#Why aren't you in Linear B

[danwhobrowses]

Beyond the Spider-Verse Theory: The Hidden Villain

So I've left it a few days after watching Across the Spider-Verse to gather my thoughts. And while you can see my review here it's time for some theory crafting for the next movie: Beyond the Spider-Verse

This theory will discuss the existence of another villain behind the scenes

Spoilers for Across the Spider-Verse

So as we know, the main crux of the Spider Society's storyline is that the Web of Life and Destiny (aka the Spider-Verse) apparently hinges on the concept of 'Canon Events', whereby each Spider has to undergo intersecting moments in each mythos. Miguel O'Hara enforces this pattern via the Spider Society, after his attempts to 'break canon' caused the universe he inhabited, taking over from another dead Miguel's life, to die - along with his alternative universe daughter. We also learn that anomalies like this will cause the web to collapse, and thus Miles - having been bitten by another universe's spider to get spider powers, allegedly robbing the powers from another potential spider - and Spot are walking anomalies and their prolonged time in another universe may cause another collapse.

But something doesn't quite add up.

First of all, if Miles and Spot are anomalies, why is their universe still intact? Same can be said for the Earth-42 spider still in a jar. Additionally, why did Miguel's universe collapse if he had the watch that keeps his atoms good in the universe? Isn't he doing exactly what he alleges Miles is doing, taking over another Spider-person who died in this Universe? Also it's highly unlikely that every Spider is subject to the same canon events; Ben Reilly is a clone and Miguel had his DNA mixed with a spider's so surely that disrupts the OG Canon Event of the Spider-bite right? Miguel never had an Uncle Ben or a Captain Stacy moment in his mythos (unless we're suddenly counting the alt!Daughter as the former), plus in Into the Spider-Verse Gwen already said she saved her dad from dying so wouldn't that have disrupted a Canon Event? Do captains even exist for Peter Parked Car or Spidersaurus Rex?

And finally, how can you say Spot and Miles are anomalies and shouldn't be in the universe when Pravitr's Canon Event is only caused by Spot interfering with his universe?

Like I said, it doesn't add up.

So, how do we establish that the idea of 'Canon Events' are not as strict as they seem, that Miles and Spot aren't reality-threatening anomalies, but also explain what happened to the universe that traumatized Miguel - with Peter B. also as witness to verify the story?

Perhaps, someone is manipulating the web behind the scenes.

In the comics, the Web of Life and Destiny is maintained by the 'Master Weaver', a character key to Morlun and his Inheritors, and while I don't think we're going to see the Weaver in Beyond the Spider-Verse I do feel like somebody could be filling that kind of a role. So ask yourself, who do we know in the Spider-Verse who has a unique interest in other dimensions, has the mind to test and tinker, but also has a fascination slash vendetta against the spiders...

Dr. Olivia Octavius was a highlight of the first movie, but her sudden exit after being hit by a truck was considered an abrupt and unsatisfying end for her. So what if she survived? And when the collider closed she was sucked into the Web of Life and Destiny? An inquisitive mind such as herself would have a wealth of time (well, not literally, given that Miles got a glimpse of the future and Spider Society HQ is in 2099 we can assume that the web exists outside of linear time) to test things, seeing the paths and intersections of other Spiders. Liv however does have one particular Spider she seems drawn to in a negative manner though, Peter B. Parker, so what if Miguel's incident in the universe collapsing was instead an attempted hit towards Peter B., Liv attempting to wipe him out of time by wiping the universe he was in?

It does go deeper, we've seen from the Spot that in his flashback scenes he's always adjacent to Liv, they both identified the Earth-42 spider, and she was the leading scientist on the Collider, so she would have the skills to know this, and if she became able to expand her abilities by being a villainous Master Weaver (like Superior Spider-Man attempted to be by killing the Master Weaver to change his fate), she may also be responsible for directing other Spiders' paths along the same route to manipulate Miguel into his current uncharacteristic way of thinking, she may also be manipulating her colleague Spot to encourage more suffering to the Spiders.

If true, it'll at least give Miguel closure and open the door for him to be apologetic and much less of a dick, but it'd also explain how Miles could become able to divert the idea of Canon Events without destroying his or other universes, liberating each Spider to exist in their own story without having to follow the same pattern. Adding to a much bigger role for Octavius (we did see a lot of variant Doc Ocks in ATSV) would provide a cyclic conclusion to Miles' journey since his other 'first villains' Kingpin and Prowler have been defeated.

But, this is just a theory, there's much room to go other directions, but it was a thought.

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Why Tears of the Kingdom's Story Doesn't Work

While I will defend the lack of nuance in the text of Tears of the Kingdom, what I will criticize is how the story was executed. TL;DR: The writers tried to tell a story like Skyward Sword, but were limited by Breath of the Wild's nonlinear gameplay formula. Read on below the cut. Spoilers, obviously.

Let's start with Skyward Sword's story and how it was executed so well. There are three arcs: Find Zelda, find the sacred flames to purify the Goddess Sword, and seek out the dragons to find the Triforce. The first arc is notable here, because it's a suspenseful mystery. Link is constantly a step behind Zelda. He's chasing after her with no goal other than to just reunite with her.

The story is able to move from arc to arc and tell a story that evolves over the course of the game because of how rigidly structured the progression is. You will go from point A to point B, whether you want to or not. That way, the writers could drop the right story beats at the right time. It's traditional storytelling, because no other medium has the same level of interactivity as a video game, and it works. Regardless of how it feels to play, you can't deny that the story was executed very, very well.

Breath of the Wild, by contrast, is nonlinear to a fault. You can go anywhere, anytime. The writers were cognizant of this, so they wrote a one-arc story that was compartmentalized into four entirely separate plot lines. Link has one goal that never changes across the game: free the divine beasts to defeat Calamity Ganon. You go to one region, free that divine beast, then go to another at your pace and discretion.

Nothing carries over between plot lines. Nothing you did for the Rito has any impact on what is happening to the Gorons, because every plot line had be to designed so it could the first or last one you tackle. This approach deprived the story of depth or any sense of momentum. They aimed to make up for this with the memories: cutscenes that tell a linear story with more depth, but can be discovered in any order then rewatched in the proper order for the "complete" picture. Critically, though, the memories only provide context to the current events. Knowing what happened in the past has no bearing on the present.

Now we come to Tears of the Kingdom. They went the same gameplay approach as BotW: complete non-linearity. But they tried to tell a mystery story. This fundamentally fails because, like BotW, nothing carries over between the regional plot lines, and they should be impacted by the dragon tears (TotK's memories) but aren't. There are so many ways this falls apart. I'll talk about it through the order I played the game in: Zora, Rito, Gerudo, Goron.

Once Link returns to the Surface, witnesses Zelda appear and disappear at Hyrule Castle, and tells Purah what happened, she instructs him to investigate the odd regional phenomena. So he goes to Zora's Domain and starts working with Sidon. Zelda appears to them, and at this point, Link--and the player--has no idea what's going on. After that, Link goes to Rito Village, finds Tulin near the huge blizzard, and they see Zelda. Alright, something isn't adding up. By the time Link gets to the Gerudo Desert and sees Zelda there, he must know something is wrong. That is not Zelda, and it's pretty obvious at this point. But he still acts as if he knows nothing.

Finally, when he and Yunobo are chasing after her on Death Mountain, there is no fucking way he doesn't know it's not her. Yunobo is all like "oh no, we have to find Zelda! We have to go after her! Is she okay after going into the ceiling like that?" At this point I am screaming in my head, "Link! Tell Yunobo it's not her! You know it's not her!" Because Link is clever. He can put two and two together, so why the hell isn't he? Well, it's because he's doomed by the format of the narrative.

This is made doubly nonfunctional once you find all the dragon tears. Once Links knows that Zelda is the Light dragon, there is no way on God's green earth that he is fooled by the Zelda that he sees with any sage afterward. But he acts like he is. Brother, Link talks so much in this game. He's constantly explaining shit to people. They really got their mileage out of his "moving hands as if explaining something" animation. But when it matters most, he is fucking silent. It's disrespectful to the player's intelligence and Link's character.

Look. When you're trying to tell a mystery, as your audience's knowledge of the situation increases, your main character's knowledge needs to as well. If the character witnesses a major clue, they can't just forget that clue so they can discover it again but in a different place. It just doesn't work like that. There need to be bread crumbs. There needs to be momentum. There needs to consequence, cause and effect. Mysteries are linear stories. But when you try to tell this kind of story in the nonlinear way that this gameplay formula demanded, it does not work.

What kills me is that each of the four plot lines in TotK are well-written and fun (quick ranking: Rito, Gerudo, Zora, Goron). But through no fault of their own, they decline in coherence and satisfaction as you progress through the game. I can imagine that someone who played the order opposite I did was as mystified as Yunobo, but screaming at Link to just tell Sidon that's not Zelda.

The nail in the coffin of this story's nonfunctionality is that the longest side quest has Link going around Hyrule's stables, trying to find clues to Zelda's whereabouts. He works with Penn to investigate and set these stories straight. But once Link discovers that Zelda is the Light Dragon (or at least, that the Zelda who keeps appearing isn't really her), he should be able to tell Penn the truth. But he doesn't, because he can't for the side quest to function.

I managed to put aside how frustrating all of that is by rationalizing "well it has to be this way for the gameplay to work the way it does", and that's fine, but they didn't have to write the story they did. BotW's story worked because they wrote it in a way that it can be thoroughly enjoyed in any order. TotK's doesn't because they tried to have their cake and eat it too: tell a story with depth, but tell it in any order. They could have written a story that worked with the gameplay, but they didn't.

TotK did a lot of things right. On their own, I think the regional plot lines are more compelling than BotW's (especially the Rito one, and maybe except the Goron one). Having the soon-to-be-sages follow Link through the dungeons was a good choice. The search for a fifth sage provided a feeling of momentum that BotW was sorely lacking. And from the moment the search for the fifth sage starts, the story works just fine because it becomes linear. I had a fantastic time playing this game. I wouldn't have played it for over a hundred hours if I wasn't enjoying myself. It's just a shame it didn't turn out better.

[xbadnews]

MINI CHARACTER PLAYLIST

SHARE AT LEAST FIVE SONGS THAT REMIND YOU OF YOUR MUSE, OR THAT YOU ASSOCIATE WITH YOUR MUSE’S CHARACTER ARC. Including lyrics is optional.

i can hold a grudge like nobody's business - adam jensen

Living just to say goodbye Save me from my selfish pride Can you see the words written on my face?

okay so something i talk about quite a bit is that percy tends to live day to day. it's something he works on with time but it's not a linear process; he's someone who perceives himself as dead before the story started. he lives with the intent of dying, quickly, but not before these impossible string of events he thinks somehow, through his price, he & his friends can achieve. [ killing the briarwoods, r i p l e y , taking on the chroma conclave, stopping vecna ]

but while he feels he's destined for death [ or already dead ] he's b e g g i n g to be seen. i think it was @deathwalkerr that pointed out to me how badly percy wants to be feared, how badly he wants his innate danger to be acknowledged. his pride drives him to be impulsive, which mixes super dangerously with this inability to think about the future.

You got me actin' like the old me But you don't even know me

i like these lines mixed with the sentiment of him holding grudges because there is this bittersweet feeling that comes w him getting close w vox machina. they become the closest thing he has to family, they're the people he feels closest to alive with. but he feels unknown for a long, long time.

so while he starts to engage in more positive/fun things there's still this sentiment of ' you don't know who i was, you only know what i show you ' which kind of hangs over his head for a long time before he can trust himself entirely with vm. this being said, i definitely think keyleth is the first person to draw him out of this mentality. she's the first one to bring his walls down & see percy's fluctuating definition of ' self ' .

Can I get a witness? 'Cause I can hold a grudge like nobody's business Seein' double vision Show me what you got and I'll show what you're missing

this is the chorus!!! a huge part of why it's here. again, playing off of that desire to be seen as dangerous. to be seen as unpredictable. to be handled with the caution he does not have. yes! got a lot of positive traits. he tries to be good but good is not the priority. he's also petty, angry & often unafraid when he should be.

it's also sort of a sentiment of ' well you aren't seeing it so i'll Show You ' but that's a whole nother conversation.

2. arsonist's lullaby - hozier

so first of all before i get into specifics, i have to clarify that this is one of my favorite songs for percy. one of the themes of this blog i like to dig into is utilizing your demons, using the worst parts of yourself to do what you think is necessary.

When I was a child I heard voices Some would sing and Some would scream You soon find you have few choices I learned the voices died with me

this is a sentiment i love. sort of plays off of when percy met the raven queen & asked if he was always broken & she answered yes. there's always been a darkness within him, an urge that couldn't quite be satisfied. i have this headcanon that as a kid, percy was a secret thrill seeker. he'd climb whitestone walls & frame his siblings for pranks & get up to all sorts of trouble.

he rarely got caught because no one was ever looking at him, he's the backup of a backup & what he's doing was always secondary to whatever his older siblings were doing. so there's always been this wildness within him that's manifested in different ways, that he's used in different ways. as a kid, it was just to get a thrill. as an adult it's a stronger beast entirely, but it is the beast the forged his survival.

All you have is your fire And the place you need to reach Don't you ever Tame your demon But always keep 'em on a leash

this plays on that thought of ' that beast forged his survival '. it's like, even in his most desperate times he still had that wild will to live. that rabid, instinctual fire to live. has it burned through his life like a storm? yes!!! in so many places ashes is all that's left. but you can do so much with ash. you can make ink, bricks, compost.

it's this sentiment again of utilizing that fire within him regardless of the consequences because that fire is how he's survived. it's costed so much, but it's always been apart of him. it will never not be. it's just a matter of learning how to manage it in a way that he can still live a life. that he can build whatever fluctuating definition of the future he's trying to work towards, whether or not he's able to view himself as a part of that future.

When I was a man I thought it ended When I knew loves perfect ache But my peace has always depended On all the ashes in my way

again, it's that idea of ' you can do so much with ash ' & as he grows up, he does. he absolutely does. he doesn't put out his fire, but he learns how to manage it. it's like this shift between ' what it's done to him ' to ' what he can do with it'. he learns to love longterm, he cares longterm with time. it's not a linear journey by any means, but it's one he takes. but he still uses his fire to protect his home, his friends, his family. he keeps growing, but never forgets what exists within him. what he can use to make sure he never loses it again.

3. hi ren - ren

so i'm going to clarify before digging into this that i have a lot to say on this song. it is a song based in mental illness but i also have it on percy's playlist because it definitely feels like how i imagine percy's relationship w/ orthax is. but i also love it as a back & forth because one of the things i preach is that percy's healing journey is not linear. some days are harder than others & i feel like this song nails the battle within self.

And I've been making some progress lately And I've learnt some new coping skills So I haven't really needed you much, man I think we need to just step back and chill

there are a few chunks of this song talking about doing a little better, looking at the present in a different light than his usual perception. it's this idea of 'getting better' & trying to leave old habits, old pieces of yourself in the past. which as talked about previously, does not work for percy. he defines survival by the worst, most ferocious pieces of himself & orthax is one of those things.

And when I'm gone, maybe I'll be remembered For doing something special with myself That's why I don't think that we should talk, man 'Cause when you're with me, it never seems to help

again that feeling of ' i am doing better, i will do better ' which is part of like percy;s endgame. he wants to be remembered beyond the weapons he put into this world, he wants to be better than he was previously & thinks that he can be. knows that he can be, eventually. but there is this scar of orthax left in percy's mind that leads to moments like the next lyrics.

You think that you can amputate me? I am you, you are me, you are I, I am we We are one, split in two that makes one, so you see You got to kill you if you wanna kill me I'm not left over dinner, I'm not scraps on the side Oh, your music is thriving? Delusional guy

i like these lyrics because it makes me think not only of orthax targeting ripley as a conduit to get back at percy, but also like the thoughts left from getting rid of orthax. it's like this thought of even if he's gone, it doesn't change the darkness within percy. it doesn't change his capacity for violence. it's this feeling of ' i will never be free from this part of myself & it will always remind me '

Fuck you, I don't need you, I don't need to hear this 'Cause I'm fine by myself, I'ma genius And I will be great, and I will make waves And I'll shake up the whole world beneath us

but percy snaps back. he cultivates this faith in people via vox machina, which leads to faith in self that again is not a linear progression but it's one he treasures. he knows this nastiness is apart of him but it doesn't stop him from wanting to be better, from trying to be better. he has changed the world & wants to continue to do so despite this internal pull away from self-help.

When standing in-front of my solar eclipse My name it is stitched to your lips, so, you see

this is another bit talking about orthax/percy's darkness as being a part of him, regardless of the growth he goes through. it will always exist within him, whether or not he wants it there.

As I got older, I realised that there were no real winners And there were no real losers in physiological warfare But there were victims and there were students

this line specifically i feel like alludes to one of my headcanons abt him absorbing bits of the people around him, absorbing bits of ripley specifically when he was in captivity. just that thought of ' there are victims & there are students ' like percy learned how to survive via his suffering rather than allowing it to kill him.

It was never really a battle for me to win, it was an eternal dance And like a dance, the more rigid I became, the harder it got The more I cursed my clumsy footsteps, the more I struggled So I got older and I learned to relax And I learned to soften and that dance got easier It is this eternal dance that separates human beings From angels, from demons, from gods And I must not forget, we must not forget That we are human beings

this is just here because these lyrics shape how i view percy's state of mind. ' the more i cursed my clumsy footsteps, the more i struggle'. it plays off of the sentiment of the last song, that this darkness, that orthax will always be a part of him. what he's done will always be apart of him. his mental illness will always be apart of him. but it does not define him. it's not all he is. he has fucked up, he will continue to do so, but he will keep going. it really lends to the shift between ' i will die, i am dead ' to ' i want to live, life is too full to miss '

4. this too shall pass - danny schmidt

My friend makes rings She swirls and sings She's a mystic in the sense That she's still mystified by things But scared to ask How can nothing seem to last

these lyrics specifically make me think of how percy views keyleth. their relationship is one of my favorites & i think these lyrics really hit the nail on the head for his view of her. specifically ' She's a mystic in the sense that she's still mystified by things ' because he see's her learning journey firsthand & plays a part in it. but there is this anger within her that burns things up, just like the fire within him.

i also love this song in terms of he & keyleth's relationship because of the sentiments surrounding how temperamental life is. like it passes, quickly. percy's life will be the blink of an eye to keyleth, there will be a day when she forgets his voice, the wrinkles on his forehead, passing details that won't matter in a couple hundred years. does he think she will forget him? sometimes. but he knows in his heart she wont. but that doesn't make life any longer, existence any more permanent.

also i like these lyrics because it sort of sells this idea of the peace they work towards relentlessly being a temporary solution. their work together will one day be undone & all they can do is hope it will last the span of their lives.

So I pray to hands And I pray to needs And I pray to blades of grass To find forgiveness in the weeds

percy is faithless, he doesn't hold much trust in the gods. but he has faith in the people he loves. he believes in his family. so though he doesn't practice religion, love is the closest thing he's got. which is a hard pill to swallow for him when his instinct is anything but love, when the instinct that has driven him to survive for so long. but because of him practicing love ( to the best of his ability ) he tries to practice forgiveness. it's hard, relentlessly so, but he makes that active effort to work towards it. there will always be someone wretched, but he was wretched once too. does that mean he has to trust them??? absolutely not! but that doesn't mean he's going to condemn them either.

I just never did believe And so I never prayed myself Except to those that prayed for me

this plays off of that last idea, that the closest thing to religion he has is love. that the closest thing he has to faith is in people.

5. up the wolves - the mountain goats

There's bound to be a ghost at the back of your closet No matter where you live There'll all ways be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive

here's that theme of forgiveness/healing not being a linear journey. percy forgives the people who hurt him in theory. it's a means to move past what they did to him, to become more than what happened to him. but that doesn't mean it's an easy process. he decides to forgive ripley right before she kills him & there is a lot of emotional debris from this

also bonus song: i'm not angry anymore plays on this theme. [i'm not angry anymore, well sometimes i am.] it's like this feeling of wanting to be better, wanting to forgive but it's a whole process when that ability for danger & to take a grudge has defined so much of what he's accomplished up until this point. it defines a part of him that he begs to be feared, that he uses as a weapon in survival. but survival doesn't have to be a fight & in order to accept that, he has to let go of a few things. of alot of things. which is not easy, it's one of the hardest things he's ever done. including taking down a literal god. but man, is it worth it.

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better You'll rise up free and easy on that day And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air Just when that day is coming, who can say? Who can say?

again, it's this feeling of forgiveness not being a linear journey. one day he will feel better, one day things will be better & eventually he is able to see that. but it's not an immediate effect. saying you forgive someone & actually forgiving them are two separate things & it takes a long time to do, but it's something that is eternally worth doing.

he accepts the parts of himself forged by the people who's hurt him, by the people he's hurt. he accepts that they will always be apart of him, but stops holding it against them if that makes sense??? it's a huge weight off of his shoulders, but it's not immediate. it takes time, but one day he does feel better. one day he gets to be better.

tagged by: @mindhallow [ thank you this is my favorite thing to do ] tagging: @delightfalse, @deathwalkerr, @spellwound, @countercharmd , @xavthew0rld , @whalefelled, @heartheaded, @lunarfey, @luxcruor, @chosenpower, @vchloras, @firefurious

[tamelee]

Okay maybe controversial opinion: I dont like seeing ocs in fics. Isnt ur story about sns? Why wuld we need ur ocs? I think it is just a way for people to selfinsert into their story through an oc no one knows. It kinda sucks because I was excited for ur story too. So yeah thats just how I feel

I don't think that is so controversial. That's just your preference and that is fine. You don't need to read anything you don't like, right? I'm not sure whether you meant me in particular or in a general sense so I'll just answer for myself why I needed an (/a few minor/background) OC('s); It IS a story about Naruto x Sasuke but I personally like story a lot. Meaning that events, conflict and even things like Setting are connected to convey a message. With that also other characters.

These elements can be used to enhance all that. (If done correctly though, it CAN become muddy.) To me that is a lot more meaningful than going from scene to scene "just because". BUT, I do enjoy fics solely for the fact that we can experience SNS through an authors mind in infinite different ways and AUs even if they only write about Naruto and Sasuke and whatever it is they're doing at that moment. A clear linear story that brings you from A to B. I can understand when people then especially don't want to read entire paragraphs about a character they don't know (or care about) and want to skip to the reason they started reading in the first place. In my case, I'm not very good at writing/describing things the way I want to. Not even in my own language. I think I have a better chance of conveying what I want to tell visually which is why I choose to create a DJ instead. But then "show don't tell" is different as it is literally shown. Every panel matters. And I feel like I need a new character to help me do that and create conflict for the sake of telling a more interesting story regarding my message. I think it would be boring for me if everything is well, rainbows and happiness right from the start because what is left for me to do? And with Canon-compliant stories, it's not very believable to me. (Again, not saying these stories aren't good, this is just for me given the trouble I'll put them in anyway. Fics are often already well-established for good reasons as we already know the characters, like fluff for e.g. and I can enjoy them.) But any existing characters don't really fit here you know? It definitely, for me, isn't a self-insert but it is inevitable that there can be relatable elements because of my chosen Theme. Hm~ you can see it as a (fanmade-)movie arc, but then placed during the blank period. Those arcs always have new characters and at the end of it you don't really (or ever) see them again. But here I tried to weave them through the OG-story nonetheless. I may be a bit self-indulgent though as this will be a very long project. I was actually thinking of uploading some sketches of the OC in a bit and introduce.. him 👀 But of course, you don't need to read it at all. In fact, it's very likely that many won't considering the heavy subjects. But I do hope this clarified it a tiny bit Nonee.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Best of 4th and Broadway, Volume 2: Pump Up the Volume 1988 Hip Hop / House / Go-Go Funk

Two things that 4th & Broadway, a US-based subsidiary of Island Records, was particularly known for was the American release of the groundbreaking hybrid of house, hip hop, and linear sampling that was "Pump Up the Volume," by one-off UK alternative project M/A/R/R/S, and the output of legendary rap duo Eric B. & Rakim, whose "I Know You Got Soul" provided the title lyric of "Pump Up the Volume" itself. And you'd think that with acts and tunes such as those, a deeper dive into this label's own catalog would then reveal some more similar 80s goodies, but this second volume from 4th & Broadway's own sampler series seems to show that they didn't really have too much else to offer 😕.

Now, of course, there was a lot of tremendous music being made all throughout the 1980s, but something that hasn't aged very well from that decade are the electronic-made tracks that tended to be rather long and spacious, aka empty. Some of these beats may have hit differently over three decades ago, but today, a lot of them just feel pretty primitive. And while "Pump Up the Volume" is definitely one of those more spacious tunes, the fact that it took a unique tack, by opening up a whole new frontier of sample montaging, is ultimately why it's so revered and fondly remembered by so many. But the large majority of the rest of the songs on this release just aren't nearly as creative as that one, and a lot of them end up coming off as just straight-up corny now.

However, there still was a reason that made this album definitely worth a purchase, and it was because it was one of the first CDs to ever include a special remix of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full" on it. And no, it wasn't the popular "Seven Minutes of Madness" remix by UK duo Coldcut; it was a different remix by another British guy named Derek B., called the "Urban Respray." But the tracklist on the back cover of this sampler didn't actually indicate that it was this somewhat rarer version of the song, which included things on it like the re-creation of the iconic guitar riff from John Mellencamp's "Jack & Diane." And to not have made people aware of this fact seems to have been a bit of an oversight by the 4th & Broadway brass.

In addition to those M/A/R/R/S and Eric B. & Rakim songs, though, this release's closer, a post-disco-rap cover of Yarbrough & Peoples' "Don't Stop the Music," by one-off project Bits & Pieces, that was produced by famed Jamaican duo Sly and Robbie, is good too, especially when the male falsetto vocal comes in 😌. But it's not actually a 4th & Broadway track, as it predates the start of the label by a few years. 

So, a pretty underwhelming showcase of this particular label, overall, but still a few good bits of 80s music to take in nonetheless. Was expecting this to be a lot better than it was, but the Eric B. & Rakim remix by Derek B. definitely came as a pleasant surprise anyway. 

Highlights:

M/A/R/R/S - "Pump Up the Volume" Eric B. & Rakim - "Paid in Full (Derek B.'s Urban Respray)" Bits & Pieces - "Don't Stop the Music"

[maskrosfe]

I really fear this is going to be a stupid ask, feel free to delete it or don't reply etc. I just read and loved your DN x Bly comic The Turn of You. It's absolutely gorgeous and so soft. I love your Matsuda. However, is there any chance you could explain it for someone with not a very bright mind? For example, was that B as a ghost? And was it A they found behind the wall (?)? And are we to assume the ghost B shenanigans have stopped by the end of the comic, and if so why have they stopped? So sorry if this is annoying in any way. I really loved it, you have incredible skill and talent!

Oh I'd say you'r quite bright, you picked up on alot ! and it makes me really happy! that the clues I throw around in there aren't a complete mess #^__^#c Both for reaching out with questions and for the praise- thank you Anon! fills my heart right up with sparkling soda *victory sign to the cameras!* As for your questions... hmmm. Yes, the ghost is B, the body is A's, and we can assume B's shenanigans changed after the body was found, but the story ends for you where it ends for me, and not all questions get answers. That said, and it's uncoth to overexplain ones work maybe kjdshsd but I'm a nerd... so I'll try to offer context that might help with any unanswered questions. So yep, nerd alert here. Oficially you have been warned. The rest of this below here is TL;DR territory lmao. Well, I lied, the first context to this comic is that I used it to process a sorrow, so there is an amount of vaugeness I want to stay vauge. Not very nerdy. but SECONDLY, and this WILL be nerdy, is that there are themes in Bly Manor 2020 and The Turn of the Screw 1898 that peaked my interest: those regarding children and childhood. The 1898 book works a bit like a capsule in time regarding the view of childhood and children I feel! There's a part of the gothic horror in this book that is based on the growing agency of children, and lack of control for adults as a result. For the agency of a child to be such a terror, when that child breaks with our ideals, isn't a horror element you would find in a modern book, and indeed it is not part of the horror in the 2020 TV series based on the story. Why? why! Well so, in the 1900's, the social construct of childhood went through sort of a boom in the western world. One thing that happened is that Ellen Key wrote a book called "the century of the child" which I reference briefly in the introductions to my comic, and to quote this paper on the books content and meaning to the western view of the child, it's a book that's: "pivotal in the history of the discovery that children really exist". Poetic! And what it means is that it broke up quite radically, at the time, with the view on children that had dominated the 1800's, and paved the road to the social construct of childhood more similare to the one we harbour today. Perhaps most noteworthy for the modern version of the social construct is that it is less concerned with children as blank pages or clumbs of clay we can shape, and more concerned with children as capable, inventive and resiliant beings. But yes yes, neither history nor sociology is so linear as to make that change definite, and more importantly- what does that have to do with a silly death note fancomic?????

There's a story in death note about L and his successors. Not a story of childhood really, but of legacy, of being shaped since childhood into the best version someone else can imagine you to be, and if the view of the child changes, then the process of the shaping will too. That change happening at wammy's orphanage is the core to the answer. The answer to why A and B are dead, to why B wants Near and Mello to find A's corpse, to why L is afraid and ashamed of his home, to why Near strangled a frog to death and Mello was pushed out of the tree- yes they're all tied to this change and the feelings it has created. And who is Matsuda, to come into this world without any of that?? AAAAAAAAAAA ohmygosh, if you read this far, thank you for your patience. I realize that this must come off as quite pretentious off an answer?? but it's the answer that felt most insightful to what actually happened in the comic, or why, without constructing something up for you after the fact. Thank you for reading my comic ! <3

[schumigrace]

so sorry about the anon hate; i feel like it happens whenever slight criticism/not overwhelmingly positive opinions are aired. it's happened to me with various other drivers, too :/

but anyway! i have two fairly expansive points for you! and some extra bits of discussion, too :) <3

a) the "lando paydriver" thing seems to have originated from a singular article written by a quasi-"journalist" fan on a fan-based journalism site, with no real evidence and, probably more importantly, hasn't ever been corroborated by any of the actually trustworthy, legitimate f1 publications. it's also been propagated by those who don't particularly like him who've just seen that his father is wealthy and have made assumptions.

he talked his dad's wealth in a quite measured way on a podcast a year or two ago; he essentially had his dad's backing through the junior series (rather than academy or just sponsor funding) which let him be more flexible with what, where and how he was competing (mainly being able to nope out of the general vicinity of helmut marko), but he set a boundary with his dad that f2 would be the last thing he paid for.

lando won the autosport brdc award, which was affiliated with mclaren at the time, which lead him down the path of simulator tests and eventually signing as a junior with them, which lead to the simulator, test and reserve driver roles he had in 2017-2018. which lead to him signing for his debut f1 season in september 2018, when he was still 2nd in the f2 championship.

the paydriver moniker is a strange one nevertheless; as you say we've seen a good number of actual paydrivers and sort-of paydrivers and even not-even-really paydrivers prove themselves to the point where there is no point or even merit to bring up how they got into the sport in the first place. and so at the end of the day... if you had the money, why wouldn't you?! i know i would lmao

b) i don't think i can ever begrudge lando for what can be interpreted as only ever talking about mental health when it pertains to himself. precisely because it does pertain to himself; lando opening up about the doubt, the anxiety and his mental health being at its worst in his rookie year is incredibly brave, and quite frankly inspiring to me. i know it lodged in the back of my mind when i eventually had to stop bottling everything up and talk to my family and eventually go to therapy/counselling for my anxiety. he might not always be the most eloquent about it but it will always be a point of admiration for me.

for everything else i feel that's just up to a lot of interpretation; i think he does genuinely struggle when it comes to packaging his non-driving related press into a way that is understandable or even palatable to those who aren't fans of him, and sometimes he doesn't always hit the mark; he's by far not the most eloquent driver on the grid.

there are nuances to everyone in the paddock, and i think we sometimes forget just how much scrutiny all these guys are under and how much the quotes used in articles can sometimes really miss a lot from the context of tone, be cherry picked or twisted. and even after all of that, lando arguably gives over more of himself to public scrutiny than anyone else with all his streaming and other social media activities.

and, i almost always hate this reasoning but it does have to be said, we forget how young he was coming into f1, just freshly turned 19. and already with a big social media following even then; the maturing you'd go through over 5 years would be very strange and not always linear. it's a weird one.

overall while i do hold lando quite close to my heart (as you could probably tell) he can be marmite-y to those who don't "get" him. and that should be okay, too.

and anyway f1 is just a game of picking your favourite fallable tax dodgers! people often take anything and everything much too far to heart for these 20+ "some guys".

hope you have a lovely day/night anywho, and apologies for the long message :)) <33

hey nonnie. thanks for this! I really appreciate your take on this (and thanks for being so respectful about it!)

I should clarify, I also admire lando discussing his own mental health. The issues I have come from his apparent reluctance to speak out when it comes to the abuse other drivers face, again - I'm only basing this off of what I've seen, and I've personally never seen him go to the defence of anyone else. It only makes me uncomfortable because as an ambassador of a mental health charity I'd just, idk, expect more ? I guess. But like you say, they are at the end of the day just "some guys", and we probably shouldn't expect a lot from any of them.

Anyway. I don't really have much else to add to this, I think you've made some good points

[nemirambles]

Why Sonic CD Isn't Actually an Exploration Game

I am writing this down so whenever people tell me that this game is simply exploration based or that I don't get it I can kindly redirect them to this so I'm not repeating myself 100000000 times and everything can be neatly contained here.

Lets get something out of the way first, Sonic CD is a linear game. Have you seen the level design? It's.... really straight. It feels like it has the same design philosophy of Sonic 2 when it comes to prioritizing speed. The difference is that CD levels are a tad bit larger than levels in 2.

They don't feel as bare as Sonic 2 levels due to them having gimmicks but they still aren't to where Sonic 3 would be. But that makes sense! These games were more or less designed in parallel so they would be addressing the same criticisms although in different ways. The obvious elephant in the room is the time travel and locating objects in the past, obviously the game cannot be linear if you have to explore around, right?

Something being linear has the implication that you're going to just be going from point A to B without much in-between. CD has an issue where the past signs are kind of hard to come by and to meaningfully use. When you find a good spot to time travel, unless there's a better spot, you're gonna be using that one. Once you do finally actually get to the past though, do you know where you're going? You're going to the same exact spots each and every time to destroy what you need to in order to make a good future.

Sure, you had to explore to find the past sign and the polluters of the past, but then after that, you solved the puzzle. There is nothing further to actually explore. But I'd be stupid to not mention that Sonic CD technically holds the most levels of any classic Sonic game. There are three different layouts for each regular act in the game. Their past, present and future variants. You will never wanna go to the future.

The game actively punishes you for going to the future since it prevents you from getting the good ending and past signs become quite difficult to find along with finding good spots to even time travel. I hope you don't land slightly wrong without even really losing speed when you have a trail going or else you'll lose the ability to time travel and you'll need to find another sign. The game knows the future is a hazard too since these signs to travel there are super inconveniently placed in order to fuck you over and swap out your past sign.

Now you'll need to tip toe around because if you go too fast and accidentally do a speed building set piece, you are fucked, the future is now. So alright you don't wanna travel to the future, so what about the present? You're only going to be in the present to go to the past. Once your job there is up, you'll basically never go back. And then once you do get to the past, you're just going to find what you need to blow up and then book it to the finish line.

You see the problem here?

This is different than an actual exploration based game like Sonic 3. There are several locations for the big rings and you'll need to find them while also optimizing your routes. You have choices. Real genuine choices that you need to decide on. In CD you don't have choices. Going to the future is of no benefit, the present brings no benefit except being able to go to the past, the past is all that matters. An entire 2/3rds of the game does not matter.

You know how in Sonic Mania you can like plant little weird Venus flytraps in Stardust Speedway in order to get to new places? That's the sort of thing that Sonic CD needs. These parts in time do not interact. What you do in the past in one act won't really affect what you can do in the future. Players should've been going between each time period freely and easily to make interactions happen and to truly take advantage of the butterfly effect.

The game has things like this in play. There are areas you just can't access without going to another point in time, but it'll always be the past and these areas won't matter when compared to the generators. But this all ignores the thing that knocks all of this over.

What kind of game centered around exploration gives you the option to totally ignore that and just do a mini game to get the good ending? Dude like... imagine if in SA2 you could just... get 50 rings and do a mini game to skip a treasure hunting stage. That would spit in the face of the entire point of the level. But alas, that is the life Sonic CD lives. It is a game of conflicting designs.

It wants you to time travel but discourages it if you don't do it in a specific way, it wants you to go fast due to it still more or less having straight line level design while encouraging you to not let there be a bad future, it asks you to explore but then hands you an infinitely less time consuming alternative. This game quite frankly doesn't really know what it wants. It looks good, it sounds good, it's fun to just thrown on and play brainlessly but it is in no way a well designed game.

"It's a game about exploration!" Then why is it so bad at that very thing?

[a-sentient-horax]

November 27, 2023 - Part 1

Okay, well, we made it through Thanksgiving. My mom came down with my three siblings: my sister (17), my brother (15) and my youngest brother (9). I actually hosted Thanksgiving last year as well, but it was my dad, his girlfriend, and his parents (my grandparents) that came down. It's the fun of having divorced parents I guess. Now, my boyfriend and I live in an apartment. It's not small, but it's not huge. Or at least it's not really the size to host a 6 person Thanksgiving, BUT I've made it work twice. The way that we do it is we cook all the food in our apartment, load it all up into this wagon that my bf and I have had for years, and then take it all to the conference room in our apartment. The conference room has a huge, 10-person conference table, so it's the perfect place for a dinner. It also has a TV so that we can watch the Cowboys lose while we eat. I think probably definitely we aren't "supposed" to do that, since we didn't reserve the conference room and it's not meant for like, a ton of food to be in there. But I've gotten away with it twice.

My mom and I have a historically rocky relationship. When I was 12 I moved in with my dad full-time, and then when I left my home state I didn't talk to my mom at all for about two years. We have started to reconcile over the last few years and it has been mostly linear and successful. The older I get the more insight I have into my mom and her behvaiour, I mean that's sort of like, what happens when you grow up right? You can't understand your parents as adults when you are a child because you are still a child. You can't even understand yourself as an adult yet.

My mother has some kind of personality disorder, or something. I'm not a psychologist, I'm not going to pretend I can diagnose her. I see content about "cluster B" personality disorders and those seem to fit. In the past I called her a narcissist and bipolar. Again, I don't know, but she exhibits behaviors similar to the ones I hear about from those personality disorders. I have tried to make a concerted effort to destigmatize personality and mental disorders, and I would stake my life on the fact that whatever quirks my mom has are directly related to abuse (from her parents, from bullies, from her ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends, etc.); but it is very, very difficult hard to have a mother with a personality disorder. It was harder as a child, because I couldn't really understand why I was always wary of my mom, or why I could recognize she was different from others but now how she was different or why it made me feel weird. But as an adult it's like, a whole new understanding.

When I was a kid my mom was abusive to me. That's not what this journal entry is about. She yelled at me often, was rude, picked on me, punished me often, was extremely controlling and her moods were erratic and impulsive. She robbed me of a childhood and I was forced to raise my siblings and myself while constantly being berated for not doing exactly what she wanted every time and reading her mind and emotions to understand what she wanted from me. I think these things are independent of her mental illness, or at least that they weren't caused solely by it. We were poor, her second husband was incredibly physically abusive and a drugs addict. Getting out of that situation yeah probably requires that you parentify your eldest daughter and you are under constant stress. And of course her parents yelled and screamed as their only way of communication so that's what she did to us. It's not all from mental illness, it's a compounding of factors. Again, I can really only recognize that because I'm an adult now.

So, my mom comes down for Thanksgiving, and it's a weird sort of view I have of her. It's clear that I'm not "part of the family." And while that hurts, I understand. I left them all behind, the four of them live together all the time now without me, I'm not a key member of their family anymore. Man that hurts, but ok I understand. It also produces this weird thing where I am watching my mom perform for me as if I was an outsider. And I started to notice weird things. One event that I keep thinking about is when we were walking my littlest brother around a local town center area. It had been decorated with Christmas things for kids to play with, like there was a big toy wooden plane they could get in and pretend they were flying, there was a huge 6 foot tall Rubiks cube, etc. etc. Also in the area was a huge life-sized unicorn. There was a group of about 7-8 people, all childless adults who were clearly pretty drunk, and they were taking turns on the unicorn. After one lady gets off the unicorn, the group kind of huddles around and starts talking. They are still staying near the unicorn, like they want more pictures, but they are talking with each other and no one is on the unicorn. Now, my family was standing to the side, waiting our turn, definitely out of sight of the group, it's not like they saw us waiting. But we were waiting for our turn, letting my littlest brother go nuts on the toy train. My mom keeps looking over there, and it's clear she's getting impatient or upset, or at least that she's about to do something. And suddenly she takes off. She stomps right up to the unicorn and starts struggling to get on. So that's the situation. 7-8 strangers are giving my mom the evil eye, while she struggles to get on this unicorn and is like, waving at us to take her picture. And it was profoundly embarrassing. My boyfriend, the kindest loving soul I have ever met, has never in his life acted embarrassed by my or any of my family's actions, but when this happened I heard him mutter "I can't... I can't..." and he walked away to monitor my youngest brother. He does not like kids, and he decided he would rather hang out with the 9 year old.

And maybe that's what I am struggling with as an adult. It is humiliating and embarrassing to have a parent that has a disorder. And it sucks. It's mean to say, I don't want to be embarrassed by my mom, I don't want her to humiliate me and my siblings, because my siblings were humiliated and immediately wanted to leave after my mom did this. And I can't confront her about it and even if I could is it even fair? Is it even fair to force my mother to conform to a version of herself that is not embarrassing to me or to our family in public just because I don't like to feel embarrassed? And is it even her fault? Could she actually change even if I confronted her and she wanted to? She is already so stressed and so lonely and is struggling through her life, what am I supposed to say to her, "You clearly have a disorder of some kind and this immutable part of you that you cannot change is what is driving people from having an authentic connection with you so you need to change your authentic self to be more palatable for me?" I mean I just...I don't know what to do and it makes me feel sick inside thinking about it.

[comicaurora]

hey red, I wanted you to know that Aurora is a huge inspiration for me and my webcomic that I'm working on, it's really incredible. On the flipside I got really into reading this blog and the worldbuilding that's in it yesterday and now I'm doing worldbuilding for the world of my comic that is very fun but frankly NOT important to the actual story. Any tips on cultural worldbuilding that both makes sense and also remains relevant to your story?

That's great to hear!

Worldbuilding is a delightfully inescapable vortex. It's like putting together a puzzle you're drawing yourself and also there aren't any edge pieces because the ride never stops. Essentially, you have to decide which approach is better for you personally: to build a world that serves the story, or to write a story that explores that world?

If you're building a world around the story, you basically just need to focus on worldbuilding the parts that engage with the story and making sure there's enough connective tissue that the cohesive whole kinda holds together. If you just need a setting for a really cool swordfight that advances the plot from point A to point B, you can worldbuild a towering ancient ruin or a floating sky-fortress or whatever to have the fight in without having to go too in-depth on who built it and why, but you also can go more in-depth with those things if you want to make the setting more than just "place where swordfight happens." Maybe the sky-fortress is a Laputa-style ancient superweapon or the ancient ruin was abandoned after being overrun by sentient skeletons or something. Maybe you decide that an ancient group you've already worldbuilt for other plot reasons was responsible for building this too, so you can loop in whatever lore you've already made for them. The possibilities are pretty close to endless, as is always the case with fiction you're writing yourself - in this approach, the challenge is mostly making sure that the disparate chunks of worldbuilding you're shaping around the plot actually fit together cleanly, rather than clashing or leaving plothole gaps between them. For this reason, it's good to have a base skeleton of Things You Know For Sure About The World so that there's consistency between worldbuilding chunks - fundamental principles of reality, magic systems, major historical events, stuff like that. They don't need to be super detailed, they just need to serve as anchor points to hold all the story-centric worldbuilding together.

This is why some people prefer the other approach - building the whole world and then writing a story to explore it. This is a favorite of sci-fi, spec-fic in general, magical otherworld stories and almost every TTRPG ever made, as the whole premise of those genres is "what would it be like if the world looked like this instead?" In these stories you can worldbuild to your heart's content with no regard for plot or characters, since the plot and characters will arise from the exploration of that world once you've got it fleshed out. This is a great idea if the world is probably the most interesting part of the story, and a less-than-great idea if you really want the plot and characters to shine as the stars of the show. Larry Niven, prolific hard-SF writer, took this approach almost exclusively and came up with some incredibly unique settings and alien races - my favorite being Ringworld, a book entirely about exploring an ancient alien megastructure rotating around a star. It has characters, but, like, barely. They're just a vehicle to explore the worldbuilding, and it is some very cool worldbuilding.

This approach is a good way to get a very cohesive world that fits together well, but it also runs the risk of getting away from you. Anchoring the worldbuilding into a linear plot or single region or relatively small cast of main characters lets you stay focused on what actually matters for the story you want to tell, rather than burning years or even decades building out the tiny fractalized details of what exactly this long-extinct civilization wore on their second-best festival days. Coherent large-scale worldbuilding is fantastic if you're designing an open-world game or setting - Breath of the Wild's worldbuilding is a standout example of this, as the entire map and the items/creatures in it paint a very beautifully detailed picture of this environment and what happened in it, from ancient ruins with several very visually distinct architectural styles, to a fireball-slinging wizzrobe hanging out in a burned-out village, to a massive tree that collapsed down the side of a hill, to a huge fuckoff hole carved through a whole-ass mountain, to the battlefield Link later finds out he died in being absolutely carpeted in an army of completely destroyed inert Guardians, cluing us in that whatever battle went down here was rather more crazy than what went down in the other battlefields we pass through, where only a few guardians are scattered around and some sneaky ones are actually still active. The world isn't just there to serve the linear narrative of the main questline, it's there to present the player with a very big picture and let them piece it together themselves.

For a game as freeform as Breath of the Wild, this is a great call. For a linear written narrative with only one plot, it's completely unnecessary. It's best to find what balance works well for you so you can stay focused on the point of the story without getting bogged down in the stuff that ultimately won't matter. Worldbuilding can also be super fun, though, so like - do whatever makes you happy, really.

[void-bitten-ghost]

Okay so. Back on my SCP bullshit

SCP Wintersberg. They're both SCPs but Ethan is fairly new to the facility (being given up to them by Mia as soon as his corpse she was burying started to regrow it's head) and is in class euclid because whenever he gets tested he accidentally gumifies and spores the personnel.

Karl is also technically euclid but he's been there forever and has special roaming privileges because he's a pet project of one of the top researchers (mother dearest (derogatory)). He knows of Ethan by name but not much else, him being mother dearest's new favourite pin cushion. It gives him time to scheme.

But yeah, Karl wants out. He orchestrated the containment breach in a way to cause the most manageable chaos that is useful to himself. In theory, at least. But he's had enough. The testing, the prodding, the being paraded around like some walking failure that might still be useful one day...

There's a slight hitch in his plan, though. All of his security stuff is declined, all of his pass codes, his key cards, everything he had lined up for his escape falls apart because something or someone has fucked with the system.

Enter Ethan Not-A-Fcking-Again Winters.

He can't help but think Lucas would have a field day working on the security team here. The electric gates and the layered card system, the many, many, many things that want to kill him...

It's all a big puzzle, and Ethan was fairly okay at those. He gets on pretty well finding all the information on the other SCPs and cataloguing them on his clipboard. He even found a digital map and some playing cards (don't judge him he's spent years in a plain cell in this shithole he wants the cards).

Karl though, he is clever. Not the same sort of patient clever, but just enough to make it to the other side of the facility.

And that's where they both meet the crying man.

(Also Karl's got that mannequin just. Following him now. He's gotten used to it.)

But yeah Karl isn't that familiar with this side of the facility. He didn't think to brush up since his original plans A and B were pretty linear. He didn't expect to need to go this far in to get out.

Ethan though, Ethan has been doing his homework and knows deep in his bones as soon as he hears the faint sobs that this is dangerous oh shit oh fuck stay calm look down-

But then he hears booted footsteps and panics shit security personnel with guns he's not supposed to be out of his cell shit what do i do-

"A class D? You're a long way from home, aren't you?"

D?? Oh. Oh yeah he forgot about the jumpsuit he morphed. He thought it'd be better if he saw any other inmates to look like them and not... someone else. Someone they'd hold a grudge against. Or fear. He's so, so tired of being feared.

Ethan glances up and huh. That's not personnel uniform. Not nearly clean enough to be one of the more eccentric doctors either.

But he's looking around like he doesn't have a damn clue what is wailing just beyond those bloodied windows. And then he bangs his fist against the glass like a fucking madman what the f-

"Quit your goddamned whining," he screams and who the fuck does he think he is? Does he think he has a chance against something that could tear an entire platoon of fully armed men apart in a few breaths???

"Are you insane?" Ethan screeches from his crouched position across the hall.

"Debatable," he casually replies. "Depends who you ask."

Great. Fantastic. A lunatic with a sense of humour.

"Get. Down."

"Why? It's just some walking corpse crying for sympathy."

"A walking corpse with the ability to put you on a census somewhere if you don't shut the fuck u-"

That cold tingle down his spine, the overwhelming sense of dread and everything else going still. That big concrete baby was behind him oh fuck-

"Move towards me," the man with the obnoxious hat said, his unblinking eyes looking beyond Ethan and not moving.

Well. No argument from him. He keeps his eyes down and does as he's told for once. The fear of his spine being snapped doing wonders for his discipline. He needs to survive. He needs to find Rose. And it's that need that spurs him on.

Karl on the other hand, is now reconsidering his position here. He felt confident dealing with one SCP alone if needed. But with two in front of him, one behind him, and big boy Larry close on his heels, he doesn't quite feel as confident. He's not completely stupid with pride, after all, despite what many assumed. And another set of eyes to keep the baby from being a nuisance would probably help a lot...

But yeah, gonna stop there. Maybe there is a fic here I dunno I just love these idiots being forced into situations where they have to work together to not die horrifically

[loki-is-my-kink-awakening]

Regarding the bts Loki event, I believe a fair few of the so called fandom keep confusing self love with selfcest. The interviewer was therefore included in that respect. I see the dynamic between the two of them as Loki being genuinely vested in the wellbeing of his female self from another universe so vastly different from his.

I took quite a while to answer this, apologies for that.

Firstly, if you didn't know, I am in love with Lokius and that's where my opinion will come from.

I agree that when most people are talking about self love between Loki and Sylvie they often equate it to selfcest. I think that is what they saw in the show. I admit, I saw that too but coming from the other side where it upset me, and there are many reasons for this. Sure, I wanted Lokius but I also saw the damaging aspects of Loki and Sylvie's relationship and don't think any of it was healthy. I just want healthy relationships.

I also agree that the show was trying to (and definitely failing based on people's understanding) that their relationship was one of self-love. I wrote a little something about how the Loki variants represent aspects of Loki previously, if I find it I'll add the link, but I don't think I went into how I saw Loki and Sylvie's relationship as being part of that healing journey of accepting self. To me, Sylvie's character represented that negative inner critic, the part of us that tries to keep us safe by saying horrible things to us. It's trying to keep us safe by telling us that we aren't good enough or remember all the shameful things we have done in our lives, but it is maladaptive.

In terms of healing, I agree that learning to accept self is part of that, but I don't know that the show's ending helped that. Sylvie fights back with Loki, much like that inner critical voice, and then effectively shuts him down by sending him away. In terms of healing, that's pretty damaging but we all know healing in not linear. It's a long and difficult road.

Ultimately, I think that trying to show these inner archetypes created more confusion for people. People didn't see the self-love aspect, they saw selfcest. I can't even fault them for that because of the way the show presented it, but I can clearly say it wasn't something I wanted to see.

Anyway, Loki did try to show a destructive aspect of himself some care in the end, but the issue for me is that they did that with a kiss. They could have done it a different way. The confusion of romance with self love is the core issue and why I think people confuse it with self love. It was also a kiss initiated by said destructive side of himself and I think that is confusing as well. As I said above, that side is just trying to keep us safe, so I get it, it just isn't easy to understand the psychology behind it for most people. Most people understand selfcest. They don't understand these complex psychology theories. The only reason I do is because a) I am interested in that, and b) I went to therapy.

Anyway, not sure if that answers any of your ask, and I totally understand if you disagree with what I've said. That's totally cool. Before I end completely, I will say that I like Sylvie as a character. How could I not? Sylvie is literally where Loki has been. Sylvie is hurting and that makes me sad. I want her to be okay. I just don't want their romance.

[purple-compromise]

I have an off the top question: how would you go about writing a slow burn? I only have experience with either one shots or three parts; how do you keep that feeling of pining even 100 chapters in

(This is so fucking long; I apologize.)

Well. Hm. Those are great questions...

As far as how I did it in TiWWaN--I think it helps that I didn't do it on purpose, exactly, and that every time I thought "okay we're getting into the romance now!" something would happen with the characters (especially Medic) that threw my dreams of the relationship happening into jeopardy. I never actually planned out the story, so each new chapter or small arc I thought up wound up having unforseen consequences.

Now that I have actually written another 100k-ish slowburn (which has a plot structure to it this time!), I have a slightly different perspective on how maintaining that interest and tension works.

To me, tension essentially boils down to the reason the burn is slow. You have to look at why it has to be slow or why it is slow instead of a fast-burning romance. In TiWWaN, it's because the romance is between two extremely dysfunctional individuals. If we ignore the fact that they had to get to know each other in the first place (which covers about 1/4 of the fic as a whole), next, they have to realize their own feelings, which takes a long time because these are people who, in Medic's case, aren't all that self-reflective, and in Specialist's case, have no room in their minds at the moment to consider how they feel at any given moment, let alone how they feel about someone else. Then, the pair has to have chemistry. That takes up even more time and effort to establish because of the way the fic is structured (linear, no major time-skips). Plus, Spesh and Medic wind up butting heads a lot due to different events in the plot while they get to know each other better; their personalities do have a bit of natural conflict.

But THEN, finally, when the two have gotten to know each other, when the have chemistry, when they've recognized their own feelings........ they need to be willing to take a risk, and the situation is designed in such a way that there are even more obstacles to this! The classic "are my feelings even returned?" in addition to "will our employers decide to have us shot and buried around back if I take the chance?" So. In the end, you have a burn that's slower than damn molasses.

Contrast this with the other one I wrote recently (called "Lachesis," written for another fandom). The slow burn in that story comes not from the characters being unable to acknowledge their feelings, not from butting heads, and not even from being unable to recognize romantic feelings in the other. It comes from one simple, external factor: character B is leaving the realm at the end of the year, presumably not to return, in order to tend to responsibilities back home, while character A will not follow them because similar loyalty and dedication to duty binds them to another realm. Because both characters know that character B will ultimately leave, neither is willing to actually initiate an official relationship, though nearly every scene is filled with chemistry and feeling. Something has to happen in order to make one or both characters willing to overcome the external factor in their way and engage in romance---and this takes time.

(tl;dr) I think if I were to write another, my plans could be boiled down to a few questions:

1) What are the parameters of my story? (i.e. what timeline do I want? am I writing two people meeting for the first time and following their relationship from there? do they already know each other and they are just now catching feelings?)

2) What external factors are keeping my characters apart, if any? (For TiWWaN: the idea that relationships with coworkers is taboo and because they are mercenaries, may end with forcible ejection from the job via bullet)

3) What internal factors are keeping my characters apart? (For TiWWaN: character B is struggling with depression and doesn't have the bandwidth to consider a relationship)

4) How are my characters going to overcome these trials?

5) How long do I actually want this story to take? (I answered this question for "Lachesis" and said "not very long," so I decided to pick only important stages in the relationship and overall plot to tell the story---in sharp contrast to TiWWaN where I said "I want an immersive adventure" and failed to realize that without a plan or parameters that this thing could well be 100 chapters).

Please feel free to ask clarifying questions; I feel like I've lost the plot a little here and that's unsurprising since, honestly, plot is the thing I need to work on most.

[ultranos]

You've made a few references to Shujiao picking clothes for Azula, so I'm curious about Azula's relationship to clothing in the modulus-verse. Does Azula have no fashion sense from years of other people dressing them, or they're less concerned about appearance after escaping palace life? & Shujiao is like "love you babe but you aren't wearing THAT in public." Or is clothing used as a conscious form of self-expression, w/ Shujiao helping b/c that's something Azula is still learning to practice?

Oh man, I have Thoughts on this. So this is a bit of me hashing things out since the process around it is plot-relevant but not spoilery? Non-linear narratives, man.

Anyway, it's somewhat of a combination of having zero fashion sense because her wardrobe growing up was "Fire Nation Officer Uniform, Miniature Size" or "Elegant and Proper Formal Lady Clothing" with zero in-between, and using clothing as another conscious form of self-expression.

At some point during their time with the artisan brothers, they need new clothes and instead of just wearing hand-me-downs (Azula would have spent a few months completely on her own, and there's still a strong amount of "if I say or do the wrong thing, I'll get abandoned again lose the roof over my head and access to food."). One of the brothers is just "okay, why don't you pick something?" with them at a clothing shop and Azula...kind of freezes because what do you mean, choose? Followed by frantically trying to figure out the "correct" choice because obviously there's nothing like what they used to wear at the palace but which option is closest? Which option would make him happy with her?

The brothers were not expecting this feral Fire child to have an anxiety attack in a clothing shop over shirts.

So once Azula realizes that clothing can be a form of self-expression, the realization that they don't know what the fashion means comes quickly after. Because Azula does genuinely like feeling "put-together" and having clothing be complimentary and just...looking good. The trick becomes accomplishing that without sacrificing feeling comfortable and without wearing something they really don't like.

So this is...a process that Azula is working out over the course of years. Thing is, they also see nothing wrong with having a bunch of copies of the same outfit once they find one that feels right. And without the money of the Palace, and the now-acute awareness of how much money they have, they absolutely get sticker-shock on clothing prices. Now there's a layer of "what if I buy the wrong thing and have to wear it because clothing costs money?" That's just more anxiety.

Shujiao has an eye for quality and likes finding things that make Azula light up. And Azula trusts her judgement on these things, because Shujiao also knows what not only will look good but be comfortable as well and what they will like. So yeah, she's helping them figure out the process of all this.

[fullyfunctionalapprentice]

Arcana MC: Turel (he/him, though he doesn't actually care

"The skilled artisan who knows more than he lets on."

Favorite Food: Sauteed chanterelles

Favorite Drink: Water

Favorite Flower: Lotus

Birth Date: Older than linear time

Favorite Season: Yes

Favorite Ice Cream: Pistacio

Favorite Fruit: Black currant

Languages: There is possibly a language or two he hasn't picked up; however, he prefers speaking sign languages over speaking.

Musical inclinations: Doubtless he has learned a great many instruments, but his favourite is his voice, which is dizzyingly deep, clear, and resonant.

Age: Older than linear time, younger than death.

Can they cook?: He can, and he loves it! He tends to make filling, savoury, balanced meals in large quantities.

How do they do with spicy food?: As long as the heat is in balance with the other flavours, he enjoys it.

Do they like alcohol? What kind of drinks do they like?: Alcohol is a thing that some delicious beverages contain. He enjoys beverages, in general, especially ones with either a clear crisp flavour or an earthy/spicy complex one.

How well do they hold their drinks?: Pretty well, in proportion to his size, which would translate to "don't try to outdrink him, you Will Die," if he had any interest whatsoever in a) drinking heavily or b) making a contest of it

Sweet tooth? Sour fiend?: SOUR FIEND. For all his thoughtful and balanced nature, Turel WILL eat a family-size bag of sour patch kids and have heartburn for a week. Yes, he's an incomprehensibly ancient entity of the cycles of life and death, light and dark, order and chaos, and could absolutely do something about that. No, he isn't going to. Heartburn is what happens when you eat an entire fucking family-size bag of fucking sour patch kids.

Can they swim?: Can and will, good luck stopping him. Has to be in the right mood to accept being dunked, due to Bad Associations.

Can they Sail?: Yes, and often does, as payment for transportation by ship. Would enjoy it more if ships weren't so awkwardly small to exist on.

Can they read? Do they like to read? Write?: Yes to all of the above! Especially the latter; he dislikes speaking, and not everyone understands sign, so writing is a major component of communication. So is drawing, since plenty of people aren't literate, either - he's adept at making a few lines say a lot!

How do they feel about science/the scientific method?: It's a cornerstone of his interactions with everything.

Name meaning, provenance?: He shares a name with the Hebrew angel of strength.

What might their Major Arcana be if not the Fool?: He was ancient when the Arcana came into being.

What Minor Arcana would they choose to represent themselves in a conventional reading (if not the previous)?: Good fuckin luck doing a reading on him, my dude.

Nicknames? Are they ok with them?: The Arcana call him the Heart of All Forests. Magicians who are aware of him as an entity call him the Quiet Man.

Height: At a quarter-inch shy of 8 ft tall, he towers over the entire cast

How would you describe their build?: Long and lean; broad in the shoulders and narrow through the hips; well-muscled with just enough fat to soften their definition. His height is fairly evenly proportioned, though a smidge more of it lies in the legs than the torso. He has a glorious ass.

Do they run cold or warm?: Not particularly. He'd rather be too cold than too hot, but isn't overly susceptible to either.

Feelings on caffeine/coffee?: Caffeine can be a nice boost when he's groggy, and coffee can be delicious! One of the few sweet drinks he favours is a good Zadithi coffee on a chilly morning.

How do they think/learn? Visual? Auditory? Written?: Constantly and in every way possible. His favourite is hands-on, though.

Trinkets:

Leather flask - a dark brown leather flask, rich and supple with age, undecorated save for the stitching, which is a mossy emerald green. It is always filled with clean, clear, fresh water. In Turel's hands, it will pour whatever kind of water needs be.

River stone - an oval rock, subtly striped with grey, cream, and white, worn smooth from rushing waters. It fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.

Hunting knife - a perfectly balanced Zadithi* steel blade the length of Turel's palm, with an undyed bone hilt. From tip to pommel it is a single piece of unadorned steel, but its black leather sheath is embossed with a single rain-wet gingko leaf. Its surface shows a history of both regular use and excellent care.

Screaming moon - it's a crescent moon, about an inch across, made of porcelain, with great skill and clarity of purpose. It also looks like the damn seagull meme. Why does this exist? Only Turel knows, because it sure doesn't.

*in our world, Damascus

[kickassfu]

k so I binged the series and my tldr thoughts are that I would have enjoyed the series more if it were better written.

It's way to short to carry all the emotional beats it tries to put in and the relationship dynamics between Geralt and Yennefer falls completely flat and they are among the most forced ship dynamics Ive ever seen in any show. Theres zero indication why Geralt is suddenly so obsessed with her or why she is so into him.

I don't ship them but jaskier and Geralt have an unambiguously better build up and dynamic even though it was also very rushed and could have used more development given how close they seem. Other than that I love Ciri and Yennefer and I wish they had more screen time.

Ciri in particular isn't given enough development given how essential she is to the overarching plot and political struggle. I kinda wish that instead of the back and forth time skips which just leave me confused and not knowing what's happening they just wrote a linear narrative with flashbacks. given that Geralt actually doesn't do much in most of the series besides B plot monster hunting quests I think his character would have been enriched by sticking to a linear narrative instead of the back and forth.

If I (a person who has never written anything elaborate in my life) were to have written the show I would have filmed one season separated into 3 parts, one following Ciri, one following Yennefer and one following Geralt that you can watch side by side or after the other and they all end end with Ciri and Geralt meeting and Yennefer mysterious fate.

within the series there would be connections and Easter eggs that you can put together once you watch the other series. it wouldn't have only helped build the overarching plot as well as the character and relationship development and felt more like a video game adaption.

Apparently the series also cost 10 mill per episode which I assume must have gone mostly to Henry Cavill because it's simultaneously the cheapest and most expensive show I've ever seen. Some scenes look really good but others look like a fanmade film. Not that those films are bad and I don't know how to explain it but they have a quality to them that makes them not look real even if the costuming and video quality is good. Like that scene in the cave with that goatman and the elder.

I'll see how the second season is reviewed once it comes out and I'll think about checking it out. I know I complained a lot lol but I didn't hate it.

oh i'm actually really happy that you decided to come tell me your thoughts. and i don't disagree with most of them honestly haha

in a better written show maybe i'd ship geralt and yennefer (i don't hate them together btw, and also they're hot so they make a nice picture xD) but the show doesn't give me anything, they meet and suddenly??? geralt is just tying himself to her in such an intrinsic way? i just don't buy it. it's weird, and the writing does not pay off what they show us.

i do ship geraskier, but i get it if you don't! they do have more of a buildup than yennefer and geralt. it seems more natural, and gradual. but again you're right, they could have shown us more of their development.

i like Ciri as a character, but i was bored watching most of her scenes, they just don't do her justice, and the show seems to slow down whenever she shows up (to me). and i also love yennefer, she's a very interesting character!

i actually kinda enjoyed how the show isn't technically very linear, but at the same time it is. because geralt's, yennerfer's and ciri's stories are indeed linear, and yes we're seeing them at the same time as if they were going on at the same time but they aren't. and it was neat when their stories finally aligned. and i enjoyed looking for context clues to see when something has come to be in one of the other one's stories. it was another way to keep me focused in the show when i so often have a hard time to focus on the thing i'm watching lol so in this we kinda disagree. i do understand that it might be complicated and boring to other ppl tho.

having it be three different stories could work better to develop the characters more i agree. but it'd be boring for me, and i'd probably not be able to get through the 3 different shows/parts of a show like that. but again its a matter of preference and i understand where you're coming from.

oh def....some of the cgi is BAD lol and it does come off cheap at times for sure, even if other scenes are amazingly well done. but it's a first season and they were finding their footing so i forgive them to a certain extent.

i am going to watch s02 no matter what the reviews say. not because i love this show but because i love Jaskier LOL he just makes the show so fucking fun for me, you have no idea. and i am interested in what's gonna happen as well. i'm glad you got some enjoyment out of it!

also i'm sorry that my thoughts are also too long akjsdhsdfjhsd sorry