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rweoutofthewoods · 3 months

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hey,

just saw the ask about someone discussing ur characterisation of James in young blood and how they thought he wasn’t a ‘baddie’ and that he was ‘not cool’ (btw this isn’t like hate to the person who asked this or anything incase u reply to this publicly and they see this, ik they said they don’t mean it as hate, I’m just saying what I was thinking cause I think the difference is interesting I guess🫣 so all love!!! ANYWAYS.)

I just thought it was interesting cause I did not get that vibe at all from James in the story. What I got from it was that James was actually cool in juvie, in a lowkey probably a little shit, who is funny and annoyingly endearing kinda way. I also thought he was a ‘badass’ in his own kinda way. But I don’t rlly think ‘badass’ is the best way to describe him in this fic tho, i think it’s more he is very capable and able at holding his own but he’s not like some intimidating, cool and mysterious typical badass (I’ve written this word too many times I hate it now😔) like what I feel Regulus is more like. And I also did get the impression he was a ‘bad kid’ but in a more ‘ I was a good kid and I’m a good kid in my core but something shit happened to me so now I’m acting out and doing bad things cause I don’t know how to properly deal with what’s happened to me , people expect it of me and this is my coping mechanism plus the whole getting myself hurt makes me feel better in a way kinda way (that doesn’t make sense I don’t think BUT WE MOVE) and he doesn’t come across as supposed to have been some teen who was out here doing all this mega bad boy (ew I don’t like that phrase but I’m using it anyways) crimes, but more like enough to get u in juvie ones and be significantly concerning. I could ramble more cause that fat ass paragraph doesn’t even fully express what I got from the way u wrote James. But just overall I think it’s interesting how ppl can get different things out of the same piece of writing. Also sorry if what I interpreted it as, is not what you were looking for, it probs did come across the way u wanted I’m just shit at explaining well and concisely lol.

ALSO (sorry if u hate me for this 10k essay oopsies) the thing about u worrying that James seems OOC but saying he’s not, ur just portraying the effects of childhood. I PERSONALLY DID NOT READ IT AND THINK HE WAS OOC, PLEASE DO NOT STRESS ABOUT IT UR WRITING IS FABULOUS AND IM VERY MUCH GETTING WHAT UR PUTTING ACROSS. Like u can tell by the way James acts with his friends and his internal monologue that he would be what some people more typically see James as, but it’s his trauma which is preventing him from properly being so. Like it’s just this road block. AND EVEN IF HE DOES GET OOC ITS REALISTIC WHO CARES, ILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DOES, ITS UR FIC(unless you care then I apologise queen) but it’s so realistic like I went through a rlly shitty thing in my early teenage years and personally I think I’m a completely different person cause of it, and it’s interesting to read the way James changes because of what happens to him. Personally, I rlly like the way u write James (omd especially in EOITV I just want to gush over that fic for a second, it’s chefs kiss I love it so much, thank you for creating it, your mind is a wonderful place) I like how he can be a bit more messy, it’s interesting (also that reminds me another reason why I don’t think he’s spineless in young blood, cause he had a go at Regulus when they were fighting and I was like YEAH I KNOW U CAN SAY UNFAIR THINGS BUT ALSO STANDING UP FOR URSELF AND ACTING OUT AND NOT BEING PERFECT YAY, cause sometimes I do see James written in situations like that where he just takes it (nothing wrong with that I just personally prefer where he can gives just as good as he gets sometimes!:)))).

I need to stfu this is way to long, I’m actually embarrassed and scared u think I’m like some obsessed weirdo, I’m not I promise, it’s just 2:30 am and the most common feedback I get on school essays is ‘stop the waffle’. So long ass pieces of writing tend to be a bit too familiar with me 😔

okay last bit I promise, but THE AMOUNT OF NEW FICS U HAVE AND THE RATE U BANG THEM OUT?!?!, whenever I come to your blog and see a post about a new fic, I’m like wow your insane but in the best way possible cause how is this possible?! How are you able to do this?! This is so impressive ?!😭 Cause ur fics r to such a good writing standard and each one is so unique and different to each other, I run around my room in excitement each time u post a new chapter.

I could go on but I won’t because the fear of appearing a tinsy bit insane is real and idk if this is overwhelming, but yeha sorry, my waffling tendencies can be my downfall 😭

but uhhhhh Yeha overall, your writing and ability to write is very impressive, bye 😗😁

Hello!! I can’t answer you privately bc ur anon so I’ll start by saying: that ask? No lingering thoughts or feelings about it whatsoever and this reply is not even going to be about that, just what you’ve said. I can’t imagine how much time it took you to write all that because it takes me FOREVER to write replies to asks, so I appreciate your time and ofc have to write you a response because I’m honored <33

Just on the subject on Youngblood James. You put it perfectly and I think I said this in my end notes vaguely—childhood trauma changes EVERYTHING. Exactly as you said, I myself had a pretty shitty childhood and I think I’d be an entirely different person if I’d grown up differently. I got BPD out of it (😭) and Youngblood James got some pretty fucked up mental health and coping skills. And it was my hope that seeing James thru Reg’s POV and seeing his relationship with his friends etc. that you’d be able to see there’s still some of that James Potter we know and love, BUT part of James’ canon character (or fanon idk) is that he grew up comfortably, privileged, with two loving parents, getting whatever he wanted. We see it in canon with how cocky and in need of some humbling he was, and Youngblood James got way more than humbled, his life got blown to bits and while he was very, very, young. Before he even would have been Hogwarts age in canon. SO, I don’t think he’s OOC at all, I think he’s exactly who he’d be if those things happened to him. And I put a lot of thought into his character and his actions. So me fearing him seeming OOC is really just that I can put things out into the world but I never have any idea how it will be taken or if my intentions will be realized.

I didn’t intend for him to be badass at all because like… James’ crimes were all really in efforts to self-destruct. Him fighting people he did because he wanted to be hurt. Stealing a car? Well… we know by now how that ended. I also will note I didn’t intend reg to be badass either (tho maybe his character naturally is a little bit) because Youngblood isn’t about that, or how cool it is to commit crimes. it’s about how fucked up the system is, how childhood trauma lingers, how we need to do more to support and help kids in need instead of writing them off. So many kids act out or get in trouble because of much deeper reasons than them just wanting to cause trouble. And I say this as someone who was a kid who acted out, and who also recently as a more straight and narrow adult now, had their car fucking vandalized and literally SHOT AT by a bunch of kids. But I can look at those kids in real life, in my town, and I know the families they come from, I know there’s things going on behind closed doors. And yeah, was I pissed? Ofc, actually I was pretty devastated. I worked 7 days a week to buy that car and it was my first. there being reasons doesn’t make their actions okay, but I can also see that here in real life, children are being failed when they’ve barely had a chance at life yet. And Youngblood is really my attempt to humanize these issues and draw light to how we may be failing children. ANYWAY there was my long winded rant. I lost the plot a bit tbh but I could go on about Youngblood 😭

So in short, James in my opinion is not OOC, and ur right he is not weak either, because trauma and mental health issues doesn’t equate to weak. I think you exactly hit the nail on the head and it’s always appreciated when I feel like someone really gets my characters. My James is my James, and he’ll always be so special to me, every single version, because no matter what universe I throw him in, I always know exactly who he is and what makes him that way.

This is so long, I don’t really expect anyone to read this but you (hopefully), but this is just for you anyway <33 I appreciate all your kind words and interesting thoughts and I love how you said it’s interesting that ppl can read the same thing and get something different out of it. Because the amount of times I’ve written something and realized ppl got something entirely different than I’d expect honestly shocks me. And sometimes it’s sad if ppl miss my point, but mostly I think it’s beautiful that we can all interpret things differently.

Hope you have the best week and life is treating you warmly xx

#mere answering things ;)#fic: youngblood

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meraki-yao · 7 months

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I just wanted to tell you that I can't wait for you "candies" posts. I, 🤭, actually decided to just tell you anonymously because I might be seen like a crazy person in the replies.😆 But just know that I enjoy reading them because they're so interesting and fun, and yes, I know that it's just Chinese people/fan speculations. I do go outside and touch grass as the people say.☺️

I'm also really interested about the Mary and George post. I just thought it was just about being supportive of each other. I didn't know there could be more "fun" (???) speculations. Oh!!! And also the parallel thing you did, I forgot, I just remember about it mentioning Phil and Dan and JZ. I know you said you don't feel comfortable now to post it but just know that I would like to read it. Not to sound like a creep or crazy person. But it's SO FUCKING INTERESTING! And if this is the only way we get Taylor and Nick "content", then so be it. And it also gets the bad/evil thoughts out of my head when people put Taylor and Nick against each other. And when people say they hate each other.

And even though I sadly don't know Chinese, I've also seen these speculations about these two other pairs. Only on YouTube videos though. But of course, only speculations. So I definitely get what you mean about the whole really great chemistry thing.

Again, interested here. Especially about Taylor, Nick, and RWRB. Of course, take your time and feel comfortable to post it. Again, in the case of Taylor and Nick, I know it's just for fun. 😊

Hi! I'm so sorry it took me a week to reply to you (I'm a bit of a mess irl lmao) but I’m really glad you’re interested and enjoying my candies post! Don’t worry about “seen crazy” especially when you know that this is for fun and just fan speculations, it’s alright!

I just posted the M&G post last night if you haven’t seen it yet! You’re right, the fundamental thing that’s reflected from that is that they’re supportive of each other and close enough to prank and joke around (i.e. Taylor doodling on Nick’s face every chance he gets lol), and the rest… well… let’s just say they’re interesting 😂

I understand what you said about calming you when haters pit the boys against each other. Honestly that’s the main reason I started writing my candies series: if they’re gonna pull all these non-existing strings to show that the boys bate each other, I’ll to the exact opposite and post “evidences” to show that they love each other :D

As for the other two pairs, Dan and Phil are …well, Dan and Phil 😂 I mostly find parallels between TN and JZ, but the reason I’m not comfortable with posting that publicly is because the JZ fandom is quite a mess (if you recall, I mentioned that Z can’t be seen in public because of a very complicated scheme), I hate to mislead anyone but in order to explain the whole situation that will take me forever and possibly bring a lot of JZ haters that I don’t want to or have the energy to deal with. Maybe someday if I can find a better way to concisely summarize the situation. I’m guessing you already know what ship JZ’s referring to since you mentioned watching proof videos on YouTube?

But yeah! Glad you’re enjoying it and having fun, that’s really all I wish to achieve with my posts hehehe

#anon ask #answered

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rynrambles · 9 months

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UH I don’t usually like to talk about my personal life because I desire to be an enigma, like the contents of a Costco hot dog. But at the same time, I felt like I just wanted to scrape all this out of my head and put it somewhere else. It’s a long read, and I don’t expect anyone to trudge through it, but at least these things aren’t stuck in my brainspace, rattling their cages anymore.

To preface, I’m equal parts torn between “Bro, you’re overthinking this, no one cares”, “everyone cares a LOT, and you’re potentially opening a big can of worms here,” and “are you truly explaining yourself, or just making excuses for yourself?” (The answer being: I honestly don’t know.)

The thoughts are so disjointed, all vying for my attention with the same urgency and insistence. I desperately want to put them in order, line them up neatly, clearly, concisely, but it ends up being a very “herding cats” sort of endeavor; As soon as I turn my attention to one thought, the other 27 have disappeared, gotten into something they shouldn’t have, or barfed on the carpet.

At the core of it all, I want to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I’ve not been particularly reliable in recent years. Obviously, I do not enjoy disappointing people; I don’t like failing to meet expectations, making promises that go unkept, disappearing for months on end, etc. I cannot stress how inadequate and ashamed I feel because of it. Yet the scrambled eggs I call my brain fights me tooth and nail every time I try to do anything about it.

I know this is the most autistic thing imaginable, but please allow me to compartmentalize and elaborate on some thoughts that have been tumbling around in my head.

The Mental Health thing:

I’m trying to get better about working with my bipolar2. I can prolong my manic phases in a way that allows me to get more work done for a longer period of time, and I can cushion the blow of depressive phases. But I still feel the push and pull of these cycles.

The downswings are the primary reason why I simply disappear at times, and it feels like a herculean effort to claw my way out of the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad pit of despair and 14 hour depression naps.

But then the upswings have me chasing novelty: prioritizing ephemeral, unimportant things over projects that I really need to get done. There is no negotiating with the ADHD brain to work on a task. Guilt, bargaining, bribery, blackmail, reason, logic, it’s all thoroughly ineffective. I might as well be trying to move mountains. I'm getting better at structuring things in a way where I'm able to do "fun, exciting, new projects," while also doing my gotdamned job, but it's still something I'm working on.

The Physical Health thing:

I once told one of my closest friends that I felt she and I, with all our similarities in mind and body, were cut from the same cloth. She replied “yeah, but it’s cheesecloth,” and I’ve laughed about it every day since.

She’s chronically ill, much more so than I, but there’s a sort of… guilt-laced comfort in knowing that we’re not alone, that someone does understand to a similar depth and degree.

But it’s still bullshit, yaknow? I’m tired of migraines that render me temporarily blind multiple times a week, I’m tired of the disruptive visual disturbances and hand tremors making it difficult to draw. I’m tired of tachycardia, palpitations, breathlessness, fatigue, nausea. And I’m tired of being shuffled between cardiologists, endocrinologists, pulmonologists, ophthalmologists, one specialist after another. Endless referrals. Numerous tests. Give us your blood, pee in this cup, try this diet, take these medicines. And the final verdict is always “hmm, we’re not sure what’s wrong.”

I don’t understand why my own body insists on fighting me at every turn. I give you water and walkies and sunlight every day, you ungrateful lump of flesh.

The art & friends thing:

I think enough people are aware that I had a huge falling out with my friend group some years back. There were rumors and accusations I wanted to address, but I was always worried things would blow up all over again. One can’t simply put out a statement and expect the involved individuals will have nothing to say in turn. And that’s only fair, right? The mere act of “defending” myself calls their integrity into question, so shouldn’t they be around to offer the counterbalance of their personal experiences and reasoning?

But ultimately, neither party wants to dredge up and rehash the same shit all over again. It’s exhausting. It’s emotionally taxing. And in the end it all boils down to he-said she-said anyway.

So I’ve done my best to just be okay with it. Like, I did cause a lot of problems anyway, so maybe it’s penance for my wrongdoings. I don’t know.

Moral deliberations aside, I found myself abruptly without friends. Emotionally devastating to be sure, but it also had an additional aftereffect of leaving me without artistic colleagues who could encourage creativity, offer input and opinions, redline my work, etc. And because artists cannot grow in a vacuum, I began to stagnate.

To say nothing of the perpetual rumination whenever I would sit down to draw. It was the same unpleasant thoughts, over and over again on repeat. Day in and day out.

So I stopped drawing.

Onwards:

Since then, I’ve slowly healed. I reconnected with my childhood friends and I cannot possibly express the amount of love and joy they’ve brought to my life. Likewise, my beloved husband has been nothing but supportive and encouraging, despite the literal years of me sort of moping around, aimless and without purpose. I look back at how I’ve spent the past half decade and I hate this languishing creature that has worn my face but contributed nothing of value to my life.

I want to be me again, and I want to be productive and creative, not because of (mandatory) hustle culture, but because it genuinely makes me happy. Like, not to be a goober but isn’t it kinda magical to be able to see something in your head or have a vague idea and then conjure it into existence through art/writing/music? That shit is cool as hell. I wanna do magic. And I want to feel proud of myself for accomplishing something. Maybe it’s capitalist brainwashing but productivity scratches the constant itching in my brain.

Ultimately:

So, that’s where I sit now, getting back on the horse for the umpteenth time and hoping I can do a little better than before. Perhaps, with the knowledge of what has and hasn’t worked in the past, I can hold on longer, recover faster.

I want to thank everyone who has continued to cheer me on through it all. There are some names I’ve seen pop up again and again over the years, offering me kindness and patience well beyond what I deserve. You’ve always made me feel like it was worth it to dust myself off and try again, encouraging me ever onward. Even though you owe me nothing. Even though it can be difficult to gather that energy, and harder still to turn those thoughts into words.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

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novantinuum · 3 years

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Hi, I was just wondering if you had ever thought about what would have happened in your story "Hollowed Moon" if you had continued it. I always thought it was such an interesting setup that could have gone in so many different directions. And there really aren't other stories focusing on Stevonnie and Spinel, so it was unique!

Hiya!

So, I do have some half-written, half-plotted out material to share. I gave this story some consideration the other day, and came to the decision that I don't have the desire to finish it out, alas- I have far too many other active WIPs to add it to the list. There's a few good reasons why I discontinued it, anyways... intimidation over the huge surge of attention it was getting back in 2019, some rude comments from overzealous Spinel fans, (I know everyone isn't like this, but a certain segment of the Spinel side of the SU fandom kinda burned me over time, hhh), and a future chapter containing a sensitive topic that I wasn't in a good headspace to write about at the time.

But! Anyways! Below the cut is all the existing material I have for Hollowed Moon past chapter 14, consisting of a mixture of descriptions, sketchy dialogue, and prose. It honestly feels nice to finally be able to put this story to an official rest.

Chapter 15

“I... I saw her.”

“Who-?”

“I saw Pink Diamond. I saw you, in this exact garden, in a dream. I- it was like I was experiencing everything through her. She explained your game, tapped your nose and told you to smile, then warped away—“

“That’s it, that’s what happened, almost exactly! But how could you even know that, I never—“

“I don’t know,” they blurt out. “I have empathic abilities, and sometimes that makes dreaming a little weird, but I have no idea how or why I saw any of this.”

[Pause for Stevonnie to think]

“Spinel, I’m so, so sorry,” they whisper brokenly. “But I think... she left you here.”

“What...?”

“She said she’d return, but before she warped away she whispered goodbye, like she didn’t actually intend to make good on that promise. She was lying to you,” they choke out, voice thick.

“No. No,” she says in clear denial, “no she’s not. She can’t be! She told me she’d come back! I can wait! I just have to wait—“

“But she’s not! She... she can’t, because Pink Diamond is gone. She- she was shattered, Spinel. Five thousand years ago, on the Earth. I- I should’ve told you this from the beginning, and I didn’t, and I- I’m so, so sorry—! But she left you behind, and now she’s never coming back.”

[Silence. Tears brim in Spinel’s eyes. Her eyes grow dark, pained, and then she glares at Stevonnie with such venom it almost knocks them backwards in alarm. ]

“NO!” she screams, tears streaming down her faded pink cheeks.

[She tears her feet up from the roots and runs away, using her arms like an orangutan to vault herself forward super fast so Stevonnie can’t catch her.]

___

Chapter 16

AN: Content warning for self-shattering attempt. Part of the reason why I had to stop writing this story at the time. I considered pushing the plot another way, but it didn't feel authentic to how I believed this scenario would play out for Spinel when she didn't have a direct target for her anger. Without someone to actively be jealous and upset AT, I could only imagine her breaking inwards instead of outwards, feeling that she's utterly failed in her life's purpose. Nothing more than a description for this chapter... and it'd be a short one.

[When Stevonnie finds her, she’s smashing her fists against her gem in her sheer anguish. She’s already cracked it. She’s glitching. It looks terribly painful. She’s about to strike her gem again when Stevonnie intervenes.]

___

Chapter 17

[Post timely intervention. Spinel is still cracked at this moment, though... her form glitching as she cries.]

“I was... her best friend,” she cries, fat, glistening tears streaming down her cheeks. “I was supposed to make her happy! Why wasn’t she happy? Why didn’t she come back?“

[Spinel reasoning that maybe if Pink came back for her, she wouldn’t have been shattered in the first place]

“What did I do wrong?” she whispers hoarsely, gazing pleadingly into Stevonnie’s eyes. “Wha- what am I doing? Why do I wanna hurt myself so badly?”

“Shh, now,” they reply, tears of their own brimming at the crease of their eyes, and pull Spinel’s head to their chest. “I’ve got you...”

___

Chapter 18

They know their throat is tight, and their voice scratchy. They know they’ve never sung this song in front of another living being, since it’s something personal they composed alone on one of their late nights back on Earth, thinking about all the difficult days Steven and Connie have had to face over the months. Pair this with their active crying, and there’s no way their singing will be anything pretty.

But pretty doesn’t matter right now.

Stevonnie opens their lips, and— clutching the broken hearted Gem close, rhythmically rocking with her back and forth— lets the wandering melody emerge from within.

“I guess I have to face That in this awful place I shouldn’t show a trace Of doubt...”

“But pulled against the grain I feel a little pain That I would rather do Without...”

“I’d rather be Free, free Free...”

[Hoarse, Spinel starts singing with them.]

“I’d rather be Free, free Free...”

“Free, free Free...”

“From here...”

[Stevonnie holds her tight while crying, their tears healing it back up.]

___

Chapter 19

AN: Don't have anything but a single bit of dialogue in this chapter note- I'm assuming I intended it as being a good few hours after the events of chapters 16-18... when Spinel has calmed down a little and has a moment to reflect on the upsetting news she's just received.

“I think... I always knew,” she says, voice hoarse. “In a way. It was so obvious how she felt about me.

___

Chapter ?

AN: From here on out, the plot hasn't been split into individual chapters.

[At some point shortly after chapter 19, Lars and his crew locate Stevonnie in the garden, and pick them and Spinel up. The next few bits of dialogue and description takes place on the ship.]

Rutile twins: “I haven’t heard of Spinels being produced in over five millennia.” “Me neither!”

Rhodonite: “Yeah, I heard they stopped making them entirely after the rebellion on Pink’s colony.”

[A bit of overwhelming conversation later, no one really noticing Spinel's conflicted emotional response to so many Gems hovering around her at once.]

Padparadscha: “I predict that you’re both going to make Spinel feel very uncomfortable aboard this ship.”

Rhodonite: “I’m sorry, we don’t exactly meet new Gems every century.”

Rutile twins: “Yes!” “It’s just been us until we met our captain!”

Fluorite: “Our new huuuuman friend helped us escape the tunnels on Homeworld. Now... we’re slooowly making our way back... to Earth.”

Spinel: “Earth?? You’re going to Pink’s world? But why? I heard she... was shattered.”

___

[Spinel feeling a sense of kinship with the idea that there’s other Gems who didn’t serve their rightful purpose and are now escaping their life on Homeworld to be free of that. Because now, without her Diamond, since she was unable to keep her happy, she’s an Off Color too. She failed her given purpose same as them.]

[Discussion of Earth, and the rebellion, and how there’s Gems living free there. And how Pink’s colony was siphoning life away, and that’s what these Gems were fighting to protect. Stevonnie points out all the plants and wildlife that used to live in the garden, and asks her if she felt happier when it was around. Spinel says yes. Stevonnie says that this is what the Diamonds are destroying, with each lifeless colony they forge. Everywhere they go, dead wildlife lies in their wake.]

Spinel: “I... guess I never thought of it that way.”

[(Stevonnie adds...) And while they’re very sorry for the personal connection there, and can’t imagine how painful that must be, that’s why Pink Diamond was shattered.]

[Spinel is given an open choice... Lars gives the invitation to stay with him and the Off Colors, and Stevonnie offers for her to come with them back to Earth. It's not a hard decision for her in the end, though. She's always dreamed of seeing what was once Pink’s planet, ever since she heard the Diamonds bequeath it to her.]

___

Stevonnie: “Okay, so… before we go, I need to be honest with you about something." [deep breath] "I’m actually a fusion of two separate people who are close friends. You... know what fusion is, right?”

Spinel: “Duh, o’course! What, d’ya think I was made yesterday?”

[...]

Stevonnie: “But even with that, I can’t be together as me all the time. Steven and Connie, the two who come together to form me... they love hanging out with each other so much, but they also have their own lives! Other friends, other hobbies, their own families. They still talk when they’re apart, but they know it’s okay to do things alone, too. Do you know why I’m telling you this?”

Spinel: [shakes head no] “No...?”

Stevonnie: [sighs] “I understand you’ve been left behind. Believe me, I know how bad that feels. So the last thing I wanna do is make you think I’m doing that too.”

Spinel: “Y-you— you’re going away?” Stevonnie: “Unfusing, yes.” Spinel: “But Stevonnie, you—“ Stevonnie: “Spinel. No matter what, you are my friend. Steven and Connie consider you a friend, too. And my hope is that you’ll keep making a whole bunch more on Earth, so you’ll always have people around who know and love you. But that can’t always be me, okay?“

___

[At home... on Earth. There's a bit of a close call for Pearl when Spinel arrives, and recognizes her as Pink's second pearl. This is news for Garnet and Amethyst and Steven, the first of which had somewhat suspected that Pearl used to be in the diamonds' service, but never knew for sure. Pearl, of course... can't say much on this due to her gag order... not that anyone else knows about that yet... but does manage a very concise and PD=RQ free explanation about her past in Pink's court, and her transition towards being a Crystal Gem:]

Pearl: “Rose Quartz set me free, and I’ve been a part of the rebellion ever since.”

___

[At some point between the last scene and the next, mention how Spinel had a bit of a relapse... she ended up poofing herself, and reformed differently. A little bit closer to the smudged mascara and frayed pigtails look of canon, but no rotated heart. Unlike in canon, she has a solid support system amongst the Crystal Gems, and she's working hard to recover from the heartbreak of Pink's abandonment.]

___

[Final scene is set post A Single Pale Rose. Steven and Connie fuse, and Stevonnie goes to find Spinel to check in on how she's taking the news. The final line of the fic is as follows:]

Spinel: “I know you’re not her, not really. And I know you’ll always be a better person than she ever was. But in some silly cyclical way... back in that garden... it’s almost like Pink came back for me after all.”

#su #spinel #stevonnie #su fanfiction #my fic stuff #hollowed moon #this isn't REALLY 'my fic stuff' since it's unwritten but #i think it deserves to be here. this is the full unfinished plot of a fic that got the most exposure of anything i've ever shared in fandom

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mixingpumpkins · 3 years

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Hello, I really liked your additions to the post regarding interview questions. I was wondering if employers are legally allowed to ask why you left your last job/can press you on what happened that caused the split from the company? This is the area I struggle with most, because it’s a complex issue and I always feel like I’m putting myself in a bad light when I answer it because context is so hard to explain. Thanks in advance!

Hi! Thank you - I’m glad you found something useful in that post.

So, regarding your question, I’ve got good news and bad news, sort of.

Bad news first - it’s fine for interviewers to ask why you left your last job. Sorry. I know it can be super awkward.

Good news - it doesn’t have to be super awkward, because there are a lot of strategies you can use to answer this question. We’ll start with the simplest ones, but there are also several that, as a last resort, can make an interviewer feel awkward about poking further into that question, so they usually won’t at that point.

Quick tangent! The purpose of this question isn’t really just to see whether you parted with your last employer on good or bad terms. It’s to get a feel for an interviewee as a person - what’s important to them, what their goals or ambitions are, etc. So remember that this scary-sounding question isn’t usually (excepting garbage employers/HR staff) out of a sense of trying to dig up something wrong or whatever. Believe it or not, a lot of companies are actually concerned with whether they’re a fit for you - at least to some extent - because at the very least, turnover is a pain in their ass.

So back to the question - “why did you leave your last job?”

I don’t know your exact circumstances, but the same rule of thumb for most interview questions applies: Be concise and don’t explain more than you have to. Some people have a tendency to babble when they’re nervous, but really try not to - over-explaining never looks better than someone who can answer confidently and concisely and is fine with uncomfortable silence. (Some more pretentious HR people I’ve met have said they’ll often try to create awkward silences, because it’s a good way to make the interviewee uncomfortable and get them to spill a bunch of information they might not have answered directly. It’s kind of a low tactic, but learning to recognize it changed my life. I’ve seriously spent entire interviews chanting “don’t overshare” in my head for that reason.)

Some options for answers:

You were offered a promotion/growth opportunity at another company, or you left to pursue another opportunity. This one is good in that it shows growth is valuable to you. It can sometimes be a bit of double-edged sword if your interviewer is big on “loyalty” (lol, like that actually exists), but most people understand by this point that one company often doesn’t offer the opportunities everyone is looking for. This shouldn’t raise any real red flags for your interviewer. (Also... that “opportunity” you left to pursue doesn’t have to be another job, fyi. It could be school, or starting a family, or travel, or whatever. You don’t have to elaborate.)

You left to work on something that you were passionate about. Maybe it’s school, maybe it was another opportunity, whatever - but most people are going to understand this.

You were in that position with that company for a while and wanted experience in a different environment / new responsibilities for your growth. Totally fair reason for leaving a job that no decent interviewer is going to think makes you an awful person.

You reevaluated your goals / where the job was taking you / etc. and decided it was time for a change. Again, perfectly reasonable reason to leave a job - just make sure you’re making clear why you think this new potential position with this new company is what you want.

You took time off for a personal issue you needed to attend to, which has since been resolved, and you’re looking forward to being able to devote your focus to a new opportunity. I mean, it’s not the most ideal answer for why you left a job, just in the sense that some cynical interviewers will wonder if you’d do it to the new job, but it’s not a bad answer. Honestly, you don’t need to explain beyond that. This is a great answer if you left for health concerns, family concerns, whatever - that’s none of your interviewer’s business. If they press, it’s fine to politely say that you’re not comfortable discussing a lot of personal details, but reiterate that it was resolved/no longer applies to the new direction you’re hoping to take your career.

You got laid off/your position was eliminated. Especially now that COVID is a thing - there is nothing wrong with this answer. (I’ve used it myself multiple times.) An interviewer might press a little on this, but you don’t need to be evasive about it - it doesn’t reflect badly on you to say your department got shut down, the company was struggling/downsizing, your job was outsourced, the company went out of business, etc. It happens. If anything, this can get you some sympathy.

Your last company was making some changes/restructuring/bringing in new policies or leadership/changing the job responsibilities etc. and you felt it was the right time to leave. You don’t have to elaborate on this a lot - but don’t badmouth your old job/company if your interviewer presses for details. You can just say you felt the changes weren’t in alignment with your goals or what you had hoped to be doing in that role, so you felt it was time to move on.

You were offered a significant increase in pay (if you found another job after that one) or your last job was no longer meeting your financial obligations. Okay, definitely use another answer in addition to this one, and maybe don’t mention this if you feel the interview is going badly and your interviewer has no sense of humor, but otherwise, don’t be super shy about this “taboo” topic! Obviously, you don’t want to give the impression that money is what’s most important to you in a job (even if it is, lol), but being candid about this also shows that you’re realistic, you know you have worth, and you’re not afraid to have conversations about it. There’s nothing inherently bad about acknowledging in the open that existing does require a certain baseline of pay, and your last position wasn’t meeting your needs. (Yes, I’ve even brought this up for part-time retail jobs, and I was still offered the positions.) But again... pair this answer with another answer.

You were fired. Okay. Here’s the deal with this. If you were fired, you shouldn’t lie about this. There is a clear trail that can show you are lying. If they check a reference, you will be outed as a liar. If they find out you were fired from your last job after you’re already hired and working the new job, you’re outed as a liar and can get in serious trouble along with being fired again. So at the risk of people misinterpreting my “don’t tell employers shit” post - DON’T. LIE. ABOUT. BEING. FIRED. Yes, this can be awkward. No, it doesn’t mean you’ll be out of consideration. Concisely explain what happened (again, don’t overshare on details), and don’t badmouth your past employer in the process, even if you hate their guts and it was a totally unfair situation. If your firing could be construed as your fault, even if it wasn’t (e.g., the “reason for termination” was you technically breaking a policy or something), take responsibility, show you’ve learned from it, etc. Again, concisely. That shows you’ve come to terms with it far more than over-explaining about it does. In most reasonable employers’/HRs’ eyes, it’s understandable that people make mistakes - that doesn’t mean that person should never work again. (Unless, like, you embezzled 50K or something. And those fuckers seem to keep getting exec positions afterward, so...)

Hope that gives you an idea of some good ways to answer that question! Basically, a lot of interviewers understand that leaving a past job can have a complicated answer. Simplify it as much as you can, don’t overshare, don’t badmouth your past employers, and don’t be afraid to say something like “I don’t want to bore you with too many details” or “I don’t want to get too personal for a professional conversation” if they’re getting exceptionally nosy about it.

#asks #job hunting #interview advice #long post #Anonymous

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sennamybeloved · 3 years

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Bestie I wanna hear about your cookie run f/os :'0!!!

-[void-selfships]

hello my WONDERFUL mutual i love you /p

i’m just gonna spout off my feelings about my more prominent cr f/os—srry if this gets kinda wordy and sorry for the inevitable, excessive amounts of images there will be

i figure that there is no one better to start off with than sour belt cookie. she is my main f/o from cookie run, her release got me back into ovenbreak, and she’s just. such a fun character. her design is super aesthetically pleasing and her personality is very silly. i love her an unbelievable amount. hep me

my s/i for her is,,, strange. she’s both an intern and a model who started as a very loyal customer that caught sour belt’s eye. his name is sweet ribbon cookie, but he rlly isn’t all that sweet lol. REGARDLESS! sour belt is kinda whipped for him & kinda sorta employed him as an excuse to get close to him.

our dynamic is so self indulgent but i don’t care we are so in love

NEXT IN LINE WE GOT UHMM *spins imaginary wheel* KUMIHO COOKIE

AUUHHHHGGGGGGGGGG this stupid little cookie has me so fucked up u do not understand. i LOVE foxes. they are my special interest. ESPECIALLY FOX FOLKLORE!!! so u can already guess how i feel about fox girls (source: my f/o list)

kumiho cookie is so pretty and cool she makes me want to explode. first of all, i LOVE how the actual folklore was portrayed through her character & design (“magical marshmallow fox that wants to be a real cookie” is a super cute take ok it, only has fox tails and no fox ears which is cool bc it’s said that a fox can accidentally let their tails slip out when they’re in a human disguise, tails represented by her hair which is just a cool design choice……. and so much more) also she is so so so transfemme coded. i love her so bad

heavy breathing. we’re doing timekeeper now boys

I LOVE INSANE WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE INSANE WOMEN THAT I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT SAFE AROUND AND HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP BUT THEY LOVE ME SOOOO MUCH ITS FINE. I LOVE INSANE WOMEN I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

takes a deep breath. timekeeper is a very cool and unique character who i’m convinced was made for me because 1) she’s insane 2) she’s a woman 3) she’s adorable in a creepy way which i love 4) she has a very steampunk-esque aesthetic which is my comfort aesthetic and favorite aesthetic of all time holy shit dude

im so in love with her that i tear up when i think about her sometimes she’s so cool and pretty and awesome i literally can’t be normal about her even if i wanted to

anyways i’m on a roll guys. time for my first cookie run f/o ever from august 2018 TIGER LILY yas

i love tiger lily a whole lot but i can’t really explain why. she’s very cute and fun and i love her voice and the way her eyes in kingdom. and i LOVE animal-themed characters + i’m tiger kin so it tracks. and i also love jungle themed characters!! there’s a lot about tiger lily that i just think is so fun. i just kinda wish her flower was an actual tiger lily (i know she’s technically not like made with a tiger lily ingredient because she’s princess cookie’s sister and isn’t even supposed to be “tiger lily” cookie but it makes more sense for her design ok) but other than that her design is pretty and concise (albeit very simple) and i think she’s beautiful. so beautiful. i’m gonna explode

GO ANIMAL THEMED CHARACTERS GO!!!!!! that’s scorpion cookie and she’s (you guessed it) an insane dangerous woman (not exactly insane but dangerous, and i imagine her to be a bit reckless and stuff idk she fits my type well)

she’s so fun and pretty and i don’t talk about her enough. she’s one of the cookies who i want to hear the voice of the MOST i feel like it’d be very high pitched and very raspy and i also feel like it’d turn me into a useless gay mess! as she tends to do. IDK i just really want more content of her so so bad, she’s so interesting but her potential is never tapped into (which is the case with a lot of cookies)

idk. i’m just veryflustered. i love her lots i love ALL of my girlfriends lots i’m gay ,help

#thanks for giving me this opportunity i’m balling #lotus answers #this post is fun bc you get to WATCH me fall apart as i gush about these guys #timekeeper is who killed me tbh.#【 🔑 】 ✦ * · ˚ — you are lovely even in your madness │ r: timekeeper .#🐯🌿 wild child 🌿🐯#【 🍥 】 ✦ * · ˚ — how do i look? convincingly human? │ r: kumiho .#【 ✂️ 】 ✦ * · ˚ — dress me / i’m your mannequin │ r: sour belt .#i forgot my scorpi tag :(#🦂❤️ you seem interesting ❤️🦂#good thing i have a google doc with all my tags. too bad that tag sucks #could i really not be more creative omg #i will change it. later

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mittensmorgul · 4 years

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A lot of people keep saying that 15x20 was Chuck's ending, but... it wasn't? All of Chuck's endings had Sam and Dean sacrificing themselves or one another or otherwise "going down swinging", but what we saw instead was a random accident. No fanfare, no blaze of glory or sacrifice of any kind, no "epic tragedy". Kind of like getting poisoned by a bad taco. Unless Chuck just got fed up with the story and, taking notes from Gabriel, wrote a nonsensical boring ending purely out of spite.

It was Chuck’s ending in that if he’d actually been defeated, Sam and Dean would’ve been free. They were not. One still died “so the other could live,” and the finale even cancelled that bit with the Sam Wig Montage and having him end up dead, too.

For all the nightmare scenarios Chuck showed them, for all the “one brother murders the other” prompting he gave Sam, that was never the true core of his story. It was always about one sibling dying/being removed from the story so that the other could control the entire narrative. That was his original story with Amara. That was the “justification” he sought through every retelling of all his greatest hits. That was ultimately the story that “won” in Supernatural.

I’ve now been discussing this with some kind folks on discord, and we’ve gone down about a million tangents... but I have a few links to meta written on the subject I’ll provide as a result. But first, a short diversion into my own contribution to this conversation:

Recall how it seemed obvious that Dabb's authorial self-insert character was Billie. How from her intro she was both the character most intent on finding Balance in the universe AND had a Final Antagonist coding to her, in that she was the End Of Their Story in a very literal way. [12:55 PM] (I am going somewhere with this, I swear) [12:56 PM] Then she was shown in her library, with the myriad possible deaths Dean could suffer, and we wondered why he had so many books with so many different endings especially when the books could "rewrite" themselves as people lived and made choices that altered their fate. [12:59 PM] Chuck's hand-- even if he couldn't "read" those books himself or mess with them directly-- could "write" so may potential endings for Dean that would all have to be accounted for by Fate. Cosmically gaming the system by making it impossible for Dean to make ANY choice that wouldn't be accounted for somewhere. Which is the hamster wheel Dean described of never actually having lived his own life... [1:02 PM] But this is now making me furious. Because Billie was supposed to be the END of the story. Dabb was supposed to finally CLOSE the book of fate, having mended the imbalance of the universe. But like Billie, who Chuck disliked for "meddling" in his story despite her meddling being entirely focused on repairing the ever-worsening cosmic imbalance his story was creating, Dabb was sort of growing desperate toward the end. He slipped up. His plan to kill God was ALWAYS doomed to fail (because the network forbade it... it was NEVER going to happen, EVER, and loads of US knew that and it left me completely side-eyeing Billie's whole plan with Jack, because I KNEW it could never happen that way... yet Dabb kept driving the bus in that direction despite us all knowing it had to fail, that they would not be allowed to kill God in primetime network tv...) [1:03 PM] And that was Billie's downfall... because "the plan" was doomed to fail. [1:03 PM] And that was also Dabb's downfall, but he held the authorial intent to keep making it seem like a possibility, to his own detriment. [1:04 PM] Once Billie's plan failed, and she was sucked into the empty with Cas, all that was left was Chuck As Author.

I've been thinking of Billie's downfall as a sort of Winchester Derangement Syndrome, [1:05 PM]

There is zero doubt in me that Chuck was the ultimate winner.

But like... secondary derangement as a side effect of her position in the cosmos as the balance point of life and death, and the absolute Chaos Vacuum generated around the Winchesters by Chuck's constant meddling.

but at the end we learn it was ALL CHUCK. The Winchesters wanted to retire from fucking with cosmic forces! They never wanted that AT ALL. That's what Chuck wanted them to play with, though, so kept setting scenarios where they would have "no other choice" but to run headlong into another cosmic battle

every time they mentioned the toes in the sand, or any hint at wanting anything outside of hunting and cosmic disasters, it was a red flag that Chuck was about to step in with a new Hammurabi-Gun-Level fuckery [1:11 PM]

(pardon the timestamps from discord, I’m too lazy to delete them all)

(we’re now discussing how Becky actually was the best writer in the show, how Chuck couldn’t take criticism from her AT ALL and his only reaction to her being literally RIGHT about it being an awful story was to snap her out of existence... so like... makes the ending even that much worse, that it looked like he surface-level stole a few snippets of Becky’s preferred story-- doing laundry and talking to each other-- but then dismissed all that and flipped to Chuck’s preferred narrative of bringing on the monsters. Pointlessly, hopelessly. It’s like a sad, emotionless pantomime of the sort of story Becky would’ve told. But Becky recognized her issues and sought out therapy. Chuck... never would, and never did.)

(lol we’re now serving up fresh shattered glass in the discord server)

There is no explanation for this finale aside from “Chuck’s story won in the end.” He was vindicated by it. It functions as a “moral justification through parallel” of his own actions-- fridging Amara to maintain full control of the narrative.

And now those links I promised... a tumblr post on monsters in Supernatural:

https://trisscar368.tumblr.com/post/638157515063951360/of-villains-and-monsters-and-the-tragedy-of

and a post on AO3 (too long for tumblr, about 7k words about Death In Supernatural... even if you’re not up for a read that long, scroll down toward the end and at LEAST read the tl;dr of the finale segment of the essay)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28831941

Sorry if this is a bit incoherent. I’ve been tabbing back and forth on this for like an hour now, in abject frustration over it all. If you’d like clarification on any point I attempted to make here, I invite further questions. But short of writing a thesis-length treatise, I don’t know if I can possibly explain it all more concisely than this ^^

#spn 15.20 #spn 15.04 #chuck's process #Anonymous

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four-loose-screws · 3 years

Text

FE8 Novelization Translation - Chapter 7, Section 2

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

———————————

I call this a “section” because it is not a separate part of the chapter in the book, but divided from the rest of the chapter by a scene break.

———————————

Chapter 7: The Girl With Wings (con’t)

The trip back took many less days than the trip out, and in the end, Eirika’s army returned to the Frelian capital.

Compared to the devastation of the rural regions, Frelia’s prospering capital did not show even a sign of the darkness that was clouding the continent. Life there was as rich and refined as ever. Along the capital city’s main street were shops overflowing with high quality goods, and men and women in sophisticated dress laughed and conversed with each other as they came and went.

When Eirika’s army saw such glory, their days fighting monsters and attacking bandit hideouts felt as far away as a dream.

When they returned to the palace, the person to come rushing out to greet them was none other than Tana herself.

The moment she received the news, she could not wait patiently in the reception hall any longer, and ran all the way to the gate.

And when she saw Ephraim riding his horse next to Eirika, she blushed. "Ephraim! Um, you are Ephraim, right…? You're safe!"

Ephraim jumped down from his horse and walked over to her.

She clasped her hands together and looked up at him. "I prayed every day that you two would be safe. I prayed harder than I ever have in my entire life."

"Sorry for making you worry, Tana."

“It’s okay now, since you two made it home safe! I’m so happy! And that’s not all! We finally received the message from Brother that says he’s coming home soon!”

“From Innes?” Ephraim’s face hardened for a split second.

He and Tana’s older brother, Prince Innes, had never gotten along. It was likely because their personalities were the complete opposite. Ephraim was big-hearted and cheerful, and would never sweat the small stuff, whereas Innes was serious and uptight about every little detail. Even as a child, he rarely smiled.

Whatever Ephraim did, Innes found fault with it. And because Ephraim would pay no attention to what he said, while they wouldn’t fight, even the smallest disagreement would further drive an unrepairable wedge between them.

Prince Innes returned to the castle before long. Eirika and Ephraim went with Tana to greet him.

Tana looked happy, but she did not show her excitement like she did when Eirika and Ephraim returned, as Innes did not like it when she made too much of a commotion. She looked up to her serious brother, but also feared him a little bit.

“Welcome home, Brother! I’m so happy you’ve returned home safely….”

Innes glared at her.

Though he had just returned from a harsh battle and a long journey, he did not look even slightly tired. He was as prim and proper as ever, with not a wrinkle in his clothing nor a hair out of place.

“Of course I have. Did you really think that Grado riff-raff could hurt me?”

“N… No. Of course I didn’t. But still…”

“Don’t say “but.” It’s such a nuisance.”

“I’m sorry.” Tana looked down at her feet.

While Eirika felt bad for Tana, Innes’ manner of speaking and attention to detail was the same as ever, and made her feel nostalgic.

His personality was in no way malicious, and he did not mean to bully his little sister, rather, he actually doted on her as much as Ephraim doted on Eirika. However, because he was so serious, he almost always behaved like a strict teacher with her. Eirika remembered him always searching for her with his brow furrowed the moment she disappeared from his sight when they were children.

Ephraim smiled awkwardly and extended a hand towards Innes. “Long time no see, Innes.”

“...Ephraim.” Innes’ expression slowly hardened, and his tone became increasingly sharp as he continued to speak. ”I have received word of Renais’ fall. It is shameful to see it be occupied by Grado.”

Ephraim’s expression was just as stern and determined not to falter nor lose to Innes.

But Innes' tone did not soften. “I warned you of this in the past. Your defenses were too weak for a country boarding a large nation like Grado. I think this was always the obvious outcome.”

Tana could not simply stand by. “Brother…!” She cut in. “You don’t have to speak like that, even if it is true! Imagine how much Ephraim and Eirika must be suffering… Their father is gone!”

“What happened to King Fado is a pity.” Innes’ expression softened for a moment, but his eyes stared at Ephraim just as harshly as before.

“However, there is no time to grieve. Defeating Grado and ending this war is likely the best way to honor his memory. I apologize.” Knowing that saying anything more would be meaningless, Innes turned his back on everyone and walked away.

Tana stayed behind and apologized sadly, “I am sorry, Ephraim, Eirika. Brother… I’m sure he didn’t mean anything wrong by what he said, but he was still too harsh…”

“It’s fine, Tana.” Ephraim said with a sigh. His stiff facial expression softened and returned to normal. “I know he hates me. I’ve already gotten used to how he speaks.”

“He doesn’t really hate you! He just thinks of you as a rival!” Tana whispered. “He’s been like that ever since he was a child. As a warrior, a human being, and a man, he almost always puts all his effort into never losing. And his way of speaking is just…”

“Not another word.” Innes had amazing hearing. Even though he was seemingly far enough away from them, he overheard their conversation and walked back over.

Tana jumped and hid behind Ephraim.

Just as he was about to yell at Tana, Innes decided against it, then turned towards Ephraim and said bluntly, “A meeting is about to be held in the hall. You and your sister should attend.”

“Understood. There is something that I need to tell everyone..”

“I will go as well.”

After Eirika and Ephraim responded, Tana poked her head out from behind Ephraim. “Then me, too!”

“This has nothing to do with you.”

“It does too! I’m the princess of Frelia…”

“A war meeting is no place for a child. Go to your room.”

“But…”

“I told you to stop saying that, didn’t I?”

There was nothing she could do. Tana was visibly frustrated, but she had no real argument and couldn't fight back against her brother.

The princess returned to her room, and Eirika and Ephraim went with Innes to the hall.

The generals and chief vassals gathered together, and when the king entered the room to start the meeting, the tone was very cheerful.

That did not mean that the current state of the war was unquestionably good, but that Innes and Ephraim's return brought hope to the anxious people in the city. King Hayden's expression was also much brighter than when Eirika had first left.

First, the king expressed his words of gratitude to the two princes. After that, he tried to extend his blessing to the chief vassals, but Innes, who preferred to be concise no matter the situation, stood up.

"I don't want to waste time. Allow me to get straight to the point."

King Hayden frowned, but nodded slightly to his son. "Very well. Then let us begin. Innes, please give us your report of the current state of battle to the south."

"The Frelian Army is continuing to fight the Grado Army near the border. As it currently stands, our army has the upper hand. We also have soldiers to spare, so I believe that we do not have any reason to worry."

Expressions of relief spread across the row of chief vassals.

King Hayden nodded, satisfied, and also seemed to be in deep thought. "...However, I still cannot believe it. Invading suddenly and without warning, goes against everything we’ve ever known the Grado Empire to do. The emperor is praised across the continent for his virtue. Such a barbarian act would be unthinkable for him.”

Eirika mustered up all of her strength and stood up, gathering the attention of everyone present. "There is something I would like to say about this. While fighting to save Brother, I came close to people from Grado many times, and discovered the answer. They said that the Grado emperor’s true motive is to destroy the Sacred Stone in each country.”

As she had already explained this to King Hayden, he was not surprised, however, the same could not be said for his vassals. Many gasped, some nearly jumped out of their chairs, and the entire room broke out into a commotion.

The king raised his hand, quieting everyone. “Upon receiving this report, we strengthened the defense around Frelia’s Sacred Stone. We would be able to intercept the Grado Army even if their elite Wyvern Knight unit attacked. There is no need to worry.”

Hearing that calmed Eirika for the time being.

‘If Renais had been able to prepare beforehand, then…’ A pang of regret made her chest feel heavy. Prince Innes’ harsh words had been right. They’d become too used to peace. What happened was their punishment for neglecting their country’s defenses. Now, even if she regretted what happened, it was no use.

“Still, even knowing that, there is something that I do not understand. What does Grado stand to gain from destroying the Sacred Stones…?”

“Perhaps they are plotting to destroy all of the other nations’ Sacred Stones, and weaken their defenses?” One of the generals suggested.

But Ephraim answered, “No, that cannot be it, because the Grado emperor said that they destroyed their own stone first.”

“What…?”

Everyone in the room looked at each other with expressions of disbelief. It wasn’t an unreasonable response by any means. Even Eirika, who had heard the full story from Natasha already, still felt that she couldn’t believe it.

The Grado Empire’s Sacred Stone… she remembered when Lyon had told her about the wondrous power it held.

"What I think, Eirika, is that the power of the Sacred Stone should be used to make everyone live happily. It’s been said that the Demon King’s power was sealed away within it during the ancient war. The Demon King no longer exists, but the world is still full of sadness and suffering. So I thought, ‘If I use the Sacred Stones, I can seal away all of those terrible things, can’t I?’ I want to create a world where no one is unhappy, and everyone can laugh throughout their lives." He said shyly.

As Eirika listened to him, it warmed her heart.

The ideal he told her seemed like a vague dream, and could be seen as lacking any true weight even for a crown prince. But Eirika loved the earnest look in his eyes. He always worried about those suffering from poverty and illness, and it pained his heart greatly. She loved that kindness of his.

"You'll surely become an amazing emperor." She responded.

He shook his head in surprise. “I'm nowhere near ready yet… I am still far too inexperienced…”

That memory already felt like it had happened so long ago, but only about a year and a half had passed since they last spoke as friends.

How could things change so much in just a year and a half? Lyon’s dream for Grado’s Sacred Stone had already been destroyed by the very father he respected so much. No matter what his thoughts were now, he must be suffering...

“I don’t know if these two things are related, but…”

At the sound of her brother’s voice, Eirika snapped out of her reminiscing and looked up. He was looking around at everyone as he spoke.

“I have actually heard a concerning story as well.” Ephraim waved towards the door to the hall.

He must have said something to the guards earlier, as they seemed to know exactly what he meant by the signal and opened the door, inviting in a little girl who’d been waiting outside.

It was Myrrh. She had changed out of the simple clothing she’d worn while on their journey, and was now nicely dressed. She was standing up straight now, and looked even cuter than before.

She entered the room, maintaining her polite and proper posture as she walked, then kneeled down on one knee in front of the king.

King Hayden was confused that the prince had brought in a girl he’d never seen before, and looked at Ephraim. “Who is this girl?”

“Her name is Myrrh. Myrrh, this is King Hayden of Frelia.”

Myrrh nodded and bended over slightly.

Eirika, who’d been watching the events unfold and wondering what was going on herself, gasped.

Two giant wings spread out from Myrrh's back.

While they were traveling, she must have folded them up to make them small enough to hide. The billowing outfits made with a large amount of fabric that she’d worn must have been specifically to hide her wings.

Everyone in the room started talking all at once. Myrrh looked over at Ephraim with a nervous expression on her face as she stood back up.

“Myrrh, please explain to everyone what you told me.”

“...Could you tell them please, Ephraim?” She whispered in a voice that became quieter and quieter with each word, while refolding her wings with a light shuffling sound. Once she put on the cape she was holding in her arms, no one in the room could see any trace of them.

Ephraim started to tell the story. “She explained to me that she is a descendent of the ancient dragon tribe.”

“A Manakete…” King Hayden whispered in complete shock, and nodded slightly.

“Yes, that is correct. That is the name we use for her kind in our folklore.”

Eirika had never heard it before, but King Hayden went on to explain it.

“It appears many times in our folklore about the Sacred Stones. The Manakete are neither human nor monster, but an entirely different race."

As he spoke, the king’s eyes, full of emotion, were fixed on Myrrh. He couldn’t seem to shake off his surprise that a member of the tribe of legend was standing right in front of him.

Ephraim once again urged Myrrh to speak. She was still shy, but this time opened her mouth.

"We… lived quietly and peacefully in the Darkling Woods. But, one day, we felt an ominous energy.”

“An energy…?”

"It came from the south. We felt a very bad, scary energy."

Eirika pictured a map of the continent in her head.

The Darkling Woods was a forest region located roughly in the center of the continent. From ancient times, it was a land that humans had not entered, and was the one territory left that no country ruled over. And to the south of it was...

"Grado." Ephraim declared.

Myrrh nodded and continued. “My friends and I went to see what that energy was. But along the way, we became mixed up in the war, and were separated. After that, a group of bad people stole my Dragonstone. As they were about to capture me, Ephraim saved me.”

“I didn’t believe her story at first either. Manakete were just a thing of legend to me. However, when I saw her wings, I could not deny it. I don’t know what this “ominous energy” that she speaks of is, but I thought it might have something to do with Grado’s sudden invasion, so we decided that she would come with me.”

“Manakete were just a thing of legend to me.” ...Those words made Eirika think of the monsters she’d seen in the Za’ha Forest.

She’d thought of monsters as just a thing of legend, and would never forget her surprise when they appeared before her very own eyes. Manakete and monsters were different, but it wasn’t likely to be a coincidence that the two types of living creatures who had kept themselves hidden from humans since ancient times appeared before them at the same time...

Myrrh seemed to sense Eirika’s uneasiness, as she said, “Even now, I can still feel the ominous energy. It is the reason why the monsters that have slept for so long are beginning to awaken. I want to stop it.” Her voice was resolute.

Eirika thought of Myrrh as a mysterious girl that acted very mature of her age, but now that she knew she was a Manakete, she could believe it. Though she looked like a human, her ancient race had very long lifespans. She was surely decades… or even hundreds of years old.

The serious and grave story they’d just heard left everyone at a loss for words. Not a single person was making a sound when they suddenly heard a loud noise.

The door burst open and several soldiers came rushing in.

The young soldiers were so worked up that they entirely forgot proper etiquette, and did not even bow before shouting at the king, “We have an urgent report, Y-Your Majesty! The Tower… The Tower of Valdi was raided, and the Sacred Stone was…!”

The moment he heard the words “Sacred Stone,” all of the color drained from the king’s face.

Eirika swallowed and looked at the soldiers.

“It was destroyed! By the Grado Army!”

“Wh… What? That can’t be!” The king panicked and stood up. “We should have had enough soldiers stationed there! We secured the defenses so well that they should have even been able to withstand an air raid!”

“They were led by two of Grado’s six generals… Tiger Eye Caellach, and Fluorspar Selena. Our army fought back, but was crushed in only half a day…!”

Eirika jumped when he said Selena’s name.

It was the name of the composed and beautiful female general she’d met in the mountain village that was attacked by bandits.

She’d said that there were no borders when it came to the lives of ordinary citizens, and given her all to try and protect the people of Renais… And Eirika remembered that she’d left their encounter with the impression that such people existed even within the Grado Army.

Seth, who’d been listening in complete silence from the back until now, quietly began to speak.

“Fluorspar Selena is the name General Dussel gave her. I’ve heard that the emperor also trusts her very much.”

“To send a main force like that… Do they really wish that strongly for the Sacred Stones to be destroyed?" A rush of exhaustion overcame King Hayden, and he collapsed in his chair. “I don’t know… What Emperor Vigard could possibly be thinking…? This ominous energy… Grado’s invasion… the destruction of the Sacred Stones… Just who is trying to do what…?”

“Father, now is not the time to stand by and watch!” Innes was the first to break out of his trance, and stood right back up. His piercing voice echoed through the room and snapped King Hayden back to reality as well.

“You’re right. Now is not the time to lament what has happened. If we do not act, things will only get worse. First, we must warn every country that houses a Sacred Stone. Renais’ and Frelia’s stones have been destroyed, so that leaves Jehanna’s and Rausten’s. We must protect their stones at all cost. We will tell them that they are in danger, and offer to fight alongside them.”

“I will go.” The first to step forward was none other than Innes. “This situation is extremely abnormal and difficult to believe. If we send a random person, then Jehanna and Rausten may or may not believe them. But if the prince of Frelia himself visited them, they would not be able to refuse us.” His words were full of pride.

King Hayden looked at his son with eyes full of hope and trust. “But you’ve just returned from battle. Can you deploy so soon?”

“Of course. I will leave right away for the Kingdom of Jehanna, and form an alliance with them.”

“I apologize. I’m probably the one who should really go…”

“What are you saying? You cannot leave the country at a time like this. I will go.”

“Then I will go to Rausten!” Eirika shouted.

Ephraim’s eyes widened at her declaration. “What are you saying, Eirika!? We just came back, didn’t we? You can’t push yourself…”

“Inness is right. This situation is not a normal one. We can’t help being tired and in danger no matter where we are. And Rausten is closer than Jehanna. We’ll be there in no time if we take a ship up north. It won’t be dangerous.”

“...You’re right.” Ephraim realized just how serious his little sister was, and nodded. She may seem docile, but no one knew better than her twin brother that once she’d spoken, her mind would not be swayed.

“Then I will march to the Grado capital.”

“What…?” This time, King Hayden looked like he had stopped breathing. “What are you planning to do, Ephraim? Are you really going to invade Grado from here…?”

“Yes. If the capital is seized, then the war will be over. It would be best to end it as soon as possible, wouldn’t it?”

“You can’t. It is too reckless. The Grado Empire’s power is great… The force guarding the capital will be far stronger than the one that invaded Renais. And some of the other generals, particularly General Duessel, remain at the emperor’s side…”

Ephraim’s face clouded when he heard Duessel’s name, as he had once traveled to the capital to study the lance under General Duessel. The general’s sincerity had a profound effect on him, and he deeply respected him.

However, now was not the time to waver. “If they are my enemy, whoever they may be, I will have no choice but to fight them.”

King Hayden was amazed by Ephraim’s words. Hidden within his eyes, opened wide in surprise, was nostalgia for a time long gone. He relaxed suddenly and smiled.

“Please… don’t remind me of Fado. Your father was also a man known for his boldness. When he was young, he always made everyone around him so anxious…”

He was probably thinking about the old friend that he had lost. Eirika could see tears in his eyes.

But when he continued speaking, his voice was resolute. “Very well. Then I will entrust everything to you three. Innes will go to the Kingdom of Jehanna. Eirika will go to the Theocracy of Rausten. And Ephraim will go to the Grado Empire. Since you are each going in three separate directions, I cannot provide any of you with a large army. You will likely have difficult roads ahead of you…”

Ephraim nodded towards the king, then looked at Eirika and Innes. “If even one of us were to be defeated, then we would lose the war. Do not make any mistakes.”

“I wo-”

‘I won’t.’ Eirika tried to say, but Innes cut her off.

“This is me you’re talking about. Do you think I would fail?”

Ephraim shrugged his shoulders lightly.

Eirika said, “I will fulfill my duty! You two be careful as well!”

At King Hayden's order, they each quickly began to prepare for their departure.

Though they were busy, Eirika and Ephraim managed to find time to speak to each other while slowly walking down one of the castle’s corridors.

Ephraim whispered, "If I were to be honest, I would say that I do not want you to go. Though you've gotten stronger, you are a woman, so I'd like for you to wait for me here."

"There is no need for you to worry about me."

Eirika smiled. When they were children, Ephraim had always had a habit of saying to others “Don’t baby her just because she’s a girl!”

She also remembered when he would say to her, “You shouldn’t be quick to cry just because you’re a girl!” and drag her along with him as if she were a boy.

She wondered if that philosophy of his had changed now. But when she realized that he was just concerned about her from the very bottom of his heart, it made her smile.

“My journey to Rausten will be much easier than yours or Innes’... so much so that I want to apologize. I’m the one who should be worried about you! It’s too dangerous to face the Grado Empire head-on!”

“Me? There’s no way I would lose to Grado, is there?”

Despite his terrible relationship with Innes, they sounded just like each other. They themselves might not realize it, but they did have their similarities. They may look like total opposites on the outside, but their confidence and strong wills were exactly the same.

“You know I know very well of both your talent and luck.”

“It’s not luck. It’s all talent.”

“Of course. But Grado is just so strong that you can’t keep letting your guard down.”

“I know that. I do not pick battles that I cannot win. I will not die and leave you all alone.” Ephraim suddenly squeezed her hand.

It surprised her. His hand was warm and strong.

“Promise me that we will survive and meet again, Eirika.”

“...Yes. I promise.” She concentrated all her strength into her hand and squeezed back. When they were children, their hands were almost the same size, but now, his was far bigger. And his skin was now the hard and rough skin of the hands of a soldier.

It was not only a handshake as brother and sister, but also one of comrades in war. Eirika prayed from the very bottom of her heart that the day would come when they could hold hands like this once more.

After getting ready the next morning, Eirika came down the stairs to find two knights standing there, waiting for her in the corner of the hallway.

They were Ephraim’s most trusted men, Forde and Kyle.

“Good morning, Lady Eirika!”

“Are you going to deploy soon?”

“Yes. You are too, right? Please take care of my brother. Do your best to keep him from doing anything reckless…”

“About that...” Forde said and looked at Kyle.

Kyle proclaimed loudly, “It was decided that we would go with you, Lady Eirika.”

“...Huh?” Eirika tilted her head.

Kyle lowered his voice as he continued speaking, “King Hayden was very considerate to give Lord Ephraim the main force of the Frelian Army.”

“I… I see. He is going to be fighting the most important battle, after all…”

“‘And that’s why I don’t need you two worrying about me.’ He said. ‘I want you to go with Eirika.’ He said.” Forde grumbled.

“But if you two aren’t at his side, won’t it make the battles more difficult for Brother? No matter how much of the Frelian Army is with him, without you two…”

“I feel the same way. But, depending on how you look at it, if he’s always worried about you, he might not be able to fight as hard as he could. If that’s how he feels, then he probably thought that telling us to go with you would allow him to relax.”

“Forde, don’t say it like that!” Kyle yelled at him, then apologized for his rudeness to Eirika. “Lady Eirika, our lord told us not to worry about him, and that we should instead protect you. As this was Lord Ephraim’s personal decision, I trust that it cannot be wrong.”

“Yeah, that is true. He’ll be fine even if we ignore him. There’s no one more tough and stubborn than him.”

Kyle glared at him for saying that, but Forde just grinned in response.

Kyle’s words resonated with Eirika. If it was Ephraim's decision, it couldn't be wrong. "I understand. Then please, come with me. You are the knights Brother trusts most… I look forward to fighting alongside you.”

"Ah, please don't bow! You've got the routine all wrong! Lord Ephraim would just say 'C'mon, let's go!'" Forde joked.

Kyle finally could not hold back any longer, and stepped on Forde's foot, then vowed, "We will protect you, Lady Eirika!"

“For our motherland, Renais! And for Lady Eirika!" Forde chimed in, sounding serious just this once, as he was following up with what Kyle had said. But he was immediately back to his carefree self again, adding in his own words, “Let’s go! At our own pace!”

#fire emblem #fe #fe8 #sacred stones #nintendo #game boy advance #gba #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #eirika #fe8 novelization translation

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albatris · 4 years

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ok ok alriiiight ok so the plot of ATDAO

this post is not, like........... well, it’s not gonna be a blurb or a summary or a nice neat synopsis, this is not Professional Writeblr Business, this is, this is, uhhhh

this is like drunk house party logan rambles

works best if you imagine ur just like “hey man how’s it going” super casual and I grasp you firmly by the shoulders and look you dead in the eye and just ramble all of this without taking a single breath

could I have explained in a nice neat concise "elevator pitch" sort of way? probably. mind ur business. that’s not how we do things here at albatris.org

anyway the purpose of this post is “hey people seem to know a lot about the characters and the worldbuilding and the premise but have no clue what happens in the actual story” so I’m not going to be talking about said characters and worldbuilding and premise in depth

in terms of rambles, that stuff’s been covered! this post assumes you know what Ports are, n what the nature of the ATDAO apocalypse is, vaguely what the MCs are like as people......... though I can fetch this info for you if you like

but yeah if you are coming into this post with zero prior ATDAO knowledge........... deeply deeply from the bottom of my heart: sorry

also if this is your first time experiencing One Of These Rambles

also @safe-in-the-steep-cliffs and @siarven I am tagging you because you said you would like to be tagged and also hi and also I hope y’all knew what you were in for

anyway without further ado

(visual representation of my approach to this rant, not of how complicated my plot actually is)

(my plot is not that complicated)

ALRIGHT

there are two viewpoint characters! and two plotlines which converge near the end of the story, but honestly there’s a very real possibility I will decide these are two separate books meant as companion stories to each other because I love making things difficult for myself yeehaw

ATDAO’s co-protags are Tris and Noa, best buds four years and counting. their friendship is one of the single most important aspects of the story, n the ongoing love and trust they have for each other despite the way unfolding events force their relationship to change is integral to the themes and making the heart of the story what it is. I will now proceed to not mention this friendship for the entire remainder of this post. they’re bros. that’s all u need to know. listen. listen. I have a lot to cover

so yeah, ur first key player is Tris Greer, whose parents are dicks but whose siblings are chill. most notably of said siblings there is Jacob, older brother by thirteen years, whom Tris believes is just about the coolest person on the entire planet. this plotline kicks off when Jacob gets caught in the midst of a freak car accident that kills a dude and wrecks a street corner and also somehow causes Jacob to just kind of................. blip out of existence entirely and without a trace?

n Tris is understandably horrified and distressed by Very Much All Of This, but hey, at least there are responsible adults who can look into this obviously Port-related weird disappearance and figure this mess out, right?

INCORRECT

the relevant interdimensional authorities are brought in to suss out the situation and these authorities are kind of like “hmmmm idk about this” but are all set to take Tris at least somewhat seriously until they learn the following:

that Jacob had already been reported missing to police in his home state three days earlier

that Jacob was in the midst of several ongoing personal crises and at least one nervous breakdown

that Jacob was allegedly tangled up in some real weird shit that would more than account for a disappearance under suspicious circumstances

that Tris is schizophrenic, prone to hallucinations, confusion, memory issues and quote unquote “letting his imagination and anxiety get the better of him”, and precisely zero people can actually corroborate his story that Jacob was even there are the time of the accident to begin with

and after some back-and-forth and Looking Into The Evidence pretty much everyone in any position of authority comes to the conclusion that this is just Ordinary Regular People Crimes and whatever happened to Jacob had nothing to do with weird apocalyptic energies, and that Tris is (at best) stressed out and delusional or (at worst) lying through his teeth because he knows more than he’s letting on

so Tris is forced to hop pretty quick from “I’m sure someone will handle this” to “no one believes me but I’m sure if I can find some concrete proof they’ll listen and someone will handle it” to Well Fuck I Guess That Someone Is Me

cue bizarre reality-hopping fantasy quest, which is ten times easier said than done when most of the time Tris is terrified enough just, like, going to the supermarket

he enlists the help of his new classmate Shara, amateur paranormal investigator and professional weird-bullshit enthusiast, who agrees to help him puzzle out what the fuck happened to Jacob in exchange for his assistance in mapping out Adelaide’s interdimensional “fault lines” as part of her ongoing quest to track down the source of the apocalypse

she’s got big fuckin dreams, ok, go hard or go home

slso worth noting at this point that there HAS been an uptick in Ports and their related reality-bending strangeness in Adelaide recently which is why this is of particular interest to her currently. gotta find out What Makes The Weirdness Tick, gotta find out Why The Sudden Extra Weirdness

..........and also Kai is there

Kai has no nice neat reason to get involved with the plot, Kai just likes drama and being all up in people’s personal business. Tris brings them on board for one single afternoon like “hey I will pay you some money to come to my house and fix my fucked up phone so I can listen to an interdimensional voicemail” but forgot the apparently key addendum “and then leave”

their first three chapters of knowing each other is basically Tris being like “stop inviting yourself into my house we are not friends” and Kai being like “that’s a rude thing to say to your friend. also your sister gave me the netflix password and I used your kitchen to bake pastries feel free to help yourself”

but yeah so Tris’s story mostly focuses on his quest to figure out where Jacob got yeeted to and how to get him safely home (y’all probably know a bit about The Unreality already maybe?), whilst also dealing with rising family tensions, whatever shifty stuff Jacob was involved with prior to his disappearance, and his own creeping doubts about his perceptions of reality

n I’m also saying flat out it’s not a plot that’s going the “oh the whole thing was just a delusion all along” route because ew

his psychosis is a fairly involved part of his character but the explorations around it are more to do with, like......... the difficulties he has in trusting himself and whether he has the luxury of letting himself get swept into some Big Weird Implausible Adventure when this has extremely different implications for him than it would someone else. n eventually to how his success and survival is not ~in spite of~ but specifically because of the different way he understands and interprets the world and the skills he’s developed

THAT TANGENT WAS A PERSONAL RANT IT WAS NOT RELEVANT I just have words to say on the subject of how psychosis is treated in fiction and didn’t want people jumping to the “none of it is real” conclusion anyway ok moving on

ur SECOND key player is Noa Yun, who has rather a lot on her plate right now. she’s broke as fuck and her mum is sick and her car is making Noises and she’s not getting enough hours at her job at Not-IKEA and everyone is on her back about her failing studies as if that’s a thing she has the energy to care about. feeling rather backed into a corner by life’s bullshit and her financial situation, she blatantly lies her way into a field job at the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities, because A) surely it can’t be THAT bad, and B) what does she have to lose?

so more or less what she’s doing is the equivalent of emergency services for Port-related weirdness, it’s going out and dealing with highly unstable otherworldly energies head on, navigating Weird Phenomena and bendy patches in reality......... it is, among other things, a job that’s relatively easy to get into because no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole unless they absolutely have to

n the DII is a whole other post, this shit has lots of different functions and levels and branches and corruption and secrets and a tendency to view workers who have to go out and deal with the brunt of the apocalypse head-on as vaguely expendable and I’ve talked about it a bit before and in more Serious Words

things kinda kick off for her when in true Noa fashion she hurls herself into a dangerous situation to help out a coworker, n enters a pretty standard issue “overlap” where the barriers between universes are a little fucky, but hey, she seems to come out of it with nary a scratch, so it’s reasonable to assume everything is fine, right?

INCORRECT AGAIN

she basically gets some whacked-out otherworldly energies latched onto her that are now following her through her everyday life, and it turns out she’s starting to bend the reality around her the way certain types of Ports do, which is! obviously not ideal! she’s not exactly a Port herself, because she’s pretty sure that’s impossible, but it’s clear capital s Something happened to her in that overlap, and she doubts it’s good news. and to make matters even more disconcerting, she’s now being dogged at every step by strange visions of a child who speaks in an unfamiliar language and who seems Real Fuckin Pissed at her

so her thing is basically “I acquired fucked up reality-bending powers against my will and they might be lowkey killing me ‘cause Ports are notoriously unstable like that and also I’m haunted for some godforsaken reason” which all somehow ended up being, like, the least interesting part of her plotline for me lmao

oh and Noa also enlists the help of Shara, Because Ghosts

anyway yeah so her search to find out what’s happening to her re: Weird Children, being a Port-adjacent something-or-other, and whether there’s a way to stop her own unravelling leads her to (rogue computer programmer? mad scientist? general shifty bastard?) Laurence Marrick Thiele, who claims to have suffered a similar affliction in the past and now does some real interesting research on the subject. n this guy. well. he’s got some fuckin stuff going on

he definitely knows more about the nature of Ports than he should. also is he actually researching what he says he’s researching? also what’s with all the weird tech? also did he just straight up murder that guy Avery? all will be revealed later, maybe, if I feel like it

but yeah at about the same time as Noa goes “actually fuck this you’re shady as hell I’m out” she stumbles into, like, The Actual Reality of what Marrick is up to re: manipulating Ports and interdimensional doorways for his own gain, and the various ways this spells bad news not only for her but potentially for the entire city and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire, and she shifts gear to “actually you know what I’m gonna kick your ass”

there are various reasons for this, but first and foremosterly you have to understand that Noa’s got a fuckload of pent-up rage and she will bring it in full force the moment you say some stupid shit like “some people are expendable” or “it’s inevitable for the greater good”

(there’s also a fun ongoing subplot with her work at the DII where she and her team are investigating a string of strange illnesses with bizarre symptoms that appear to be spreading via obscure radio stations so that’s. happening. I guess?)

but yeah the main story here mostly follows Noa’s attempts to undermine Marrick, bastard supreme, and find a way to fuck him up before he goes, like, Full Cartoon Supervillain, n also like........... her attempts to keep up her work at the DII despite her rising paranoia that the teammates she’s growing to care about will notice her increasingly unstable state and the fact that she’s all tangled up with the very forces they’re meant to be thwarting. n along the way discovering the reality of what happened to her in The Aforementioned Overlap Incident and about her visions and such

so that’s all that. did that make sense

n she’s got a whole arc going on about trust and learning to lean on others, like, she comes into this story as a very standoffish person with lots of paranoia, she’s spent much of her life feeling like she can only rely on herself, n she’s. well. yeah, like I said, she’s got a lot of anger at the world and at the various systems that have failed her and her loved ones, n the story puts her in a position to become even more isolated

and her plotline isn’t so much “you have no reason to be angry or afraid” or her learning to Not Be, It’s more, like........... yeah you have every fucking right to be furious and of course you’re afraid! but there are people around you who love you and who will jump at the chance to defend you and who will help you carry the weight of your anger and grief and none of this needs to be yours to bear alone which is extremely cheesy

which applies to both her Weird Supernatural Goings-On as well as her regular ordinary life goings-on

I feel like Alice and Jet deserve a mention for Noa’s plotline but also this went on and on too long already so. well. Alice and Jet exist! yep. they work with Noa at the DII. I have things to say about them. I will not be saying them today

and uhhhhhh

in general, for Tris, his plotline, you wanna think, like, fantasy/adventure vibes which veer pretty sharply into horror, and for Noa you wanna think...... kinda, sci-fi mystery conspiracy vibes with a dash of some superhero bullshit maybe except not really

and that

pretty much is it I think

also the fact that Kai just invites themself into the plot for funsies and then is dragged kicking and screaming into caring about themself and making positive changes in their life means there was no convenient place in this post to be like

"oh there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop"

but there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop

goodnight! thanks for coming to....................... whatever this was! have a nice saturday everyone

#alcohol mention #just in the first little intro bit #being concise is not my strong suit! this should be apparent perhaps #tl;dr #tris's brother jacob gets lost down the back of an interdimensional sofa and tris has gotta go get him back even though #he's terrified enough just leaving the house let alone leaving this entire reality on a stupid convoluted mystery quest #and noa has a run in with some interdimensional bullshit and acquires Powers and A Ghost neither of which she wants #and then accidentally uncovers the schemes of literal cartoon supervillain marrick and is like #''oh sick i was looking for a reason to go absolutely fuckin ballistic and fuck someone's shit up''#And Both Of Them Make Nice Friends And Learn To Love Themselves :)#atdao #i constantly walk the very fine line between not wanting to be Too Vague about noa's plotline vs not wanting to be Too Spoilery about it #like............... the stuff about the kid and about marrick's endgame i'm never quite sure how much to delve into hahahaha #but yeah anyway #imo i only went on ONE mildly unrelated tangent which should have been cut but i decided to indulge it instead #which is the couple paragraphs about noa's character arc #character arcs not important for this post!!!!!! but also. dfkhgkdfjshg. try and stop me #(i mean i did pretty ok staying on track for the most part i think)#(still a rambly post though)

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diamondcitydarlin · 4 years

Text

I am just...honestly fascinated by this sudden ‘change of heart’ with Guillermo tho in regards to being a familiar and becoming a vampire, there’s a lot going on there and a lot to unpack, and I’m hoping somewhere in the depths of what is about to be a long, directionless rant I’ll find the clarity I haven’t seemed to quite grasp yet.

ALSO I’M SORRY THIS IS A LOOONG ASS POST BUT I DIDN’T WANT TO PUT IT UNDER A READ MORE AND SUBJECT INNOCENTS TO MY BLOG LOL, BUT I’VE TAGGED ACCORDINGLY

So, I already made a post about ‘Collaboration’ and some of the interesting subtext we get within that episode. Mainly, that this episode is an interesting one for Guillermo because he finally gets what appears to be and should be (at least at first) the opportunity he’s always been waiting for. To this point, across seasons, Guillermo has driven home that his one and only aspiration in life, the reason he tolerates an endless, shitty position, is because he hopes to become a vampire. He’s wanted it since he was a kid. IF HE CAN’T BECOME A VAMPIRE, WHAT HAS THIS ALL BEEN ABOUT??

If it was as simple as just wanting to become a vampire by any means necessary, leaving Nandor for this golden opportunity should have been as easy as taking off an ill-fitting pair of shoes...but it wasn’t that, was it? When Nandor pretended to shuck him off as if it didn’t matter, Guillermo got angry and sad in equal measure and only really brightened again when Nandor came back and promised to do better by him. Not necessarily set down a concrete timeline for the ‘becoming a vampire’ thing though, but Guillermo didn’t seem to care about that all that much anyway. Interesting.

Now we’re able to see a version of things in which Guillermo is being treated better as a familiar, but rather than this development improving his mood he seems all the more aware of the fact now that...maybe he doesn’t even want to be a vampire anymore. Maybe he’s wasting his time here. Maybe he needs to swim towards open waters, so to speak.

Very similar to Nandor, Guillermo, I think, is not really aware or fully accepting of the inner workings of his own mind. He strikes me as a character that does a lot in the way of burying the truths of himself so far down, he even convinces himself that part of who he is doesn’t really exist- even when it does, and drives a lot of his actions. The show plays to this by only ‘showing’ us concretely how much Guillermo wants us to know, with only small hints and nods to other things going on. That fits and rings true to the norm for a mockumentary style of filming/writing, in that the audience has to rely on a lot of subtle cues from the subjects to figure out what’s ‘really going on’ with a character or plot line; the ‘camera’ in a mockumentary style piece is as much of a visceral, present character as anyone else in the cast and is treated accordingly (but then, like 99.99999% of human beings have seen the entirety of The Office and Parks and Rec, so yall know this already)

I think part of the way to figuring this all out is to ask why Guillermo wanted to be a vampire in the first place. His answer to this would probably be something along the lines of ‘because they’re cool’ which, you know, valid. That would be a fitting and satisfying answer if, say, I had given it because there was a time when I was about 4-6 years old that I, too, decided I would grow up to be a vampire. Because it was ‘cool’ and aspiring to anything else seemed boring. Again, valid. For someone who has dedicated pretty much ALL of his adult life to apprenticing into vampirism based on a childhood dream that never died? THAT begs a bit more of an in depth reason, I think, to which for now we can only guess.

I’ll try to make an educated one based on what I believe is going on here, that Guillermo himself is either not aware of or not ready to share with the cameras: I believe his drive to want to become a vampire, given it was based in childhood flights of fancy (and probably some Guillermo-self insert/Armand fanfics, let’s be hONEST) was rooted in a need to feel respected and powerful, at the heart of things. When we first meet Guillermo, and for much of season 1, we see that he’s quiet, subservient, meek, and we learn briefly about how he was bullied in school. I think Guillermo was raised to be this way and use silence/subservience as his only defense mechanism, which may also go a long way to explaining why he’s so reserved. For 10 years, I think it was enough for him to tell himself that everything would be better for him once he became a vampire, he’d have all the things he never had as a human. Respect. Appreciation. Power. Control over his own life.

That said, things have changed quite a bit for Guillermo since season one. While learning that he had Van Helsing blood came as an unpleasant shock, embracing and exploring that side of himself proved that he’s actually kind of a bad ass even without being a vampire. He only ever wielded this power to protect Nandor and others so far, but it is a power nonetheless, this agility and strength that is too great for even VAMPIRES to successfully fight back against. He’s also a smart cookie that knows how to manipulate a situation, something that he’s been using a lot this season too. So, power, then. He has it already. Respect he received from his vampire-hunting group.

But that still leaves appreciation and, dare I say it, maybe even affection/love. I think there’s a part of Guillermo that wants to feel like he’s accepted and cared for, but even when it’s offered (by groups like his vampire hunting clan, or Celeste’s vampire community lol) he seems to shy away from it going too far, like it’s just too much or ill-fitting coming from people he barely knows. Given that he’s a private, introvert type this makes sense.

One thing has remained consistent for Guillermo though, across both seasons and episodes, and that’s his seemingly unwavering concern and affection for Nandor. Even in this last ep when he’s unashamedly shucking off duties that don’t fit his job description and maintaining those professional boundaries like a BOSS, he still snaps to and gets to work the moment Nandor is kidnapped. Laszlo’s gone? Meh, who cares, not his jurisdiction. Nandor’s gone!?? Fuck it, he’s getting the keys. A ‘vampire’ offers him the opportunity of a lifetime to become a vampire quickly and live within an accepting community of likeminded people and Nandor told him ‘go for it’? He’s upset that Nandor didn’t fight harder to keep him.

So now he’s back and Nandor’s making a consistent effort not to abuse Guillermo’s position. This seemed the ideal resolution at the end of ‘Collaboration’, but after a couple of weeks it becomes clear that it wasn’t. For some reason. Guillermo’s no longer satisfied and thinks maybe it’s time to do more with his life.

I’ll try to sum up the points I’ve made so far into a concise version of where I think Guillermo’s at right now, at least subconsciously; mostly all the things he hoped that turning into a vampire would grant him, have already been granted. He’s learned that he’s strong, smart, capable as is, more than he or anyone else had ever given him credit for. I think it makes sense that his burning need to become a vampire has begun to ebb into a quarter-life crisis of questioning who he really is and what he really wants, because the dream he nursed for so long has turned out to be pretty shallow and maybe not even necessary. He realizes there’s more he could be doing than working tirelessly to an end goal that no longer seems so sweet.

But that leaves the ‘affection’ and ‘acceptance’ elements dangling in space, held up by his own affection for Nandor that has yet to be really defined. It’s pretty clear that Guillermo is nursing it hard, but what is the nature of it? Even as his sense of loyal devotion to a cause has started to fade, even as his view of Nandor as this unflappable role model has begun to disappear too bc he’s starting to see Nandor for who he really is (a himbo idiot that he can outwit, outmatch without even trying hard) this raw affection still remains. It’s still important that Nandor fights for him. It’s still important that Nandor is safe and protected.

And, as with the rest of these things I mentioned, I don’t think Guillermo is even really aware of how much he cares about Nandor, how much it drives his actions and thinking, how important that relationship is to him. It’s easier to just sort of...ignore that and pretend it isn’t a factor, that’s Guillermo’s modus operandi when it comes to complicated feelings.

I think back to that line from season 1, wherein Guillermo’s kind of musing wistfully about how different his life might have been if he’d stayed at Panera Bread/in a stable job with pay and benefits, but then handwaves that all away with ‘The heart wants what it wants’. By this point in the show he was already kind of drifting away from the goal of becoming a vampire (whether he realized it or not).

The heart wants what it wants indeed, Guillermo, but maybe it’s not really ‘becoming a vampire’. Maybe it’s something else entirely that keeps you tied to this house, this thankless ‘job’.

At this point, I really cannot say for 100% certain what I think will happen next with Guillermo. This show has proven solid at pulling out unexpected plot twists I wouldn’t have seen coming, but then, I also have been pretty good at predicting where they’re gonna go with things. Like 7/10 lmao. My two theories right now are:

He’ll become a vampire in the series finale- unwillingly, maybe by accident. This one I think is plausible because it’s a bit of a kick in the pants. It’s the outcome he’s wanted for SO LONG but has just realized maybe it’s not all he can do or wants to do. I could see a situation where, idk, maybe Guillermo expresses to Nandor his thoughts lately about moving on from this and, in an act of stupid desperation, Nandor thinks maybe if he changes him that’ll keep him in his life, so he does it while Guillermo’s asleep and then surprises him when he wakes up...only to find out maybe that wasn’t actually what he wanted anymore, but UH OH what’s done is done. This could provide a lot of tension in the next season, I think. But as it’s a bit of a ‘shocking’ twist type route to go, I can’t be certain this is what they’ll do. Kind of a toss up.

Guillermo leaves to pursue something else, which the camera crew will follow and document. This is the ‘sensible’/’safe’ route that most scripted shows would take, I think, in this situation...but again, I’m not certain about this one either because Shadows is known for throwing us for a loop and this seems a liiiittle predictable. It’s also very similar to what JUST happened in episode 8 and, were I writing the show, I’d worry it would come across as redundant. Like, maybe we already did this angle and should explore other options to keep the audience on their toes. Also, as much as they love putting Harvey with new casts of characters for episodic stories, I’m not sure they’d transplant him from the main cast for an extended period of time because he’s part of what makes that dynamic run so well. But then, the synopsis of the finale does say that vampires have to ‘survive without Guillermo’ while preparing for an event, so this may happen in some small, episodic measure again.

Anyway, to wrap this up into a conclusion, I don’t think I’m wrong in predicting that Nandor/Guillermo’s relationship has been set up in such a way as to keep us guessing, sort of a Sam/Diane, will-they-won’t-they type thing that will remain a constant throughout whatever happens next, but will require both characters growing independent of each other in their own respective subplots. At this point, it has always remained consistent that Nandor and Guillermo prioritize each other even when it doesn’t make sense, but I don’t think either of them are ready to realize, accept, and sort through the layers of what they feel for each other. The master/servant dynamic makes that difficult, I’d imagine, so I think inevitably we’ll see the show start to pull them away from that. All I’m saying is, if whatever is going on between them wasn’t VERY complicated it would’ve been resolved as whatever it is a long time ago. Nah, there’s some deep, repressed shit they’re ignoring collectively for whatever reason, and usually that points to something that will, at some point, become romantic. Either way, to understand Guillermo is to keep a close eye on how his dynamic with Nandor grows and changes and I’m, as ever, VERY eager to see how it does.

#guillermo de la cruz #nandor x guillermo #guillermo x nandor #wwdits #what we do in the shadows tv show #long post #meta

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thedreadvampy · 4 years

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You seem surprised at the reactions your getting, but it's to be expected. Aphobia is usually quiet, insidious and slow to reveal itself, so the moment someone is asked about aspecs and the answer isn't a concise "Yes I accept and support them" type thing, it's a red flag. Why would anyone who wasn't aphobic not feel comfortable saying they support aspecs? it's not uncommon for a blog we admire to turn out to be aphobic and we're pretty antsy about this stuff because it's usually brushed off.

Ok I mean I'm getting to that eventually in the Question List but like. With the best possible will in the world I think some of you have misread the post where someone asked "do you support aspecs," because to my recollection what I said was that I am fundamentally uncomfortable with the idea that I'm in any position to judge whether I support or harm anyone, and I think that the point at which someone says as a point of identity 'I Am An Ally To X Group' or 'I Support X Group' that. makes them substantially less likely to recognise or accept the ways in which they fail.

Also like. I absolutely understand the antsiness. I do. People can be really shitty to and about aspec people. But what I've said before and will say again is that you have to understand that while it's totally understandable that that would put you on edge, it's not inherent proof of ill-intent.

Ok. Here's the thing. I'm thinking of my own experience here. There is a subset of men who really give me The Fear. It's often hard to define why they give me The Fear, but I can identify some signs - they're probably really into video games, they have a specific way of getting into my personal space and a specific way of talking and type of intonation. they talk a lot about how much they like that they can trust me and talk to me like one of the guys. and the vast majority of the time, when I've ignored The Fear I have got hurt. it's entirely reasonable for me to be suspicious of those people based on my experiences, to pull back from them, and to listen out for reports that they have a history of abuse. If somebody says, "you're not like other girls I really feel like I can talk to you" I'm probably going to get up and walk away, or try and get it of the conversation, or try and get out ahead of the way I expect the conversation to go so that he can't lead the conversation.

But it wouldn't be reasonable if, the moment I heard someone say "you're not like the other girls, I really feel like I can talk to you," I grabbed him by the collar and yelled YOU MISOGYNIST DICKHEAD I NEED YOU TO PROVE RIGHT HERE AND NOW THAT YOU'VE NEVER ASSAULTED ANYONE. PROVE IT NOW. HE CAN'T PROVE IT GUYS HE DID IT. THIS MAN ASSAULTS WOMEN. HE SAID THE BAD WORDS.

People have different experiences and different associations with phrases. I very rarely answer a question about my beliefs with a simple yes or no because I don't trust certainty, particularly within myself, I find myself really anxious that we mean different things and that if I'm not specific enough then I'll be lying. So I very rarely say yes or no without explaining what I mean by yes or no.

And also. Just for the record, since apparently there's no means of avoiding pissing people off today. Aphobia can be a serious, genuine problem and also an area where not everyone agrees. I'm not talking about my own opinions here, I'm talking about how many different opinions have come up from ace/aro people just in this conversation. And I think it's really weird how often queer discourse conflates disagreement with minimisation. Like ok we can all, within the bi community, pretty much agreed that biphobia is, to a greater or lesser degree, a problem, and that bisexuality is stigmatised and comes with particular challenges. But that doesn't mean that when two bi people disagree on whether X trope is biphobic, one of them is The Biphobe and one is The Oppressed. like. oppression and social dynamics aren't clean, they're fuzzy-edged, overlapping and interweaving, highly subjective and highly personal but also totally depersonalised, and everybody is going to draw those lines differently. And it's wild to act like treating it as anything but a simple yes/no question is inherently bigoted because nothing is a simple yes/no question. That's not really how any social question works. We're all bringing our own stuff to the table, we're all trying to communicate concepts that we don't have the verbal or emotional language for, and when somebody says "are you against aphobia" like, that contains a lot of questions, primarily "what does that mean?"

like am I against dehumanisation of and aggression towards of ace/aro people? am I against systemic assumptions and incentives and expectations that everyone wants/needs sex/romance/a life partner? do I think it's fucked up the degree to which sex and romance are centred in culture to the degree that people are told and made to feel explicitly broken if they don't feel a draw to it? yeah, obviously, no shit. but I don't feel comfortable saying unilaterally 'are you for or against X,' when X has no clearly boundaried definition and isn't something most people would in good faith say FUCK YEAH I LOVE X. like if you ask any person 'are you against homophobia,' most of them would probably say 'yes,' and some of them would mean 'I think it's unfair and cruel to treat queer and same-gender attracted people differently because of their sexuality, and I will go to the wall to defend them and to fight heteronormativity' and some of them mean 'I don't hate the sinner I hate the sin and they can be gay as long as they do it far away from me and also never have sex or relationships' and like. What does the answer yes actually tell you in that instance? Like if I wanted to know if someone held bigoted beliefs, I wouldn't go up to them and say 'do you hate X' bc like. They're gonna say no. They may very well believe that they don't. If you actually wanted to guage their responses, it would make more sense to ask "what do you think of X issue" or "do you think Y idea is homophobic" bc like. bigotry is a pattern not a clear line in the sand. God this is just pure waffle now, sorry.

#thedreadvampy adiscourse

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gaulemtypefemale-dm-l-016 · 3 years

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3d, 5d and 5n? :)

3d. Rank the endings (for one game of your choice or the true endings of the 3 games)

In terms of all games, I think I would rank 999 ending > VLR ending > ZTD ending.

However, each one of them gave me a different experience so I really enjoy them as a whole package. For example, when I finished VLR, I felt I needed more. The experience had been so intense that I wanted to play ZTD right away. On the other hand, ZTD's true ending made me feel very introspective, even if the writting felt lacking sometimes.

I ranked 999's ending higher because I feel like 999, in general, felt more concise and it had my favourite cast. I loved the epilogue and how the game could simply end there and not even have a sequel. It felt like a complete game by itself. Of course I was a bit desperate with the situation between Akane and Junpei, and how they ended up in separate ways, but it felt fitting.

As for VLR I really enjoyed the plot twist. I felt the true ending was a bit too long, like a never ending ride, but, despite the confusion, I enjoyed the general explanation of it. I also enjoyed the sad tone of the story, and I absolutely loved some of the reflections from the another time (even if not considered as canon).

However, the game asked for more.

And there's where ZTD enters. I had some problems getting used to the cinematics of the game and the characters, and, at the time I played, some things felt weird, like how suddenly it seemed so simple to just shift. As for the ending, I really like how it was put as a moral dilemma, a ZERO TIME DILEMMA, in fact, the situation of shifting (not sure if to think that the shifting until then had been made too easy, or it was purposedly used so that only later they had to face the fact that they doomed their other selves). The ending made me think a lot about how, despite them being alive at the end, despite this seemingly good turn of events, it still felt all like a gamble, as the begining of the game. In the end we didnt' even know the identity of the terrorist, and they still doomed their first ending iteration, for their last iteration (which has the trauma from playing the decision game).

Delta's character is generally a source of memes due to his quotes, but his words still left some marks. His whole plan was convoluted. It's almost like the second nonary game, but here the multiple timelines had to happen in order for this future to come true, and for him and Phi to exist.

I also love the ending theme and it plays very well, complementing this interminable dilemma mood the characters live through. I also love how, in the end, we can interpret Delta as a character portraying the player: "One of Delta's motivations for creating the Decision Game: he can't shift himself, but can read the minds of those who experienced other timelines, and was interested in learning about them. Given that Delta is technically the Player Character, this is probably a meta-narrative commentary on player curiosity" (taken from ZTD TV tropes).

So in the end this was all to say that, despite liking 999's ending better for how solid it seemed to me, the other games' endings also deserve a lot of credit for their worth.

(I didn't know the ranking was for the endings of all games or one in specific so I went with this, but I may try to rank for a specific game later).

5d. Do you consider Another Time to be canon? If so, do you have any theories on ?'s identity

I think at the time I finished ZTD I found that Another Time was not considered canon. Nevertheless I really liked its contents so I like to pick elements from it and incorporate in canon. One of my favourite part of it is Tenmyouji’s thoughts on this plan of jumping to the past and change it. The bikers’ story is one of my favourites there and I felt it was a message about how, despite losing Akane, he found Quark along his journey in this doomed timeline, and how, even if their plan works, this timeline still exists. There is also a possibility that the transporter was hinted with Alice and Clover’s conversation, but not sure if that was the alternative or not.

About ?’s identity, I think my favourite take is the player. Because the player is an irregular identity in the game. To get the Another Time, the player has to achieve certain goals, such as collecting the golden files. The player can play with timelines as much as they want since they can jump through the flowchart freely and they even command Sigma’s action through the game (which can explain the way sometimes he was surprised with his vote during the Nonary Game). And I believe it refers to the player coming from the true ending of ZTD, but this is merely speculation...

Since Delta could be meta commentary about the player, I also liked to think he could be involved in this, but since he can’t shift , it’s much improbable. However I like how there is a link with how the end of ZTD is Carlos pointing the gun at him, which represents a situation of danger that could trigger a shift.

Other than this, I think I haven’t thought much about it. I may have read some theories some time ago, but I don’t remember them now...

5n. Do you have any fanart/fanfic/fangame recommendations?

Fanart is probably what I consume the most. I really love @/keycrash’s works, @/kisschasey’s portraits of Snake, @/caelytrix, the way @/aestheticcannibal portrays Kyle and Dio, @/i0n4 and much more artists. I always try to reblog the amazing works I find from the fandom and sorry for not listing more, nor any work in specific.

Twitter is also a very good media to find a lot of good ZE fanarts. Not all of them are tagged, but generally searching the ZeroEscape tag allows you to find very cool works, along with other tweets and memes.

Now, on fanfiction I can’t really give much recommendations because I haven’t read many. I mainly read some from Zecret Santa event. I remember enjoying the one I got about Tenmyouji and Quark because I really love their wholesome relationship. Link here

There’s also one I once started to read but didn’t finish due to lack of time, but which was VLR’s story told from Phi’s POV and I found the idea extremely interesting although I still haven’t read it. It’s pretty long too. Link here

Now for an idea which concept I feel it’s funny and interesting: I once found one that was a Nonary game in the IKEA. I actually haven’t read it but at the time I thought it was a really funny idea. Link here

I’ve only read the first recommendation, but thought I should leave the other two, as they seem interesting and funny.

Sorry for the long post and the delay in replying. I also apologize for any mistake I made. I’m a bit tired but I really wanted to finish this post.

And thank you for the asks. I really enjoyed the question about Another Time and, although I’m pretty bad at ranking things, I like discussing and going through the games’ content again.

#zero escape asks #asks #3d #5d #5n #zero escape spoilers #long post

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bloodstained-ballgowns · 3 years

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Hello, sorry to bother you but I was just curious about the Scarlett Johansson vs. Disney lawsuit and I saw a lot about it from your tumblr and thought you might know it pretty well. 😅

I read somewhere that she was requesting a 80 million additional pay (which with the addition of her 20 million base salary would be 100 million total) when the simultaneous release was announced, which was based on a hypothetical box office figure similar to Captain Marvel. With the pandemic and all going on, I read a lot of comments saying she was asking for way too much. Added with the supposed Russo brothers' contract worries, I also read comments upset with her for causing this issue.

So I just wanted to ask your opinion on a few things.

1. Do you think there might be a shift in support after more details are released, will people side with Disney more because of the amount asked for during this pandemic?

2. And with more details being released, do you think the lawsuit playing out in public may end up hurting her side more than Disney's?

I just loved reading your previous answers regarding this topic cause it was all so well written and explained, I hope you won't mind me asking this, thank you in advance!

I'm all for her getting her contracts worth but the media releasing articles of how there is no going back for Scarlett and Disney makes me a bit sad we won't be seeing her version of Natasha anymore. Hopefully the whole character doesn't get shelved though.

Hi anon! You're no bother! Thank you for your questions!

I don't know about the $80 million ask based on a hypothetical box office based around Captain Marvel, as I didn't think specific amounts were negotiated before box office actually came to fruition. For example, she earned $15 million up front for Avengers: Endgame, which swelled to $35 million when it earned as much as it did, because back-end deals are based on percentages of revenue (I'm pretty sure). I can imagine the $80 million as a prediction, though. I only know that $50-60 million are the numbers circulating from how much she could win from this lawsuit.

I've seen the same comments "upset with her for causing this issue", and their ignorance is really fascinating to me because she didn't create the issue? Disney created the issue? She's speaking on the issue that's been growing since streaming services were born, she's increasing awareness around this issue, she's putting it in the spotlight. People somehow seem think that holding corporations accountable will mean that they stop producing the media so many enjoy (I legit saw a post that said, almost word for word, "scarlett shouldn't have sued because if disney pays her all that money then they won't have any left for loki season 2" and the stupidity of that statement is breathtaking).

1. Do you think there might be a shift in support after more details are released, will people side with Disney more because of the amount asked for during this pandemic?

No, at this point in the case, I don't think more details will shift allegiances. If people are not already siding with Scarlett, knowing her claims, having read Disney's defence, and realising the larger implications of the case, I don't believe any more information will change that. If she wins, there may be a shift, because people love to say they were right, but otherwise, no.

From what I've seen, and this may just be my corner of the internet, or because discourse has died down a bit, but I would set the support margins at about 60/40 in Scarlett's favour so far. The 40% seems to mainly be made up of people who either are uneducated on the topic, think that being 'problematic' means she deserves mistreatment, or are misogynists. They are accounts with 13 followers arguing in comments sections. Inversely, the 60% is made up of people who matter. She has the support of the industry behind her, the endorsement of her coworkers, and new projects lined up to prove it (e.g. the star-studded Wes Anderson picture and Ghosted with Chris Evans). The Star Wars writers including Alan Dean Foster who went up against Disney last year with similar allegations have also thrown their support behind her.

So I hope you can see where I'm coming from when I say that there may not be a shift, but it doesn't really matter because Disney is not the only hand that feeds her. In fact, the others are eager, it seems.

2. And with more details being released, do you think the lawsuit playing out in public may end up hurting her side more than Disney's?

It's hard to say, anon, but there's a reason Disney's filing for the case to go to arbitration instead of court. They want it settled quietly, because it's making them look bad and from what details we do know, Scarlett's case is legitimate. These lawsuits are compromising their whole "happiest place in the world" family-friendly image. The curtain has been dropped and now that much of their insidiousness is out in the open, it will change how people see them. Many won't let them hide behind Mickey Mouse when they issue statements calling their actors "callous".

However, none of the consequences will lead to the destruction of the Disney corporation or something. It's not going to go up in flames. They'll be fine.

Scarlett is walking a much finer line. As a person instead of a company, and as a woman, she is in a much more vulnerable position (not at all as vulnerable as a woman of colour though). There was a very real possibility that she would be rocking the boat so much that she would fall out and no one would help her back in (also, she's rich, but losing $50 million, probably more, would put a huge dent in her bank account). There's also a reason why she, her team, and her lawyers wanted it public, anon. A) If this was done all very hush hush, it would be a lot harder to hold Disney accountable next time something like this happens. She knows exactly how much this could change things, a cover up would limit the fallout. B) Online backlash matters very little to her. Her lawyers/PR team probably estimated exactly how much support (or lack of thereof) this move would garner, but it's not like tweets saying "scarjo is greedy and selfish" are going to have any bearing in court, so I expect that she remains unbothered. In short, she has more to lose, but her 'side' probably won't be hurt more than Disney's by this.

I'm glad you found those posts informative! I try :)

I know, it's sad that the door on MCU!Natasha is truly shut and bolted. I have the same fears of her being shelved. I just hope they continue with old characters in new animation, like What If...?, and that at some point in the future, the MCU either gets a reboot, or a Black Widow story is curated for the silver screen outside of the Disney-Marvel umbrella.

Sorry this was so long, I struggle with concision. Again, thanks for dropping into my ask box, anon! Hope this was in any way helpful.

#replies #scarjo vs disney #scarlett johansson #disney

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vintagesimstress · 4 years

Text

VI c. UV_1

(Previous: Changing the texture displayed in Blender)

As mentioned before, the uv_1 map plays a very different role than uv_0: it tells the game where certain parts of your mesh are located, so that the whole thing could move with sliders. It seems many people struggle with it a lot – and to be honest, I have no idea why, as in my experience uv_1 has always been totally unproblematic. Hopefully you'll share my feelings on this!

Let's click once again the little triangle on the right ('Data') and choose 'uv_1' this time.

As you can see, the texture on the model turned very weird – and it'll stay this way, as that map is not meant for texturing. You can as well change to solid shading, if you find that craziness spooky or annoying.

If you switch to edit mode, you'll see that the map looks just as crazy:

UV_1 uses a completely different type of template. It differs very slightly depending on age and gender of your sim; the adult female one looks like this:

You can download all the versions from S4S forum, in HERE (I highly suggest you make some kind of 'Basics' folder for all those things which you'll keep reusing!)

Once you have downloaded it, click 'Image' and then 'Open image'. It works exactly the same as in case of uv_0. Now it should look like this:

You can see that your vertices are twice wider than the template. I'm not sure why the template has been made in this way instead of getting adjusted to the TS4 requirements, but that's what we have to work with. Select all the vertices (a), press s, then x, then type 0.5 and press enter. Do not move your mouse! Your uv map should be twice narrower now:

We still have to move it, so that it'd align with the template. Select all again, this time press g, x and type 512. That's exactly the number of pixels you need to move your mesh to the right. Now it should finally look correct.

Just like in case of uv_0, the top part is completely done, so the only thing we have to do is unwrap the skirt. This time the only valid methods for doing it are no. 1 and 2 (see: VI a), namely moving the lines manually or using cylinder projection. As at this point making manual adjustments would be too cumbersome, we're going to use option no. 2.

Select the lowest line of vertices to select your whole skirt, go to front view this time (num 1) and choose cylinder projection.

Move the newly unwrapped faces up or down (g, y), to the black area, so that you could properly see them.

You can see that my dress got unwrapped a bit unevenly – there are small 'steps' on the sides. I highlighted all the faces which should form the left edge. Now I'll move the highlighted parts on the right to the left, and the non-highlighted parts on the left to the right, and then it should all look and work fine.

Tip: you can also move them precisely into the right place by typing g, x, 1024 (to move to the right) or g, x, -1024 (to move to the left)!

The weird part at the bottom is the closing circle; you can select the central vertex (which is here doubled on the sides), weld it and move it down, to more or less align it with the lowest row. Or simply wait with closing your dress until you're done with uv_1 ;). The bigger problem is that step my dress still has at the top. I'll select all the vertices below it and just very gently move them along the x axis to the left. Now, that looks better:

And now, just as we did before, we have to connect the skirt with the top. It's a bit trickier than in case of uv_0, because you can't do it in one piece: your mesh has to be split along the back and both sides. Take a look at the top mesh. Let's start from the left: click the rightmost face and then, in 3D view, the faces right underneath it. This will tell you where your skirt should be split.

I'll deselect the face of the top, select the whole part of the skirt left from the selection and then move it to the left (g, x), separating it from the central part.

That weird line at the bottom is the closing circle again – I'll delete it and redo it afterwards, it'll really be easier.

Repeat the same steps for the part on the right.

The edges of those three parts should be, if possible, straight. Mine aren't. To be able to adjust them, I'll select the edges and temporarily split them (ctrl + e, in 3D view). Select a vertex or two above as well, or the uppermost one won't get split!

(If you're having problems with selecting edges, it might be smart to select the whole skirt (not the top!) and change it back from tris to quads (alt + j). Then you can easily select edges by clicking them while holding alt).

Split also the top row of vertices, to separate the skirt from the top. Just for a second.

Now select a whole edge, press w and choose 'Align X'

Repeat for the remaining edges. If you want to and feel that it's needed, you can also straighten other lines in your mesh.

Now it's finally the time to put it in the right place. Select the skirt and move it up (g, y).

One can immediately see that it's way too tall. Scale it along the y axis until it looks more reasonable. It should start at the lowest line of the top and end a bit above the feet. Nothing big will happen if it covers them, but it has to fit inside the picture!

And now just scale and move each of the 3 parts individually, along the x axis, to match them with the top.

The only thing left to do is to weld the vertices. It's unlucky that we separated the skirt from the top; now we have to select all, remove doubles and then once again split the side edges to be able to weld everything properly. Just like with uv_0: select a vertex, press w and choose 'weld' from the drop-down menu. Repeat for aaaaaall the vertices connecting the skirt with the top.

Sometimes the vertices can be quite far away from each other. Is it still safe to weld them? I'd say risk it. If you see some weird stuff happening in game when changing your sim's body type, you'll know you have to fine tune it: straighten some lines, make them more regular etc. However, chances are quite high that it won't matter at all.

Select all and remove doubles. Yes, again (I keep doing it all the time, that's probably why I love the edge split modifier so much).

And now a very important, final step that I usually forget about: you have to revert the moving and scaling changes you made at the very beginning. Select all and press g, x, -512 to move it back into position, and then s, x, 2, to make it twice wider again. Otherwise TS4 will get quite perplexed with your mesh (and so will you, seeing everything being weirdly deformed and moving with all the wrong sliders)!

As you see, it's not very difficult and once you get a grip of it, you can do it in no time. To be honest, 90% of the time I don't even do the whole scaling and moving thing; I just open the picture, to know where the feet are, and adjust the rest to the top. UV_1 is really not that bad, at least as long as you don't have to deal with the upper body half.

Here are just a couple of general, closing remarks which I'd like to share:

If you move any vertices of the top, immediately move them on the uv_1 map as well. I try to avoid it at all costs, but sometimes I can't resist making just one teeny tiny adjustment... Arms are usually not a problem, neck can get problematic, and breast area is an absolute nightmare. I already mentioned it once, but honestly, better dissolve vertices and cut new edges with the knife tool than move anything in there.

If you're frankenmeshing, remember to weld any vertices you merged in 3D view! If your mesh is getting split in game when you move any sliders, that probably means you didn't connect those parts on the uv_1 map (or that it's vertex paint... but that's another story).

Of course, if you added any other parts to your mesh than just a skirt – or if you frankenmeshed a thing, but changed its location, e.g. took a hair ribbon and put it on the skirt – you have to put it in the right place as well! In case of frankenmeshing you just have to change its location on the map; if you made it yourself, you'll have to experiment with different types of unwrapping first (pssst, projecting from view usually isn't a bad idea).

There are also certain cases - rarely, but still - when it might be a better idea not to properly unwrap a part of the mesh, but weld it all together to a little dot and put it in the right place on the uv_1. The first example which comes to my mind are 3D buttons. I always weld each button to a single dot, so that it’d be changing its size evenly, without deformations. However, this comes at a prize of an increased risk of clipping.

And finally: if you're having big problems with uv_1 and my method doesn't work for you – or if you made your mesh completely from scratch, so you don't have an unwrapped top – you can always make a data transfer, copying uv_1 data from another mesh. I won't elaborate on this one, because Teanmoon already explained it all in her amazing tutorial, which you can find HERE. Scroll down a bit until you see 'UV-1 Transfers'. I think I used it myself once or twice in the past and I was quite pleased with the results :).

***

Once again, I'm sorry both for how long you had to wait for this tutorial and for its final length. I swear I intended it to be a simple, concise explanation ^^. I hope that at least it's all clear and will help you avoid any problems with uvs. Please tell me if you have any questions or if something doesn't work for you – really, I mean it! Half of my inspiration for this tutorial comes from me watching other simmers struggle with making their first pieces of CC, as it helps me notice what hasn't been explained yet.

From now on we'll be moving into the dangerous territory of clones, cuts, regions, bones and weights, and I need some time to figure out how to divide this whole topic into sensible parts. It's not even that hard, but very interconnected, and that makes it difficult to tackle – as covering it all in one part is absolutely out of the question. Please have some patience with me and stay tuned!

#tutorial #blender #blender 2.79 #uv_1 #uv_1 tutorial

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