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whatdoesshedotothem · 3 years

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Saturday 26 September 1835

12 ¼

No kiss rain last night from between 11 and 12 to after one - rainy morning but not heavy rainy till near 9 then fair and F55° - breakfast at 9 ¼ - A- getting off her speech for the first stone laying and I writing out mine put on my new pelisse and had my hair done - Marian was to have gone to the 1st stone laying, but got nervous and staid at home - A- and I off at 10 ¾ in my own carriage (with our 2 men behind) to Northgate hotel - not quite ready for us - began looking over the drawings of Northgate and by mistake kept the people waiting and did not begin the ceremony till about 11 ¾ which lasted about ¼ hour - A- did her part very well - the coins of the King’s reign (William IV) i.e. a sovereign, ½ ditto, ½ crown, shilling and sixpence (could not get at 7/. piece very scarce - Swanns the bankers in York had only seen two of William 14th 7/. pieces) were put into a large mouthed green glass bottle as also an inscription engraved on sheet-lead and rolled up tight - the cork was dripped in tar, then put into the neck of the bottle and covered over with course red wax - should have been hermetically sealed but Messrs. Harper and Husband could not get it done - had no blowpipe - I said I could have got it done at old Charles Howarth’s - no! because it was not plate glass - the green glass too difficult to fuse! the stone in which the hole was made that [A-] put the bottle into was a larger square piece of rough stone from one of Stock’s quarries, whence comes the rest of the stone wanted, and formed the footing of the front corner (nearest Halifax) of the casino - over this footing was put a very large mass of girt-stone quarried at Northgate in digging for the cellar, and which they called the foundation stone - there must have been a hundred people collected round the spot - 2 neatly dressed young ladies? some respectable looking men and the rest rabble - there was a little crowd to push thro’ to get into the wall-race - Mr Nelson junior and his men were in working costume - the bottle was held in hand by A- while she addressed Mr N- as follows ‘Mr Nelson, I have been requested to my friend Miss Lister, to lay the 1st tone of a casino, which will form a spacious and commodious saloon to be annexed to the Northgate hotel - I will only add that we hope and trust that the undertaking will prove an accommodation to the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood, in whose prosperity we feel interested; that it will be an accommodation to the public at large, and that it will do credit to all the individuals concerned in its erection’ - This said A- deposited the bottle - 8 or 10 men lowered down and properly placed over it the foundation stone to which A- then gave 3 right earnest strokes with her mallet, and I spoke as follows looking now at Mr N- and now at the people assembled round - ‘Mr Nelson - my friend Miss Walker has done us great honour, and I trust her good wishes will not be in vain - I am very anxious that this Casino with its annexed Hotel should be an accommodation to the public at large, but more especially to this my native town in whose prosperity I ever have felt, and ever shall feel, deeply interested - I earnestly hope that the work we are now beginning, will do credit to us all - may the voice of Discord be never heard within its walls, may persons of every share of varying opinion meet together here in amity and in charity and my none ever go away dissatisfied but such, if such there be, whom good cheer and good humour cannot please!’ - I heard someone of the crown say ‘very well’ - A- and I hurried back into the carriage 3 cheers were given - Mr Harper gave us back the silver trowel, and we drove off to call on Mr and Mrs Musgrave at the vicarage - the inscription on the sheet-lead put into the bottle (written by Mr Gray on Tuesday) was as follows

‘The first stone of a spacious Casino, which will be annexed to a handsome public hotel, to be erected at Halifax was laid on the 26th day of September A.D. 1835. in the sixth year of the reign of King William IV by Miss Ann Walker the younger of Cliff Hill, Yorkshire in the name and at the request of her particular friend Miss Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Yorkshire, owner of the property.’

Sat 3/4 hour from 12 5 to 12 50 at the vicarage with Mr and Mrs M- I mentioned A-‘s having been laying the 1st stone of the Casino - they, or rather Mrs M- let out their belief that the thing would not answer - said it was reported Mr Carr of the White Swan had taken it - of which I said I knew nothing - I see most people think the thing will be a losing concern and laugh at me for so throwing away my money - nous verrons - called at Mr Parker’s office (he came to the carriage door) to say the Sutherlands were to be in Halifax - we supposed at Mr P-‘s at 2 ½ - I ordered handbills to be put against holly stealers and wood and young tree damagers offering 10/ reward for each one taken, on conviction - home about 1 ½ - some while with my aunt - repeated our speeches and amused her - found A-‘s quondam Highlander servant James come to see her -

SH:7/ML/E/18/0104

Mr Harper came at 2 - in and out with him till left him at the tail-goit at 4 ½ , I to go to meet A- at Cliff Hill, and he to go to Mawson’s Stump x Inn to see that the dinner at 5 for the Northgate workmen was all right - Mawson much obliged - thought it would have been at Carr’s - asked 1/3 head for eating and 2/6 a head for drink - Mr Harper gave him 1/6 a head for eating and his price for drink = 4/. a head - I thought to have given 5/ a head- with Mr Harper at the cascade bridge and at Adney bridge, and in the new farmyard - they had got wrong this morning with the buttress - the 2nd ramp above the wall instead of being a ft or 2 below it - approved Mr Harper’s consequent manner of finishing them - carrying them above the wall and capped chevron-wise - Gave him Washington plan of the engine wheel dam goit - he is to calculate the proper dimensions of the wheel - found that the Manns were driving the tail-goit dead level instead of giving it 2ft. of fall from the mouth to the wheel as Mr Harper had advised and I thought I had fully explained to Holt - Mr Harper told them to give 18inch of fall (supposing about ¼ of the length of goit to be done) from where they left off to the wheel - the fall of 4inch at the last 3 or 4 yards towards the mouth - foolish - asked Mr Harper why he gave back the trowel, I supposing Nelson ought to have had it - he said when the owner of the property laid the 1st stone, sometimes the architect got the trowel, and sometimes those kept it who could get hold of it - but when a stranger (not the owner) laid the 1st stone, he thought it customary to give the trowel to the stranger as a memorial of their building, and he thought therefore Miss W- should have it - thanked him for the hint - but said I, there ought to be an inscription - talked it over a little - said I would send him the trowel tonight with a copy of the inscription and an impression of my arms - he said Cattle and Barber would engrave it well, but were so dear - this, in this case, not to be minded - would perhaps charge 2 guineas for the engraving - asked 5 for the trowel, but he bound them down to price per oz. and got the trowel (well made and good) for 3 guineas - At Cliff hill at 5 5 - there about ½ hour - Mrs AW in her best sorts - the Sutherlands gone to Mr Parker’s in Washington’s gig - A- and I walked back by Lower brea and the walk, and came in at 6 35 - A- wrote a handsome letter to Mr Gray speaking handsomely of Mr Watson - persuaded Mr G- could not have sent any one more likely to satisfy all parties - had great pleasure Mr Washington had [proved] right, and the deeds were quite correct - I wrote out the following inscription for the trowel

‘To Miss Walker the younger of Cliff Hill, Yorkshire, For laying the first stone of the Casino, to be annexed to the Northgate Hotel at Halifax. XXVI VIIbr. [September] A.D. MDCCCXXXV.’

Had just done as A- came to say the Sutherlands who had come a few minutes before had inquired about my block tin deed-box - told her to shew them upstairs into to the kitchen chamber where it has stood since A- came very civil to the S-s - opened the box for them and advised about it - then shewed the inscriptions - Mrs S- seemed pleased - in short, we are capital friends - they stood talking upstairs and down in the drawing room - captain S- wrote a note for George to take to Mr Parker (to countermand places in the coach for Tuesday morning to Manchester and say they would stay till Friday A- had persuaded them to stay - they were easily persuaded) - and Mrs S- took a glass of wine and a biscuit - in the midst about 7 ½ Mr Gray was announced - we all startled but A- remembered it must be Mr S. Gray - had him in the drawing room for the S-s escaped into the little north parlour on the 1st sound of his name, and went away - apologized to Mr SG- saying his room was not quite ready - he would be dull tomorrow and I thought he had better go to the Inn (Carr’s) till Monday morning - sent him in the hot roll of beef A- and I were to have had and potatoes etc etc and said the servant was going to the post in about an hour, and would take his (Mr SG’s) travelling bag - Came upstairs A- added a post scriptum to her letter to Mr Gray to say the S-s had just been here and Captain S- said there were some errors in the deeds but which she did not pretend to understand - I did up the trowel and inscription and sent them by George (at 8 ¾) to Mr Harper at the White Swan (Carr’s) and A- sent her letter and Mr SG went back to the Inn - dinner at 8 ¾ - coffee - my father going to bed as we sat down to dinner - it seems captain S- makes a great merit (as great as he can) of having found out errors in the deeds - humbug - Washington was right - pointed the required plantation (1ac.0r.14 perches at Windy End Golcar) in an instant - was at Crownest all the while and would have been at Cliff Hill in 2 or 3 minutes - was not the real fact that Captain S- wanted an excuse for conning over the deeds at his leisure again and with Mr Parker? what must Messrs. Gray and Watson think of him? with my aunt from 10 to 10 35 - then wrote the last 14 lines of yesterday and the first 7 of today - very fine day F57 ½° now at 11 35 pm

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hoe-doroki · 3 years

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I was tagged by @kuddlingkoalaofdanganronpa (sorry if you’re disturbing me?? Lol, no!!! It was so kind of you to tag me!) in this super sweet tag game started by @/johnmurphyisbisexual

Tag 5 or more people that you are thankful were in your 2020, that you’re thankful exists in a world that’s hard to live in. Whether that be through random reblogs on your posts, or people you have had full blown conversations with. Whether it’s just seeing them on your dash, or interacting with them.

Please Spread this love. 2020 has been hard for so SO many of us.

But the post was long and, also I’m about to make it a LOT longer. I hit 500 follows today (milestone, woo! 🎉🎉🎉) and there’s nothing I’d love to do more than shine that love back out. (No need to see this as a tag game; I’ve really just stolen it and made it an appreciation post. If you wanna spread the love, feel free to add on here or make your own post! Or do nothing!)

@kuddlingkoalaofdanganronpa Sending the thanks right back at you! I always see you in my notifs and it makes me smile every time!

@a-bnha-shoutorealm One of my first friends on here and my fave person to get into the weeds of bnha theories (or nonsense) with

@in-this-house-we-stan-izuku I adore how personal you are and all you do to make your blog a helpful accepting space

@summon-the-stars Honestly, I’m still just soft that you gave me the best review I’ve ever gotten. You made me feel better about the thing I hate most about myself

@maemi324 My newest bud that I talk shop with! Honestly, never met someone who can quite match me in going off on our hyperfixations and it’s the most fun thing

@unlasting My pal who invited me to join a bnha discord, my love who I reblog so much content from. Plus, such a fun personality

@enjifuckersupreme We’re so different but so the same! We just get lost chatting about cats and you deserve all the love in the world, babe

@pleasantanathema My dear, I owe you the world! This woman invited me into her friend group and has played probably the biggest hand in making this tumblr thing as meaningful as it is to me

@shoutosteakettle Honestly, the woman responsible for getting this blog off the ground. She reblogged my first story, is responsible for it gaining any traction in the first place before I even had 100 follows. It comes back to you, babe!

@shoutogepi Honestly, I just want to get to know you better because say Shouto and Pokemon and I’m THERE. I aspire to your heights, Rosie

@thecindy WE TALK THEATRE. Any person who has two of the same hyperfixations as me is a new bff. Plus, I reblog more from you than anyone else XD

@whats-her-quirk She completely changed my beta reader game. I thought I knew all the tricks then she slapped the first story I sent her with kindness and I said, wow. I gotta be nice like June

@some-kindofgnome She puts so much heart into her stories and reading her work is such a treat. She’s so multitalented and multifaceted, ya’ll don’t even know

@lady-bakuhoe is responsible for my creating this blog. Her blog is the single rabbit hole that sent me into this mess of bnha + tumblr + x reader (and definitely laid the seeds of my Bakugou crush back when I tried to hate him.) Love her

Then there are just a bunch of people whom I’ve loved chatting to so far like @mindninjax, @dymphnasprose, @thewheezingwyvern, @redflannel, @present-mel, @fanfic-me-up, @messwriting (sorry for the late follow, Lee!), @mixedhell, and so many more! I’m still just getting to know so many people and it’s so exciting! I wanna be best friends with everyone!

I’m also def forgetting people but it’s past my bedtime and I’m a granny

This year has obviously sucked. For me and everyone else. But making this blog back in October is the best thing that happened to me this year (don’t tell, shh, I just told my brother his wedding was the best thing that happened but that was a LIE). I’ve met dozens of new friends--real friends--and been having so much fun with the content. Thanks for this, 2020

#i have nothing else good to say to you 2020 #too tired to look this over; pressing enter #nobody asked ana #tag game #long post

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orthodoxydaily · 3 years

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Saints&reading: Thu., Mar. 25, 2021

Commemorated on March 12_by the new calendar

The Monk Theophanes the Confessor (818)

The Monk Theophanes the Confessor was born at Constantinople into a pious and reknown family. the father of Theophanes was a kinsman of the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741). Three years after Theophanes was born, his father died, leaving his family under the care of the emperor himself. Theophanes grew up at the court and became a dignitary under the emperor Leo the Khozar (775-780). His position obliged him to enter into marriage. With the consent of his bride, Theophanes preserved his chastity, since in his soul matured the desire to assume the monastic form. Visiting upon a time with his spouse at monasteries in the Sygreian district (Asia Minor), Theophanes met the perspicacious elder Gregory Stratitios, who predicted to Theophanes' wife, that her husband would merit the crown of martyrdom. Awhile later the spouse of Theophanes was tonsured a nun in one of the monasteries in Bithynia, and Theophanes accepted monastic tonsure under the monastic elder Gregory. With the blessing of the elder, Theophanes built a monastery on the Island of Kalon in the Sea of Marmara and secluded himself in his cell, being occupied with the transcription of books. And in this occupation Theophanes attained an high degree of mastery. Later on the Monk Theophanes founded yet another monastery in the Sygreian district, at a place called the "Big Settlement", and became its hegumen. The monk himself took part in all the monastic tasks and for everyone he gave example by his love for work and effort. He was granted by the Lord the gift of wonderworking: he healed the sick and cast out devils. In the year 787 at Nicea was convened the Seventh Oecumenical Council, which condemned the heresy of the Iconoclasts. The Monk Theophanes was also invited to the Council. He arrived dressed in his patch-tattered attire, but he shone forth by his God-inspired wisdom in affirming the dogmas of the true Orthodoxy. At age 50 the Monk Theophanes fell grievously ill and right up to his very end he suffered terribly. Situated on his sick-bed, the monk toiled incessantly: he wrote his work, "The Chronographia", – an history of the Christian Church covering the years 285-813. This work even up into the present has remained an invaluable source in the history of the Church. During the reign of the emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), when the saint was already well up into age, the Iconoclast heresy made a comeback. They demanded of Saint Theophanes that he accept the heresy, but he firmly refused and was locked up in prison. His "Big Settlement" monastery was put to the torch. In prison for 23 days, the holy confessor died (+ 818). After the death of the impious emperor Leo the Armenian, the "Big Settlement" monastery was restored and the relics of the holy confessor were transferred there.

The Monk Simeon the New Theologian (1022)

The Monk Simeon the New Theologian was born in the year 946 in the city of Galata (Paphlagonia), and he received the basic secular education at Constantinople. His father prepared him for a career at court, and for a certain while the youth occupied an high position at the imperial court. But at age 25 he felt the draw towards monastic life, and he fled his house and withdrew to the Studite monastery, where he entered into obedience under the then reknown elder Simeon the Reverent. The basic ascetic deed of the monk was the unceasing Jesus Prayer in its short form: "Lord, have mercy!" For greater prayerful concentration he constantly sought out solitude, and even at liturgy he stood separately from the brethren, and he often remained alone at night in the church; in order to accustom himself to mindfulness concerning death, he would spend nights in the graveyard. The fruit of his fervour was a special condition of ecstasy: in these moments the Holy Spirit in the form of a luminous cloud descended upon him and made oblivious to his sight everything surrounding. With time he attained to a constant high spiritual enlightened awareness, which was especially evident when he served the Liturgy.

In roughly the year 980 the Monk Simeon was made hegumen of the monastery of Saint Mamant and continued in this dignity for 25 years. He set in order the neglected management of the monastery and restored order to its church. The Monk Simeon combined kindliness with strictness and steadfast observance of the Gospel commands. Thus, for example, when his favourite disciple Arsenios killed ravens which were pecking away at moist bread, the hegumen made him tie the dead birds to a rope, and wear this "necklace" on his neck and stand in the courtyard. In the monastery of Saint Mamant for the atoning of his sin was a certain bishop from Rome, unrepentingly having murdered his young nephew, and the Monk Simeon assiduously brought him around to good and spiritual attentiveness. The strict monastic discipline, which the Monk Simeon constantly strove for, led to a strong dissatisfaction amongst the monastic brethren. One time after liturgy, the particularly irked among the brethren pounced on him and nearly killed him. When the Constantinople patriarch expelled them from the monastery and wanted to hand them over to the city authorities, the monk obtained pardon for them and aided them to live in the world. In about the year 1005, the Monk Simeon handed over the hegumen position to Arsenios, while he himself settled nearby the monastery in peace. He composed there his theological works, fragments of which entered into the 5 volumed "Philokalia" ("Dobrotoliubie"). The chief theme of his works – is the hidden activity of a spiritual perfecting, with struggle against the passions and sinful thoughts. He wrote discursive instructions for monks, – "Practical Theological Chapters", "A Tract on Three Forms of Prayers", and "A Tract on Faith". Moreover, the Monk Simeon was an outstanding churchly poet. To him belong the "Hymns of Divine Love" – about 70 poems, filled with profound prayerful ponderings. The teachings of the Monk Simeon about the new man, about the "divinisation of the flesh", with which he wanted to replace the teachings concerning the "mortification of the flesh" (for which also they termed him the New Theologian), – were difficult for his contemporaries to assimilate. Many of his teachings sounded for them unacceptable and strange. This led to conflict with Constantinople church authorities, and the Monk Simeon was subjected to banishment. He withdrew to the coasts of the Bosphorus and founded there a monastery of Saint Marina. The saint reposed peacefully to God in the year 1021. While still during his life he received a gift of wonderworking. Numerous miracles occurred also after his death; one of them – was a miraculous discovery of his image. His Life (Vita) was written by his cell-attendant and disciple, the Monk Nikita Stethatos.

Isaiah 6:1-12

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”

4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.

7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,

12 The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

Proverbs 6:3-20

3 So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; For you have come into the hand of your friend: Go and humble yourself; Plead with your friend.

4 Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids.

5Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise,

7 Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler,

8 Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.

9 How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep—

11 So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a wicked man, Walks with a perverse mouth;

13 He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers;

14 Perversity is in his heart, He devises evil continually, He sows discord.

15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.

16 These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

17 A proud look, A lying tongue,

18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil,

19 A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

20 My son, keep your father’s command, And do not forsake the law of your mother.

#ortohdoxy #orthodoxchristianity #ancientchristianity #originofchristianity #ancientestament #sacred texts #wisdom

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ohmightydevviepuu · 4 years

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our little life (rounded with a sleep) / chapter 5

our little life (rounded with a sleep) chapter five

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful detective. She had blonde hair, green eyes, no family, and she was good at finding people; in fact, she proclaimed this on her office door. “Swan and Humbert,” it said. “Private investigations, missing persons, and bail bonds.”

Only lately, she’s been thinking that maybe it should say “Emma Swan: Loner, Loser, Complicated wreck.”

Her partner’s been killed on a case after she made a deal with her landlord to find what had been taken from him. But when she tracks a possible perp to a bar on the outskirts of town, Emma will find out exactly how deep the rabbit hole goes.

thank you as ever to my support team of mythical beauties, without whom this fic would not exist in its present form: @thisonesatellite for her many, many rereads; @profdanglaisstuff for swooping in to save the day (no cape necessary); @katie-dub just for being there, and being awesome.

SPEAKING OF AWESOME there are not enough good things to be said about the team @captainswanbigbang, and the amazing crew in the CSRT discord for cheers and comeraderie and so many late nights of sprinting and bad decisions.

cw: canonical character death rating: T/M (implied violence, language) word count: ~4.5k AO3 chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four

chapter summary: Hook spends the night in jail, and Emma spends the night dealing with her shit. (It’s not a particularly pleasant way to spend the time, but what the hell--Emma Swan is not a believer. She is, however, a thief.)

Emma had a parking space that was legal, had sightlines into the Mills Organization building, and was far enough back from the entrance that the bright yellow car would not be too memorable. There was even a nearby streetlight that gave enough light to see without destroying her night vision.

It was almost enough to make a person believe in magic.

No cars went by as she sat and waited; no late-night pedestrians passing by in activities either savory or unsavory.

But she sat, and waited, because Hook was right and this was her best chance of making progress. Because she believed him when he said he hadn’t stolen Gold’s “valuable object”, no matter how much it went against her better judgement.

She believed him, about that and--

Her fingers traced over the soft, pebbled leather of Henry’s book as she waited, turning open to a page at random: a cartoonish drawing of a wedding, the bride in white and the groom in plate armor complete with sword belt. It was True Love and Happily Ever After, all of it Mary Margaret down to the core.

Once Upon a Time.

Only the longer Emma stared at the illustration, the more the image began to seem like a photograph, like she could almost see their faces and the stained glass and the way the princess’s skirt fluttered not from fabric but from feathers dancing in the air.

The lights in the window flickered, pulling Emma’s focus fully back toward the building and there was a tall woman--blonde--she was dressed out of time in a voluminous brown skirt embroidered all over in roses and it looked like the curtain-clothing from The Sound of Music. She walked through the front door and vanished in a single flash of hard white light; a scream carried through the air and Emma was out of her car before the echo had faded.

That was when she saw the man in the animal coat, the one with the skin that seemed to glitter. In his hand was something small and white and he carried it as though it were both delicate and valuable.

“Hey!” Emma called out.

His expression, was she could see of it, registered surprise. The object vanished as he held his hands at right angles to each other and he giggled.

“Who are you?” Emma called, trying to walk forward and finding herself unable to do so.

“Not yet, dearie,” he said. “Not yet.”

He vanished; Emma felt a hand brush against her shoulder and jumped.

It wasn’t a hand--it was a silver hook where the prosthetic left hand of James Hook’s had been.

“Tick-tock, Swan,” he said.

The fingers of his right hand rubbed against her wrist and when Emma woke it was with her own hand wrapped around her tattoo and her head leaning against the steering wheel.

The thing about stakeouts was that you needed actually to stay awake in order to execute one, so Emma gave up the game and turned the Bug back home when she saw the lights in Regina’s office were out. She parked the car in the first open spot within spitting distance of the of and found herself running inside, nearly banging the door into the wall when she came through. She called out an apology to Mary Margaret before remembering that it was well after midnight and only sort-of noticed that her roommate wasn’t even home as she started pulling drawers and cabinets open, looking for the one box that she never unpacked, never once in the seven different addresses. For most of her life, its contents had been in her backpack, squished up and neglected but never left behind, leaving just enough room for a toothbrush and a change of clothes and a few pairs of socks, maybe a hat if she was living someplace cold.

The blanket was soft, the knitted wool somehow still fluffy under her fingers in spite of its ignominious storage conditions. Emma pulled it out slowly, running her fingers across the smooth purple ribbon woven through, feeling the simple running stitch across the upper corner that spelled out her name. She sat cross-legged on the floor and draped the blanket over her legs and told herself it was just for a minute.

Emma’s life was full of nightmares. Sometimes, on her worst days, her entire existence actually felt like one; a waking hell from which there was no escape except for her own determination to keep going and to keep running.

But none of those nightmares had ever felt like this, like something true and just on the edge of her consciousness, like a memory.

Milah. The crocodile.

Emma could still see his face as he died in her dream, and she wasn’t sure if she meant Graham’s or Hook’s or both, so she sat on the floor with her blanket.

Enjoy the quiet moment.

The blanket didn’t offer much in terms of real warmth when she sat on the floor, but Emma didn’t notice. She rubbed her hand across her wrist as though she could feel the motif inked there--remembered a time and a girl and a friend, her only friend, scribbling on that wrist and saying now we can both be special. Neal and how he had made her feel special; prison and the tattoo to remind herself that she was special without anyone’s help; the buttercup because once upon a time there had been a girl in a storybook that no one thought was special and she became a princess, the True Love to end all True Loves.

Henry’s book had fallen open and Emma slammed it shut almost exactly at the moment when the door banged open again, a slightly disheveled and fully distracted Mary Margaret walking in and nearly tripping over her.

“Oh!” Mary Margaret futtered around her, reaching a hand down toward the floor, apparently changing her mind, and then covering her mouth with it. “Emma! I didn’t expect you.” She paused. “On the floor, I mean.” Her hands were rubbing against each other anxiously as she played with the peridot ring on her middle finger.

“Mary Margaret,” Emma said, rubbing unshed tears from her eyes before her friend had enough focus to notice them. She really did not want a post-coital Mary Margaret going all mother-hen after the night she’d had. “Sorry. Got caught up in...a case.”

“Hmmm?” Mary Margaret said, still distracted. “Oh, that’s good.”

Emma looked at her friend, really looked at her: the woman was a wreck. Tear streaks on her face, the kind that came from ugly crying--and Sheriff Nolan had been the one to pull Hook into custody. So--

“Where have you been?”

“Out,” Mary Margaret said, dully. “Walking. By the water?”

“Is that a question?” Emma said.

“What?” And there was that famous Mary Margaret focus, looking at her as if she had just noticed the two of them were standing in their dining area in the middle of the night. “Emma, what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” Emma said.

“‘Nothing’ with you always means something,” Mary Margaret sighed, “because if it were nothing, you wouldn’t be sitting on our floor in the middle of the night.”

“We were talking about you,” Emma said, a little desperate.

“Yeah,” Mary Margaret said. “But talking about you is easier right now. Remember how you told me to stay away from David and I didn’t?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, pushing herself upright and going for the Scotch. Mary Margaret didn’t drink that often, but they kept a bottle of it in the same cupboard where Emma had hidden her blanket. Mary Margaret bent over and picked the book up off the floor.

“Where did you find this?” she asked. “Did Henry Mills give this to you?”

“What?” Emma said, startled. “Why?” She poured herself a shot and then another one for her friend, handing it over.

“I lent it to him,” Mary Margaret said wistfully. “It used to be my favorite book, you know.”

Emma took her drink and poured another. “Fairy tales?” Emma laughed, and it was harsh--slightly hysterical, even. “Seems about right for you.” She finished the second shot and put the glass down.

“No,” Mary Margaret said, running her fingers across the gilded lettering. “It was more than that. It was hope. Like--believing in even the possibility of a happy ending.”

“Hope,” Emma repeated dubiously.

“And belief,” Mary Margaret said. “It’s a very powerful thing, you know.”

“Whatever,” Emma said, summoning a smile for her friend. She walked toward the ladder to her loft before turning back in an attempt to offer Mary Margaret some kind of reassurance, but Mary Margaret was no longer there. Or maybe she was, only her hair--long now instead of the short pixie cut she typically favored--her hair piled on her head, her waist confined in a dress with a white silk corseted bodice.

The skirt had feathers.

“Mary Margaret?” Emma said.

“Yes?” The woman in white answered her.

“Good night,” Emma said.

Sleep was a challenge and beginning daylight was making the sky go grey; Emma was already dressed and out the door by the time five o’clock came and went. She had gone to bed full of whiskey and frustration and fear, chasing a vision of a woman in white through the pages of the storybook she’d gone downstairs for as soon as she’d heard her roommate’s sobbing go quiet and still.

She hadn’t slept.

The fairy tales were--unexpected. To begin with, they were not in any sort of chronological order, meandering through a series of origin stories and follow-ups seemingly based on whatever interested the author most at that particular moment; an increasingly hard-to-follow series of circumlocutions as if they had been paid by the plot twist to churn out the craziest content they could think of. Snow White was a bandit; Prince Charming a shepherd; Red Riding Hood was the Big Bad Wolf and True Love’s Kiss could conquer anything.

Including The Dark Curse, product of the darkest magic and the most malign intent, unleashed upon the world by an Evil Queen manipulated by a man known as the Dark One, and then Snow White and Prince Charming had wrapped their newborn daughter in a hand-knitted blanket trimmed with purple ribbon and hoped that someday, she would find them.

All of it, he’d said, is because of Regina Mills and Robert Gold.

That was when Emma left a note for her friend, promising breakfast, and went back to The Rabbit Hole.

The rear entrance was locked but the office wasn’t, and anyway Emma had come prepared for both, the tension wrench going straight in and exactly the right amount of pressure on the pins popping the back door open in a matter of seconds. The room was exactly as they had left it, even down to Emma’s unfinished tumbler of rum sitting on the far side of Hook’s desk. This time, though, Emma sat on his side, in his chair, bending to examine the drawers.

In the third drawer down she found the locked box. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lock on this offered more of a challenge than the back door had done, but it was still open in less than a minute, its contents spread across the desk for Emma’s examination. Emma’s hands fidgeted with the smallest treasure pulled from the trove--a ring on a chain--as she contemplated the curved, silver metal that would not have looked out of place in the collection on the wall in the main bar. The hook was nestled in with a scrap of worn leather embossed with a sigil, a foreign crest stamped atop the name ‘JONES’; what stopped Emma in her tracks was the pen-and-ink drawing of a woman and another of a boy, both with creases so sharply worn from folding and unfolding that she was almost surprised the paper--the parchment--didn’t fall apart in her hands.

The boy could almost have been a twin for Henry Mills.

But Henry didn’t have a twin--that much, at least, Emma knew for sure. She’d only given birth the once.

The ring went around her neck before Emma could ask herself why.

The parchment went into her pocket.

Everything else went back into the lockbox and then back into the drawer.

Everything you think you believe is wrong, he’d said.

But Emma Swan was not a believer.

Granny’s at seven in the morning was another challenge. Not just because the neighborhood’s best coffee shop and diner would naturally be bustling during the morning rush but because Emma’s head was still pounding from the Scotch. Almost before she sat down, Granny had sent Ruby over with a cup of steaming hot chocolate, whipped cream on top and a cinnamon stick instead of a spoon to stir it. Ruby pulled a face at being dragged back into her old waitressing gig, then gave Emma a wink and sat down, brandishing a bear claw.

Emma closed her eyes and tried to remember why Ruby had quit working at her grandmother’s diner instead of imagining a werewolf serving a breakfast pastry. Something about a row between Granny and Ruby that ended up with Ruby at the bus stop, threatening to leave town, and Emma finding her and mentioning that she and Graham could use the extra help.

“You look like shit,” Ruby commented, taking a bite of an apple that matched her lipstick.

“Are you sure Granny didn’t just fire your ass?” Emma retorted. “Because that is now how you speak to paying customers.”

Ruby laughed. “I’m a people person,” she said. “One that you pay to speak to your customers.”

“Good point,” Emma said, offering a small smile. “How long did you work here, anyway?”

“As long as I can remember,” Ruby said, rolling her eyes. “Too long, that’s for sure.”

As long as I can remember.

“I’m sorry my heart attack interfered with your plans to sleep your way down the eastern seaboard,” Granny said, coming up behind them. “Eat your bear claw or I won’t save you one next time.” That last was directed at Emma, who hastened to comply.

Ruby laughed. “What’s up with you this morning, Em? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bear claw last long enough for you to put it on a plate before.”

Emma shrugged. “It was a long night,” she said, because that was easier than saying she’d stayed up too late reading fairy tales and drinking, or explaining that she’d already committed a felony and been to the office before seven. She’d sat at Graham’s desk, with his things--added another reminder to her collection when she’d pulled the laces from his work boots and tied them around her wrist to cover her tattoo. Hook’s ring bumped up against the swan pendant around her neck that might as well have been an albatross for how much it had weighed her down in the years since Neal had stolen it for her and then bequeathed it to her, a parting gift she’d received in prison as she served the sentence he’d set her up to take.

It came in the mail the same day she’d taken the pregnancy test.

Emma Swan did not get emotional about men and she carried the reasons--the reminders--why everywhere she went.

It’s always nice to leave an impression.

The ring was leaving an impression in her skin from where she’d wrapped her hand around it, Emma realized as she tried to focus on what Ruby was saying to her, and then the bell over the entrance rang and Mary Margaret came in, looking nervously around her before sliding into their booth. Emma ordered her a tea by gesturing for Ruby to go get it, which got her another fake snarl before Mary Margaret said, in a voice barely above a whisper: “I broke up with David.”

“Ah,” Emma said. She leaned in closer, wanting to offer comfort but not totally sure how to do it. She reached her hand out to her roommate’s in an unfamiliar gesture, then let it fall to the table when her eye caught the peridot ring Mary Margaret wore on her third finger.

"I’m not the jewelry type," said Snow White. "I can tell," said the prince."

“Kathryn,” Mary Margaret said, “his wife, I mean, she got into law school.” She paused. “In Boston.”

And it was then, when he saw his mother’s ring on her finger, that he knew in his heart there was no other woman he would ever love.

Emma pulled at the ring on the chain around her neck.

Consider it a reminder.

“So David is moving with her?”

Ruby laughed. “David, outside of Storybrooke? I’m not sure if he would survive.”

“No,” Mary Margaret said, on the verge of tears. “We talked about it--we agreed--to take the opportunity to start over from a real place. He was going to tell her the truth. We were going to be honest.”

Emma did not fail to notice the repeated use of the past tense.

“He didn’t tell her,” Emma said, not needing to ask. “But she found out, didn’t she?”

“While you were out last night on your case I was with David,” Mary Margaret said. “And then his wife called looking for him. She thought he was on duty at the station but he didn’t answer there so she--” Mary Margaret was wiping away tears. “He was supposed to tell her. He told me that he did.”

“That would have been the honorable thing to do,” Emma muttered.

“And I realized,” Mary Margaret said, “that what we have, it isn’t love. It’s something else, something destructive. We shouldn’t be together. It’s like we’re cursed.”

"Show me you feel the same, and we can be together forever." “They had their happy endings stolen from them,” Hook had said.

Ruby came back with the tea and sat down, looking between Emma and Mary Margaret before enveloping Mary Margaret in a hug.

“I always thought,” Mary Margaret said, “that if two people were meant to be together, they find a way. They--find each other, no matter what. I really believed that.”

“If you need anything--” “You’ll find me?” Snow said, looking at him thoughtfully. "Always,” Charming confirmed. “I almost believe that.”

Emma shook her head, trying to wake herself up, trying not to picture the story she’d read the night before, trying not to see the woman in white and a red-cloaked werewolf where her friends were sitting. She took a sip of her cocoa and looked at the clock: 7:15.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie,” Ruby was saying, an arm still wrapped around Mary Margaret’s shoulder as the bell over the door rang again and Sheriff David Nolan walked in.

“You made a mistake with David,” Emma said. “It happens. Hang in there. If there’s anything I can do to help, I will.”

“Thank you,” Mary Margaret said softly, wiping under her eyes, though her mascara was already a lost cause.

So much for True Love.

But Emma still had a job to do, even if she wasn’t completely sure what it was any more. She finished her cocoa and got up, a quick “see you at the office” to Ruby and a hand on the shoulder, which seemed like the right thing to do, for Mary Margaret. She walked toward David and resisted the urge to hit him when she got in front of him and asked, “What happened with Hook last night?”

David’s head moved but he wasn’t looking at her. He was almost looking through her as he said, “I’m looking,” which didn’t seem like an answer to her question.

“What the fuck, Nolan? You really want to dick around right now?” Emma gestured impatiently at the sobbing woman behind both of them.

“I’m looking,” he repeated, and it still wasn’t an answer.

“Whatever,” Emma muttered, moving toward the way out. David Nolan looked like a man possessed.

Or cursed.

Fuck literally all of that, Emma thought as the door closed behind her, nearly walking into someone on the sidewalk. She sidestepped him at the last minute, turning behind her just to double-check, and he was staring at her. The man was tall, with messy hair and wide eyes, something frantic in his gaze. He wore a cravat and a top coat as if that was a thing people did, and turned away when she met his eyes, walking quickly in the other direction.

Emma buried her hands in her pockets, twisting her fingers in the fabric of the pocket bags, and walked to the sheriff’s station.

She should have been expecting to find him already gone, if Nolan was out and about getting coffee, but finding the cell empty was still something of a shock. Judging by the charge sheet David had left on his desk--without locking the door, making it easy to snoop--Hook had been bailed out by a woman named Cora Hart. David had left no other notes or thoughts, at least none that Emma could see, so she walked back to the door and came face-to-face with Regina Mills, who was walking in and looking, as usual, angry.

“Seriously?”

“I should be the one asking you that,” Regina said, apparently exasperated in addition to angry. “What game are you playing at, Miss Swan?”

“I could say the same to you,” Emma retorted. “It was you, wasn’t it, who phoned the Sheriff last night?”

Regina did not condescend to answer. “The way the two of you were making eyes at each other,” Regina said with a sneer, “constituted a crime.”

“We do not,” Emma objected, “‘make eyes’.” Emma realized her mistake only when Regina snorted--it felt like an admission, of sorts, and definitely one that Regina could not be trusted with.

“I’ve come to see to him, at any rate,” Regina said expectantly. “What have you done with him?”

Emma gestured at the empty cell with a flourish, suppressing the urge to make a mocking little bow. “He’s gone,” she said. “Bailed out this morning by Cora Hart.”

There was a beat of silence and then Regina’s face went completely white, as if all of the blood had drained from her face at once--except for her lips, which remained so red they looked bloodstained.

“Who is she, Regina?”

“It’s not possible,” Regina whispered.

“You seem to be saying that a lot lately,” Emma said. “It never seems to be true.”

Regina’s perfectly painted lips formed a moue. “She’s my mother,” Regina admitted.

“I thought your mother was dead,” Emma said.

“So did I,” Regina said.

Watching Henry Mills on the playground was like staring into the past.

A group of kids crowded around the swingset; another took turns using a slide; and Henry sat, resplendent in his solitude, in the tower of a play structure.

“He calls it his castle,” Mary Margaret explained when Emma had shown up at the school looking for Henry. “That’s where he spends most of his time.”

Emma had always been, at best, at the fringes of childhood socializing. More often, she found herself alone and apart, considered temporary--too aloof, too prickly, too much effort to be worth it.

“You left this in my office,” Emma said, coming up behind him and settling herself next to him. The book she left on the ground in between them.

“Oh,” Henry says, looking sheepish. “Yeah, thanks...Emma.”

“You know who I am, don’t you?” Emma said.

His expression brightened. “You read it?” he asked, excited. “You know?”

“Did I read what?” she said. “Do I know what?”

“The story about you,” Henry tapped the book. “That you’re the Savior.”

“Oh, kid,” Emma said. “You’ve got problems.” Then: “What is it, anyway?”

Henry considered her. “I’m not sure you’re ready, Emma,” he said seriously.

“I’m not ready for fairy tales?”

“They’re not fairy tales,” he said with complete sincerity. “They’re true. Every story in this book actually happened.”

Every story you’ve read, Hook had said, some version of it has actually happened.

“I’ve kind of had enough of the book crap,” Emma said, then winced. “Sorry, I guess I should watch my language or something. But, yeah, I read some of the stories in your book.”

Henry was quiet for a minute, waiting.

“What I meant,” Emma said, “was that I’m your--your birth mother.”

That was the first time she said it out loud.

“I know,” Henry said.

She had never even let herself hold him.

“It’s okay, Emma,” Henry said, his eyes as wide as saucers and his voice gentle and older than his years. “I know why you gave me away. You wanted to give me my best chance.”

“How do you know that?” Emma asked.

“Because,” he said, “it’s the same reason Snow White gave you away.”

Your parents’ entire kingdom was cursed. They sent you here to break it.

“What matters is that you’re here now,” Henry said happily. “You’re going to bring back the happy endings. It says so in the book.”

A place where all of their happy endings had been stolen.

“Did Hook tell you that?”

“Hook?” Henry repeated. “Like, Captain Hook?”

“No,” Emma said, shaking her head. “No, like Hook from The Rabbit Hole.”

Henry was nodding. “Yeah, Liam’s brother. Hook. Captain Hook, Emma. He’s in the book, too.”

“Listen to me: I’m not in any book, I’m a real person. I’m no savior,” she said. “But you’re right about one thing--I wanted you to have your best chance, and it wasn’t with me.”

“But it could be,” Henry said quietly. “You don’t know what it’s like here. With her. It’s not--it really sucks, Emma.”

Emma was surprised to hear that kind of language from a ten-year-old and she wanted to grab him, to soothe him. She didn’t know if she was allowed to, though, so she rubbed her hand against his shoulder and quickly pulled it away.

“You could be,” Hook had said.

She couldn’t do this.

She was not parent material.

How could she be a parent when she never was one? When she never had one?

“Believe me, kid,” Emma said, “I know what ‘sucking’ is. I was left on the side of a freeway--my parents didn’t even bother to drive me to a hospital. But I’m sure, in her way, your mom is trying her best.”

“Emma,” Henry said, “you’ve met her. You’ve seen her. Do you really believe that?”

She didn’t--she really didn’t. But she couldn’t say that to a ten-year-old kid who wasn’t legally hers.

“I want to, kid,” Emma said.

“You know she’s the Evil Queen,” Henry said. “She’s the one who made it so your parents had to send you away--they didn’t leave you on the side of the freeway. That’s just where you came through.”

“What?”

“When you went through the wardrobe,” Henry said, “your parents were just trying to save you from the curse--so you could find them, and break it.”

“You found me,” Snow said. “Did you ever doubt that I would?”

“Sure they were, kid,” Emma said. “So, you spend a lot of time with Hook?”

“Liam’s my friend,” he said, shrugging. “His brother is always really nice to me.”

“And you told him about your storybook? That’s why you think he’s Captain Hook?”

Henry looked shocked. “Of course not, Emma,” he said. “They don’t know they’re cursed. That’s the whole point.”

But Hook--he knew.

“And you think I’m here to break this curse? That’s why you stole Mary Margaret’s credit card to find me? Why you left the book in my office?”

“Yeah,” he said with certainty. “Because you’re the product of True Love. That’s what makes you the Savior.”

“True Love,” he’d said. “That’s the most powerful magic of all, or so they say.” He’d said that, as if magic were real and it was just that simple, and then he’d looked at her with the kind of look you get in your eyes when you’ve been left alone. The kind of look a man might have after growing up under an indenture and losing the brother who had protected him--the kind of look he might have after watching the woman he loved die while he was helpless to stop it--the kind of look that might drive a man to chase his vengeance through worlds and time and finally give himself over to a curse in the hope of finally finding his revenge.

“You really believe,” Emma said, “that everyone in this world is a fairy tale character?”

Everything you think you believe is wrong.

But Emma Swan was not a believer.

“No,” Henry said.

Emma smiled, relieved.

“Just the ones in this part of town, in Storybrooke,” he said. “Time’s been frozen, only, I think it started moving again when you got here.”

“And no one noticed that time just, like, didn’t move?”

“They don’t know,” Henry insisted. “It’s a haze to them, ask anyone anything about their pasts.”

“As long as I can remember,” Ruby said. "As long as I can remember,” Hook said. He’s older than he looks.

“So let me get this straight,” Emma said. “For decades, people have been wandering around, not aging, with screwed-up memories, stuck in a curse?”

“Yeah, exactly!” Henry said. “I knew you’d get it--that’s why we need you. You’re the only one who can stop my mom.”

“Because I’m the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming,” Emma said.

“Yes,” Henry said. “But my mom doesn’t know that--we have the advantage.”

“The child got away,” Hook had said.

“Riiiight,” Emma said, drawing out the word. “And who--who do you think Snow White is, exactly?”

“Miss Blanchard,” Henry said. “Definitely. And I’m pretty sure that Sheriff Nolan is Prince Charming.”

“It’s like we’re cursed,” Mary Margaret had said.

“Oh, kid,” Emma said again.

“I have a name, you know,” he said. “It’s Henry.”

“Yeah,” Emma whispered.

Henry put his hand on her arm. “I know you like me, Emma. And I know the hero never believes at first. If they did, it wouldn’t be a very good story.” He held the book out to her, barely balancing it in both hands.

Emma took the book.

She was not a believer.

@kmomof4 @shireness-says @spartanguard @optomisticgirl @katie-dub @eirabach @stahlop @snowbellewells @captainsjedi @carpedzem @scientificapricot @searchingwardrobes @mariakov81

#csrt #our little life (rounded with a sleep)#captain swan rewrite a thon #cs fic #canon divergence #S1 divergence #cursed!killian #an alternate theory of the curse

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wherestoriescomefrom · 4 years

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Anyway I made a spotify playlist for Uprooted, for the harvest faire! It was really hard to find a balance between autumn emotions and light hearted music that talked about the death of the year and loss of childhood while also dealing with the themes of the forest and the wood and the battle. I’ve organised it according to the progression of the book as well as specific thematic build ups. There’s a symmetrical 50 songs!

Thank you to the Uprooted discord, you’re the reason this was manageable!!

Here’s a run down of why I picked the songs I picked:

1. Olsen olsen just felt like such a nice song to set the mountainous mood, that I thought it was a perfect setting establishment.

2. Song for Memory, Place We Were Made, Welcome Home Son, Tiger Striped Sky, Army, felt like songs that really fit with Agnieszka’s feelings for her village and hometown. Place We Were Made especially feels like an Agnieszka/Kasia song.

3. Shine You No More is an instrumental which just gave me a harvest faire vibe and an Agnieszka’s village vibe.

4. You’re My Best Friend, Travelling Song had such STRONG Agnieszka/Kasia vibes I just couldn’t help it. Travelling Song is in particular something for when they meet again post reaping, and they’re trying to save the village.

5. Invisible String - I don’t know who it fits but it just fits Agnieszka. Her bone with Kasia, with Sarkan, her village. @destroyerofthefreemarket and I had such a good time discussing which of the folklore songs we should put.

6. Hoax had an emotional core that reminded me and Carrey of Sarkan and Ludmilla a lot, and Hello My Old Heart just really feels like a Sarkan emotion while he trains Agnieszka and she’s out there destroying his library and he’s beginning to actually like this mess of a girl.

7. Midnight is a Baba Jaga song through and through. I thought it’s a good creepy interlude for when Agnieszka discovers her notebook.

8. I think Florence and the Machine’s whole discography is an Agnieszka mood but I picked Heartlines and What the Water Gave Me for her, for once she has learned her magic a little more, and especially for the time when she uses it to save Sarkan.

9. Wax and Wane really feels like a Kasia song, especially after she isn’t really sure whom she should blame for the way things turned out for her, and it has some strong magical elements that made me think of her being taken by the walkers.

11. Just like Florence and the Machine’s entire discography feels like an Agnieszka discography, Hozier’s entire discography really feels very Sarkan. I HAD to put Would That I, and Like Real People Do.

12. This one will be a little harder for you guys, but Bollywood is filled with music for men who fall in love with amazing, fantastical women. I really REALLY love Maerie by Palash Sen, and god if Tu Kisi Rail Si isn’t a mood. I wanted to include a song about trains anyway because I love trains and I am Indian - plus this is one of the most famous ghazals by poet Dushyant Kumar. It also felt like a really good yearning song for when Agnieszka goes to the capital. Here is a link for the translation of the song, and here is one for the ghazal. I don’t have a decent translation of Maerie, but it is about a lover remembering a beloved who is half magic if not more.

13. The Hanging Tree was for the haphazard horrible mission to save the queen. Call out post for prince Marek.

14. King is obviously about Agnieszka and Kasia escaping the capital trying to save the heirs. I wish I had a song for Alosha.

15. Dirty Paws, Fear, Sons and Daughters feels like a gathering forces for the battle.

16. Wild Blue Yonder and The Horror and the Wild - you know how I said Florence and the Machine is for Agnieszka, Hozier is for Sarkan? The Amazing Devil is for them both. Wild Blue Yonder is specifically for that sex scene.

17. Fear Not This Night and Fearless are more battle songs. And then all the songs betweenThe Mourning Tree and Devil’s Spoke are to set up some creepy tones for the forest.

18. Songs between mad woman and My Love Took Me Down to the River to Silence Me are Wood Queen songs!

19. Cradle Hill and Old Churchyard are songs about the Wood Queen’s sister and how she is urging the Wood Queen to forget bitterness.

20. Lovesong of the Buzzard seemed a nice song to taper of the intense battle feelings and talk about how Sarkan saves Agnieszka from the heart tree. And then The Woods was a good parallel to the previous song about the Woods, which was creepier. This one has a pleasant ending! Sky Full of Song has such a strong emotion of Agnieszka being tired after coming out of the heart tree, and when she holds his hand?? That feeling! That’s the one I was going for!!

21. Garden Song is so lovely, and it really does have a post-battle energy of Agnieszka, so I put that there.

22. We’re On Our Way has a nice Kasia feeling about it, where she’s figuring out what to do for herself and training with the prince and princess.

23. this is me trying was said by Carrey to be something that had a strong Sarkan feeling, and I really felt it when he comes back to the valley after leaving her for so many months. It felt like a post-everything song

23. Riches and Wonders was something I wanted to put, because livy ( @athenasdragon ) likes Eliza Rickman and I love the autumn feeling about it. It seemed like the perfect Harvest song, about the community you guard and protect.

If you guys want to include more songs, do let me know! I will happily do so. And thank you to @uprootedficathon for organising this year’s Harvest Faire! Do check everyone else’s entries on the blog!

#uprooted harvest faire 2020 #harvest faire #uprooted ficathon #uprootedficathon #uprooted

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thisweekingundamwing · 4 years

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This Week in Gundam Wing (March 15-21, 2020)

Hey Gundam Wing fandom! Here’s your weekly roll-up. Show your fellow fans some love!!

--Mod LAM

Fanfiction

Man Lion Thing Dude (Ch.10/?) by @anaranesindanarie

Pairing: Duo x Trowa, Duo x Triton

Characters: full cast

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: alternate universe, supernatural, were-creatures, angst, family problems, arranged marriage, body guards, mentions of torture, smut, wizards, magic, spells

Summary: Duo Maxwell is estranged from the last of his remaining family who are demanding that he return home for an important announcement. Meanwhile, Duo has been having strange encounters with ‘wild’ animals, all of whom seem to be hunting him.

Waves and a Wedding (Ch.8/11) by @noirangetrois

Pairing: Duo x Relena

Characters: Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Relena, Dorothy, Catherine, Sylvia, Treize, Noin, and others

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: cruise ships, alternate universe, fake marriage becoming a real marriage

Summary: Relena’s mother is pressuring her to get married, so when she meets a handsome and charming man on a cruise, she can’t help but think that he could be the solution to all her problems. ...and now the Big Day has finally arrived!

Held to the Flame by the_black_rose for jenjengundamfan

Pairing: Heero x Relena

Characters: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Wufei, Relena

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: fluff, smut, lemon, romance, drama, assassination attempt, cybernetics, angst

Summary: It's been four years since Heero left his job as Relena's bodyguard. She's been looking for him for two of those years. “How many times could I lose you? I couldn’t.” Her hands slid around his waist from behind. “It was too dangerous to keep you by my side. No matter how much I wanted to.” He felt her turn her head; her temple rested against the exposed skin just below his neck."I practically gave my life for you."

Graduation by t_shirt

Pairing: Heero x Duo, background Trowa x Quatre

Characters: 5 pilots + Relena, Hilde, Dorothy, Silvia Noventa, Middi Une

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: light angst, fluff, warm and fuzzy feelings, lemon

Summary: A drunken encounter at a high school grad party forces Duo to reevaluate his life.

Sanctified by the_black_rose

Pairing: Heero x Relena, Relena x OC

Characters: Heero, Trowa, Relena, Lady Une

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: lemon, angst, drama, angry sex, make-up sex, Heero in prison

Summary: Heero's been...captured?This room didn't have bars like it should. His cell had bars, but solitary confinement was a small, dingy room without the pleasure of variation or truth.He felt the numbness seep into his brain, and for a second, he couldn't breathe. Heero opened his eyes and began his recitation from his position lying on the floor: "Name: Heero Yuy. Rank: Lieutenant Colonel."

Every Moment by @bobo-is-tha-bomb

Pairing: Heero x Reader

Characters: 5 pilots + Reader, Relena, Lady Une

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: romance, drama, angst, lemon, lime, violence, reader insert

Summary: You really didn’t want to go on a mission with Heero Yuy. In your opinion, he was a robot, an iceberg, and as cold as the North Pole. And you really hated the fact that people started spreading rumors about you. Now, you have two weeks to get to know him better, get comfortable with the idea of playing his wife, and keep from getting into a catfight with Wufei’s secretary (who has quite a crush on Mister Yuy herself). You thought you would be able to handle the mission, but a couple of alcohol influenced kisses really send your world spinning. And it would only get worse during the mission… And really… your careless actions do have very big consequences.

Fanart

Heero Yuy by @gundam-wing-crossovers

Relena Darlian by @therecanonlybeonetrashman

Other Fan Works

Gunpla and Cosplay

Deathsycthe by @anxp

Scans and Edits

GoL Scans by @disturbed02girl

Hilde saves Heero and Quatre from execution

Tallgeese

Zechs / Milliardo

Zechs and Tallgeese

GW Fashion Headcanon: Trowa Barton by @disturbed02girl

Duo Vibes Headcanon by @janaverse

Other Fandom Stuff and Discussions

@incorrectgundamwingquotes continues to rock it. XD

@mtnlesb gives Relena a shoutout

Excellent video shared by @tnbtheories

Article calling for a reboot shared by @airasilver

Self-reflective article on Gundam Wing by @lechevaliermalfet

@2pcb is going hard for the Heero x Trowa ship

Calendar Events

Cocktail Fridays continue with @gwcocktailfriday

This week’s prompt is here.

Post your responses between 3-5PM on Fridays

Gundam Wing Discord Meet-Up!

The next meet-up will be on April 11-12. Information is over here. Be sure to follow @lifeaftermeteor for more info!

25th Anniversary Zine Orders have been Re-Opened!

Get your copy of a FREE PDF zine, FREE Bonus PDF zine, and FREE zine merch (yes, all of it is free) over here! Orders will be open until April 5, so be sure to sign up to get your copies!!!

If you like what you see, consider donating to the Zine Crew’s chosen charity, WAR CHILD

Be sure to follow @gundamzine so you don’t miss any updates!

#gundam wing

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beneaththetangles · 4 years

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BtT Light Novel Club Chapter 21: Infinite Dendrogram, Vol. 4

Welcome back to the Light Novel Club!

Before we begin, I would like to mention the official Beneath the Tangles Discord. We have a Light Novel Club channel there, where you can discuss light novels to your heart’s content! And for future Light Novel Club discussions, we might even ask some of our questions in that channel, where your answers may get featured in our discussion posts! So if you enjoy light novels, I definitely encourage you to join our Discord and participate in the Light Novel Club channel!

With that said, let’s jump into our discussion of vol. 4 of the VRMMO light novel Infinite Dendrogram! We’ve already covered three volumes of this series, but things are heating up with the beginning of Franklin’s Game, so Jeskai Angel, Gaheret, and I are here to get a piece of the action.

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1. What are your overall impressions of this volume?

Gaheret: Overall, I still feel the author should be able to tell what he wants us to know in a way that feels more organic to the story, and I think that he tells too much. What I find to be the best parts (worldlers vs. ludos, the perspective of tians, religions and cults, the psychology of the players, consequences of the interactions of the two worlds, BNHA-like fights of different powers with different logics, mysteries) took a step back in this volume for the most part while videogame fights which, this being a super-realistic videogame, were kind of disturbing images (I´m thinking of Marie shooting an old man point blank, of the leader of the traitors unadvertely slicing his captive priestess friend, or of Rook cutting Marie´s arm off, or the casual comment that Yuri/Hugo should’ve crushed Rook’s head at the first chance). As a fight among experienced gamers who were clearly playing, I found Marie v. Veldorbell to be the most entertaining.

stardf29: So this volume was definitely an action-packed one, more focused on the fights than on other sorts of development. It’s fun for what it is, and it’s interesting to see how these various characters outside of Ray, whom we’ve gotten to know all this time, actually fight in battle. At the same time, it definitely feels like this is just the middle chapter of the story arc that started in the last volume, so while I might have felt that some sort of extra development might be nice, I think there’s room for that in the next volume.

Jeskai Angel: I enjoyed this volume, though it wasn’t quite as good as I remembered. A big part of that is difference between reading one vol. more or less on its own, versus reading a bunch of vols. together. I fell in love after reading Dendro vol. 1 and proceeded to devour all the other volumes released up to that point (six or seven, IIRC) in the space of a few weeks. That made the story a far more cohesive experience, and allowed me to go through the entire Franklin’s Game arc in a short time, rather than leaving the finale until whenever the LNC might come back and read vol. 5.

I appreciate the author’s / translator’s efforts to give different voices to each narrator. Ray doesn’t sound the same as Marie, who doesn’t sound the same as Hugo, who doesn’t sound the same as Rook, who doesn’t sound the same as Franklin…

This vol. was also more violent than I remembered, which raises one of the interesting aspects of the story. What one thinks of this book depends heavily on one’s response to the question at the heart of Infinite Dendrogram: just how “real” is it? Or, to use Franklin’s word, how “earnest” about it are we? Characters within the story already face this question, but I think vol. 4 challenges readers to a greater degree than the earlier books. Thus far, Ray’s enemies have mostly been monsters or tians, but now he faces other Masters. This casts the violence in a different light. It might be one thing to dismember one’s enemies in PvE…but does it mean something different to do so during PvP? Moreso than previous vols., this one confronts readers with how horrific such a realistic “game” might actually be. Is this a game in which people do things we may find distasteful but which aren’t all that meaningful? Or is it something more? And if it is, what does that mean about the characters’ actions? Or even our consumption of the story as readers?

Even without full-dive VR, we still have books, video games, & anime. Dendro invites us to ponder how we experience such things. Does it really matter how we feel about a novel’s story, or whether we steal from that shopkeeper in a game? (For the record, it does matter because everyone will call you THIEF the rest of the game and the shopkeeper is a Sith lord who will kill you with blasts of lightning.) When using our imaginations, how much is just acting or role-playing, and how much are we ourselves truly involved? Based on the Bible, there are clearly sins of the imagination (e.g., lust). I wonder if there could be, for lack of a better term, virtues or good works of the imagination.

stardf29: The “how realistic is the violence” question is interesting because at the start of the game, you’re able to choose whether to view the world as “realistic”, “CG”, or “anime-style” (with the ability to change it later with an item). Ray chooses to go with “realistic”, but it does make me wonder if those who chose CG or anime might feel less bothered by the violence.

Also, the whole idea of fighting Masters makes things interesting because of the knowledge that “killing” Masters only logs them out for a time, and that by default there are no pain settings, which might make some people less reserved about violence. I think this leads to the following moral question: is our moral revulsion to violence based on the actual act of violence itself, or on the consequences thereof? (And this can be applied to other similar moral dilemmas when experiencing fiction.)

2. What do you think of Professor Franklin?

Gaheret: Professor Franklin, apart from the Benjamin Franklin reference, seems like an “Island of Doctor Death” archetype, with an special ability called “Playing God”, “my boy” gentlemanly talk and evil laugh included. He is the main villain of this volume, and while I like to have a more intelectual villain, focused on strategy and manipulation of the rules (and I like Dr. Death-esque types), it seemed to me that in this case the interpretation was too over-the-top. The writer wandered between the awe and horror of unexplained creations and the “this is how he does it” kind of explanation, and wasn´t satisfying in those fields. Dr. Franklin seemed to me more like someone hacking the game than a player.

As a player, things were more interesting. I liked the “gamer with a grudge” archetype, as it is a very recognizable problem. I would have supported a full hacker twist (the rules of Infinite Deondogram basically allowing themselves to be cheated, not so much). As he does not think of the tians as people, it surprised me a lot that he was willing to talk with Elizabeth like he did (on the other hand, you simply cannot be a mad genius without explaining your plan beforehand to a captive, it is one of the conventions of fiction). I did like that he was aiding Hugo, and that his plan was in fact a clever alternative to a more costly and bloody invasion by the General of his Empire.

The reason behind the grudge against Ray wasn´t very convincing, but maybe Franklin was childish enough for that sort of thing. I like how this was introduced in an unrelated context, as part of the background, then happens to be important. I think it would have been better if we didn´t know the special instructions he gave concerning Ray, so that he being the only who can pass may have seemed like a coincidence at first, and then Franklin would have revealed that he had chosen him to embody the kingdom´s defeat.

So: I like this sort of villain, both in the gamer and in the mad scientific archetypes, yet I’m not full on board with how he was played out. Too much explanation of the hows, and the dialogue could have been much more vivid and funny.

stardf29: A few things about Franklin. First of all, his personality is absolutely the worst. He’s the type of person who absolutely cannot handle losing, and must go out of his way to one-up anyone that gets the better of him, even if it is a “newbie” like Ray. He’s very immature in that way, which just makes it even scarier that he actually has the capabilities to act on his whims, torturing those who go up against him with personalized monsters. And on top of that, he wants to send an entire country into despair so they don’t dare oppose Dryfe… yeah, he’s nasty. Which makes him work as a villain, if you ask me.

However, there are a few things curious about him. First of all, at one point which is from his perspective, he says that Ray is one of only a few people who are extremely earnest about Infinite Dendrogram… a group that also includes himself. So in some way, he considers Ray as similar to him. This seems to go against his seemingly villainous ways and how he doesn’t care about tian lives… so that’s a curious point.

Also, Hugo at one point mentions that he has some personal attachment to Franklin. Also, he refers to Franklin as “he”, in quotation marks… I think at this point, the gears in my head were beginning to turn with thoughts on who “Franklin” actually is in the real world…

Jeskai Angel: Franklin is a troll. He exemplifies the worst kind of trolling behaviors associated with the internet. His genuine cunning empowers his spite in obnoxious ways. However, if Dendro is just a game, then in the end Franklin is a munchkin roleplaying as a villain. But if Dendro is more than a game, then it’s arguable that the professor is, in a moral if not legal sense, a mass-murdering terrorist. This brings us back to that question of what we think of Dendro. How “earnest” we are changes whether Franklin is evil or just a jerk. I would also note that his Embryo being Pandemonium brings to mind hell as depicted in Milton’s Paradise Lost. It’s no coincidence that Franklin and Hugo have embryos that literally reference hell (Hugo of course deriving from Dante’s version of hell). Finally, I’m really curious to learn more about why Franklin groups himself with Hugo, Ray, and this King of Tartarus person, as people who truly take Dendro seriously. If that’s true, and in-game Franklin is still a murderous maniac…he has the potential to be really disturbing.

3. What do you think of the fight against King of Orchestras, Veldorbell?

Gaheret: Veldorbell was my favorite character of this volume. I think his reason to be a villain of the Empire was understandable, the music aspect was interesting and his real life was both intriguing and credible. I only miss there were even more musical references, it could have been a feast. That he was clearly an old man also added an interesting twist (I imagine most players to be teens or twenty-somethings, though this may be just ignorance on my part). His four musical powers were explained beforehand and were a good fit for him, and his project about making the rising of a hero into an opera reminded me of Christopher Lee´s Charlemagne. Marie Adler was also very interesting to watch, on the other hand, both because of her powers had been explained just before and her personal connection with Elizabeth S. Altar established in the previous volume. Also, while the tians being rational beings means that they should be treated as humans, I find characters with more of a gamer mentality to be more interesting than those with a real world mentality, even if the author sides with the second more than the first. The power to create characters painted on the bullets seems a bit of a strecht, but the power to disappear from the game, on the other hand, is both credible and very useful. This fight was the high point of the novel for me.

The aesthetics of the Musics of Bremen analogues were frightening enough, too. And “a melody worth to die for” is a very suggestive name.

stardf29: So this battle was mainly to show Marie off in battle. There’s not that much in the way of character development, and the opponent is one we only first see here, with a pretty basic motivation very similar to Marie’s. So all things considered, it’s a battle that is pretty much here just for our entertainment. Not that there is anything wrong with that; it’s a fun fight that shows just what kind of fighter Marie is.

Jeskai Angel: The battles are generally highlights of Dendro, and Marie vs. Veldorbell is no exception. The story pits Incredibly powerful fighters with thematically linked abilities that have logical limitations against each other. All the characters feel legitimately powerful and use their abilities cleverly, and yet none of them feel invincible. However strong they are, others just need to figure out the right trick, the right matchup, the right combo, the right opportunity, to defeat them. I really think Dendro has some of the most well-written, tactically deep fight scenes I’ve encountered.

So, I agree that Veldorbell came across like an underdeveloped composer version of Marie, I still thoroughly enjoyed their battle. Marie was cool in the the previous vol., but here she shines even brighter by going up against such strong enemies as Franklin and Veldorbell.

Music make you lose control.

4. What do you think of the fight between Rook and Hugo?

Gaheret: Rook and Hugo, on the other hand, had backgrounds which felt unrealistic to the extreme. Rook was English, called Holmes, and the orphan son of a wealthy Sherlock Holmes bloodline of detectives and a Irene Adler/Carmen Santiago bloodline of thieves (who didn´t keep what they had stolen). He is a wealthy teen who has literally an explosive trap in his mother´s office, who he had to deactivate to find her dying gift. I find the whole thing crazy: that sort of background can fit in a comedy, or in a superhero story, but I´d say the whole point of an ID kind of story is that the outside world is realistic, and a gamer cannot turn into a real-world Batman (and thus, he does it in the game). In a way, Rook´s story undermines the essential function of the two worlds.

We find in this game that “Hugo” is in fact the idealized portrait of a shining knight, used as an avatar by a French girl of a bourgeois family with a convoluted family life, and whose sister and mother both left the family house (Oscar François de Jarjeyes, anyone?). This was more interesting, but as it happened with Rook, the story of the lady in question was a little bit just too French for me. Her father was even an amateur painter. Rook seems frustrated with her because he can see she is a “wordler” with a similar personality to our protagonist, yet she participated in Franklin´s plan due to a misdirected sense of loyalty and to consequentialist reasoning.

As for the fight itself, the Divine Comedy power -as much as I like a reference to the Divine Comedy- made things unnecesarily complicated, with numbers and percentages everywhere, and the deductive ability that Rook displayed in two seconds was a bit hard to believe. I disliked the fight. That said, I did like the scenery: the frozen warriors, the giant robot, the fact that some could pass and some could not gave a very unique feeling to the setting.

So, not so much a fan of this one. I liked that the two characters interacted, though, and that two friends of Ray were in direct opposition as rivals. Rook´s tactics seem a little hideous to me, but then, this is a game. Both seem the kind of people that have unresolved issues in the real world they should address, though I like her better.

stardf29: So the big thing here is that we get to see what kind of backstories Rook and Hugo have. I do agree that Rook’s backstory is a bit ridiculous, but then again, we got some hints in vol. 2 that Shu (Ray’s brother) in real life is also quite ridiculous. So I didn’t feel it was quite that out-of-place. At any rate, his crazy skills aside, his backstory is pretty simplistic: enough to make you sympathize for him and understand what he’s trying to do in this world, but nothing too huge.

Hugo, or rather Yuri… It’s definitely interesting to learn her backstory, and that she is a girl in real life, so she’s doing some crossplaying here, but for her it’s more than just role-playing and she’s basically assumed Hugo as part of her identity. In that sense, her involvement in Franklin’s plan poses an interesting moral dilemma, especially with Ray involved. And on the flip side, we see how Rook sees her dilemma and rather dislikes her for it.

At any rate, this all was very interesting to learn about the two of them, and was probably the highlight of the volume for me. The battle was pretty fun, too, as we see their powers in action. (Though I can’t help but feel like Hugo’s power can be a bit too OP since it gives him an edge against practically any Master, but maybe there’s additional limitations on it?)

Jeskai Angel: Rook and Hugo’s fight was much more character-focused than the action-centric Marie-Veldorbell fight. The IRL identities of Rook and Hugo had a major effect on their duel. I found both of them interesting characters, so the duel worked for me. Now, regarding the family backgrounds of these two…

Infinite Dendrogram is steeped in historical, mythological, literary, and pop culture references. So we’ve got Hugo referencing Dante and Franklin referencing Milton. Marie is literally the protagonist of a shounen manga. Figaro is a nod to opera. Nemesis’s “Vengeance Is Mine” ability is a Christian reference (as are, I presume, the paladins’ Grand Cross ability and the presence of a seductive female character named Babylon). Meanwhile, Rook’s creatures all bear names of famous actresses (Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor). The mithril in “Mithril Arms Slime” of course comes from Tolkien. The control AIs derive their names from Lewis Carroll. Ray’s mount shares its name with a famous TV horse. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

In this context, I can’t help but wonder if the presence of a “marshmallow-like balloon giant,” isn’t meant to call to mind a certain comedy film from the ‘80s. Similarly, it seems perfectly appropriate that at least some of the characters’ IRL identities would take inspiration from history or fiction. Considering how loaded with references this story is, it doesn’t bother me at all if Rook and Hugo have backgrounds straight out of novels. That’s just the kind of story the author is telling.

On a related note, is the “certain someone” Rook references a few times himself? Or some other person we don’t know about yet?

5. What do you think of Ray’s battle against the RSK?

Gaheret: Concerning the RSK, what I liked the most was the tians perspective of the story at the end, full of epic and memorable descriptions, listing all the meaningful moments. The fight itself felt too technical for me, though I appreciated the effort to keep things interesting and offer an opponent that was able to negate all the abilities which had been used so far. Having Professor Franklin there but not doing much was somewhat puzzling, too. That the princess was at stake and the Knights of the Guard were fighting gave everything an epic feeling, on the other hand. “I will have to punch you” or “I´m just mad” feels inadequate when the stakes are so high, and it seemed to me that Ray wasn´t as pressed as he would be given that actual lives (or so he believes) are at stake, including lives of innocent children and loved ones.

Jeskai Angel: Power creep is common in stories without a definite final boss. So, for example, in the old-school isekai The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the White Witch is the final boss, so there can be a progression to enemy encounters and character development that build toward her ultimate defeat. There’s no need for another stronger enemy to come along, the story finishes. But in stories without an ultimate villain, you find enemies of increasingly absurd and arbitrary strength, of whom you’ve never heard before, endlessly coming out of the woodwork to pester Goku or Superman or whoever.

In light of all that, I love how the Ray vs. RSK fight dodged a lot of these power creep issues. The story has repeatedly emphasized that winning often hinges on understanding the abilities of one’s opponent. As Ray himself observes, the RSK isn’t just arbitrarily strong — it’s custom-designed to counteract abilities Franklin knows Ray has. Ray’s struggle to defeat the RSK is a battle of wits as much as a physical confrontation. The RSK is a challenge to Ray for logical reasons, and he defeats it for logical reasons (as opposed to randomly getting stronger because the plot demands it *cough*why would you think I’m talking about the Dragonball franchise? *cough*)

stardf29: Your comment on “power creep” makes me think of how many of my favorite RPG bosses are ones that aren’t just “like the last boss but stronger”, but who actually change up the gameplay in ways that force you to think carefully about how to beat them. For example, in Pokemon, normally your gym leader battles are one-on-one matches, but there have been a few times the battles are two-vs.-two matches instead, forcing you to consider a completely different set of strategies. Bosses that make you fight smarter, not harder, are great in RPGs, and in that sense the RSK makes for a great “boss fight”. I guess I have to give Franklin some credit; he might be terrible as a human being, but at least he provides for a great battle.

On that note, the way the RSK gets beaten is also amusingly very “video-game-esque”: the RSK is like a video game boss that is designed to be immune to all of your earlier abilities, making you have to make use of your most recently-learned abilities to beat it. In video games, this is a part of helping players learn how to use new abilities; you start with some simple applications of those abilities in a safe environment, then start increasing the challenge as they get to use the abilities for real, then throw in some twists that make them think of more creative ways to use those abilities, and finally present a final challenge as a last test of sorts, like a boss battle. Ray’s own process of learning new abilities is a bit different, but overall this RSK battle is a great showcase of both his new abilities and how in general Ray overcomes challenges with some ingenuity.

6. How did the anime adaptation of this arc compare with the book?

stardf29: Overall, because this volume was so focused on battles, the anime did an okay job of adapting it. (This is in complete contrast to vol. 3, which the anime cut a lot out of, particularly with Marie and Elizabeth.) The overall low production values do still hold it back, but at least the backstories are all there and the battles are reasonably adapted.

7. Final comments

Jeskai Angel: I think this volume showcases some of this series’s strengths while largely neglecting others. We get an abundance of exciting combat won through information and cleverness. We get more humor, more fun literary allusions, and more thought-provoking questions about reality, morality, and how we experience fiction / imagination. The story also continues to blend a hyper-realistic setting with video game elements in a surprisingly elegant way, like the video game-y manner in which Ray defeats the RSK that you mentioned. (Some series, Reincarnated as a Sword for example, are so heavy handed about having a world based on RPG mechanics that they inflict blunt-force trauma on the reader, and Dendro avoids that.) On the other hand, character / relationship development takes somewhat of a back seat in Dendro vol. 4. Likewise, this volume doesn’t provide much new worldbuilding, either.

Gaheret: For my part, I definitively liked some parts more than others. This was for the most part a long, video-game like fight with character development via flashbacks. There were evocative, powerful images, some interesting characters, fantasy politics, video game mechanics and the interesting moral and vital issues related to the ludos and wordlers were also there, though not at the spot for most of the time. I think that, given that in the last volume we came to know, throught Elizabeth S. Altar, that in this novel the tians are basically real people able to think and love, a fight exclusively among Masters seems like a relief. They are, after all, players protected from pain and death. The backgrounds of many of the most important characters have come to the light, so it seems that an exploration of their respective issues will make for interesting future volumes.

stardf29: I suppose I’ll just say here that over the course of these four volumes, there’s been lots of foreshadowing for some reveals that are likely to happen in the next volume. Some of those reveals are already known to the readers, namely how Marie is the Superior Killer, but Ray doesn’t know of it, and it’s very likely he’ll find out soon enough. At any rate, it’ll be interesting to see how those reveals play out as next volume reaches the climax of this arc.

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And that’s it for our discussion of Infinite Dendrogram, Vol. 4! If you read along with us, let us know of your thoughts in the comments!

We will be announcing our next Light Novel Club titles on June 30th! Here are some hints on what those titles are:

��Dragon Rage had no effect!��

Anime adaptation incoming!

#Light Novels #Infinite Dendrogram #BtT Light Novel Club #Articles #Author: stardf29 #Author: JeskaiAngel #Author: Gaheret

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tonystarkbingo · 5 years

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End of Round Appreciation Post

Mod Tisfan Here

I wanted to stop in now that Round 2 is officially over and we’re all on hiatus for a bit to say Thank you!

Thanks to each and every participant; if you gave a prompt, cheer-read, commented, kudos, wrote 1 fic, wrote 30 fics, did mood boards, or anything! thank you! all of your help and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated. We had over 600 items added to the Tony Stark Bingo collection, and that’s not even including the ones that were posted in other places.

We had almost 200 people sign up for cards, and 104 people actually post a fill! We had 31 bingos, 18 blackout cards (wow!) and 32 people who got a DUM-E badge for doing 5 or more fills without getting a bingo (or got a blackout card and then 5 or more fills on a second card.)

Well done, good job everyone!

And I want to offer a special thanks to my mod team this year

To @rebirthofaphoenix (aka Nix) who has been helping keeping our discord server going and who has been whole-heartedly supportive the entire round, even when I’m dragging.

For @rebelmeg without whom none of this would have happened, our hard working A03/Tumblr mod who keeps track of all the posts y’all make. She does more than you know, and I’m so grateful to her, I could cry.

For @ayapandagirl (aka Fluffypanda) who’s been so kind as to moderate our Pillowfort community and has helped a lot of people figure out how to work that new platform! And who also helped a lot with writing the new extended FAQ so you should check that out.

For @mitochondrials (aka Ali) who runs our Dreamwidth blog, and has recently redesigned it to look smoother on web and mobile, be sure to take a peek at that!

For @monobuu who does all our art, badges, and graphics, and who really wows us all with her adorable little chibis. She was top notch both at the beginning of the round when we were making cards and at the end of the round, helping me get all the badges out to the people who deserved them!

And for me @tisfan for taking the idea and making it crazy and for everyone else not murdering me...

#Mod announcement #thanks

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ankcna-blog · 4 years

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hello guys !! i’m blaire, and i come to you with a VERY belated greeting !! i went to a skz concert a few days ago and as you would expect my life has been flipped upside down ever since !! but now that things are calming down, i’ve got things in order and would like to introduce you to my beloved weirdo kwanchai, more commonly known as dreamdrop’s choreographer KAI ! i’ve wanted to join you all for the longest and can’t wait to have some fun now that i’m finally here ! without further ado, you can find all his links here ( more to come ) as well as some important info about him below ! and of course, like this if you want to plot ! i’ll also be joining the discord very soon, so that’ll be an option too !

background !

from bangkok, thailand ! maybe it’s because of this he’s such a city boy and loves being around people, because that’s basically been his whole life ! in bangkok there were people around nearly all the time and now that he lives in seoul, it’s no different !

like his fc, he’s ethnically chinese but his nationality is thai ! honestly he feels more of a connection to his thai side because it’s the one he’s the most familiar with, though recently he’s been trying to connect with his chinese side.

grew up around mainly girls, 3 older sisters and one younger ! his dad’s the only boy, but his parents are divorced. they still co-parented pretty functionally, though, so he mainly stayed with his mom and did weekly visits to his dad. he believes the heavy presence of females in his life is the reason he grew up to act a little more conventionally “feminine” and why he has such a high respect for women ! his sisters have always been .... v strong in comparison to him ojoijoijoij so it makes sense why !

his sister is the original dancer of the family, picking up ballet at only 5 years old ! she’s older than him so, wanting to follow in her shoes, he begged his parents to join as well !

his parents were v apprehensive at first, especially his dad, because they weren’t the most progressive and didn’t think a boy dancing ballet looed good. it took some convincing, but eventually they allowed him !

absolutely loved it, would come home dancing nearly every day. once they realized he was really enjoying himself and taking himself seriously he convinced them to add on tap and hip hop classes as well !

always been into american culture, he was always watching shows & listening to music from america, and that transferred into a general interest for the country ! so in high school, he studied abroad for a semester w / a host famiy !

this really helped his english skills and is the main reason he’s so fluent today, which definitely helps with his job ! it’s the reason he sounds less like a foreigner now when he’s speaking.

coincidentally, through america, he found an interest in korean culture ! his host family lived in california, which already was home to a lot of korean spots, but his host sibling was a kpop fan and got him into it ! so when he got back home to thailand he had gained an interest for it.

he started listening to a lot of the music, and at 17 made a very spontaneous decision to send in an audition tape to a company ! ( not noir, a smaller up-and-coming one probably ! )

he was .... incredibly shocked that he’d gotten in, but ecstatic for the chance to do what he loved ! not everyone was quite as ecstatic as him ... mainly his dad who thought his career choice was unfit for the one son of the family.

regardless, he packed up things and moved to korea, where he began to train to become an idol ! contrary to what he’d thought he kind of hated it lmao ! he had a super hard time trying to learn korean initially and didn’t deal too well with the stress of such a cutthroat environment. on top of that, he wasn’t favored by the company and they kept giving other trainees opportunities he didn’t have ! he didn’t like that because he felt he had the personality and drive, they just weren’t willing to take a chance on him. but he really loved the chance to perform alongside other passionate people and learn from them.

so it was a bittersweet moment when, at 18, he terminated his contract. he felt relieved with all that extra pressure off him e but was also sad to no longer be performing. he tried to lie and act like he didn’t to his family but eventually, they found out and his mom sent him back home to thailand. his dad was livid and promised that if he didn’t do something within 2 months to get a job he’d stop helping him out.

kwanchai wanted to keep dancing but still needed a job, so did the best thing he could think of ! a choreographer he’d met in seoul promised him a room in his house if he agreed to fly back to korea and start working as a sort of dance apprentice under him at a studio !

so, going back yet again, he agreed and made one of the best choices of his life ! he got a lot better and not only dance but teaching / choreographing it ! with this, he comfortably began to adjust to the country and learned a lot !

the more he was there, the more he realized how much he enjoyed choreographing ! his friend gave him the chance to begin creating dances from the studio and it was then he decided he wanted to do it as a career !

he didn’t want to feel like a burden at his friend’s for so long, so it was then he decided to apply for a job at noir as a choreographer, hoping to save up and buy his own place. he applied unsure if he’d really get it due to his short experience, but was ecstatic when he did !

the whole thing has proved to be one of the best choices of his life - he’s got a steady job that’s very fulfilling, he saved up enough for an apartment, and he gets to dance while maintaining the level of freedom he’d craved as a trainee !

personality / random tidbits !

his app summed it up well, he’s incredibly eccentric ! he’s just different in nearly every way and if told to do something one way, he’ll probably do it the other.

his name is kwanchai, but ever since he was 17 he’s gone by kai, a shortened version of his full one ! it’s because it not only easier to pronounce for koreans but to his many american friends as well, and honestly it makes him feel less out of place as it’s a fairly universal name !

he’s super talkative, inherited from his sisters, but in turn is a very good listener ! so you’ll catch him either ranting about all his problems or listening to someone else doing the same.

naturally, he’s very fun and excitable ! rarely takes anything seriously, that is .... unless he’s dancing ! typically when teaching he likes to crack jokes and such to make the experience fun, but if it’s crunch-time he does a whole 180. when he has to he takes dancing very seriously, sometimes maybe even too much ! he may come off as controlling but in reality he’s just very passionate and a true perfectionist in terms of technique.

speaking of dancing, seeing him do it is quite an amusing sight ! kind of like j-hope he’s always making noises when he does it, and always has some sort of noise or word that correlates with his dance move ! def the type to say “and jazz hands !!”

maybe it helps, maybe it sounds stupid ! but since he has such a horrible memory it does tend to help him out a lot.

his hair right now is dyed, and the best reference i can give you is the john’s banana video lmao !! he keeps it pretty short to keep it out his face when he dances, and tbh his hai is a different color all the time !

he has a food blog, “rate what i ate”, where he does food reviews for restaurants ! it’s really fun for him because he loves to eat and has a very strong opinion on nearly everything. muses feel free to come eat with him, he’ll never say no to a dining buddy !

aside from that he has general social media and an ig where he posts short dance covers ! thinking about starting a yt cover channel.

coffee is his everything. he’s got a horrible sleep schedule, staying up late and having to wake up early ! but coffee is the one thing that gets him through, and no matter what time of the day he can always be found with his favorite cup in his hand.

remember how his app said power poses ? well it’s something kai actually does ! every morning and before doing something important he stands in a power pose for 5 minutes, saying affirmations rather dramatically. that alongside his guided meditation obsession makes kai in the morning time quite the amusing sight.

he has a black bombay cat affectionately named luna ! she’s his daughter whom he loves very very much and would die for. a total sweetheart who will accept all love, muses feel free to pet !

even though he’s fairly happy somewhat out the spotlight, he still has the idol mentality, and definitely has the whole charming personality thing going on ! he’s a whole personality and it’s almost a sin he didn’t become a talkshow host, but i assume he’d have a small following because of it ! not dreamdrop level of course, but a little bit of recognition !

that’s all i can thin of right now, that and i don’t want to keep you all waiting for this intro for too long ! i’ll add more as i see fit, and again, i can’t wait to meet you all !

#i'm feeling v trash so will be more active tomm !

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nero-the-truth-sable · 4 years

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So I am commonly known as Nero, and I have played a popular MMO since it came out, and I have enjoyed this MMO with a small group of people, and in particular someone who has become a very good friend of mine. Now last year my friend began having some trouble, but here is the catch, my friends account was not active because she was away having major surgery. Now I know what everyone is thinking, your thinking I am always going to defend my friend because they are my friends, well no I am not like that. I say it like it is. I am going to put the screen shots of various discord conversations up on this tumbler, I will also explain a bit about them and I will let you judge for yourself. SO here are some things that discord user Yuri-Fairytale / Robin Fairytale / Fairy_tale has said about my friend, now I am going to say this person does keep changing their name and profile pick so we have had to identify them by the Account ID number the long one, and its this 343331401401368576, this is how we know this is coming from the same person. Yuri considers himself the leader of this BS Congress, and he likes to think himself the leader / hero of the people. Yuri has been in this BS congress for roughly 6 years he actually founded it, Through out the years Yuri has been involved in most of the Drama on the server of this MMO that me and my friend play. I myself can name at least 100 other people Yuri has had issues with over the years. . . people who had no issues with anyone else, people who just didnt want to be involved in drama, and wanted to do their own thing. Which annoyed him, Yuri likes to be in charge, of everything and everyone. Yuri has got a discord server called the Lich congress and on it he openly tries to influence people, by influencing their judgement of others he dislikes, and by spreading untrue things about others he dislikes, as you can see in the discord screen shots above. He uses this as a weapon. The original post was made on Yuris server on the 30th of November, he claims that my Friend had been acting up before that date, the majority of the month of November 2019 and some of October 2019. However my Friends account was inactive and at this point had been for 4 - 6 weeks, due to medical reasons. I knew about this, she had told me before hand, so I can tell you that these claims are untrue, she did not do anything to these people. So I noticed in game there was some gossip going around about my friend and I knew by what was being said it came from Yuri, it 100% did, I contacted him directly over discord to try and sort this out, I spent 2 hours explaining to him that my friends account was inactive. I even sent him screen shots showing she had not been online for a number of days because we are in the same Free Company and it does show the number of days people are offline for. Yuri accused me of altering the in game screen shots. You really just cannot win with this guy. Honestly I think a dentist appointment where you have some teeth taken out would have been more appealing than talking with and trying to explain logic to this guy. However what I am going to say is this when confronted about the untrue things Yuri had been spreading about my Friend, Yuri immediately says he is blameless, and names 2 other people Judy Judy and Valeria Mae, as the people who deserve the blame, because they sent Yuri screen shots which were staged or Altered. Now while this is True, Yuri was told this information about my friend being away and he was shown proof she was in fact inactive, he even says he has not seen her in game for a while, and yet Yuri continued to post untrue things about my friend on other social media sites, and also on other discord servers. He deserves a good part of the blame in my own opinion, for spreading things about someone he knew was not doing anything. Eventually the conversation went way south and ended with me blocking him after he threatens me and my friend and tells us to leave server or else this will get very messy for the both of us. I will say this there were screen shots given to me by Yuri, Yuri gave me like 5 - 10 screen shots, some were of a discord conversation, the account in it, while named Freya was not my friends account it had a different account ID to hers, I checked this a number of times, I also did tell Yuri this, I will also say the account that was supposed to be my friend, spoke in broken English, now my friend speaks fluent English and actually has a very good understanding of the English language. While English is not her first language you would not be able to tell. Also the person pretending to be my friend on discord, had an old picture one my friend was not using anymore, my friend does have an instagram, and a twitter account where she does post her in game screen shots, so easy enough to get access to an old one (she has changed the privacy setting recently) I will say I did report this discord account, the one pretending to be my friend to discord. The other screen shots were in game screen shots, of in game mail, now these screen shots came from Judy Judy and Valeria Mae, and they claimed my friend was threatening them, now while the mail messages did contain threats, firstly it was again written in broken English very much the same as the discord account and also the screen shot had been altered it had been cropped a lot to basically only show the small mail box, also the name of the person who had sent the in game mail had been blacked out, now if you have someone threatening you why would you take a screen shot and you yourself black the name out of the person who sent the mail, I mean if you do that you can not prove who sent it to you, unless you yourself do not want the name to be seen not because its not from the person you are claiming it is from. I pointed these things out to this person as you can see, and I pointed out that the so called EVIDENCE Yuri claimed he had, was questionable at best, I mean honestly, you cant call it evidence. I personally think, this so called evidence was staged, I think Judy Judy and Valeria Mae, sent in game mail to each other and thats why the senders name is blacked out in the screen shots, and I think Judy Judy and Valeria Mae, and Yuri Fairytale are also the people responsible for the discord account that was pretending to be my friend. I think Yuri knew this to an extent, but just wanted to cause some drama, because we all know he loves his drama. Yuri and the others refuse to let this go, so now I am doing to them what they have done to me and my friend. I hope they enjoy it, I know I will get some small satisfaction out of it. To date this ass hole still claims my friend is the one responsible for this crap, but today he says Fairy_tai lYesterday at 10:27 In short the 3rd party found out from a leak that we had evidence of them breaking ToS and other issues and then went on a hunt for fc's in the congress to again leak info to them. . And alot of people that was once friends to that individual, defending them ect they got turned on by that individual later making accusations against them. Fairy_tail Yesterday at 10:31 Also during one of the times we was helping the 3rd party to try fix a misunderstanding it was found that they had redacted parts of convocations to go in there favour and even faked discord screenshot convocations that hadn't even took place trying to pit ppl against each other . That's when I myself cut contact with that individual https://www.facebook.com/groups/1559001954387688/ They have a Facebook group, it makes me laugh because of their rules. 2 - No hate speech, bullying or discrimination. Make sure everyone feels safe. Bullying of any kind isn't allowed, and degrading comments about things such as race, religion, culture or sexual orientation will "NOT" be tolerated. 4 - Absolutely no witch-hunting Any posts relating to bad in-game experience must have any character and FC names redacted. Any mention of whom the posts refers to will be deleted. Perfectly ok when they do it though isnt it. Got to love hypocrites who are so far up their own arses they cant even see the light of day, and love drama so much they make lies and spread shit about someone whos not even done a single thing to them. He has done this to so many people now.

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ofjvsper · 5 years

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( lee felix, cismale, he/him ) who is that ? oh, it’s just JASPER AHN. the TWENTY year old has been in beauhart for HIS WHOLE LIFE and is currently a STUDENT. i’ve heard they can be LOYAL and ADROIT, but also JEALOUS and POSSESSIVE. maybe that’s why their anthem is DYING TO BELIEVE by SLEEPING WITH SIRENS and iced coffee in the morning, climbing on rooftops, clutching something so tight your knuckles turn white makes me think of them.

it is unfortunately your local meme queen™ and favorite korean, ness, back at it again with another muse because i have no control. he’s fresh out of the oven and i really wanted to tell y’all about him so i haven’t really thought up a lot of connections ... yikes, but i’m always willing to brainstorm ! if you’re interested in plotting then i’d suggest liking this post, sending me an IM, or adding me on discord: trash™ ♡#4281

— ; BACKGROUND.

so, jasper was not born into a life of unconditional love and happiness. he was an accidental pregnancy that resulted in his parents getting married too young due to his pressuring grandparents that refused to help the couple financially if they didn’t comply. with that said, he had a rather cushy life and was given everything that money could buy — except for the undivided attention of his mother and father

growing up, he was raised on the more wealthier side of town and his childhood was somewhat of a lonely one that was filled with empty place settings where mom and dad should have been. his parents seemed to operate as if they didn’t have a son, always off doing their own thing, never really paying much attention to the little boy. however, this didn’t have him act out but rather keep to himself and cling to the various items and objects he had in his possession

he had a hard time academically from a young age and some teachers claimed he simply wasn’t applying himself, that he didn’t care to learn or lacked motivation. it took him a little longer than other kids his age to pick up on things such as reading and especially mathematics. jasper never had been one to speak up so he couldn’t exactly formulate what was going on in his brain through words and when he was ten, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and adhd. after that, his parents put him on metadate and got him the best tutors that money could pay and things began improving. still, his parents made no effort to check in on their son and make sure he was struggling less. all they did was simply pay for the tutors and gave themselves a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum

despite his learning disabilities, music was the one thing he truly found comfort in and, as it turns out, he was quite gifted when it came to picking more artistic/creative things naturally. it took a little bit of time to work up the confidence but he eventually got to make use of the bass guitar that he’d received for one of his birthdays. he began teaching himself how to play, learning to read the notes with some assistance, and even getting into the recording process. the quiet nights in a large yet empty house were now filled with the low hum of a bass and the sound of music provided more solace for him than any form of affection could

in school, especially high school, he was a jokester and would definitely be the type to do silly things just to make his peers laugh. he was friends with anyone and everyone but only had a handful that he actually felt a connection with and would hang out with outside of school. he was kind of the kid that you never would have expected to be popular ? jasper was definitely the person that everybody knew, for better or for worse

after turning eighteen and graduating, he was free and legally an adult so he moved out and into vivian’s place whom was more like family to him than his own parents. since he had a decent amount of money in his trust fund which he now had access to, he proceeded to take a year off from school and just focus on music and messing around with making his own songs until he felt confident enough to jump back into a learning environment. he's since enrolled at beauhart university with a major in music and a minor in music technology

— ; PERSONALITY.

is doing his best

deep™ voice but sometimes speaks in tiny font

either talks too much or not at all

lowkey a headass but acts like that for the memes

pretends to be the hottest thing since sliced bread but is really overcritical of himself ... fake it until you make it, baby 😎

he craves intimacy in all forms, not just romantic or sexual

tries and wants to do the right thing, he really does, but trouble has a way of finding him

he can come off as a bit quirky or eccentric but in a somewhat endearing way

doesn’t take anything too seriously and can be a little immature

loves animals more than people

— ; STATISTICS.

name: jasper ahn

age: twenty ( 20 )

zodiac: cancer

birthplace: beauhart, conneticut

gender: cismale

pronouns: he/him/his

sexuality: bisexual

occupation: student

education: high school diploma, some college

height: 171 cm. ( 5′ 7″ )

hair color: orange

eye color: dark brown

alignment: chaotic good

mbti: esfp

#stories.intro

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svarmodiig · 5 years

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SVARMODIIG’S 200 FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION.

Logging onto Inigo this morning, I had mostly planned to celebrate his birthday. What I didn’t expect to see was that, on this already special day, he had hit 200 followers. I’ve roleplayed Inigo for around 5 years now, and though I’ve reset his blog countless times, I never hit a milestone as grand as this before. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who came for Inigo and has stayed for my writing, for the countless headcanons and love I have poured into him, and despite my sporadic activity, continue to support not only me but Inigo, too.

Obviously I need to celebrate this, but what could I offer you all that I haven’t already? This blog is full of writing, and you all write your own characters so beautifully, I couldn’t offer a drabble, not for 200 followers. My art has hit a serious wall and it would be unfair to promise a drawing that may never be completed (ask Savvy her birthday was nearly a month ago and I still haven’t presented a final piece) so then I thought about what makes this blog special. And that’s all of you.

I couldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of you! I’d just be some madman yelling about Inigo while no one else cared ― writing with all of you has helped me learn new things about Inigo (and my own writing) and the inquiries and discussions about his character has helped him to grow. I wouldn’t have been able to develop him so well on my own.

So rather than celebrating myself, I want to celebrate you. I know that this is going to look like a biased post and I truly hate the concept of mains. Naturally, everyone is going to appreciate their friends first and foremost and want to support them by hyping them up, but we’re all real people on here, and the last thing I want to make myself out to be is exclusive. If it were possible, I’d love to be able to befriend ALL of you, and of course if you consider that within those 200 followers are archived blogs and several blogs from the same people, this looks a little less special. But even then, there’s at least a hundred of you out there, supporting me and that means there are so many of you supporting me.

So before I start ranting about the friends I have made on this blog, even if I don’t name you specifically, even if we haven’t interacted, I truly value your support and want to thank you for being here with me. I hope one day we can speak ― I know I’ve tried to make my blog look fancy but it’s to cover up my insecurities and shyness so if you can see past that, please reach out! I don’t bite, I promise. I’ll be just as scared as you.

TO MY CLOSE FRIENDS...

I dedicate this section to those of you whom I speak to nearly everyday, even outside of RP antics. A special shoutout to Orange @fatestouched who isn’t active anymore but you know how special you are to me already and how much I adore your Owain.

Lauren. @exaltblooded / @insignc / @brigidbcrn

We’re coming up to 2 years of friendship in the coming months and that’s honestly so wild to me. You were one of the first friends I made at Uni and I’m so glad we kept in touch outside of gaming society. I’m thankful that you dared to ask if any of us roleplayed on that fateful day. Not only have we grown closer because of that, but your introduction into the FERPC has truly changed the dashboard for me ― not only because of all the crack you begin with Savvy ― but because of the new people I’ve met because of you, which has in turn meant I met new people through them and found myself a little community on the dashboard. Orange and I always kept our little verse to ourselves, but with you we’ve been able to expand it all, and there’s no other Lucina I would ask to join our little family. Thank you for all the memories and rp antics we’ve shared together.

Savvy. @ofconvocation / @ofnifl / @ofgaspard

I normally like to put names in alphabetical order, but here I have an actual plan. Through Lauren I met you, and through you I met the others below. So before even beginning I have that to thank you for. Savvy ― we speak literally every day, you’ve been there for me through so much and I couldn’t be more grateful. At least once a week you get a little rant from me about how much I love you, but this time it’s public, and that means others will be able to see just how amazing you are (and they’re definitely going to agree with me!) The effort you put into each and every one of your blogs is inspiring, there’s so much love poured into them all and it really shows with their beautiful themes, their icons that more than leave an impression, and most importantly the writing. I think we can all agree you are incredibly talented as a writer and it’s thoroughly enjoyable to write with you when you aren’t starting crack on dash with Lauren. You’re easily one of my biggest supporters and it’s so very rare that I find myself doubting myself with you ready to launch yourself at me if I dare to think I’m anything less than amazing ― I just hope you know I am always ready to return the favour and truly admire you. Thank you for not only the memories but all the beautiful art you’ve gifted to me (and I promise Aurora will be finished by the end of the year.)

Momgan. @askrisms / @faerghusiisms

I don’t care if your name isn’t actually Momgan you will always be just that to me. A lot of our conversations revolve around how amazing I think you are ― and that will never change. All the love and effort you put into Chateau will never be forgotten, and even though it didn’t end in the best light, you never gave up on it. All of your ideas are wonderful, and it’s an honour that I get to write some of my favourite ships with you ― heck, you’re the first person I’ve ever shipped an OC of mine with, because I know I can trust her in your hands and you will show her the same love you show your own muses. I absolutely adore your writing and I could easily read an entire book you wrote if I were able to. I hope that you and I can be friends for a long time, and we can write with one another often. You’re someone I genuinely look up to and I hold nothing but admiration for you. You will always be my Mom.

Ches. @unquiixotic

I want to start off by saying that while we may not have spoken huge amounts, I absolutely adore you Ches. If you were to ask Savvy or Lauren how much we hype you up, I don’t think between even the three of us we could explain to you just how much admiration there is for you. As a person you are wonderful, always so kind and supportive and a genuine delight to converse with ― and I hope that over time we’ll be able to speak a lot more! I remember from Chateau your struggle to find a muse to write among the many you have, and I honestly at the time wondered how it was possible that you could write so many muses. I understand now that you harbour so much love, and that is put into your many beloved characters. All of them are equally loved, equally developed, and none written worse than the others. With Felix and Sylvain, I believe it will be our first time writing with one another outside of Chateau and I am genuinely excited to see more of your writing style, how you format your posts to convey your characterisations.

To those whom I wish I spoke to more often.

Shine. @beautiilance / @panic--ploy

Confession Time: I honestly was terrified of you for such a long time. Lauren and Savvy hyped you up for a LONG time before we actually got to talk and because of that you were already embedded in my mind as someone who was so cool that I was intimidated to speak to you. I know now you’re a big sinful softy and I had nothing to worry about ― bar your sin ― and I’m glad that we are friends. I’ve been trying to get Lauren and Savvy to add you to servers for a while so that we might get to speak and I’m glad it’s through Three Houses we got that chance to talk, since a new game provides a lot to talk about with all the new content. Like it or not, your Ingrid is attached to my Sylvain (as well as Ches and Mom’s Felix and Dimitri) so you’re stuck with me and we’re going to speak more! I hope in the future we can write with one another more and create some truly special memories.

Boo. @ofhoshido / @fxrmer / @nowithedragon / @misssummoningelizabeth

As one of Savvy’s real life friends, you hold a lot of respect in my heart for dealing with her antics ― I kid of course, that respect is for being there for her. She spoke of you often to me and I’m genuinely glad we got to meet and talk with one another. You’re a lot of fun to talk to and even though I’m shy and afraid to strike up conversations I do genuinely enjoy speaking with you. I hope that we can write more with one another in the future!

Pandora. @shamir-nevrand / (for the life of me I can’t find your other blog I’m sorry!)

We really really really haven’t spoken all that much but I know that Savvy and Lauren absolutely adore you and have sung your praises to the heavens above and it has me really hoping to one day speak to you for when I can stop being such a cuck and not be afraid to strike up a conversation!

...from Tumblr.

to clarify quickly, the three above are all people I’m in servers with on Discord whereas those below I am not and know only really on Tumblr but still want to talk to more!

Jessica. @i-nsubordination / @nonpareiltactician / @f-ortuity

Jessica ― I hope you already know how much I adore you. Naeva is so very special to Inigo and that puts you close to my heart. Their bond is so wonderful to explore, it’s something I’ve always wanted and you make those dreams a reality and I cannot thank you enough for that. When first I returned after my little hiatus you were so enthusiastic about my return and that has stayed with me, and every so often I’ll remember it and smile to myself that someone remembered me and was so happy for my return ― and I never said it but I truly hoped that you would still be here. There are so many things I can say about you ― the way you developed Naeva is genuinely admirable and it’s so lovely to see how much love you poured into her. She feels like a real character and is one I won’t ever forget, even when I’m off thinking about Inigo’s family away from Tumblr Naeva always comes to mind. She’s an unforgettable part of his life now and that means we are bound together. The way you write too is incredible and every post is crafted in such a way that I could read more even when I finish. It’s an honour that I get to write with you and you inspire me to be better. Part of what makes her so special is you, the person behind the screen. You’re genuinely so lovely and supportive and that makes your blog more appealing. I’ve always enjoyed speaking to you and can only hope in the future we get to talk more!

Volty. @i--gnis / @d--evotio

Volty I hope you know how much I adore your Robin ― I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get to use my main verse tag with a Robin, there are so many out there that terrify me and I still remember admiring you from afar. Now, I’ll happily slap that tag onto any post with you involved. I know I vanished so the old thread didn’t get to continue but I would be more than happy to dig it up from beneath the dust piled upon this blog just to see how your Robin gets to father Inigo in his youth. That thread alone so genuinely excites me and I absolutely want to do so much more with you to explore their dynamics. I can’t put into the words the admiration I hold for you and Robin and truly wish we can speak more one day. As for Validar? Bad man, evil keep him away from Inigo he’ll CRY.

Faty. @convxction / @sentofight

FATY I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU! Lauren is your biggest hypeman. For a LONG time she hyped you and your Chrom up to me ― and I had honestly been admiring you from afar for so long before then. You seem like a really genuinely nice person and I want to try and interact with you more to be able to hype you up as well! Importantly, since Lauren considers your Chrom her main and Lucina is part of my main verse, that pulls you in, so like it or not you’re coming down with us into Awakening development hell.

Carol. @heroismdreams

I know we’ve spoken a little before but I’m putting my foot down and saying it’s not enough. I absolutely adore your Cynthia and all the love you’ve poured into her. Her portrayal is wonderfully accurate and I can read all of your posts in her voice. The development you’ve gifted her is an absolute blessing and I really want to see more interactions between her and Inigo!

To those I admire from afar.

Rey. @reycursed

Aegis. @poregida / @azelfire

Pigeon. @valflame / @cicholic

@exalted--zealotry

To each and every one of you, I want to say that I adore each and every one of you. I think your blogs are so hecking amazing and you all seem like such nice people and whenever I see you on dash I’m waving a little banner of support in your name. ― Aegis, I want to apologise for going inactive and our thread dropping with Inigo and Laurent but know that I’ll be bothering you again soon. ― and to the grandfather-in-law from hell I want to highlight how much fun it has been interacting with you in small doses on dash and to say thank you for the fun.

And to those untagged.

I’ve been away from this blog for so long that I know many of those I called friends are no longer here ― and in the same vein those I admired are long gone. Whatsmore, life has been hectic, well and truly hectic and I can only remember so much from my past times on here. There are so many of you that I would love to personally message but this post took 2 hours alone to throw together because I’m so slow and I do want to celebrate Inigo’s birthday.

#❥▸ ‹ ᵒʰ ᶠᵃᶰᵗᵃˢʸ'ˢ ᵗᵃᵏᶦᶰᵍ ᵒᵛᵉʳ ᵃʷᵃᵏᵉᶰ ᵐᵉ › out of character #TW: long post #( this took ages to write up #and I still can't help but feel it's not enough )

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youknowmymethods · 5 years

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Content Creator Interview #5

Welcome back again folks! This week in our fifth interview @vermofftiss chats to @mizjoely about her love of lists, her fantasy season five finale, and reveals the truth about who really writes her stories...

Hi, @mizjoely here, chatting with @vermofftiss about my sherlolly writing and fandom experiences, and answering some questions submitted by a few other folks. I’ve been involved in fandom in one way or another since the early 1980s, which is also when I started writing fanfiction - for classic Doctor Who and Star Trek in its various incarnations.

@vermofftiss here, putting forward the aforementioned questions. I’ll also be trying to weasel some advice out of @mizjoely that I can use for my own writing, which has been a casual ongoing thing since I published my first sherlolly fic in 2014.

Vermofftiss: I think our first encounter was in the Sherlollychat in the fall of 2014, around the time I got onto AO3. Which means series 3 was five years ago. How does it feel knowing that series 4 was already two years ago? What’s changed in the time since it aired?

Mizjoely: Oh, I miss the sherlollychat, or at least I did until Channy came up with the discord version! It’s hard to fathom that so much time has passed since I joined the fandom! (I became active on tumblr in November 2013 after discovering Sherlolly earlier that same year, btw.) Series 3 was five years ago. Series 4 was two years ago. Crazy!

As for what’s changed since then, I’d have to say one positive thing is that the fandom wank has calmed way the hell down since S4…. Another change that I’ve seen is probably common to all fandoms over time - new writers and content creators have joined the fandom while (sadly) many others have moved on to other fandoms. Of course, that’s to be expected when your show is essentially over, but it’s still kind of sad to lose folks completely to other fandoms.

V: Which series was your favourite to play with as a writer? When did you really get into writing Sherlolly?

M: I would have to say Series 4 has definitely been a great series to write for - so much angst! The I love you! Mary Watson’s very sad death, Rosie Watson becoming a character, Mrs. Hudson showing us what a badass she is, and of course Eurus Holmes entering the picture. We might not have gotten as much Molly Hooper as we wanted, but the scenes we did get with her were tremendous and gave so much inspiration to me and many other writers.

I really got into Sherlolly as a ship after seeing TRF, as I’m sure is true with many folks - especially the “what do you need” scene. And it was so much fun to dive into the possibilities of life after Sherlock’s ‘death’ between Series 2 and 3, I consider that a real golden age of Sherlolly writing. My first published Sherlock/Sherlolly fic was “Conversations With A Dead Detective”, set Post Reichenbach, which according to fanfiction.net I published on 04/11/13 (so I’m nearly at my five year Sherlolly- versary, woo hoo!).

A quick look at my spreadsheet (don’t judge me, I love my lists) shows that I wrote or at least started 37 fics that year (one of which I’m still working on, yikes! - The World As We Know It, a vamp!lock fic). I’m currently sitting at almost 500 fics for Sherlolly, which still amazes me, that I could be that inspired by a pair of fictional characters! (For comparison, my second most prolific fandom is Doctor Who, for whom I wrote a total of 25 stories over a period of 20 years. And of those 25, only about a dozen were for my main ship, Five/Tegan).

V: A couple of questions from @ohaine -

1) Based on the sheer volume of your work, I have this theory that you’re actually some sort of artistic collective rather than just one person, please tell me I’m right!

M: You have discovered my secret: I'm actually four raccoons in a trenchcoat! Seriously though, until I was bitten by the Sherlolly bug, my output was much, much lower, even though I've been writing fanfics since the early 1980s. For example, I love the Zutara ship for Avatar: Last Airbender, but I only wrote three fics for that. I wrote about 25 fics for Doctor Who, and about the same amount for the various Star Treks (not including Khanolly). Nothing set my writing muse afire like Sherlolly, and I doubt anything ever will again.

and, 2) You write a lot of AUs, and I’m wondering what inspires them?

M: Considering that I started off as a strictly Canon Universe/Canon Compliant writer in all of my other fandoms, it still seems funny to me how much I enjoy writing and reading AUs now. I started reading them after finally running out of canon compliant fics to read and discovering how much fun it was to transplant the characters into a different universe. And that, of course, made me think about what sort of AUs I could fit Molly and Sherlock into.

In fact, the very first BBC Sherlock story I started to write (never finished or posted) was an AU because I was nervous about trying to write Sherlock and figured no one would complain too much about him being OOC if it was a fantasy setting. (I ended up taking the plunge on a canon universe post Reichenbach fic and posted that and a lot of other canon universe fics before returning to AUs.)

Wait, that doesn't answer the question! What inspires them? The same things that inspire all my writing: wanting to read a specific kind of fic and not being able to find it; fics that other authors have written that make me itch to put my own spin on the idea; dreams; books I've read or movies or TV shows I've watched...inspiration is everywhere when you really, really, really love a ship. (Gawd that's cheesy but it's true - no love, no writing fanfic, period end of paragraph.)

V: This past spring I finally got the nerve to start working on my first proper AU (not CC, CU, or UA) after sitting on the idea for about 3 years. Have you ever had to wait to be “ready” to start working on a concept? How much do you need to know about a project to get going on it?

M: I have absolutely had to wait to be ready to start working on a concept. My very first attempt at a Sherlolly fic (never finished or published) was going to be an AU because I was so intimidated by the idea of writing Sherlock Holmes in the canon universe set up by Moffat & Gatiss. I was terrified I wouldn’t get his voice right, that he would be too OOC for folks, that I wouldn’t be able to make him clever enough or that I’d mess things up a dozen different ways. So I started writing the AU instead, and in doing so (over a course of several months), I finally realized that no, I wanted to start off in the canon universe. Just trying to write him at all, in any setting, made me a little less intimidated by him. But I might never have written anything if I hadn’t started that abandoned AU. (And I look forward to seeing your AU when you’re ready to post it!)

V: Does reader feedback ever impact the plots of your stories or the building of your AUs?

M: It absolutely can, especially when someone leaves a comment that makes me think about my story in a different light. I won’t go so far as to say comments have caused me to redo anything on a larger scale (such as change the ending) but certainly I’ve thrown things into the fic or expanded on ideas expressed in a comment to make the story that much richer.

That’s one of the best things about being active in fandom - the interactions between readers and writers. Of course, the reverse can also be true - I remember needing a LOT of fan-friend coddling when some folks were unhappy with the ending of my story ‘Abandoned’ (i.e., my Molly let my Sherlock get off too easily). But you have to have thick skin to be a creator, and remember that not everyone likes the same things. And you also have to be able to say yes, I could have done this better, or if I had to do it over I’d do it differently. It’s all part of the creative process.

V: Are there any scenes or aspects that were cut from a story that you regretted leaving out at the end?

M: Not really. Most things that I cut have been vetted by my betas (shout-out to ALL betas for being willing to help you make your story better!) and jettisoning those things has always made my stories better. (Plus I keep a folder of scraps that got cut and periodically review those scraps to see if I might be able to salvage them.)

V: On top of being one of the better-known Sherlolly writers in the tag, you’re also the single person behind the Sherlollbrary. As much as I love to organize my life and everything else I can get my hands on, that’s not something I think I’d ever actually want to do. So what made you decide to start cataloguing Sherlolly fics?

M: My love of lists. Seriously, that’s it. I love making lists of things - like, how many stories did I write in 2013 for Sherlolly (37, as you now know!), how many one-shots have I written vs. multi-chapters, how many were prompts...and then I started seeing people doing lists of various tropes. The one that made me decided to start my Sherlollilists side blog was one put together for Sherlolly omegaverse stories. As more and more lists were created, edited, and added (I’m currently at 140 official lists, with more than a dozen unofficial lists), I decided it would nice to organize them all (not realizing quite what I was getting into!) as one spreadsheet, with other tropes and tags and keywords for folks to help narrow down their searches. It always give me a little thrill when I open the library and see folks are browsing, so I like to think it’s a useful tool (although I am looking forward to finishing it someday!)

@writingwife-83 asked: You work tirelessly to organize all the multitude of writing this ship produces, but how do you feel that affects you as a writer? Does it make you less interested in writing your own fics? Or does it tend to help get the wheels turning and inspire you?

M: I have to admit, sometimes curating the lists can completely put me off writing, simply due to feeling oversaturated. This is especially true when I am reading or skimming over fics that are, shall we say, not the best of the bunch. Or the times when I'm just pushing myself even if I'm not really enthusiastic about doing it. Those times, I've learned to just step back, which is why sometimes the lists don't get updated very quickly.

On the other hand, rereading a favorite or a forgotten gem can really get my creative juices flowing. At times like that, I fall back in love with the ship and the fandom all over again.

V: When you’re stuck with writer’s block or just a lack of motivation, does it help you more to reread an old fave or to go back through some of your own works? Have you noticed your style has changed much?

M: It does help, absolutely. It reminds me why I love this ship so much, and helps me reconnect with others in the fandom. People think of reading as passive and writing as solitary, but to me it’s an interactive process. Reading great fics, new can old, helps feed your creativity. And nowadays the internet helps so much as well - there are awesome resources and fandom spaces to talk to other folks about their works and your own, reminding you that you’re not creating in a vacuum. (And I REALLY love the cheerleading section of the Sherlolly Discord site. That can help unstick my creativity like nobody’s business!)

As for my style changing - yeah, it definitely has. I feel like my writing has become more streamlined and less clunky since I first started. I still do a lot of semicolon abuse but at this point I’ve decided that’s just my style and will likely never change.

Thanks for the excellent questions and for letting me ramble on!

V: I’m sure we can do a lot more rambling if left on the trail. How about one last one: In the currently hypothetical series 5, how would you continue the story from where it left off?

M: Oooh, good one! If I was in charge we would see that Sherlock and Molly are continuing their relationship, culminating with a wedding at the end of the third episode. But since I’m not in charge, I’m thinking that Mofftiss would give us some subtle hints, like John casually mentioning to Sherlock that he and Rosie can’t join ‘them’ for dinner that night for whatever reason. And maybe some small changes to 221B to show hints that someone else spends time there other than Sherlock and the Watsons - a cherry patterned pillow, perhaps? A Bart’s ID card with a woman’s picture to show that no, it isn’t one Sherlock nicked to get access to a place he otherwise couldn’t get to? A woman’s coat hanging next to Sherlock’s? Something like that. And some private smiles between Sherlock and Molly, little things like that. Enough to give us hope but not enough to give us proof! They do like to tease that way!

Non-shipwise, I think Eurus would make a return because come on, how do you leave a character like that catatonic? I also think they would return to ACD canon to revise a few more cases for the modern age, and maybe (maybe!) have John start dating again (especially if they’re so married to canon that they killed Mary off - since John seems to have been married at least twice, they would probably explore that option).

I know, that last part is a bit vague but honestly? I hope they surprise the hell out of us in a good way if we ever get that fifth series!

Next Week, Friday March 22nd, @ashockinglackofsatin talks to @sunken-standard

#content creator interviews #sherlolly #Sherlock #mizjoely #vermofftiss

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