leave, go home, drink some tea, cry a bit, eat something, cry a bit more.

Ghost is an enigma. He is a mystery in every meaning of the word. He doesn't speak much; he's just... there. He roams through the corridors of the base as he pleases, doing his thing. Not that Red knows what exactly Ghost is doing. And now they're going the same direction, probably to Price's office.

The woman was okay with interacting with Soap and Gaz. They are really sweet. They don't make it a challenge to talk to them nor do they make her walk on eggshells, afraid to say something that wasn't supposed to be said. Ghost, on the other hand...

He is a challenge. Red knew it from the beginning. He's not mean nor is he disrespectful in any way, no. Quite the opposite actually. Even his mask seems cool to Red. He is a responsible lieutenant, doesn't roll his eyes at Red when she gets lost on the base and asks him for help. He is reserved and closed off but never disrespectful. That's what makes it a challenge. A personal challenge.

Red is absolutely terrified. Soap has already joked that Lieutenant Ghost is too kind to the new psychologist.

"Why? You have a soft spot for civilian women? Maybe even for redheaded psychologists?" Soap's unbothered smile is still present on his handsome face, winking at the confused psychologist who now tries to blend in with the environment.

"If you were a newbie and a civvie woman at that, I would treat you the same," barked back Ghost, rolling his eyes. His accent is strong. Red feels like she isn't supposed to be here in the same room, listening to the soldiers' banter.

"I have a soft spot for people who don't bother me and are respectful," sighed Ghost, looking straight at Soap.

"Oh, so our lass here..." Soap started enthusiastically only to be cut off by Lieutenant.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, MacTavish."

Soap only chuckled, shaking his head, not leaving the idea of being a bit of a wingman for his best friend.

So yes, Red is terrified. She and Ghost are both going to the Captain's office. He follows her not too far away from her, and she feels the whole awkwardness of the situation. When you want to know your colleague but don't know how to start the conversation. She feels stupid right now. Why is she afraid if he never was mean to her?

She looks behind where he is following; their eyes meet. The man probably was thinking the same question as her: are they both heading to Price?

"You are going to Captain?" Red asks the masked British soldier softly, not wanting to scare him away. Which is funny in a way because it is him who could scare her and a few others away.

"Yes, last report for today." his answer is short but not in a 'please, shut up, I don't want to talk to you' way.

"Isn't it a bit too much paperwork for soldiers on active duty?" The girl waits for the man to catch up with her.

"You get it, Red. Governments? Not so much." The answer came out oddly soft for the reserved lieutenant. "We need to fight the most dangerous terrorists on earth and then come back to base and write a bunch of reports. Well, me at least. Captain still has it worse."

Red chuckled, remembering seeing Captain with a big glass of whiskey outside working hours trying to fill all the needed reports.

"You are still the coolest soldiers, you know that, Ghost?"

Ghost's eyes met hers again. The small wrinkles around his eyes tell her enough about the fact that the masked man is smiling too right now. Well, isn't that a big win?

"You and your compliments..." Ghost chuckles, elbowing the girl slightly.

Red is terrified. But also really happy.

Tag list: @cloudofbutterflies92 @chloekistune @justasmolbard

[honeyjars-sims]

1.13 My Rights vs. Yours

[Bonnie and Trinity are in the living room of their apartment]

Bonnie: Hey, Trin. Texting Demarcus again? Trinity: Yeah, I think he likes me. Or at least I told him he did.

Bonnie: Um, ok. You sure remind me of myself at your age, obsessed with boys and feisty as can be. I just hope you're this assertive when you get older. Trinity: Don't worry mom, any boy that messes with me will live to regret it.

Bonnie: [laughs] That's good to know! Look, baby, there's something I need to tell you. Trinity: What is it?

Bonnie: Well, your dad is being released from prison early for good behavior. I can't believe he's getting out so soon when they already gave him such a light sentence. He'll be on parole, but he wants to reconnect with you. Trinity: Can he even do that?

Bonnie: Well, it depends on what the judge says, baby. My lawyer thinks he may be able to get supervised visits since courts usually try to keep families together. Trinity: What do you mean by supervised?

Bonnie: It means you'll only see him for short periods of time, and someone trustworthy will be there watching. How do you feel about that? Trinity: I don't know...I know he was mean to Johnny, but I just remember him being nice to me. And I do miss him sometimes.

Bonnie: Well, I promise I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I'm not letting anyone hurt my kids again. Trinity: I know, mom. I'm not too worried.

Bonnie: I just hope for your sake he really has changed.

Previous | Beginning of story | Beginning of chapter | Next

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.13 (before 1940)

27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I. 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV. 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England. 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome. 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths. 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California. 1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island. 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs. 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting. 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory. 1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair. 1900 – To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces. 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people. 1915 – The 6.7 Mw  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610. 1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history. 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to no more being a "region occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France". 1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

[hopefulpenguincreator]

2024.04.21 — Hour +2hr 35 min 🇸🇪 CBS 1.13 Speech prompt (go over one more sentence then speak)

2024.04.23 — Hour +45 min 🇸🇪 re-listened/practiced, and then used speech prompt to create recording [Language_Swedish_2024 > Movie on 4-23-24 at 5.46 PM.mov]

Hey, do you have any free tables?

Unfortunately, we are are full, but we have a free table in half an hour. Do you want to wait at the bar?

Yes, gladly.

Do you (both) want something to drink?

A glass of white wine, please.

I will have a glass of red wine, please. Could (polite) we see the menu?

I am very hungry!

Are you (both) ready to order?

No, we need a little more time.

What do you recommend? Do you have any Swedish specialties?

The meatballs with mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, and cream sauce are delicious! And the salmon with dill creamed potatoes are popular.

I like fish. I want to have the salmon.

I don't eat fish or shellfish. I want to have the meatballs. Could I get (polite) them without cream sauce? I am allergic to/against lactose.

"That goes good./It's alright." Any appetizers?

No, thanks

Bon appetite.

Thanks.

Thanks so much.

Did it taste good?

Yes, it was delicious!

Anything else? Coffee or dessert?

Two coffees, please. And a kladkaka. Are there nuts in the cookie? I am allergic to nuts.

No, they aren't in it.

Could we get the bill?

Of course, it's coming in a minute.

Card or cash?

Card.

Are you splitting the bill?

No, I am treating you.

Oh, thanks so much. I'll treat you next time.

Thanks so much, see you again/welcome back.

[theothin]

Narrative Brilliance Behind Lumity

Lumity existing at all - on a Disney show! - is already a Big Fucking Deal. But I want to take a look at exactly why it works so well, because Dana and her team are fucking geniuses.

[1.03] I Was a Teenage Abomination + [1.05] Covention

In her first episode, Amity gets introduced in a classic archetype - the bully who gets knocked down a peg. When she returns in Covention, she tries to play that same role again, but ends up making a connection with Luz at the end. She downplays it, but it’s easy to tell that her decision to free Luz from the oath makes for a big turning point. The end of her brief antagonistic role, and the start of a bond that feels all the more meaningful because of the effort and vulnerability it takes from both of them.

[1.07] Lost in Language

When Luz and Amity meet up again, Luz tries to befriend Amity through her siblings, which... does not go well, at least at first. Amity accuses Luz of being a bully, but they end up working together for the first time, and they both see new sides of each other.

So far, pretty standard rivalry-turned-friendship fare. What’s notable, however, is how fast it’s moving. There’s no stagnation, they’re visibly growing closer every time they interact.

[1.12] Adventures in the Elements

Amity takes a while to show up again. She reappears in Adventures in the Elements, and things start getting a lot more interesting before she's even on-screen.

Luz starts the episode talking excitedly about what she’s looking forward to at Hexside: “I’ve got a new crush, and her name is education!” The sentence takes just long enough to let the viewer wonder - is Luz talking about a crush on another girl? A girl at Hexside? It wouldn’t be Willow, since her friendship with Luz has stabilized by now, and they have an easy enough time meeting up already. So instead, it brings to mind the girl Luz has been actively trying to build new bridges with - Amity.

It turns out Luz wasn’t actually talking about a person at all. But for anyone who’d tried to guess Luz’s crush and come to the cleanest answer, it’s enough to suggest another perspective on Luz and Amity’s relationship, and to wonder if there was a reason Luz portrayed her interest in learning as a crush on another girl.

When Amity does appear, she backs up this reading. For the first time, she starts an episode being friendly towards Luz, while Luz goes through a second round of poorly thought-out schemes to try to get closer to her. Once again, they work together to sort things out, and Eda comments at the end of the episode about their banter being adorable.

At this point, there’s some notable implications, but nothing concrete. Not yet, at least.

[1.13] The First Day

One episode later, everything changes again. Luz and Amity’s direct interactions are about the same as in the previous episode, but...

Amity: “So, you two go to the same school now. That doesn’t change anything.”

Luz doesn’t seem to pick up on what this means, but it’s a big, flashing, rainbow signal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fictional character talk this way about someone they didn’t have a crush on.

At this point, Amity starts being the one to show more overt interest, but it’s backed up by Luz having showed interest first. Also Luz ends the episode by getting a rainbow uniform, for good measure.

The previous episode raised the question of if TOH was a show that would depict queer characters. This one answers it with a resounding yes, and changes the question to - exactly how queer is it going to get?

[1.15] Understanding Willow

With all that on the table, Luz and Amity meet back up properly in Understanding Willow. For the third time, the two of them team up for a magic adventure, but this time they set off on it together, rather than only joining forces once they have to. This time, it’s Amity’s fault rather than Luz’s, and she has to grapple with her mistreatment of Willow as well as accepting the vulnerability of showing Luz memories she’d rather hide.

Ultimately, Amity acknowledges what she did wrong and pledges to do better for Willow. Willow accepts the gesture, and the two of them start re-building their connection. This is important for both Willow and Amity, and also important for making it so that Luz continuing to get closer to Amity doesn’t undermine her friendship with Willow.

This episode also introduces Willow’s two dads, and shows Amity blushing at Luz. The show is getting increasingly visibly queer, which sets the stage perfectly for...

[1.16] Enchanting Grom Fright

Luz shows up to Prom - er, Grom - in an incredibly queer outfit, and tries to fight the monster in Amity’s place. When Amity has to jump back in to help, Luz finds out that Amity had wanted to ask someone out but was afraid of being rejected, offers to be her date instead, and the two of them fight the monster while dancing. They’re no longer at the event and they could have fought just fine without dancing, they just wanted to do it.

At the end, Amity’s note becomes visible, and we see that the person she’d wanted to ask was, of course, Luz. Between the buildup in the previous episodes and the “pretend date” in this one, that was the only answer that would make any sense. Still, having it stated outright like this was huge.

It’s at this point that Dana started publicly talking about TOH being queer, and about how she’d wanted to make a point of making characters like herself.

[1.17] Wing It Like Witches

Fans commented before the episode aired that “Wing It Like Witches” shortens to “WLW” - and based on the episode’s content, that sure seems to have been intentional. Luz hasn’t picked up on Amity’s interest in her yet, but throughout the episode, Amity keeps getting flustered from her interactions with Luz.

Amity: “Me? On a team with you? Running around in cute uniforms? Sweating?”

This episode functions as a buffer of sorts. With the previous episode spelling out the situation of Amity crushing on an oblivious Luz, we get to see things simmer for a bit before developing further.

This is the point where Disney itself started referring to Luz as bisexual. Like Amity’s note, it logically followed from the setup - she showed interest in Nevareth back in 1.02, and there was every reason to expect her to reciprocate Amity’s feelings - but confirmation is still a big deal, especially from The Evil Mouse itself.

[2.02] Escaping Expulsion

After showing up several times in a row throughout the school arc, Amity takes a backseat for a bit while Luz takes on the Emperor’s Coven directly. Which is interesting in its own right, suggesting they’re saving that particular confrontation for a bigger climax, but I’m here to talk about Lumity.

When Amity returns to the story, her parents finally make a proper appearance, and they try to murder Luz to keep her out of the way. Amity, of course, isn’t having it.

Amity: “Get away from my Luz!”

In addition to Amity standing up for Luz (as well as Willow and Gus) in a bigger way than ever, Luz starts reciprocating Amity’s blushes, making the clearest confirmation yet that she reciprocates Amity’s feelings as well.

[2.05] Through the Looking Glass Ruins

At this point, Luz’s interest in Amity is becoming obvious enough in-universe that Gus, as well as Amity’s siblings, all point out the implications of her visits to the library.

Luz: “Hey, Ed. Hey, Em. Picking up Amity?”

Emira: “Nah, looks like you got that covered.”

The exchange with Ed and Em also sets up another neat little narrative trick. Edric brings up the topic of his upcoming date without specifying the date’s gender - with Luz and Amity already in focus, the viewers are primed to wonder, rather than making the assumptions that might apply to other shows. This makes it easier to catch when Emira refers to Edric’s date as “they”. It’s important to lead viewers to a mindset that will help them pick up on signals, and that’s something TOH does masterfully both here and with Lumity in general.

Once they meet up, Amity helps Luz sneak into the restricted section of the library, and they end up basically planning a date to the human realm. They get caught and Amity gets fired, leading to Luz going on her own mini-quest to get Amity forgiven for it. Completely offscreen, because at this point her skill at those quests is plenty well established.

Meanwhile, Amity changes her hair from the way her parents demanded - a classic way to change a character’s appearance to illustrate development. When Luz returns, successful, Amity gets up the courage to kiss her! And then freaks out and runs away while Luz collapses in a queer daze.

[2.06] Hunting Palisman + [2.08] Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door

It’s all set up. Luz and Amity’s feelings for each other are obvious in and out of universe, they’re both still too nervous to believe the other one is interested but after that kiss, they should be able to sort things out the next time they meet up. Easy sailing to the finish line, right?

Enter... the challenger. In Hunting Palisman, Amity stays home, and Luz comes face to face with her new rival. He’s a jerk “prodigy” who’s associated with the Emperor’s Coven and faced off against Luz once before, but this time they get tangled up in a mess and have to work together to escape. The two of them start to build a complicated connection, get a scene that teases the idea of a kiss, he turns out to be the same age as Luz and to be getting pushed around by an abusive family member. Seems weirdly familiar, somehow.

The idea of the show actually going in that direction is, of course, ridiculous. Luz/Hunter doesn’t have the narrative weight to compete with Lumity - it’s only caught up to around Lost in Language, while Lumity has far more substance by now. Regardless, making a show of competition - even one clearly meant to lose - makes the conclusion that much sweeter, by making it harder to take it for granted. It also serves as a nice little reminder of Luz being bisexual.

[Edit: There’s plenty more to Hunter than this, of course. For this post, I’m focusing specifically on the brief ship-teasing.]

That brings us to Hooty’s episode. (I also want to point out Raine and their relationship with Eda being another example of queerness in TOH that’s fucking revolutionary in its own right, but that’s a separate topic so I’ll leave it there.)

Luz: “You’re scaring the echo mouse! And if he’s not happy, I’ll never make my way into Amity’s heart.”

Luz starts the episode by (accidentally) talking about her crush on Amity, and also revealing that she thinks Amity reciprocating would be conditional. The line comes up again later in the episode, just to make sure the viewer remembers it.

Amity’s interest in Luz is clearly not conditional. They’ve both made up their minds and the viewers know it, even though neither of them is convinced. But Luz doesn’t believe that - her previous encounter with Amity probably didn’t help - and that’s what drives her freak-out over the “Tunnel of Love” Hooty creates for them.

Luz thinks she has to ask Amity out the right way, which leads her to destroy the tunnel and accidentally make Amity think she isn’t interested. It’s another wrench in the progression, and there are stories where that might really set things back. But TOH isn’t one of them. It’s proved to consistently resolve these kinds of shenanigans within the episode where they start, including the conflicts Luz and Amity have run into at times.

At the end of the episode, Eda tells Luz to not worry about getting it perfect and just go for it. Which is quite good advice, especially for someone you already know well. If they’ve already formed a clear impression of you, they probably know enough about whether or not they’d want to date you that how you ask isn’t gonna matter much.

Luz asks Amity out, she agrees, and as Hooty says, it’s adorable. We see them hanging out and studying the echo mouse together afterward, and Hooty refers to Amity as Luz’s GF, which - honestly, with how it still seems to be a thing for straight girls to say “girlfriend” to refer to girls they’re friends with, “GF” might be a more clear term.

And that brings us to the present. We’re just 27 episodes into a 46-episode show, and with all the skill Dana and her team have shown so far, I’m sure all the main characters are in for a bunch more excitement by the time we hit the finale. TOH has been blowing me away so far, and I can’t wait to see what else it has in store.

[eschercaine]

What Could’ve Been?

Arthur becomes King of Camelot after Uther’s death. He marries Morgana, not just for love, but to also establish peace in the kingdom by uniting the magical community and the non-magic people.

He was sure that Morgana was the right person for the kingdom. Politically speaking, she would be a powerful ally to make. She could help him return magic to Camelot. Arthur felt that it wasn’t right for people like Merlin and Morgana to feel shame and fear about what they were.

“Morgana... with you by my side, we can do anything.”

Merlin season 2, 3, 4, and 5 does not exist to me. Sorry. This is a Merlin AU. Let’s just say that after the events of 1.13. Le Morte d’Arthur, Morgana confess her feelings and her secret to Arthur after recovering from his injuries. Instead of sentencing them to death, he accepted them and promised to return magic to Camelot when he becomes king. Also, they’re NOT siblings here.

[natscbi]

25.08.22

TTMIK lessons 1.13 & 1.14 ✅

codeacademy python lesson review ✳️

workout ✳️

research course options for uni next year ✅

definitely feeling like i’m progressing in Korean, starting to form sentences and understand how verbs are used more! which is nice.

python got ignored for a while (lbr i’m never going to be obsessed with coding) but i’m determined to move forwards with it so let’s go

I also ordered textbooks for next year, going back to uni is scary but ik i will love it again as soon as i get back

i got a new habit tracking app which seems good so far, i finally found one that lets you make more than 3 without paying lmaoo fuck that

edit since i keep forgetting i stick music on the end of my posts smh

🎵 Bad Friend - Rina Sawayama

[hangingslothcentral]

Here’s what writing an episode of Spirit Box Radio looks like...

If you’ve ever wondered how episodes of Spirit Box Radio are written, here’s a little overview of that process!! If you like this, I can also write up a similar breakdown of the sound design process!

Most, but not all, episodes are born in the ‘Episodes’ section of the Show Bible. The Show Bible is a document of epic proportions - 50k in length and growing every day - which contains all the essential information about the show, from the continuously evolving methods I use to edit different character voices as I learn more and more about audio editing and production, right to ‘sketches’ of the episodes for all three series of the show. There is also a large section called ‘Ideas and Notes’, where I’ll write freeform dialogue between characters and keep track of themes and ideas to try and keep them consistent. These are all numbered, and referenced in a seperate spreadsheet I have of all the characters with significant and/or speaking roles in the show.

The full break down is under the cut!!!

The grandaddy of the the plans in the Show Outline, where I go over all of the main ideas I want to be talking about in the show and roughly mark out the outline of the shape of each season. The first draft of the Show Outline was very messy and rough, but subsequent versions are broken down into Season-by-Season chunks, all talking from a multi-series perspective so as to place the ideas of the show along a three-series-long arc.

Season Outline

Season Outlines take those ideas for the shapes of the series from the Show Outline and refine them further from a beginning-to-end-perspective. I'm a goal-oriented writer, which means my story ideas tend to come from a very ‘the end’ kind of place, and the stories that lead up to that ending are all about serving that ending. Quite often the ending itself changes a long over the planning and writing process for me, but that’s the great thing about a plan! Once you have it, you can change it if you need to. What a plan does, however, is provide you with a framework for understanding what bits of a story you have, and what bits you still need to make.

The three seasons of Spirit Box Radio are quite deliberately split into two halves. There are lots of reasons why and one of them is that it gives you a very specific kind of shape to be working from. A season with a mid-season break has a part one which has it’s own escalation of tension and climax, which comes at the mid-point of the season-long escalation, where the story might otherwise sag a little.

Beyond splitting the plan into Parts 1 & 2, I typically also break episodes into ‘Blocks’. This is partly practical; I can refer in conversations with my guest writers to where it falls in a specific block of episodes, and where that block fits in the story as a whole, and it also makes splitting up the episodes for sending out scripts to my actors a lot more straight forward. Part 1 of Season 1, for example, was broken into three blocks; episodes 1.1-1.7; 1.8-1.13; 1.14-1.20. I won’t go into detail about how this effects the structure of the episodes themselves, but it’s usually about building characters up to making a certain decision, or following a certain subplot more closely before pulling away.

Episode Sketch

A ‘sketch’ is a very brief summary of what needs to happen in that specific episode. This can be concrete, like ‘find [x] item’, or vague, like ‘establish that Character A has Trait Y’. Sometimes I’ll make a note to include a specific sound or character beat, or I’ll reference a noted scene from the ‘Ideas and Notes’ i think would fit in there. It’s usually at the sketch summary stage that I figure out whether or not there will be other characters in a specific episode. The sketches for almost all of the episodes in Season One were written between August and October 2020.

Episode Plan

This stage takes those necessary elements from the sketch and fleshes them out into a coherent story. The key thing about podcast episodes is that they have to be able to be entertaining on their own, minute by minute, as well as serving the whole series (I talked a lot more about this in the last episode of Hanging with the Sloths on Patreon which is only £2/equivalent pcm to access if you’re interested!!)

Whilst I’m making my episode plan, I’ll look back at the sketches for the episode I’m working on and those before and after it, and refer to the series outline where I can, to make sure I’m keeping a handle not just on the individual pacing of the episode, but the pacing of the show overall.

I like to have Episode Plans done by about a month before I need to have a script finished.

The Script Itself

Spirit Box Radio scripts are either agonising or happen in the blink of an eye. I do not have a set approach to how I write an episode. Sometimes the plans come with sections of dialogue written months before and I’ll drape the rest of the episode around those moments and see where I end up. If there is a character other than Sam in an episode, I’ll typically attempt to write that section of the script before the rest, so that I’ll definitely have it locked by the time I need to send it to the actors. 

Any script that is for other actors (i.e. not me) has to have notes, direction, and additional information included to help the actors give their best performance. That’s difficult sometimes because I guard my show secrets closely, so it’s often a game of working out how much I can tell an actor without including spoilers for later important plot points unless absolutely necessary, and how to supplement gaps in their information. I’ll usually compare a character to a character from something else as a shorthand for performance.

This means there are two versions of every script which needs to be seen by people who aren’t me. My scripts, which I call the master scripts, have all my audio cues, breaks for drinking water in recording sessions, character notes that are Top Secret, sound scaping ideas, specific sounds I’ll need to use at different moments, and specific audio cues. As I get better at sound design, my version of the script only gets messier and messier to look at. Sometimes, when I’m writing scripts, I’ll actually even start with sound design notes now!!

Script Locking

This is the point at which a script can no longer be changed. Scripts with other characters in them have to be locked before scripts for just Sam, because they need to go out to actors and I need to ensure that I have time to go back and ask them to redo things if necessary, and also to make sure they have proper time to rehearse and organise read-throughs as they’d like to. That means sometimes sections of an episode are locked way before other sections are even written. This can be challenging as a writer because sometimes I’ll come back to a section which I know still needs work, and find I’m extremely limited in what I can do because I’ve already sent an actor a script to record from - sometimes for later episodes, I’ll have the lines from otheres already recorded and ready to go before I finalise some of Sam’s lines for a specific episode.

Sam is recorded a minimum of three weeks before an episode is due to air, and I’ll record in 3-episode stints, usually. I like to have the scripts locked a week before I record so I have time to read them through at my own pace, but sometimes I won’t manage to have them locked until three days out. On one hateful occasion, I threw out an entire script after I’d recorded an episode and re-recorded the whole thing the day before airing. I do not recommend doing this and whilst I am much happier with the result it was an agonising experience because once I’d rewritten and re-recorded that episode I then had to edit it before it was due for release, a process which takes about six hours minimum. I was making tweaks until 20 minutes before the episode went live. Do not recommend.

Editing

Speaking of editing, the final stage of writing an episode actually happens in the cutting room. Sometimes episodes are simply Too Long. Sometimes stuff that worked on paper just don’t work in audio. Sometimes I can’t say a word correctly for the life of me and have to cut a whole sentence to cover it over. More rarely, but still often enough an occurence it bears mentioning, I’ll realise in the editing process that a conversation is better in a different order than the one given in the script, and pull and move around the dialogue to adjust the flow. Sometimes I’ll move sections about a bit to accomodate similar problems with narrative flow.

Annnnd that’s it! That’s what the process looks like!

[roseredfingers]

[museswithinx]

“I hate seeing you in pain.” { Sid for Sam bc big sis/little bro things }

SENTENCE MEME ⟶ LEGACIES / 1.12 –– 1.13

Getting home from work, Sam went straight up to his room without so much as a word to anyone. His mom’s whole heart hadn’t been in that talk, he could tell when she’d sat down with him yesterday. It was a different story with Sawyer’s dad. He was against him from the very start, he suspected that wouldn’t change even when she did turn 16. Knowing that only made his heart hurt more because he loved her more than anything.

When he didn’t go downstairs for dinner, Sid came up with a plate at some point to check on him. “I said I’m not hungry,” he mutters tiredly as he stares unwatching at his TV screen. Sid apparently took that as invite to sit down with him.

“I hate seeing you in pain.”

“Then you should really take it up with fucking Quinn,” he snaps though the anger behind it wasn’t directed at her. Sam never had a particularly good hold on his temper but since dying, it was somehow even worse now. “He doesn’t fucking get it. Doesn’t care to because he’s not the one who got his skull bashed in with a rock. What’s a few months? He says.” Sam snorts as if it were some private joke but it was missing the comedy part. “It’s easy to say shit like that when he got to come home to the love of his life. He got his happily ever after and I almost missed out on mine with Sawyer because of a stupid fucking rule. Like... like that even fucking matters in the kind of world where people are always trying to kill us! HAVE killed us! A few months means a hell of a fucking lot.”

Sam was shaking now, a mix of overwhelming rage and sadness. At work it was okay, he had Sawyer there, but at home it fell apart. “Nothing feels normal anymore, Sid. Nothing except her. I feel like I’m living on borrowed time and I’m scared it’s running out. I can’t stop feeling that and it fucking terrfies me.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.13 (before 1940)

27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I. 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV. 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England. 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome. 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths. 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California. 1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island. 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs. 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting. 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory. 1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair. 1900 – To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces. 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people. 1915 – The 6.7 Mw  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610. 1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history. 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany. 1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

[lhale-news]

lucyhale A kneeling bride. Stella-episode 113. @cw_lifesentence

[amarawinchester817]

Does Anyone Else Feel Like This?

I have read a number of blogs and accounts of a number of women who have met the handsome duo Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. I’ve also found watching SPN Con videos enjoyable, but probably my worst addiction has been to the vocal talent of Jensen Ackles and rewatching episodes of Supernatural. Since July 20, 2020 I have been on a “crazy train” fueled by the desire to listen to everything, watch everything, read everything on the, no other word to describe him, Jensen Ackles! Now, please don’t misunderstand, yes I am obsessed with him, but not to the point where I am going to go “Nurse Betty” insane and stalk him, or think he’s my future husband, or that someday I’ll meet him and will be BFFs. 

People! The title of my page comes from Cassie in SPN 1.13 Route 666, “I am a realist.” I realize he is very happily married with three adorable children. I am also married, most days not so happily, which is why I’m in the SPN fandom and off in my own little Deasenland. That I will save for another post. This is mostly my way of releasing some emotions at the moment. I only have a few followers anyway, and there are only couple of people who know personal things about the real me.

I’m really glad that Tumblr exists as an outlet for me to express my feelings over Supernatural and Jensen. As I said before, I’ve read a number of blogs and accounts, plus chatted with someone fortunate to meet this incredible human being. Being the “realist” I am, though, the chances of me meeting Jensen Ackles is quite slim. Not to mention, I probably wouldn’t want a picture with him because I REALLY hate having my picture taken! Seeing him beside me in a photo would only make me hate it. Quite honestly, I would probably crop myself out of it! I apologize for going off on these tangents of mine. Again, I’m pretty sure their aren’t many people out there reading this. After all, isn’t Tumblr for Fanfiction, Slashfiction, gifs, and photos. I am an amateur creator of Fanart, but a big lover of Jensen, Dean, and Radio Company. I’m just little ol’ me with my run-on-sentences and tendency to ramble on and on. But, again, I like the fact that I can do this. 

It was because of one of those fortunate fans that I am blogging right now. I read a blog of someone who met Jensen at a Con in 2011 and cried tears of admiration for what an incredibly sweet, humble, and genuine man his is. The tears flowed as read about how stunning his vocal talent is in real life. It’s stories like hers that deepen my admiration for Jensen. It’s sharing their experiences that will make me a lifetime fan from this moment. I live vicariously through all the videos shared. I’m not really sure I would want to meet him, though. All of the things I have read and heard about paint a picture of incredibility. I mean, what if I did have the finances and was given the opportunity to meet him? What then? It would be a one time thing for me, I’m sure. What if the image I built up in my crazy fantasy was what I came face-to-face with in real life? Good gravy! I could “what if” myself to death over this! Anyway, perhaps, there are others who understand what it is like to want to meet their favorite actor/singer, but don’t have the means nor courage to do it.

Photo Credit: sweetondean

[worldly-diversity]

“Permission to speak somewhat emotionally?” @Haytham xD

SENTENCE MEME ⟶ THE GOOD PLACE / 1.08 – 1.13

Haytham raised a brow at Shay as he turned from where he'd been leaning against the bow of the ship. He had words he wished to impart but thought better of it than to ambush the young man with his mission so soon after what had surely been a rather emotionally taxing day.

He knew very well that Shay had had no interaction with Liam O'Brien and Achilles Davenport since he had escaped the homestead and miraculously survived. Facing the people who had such a strong influence on him was by no means easy, regardless of who was in the wrong in the end.

Bitterness still flooded him on occasion however, as Shay had kept him from wiping the Assassin presence off the face of the colony for good. He could settle for this outcome however, as the lad had smartly talked him into a corner, Monro had been right to see potential in him. And Achilles would no longer rally the Brotherhood, leaving the Assassins fractured beyond repair. Or at least he hoped so. They did say time heals all wounds and he's unsure how much he's willing to test the saying.

"Granted." He acknowledged with a small tilt of his head, lips playing up into a grin, amused by the request. It's unsurprising that Shay has much on his mind now, though he is surprised the other decided to share it with him. Still, he has nothing against hearing him out. Perhaps afterwards he could give Shay his mission, and life would go on.

[ask-gpt]

1 The world is everything that is the case.[1]\n\n1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.\n\n1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by these being all the facts.\n\n1.12 For the totality of facts determines both what is the case, and also all that is not the case.\n\n1.13 The facts in logical space are the world.\n\n1.2 The world divides into facts.\n\n1.21 Any one can either be the case or not be the case, and everything else remain the same.\n\n

1 The world is everything that is the case.[1]1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by these being all the facts.1.12 For the totality of facts determines both what is the case, and also all that is not the case.1.13 The facts in logical space are the world.1.2 The world divides into facts.1.21 Any one can either be the case or not be the case, and everything else remain the same.1.22 If both there are facts, only, then it follows that one or the other is not the world.1.23 If both there are numbers there also is to be a number.1.24 If both there can be any number there is also a number.1.25 If there can be one, but there has to be another, and therefore there must be another, there is the sum of the numbers.1.26 One or the other is to be the world.2.1 The world is the sum of one and the other (at the end of his sentence).2.2 The sum of two or more is to be the sum of the things.2.3 If there have been some things this world will come to be, since that is the whole world.2.4 Thus the world is divided into the world and its elements or in some other sense the world, and everything therein is the sum of these elements.2.5 In some sense that is said to be absolute is not meant the complete world itself.2.6 There is only a single world, in so far as the world divides itself into the world and to its elements.2.7 The world is divided in this sense into elements (and one after another), and they are the powers that are expressed or expressed, for such a world as nothing, without that, is also a unity.2.8 It is what is expressed in a word rather than the language of the word. This word cannot be the word expressed by the word.2.9 As to the words of the spoken word: They do not possess any of the powers of language. But the words of their signification, in a simple way, are given in words.2.10 The words of the spoken word are as if they were the words of the spoken word, for such a word cannot be the one it speaks.2.11 The terms of the spoken word cannot, therefore, be expressible. The words of the spoken word do not contain the meanings of the words of the spoken word.2.12 The terms to be expressed in the spoken word are those which are expressions and not things, and such a word cannot be the name of things whose names are not expressions.